Tommy Osborn also came to the Netherlands to hold meetings, in 1958, and on some evenings more than 100.000 people gathered during these meetings at the ‘Malieveld’ in The Hague.

The production of the Dutch publications of William M. Branham in 1980

Harry van der Stel (then a twelve year old boy), together with many others, came in touch with the Gospel during this period, while he attended a tent meeting. But it was not until fourteen years later, in 1969, that the Lord really touched his heart and this time he received the Holy Ghost, after being convinced by the sermon “As the eagle stirreth her nest” by a minister in a Pentecostal church in Rotterdam. As it turned out later, this minister had been in William Branham’s home and he had told that it felt like being in heaven there!

Harry van der Stel testified about his conversion from door to door in the Leeuwenstein Street (where he lived at that time). Not only at his job in the harbor, but also in the neighborhood of his home the Lord vindicated, in many ways, the fact that He had called him to do His work. Once while at his job, he was eating in the mess-room of an Israeli ship, of which they had to remove the Israeli candle because of terrorist threats; at some distance away in the mess-room two other men, that he did not know, were also eating. The Lord spoke to him, “Do you see those two people; the left one believes in Me and the other has a ‘good ear’ for Me”. After that, Harry left the mess-room and waited outside for the two men. When they came out, he spoke to the man that believed in the Lord, and told him what the Lord had said; he also told the other man that he had a “good ear” for the Lord. They were very amazed to hear this, as it was exactly the truth. Harry could then testify about the Lord to them for about half an hour.

Another time, on his birthday, he prayed that the Lord would give him a person who he could lead to the Lord that day. Nothing happened the whole day long, until a quarter to twelve that night. Then the Lord told him to go outside. He walked from the Leeuwenstein Street to another street and the Lord told him to enter the home of a relative. In that house there was a person whom he did not know and he told the man that the Lord had sent him especially to him. Before twelve o’clock that night this man gave his heart to the Lord. The man then told him that his wife was in an institute, already for a long time. On hearing that, Harry told him that he, as a son of God, gave this woman back to the man. Within one week the woman was dismissed from the institute and was back at home.

In Harry’s ministry there are many testimonies of how that the Lord would speak to him about what would take place in the future and it would happen just as it was spoken. Once, his wife Annie was stopped by a woman who lived in the same street and she said that she had watched them for a whole year; then she stated, “What you have is real”.

In the early seventies, Harry van der Stel received a Dutch translation of the book “The Seven Church Ages” by William Branham. Convinced of the truths written in this book, he searched for more information on this Message and wrote a letter, in Dutch, to America. Subsequently he received six tapes from Fred Sothmann in America, containing William Branham’s sermons. Only then did it become clear, that the sermons were all in English! He had not learnt the English language and therefore could not understand them, but deeply touched by the blessing arising from the voice on the tape, he asked the Lord to solve this language problem. Although unlearned, the Lord opened his mind in one day to understand English and he could now comprehend and translate the tapes. At that time there was no church in the Netherlands that supported William Branham’s Message and the Lord told Harry van der Stel in 1972 to “Open your home and play the tapes”. The church of Independent Mission Work originated from this home-meeting. Harry van der Stel left the Pentecostal church, which he had visited for a few years after his conversion, to follow the Message. Later, a brother from that church told him that when Harry came into this Pentecostal church in 1969, it underwent a revival.

It was around 1977, that the Lord told Harry to “Go into the Word”. Harry was quite amazed as, since 1971, he had been listening to the tapes and reading the books continually. Yet later on, when the Message opened up and the hidden truths came forward, he understood what the Lord meant.