Hasan Çolak died on the night of Aug. 25, 2024, unexpectedly after a summer evening of wine and socializing. He leaves behind his wife Bettina (47), son Julius (18) and daughter Luna (16). Bettina says: “Hasan organized his events with vision: everything always had to be perfect, it was all or nothing. His great love for Disney (Disneyland Paris) has everything to do with that. According to him, everything was right there: from the friendly cleaner, to the music from the speakers. Disney really was his happy place.”

In their living room in Rotterdam Prins Alexander, Hasan’s widow, Bettina Çolak, talks about her beloved husband. ”When I look at Hasan’s story, there has always been hope. I want that hope to stay alive.”

Hasan (48) died suddenly in August 2024. His wife Bettina says: ”Hope is still a fact for me, even if I don’t understand any of this at all.”

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Hasan was born to a Dutch mother and a Turkish father. He grew up in Rotterdam-Zuid. It soon became clear that his biological parents could not care for him and he became part of a foster family.
”He was really 100 percent part of that family,” Bettina says. “His foster parents were like his real parents to him. When his foster father passed away, Hasan said to me, ‘From this father I learned the most.'”

Still, as a foster child, Hasan felt he had to prove himself more than the rest. Bettina: ”Evidence was always there with him. Everything he did had to be right.”

”Everything he did had to be right.”

Hasan & Bettina

When Bettina is asked how she would describe her relationship with Hasan, she chuckles a little. ”Our relationship has always been a bit turbulent. I’ve known Hasan since I was 16 and he asked me to go steady at the Flevo festival while the band Delirious? was playing. Then it’s been on and off a few more times before we got married in August 2003.”

Together they are happy, but what Bettina does not know is that Hasan is still deeply in debt due to his gambling addiction. ”He started gambling when he was 15, and in fact he never quite got rid of it. Until he was caught six months after we got married. I said to him then, ‘I’ll stay with you; I’ve chosen you for good times and bad, but you have to get help.’

”I’ll stay with you, but you have to seek help.”

And it did. Hasan attended intensive therapy at Hope for six months. ”That’s where he really took it on and after this process and a lot of prayer, he was able to say, ‘I’m never doing this again.’

Events for Jesus

Hasan grew up in a religious, Christian family. But despite that, Hasan could struggle with God. ”He felt disappointed at times,” Bettina says. ”He was a man full of vision, and he found God’s people especially difficult at times.” Yet Hasan felt that God was always there for him, God was really his only hold.”

From his love for God and organizing events, Hasan founded C-stars Productions: organizing events for Jesus, and preferably as big as possible.

Bettina: ”Since then he has organized an awful lot of events. His biggest dream was an event in Ahoy. He told me he used to think: one day I will organize an event on that black board. And he succeeded. His very biggest event was Joyce Meyer in Ahoy. An event for 11,000 people, where he was the producer. People didn’t believe he did that event alone (along with 1 employee), but it really was.”

”His all-time greatest was Joyce Meyer in Ahoy.”

”Getting people in touch with Jesus, that was his dearest desire,” Bettina says. ”He was a man full of ideas. In his beloved city of Rotterdam, for example, he also organized a Christmas event for the Laurenskerk and much more. He enjoyed that immensely.”

In his events, Hasan strove for perfection. ”That’s why Disney (Disneyland Paris) was also his favorite place to be: everything was right there, from the friendly cleaner, to the music from the speakers, the parades, the fireworks show. Disney was really his happy place.”

#Samen

When the Corona crisis breaks out and much emphasis is placed everywhere in the media on the word “together,” Hasan decides to make a joke of it. He invents the hashtag #samen and posts hilarious photos on his social media accounts.
Bettina: ”At one point people were just waiting for him to post something again, it really became a thing.”

Although #samen started as a joke, it grew to become the motto of Hasan’s life. ”That’s what he wanted, and that only grew recently: He wanted to bring different churches, movements and people together for Jesus. Hasan wanted to look at the big picture. We didn’t all have to stay on our own little island according to him, but go together for the kingdom, and bring Jesus to people as it is written in Matthew 28.”

”We didn’t all have to stay on our own little island, but go together for the kingdom.”

His biggest event ever

”Hasan was a man of great humor,” says Bettina. He had always jokingly said that his funeral should be grand and compelling. In addition, the song ”November Rain” had to be played while his coffin was being carried out of the church. And it did, but much sooner than he had thought.”

Because after a pleasant summer evening with friends, Hasan dies, completely unexpectedly on the night of Aug. 24-25, 2024. For a moment there is silence in the living room, before Bettina begins to speak again: ”I feel robbed of him. I am angry, very angry. But I know I am allowed to feel that anger and that God is here with me, too. God is sad with me. He hates death and that’s why he gave Jesus so that death won’t win in the end.”

”In the summer of 2024, he had still said it: his funeral was to be his biggest event ever, with all the trimmings: with November Rain out of the church, fat worship and Jesus in the middle, among the people. So the week before the funeral, the dearest acquaintances and friends worked very hard to make his wish come true: Hasan’s last, but biggest event ever. And it was fantastic, it was totally him, just the way he was.”

“His funeral was supposed to be his biggest event ever.

Intended for big things

Bettina: ”Hasan was an outspoken personality with a clear plan in his life. I myself felt much less so, until I understood how much it had meant to him that I had stayed with him despite his debts and gambling addiction. Someone then told me, “It healed his heart. And then I knew: God’s plan for my life was to be married to Hasan.’

It remains silent for a moment. ”What about now? Now that he is no longer here? Now I don’t know what God’s plan is yet. All I know is that Hasan’s passing is ”just” the result of brokenness in this world. And that there is still hope. Because Jesus is there, and he always wants to give hope.’

”Hasan used to say, ‘I was made for great things.’ And I think that’s true, because even after his death God is going to use him, I’m sure. When I look up, I see the stars, and I think of Hasan. I think about the fact that God has everything in His hand and Jesus was, and is, the hope of the world for Hasan, and for me. Stars are sometimes just a small light, but they always remedy the darkness. And with that thought, I feel that hope stays with me forever, anchored in my soul.”

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