The People’s Petition (see 1878.04), reproduced on a flysheet for the purpose of soliciting new members for The Union: “A School with the Bible.” The mayor and aldermen of Buiksloot (now a northern suburb of Amsterdam) had not given permission for the annual Union Collection to be held in the village. Rather than making another request to the mayor and aldermen, these flyers were delivered to every house. Then representatives were sent to visit all one hundred fifty households in Buiksloot to request that they join the local committee of The Union: “A School with the Bible” (De Standaard, no. 4121, August 22, 1885).

On April 12, 1887 a “school with the Bible” was opened in Buiksloot with an enrollment of twelve students. This school was then referred to as the “protest school” because it had come into existence against the wishes of the local authorities. The Buiksloot school was particularly dependent on national financial support during its early years; contributions were even received from the United States and the Dutch East Indies (cf. Toen wij nog in tenten woonden [Goes: Oosterbaan & Le Cointre, (1934), pp. 238–239]).