At Hungry for Life, I help Canadian churches and organizations engage meaningfully in global ministry. I guide them in identifying projects that align with their passions and resources, and I help coordinate trips to connect them directly with the communities they support. I also actively help manage projects myself—overseeing funding, progress, and reporting—while contributing to fundraising initiatives that sustain our mission to end both physical and spiritual poverty worldwide.
My primary job at Hungry for Life is to connect and support Canadian churches and organizations in engaging with international ministry projects by facilitating partnerships, managing project development, and helping sustain the organization’s mission through fundraising for operations.
Jurian Verwijs
Project Manager & Mission Focusing Consultant
I’m at Hungry for Life because I know God called me here—to serve where faith meets action, helping reduce physical and spiritual poverty, while walking in obedience to test His Good, Acceptable and Perfect purpose for my life (Romans 12:2).
Jurian was born and raised in Elspeet, Netherlands, a small Christian village in the forest of the Netherlands, attending various schools in the region, graduating at the Jacobus Fruytier school in Apeldoorn.
After graduating Highschool in the Netherlands, Jurian moved to Gouda to attend Driestar Educatief, taking the Teaching Education Program, wanting to become an Elementary School teacher, while simultaneously attending Open Universiteit in Rotterdam studying Extended Methodology of Education & Psychology as a deeper base for his Teacher's Training. In the Summer of 2015, Jurian along with his father went with a Dutch Missionary Organization to teach English in Xining, China to Chinese Students in an elementary summer school. This is where he met Lois, a teacher from Chilliwack, Canada, teaching in the classroom next to his. After spending 4 weeks teaching alongside each other, they developed a relationship that would withstand the test of time and distance in the following 14 months, as she is now his wife since October 2017.
The couple moved to and settled in Canada in late 2017, and Jurian has been working in various sales roles, most recently in the Horticulture industry, at Canada's largest indoor flower grower. Jurian says he ended up in sales only because the Teaching paperwork did not fully transfer over from the Netherlands, and income was required to support the starting of their family. It was not until 2025 that God would call Jurian to the ministry, specifically to join Hungry for Life.
In his home life, Jurian and Lois have 2 children: Hadassah (6) and Eden (4) with baby #3 due in November of 2025. The family are lifelong travelers, a testimony to how they met in 2017, visiting and learning more about new cultures and traditions, always meeting God-fearing Christians wherever they go. Having been born in the Netherlands, it should come as no surprise that Jurian is a multi-lingual speaker and active soccer player & fan, often playing on the weekends with the local Guatemalan or Mexican soccer teams. His favorite Saturday Morning activity is tuning in to watch the English Premier League.
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