SUSTAINED BY CONFIDENCE IN GOD

Postwar Activity

Back in Amsterdam and reunited with Johanna, who was then five, I immediately took up the ministry again. Sometimes I met those who had been members of the NSB, the Dutch National Socialist Movement, the political party that had collaborated with the Germans. These had assisted in massacring virtually my whole family. I had to overcome negative feelings in order to share the good news of God's Kingdom with them. I kept thinking that Jehovah is the one who sees the heart and that ultimately he is the one who judges, not I, and how I was blessed for that! 

I started a Bible study with a woman whose husband was in prison for his collaboration with the Nazis. When I walked up the stairs to their house, I would hear the neighbors saying:  "Look!  That Jew is visiting the NSB people again."  But in spite  of serious opposition from her imprisoned anti-Semitic husband, this woman and her three daughters all became Jehovah's Witnesses.

To my delight, my daughter Johanna later dedicated her life to Jehovah. She and I moved to serve where the need for Kingdom proclaimers was greater.  We enjoyed many spiritual blessings. Now I live in a small town in the south of the Netherlands, where I share in the preaching work along with the congregation as often as I can. Looking back, I can only say that I have never felt abandoned by Jehovah. I have always felt that Jehovah and his beloved Son, Jesus, are with me, even in the worse of times.

During the war, I lost my husband, two of my children, and most of the rest of my family. However, my hope is to see them all again soon in God's new world. When I am alone and think back over what I have experienced, I reflect with joy and gratitude on the psalmist words:  "The angel of Jehovah is camping all around those fearing him, and he rescues them." -Psalm 34:7. 

Next time: YOUNG PEOPLE ASK . . .Young Dating-What's the Harm?

From the AWAKE! magazine, 2001