THE HAGUE, Netherlands – A Dutch church is holding an around-the-clock service that has lasted more than 800 hours, to shield an Armenian family from deportation. Under Dutch law, police officers are not permitted to enter a church while a religious service is taking place. 

To prevent the Tamrazyan family from being removed from the country, hundreds of pastors and volunteers have been meeting to maintain the 24/7 service. The service has been ongoing for more than a month.

Theo Hettema, Chairman of the General Council of Protestant Ministers in the Netherlands told CNN, "We are severely, severely convinced that hope can change society, and hope can change politics. How long that will take, we don't know but we leave that to God, we pray. Yeah, we have this service here. We have some 450 pastors who are leading part of the service, an hour or more going on. And that's so much faith and love and hope. It must affect something I am sure about that." 

The idea for the nonstop service was hatched in secret to protect the safety of the family until they were able to be moved into the church building. That was on October 26. The family's only hope now is for the government to intervene in the case and allow them to stay. 

In a statement to CNN, a spokesman for the Dutch minister for migration Mark Harbour said, "The minister for migration has the power to decide cases involving specific exceptional and urgent circumstances." However, he added that "factors such as a long period of residents in the Netherlands and enrollment in education in the Netherlands are not sufficiently exceptional circumstances." 

Despite that, church leaders say they are having behind-the-scenes talks with the government about the case and are hopeful of a resolution. But until the family is allowed to stay, they say the church service will continue, as Hettema said, "as long as it's necessary."