Johanna Veenstra (1894 - 1933) by Timothy P. Palmer

                Johanna Veenstra was the first missionary of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) to go to Nigeria.  She was born on Thursday, April 19, 1894, on Hopper Street in Paterson, New Jersey.  Her parents were William Veenstra, later a Christian Reformed pastor,  and Cornelia Anna De Hoop.   In 1915 she was challenged by Karl Kumm of the Sudan United Mission (SUM) to be a missionary in Africa.  On October 2, 1919, she left New York on the "Mauretania" for England; on December 31, 1919, she took another ship to Africa, arriving in Lagos in January 1920.  In February 1921, she arrived at her station in Lupwe, which is near Takum, now in Taraba State.  Two years later Johanna Veenstra assumed leadership of the work in Lupwe.  She was engaged primarily in medical work and in preaching.  During her ministry in Lupwe, a number of people especially of the Kuteb tribe became Christian.  The roots of the Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria (CRCN) lay in part in the work of Johanna Veenstra. 

But in March 1933 Johanna Veenstra became ill.  She traveled to the Sudan United Mission hospital in Vom, which is in present-day Plateau State.  On Palm Sunday, April 9, 1933, Johanna Veenstra died and was buried in Vom. 

In addition to her missionary work in Nigeria, Johanna Veenstra is significant for presenting the mission needs of Nigeria to the Christian Reformed Church.  In 1940 this church adopted Nigeria as a mission field.  Today the Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria is a strong independent African church.  The seminary of the CRCN, Veenstra Seminary located in Donga, is named after Johanna Veenstra.  

Select Bibliography 

Beets, Henry.  Johanna of Nigeria.  Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids Printing Company, 1937. 

Palmer, Timothy.  The Reformed and Presbyterian Faith: A View from Nigeria.  Bukuru: TCNN Publications, 1996.  (Available from Africa Christian Textbooks.) 

Smith, Edgar.  Nigerian Harvest.  Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1972. 

 

Veenstra, Johanna.  Pioneering for Christ in the Sudan.  Grand Rapids: Smitter Book Co., 1926.

 

Johanna sightings:

• In the painting, Grace Through Every Generation, commissioned for the 150th anniversary, Johanna was described as follows: Early in life, Veenstra wanted to serve in missions and as a young person worked in city missions for Eastern Avenue CRC in Grand Rapids. In 1918, she was appointed as a missionary in Africa and served the Sudan United Mission there until her death. Because of her popularity, CRC churches supported her work in Africa. 
  (some of us aren't sure that the person depicted in the painting is actually Johanna, but we'll let you decide . . . )
  

• Johanna is quoted in the CRCNA's 150th Anniversary Commemorative Booklet:

   “You ask me is the outlook then so very bleak? The outlook as viewed by the human eye is well-nigh hopeless. But blessed be God, there is something greater and higher than the outlook. We have the uplook. We see Jesus, crowned in victory. . . By faith we look up and hear an assuring answer to our question.” 

   —Johanna Veenstra (1894-1933), a pioneering CRC first missionary, in Pioneering for Christ in the Sudan (Smithers Book Company, 1926)

Books by Johanna Veenstra

Black Diamonds (1929)

Other books and articles about Johanna

Aflame for God:  A Story of Pioneering Amidst Cannibals by Eva Stuart Watt (1938)

Johanna Veenstra: (Heroes of the Cross series) by Winifred M. Pierce (1957)

The Letters of Miss Johanna Veenstra (compiled from The Banner and De Heidenwereld aka Missionary Monthly) by Dr. Timothy Palmer (available through CRWM--e-mail us if you'd like to purchase a copy.)

Other books that mention Johanna

From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions by Ruth Tucker

They Knew Their God, Volume I By Edwin and Lillian Harvey and Elizabeth Hey

 If you know of other Johanna resources, contact Lorraine Woodward.