‘Armchair minister’ has powerful outreach

At 90 years of age, Pastor John Van Ens prays daily for people and places that graced his life during his active years of ministry.

Now living a sedentary life because of chronic health problems, he continues ministering to people through his “armchair ministry.”

“I call it ‘armchair ministry’ because I use my laptop to communicate through e-mail and Facebook, and my cell phone to talk to people who need my prayers,” says Van Ens, who began serving as a Christian Reformed church pastor in 1952.

“I receive calls and e-mails from people I’ve know for years,” he says. “I pray with them or listen to many each week. Sometimes people share that a loved one has passed away or is ill, and I give them support.”

Van Ens, who worships at New Hope Christian Reformed Church in Spokane, met many of his armchair ministry contacts in places where he served, such as Germany, Sri Lanka, Guam and Los Angeles.

“I’ve been blessed to see places and meet people with diverse backgrounds,” he says.

He and his identical twin brother Clarence were born in 1919 on a dairy farm near Grand Rapids, Mich.

“Clarence is five minutes older than me,” Van Ens says, noting that his parents were not anticipating twins.

He again followed his brother 30 years later, choosing to become a pastor.

Clarence had gone into seminary right after college, while John explored other options. He enlisted as an Army Cadet in 1943, married in 1944 and went to Germany to work with the United States Constabulary Forces and as an editor for the Intelligence Department.

While in Germany, Van Ens felt called to pastoral ministry.

“I remember standing in one of the cities in Germany, looking around, and seeing this once-beautiful place in ruins, all bombed out and thinking to myself, ‘There must be a better solution,’ ” he says.

He also visited the Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Weimar, Germany.

“I immediately thought, ‘What we need are Bibles instead of bombs,’ ” he says. “I heard the inner voice of the Spirit calling me and I needed to respond to it.”

After leaving the service in 1947, Van Ens returned to the United States, where wife Sylvia arranged for him to teach math at a high school in Chicago.

Two years later, they returned to Grand Rapids so he could study at Calvin Seminary. After graduating in 1952, he heard from a Sri Lankan pastor at the seminary about a Dutch Christian Reformed Church in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) which was seeking two pastors.

He told Clarence, who was interested, so the twins answered the call to head overseas together. They served 16 years in Sri Lanka, working as pastors in seven churches and teaching at the Christian Reformed Seminary.

“To work side-by-side with my brother was a form of encouragement and challenge,” Van Ens says. “As the old proverb says, ‘Iron sharpens iron.’ ”

They ministered to people who were mostly Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and English-speaking Dutch Burghers. They worked with both Sinhalese and Tamil people, who have a history of conflicts and tension between them because of religious and ethnic differences; the Sinhalese are predominantly Buddhist, while the Tamil are Hindu.

“The people were accepting of us, and treated us with respect,” Van Ens says. “We would praise God in all languages. The people had so much vitality and faith in God.”

He and his wife, who had no children of their own, returned to the United States to adopt their first child, a daughter. They later adopted three more girls – one Sinhalese and two Dutch Burghers – from a Sri Lankan orphanage near their home.

In 1968, Van Ens headed to Los Angeles as pastor of an inner-city Christian Reformed Church. Five years later, he went to Vermillion, S.D., as campus pastor at the University of South Dakota.

His pastoral work later took him to Florida, then Guam. After retiring in 1982 from full-time ministry, Van Ens served in part-time positions at Christian Reformed churches in Long Beach, Calif. and Apopka, Fla., near Orlando.

He retired for good because of declining health in 2000. He and Sylvia moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, where their daughter Jillian was stationed with the U.S. Air Force.

His wife moved back to Orlando two years later but Van Ens stayed with his daughter, who is his primary caregiver. In 2007, he moved with her to Spokane when she became a nurse at the Spokane Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Van Ens regularly phones his wife, who stayed in Orlando, as well as his other children and his brother in Florida.

He is content that his “armchair ministry” leaves him time for his grandchildren.

“My grandchildren are the joy of my life,” Van Ens says. “I enjoy every moment of the day with them and am proud of what they have achieved.”

His granddaughter, Haley, is active in music ministries at New Hope Christian Reformed Church.

Van Ens was surprised to learn that the pastor there, the Rev. Perry Tinklenberg, was a former student of his at the University of South Dakota.

“Recently I sent a prayer booklet to a friend whose daughter-in-law died suddenly,” Van Ens says. “I continue to be amazed that God will use an old man to minister the gifts of the Spirit to those in need.

“It gives me a deep sense of humility that God uses me even as I head into my 91st year.”

He also works on his memoirs, so his grandchildren will remember what he accomplished and the people he met.

“God has been good to me,” Van Ens says. “My motivation for everything that I’ve done has been through the sinless life of Jesus and that my life is in God’s hands.

“I have a great sense of freedom and joy. The life and resurrection of Jesus assures me that the best is yet to come.”