Inge Thinks...

I can feel it. It’s in the air, it’s everywhere. When I wake up in the morning the sun is already up high in the sky (and that’s not because I wake up late!) and I hear birds everywhere. When I go outside I’m greeted by a flow of warm air that swirls around me, wraps me up in sweet scents and leaves me speechless. Summer is really here. The ice creams (yay!), long afternoons at the park with my boyfriend, the tanning in the backyard, the big glasses of icy cold water and the smell of sunscreen, hmm.

But I knew for sure that summer was here when I grabbed my camera, an hour or two ago, jumped on my bike and cycled for five minutes, arriving at the small forest just outside my hometown. The sun trickled through the fresh green leaves of the trees and the ground was covered with amazing amounts of tiny little flowers, plants and weeds. I sank to my knees in amazement and an hour later I found myself lying on the ground, covered in insect bites and scratches, with over 400 photos on my camera.

When I biked home I felt so full of God’s amazing creation and His glorious works that I couldn’t help but singing, with strange looks of a few people as a result. That feeling, that feeling of joy, of happiness and of wonder, that is summer. I’m in awe of God’s amazing skills and creativity, how He manages to let the sun fall on leaves and so many different weeds and flowers and make everything look so gorgeous. I’m absolutely in wonder of God’s fabulous creation, of His shining, divine, gorgeous, ravishing and glorious summer. I am in awe. It is summer.

Ik ben ongelofelijk teleurgesteld in jou. Heb je dan nooit opgelet in de geschiedenisles? Niets geleerd van de Franse Revolutie? Ja, het zijn zware tijden en ja, de economische crisis is ook hier te zien en te voelen. Maar denk je nou echt dat je dat op kunt lossen met stemmen op de partijen die het hardste schreeuwen? Partijen met de meest rechtse maatregelen, de meest harde maatregelen, denk je nou écht dat daar de oplossing ligt voor al deze problemen?

Ik ben zo teleurgesteld, want jij, Nederland, bent een land van heel veel kleuren. Een land met rijke mensen, maar ook met arme mensen. Een land met een cultuurrijke geschiedenis en ook veel economische rijkdom. Een land van minderheden. En toch kies jij ervoor om jouw rijke cultuur weg te gooien? Want denk je nou echt dat er onder dit beleid nog iets komt van subsidie voor kunst, ondersteuning voor theaters of het stimuleren van creativiteit? En denk je nou echt dat er onder dit beleid nog enige sympathie of liefde is voor de minder bedeelden, of de mensen uit andere landen? Vaarwel sociaal Nederland, hallo keihard Nederland, gemaakt van beton.

Teleurgesteld in jou, Nederland. Omdat ik altijd hoopte dat er meer mensen waren die dit inzagen. Dat er meer mensen waren die om cultuur en kunst gaven, en om hun medemens. Maar blijkbaar is dit allemaal verdwenen door de angst voor die ‘economische crisis’, waarbij je misschien maar één TV zult hebben in plaats van twee. Jouw enorme angst om je rijkdom te verliezen heeft je geduwd in de armen van de harde schreeuwers die eigenlijk niks te zeggen hebben, die enkel het grote publiek kunnen aanspreken.

Ik ben teleurgesteld. Maar gelukkig is er ook hoop. Want hoewel Nederland op dit moment een rotzooi is waarvan ik me afvraag hoe we er ooit uit kunnen komen, en ik mijn vertrouwen in Nederland totaal verloren ben, is er hoop. Want Rutte is de baas niet, en ook Cohen niet en zelfs Wilders is niks. God is de baas. Hij is de koning over iedereen, Hij heeft alles in Zijn handen. En hoewel ik mijn hoop en vertrouwen kwijt ben, is een leven met God vol met hoop op en vertrouwen in een betere toekomst. Hoe groot de bergen van Wilders’ anti-islam geroep ook zijn, hoe diep de zeeën van Rutte’s rechtse beleid, hoe hoog de muren van teleurgesteldheid:

‘U bent de Redder van het vertrapte volk,
wie zich hoog wanen, brengt U ten val.
U bent het die mijn lamp doet schijnen,
U, HEER, mijn God, verlicht mijn duisternis,
met U storm ik af op een legerbende,
met mijn God beklim ik de hoogste muur.’

Dus, Nederland, wat je ook doet, onthou maar gewoon één ding: God is control.

Veel liefs,

Inge

Hi and hallo,

How have you been, dear readers? Vacation right now, or at school? You know the thing is, with me, it’s neither of those. I’m not really at school (because I’m at home) but I don’t have vacation either, because I’m studying all the time. It feels like I’m in the in-between.

The final exams are in two weeks, and when that’s done my new future starts. I’m going working a lot, then my cool trip to The States and after that an entire new life at Middelburg at The Roosevelt Academy. My old life, though, has passed already. I’m no longer at school for five days, I don’t have classes anymore, I’m just here – at home, studying.

I’m in the in-between.

Jeeeeeej! I’m so happy! This summer, July to be exact, I will dwell in the United States of America, for a month! My uncle and aunt live in Dallas, Texas, and they invited me to come stay with them, which is really, really, real-ly sweet! Thank you <3

I will attend the Answers in Genesis conference in East Tennessee, which is awesomeness. I will also visit The Hawaiian Falls Waterpark (which is like, gigantic dude), a Cattle Drive in Ft. Worth, a visit to the Creation Museum in Ohio AND I will go to Memphis for a weekend!

Everything is just so cool and I’m really, really excited!

Agent Orange was a chemical used during the war in Vietnam, some fifty years ago. The Americans used this stuff, which contains dioxin, one of the most terrible toxins we know, to throw it over the woods of Vietnam so that they could find the people, ‘the enemy’, who were hiding there. This toxin left nothing but bare fields, all the trees and other vegetation were dead. But these are aren’t even the worst effects of this horrible practice, the toxin also does something to people:

‘Dioxin is a virtual ‘genetic time bomb’: once it has entered the body, it may cause any number of birth defects in the children of those exposed, ranging from stillbirth or infant death to mental retardation or physical deformity.’ [source]

People who were exposed to Agent Orange will have to suffer for the rest of their lives. Children who are born, without having anything to do with a war that took place over fifty years ago, have defects that will affect their lives. Children are born blind, with missing limbs or are dead, even before they’re born. What did they have to do with the troubles of communism, the war of Johnson or even the Vietcong warriors that hid in the woods? Why do they have to suffer because of other people’s useless wars?

The American soldiers who had to cope with the effects of Agent Orange started a lawsuit and received tons of money to compensate them for their disabilities. Nobody has given a penny to the children in Vietnam, who are born with the same defects that will affect their lives even more than the lives of wealthy American veterans.

Am I the only who finds this unbelievable, ridiculous, outrageous even? It goes beyond words, there’s no name for it. Why do little children have to suffer, why do innocent people have to face the consequences of a war that they didn’t have anything to do with, everyday? Why do we bomb villages, why do we spray toxins on trees, why? For some noble cause, to keep the world from harm? No. To fight our stupid little wars, to get what we want, to not loose what we think is ours. Since when do politics consist of playing with people’s lives? Who ever told those people that their stupid principles are more important than the life of a five year old?

‘You are precious and honored in My sight, I love you.’
-Isaiah 43:3

Life is precious in God’s eyes. Nature and people are precious in God’s eyes. God loves it! Who are we, tell me, who are we, to destroy something that is precious in God’s eyes? Who are we to put our futile and meaningless ‘principles’ above the life that God finds precious?
Nobody, we are nobody.

Read this.

It is about time for blogging and fortunately, I have time for blogging. Moving from this terrible pun to somewhat more interesting literary news: I finished reading The Catcher in the Rye. Honestly, I don’t know what all the fuss is about. I mean – it’s a good book, but it just stops there. It’s a good book, full stop. Salinger is perfectly capable of painting a portrait of a young man who doesn’t know what he wants, but he makes me feel like he doesn’t get everything out that’s in there. I actually thought the book rather boring, it reminded me somewhat of De Avonden by Gerard Reve, a book that really made me yawn.

Anyways – I’ve got four more tests (one of them an English literature test = reading The Catcher in the Rye) and three more oral tests, and then I’m done. NO. MORE. SCHOOLWORK. Everything that has to do with school will be done in two weeks, I will have a gigantic holiday after that in which I will study my ass of for the actual, big, gigantic, enormous exams. I’m not really nervous for them though, because it’s very clear what you have to learn and you’ve got tons of time. You might actually state that I’m looking forward to the exams. But, we’ll see.

For now: studying very hard this weekend, working for two weeks and then, finally, some time to relax (: Oh and by the way – I’m celebrating my seven months anniversary with Josh today. I love you, hun <3

Jeej, today my mum turned 43!

The preparing of the cake

Hmmm

The jummie-result

Birthday-breakfast and the gifts

I got in! I am admitted to The Roosevelt Academy and soon I will receive a letter that invites me to come study down there at Middelburg. I’m so excited!

Thanks, everyone, for your support! (:

Some of you may remember, but today is the day of my interview at The Roosevelt Academy. I will have to talk for half an hour with two people and then I will now, within two weeks, whether or not I am admitted. So it’s pretty exciting and I’m very anxious. I’ll let you know how it went!

‘We had such potential. Such promise. But we squandered our gifts. And so, 9, I am creating you. Our world is ending. Life must go on.‘

I just saw the coolest movie, Nine. It’s a wonderful animation movie which has an incredibly cool message in it. The world has been taken over by the biggest creation of mankind, The Machine. This super-robot has killed all the people and all that’s left are a few dolls. One says:

‘When we awoke in this world, it was chaos. Man and machine attacked each other with fire and metal. I lead us here to sanctuary and here we waited out the war. Slowly, the world grew still until all that remained, was The Beast. Now we wait for it too to sleep.’

This doll, One, hides away in a church with his fellows. Yet there is another doll, Nine, who wants to do something about it. He is told by Six that he must go back to where he came from (‘The Source, The Source, go back to The Source!) and when Nine arrives there, he finds a message. The message is from The Scientist who created The Machine. He created The Machine out of his own brain to do good, but others corrupted it and it became an evil machine because it had no soul. The Scientist tells Nine that the dolls, Nine and the others, are his soul. They have to save the world.

In the end, One sacrifices himself while saying (about the human race): ‘They’ve left us nothing. Nothing. Why do we have to right their wrongs? Sometimes one must be sacrificed.’ By doing that Nine is capable of turning The Machine off and saving the world. The movie ends with a conversation between Seven and Nine:

‘What happens next?
I’m not sure. But this world is ours now. It’s what we make of it.’

I guess I’m not the only one seeing these amazing parallels here. Wasn’t it God who created the world, hoping it to be purely good? And wasn’t it the devil who corrupted this, turning to evil? Didn’t God put His hope on One person, Jesus, in whom His soul was? Why did Jesus have to right our wrongs? Sometimes one must be sacrificed..