Marie Donk, an eloquent Jewish man, took the lead and urged his customers to join the study group. Customer response was slow until the baker used the slogan that old Nickerians remember till this day: “Nyan brede sondro frede!” (Eat bread without fear!) “That meant,” explains 83-year-old Lien Buitenman, Alfred Buitenman’s daughter, “that people were handed bread for free after the meetings.”

Alfred Buitenman, small in stature and soft-spoken, had discreetly supported the congregation financially since his baptism in 1903. “But during one meeting,” recalls Lien, “I was startled to see my father step forward, raise his voice, and announce that from now on the meeting place would be in the living room of our house.”

[Picture on page 197]

Lien Buitenman and James Brown vividly remember seeing the “Photo-Drama of Creation” around 1920