Immigrant Ministry in SW British Columbia
Ladner Christian Reformed Church Young People’s Society, about 1950.
My grandfather, Rev. Paul De Koekkoek, had a heart for the Dutch immigrants that were arriving in Canada in the 1940’s and 1950’s. In 1949, while pastoring the First CRC in Edmonton and working with immigrants there, he accepted a call from the First Church, Lynden, WA to the Home Mission field in southwest BC. This call was at the “initiative of the First Vancouver and Sumas consistories, who felt that there was urgent need of a home missionary to work among the many new immigrants arriving in southwest B.C.”
After his and my grandmother Lena’s move to Sumas, WA, in October, he immediately started working with several groups of new immigrants with the purpose of organizing them into churches. His varied skills also provided guidance to find solutions for their problems, both material and spiritual.
Rev. Paul and Mrs. Lena De Koekkoek
To ensure that all were able to hear the Gospel, he “usually preached in three places, with catechism, travelling at least a hundred miles. In that way Abbotsford, Langley, and Ladner could be served quite regularly”. In addition to preaching and travelling, he would play the organ. “Next to preaching, playing the organ was the best part of the service for me! It happened once in Ladner that in addition to preaching, baptism was to be administered and also the Lord’s Supper, and for all of it I supplied the music!”
Since many of the immigrants did not own a car, my grandfather drove many of them over miles of roadway. He was known as the ‘Flying Dutchman’ for his speedy driving. “We always had a good car for transportation with all expenses paid by the Board. To the immigrants those fast though safe rides with the minister over roads crooked both up, down and sideways, were a new experience. Happily, there was not one scratch on hundreds of Dutchmen in thousands of miles of travel.”
Rev. De Koekkoek advised that each group have a church building for worship. “The Ladner group was the largest one committed to my care in the very beginning of my work in the Valley. They were about to lose their meeting-place in a Baptist church. While the church was “trying to solve its “housing” problems, the need of official incorporation was shown. I had the honor of attending to it with the aid of a lawyer in Abbotsford. No ready-made form was available, so we did the best we could to fabricate one without violence to church or state! It was used in practically all the new churches in B.C. As far as I know there have not been any legal complications with our church identity, rights, or obligations.”
Rev. De Koekkoek was also instrumental in devising a plan for building and financing a new church. “In consultation with other leaders I advised that churches should be built only when no other suitable buildings were available, and that the new building should be of only modest size so that the cost would not be too great a burden on the local people and on the assisting denominational agencies. The financing was to be by loans from the immigrants as well as from the denomination. They could keep their first few and hard-earned dollars for their own needs and church budgets, and loan their first savings to the church for building, with the right of refund when needed. This plan worked very well in Ladner.”
“Ladner’s church was dedicated on February 1, 1952, with a fine program, happy people, and thanks to our God. “
Ladner Christian Reformed Church congregation at the former Baptist Church building, now the Delta Optimist office, about 1950.
“Warm was the fellowship, open-armed the reception when Lena and I would drive up after the Langley service, and the Ladnerites enjoyed the outdoors waiting for the “flying gospel” to arrive! Surprisingly soon a Christian school was started. Ladner’s history was remarkably steady. They were a people one in spirit while conscious of doctrine, pertinent and loyal in practice, pleasant to serve, appreciative of their share in the church. If such a thing as first love is possible and permissible, Ladner had ours, and that of the Van Dyke’s who followed us, also!”
My grandfather kept in touch with the BC churches after he retired. “In 1971 I was invited to be with Ladner in the dedicatory services of their new church, a well-appointed building with a seating capacity of about five hundred. I shared their joy in the first official service in the new church.”