I grew up in Nijmegen, in Holland.
We never thought our Jewish friends were different.
We were one together, we were friends,
and we were one in playing and having joy together.
My brother had always a Jewish friend, Harry,
and he was a part of the family, he came many times.
One time they had played with all the cars,
but in the early morning he saw all the cars
before our front door.
German soldiers came in our country.
They conquered the country.
Many times they came in the middle of the night
to catch whole families, and they were transported from
their houses to go to Germany to the concentration camps.
I was about 13 then, 12, 13 years old,
but we saw how it all happened.
The sorrow, the hopelessness in their faces
when they came out just with a little bag in their hand.
And my mother was so sorry.
She said, "I wished I had taken the child."
But yet I knew it was very dangerous.
They came in our house, I was asleep in bed,
then I heard sounds downstairs.
I walked in my pajamas downstairs,
and one soldier came to me and said,
"Your (foreign language)!" but the other said,
"(foreign language),"
and then the soldiers came to search through all the house
if somebody of the Jews was there
and for the man to take them away to work in Germany,
and by accident my father was away that night for business,
and they thought he is somewhere hidden.
They took away the cupboards from the places to look.
My uncle escaped the home through
walking over the roofs of the houses,
and questions came up in me.
Why did all that happen?
I believed in God as a child,
but I see in my mother that, really,
she had a communion with God,
and then I thought how to live for God.
I said, Lord, you gave your life for me,
I want to give my life for you.
Wherever you lead me, I will go.
Whatever you ask from me, I will do.
That night I knew
the Lord really will lead me.
I really sought God in prayer.
I knew there was a unity between God and me.
And later I heard a man speaking about Israel,
the great things God will do for Israel.
How all these promises to Israel are made real.
That God stands for Israel.
This made so much impression on me.
Then God showed me the light that will come upon Israel.
I went, after that, to study for nurse.
My first work was with the Papuans,
in a place that never heard about the gospel.
I went there two years, and I could tell
about the great promises God will fulfill to Israel,
and later I could speak with them their language.
I could speak of the love of God, and these people
had ears to receive it, even little children,
the children, were all silent
if they hear to speak about Israel.
When I finished they said, "We don't want to go,
"we want to hear more about it."
They are so much longing to serve God
and to stand with Israel.
It was a great thing for me to see it.
We were very glad to hear when Israel became independent,
in 1948, when it was declared
because they had suffered so much.
Now it seemed they had a state of themselves.
When I was the first time in Israel,
and my first time was to pray on Mount of Olives,
for I knew Jesus went to pray there,
and then I asked for a Jewish family
and was very glad to stay with them
and to see them in their houses, free and joyful.
This made so much impression on me.
As we love God, we love his people.
They are the people of God.
God of Israel is alive!
He will fulfill all His promises to Israel.
And the dry bones,
the people who do not see yet,
they will become alive.
They will stand up and be a blessing for the world.
That's God's purpose.
You cannot serve God and curse the Jews.
You cannot be against and kill the Jews
if you want to serve the living God.
God is the living God.
He is with us, and He wants to lead us,
to strengthen us, for He is the life of our life.
I feel one with the Jewish people.
I am one for Israel!