Tag: Bible
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Emigrating to Canada: 1954
Read More: Emigrating to Canada: 1954Some time after the war ended and things were settling into place in Holland my brother Jaap emigrated to Canada, as farmland was still very hard to come by. That went well so I wanted to emigrate too. About two weeks before I was to be granted permission, I told a friend of my plans…
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Grade School Years: 1934-1941
Read More: Grade School Years: 1934-1941When I was six years old I started school on May 1, 1934. There were nine of us children in our family. The youngest was 1 ½ years old and my oldest brother was 12 and started grade 7. There were seven grades at that time so one of us was in every class except…
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Religion and Faith
Read More: Religion and FaithOne can talk about religion in generalities and about churches being staunchly Reformed and very orthodox, but what was my personal experience as a child? I can’t remember that my mother often told Bible stories, but she must have done so. At table Dad read from Anne De Vries’ Bible Story Book and when I…
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Church
Read More: ChurchMy parents went to churches where sermons lasted 1½ hours, but when I grew up they had been shortened to appr. 45 minutes. Sometimes men would suddenly stand up in the middle of a sermon. They began to feel sleepy, and this was the way to stay awake. Other men would enter the church with…
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Pedagogy
Read More: PedagogySchools during my childhood were places where quietness in classrooms, disciplined order, and endless drilling were paramount. When you didn’t hold a pen in your hand, your arms were crossed across your chest. To make an impression on a teacher, you sat up as straight as possible, crossed your arms as high as you possibly…
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Kindergarten
Read More: KindergartenBut to kindergarten I went. In wintertime much too heavily dressed. I walked all by myself about 1 1/2 km. on a, for that time, quite heavily travelled road along the canal. I was to walk on the less busy road on the other side of the canal, but since I had to walk all…
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Retirement
Read More: RetirementFor My Descendants Living During The Year 2050 Moses had no computer. Yet the books of Moses have been written faultlessly, all the events within them seem to be in perfect chronological order, and Moses’ style of writing is to the point, succinct, and in places wonderfully poetic. Like Moses, I have no computer either.…
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Bible, boat, Canada, Christmas, church, college, family, Groningen, organ, politics, religion, school, ship, Winschoten
Wedderveer
Read More: WedderveerThe farm in Wedderveer. Note the fruit trees close to the barn, the orchard of the neighbour Begeman on the right, the tractor shed at the back, the vegetable garden this side the clothesline and the rows of potatoes between clothesline and shed. On the left the small barn of our immediate neighbour Van der…
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Arnhem, Bach, Bible, church, Easter, family, God, Groningen, Hommes, marriage, organ, school, ship, Winschoten
World War II
Read More: World War IIThe family and its circumstances during WWII How should I begin? Perhaps with my birth in Blyham (NL) on 3 October 1936, as my Mom told me many years later. Could a time be darker, a place be humbler? Hitler tightening his grip on Germany’s people, raucously goading them towards catastrophic war. A small farm…