Non Profit God's Embassy
The VZW God’s Embassy is an organization with the Bible as its foundation and includes a church and a healing school. God’s Embassy’s goal, in the church as well as in the healing school, is to give people an opportunity to get to know God as He shows himself in His Word, as a loving Father for His children, one who loves them and takes care of them. Not a God for Sundays only, but a God for every day. A God who sent His Son Jesus to the world to save, to heal and to set free.
In John 10:10 Jesus says : “I have come so they would have life and abundance.” And on this biblical promise God's Embassy stands
The birth of Gods Embassy
The story of 'Gods Ambassade' (= God’s Embassy) starts in 1992, when Hugo Van Leemputten was called by a professor of the last year of the medical faculty at the KUL (= the Catholic University of Leuven). He asked Hugo to come and testify for his students about divine healing. "To be honest, at first I thought it was a joke. However, it proved to be true, so I went to Leuven with my wife Inger. There I told my story to the students of the tutorial 'physicians and faith'."
My story? In 1988 the doctors gave me only a few more months to live. I had a very aggressive form of the non-Hodgkin lymphatic disease, a blood cancer. My wife and I were Christians. Our son Sam was 7 months old when they diagnosed this. Fortunately, we were very well supported by our local church in Mortsel. Together we started searching the Bible for whatever could be found on healing. We tried to surround ourselves with others who were also involved in divine healing, and we attended special meetings. Faithful friends surrounded us with prayer and actual support. AND: God cured me completely!
So, four years later I stood before these medical students and testified about my recovery, and it impressed them deeply. Together with the professor we also organised special weekends for doctors, to arouse their interest. Because of this, several doctors accepted the Lord, and one day we were asked to give assistance to a group at a doctor's home. This doctor who had been involved in alternative medical practice, converted and decided instead of having regular consultations on Tuesday evenings, to pray with patients who were interested The first evening Inger and I, that doctor and his wife and a few patients were present. A few weeks later the waiting room was crowded. People accepted Jesus, we prayed for healing and recovery of spirit, soul and body, and for every other problem in their life. The testimonies flew in, and the meetings on Tuesday have never stopped since. The group virtually bursted at the seams there in that doctor's room, so we moved to a larger room behind the house of two regular visitors. For years we had prayed for a revival, now we were in the midst of it.
As a matter of fact, we didn't even have the time to do all this, so I took a career break. Together with Ann and Nadine, both physicians, the church was initiated officially in 1994. Our vision can clearly be found in John 10:10: "The thief only comes to steal, to slaughter and to destroy; I have come so that they may have life and abundance".
We believe that already too much time has been spent on the first part of this verse, and we consequently concentrate on the second part: life and abundance in all its facets. Our goal is to turn Belgium into one of the healthiest countries on earth by bringing people into a living relationship with God, who sent His Son to this world to die for us on the cross, a replacement death for our sins, our diseases and our poverty.
When we led the church together with Ann and Nadine, we had the impression God told us to start a healing school. This thought stuck with us and after quite some time, prayer and study, we decided to go for it. I myself had already quit my civil service job for a while, but in order to realise this project Ann, Nadine and Inger needed to leave their jobs as well. Ann and Nadine stopped with their general practice in October 2004. Inger left her job as nurse in November of that same year. The Healing School then started officially in February 2005. To us the healing school is not just a place where people can come and receive healing. Here you learn how to live in good health on a biblical ground. The next step is obvious to us: becoming healthy, remaining healthy and sharing it with your fellow men. The school is not meant for sick people only, but for everyone – both Christian and non-Christian- who is interested in divine healing. We also aim at caregivers in every field who can apply what they learned in their jobs.
When we speak about healing we certainly don’t only mean physical recovery. When Jesus talks in John 10:10 about life and abundance, it means health in spirit, soul and body. Mental illnesses, including depression –sometimes leading to suicide- occur very often in our society. We have many testimonies in this field.
For us the Healing School is not just another project in the Belgian healthcare. We notice that our country gets international press coverage mostly with ‘’bad news’’ stories. As a Christian, you can be anti many things in government policies, but experience teaches that being anti rarely rears interest in faith. Consequently, and very decisively, we offer a positive alternative, as a matter of fact this is what Jesus did too.
Vision
'Gods Ambassade' means God's Embassy and is a Church based on the Bible. In St. John's Gospel 10:10 Jesus says: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full!!" Too long we have been taught that we can serve God, but that we are not to rely on Him to improve our quality of life. Gods Ambassade does not support this vision and chooses to return to the biblical promise.
Evidence
The biblical promises aren't idle. In our Church we have witnessed many people being healed by God, physically as well as mentally. These testimonies of healing are being checked by physicians, members of our Church.
Meetings
In our services you are invited to learn to know God as He reveals Himself in the Bible and as He manifests Himself through the Holy Spirit. You meet a God who wants to be a loving father for His children, a father who likes them and takes care of them; no God for Sundays only, but for every day of the week. A God who has sent His son, Jesus, to earth to save, to cure and to set free.
Setting
Gods Ambassade is an independent Church whose origins are to be found in the worldwide movement that started in the sixteenth century and is known as Protestantism. From this Protestant movement the Evangelical Churches have arisen in later years. This Protestant movement was a reaction against the deviation of the Church from its original course.
Constitutionally
Just as there are different tendencies within the Catholic Church, for instance the Franciscans, the Carmelites, the Charismatic movement and so on, there are Baptists, Methodists, independents, Pentecostal Churches and so on within the Evangelical church. Each of these churches has biblical foundations, but they put more emphasis on one or the other aspect of spirituality or scriptural knowledge. Gods Ambassade comes under the Arpee (the Administrative Council for the protestant-evangelical cult) and belongs to the wing of the federal synod, more specifically to the Consultative Body of Autonomous Evangelical Churches.
Our attitude towards medical science
We want to put clearly that we are not opposed to medical science!
In the leading team of Gods Ambassade vzw (which is a non-profit-making association) there are two general practitioners and one nurse present.
We never advise to stop a medical treatment just like that nor do we dissuade anyone from further consulting a physician. On the contrary, when healing occurs, be it after a short or longer while, what we find important is to have this healing confirmed, and, in consultation with the treating doctor, the treatment can be phased out or stopped altogether.
In the many testimonies of healings we are spreading, we do consider it very important to know exactly what was the matter and to confirm the healing medically.
Faith and science, hand in hand ...?
Faith and science do not have to oppose one another, but they can go together hand in hand. We do not believe God is opposed to science, but that He really upholds it. As scientists we are already able to analyse a great deal of the working of our body and even of our soul and we can act upon this when something goes wrong. But how much more can our Creator who made us bring recovery where it is needed!
It is not because something is invisible that it is not there and that it cannot be discovered and not be known. Electricity is an invisible power that was discovered and in its case we do really enjoy the use of this power!
So the psychological science has already revealed quite a lot about our soul and everything influencing it. For the exact scientist this is already a much more difficult matter, for it cannot be measured and weighed in the same way our body can. And yet... is it therefore less important or less relevant? Is there not a much bigger field still to be opened up concerning mental problems but also concerning their important influence on physical health? How many diseases do not also have an origin in our psychological and even social condition?
Similarly we discovered that there is also a Divine science possible, i.e. discovering and knowing who God really is and what His supernatural, invisible power has accomplished and can accomplish. There is a spiritual, invisible reality whose effects we can see in human lives, in relationships, in mental and physical health. There is a much broader and larger reality than what we can perceive with our five senses. Again this is a challenge for the scientist, because once more we are confronted with other substances that are therefore not less real. Science as a whole is continuously in evolution. Continuously new things are being discovered and adaptations to new findings are being made. For a long time we were convinced that the earth was flat. Now we know that this proposition does not stand and we can put it aside without difficulty. When one "stepped" for the first time into space, there were totally new natural laws applicable and thus one started to take these into account; otherwise no further exploration would be possible!
It is worth while for a doctor and a scientist to step out into a new spiritual reality which does not brush off the already discovered medical science but is adding so much more to it, so that we as doctors can heal or help to heal much further and deeper and with a much more lasting effect!
Obed Foundation
The OBED foundation was founded by Martie Haaijer. Together with a team of loyal co-workers she spread the message of salvation, health and deliverance through Father’s love in the world.
After the departing of Martie, the board asked Hugo Van Leemputten and the team of God's Embassy to continue Martie’s task. Just as Martie, Hugo was healed from a terminal cancer. Obed was most important during Hugo’s healing process, which after his healing, resulted in a profound friendship and collaboration.
Passing on the torch to Hugo was a logical step. God's Embassy church brings the message of Father’s healing love in the world, but most of all in the hearts of people, through conferences, healing services, healing school, teachings, workshops, fasting days. Within our possibilities we want to be there for you. Having been working together with medical doctors –two are part of God's Embassy team- for decades, provides a window for science to observe what Father does.