VICTORBUR

VICTORBUR EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH

 



Victorbur Lutheran Church
Pastor Andrea During-Hoogstraat and Pastor Jurgen Hoogstraat

The first and largest part of the church was built in the 11^th century, well before the people of East Friesland, Germany even thought of building the dikes that hold the sea at bay. It naturally began its life as a Roman Catholic Church and was under the rule of several Earls, government officials and royal families. The second part of the church was built only about three or four hundred years ago.

Jurgen Hoogstraat has been pastor of the Victorbur church for 20 years. Herr Hoogstraat and his Frau, Andrea During-Hoogstraat are both very much involved in the church and the community. Andrea has been co-pastor with Jurgen since 1993 and takes a large share of the load of this parish of some 6,000 souls. 

The building of the churches in the Ostfriesland area may all have been accomplished using the same method as was described to me by Jurgen Hoogstraat on May 2, 2011.  He said that a hill (sometimes man-made) was chosen as the church site. Teams of horse-drawn wagons would go to the sea shore at low tide and gather wagon loads of sea shells. When they brought them back to the church site, a fire was used to burn the shells until all that was left was chalky dust. This dust was then mixed with water and used as mortar. On close inspection of the exterior brick work, one can see evidence of tiny pieces of sea shells mixed in with the mortar. 

The walls of these old churches are about four feet thick. Pastor Hoogsgraat said the walls are filled with rocks and covered with bricks and this mortar. That was made clear to us when we were shown a door about 10-12 feet up on the wall where a steep, narrow set of stairs was carved into and up the wall. These stairs lead to a space above the relatively new wooden ceiling so that the actual roof of the church can be inspected. I estimate the height of the church at about 60-75 feet. 

Inside the church you can see the lengths to which the builders of old (with instruction from the priests, no doubt) went to build a sanctuary worthy of its mission. Very high on the walls, exactly five arched windows on each side of the church were constructed. The number “five” is the number of “love” – God’s love, in this case.   

There are many such “memory joggers” in the sanctuary because in early years, the people couldn’t read, but they told the Christian story orally using the symbols and the statues in the church. Around the pulpit area are perhaps half a dozen carved wooden figures each with a particular item in hand or close, to help children and adults remember the stories. 

Today, Pastor Hoogstraat still uses statuettes to help the children remember the Bible stories they hear from him on Friday mornings or Friday afternoons. Evidence of the children’s sermon from last Sunday was seen on a special place at the chancel area. Herr Hoogstraat says he loves to have the children come and doesn’t mind the time it takes. 

 Several years ago 54 people – some elderly, some younger – from the Victorbur Church went on a tour of The Black Forest in South Germany. They were in the mountains when the brakes went out on their bus and the bus landed on its side. The driver couldn’t get the side door open. However, the back door could be opened but it was a long ways to the ground and probably people would have had broken limbs had they jumped. Suddenly a man in a red car appeared. He got the side door open, helped all of the people out of the bus, told them to find shelter in the forest and then drove off. Moments later the bus exploded since gas was leaking out – lots of it – because the tanks had just been refilled. 

They were so excited they forgot to thank the man so they put out advertisements in papers far and near. They even described the red car.  But no one ever responded either for the man or his car. Some thought an angel had passed by and rescued them.  They had an artist carve a cross and put the words on it, “God Helped Us!”  It will remain in the sanctuary now for hundreds of years as a testimony to the incident where they believe God intervened and saved their lives.