Corrie ten Boom's House

I know I should have posted this a long time ago. My apologies.

On my second day in the Netherlands, I got to take an afternoon trip to Corrie ten Boom's house. My hosts both had to work, so I was on my own. Starting when I got in the airplane in Dallas, I had began reading Corrie's famous book The Hiding Place, which tells the story of her family's experiences living through Nazi occupied Holland. As most of my readers are probably aware, Corrie's faith played a huge role in her life. She knew she couldn't simply stand by and let the Nazis run amuck in her country. Her heart was especially touched by the plight of Jewish-Dutch people living there in Haarlam. I finished the morning I went to visit Corrie's house.

What I found most sobering and scary about the book was the description of Christianity in Europe, especially Holland, at the time. Holland was a Christian country. The churches were active. And yet public outcry against the Nazi treatment of the Jews was almost non-existent. A considerable amount of the "Christian" Dutch population collaborated with the Nazis. The vast majority of these Christians simply stood by and refused to get involved. Holland had a population of 140,000 Jews before the war began (not counting Jews that had fled from Germany earlier). Only 40,000 of these Jews would survive the Holocaust. 71% of the Jewish population died in Holland, and the Christian Church was mostly silent on the issue. Compare these statistics with Denmark. Before the invasion, 7,800 Jews lived in Denmark. When the "Final Solution" was declared in Denmark, the local population was so horrified that they immediately sprung into action. Only 60 Jews in the entire country were ever caught. The Danes saved 99.2% of their Jewish population.

So what made the difference? From what I can tell, Denmark had already reached the post-Christian status. A minority of Scandinavians were attending services every Sunday before the war (the occupations in both Norway and Denmark dramatically increased church attendance, and the effect bled into Sweden as well). My belief, with no serious research, is that the Church in Denmark was able to have a greater impact on Danish society precisely because it had been purged of all the pseudo-Christians who attended simply because it was popular. When the hard times came (the Occupation), the Danish Church proved faithful, not only able to respond in a Christian manor to the Nazi's intentions toward the Jews, but also influence their society toward a more Christians outlook as well. The Dutch Church, on the other hand, was crippled by countless people who were Christian because that was the socially acceptable, easy thing to do. But when the hard times came (the Occupation), their faith proved to be fruitless as they stood by and watched the Nazi's slaughter thousands of their own countrymen.

So where are we in America today? I shudder at the thought that we are closer to where Holland was at the outbreak of the War then to where Denmark was, but I am saddened to admit that I think we are indeed more Dutch than Danish. Why this is the case is difficult to discern. I will give a quick thought though: I think that the Church in America, much like the Dutch Reformed Church, is much more interested in making sure that its members say the right things, agree with a specific catechism (statement of faith), and can go through the motions of good Church members than in actually affecting the hearts of her people. Not that the former is bad. Indeed we must have correct doctrine or trying to live Christians lives is impossible. But so many modern churches in America consider church attendance, tithing, missions work, etc. as the "important things" and ignore the nitty gritty of real life: anger, pride, gossiping, backstabbing, causing other Christians to sin, foolishness, idolatry, and many more.

Okay, I'm done with the rant. Now onto the stuff you've all been waiting for. Pictures!!!

Outside the Ten Boom watch shop. The store is the front part of the house (which is the museum) and is still a real jewelry and watch shop.

This is the signal that Corrie's underground movement used as a secret signal. When the Alpina sign was in the window, it meant all was fine. If the sign was gone it warned people not to stop. On the night of their arrest, the Germans figured this out and used it to trap other members of the underground.

This is the living room. The picture above the piano is Corrie's father.

Corrie's linen closet which was used as the secret entrance to the hiding place. You can see at the very bottom that the door is open for someone to slide through.

This is a hole in the wall so you can look into the hiding place. I don't know these people but they were part of my tour.

A shot of the inside of the hiding place.

This is a small hiding place used to hide Jewish valuables, as well as extra ration tickets and so forth. On the night of the arrests, this hiding place was found but the one with the people in it was not.

So there they are. I hope you all enjoyed!

Holland!!!

Finally, the long awaited pictures from the Netherlands! I was in Holland for 4 1/2 days and stayed with the family of a lady I met in Scotland last spring break. I did not realize until I was there that her husband is actually a pastor for mentally challenged individuals. They were extremely nice and showed me around Amsterdam, Armede (their area that was drained and built in 1975), and many other places in Holland. I saw everything from windmills to dikes. In Holland, there is very little countryside because it has been mostly urbanized. Almost every inch of the country is planned so as to make the most out of their space. Below are different pictures of different aspects of the country.

This is a place that used to be an island before the area was drained. You can see the fortifications against the sea off to the right.

Yes, they do have some old-fashioned windmills left in Holland. This one is actually a house now. The people in front are Ronald and Tineka, my amazing hosts!

A thatched roof on a Dutch farmhouse.

A canal in downtown Amsterdam. The canals basically run in squared tic-tac-toe mazes throughout the entire city.

No, this isn't an optical illusion. The building really is leaning forward. There were two explanations given me: Taxing was based on ground usage, or the building was so old the foundations have shifted.

Two canals separated by a dike. You can see that the two canals are several meters different in depth.

Typical Dutch architecture from the 1600s.

So that's Holland for you. I'll have another post on Corrie ten Boom's house soon.

And We're Back

Wow, more than a month since my last post. I did warn everyone that I was bad at these types of things. Anyway, I think we're back on the air. I'll just explain my absence for this entry.

First was spring break. Yes, spring break started on Good Friday. I did not get to go home for either Easter of the break, as I instead went to St. Louis on a missions trip. It wasn't like any other missions trip I've been on. It was sponsored by InterVarsity, and it was very much a Social Justice type organization and mission. We worked with students from three other schools, which was great fun. My group painted a local widow's windows and then finished the carpeting at a church. It always strikes me as strange how fun those types of "chores" can be when done in company of friends. We had a lot of fun chatting and sharing with each other about our own lives, but we also finished both before the week was up.

The highlight of spring break was going to an English/French church there in St. Louis for Easter service. St. Louis is the 2nd biggest refugee city in the United States (behind some city in California, I think). Many of the refugees begin to form communities throughout the city, and we worked very close to the French speaking community. Before someone asks, I should clarify that these French-speaking people are mostly from west Africa. There really aren't a lot of refugees from France or Quebec. :)

I fully intended to post on my excursion when I returned, but I woke up the morning after our return (Saturday) with a sore throat and headache. Yes, the flu. I slept a lot that weekend and tried to get over it. Monday I felt a lot better, but that soon changed. Monday evening I got to experience the worst sore throat in my entire life. I couldn't sleep because every time I swallowed if felt like someone was slitting my throat. Not that I actually know how it feels to have a slit throat; it felt like I imagine a slit throat must feel like. After a whole long hoopdela (about 2 weeks) with our campus clinic in which they insisted that I simply had the flu and most definitely did not have a bacterial infection (even though my tonsils were about twice the size of normal), I finally went to a real medical facility where they told me that, indeed, I DID have a bacterial infection. They put me on antibiotics, and I started feeling better within a day. It was a good lesson on why socialized medicine is evil. I clearly had tonsillitis, but they simply assumed I was taking advantage of free health care and so offered me little.

After recovering from that, I had 2 weeks of class that I had missed. I ran for crazy for another week and a half trying to line everything out. My teachers were all very considerate and helpful. I did finally finish everything in time.

Next week is the last week of classes. I'm super excited about that. I like some of my classes, but I'm ready to move on. So after next week (or I suppose it is this week) comes finals. Graduation is on Sunday, and I'm going to try to go because many of my friends are graduating. I've never been before. Then I have to get out of my room before 12:00 Sunday night/Monday morning. Which is fine because I'm heading home where I'll be for whatever is left of Sunday and leave for Texas on Monday to visit grandparents. My grandmother had a storm at her house and there's a lot of clean-up for all of us to do.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to help out more than a day and a half because I fly out of Dallas/Ft. Worth on that Wednesday (May 14th) for Amsterdam. If you're keeping track, you'll understand that this means I'll have to be basically backed for this trip before I leave school. That's going to be fun. Anyway, I'm going to be visiting a family there in Amsterdam. I met the mother of this family last year when I was in Scotland for a week at our Chr-stian retreat. Before we all went our separate way, she invited me to her home whenever I next came to Europe. Well, this is my next trip to Europe, and I'm really looking forward to it. She's promised to show me around Amsterdam and give me a taste of the "Dutch life". I guess that means I get to pay for everything myself. :)

After a lovely weekend in Amsterdam, I head to Brussels for my 10 week internship. Yes, in case anyone was wondering, I am super excited about this. G-d has been so faithful to bring everything together even when I couldn't because of sickness, business, or just lack of motivation. One of my biggest worries was housing while I'm there, but He has provided a house-sitting/dog-sitting job that will allow me to stay in Brussels for free. Yes, free. He is certainly good, isn't He?

This is long enough by now, and I'm quite sure you are getting bored of reading with no pictures. I'll post more (hopefully) later this week.