'It's a miracle': Dutch church ends 24/7 asylum vigil as family granted reprieve

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After 96 days, leaders and congregants at the Bethel International Church in The Hague are finally free to take a break from a round-the-clock prayer service.

The church conducted a 24-hour-a-day service between Oct. 28, 2018, and Jan. 30, 2019, to protect an Armenian family of asylum seekers had sought refuge there.

Sasun​ and Anousche Tamrazyan and their three children — Hayarpi, 21, Warduhi, 19, and Seyran, 15 — were slated for immediate deportation, but under Dutch law, police are prohibited from entering a place of worship while religious services are underway. 

Now the Dutch government will re-examine the family's case, along with about 700 asylum applications by families with children who have lived in the Netherlands for at least five years. 

Bethel Pastor Derk Stegeman spoke to As it Happens host Carol Off. Here is part of their conversation.

How did the Tamrazyan family react when they got the news that all of those months of prayer had paid off?

At first confused. And then of course, very happy. But our first reaction was confusing, because we had to understand what was the agreement of the government. And it was not quite clear in the beginning.

Is it clear now?

Yes, it's clear now. A large group of families will be re-evaluated. 

It's also clear that the Tamrazyan family — it's almost certain that their application to stay in the Netherlands will be applied. But it's not definitive. For them, the family, and for us, it's still a question.

You've stopped the 24-hour vigil?

Yes. We are no longer doing it. We cleaned up the chapel, and we have to paint the walls, because three months of burning candles is leaving a lot of ... black stuff on the walls.

Of course, it's also a gap, because 24 hours a day, it's in your life. I have been sleeping with my mobile phone beneath my bed, etcetera.

So now we are organizing thanksgiving service to thank God and a lot of people who have been helping, participating in the service.

So we are resting, and evaluating, and thinking and reflecting — and restarting our normal lives.

It's still something too big to understand, even for us.- Pastor Derk Stegeman, Bethel International Church

People came from all over the place, to make sure this service was continuous. Did you expect so many people come and help you?

No, of course not. In the beginning, we thought it would be a burden — it would be very hard to organize a continuous service. 

And after a few weeks, we discovered it is not a burden. It was our campfire — a way for other people to participate in what we were doing.

At the end, it was almost 1,000 pastors participating. And almost 15,000 people visiting the service, day and night.

So it has been an enormous, extraordinary thing — a movement in our churches. But also a very intimate way of reinventing liturgy, reinventing church.

It's still something too big to understand, even for us.

You were doing this for this one family. And then it grew, didn't it? What were you able to accomplish, beyond the Tamrazyans?

When we started, the asylum was for the Tamrazyan family. But we were also asking for attention for all the other families in the same situation. And, of course, there were other groups in the Netherlands demonstrating.

But one of the most important political parties in the government — it was I think 10 days ago that the Christian [Democratic] Party changed radically its opinion about the child-amnesty regulation. And so it's concluded in a new decision of the government to re-evaluate the cases of all those families.

So that's really a miracle. It's just by singing, and praying and preaching that this happened.

Interview produced by Kevin Robertson. Q&A edited for length and clarity.