Our family member J.N. (Johannes) Voorhoeve often made long journeys. Trips that brought him to the US, but also, for example, to the Middle East. He reported on those journeys in his own weekly Timotheüs (Timothy magazine).
The reason for these journeys was often a request for mediation in conflicts of local Protestant communities that were part of the religious community known as Darbists or Plymouth Brethren. Each local department thereof was completely autonomous. And because Darbism was averse to ecclesiastical offices (and of the same holidays!) and all Brethren were equal, this would sometimes lead to mutual differences of opinion which could go high. How did that continue to function well in practice, nevertheless? An amendment that also made later communism workable to a certain extent, was that all Brothers were equal, but that some were more equal than others. "Leading Brothers" had the final say in matters of faith. Who were these Guiding Brothers? They had not been appointed by anyone and had no official authority, but in practice everyone knew it was about H.C. Voorhoeve Jzn, the great pacemaker of Darbism in the Netherlands and abroad, and later his son and successor in matters of faith, the aforementioned J.N. (Johannes) Voorhoeve.
And so, a century ago, one of his journeys brought Johannes to the deep south of Egypt, where he successfully mediated in a conflict between local Brothers and German initiators of that religious community there.
On his departure, he was asked by one of the Germans present if he might be related to the German explorer Archibald Vorhöfe, who had a legendary status in his native country and after his travels in Africa to the sources of the Nile, finally had gone north again via this river, towards Egypt. Egypt was an English protectorate at the time.
When he got home to The Netherlands, Johannes enthusiastically told about his trip to the land of the pharaohs. His teenage daughter Heleen was touched by his enthusiasm and decided to become a missionary in southern Egypt. Earlier, she had demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit and aptitude for improvisation by going to scout - something that could count on disapproval within the religious community from which she came. During a religious exercise a Brother had taken the floor, expressing his disapproval about "prominent Brothers" allowing their daughter to go to the girl scout, for the Lord pointed out the only right path.
Now that she had her life's purpose in mind - missionary among the original inhabitants of Egypt, in the deep south of that country - her parents felt that she should first properly prepare herself. And so she went to England to follow an education, including a training as a nurse, a useful preparation for living in the middle of nowhere. She did speak her languages from home - in her parents' family it was customary to speak the language of the visitor during long sleepovers of relatives and acquaintances from France, England and Germany. But she still had to learn Arabic.
Former defence minister Joris Voorhoeve is busy describing the life of this enterprising missionary, who eventually died in the armor in southern Egypt at the age of 102. We will keep you informed about this. But what matters at this place is the following. Heleen had also heard from her father about that German explorer Vorhöfe, and once arrived at the place of destination in southern Egypt, she began to further inform. After a while she learned from caravan travelers that he was last spotted in the oasis مصدر الفراعنة Masdar Al-Faraeina, deep in the desert.
(to be continued ...)
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