Belgium & Netherlands
About us
Medical Mission Sisters have been present in the Netherlands and Belgium since 1939. They soon grew in number and were ready for mission in different parts of the world soon after the second World War.
Now being a group of advanced age, with most sisters in their eighties and older, they live in small groups accompanying each other through the joys and challenges of elder years.
With gratitude, they recall and treasure their presence and interaction with the people they have served in countries such as: India; Pakistan; Burma (Myanmar); Indonesia; Congo (DRC); Ghana; Kenya; Malawi; South Africa; Swaziland; and Uganda; as well as Brazil and Peru.
Our presence today
To the best of their ability, the Sisters keep in touch with developments in these countries and follow with keen interest current developments of MMS mission in various places in the world, aware that they have helped lay a sound foundation. Knowing that they have significantly contributed to the wellbeing of many individuals and groups across the world enhances their sense of peace and contentment; and treasuring the lasting bonds of friendship with fellow sisters in our international Society, they support the further unfolding of the Society’s mission through their prayers.
Caring for each other
The members of our Unit team promised to support all of our sisters in their vulnerable time of being.
All of our names were engraved on a length of the wood - carried forward by Sisters Elly, Hanny and Mien.
The staff put lighted candles on the names.
Letting our light shine
Candles placed on the wood, engraved with the name of each sister, were a powerful reminder to let our light shine.
This was Anna Dengel's main idea for her Society.
That we become a powerful healing presence for each other.
It is a treasure to be lived.
Sister Elly's care for creation
Sister Elly Verrijt is a pioneer in ecological spirituality. She is an international workshop leader, retreat guide and transition coach and is involved in transformation for a New Earth Consciousness and Earth Healing.
From the nineties of the last century, she pioneered a way to help people to reconnect with the Cosmos and Earth. Through this special mission, she saw deep changes in the life of people. Now we know more and more that care for the Earth and all life is part of our vocation. She says, “If we know the Story of the Beginning and the process of the evolution, we see how at the right moment, great changes happened in this process, and the journey of the Cosmos went on. If this is the cosmic pattern, then this pattern is also true for our personal life. It is my hope that we will find a new way of life and healing for the whole community of Life in these delicate times."
Sister Elly is providing workshops on eco-spirituality every two weeks through Zoom to MMS, starting in East Africa, but also extending an invitation to all those in MMS who want to participate. Her input supports the work of Sister Josephine Nafula and Sister Immaculate Tusingwire, who are certified Laudato si’ animators. She hopes that more and more will take up leadership for a sustainable world and growth in eco-spirituality.
This is the address of Sister Elly's new website:
Welcome | Ecological Leadership (trainingecologicalleadership.com)
Meet our oldest member
At 75 years ago, the eldest sister in Unit The Netherlands /Belgium, Bep Tijssen, committed herself to the Society.
Bep, now 101 years old, she entered the Society in the middle of World War II. In the book that she wrote on her life, she reflects a lot about love. The fruit of a life with so many different happenings. “Truly happy, I know and experience, that I, step-by-step, call myself an intensely grateful woman of faith. My journey of many years makes me see an encouraging answer: all that exists, can and may only be because of inexpressible LOVE.
“For me, love is the only power that cannot be overruled; love, the power for humanity and the world. All that we humans have said about her, about God, what we have done, manipulated, proved, is the work of humans - also when it happened in authenticity. Our mind cannot comprehend love. To believe this is to me like a new birth.”
