Frontrunners Ministries of predecessor Tom de Wal wants to build a hall center in Dussen for healing and liberation services. People could be healed of diseases there and be freed from the devil. Not all residents of Dussen are happy with the arrival of a ‘new Jomanda’ and the associated nuisance. In part 4 of our podcast series ‘On hope of blessing’ you can hear how the religious organization got the necessary 8 million euros: ‘BMW of God’.
Meetings organized by Frontrunners across the country attract many visitors. Helga Gardenier and Rob Suykens live diagonally opposite the place where the new conference center is to be built and have started a petition against its arrival.
Frontrunners has already bought the former party center De Rietpluim on the Oude Kerkstraat in Dussen. According to their annual accounts, they paid about 2.2 million for this. The organization wants to demolish the building and build a new conference centre.
They are currently asking for gifts and donations on their website so that they can pay for plans that are budgeted at around 8 million euros. According to the Frontrunners website, there will be a hall for about 1250 visitors and parking spaces for 400 cars.
“Everyone can believe whatever they want.”
Dussen is a small village with about 2500 inhabitants. Helga and Rob came to live there in January last year. “If we had known about these plans at the time, we probably wouldn’t have bought the house.”
Helga started the petition because she is worried. “There are various activities. You read everywhere that they are attracting more and more followers. It is said that it is a kind of new Jomanda. If you consider that Tiel could not handle the faith healer Jomanda at the time, how should Dussen be able to handle this?” The petition has now been signed more than 300 times.
Helga indicates that they are not personally concerned about pastor Tom de Wal and the activities of Frontrunners Ministries. “It is definitely not our cup of tea, but everyone can believe what they want to believe. We are particularly concerned about the crowds and nuisance it will entail. But that homosexuality is a devil that must be cast out, that is how we see it not against people.”
“We urgently advise him to start a conversation with local residents.”
Tom de Wal has invited Helga and Rob for an interview. “He was friendly and we told him our concerns. He explained that we shouldn’t worry too much. According to him, there are not such big activities every week and then they will work with parking attendants. But that takes our don’t worry.”
After questions from Omroep Brabant, the municipality of Altena indicates that no permit has yet been applied for. However, there has been a preliminary consultation with the initiator, Tom de Wal. “He is currently processing our advice. As soon as the plans become more concrete, we urgently advise him to start a conversation with the local residents.”
So for now, it’s not that far yet. In any case, once the permit has been applied for, Helga and Rob plan to object and present the petition to the municipality. “I can’t imagine that the municipality can ignore it, at least I hope not.”
Are you curious how Frontrunners Ministries got to 8 million? Then listen to episode 4 ‘BMW van God’ of the Omroep Brabant podcast Op Hoop van Zegen, where Omroep Brabant editors Ilse, Loes and Sanne dive into the books of Frontrunners together with an accountant.
Waiting for privacy settings…
More podcasts can be found at omroepbrabant.nl/podcast