Who we are

We are Gideon and Jennifer Hamerpagt. We were married in 2011 and afterwards were blessed with three children. We were both born and raised in Bleskensgraaf (Zuid-Holland) in the Netherlands and were involved with the local church there.

When our first daughter was born and a colleagues’ child died several days later, we were shaken up and we realised how precious and fragile human life really is. This made us question the character and nature of God. We wondered what happens to a person when they die, how one can be sure whether or not their sins are forgiven and other things. This created an unrest within us, causing us to desire to get to know God personally. We prayed that He, if He was really there, would show Himself to us. After this, we started to experience His tangible presence more and more in our lives.

The real spiritual turn around happened on may 20th in 2018, when we had our first experience with the power of God. On this day, Gideon was instantly healed from 17 years of backpain. All the pain and hurt literally streamed out of his body. Previously, we had heard things about God, but now His Kingdom became visible to us. The Living God was revealed to us! [see ‘testimonies’ for the full story on this healing]

We heeded the Biblical call to repent of our former lives and to be baptized, to have our sins forgiven and be cut off from our past. Afterwards we received the Holy Spirit and power in order to walk in His plan for us.

We started a journey of healing, deliverance and inner healing for different areas in our lives. We attended several Bible schools, which helped us tremendously to know Him more. We were part of different faith based schools and trainings (practical and theoretical) about our identity in Christ, (inner) healing and deliverance.

Over the past few years of walking with the Lord, we received several prophetic words about a ministry of inner healing, physical healing and deliverance.

When God spoke to us and said the time had come to step forward, we began to move in this.

We launched “Closely by His Side Ministries” on January 12 in 2021.