Finding connection

From a young age Ans has been going to church, first in Amstelveen where she was born, now in Leiden. To her church has been and still is the place to meet new people. This idea originated after a particular instance, when Ans was about 8 years old. After the regular morning prayer in Amstelveen, the church building was rented by the Korean community. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, the church was used for creative activities, catching up, singing and above all for eating together.

The two communities could not understand each other’s language. Nevertheless, the feeling of community was easily understood. One time duringChristmas, Ans had learned a whole A4 of Korean text by heart, and presented it to both communities as a way of greeting everyone. From that moment on, the Asian language and this wonderful memory were forever connected. When it was time to choose what to study, Ans chose to pursue a degree in Chinese Language and Culture and moved to Leiden.

In Leiden she found a connection again, this time in the Hooglandse Kerk, near the Burcht, one of her favorite places in Leiden. “It is a place where I can feel at peace in an otherwise busy week. You are far away from work, from home, from chores. You are in a building where you can physically feel history in a positive way. If I stop to think about it, I get overwhelmed, in that place people have come together for so many centuries to seek the exact same things that we seek now.

“The church to me is a place where you meet so many different people: young, old, from every possible layer of society, with a variety of interests. In a church - and to me this is so important for our boys - you keep meeting different people. You learn to get along with everyone. That is undoubtedly one of the most important values to me: that you are good to others, that you look out for each other. Therefore I am not surprised that we met all our Iranian friends there, at exactly that age-old place.”