Hey, we are the
Verhoek Family
Hey, we are the Verhoek Family
We're Dutch and South African, merged into one family by the love and leading of Jesus Christ.
We live and serve at the Iris Johannesburg base, serving the forgotten corners of one of Africa's most complex cities.
Our passion is simple: bring kids into family, serve the least of the least, let Jesus restore the brokenhearted — and be the hands He uses to do it.
But here's the thing — the Great Commission was never meant to happen alone. So we don't do this in isolation.
We're here because people like you are willing to stand with us.
" Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
Matthew 28:19-20
This is our story
Alex arrived in South Africa from the Netherlands carrying a single conviction: he wanted to follow and obey Jesus wherever He leads. Sylvia was already here — already invested, already building, already loving Johannesburg through the Iris base.
We didn't know it yet, but we were walking toward each other.
Everything changed mid 2025
We met during the Harvest School of Missions and something just clicked. Slowly at first, but when the Lord showed us that we were meant to become one together, it went quick. There was no hesitation. Engaged within a week of dating. Married three months later. And suddenly, we were no longer just two people with separate stories. We became us.
"Truly, all of it has been supernatural," we still say. Some people plan their future carefully. We learned the God way that obedience doesn't always look like a five-year plan.
Now we run together
We stepped into married life together in Johannesburg, and we haven't looked back. Weekly outreaches in Hillbrow. Base leadership. Discipleship. Bringing people out of addiction into rehabilitation and real restoration. Walking with people nobody else is walking with.
Caleb's in the middle of it, a vibrant 4-year old that the Lord has entrusted us with. We love that we get to take him on some of our outreaches and show him from a young age what (our) life is all about.
We serve & lead at Iris Johannesburg - a ministry with one core conviction: children belong in family and the least deserve to be loved fiercely. We believe Jesus wants to restore everyone He created and are grateful and honored that He wants to partner with us in doing so.
We can't do this alone
We want to be honest with you: we can't do this alone — this work needs people who believe in it as much as we do, whether through prayer, financial partnership, or however else God is calling you — so we're asking: will you be part of our story?
What we do - our ministries
Community Outreaches
We meet people where they are — literally on the streets where addiction, homelessness, and poverty have left them invisible.
Thursdays you will find us in Hillbrow, one of Joburgs most notorious neighbourhoods, where we sit with people, hand out meals, listen to their stories, and show them that Jesus hasn't forgotten them.
We don't come with agendas. We come with presence. We ask what they need. We connect people toward rehabilitation, employment, and restoration. We show up consistently — not just once, but week after week, proving that someone actually cares.
Every Friday we go into one of our neighboring squatter camp villages, where we lead a Bible study and discipleship group. God has been so faithful and grown this group for many years.
Base Leadership
We run Iris Johannesburg not as a programme, but as a home — a place where people become family.
Sylvia and her mother lead our team with vision and heart, building a culture where everyone knows they belong.
We create rhythms of prayer, community meals, accountability, and hope. We make decisions together. We celebrate wins together. We carry each other through the hard seasons.
A strong base means that everything else is possible. Without leadership that creates safety, without community that holds people, the other work crumbles.
Youth Discipleship
We're investing in Africa's future by walking with young people — mentoring them, believing in them, and calling out the Jesus-image in them that nobody else sees.
This isn't classroom teaching. It's sitting with a teenager and asking hard questions. It's discipling young adults into leaders who know Jesus and know themselves. It's teaching real life skills — digital literacy, employment readiness, practical trades — so they don't just have faith, they have a future.
It's showing them what it looks like to follow Jesus when the world is pulling them a thousand different directions. It's bringing them into family and equipping them for work — because kids were made to belong to something bigger than themselves, and they were made to contribute, to build, to lead.
Marie's Story: From the Streets to Redemption
She said she was done. And this time, we believed her.
We didn't know if Marie would show up Thursday morning. She did — trembling, terrified, absolutely certain. We brought her to rehab that day. We didn't cure her or fix her. We just said: "We'll walk with you. Jesus will walk with you. And we believe He's already begun."
Recovery is where faith meets reality in its rawest form. Every day, Marie wakes up choosing Jesus over the thing that almost killed her. That's not just rehabilitation. That's redemption.
She's teaching us what faith actually costs — the kind that requires everything. She's showing us that Jesus doesn't just forgive sins; He transforms lives. He actually shows up when you're terrified and says: "I've got you."
Marié believed that. Now, a thousand small choices later, she's becoming proof.
That's the Gospel. That's why we do this work.
The day that Marie checked herself into rehab
- to respect her privacy, her name and facial features have been altered
* to respect her privacy, her name and facial features have been altered
Join our Prayer Community
Here's the truth: we can't do this work alone. And we don't just need money — we need prayer. We need people in the Netherlands, South Africa, and around the world who believe in what Jesus is doing here and want to support us in prayer. People like you who are invested in what the Lord is doing in Johannesburg and want to back us up in prayer.
Join our prayer community. Receive stories from Johannesburg. Know the names and faces of people we're walking with. Carry them with you.
Whether you can give financially or not, your prayers matter. Sign up for monthly prayer updates and be part of what God is doing.
When you sign up, we will add you to our private WhatsApp group, in which we share our prayer requests and go more into depth into what the Lord is leading us to. You will get to know the people we meet on a weekly basis and get the opportunity to be part of what the Lord is doing in and around Johannesburg.
Get in touch
We would love to hear from you, feel free to send us an email on hi@familyverhoek.com or through the form.