In the teenage years of Niene Prins, pastor Valk showed himself to be a committed leader. He liked to take the youngsters from his congregation in tow and treat them to ice cream or chips. They looked up to him, listened to him. After all, the pastor was appointed by God Himself.
“I really believed that,” says Niene. “I asked Valk a lot. Other people did the same. Which schooling will I do? Can I look for another job? ”
She recalls having such counseling conversations with the pastor at the age of 12. She requested it herself. She thought he was a pleasant listener and gave advice. “What he recommended felt like counsel from God.”
Anyone who had something bothering them was obliged to go to the pastor. “If you didn’t, others did for you. Then you had to come into the office. In sermons the text was often quoted saying that you must confess your iniquities to each other.”
It was therefore natural that Niene confessed something to Valk at the end of 2014. He suggested writing the confession, with her signature underneath.
This article was translated and published with permission of the author, read the original article here.
Behind closed doors
Slaughter
Shortly after Niene wrote the confessional at the age of 28, Valk asked her if she wanted to participate in making video clips for a drama film. He planned to use the video during a teen rally. The play that the pastor wanted to film was about a young man who is seduced by a woman and follows her like an ox going to the slaughterhouse, as stated in Proverbs 7.
“He needed clips of someone going to slaughter a fish, that is, a live fish. He asked if I wanted to do that. I thought that was strange. But yes, he had also done a lot for me. And that confession haunted me. ”
The pastor got some fish and put them on a marble top in his office. Then he handed her a knife.
“He asked me to recite that Bible text while I was slaughtering the fish. He wanted me to say the words: “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to eat you.” He then filmed that. I always had to roll up my sleeves. ”
What Niene did not know at the time was that the pastor was engaged in sexual fetishism. Certain objects or rituals, in his case rolling up sleeves and slaughtering animals, excited him.
Suspicion
“Valk was very happy with what I was doing, I noticed. He later said that he had lost the video due to a crashed computer. ”
The slaughter ritual had to be redone. Niene cut the animals in front of the camera at least four times. The more often that happened, the more suspicious she became. She began to ask him questions. “Why do you want to kill fish every time I kill?” He replied that he finds women with knives exciting. “I find that super exciting and very beautiful. It just gives me shivers. ” That’s how he talked about it. He asked if I wanted to pose with a knife every now and then and if he could take a picture of it. ”
Niene says she was fully clothed at those times and it wasn’t a sexy shot. According to her, another girl was asked by Valk to look sexy.
The leader had special knives. In his office he kept an entire collection that he received or bought during his travels.
Falcon asked Niene several times whether she wanted to slaughter chickens, but she did not dare. “I thought slaughtering fish while shaking was terribly abnormal. It doesn’t suit me at all to do such things. Valk told me that he sometimes fantasized about being slaughtered and eaten himself. He’s that crazy. He once preached cannibalism. He finds that a hugely fascinating subject. In his sermons, he quoted anecdotes of natives eating missionaries. He laughed about that. ”
Groping
The video should come as a surprise to everyone, thought Valk and he swore to Niene that she would keep the contents secret. “You are not like other women,” he often said to me. “At least you don’t talk. You can keep a secret.”
He told her more and more. “He was struggling with himself, I could see that. He detested himself. Then he would cry. I thought I should comfort him. He had also comforted me many times. Then the pawing began. When I put an arm around him to comfort him, he gave me a hug. Later, when I was once very sad, he prayed for me. In The Door they often pray with the laying on of hands. While he prayed for me, in God’s Name, his hands didn’t stay on my head. I was so numb with fear that I didn’t say anything about it. ”
At another time, Valk cried about his sexual frustrations. He threatened to go to prostitutes and said that Niene could stop him by performing a sexual act on him.
“I did it out of pity,” she says. “And because I looked up to him.”
“In The Door you do what the pastor asks you to do,” adds her husband Philip.
Several more times it came to pawing. Then Niene cut off the contact. The pastor found that difficult. “He said,“ I am not ready to let you go and I am very sad about this, but I respect your choice. I know you want to serve God, that you want to sanctify yourself.” In the meantime, he makes her promise secrecy over and over again. Philip knew nothing.
In November 2017, Philip and Niene traveled to a befriended couple who had been sent from De Deur in Zwolle to plant a church. By coincidence, Niene found out that her friend, just like her, should had beheaded live fish for Pastor Valk.
“Baf. That hit me. She said: “I am not allowed to say anything about that. It is secret.”
Victims
From that moment on, Niene shared her experiences with her husband. She also prayed for possible other victims. She spoke to girls and asked them straight away whether they ever had to slaughter fish for Valk. In this way, she eventually collected twelve names of girls and women between the ages of 12 and 27.
All but one are or had been members of De Deur in Zwolle. The twelfth person was put on the list by Niene because Valk himself once confessed to her that a woman from his previous congregation in Amersfoort slaughtered a chicken for him.
Niene says she discovered that two of her friends, who are her age, were already slaughtering fish for the pastor when they were twelve years old. After her, “at least two or three other girls” performed the slaughter ritual. That happened until the beginning of 2019.
Even before Christmas 2017, Niene and Philip confronted their pastor with what they had found out. At the time, there were six names on their list.
“I wanted to know whether it had become sexual with these women. He claimed he did not.”
According to Niene, Valk also toyed with the idea of filming Hansel and Gretel’s fairy tale. The intention would be that girls act out the part in which the witch wants to eat Hans. “I’m going to fatten you up, I’m going to eat you, I’m going to kill you and eat you.” That made him obsessed.”
Sadism
Once the pastor confided to Niene how, while traveling to a remote place, he saw people slaughter a pig for him because they were so honored with his visit. The animal was cooked and eaten. “He said that he thought it was great, that he identified with the pig. “I am also a pig. I am not worthy of this ministry. ” He links his name, Evert, to a wild boar (Dutch: evertzwijn). So you understand what kind of psychiatric patient he is. I believe his desire to be slaughtered and eaten is demonic. What he has is a kind of sadism, an occult and demonic sadism. ”
From the moment Niene participated in the drama film, she became suicidal. She also cut herself. She ended up sitting at home because she could no longer work.
“At that time I started hiding knives,” says Philip. “I hid sharp screwdrivers in the shed, as well as Nienne’s razors. I thought: This is going wrong. ”
Niene, crying: “I really wanted to die then. Then I would be rid of it. Then I would also be rid of Valk. I no longer saw the future. I thought: What have I done and where have I ended up? From my twelfth year to the day we left De Deur, I had nightmares every week. Nightmares about being raped, nightmares about concentration camps, about severed limbs. ”
Philip: “About fleeing, about wars, about death and horrible things. While Niene does not watch violent films. ”
Niene: “No, because I grew up without a television. There is no other way than there are supernatural powers at play. Those twelve girls all have anxiety disorders, or hyperventilation, or have nightmares. That can not be a coincidence.”
From the day Niene turned her back on De Deur, her nightmares stayed away. Not a single nightmare has plagued her since then. “I prayed strongly for deliverance and was truly delivered by God. I have no more fears. ”
Philip: “The sad thing is that Valk did things that disgusted himself.”
According to him, no one in De Deur visits a psychologist. Anyone who has complaints approaches the pastor. Pastors themselves could rely on the recently deceased Wayman Mitchell, the church leader. And do you know what Mitchell said? Pray for it and God will work a miracle. Point. That’s the advice. That is of no use to you. Valk is very confused. ”
Niene: “In a way he is also a victim.”
Philip: “Instead of help, he got a leadership position.”
Niene kept silent about her experiences with Valk. She assumed the events had happened only to her. The fact that Valk often received prophecies from God strengthened her belief that it was better not to go against God’s plan. “Who was I to expose this man? David did not touch Saul either. Saul was appointed by God. David waited for God to deal with Saul. I experienced that too. I had to wait. God had to do the work. In The Door it is said that you must not touch the anointed of God. I firmly believed that. ”
Something else was added. Valk was praised for gaining the insight to send people to China. The Church in China thrived. “I was afraid that if I started talking, everything would collapse. People wouldn’t repent and go to hell because of me. Because I would have revealed things about the anointed God. ”
Manipulation
Since the confrontation with Valk, Niene showed all the texts from the pastor to Philip. Philip realized that Valk was manipulating her. “I am so sorry that you no longer want to see me as a pastor,” Valk said.
Philip: “Niene had to feel guilty because she no longer saw him as a pastor, while he did things to her that were not allowed.”
Niene: “Only then did I realize that this was manipulation. White collar manipulation. ”
“I find it so sad that you don’t want to talk to me anymore,” Valk said.
“Emotional manipulation,” said Philip.
“Crying, crying, always crying”, says Niene. “Once I asked Valk:“ Did I do something? Was my skirt too short? ” I often blamed myself. “No,” he said. “Niene, it is not your fault. Your skirt was never too short, you always dressed nicely. It is my fault.” In retrospect, I am so glad I had the courage to ask this question. At the same time I think it’s fair of him that he gave this answer. ”
Valk sent more and more texts to Niene in 2018. In the meantime, she collected six new names, although Valk had claimed that it only stayed with six girls. The couple decided to confide in one of the two consistory members, Henk Kooiker, who in turn informed the other.
After talking with Philip and Niene, the two consistory members did not know what to do. They approached the then assistant pastor Etienne de Sain.
Once the ball rolled, it went fast. After Valk’s Sunday sermon, the church leadership withdrew to the office, “where Valk confessed that it had been sexual with Niene.”
Immediately after this conversation Philip saw that Niene’s mobile phone received messages from Valk. “I never thought that you would have betrayed me.”
Philip also received messages on his own phone. “Do you know what Niene has done?”
Philip: “He tried to drive a wedge between us. He hoped I knew nothing about it and that I would leave Niene. ”
Valk was deposed and was subject to discipline. A day later, the couple was visited by assistant pastor Etienne de Sain and Nomdo Schuitema, the new pastor. In total they conducted three interviews. Schuitema’s initial acknowledgment that Niene was a victim in this case gradually gave way to denial, according to the couple.
Philip: “On the third conversation we had, I asked him to the man,” Is Niene a sinful woman who has done something wrong or is she a victim? ” He did not dare to answer that. It was clear to us that it ended here. In the meantime we were no longer welcome in the church. ”
Niene is still struggling to hang the dirty laundry outside, even though she is no longer a member of the Zwolle municipality. “You don’t talk about what’s going on in The Door. It is unheard of that I have told my story at all to the police and to the Reformatorisch Dagblad. You can’t, you know? That still clashes with my feeling. You are trained to protect The Door above all else. Taking the step to the police and telling what Valk did to me was an attack on De Deur, the municipality in which I have invested my entire life. ”
Comments Valk and Schuitema
The Reformatorisch Dagblad asks Valk by telephone and then again by e-mail for a response to Niene Prins’ story. In the telephone conversation, the former pastor says: “All I can say is that the woman in question probably pumped up a lot of things. I have made videos in the past. I wanted to use it for theater and drama. Some things I’ve used, some things I never used. A lot of things have been taken out of context by that particular woman. ”
When asked by the RD whether it is true that he had a total of twelve women and girls fishing or slaughtering a chicken, he says: “Well no, absolutely not. I can only say that this woman is probably going after me to harm me. ” The email remains unanswered.
When asked, Pastor Nomdo Schuitema said that in 2018 the church leadership handled what Niene Prins had said with care. “If someone has a complaint, we immediately address it. After the complaint about pastor Valk, we took measures within two days and he was removed from his position. We are not covering up anything. We find that important in the church. ”
According to Schuitema, there are “many places in the church” where people can tell their story when needed. He calls the fact that Valk had young girls and women slaughtered fish “a different story. But I think the conclusions that you all draw from it are nonsense. ”
Could they be true?
Schuitema: “Hey, let’s not talk about that, then we will end up in fairyland. All of which could not be … interpretation, interpretation. No.”
But she was not alone in slaughtering fish. Many more women did.
“If there is someone with a complaint, we always listen to it. She is the only one. ”
Will Valk be given a pastoral function again in the future?
“I do not know. He is currently visiting congregations. I can’t say anything about the decisions we make. ”
If the problems are not recognized, he may be a danger to his environment.
“That is a lady’s conclusion and now you have to decide if that is a correct conclusion.”
"He was occupied with occult matters"
Bart van Dijk, former pastor and former colleague of Valk, says that in the 1990s as a pastor in Amersfoort, Valk was already “involved in occult matters.” When asked what he means by that, Van Dijk replies: “That he had young women slaughtered fish, that he filmed it. Very weird rituals. Then he said: “It is broadcast once during a coffee house night.” And nothing of this was ever broadcast during a coffee house evening. ” Van Dijk knows the conscious women. He said he was silent on the matter because they were afraid and did not want him to open his mouth.
The former pastor relates the slaughter rituals to sacrificial practices “in occult circles. The slaughter of animals seems to me to be a first step. ”
Robert de Winter meets pastor Evert Valk in the late eighties when he joins De Deur in Amersfoort at the age of 17. He often has contact with Valk, especially after De Winter moves to Almere to found a new municipality there. Valk was “very controlling”, says De Winter. “If I did something he didn’t want, he threatened to withdraw financial support.” The Almere church planter has no job at that time and is dependent on this support.
When Valk leaves for Zwolle and pastor William Bohorquez is going to lead the congregation in Amersfoort, Valk asks De Winter: ““ Hey Robert, do you want to keep an eye on Bohorquez? Report to me what he does and why he does it. ””
This assignment is the straw that makes the bucket overflow for De Winter. “I’ve gotten so angry. I liked that man (Bohorquez, EHvS). Evert Valk wrote down everything you could possibly corrupt. You told something in confidence and later he used it against you. That’s how he worked. Divide and conquer.”
De Winter resigns in 1998 and leaves De Deur. “Falcon always had strange things,” he says looking back. For example, the predecessor liked to go with foreign guests to the Torture Museum in Amsterdam. “Not just once, as a cultural trip, but repeatedly. He loved it. He was a sadist, loved drama and other people’s mistakes. ”
In those years it was customary in De Deur for parents to hit their children hard and often, De Winter recalls. “Whenever I had to babysit Valk’s children, I was instructed to hit them if necessary. He himself hit his children with a belt or a ladle. I found it really shocking that his daughters were sometimes ordered to hit each other, if one was worthy of punishment. I saw that when I sat at the kitchen table with him. He bragged about it in his sermons. ”
Valk was not an aggressive or violent person, according to De Winter. “But he enjoyed violence, sadism.”
Did the predecessor have weapons? De Winter thinks about it and then remembers that Falcon once asked him if he wanted to buy him a life preserver. “I was in Toledo, in Spain. There you could simply buy them in the store. He loved something like that. He also always had something like a bat or a knife in his car. ”
Accountability
For this article, the Reformatorisch Dagblad interviewed Niene Prins, her husband Philip, ex-pastor Robert de Winter and ex-pastor Bart van Dijk. Their names have been changed on request. The editors know the real names.
In addition, the RD spoke with one of the other women who slaughtered fish for Pastor Valk. She is still a member of De Deur and does not want to be quoted. The woman confirms that as a teenager she had to slaughter a fish – she believes in 2003 – but denies that Valk had ulterior motives or committed abuse.
There were further discussions with ex-pastor Evert Valk and the current pastor of De Deur in Zwolle, Nomdo Schuitema.
