History
Summer of ’96, the Olympics in Atlanta, USA. Henk Stoorvogel, 18 years old, and his younger brother leave for America to participate in an project of Athletes in Action. They are wildly enthusiastic about the combination of sports and faith and decide to come back the next year, but this time with a team of 15 people.
After that project they felt a great desire to do the same kind of projects in the Netherlands. So in the summer of 1998 a group of 120 athletes from various countries (The Netherlands, USA, Canada, Belarus, Moldova, Scotland, Germany and more) gathered somewhere in the Dutch countryside for the kick-off of the Sports Clinics Europe Tour in the Netherlands. With absolutely no significant experience in hosting a conference and organising sports clinics, but a great deal of enthusiasm, confidence in God, energy and passion made up for that.
Originally, SCET’98 was to be a one time event. However, the three weeks of projects had such a great impact and invoked such a great deal of positive response that the organisation team couldn’t bear stopping. After a meeting on a conference of Athletes in Action Europe, the people behind SCET’98 decided to join AIA. Henk and Ruth Stoorvogel were the first couple to lead the organisation. Athletes in Action Holland was born!
Since that day AIA’s vision has broaden and deepened. The focus shifted more and more to collaboration and partnerships with churches, instead of isolated projects. Some of the milestones in Dutch AIA history:
2004
Giving the Flame: 700 youth go to Greece to spread Gods love on the eve of the Olympics in Athens. This was the largest gospel-related action ever in Greece and still the largest group of participants ever sent out by AIA Holland.
2005
Focus on Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
Theo en Harmke van den Heuvel take over leadership from Henk and Ruth.
2006
Coming Home: AIA takes aim at the Netherlands.
2007
Focus on Turkey and Albania.
2008
East Asia: big international project in East-Asia during the Olympics.
Also the year of the tenth anniversary of Athletes in Action in the Netherlands.
2010
Road2Africa: invited by churched in Africa, AIA organised projects in over 35 place across the African continent, especially South-Africa, which hosted the World Cup Football that summer. Not the largest project ever, but it is the project with the largest scope ever by AIA Holland.
Rik and Aniek Horstman take over leadership from Theo and Harmke van den Heuvel.
