Father Willie Zijlstra (91) passed away

Father Willie Zijlstra passed away on Saturday, January 28th, at the Mission House in Cadier en Keer. Father Zijlstra was 91 years old. The funeral will be held on Friday, February 3rd, in the Mission House chapel.

Wille Zijlstra was born on March 18, 1931, in Joure, Friesland. On July 15, 1954, he joined the Society for African Missions. Six months later—on December 19 of that year—he was ordained a priest. Father Zijlstra subsequently pursued further studies at the universities of London and New York. In 1965, he was assigned to Africa. He taught at the Amisano Seminary in Ghana. From 1972 to 1987, he was principal of a secondary school in Asuom Kade.

After a sabbatical in Nijmegen, he returned to Ghana to work at the SMA formation center Sowutuom in Accra. In 1995, he worked briefly on the Afram Plains project in Babaso, before moving on to Zambia and Tanzania, where he was affiliated with the SMA formation centers in Kabwe (1996-1998) and Mwanza (1998-2002). He then worked again for four years at the Sowutuom formation center, concluding his missionary career between 2006 and 2010 at the SMA house in Nairobi, Kenya.

After a long career in missionary work, Father Zijlstra retired in 2010 at the age of 79. He spent his final years at the Mission House in Cadier en Keer, where he passed away peacefully on January 28.

The funeral will be held on Friday, February 3rd, at 11:00 a.m. in the chapel of the Mission House. He will be laid to rest afterwards in the missionary cemetery there.