The History of Pa van der Steur

Who was Johannes van der Steur?

July 10, 1865 was a special and happy day for the van der Steur family. On this day, the family, who lived in Haarlem, a small town in the Netherlands, was given by God a son who they named Johannes.

This boy was one of ten. They could not be called a well-to-do or affluent family. They had to work hard to make ends meet and care for their ten children. Therefore, from a very young age, Johannes had to work to help his parents.

One of Johannes' conspicuous qualities was his habit of helping other people. Maybe it was because of this characteristic that after coming of age, he worked as a missionary. In carrying out his service, he not only preached but also spoke to the heart of each person he helped and served.

One day, in the town of Hardewijk, he met soldiers who had just returned from their duty in Indonesia (at that time the country was known as the Netherlands East Indies). From them, Johannes heard how great was the suffering experienced by their colleagues who were serving in Indonesia. This news awakened in Johannes, who had a very strong disposition to be of help to others, certain feelings. His heart leaped up and his determination to come to the aid of these soldiers was uncontainable. Finally, he decided to leave for Indonesia, at any cost. On the 10th of September 1892, Johannes set sail, although with a heavy heart. He left his parents behind as well as his relatives, friends and beloved native town, while he faced great risks and uncertainties.

On arrival in Indonesia, he selected Magelang as a place to work. At first he worked in the Dutch army barracks. Everyday he put tractaten on the beds of the Dutch soldiers; these were leaflets containing short reflections on verses of the Bible. From here on, possibly without being aware of it, and with only his extraordinary faith in God to spur him on, Johannes started his great work for his fellow human beings.

His work in distributing tractaten he did on the basis of his love for his fellow human beings.
One day, a drunken Dutch soldier came to him. The soldier pleaded with Johannes to take care of four children of a friend of his who lived in a poor kampung (village). Once again his helpful disposition was aroused. Without hesitation Johannes went with the soldier to the kampung where the four children lived with their mother. There upon Johannes took the four children with him to his house, although he had no funds whatsoever with which to take care of them, except for his love toward his fellows and his faith in God.

One day the four children asked Johannes : "What shall we call you?" Johannes answered : "Call me whatever you like." They decided to call him Pa, short for Papa. From then on he was known as Pa van der Steur.

At that time Johannes, who was 27 years old, and stil a bachelor, became the father of four children who were not his own. He accommodated them in a house made of bamboo wickerwork (gedeg) and called the house Oranje Nassau. Eventually this name was used for the Orphanage. Beginning with these four childrenin the bamboo house, Johannes started the work that made him a father to thousands of children in the future. The number of Pa van der Steur's "children" rapidly increased from 4 to 6, and then to 11 and so on. The first years were very difficult, especially because he worked on his own. He did the cooking himself, and even sewed the children's clothes. Fortunately there were soldiers who often helped him by washing, sewing clothes or playing with the children. One thing he needed greatly was a woman who could stand by him. He thought of his five unmarried sisters in the Netherlands and asked his parents to send one of them to Indonesia to assist him in his work.

On his birthday in 1893, on July 10, Pa van der Steur got some very welcome news from his parents : a telegram stating that Marie, his sister would come to Indonesia.

The number of pupils increased rapidly and by 1895 had grown to 40. The house they had lived in up to now had become too small, and he was compelled to rent three additional houses in the center of Magelang in order to accommodate them. But the children kept growing in number, so that in less than four years those rented houses were no longer large enough for all the children, and he had to look for a still larger place. Luckily in 1902, at Pa's request, the Resident gave permission to use the former barracks of the Military Corps on a lend use basis. Pa van der Steur bought this building later on. The problem of accommodation was settled, but there wwere still many difficulties that needed to be surmounted. In order to fulfill the need for food and clothing for the children, sometimes Pa was forced to sell his own property, including his ring, watch, etc. Starting in 1897 he got a subsidy from the Dutch Government to the amount of Nfl 100 every month. But what did this sum mean in comparison with the needs of the hundreds of children? But a beneficent God always stood by him and blessed him. The work went on, even though new difficulties and obstacles never ceased to arise.

In 1902 Marie van der Steur, Pa's sister, who had assisted him for 9 years, was compelled to return to the Netherlands because of illness. With Marie gone, the Oranje Nassau, especially the girls dormitory experienced a great setback. It's hard to imagine how Pa dealt with problems facing him without the help of a woman like Marie who had assisted him for so many years. Moreover, at the same time he also fell ill and had to be taken to hospital. The situation worsened when on doctor's advice, he had to undergo therapy take a rest in the Netherlands.

On May 13, 1903 Pa with a heavy heart, left the 350 children he loved so dearly to go back to the Netherlands. While he was away, he entrusted his work to his brother Gijsbert van der Steur, for whom of course the work was very difficult. This was shown by the fact that after two months in Haarlem, Pa received a telegram from Magelang which "asked for help". He also received a letter from his pupils telling him about conditions in the Orphanage. Pa concluded that he could not stay any longer in Holland.

He left the Netherlands on August 11, 1903 and arrived in Indonesia on the 6th of September of the same year. From that time on he never again saw his native country.

As already explained, after Marie's departure, conditions in Oranje Nassau had become difficult, especially in the girls dormitory. Pa needed a woman who could assist him in carrying out his work and who could play the part of a mother to her pupils.

The woman to take on this task was Anna Maria Zwager whom the children came to call Moe van der Steur (Mother van der Steur). Pa and Moe van der Steur got married on the 4th of April, 1907. It turned out that Anna Maria was the ideal woman for the task, and she worked at it for 29 years, until her death in 1936 by which time the orphanage had 1,000 children under its care.

The number of children taken care of by Pa had increased very rapidly. While at the start, in 1892, four children were cared for, by 1895 the number had grown to 50, and a year later there were 65 children. In 1929 the number of pupils had reached 900, and by around 1941 the number had swelled to 1,100. Wtih the number of pupils now well over a thousand, the Oranje Nassau had become an unusually large concern.

In 1942 the Japanese occupied Indonesia. Conditions became more and more difficult. This naturally greatly affected the situation at Oranje Nassau which by now had 1,100 pupils. We can hardly imagine how heavy Pa's responsibility was. At this time, it was hard to find even a morsel of rice and may people died of hunger.

The situation at Oranje Nassau deteriorated when the Japanese army put Pa in prison. The children's great love for Pa was shown when the Japanese soldiers came to Oranje Nassau to take him away. The small ones and the girls tried to keep Pa from going by holding his hands or feet while crying. The more mature tried to withhold the Japanese soldiers at great risk to themselves. It was only because Pa managed to restrain the cildren that the Japanese soldiers succeeded in taking him away.

For almost 2 years Pa was separated from his pupils and was transfered from one prison to another in Magelang, Cimahi and Semarang. Few people know how the 78 year old Pa suffered during these years. But it is certain that Pa not only suffered physically but also spiritually because he was parted from the thousands of children whom he loved dearly and who needed his help.

Shortly after Independence at the beginning of September 1945, Pa, whose physical condition had deteriorated greatly because of ageing and illness, was taken back to Oranje Nassau by some of his pupils.

Various efforts were undertaken and several doctors nursed him. But God Almighty had decided otherwise and on Sunday the 16th of September 1945 at 9.00 AM, Pa departed this life in response to the call of the Creator. He had led a long and tiring life, and deserved to rest peacefully at God's side.

The Regeneration of Pa van der Steur

From the time Pa was imprisoned until the time he passed away, the care of the children at Oranje Nassau was entrusted to Mr. Jan Salmon. Oranje Nassau at that time was unceasingly visited by hardships and difficulties. This was due to the difficult and unsafe situation caused by the war.

In 1949 the pupils of Pa van der Steur, due to the situation and conditions at that time, had to leave Magelang for Jakarta. For the children and their caretakers, this migration brought about indescribable emotions. They were forced to leave the place where they had been brought up, a place with many memories attached to it. In Jakarta they were accommodated in a dormitory at Jalan Salemba No. 14. Before that they had been put up in a dormitory at Jalan Bidara Cina No. 64 A. In Jakarta, the children's caretakers were led by Mr. Jan Salmon until 1950. After that, the post was successively filled by Mr. Mias Nendissa, the Reverend Hubner and Mr. Piet Veerremans. As long as the Oud Steurtjes (the former pupils cared for by Pa van der Steur) were mostly still ini Indonesia, the Orphanage ran in a smooth and orderly way. But after many of them had left Indonesia, conditions changed and were felt to be increasingly difficult. The children in the Orphanage were insufficiently cared for and the impression was created that the work of Pa van der Steur in Indonesia no longer existed. This worrisome situation went on for several years until finally some Oud Steurtjes were asked to help and sit on the Board of Executive of the Foundation and to do everything they could to improve conditions in the Orphanage.

Among these Steurtjes was Mr. Yakob Henuhili, who became Secretary of the Foundation, and Mr. A.C. Bernard. Mr. Bernard's involvement in Pa van der Steur's work was actually nothing new. Since the time Pa had managed the work directly, Mr. A.C. Bernard had often worked to help smoothen the work of Oranje Nassau. Due to his involvement, Mr. Bernard was once imprisoned with Pa for three months. What Mr. Bernard did for the <em>Oranje Nassau</em> pupils had also come to the attention of Pa. Therefore, when Pa left prison, while shaking hands with Mr. Bernard, he said : "I am very happy that you are still living at Oranje Nassau". That event left a deep impression on Mr. Bernard. After Pa's death, although the work with the children was led by Mr. Jan Salmon, Mr. Bernard's involvement in the work of Oranje Nassau never ceased.

In 1957, when the Orphanage was in difficulties, Mr. Bernard, at the urging of the Oud Steurtjes, was asked to sit on the Executive Board and he was finally appointed as treasurer. In 1976, Mr. Bernard, who was better known to the pupils as "Uncle Bram" became the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Pa van der Steur Foundation.