He has always been there.
Hi I am Case (Kees) Hemmes your present web master.
WORLD WAR 2
I was born in Holland in 1936. so I was only 4 when the Germans invaded Holland and 9 when they left. Hence some of the things about the World War II are still vivid in my memory. I can still remember the commotion as the German troops entered my home town - The Haque, the launchings of the V1 and V2 rockets from a park nearby and their occasional failure to fly to England. Instead they came down somewhere in the city and we had a hole to climb down into where a three story building used to be. We had no water or electricity and daily had to stand in a queue to receive some food from the food kitchen, that is when food was available. I remember looking at my brother, who was six years older, counting his ribs and seeing his flat stomach underneath it. Very much like some of the pictures we see today of the children in the underdeveloped world, the day that we got shot at, how my mother had to barter with the farmers for any food, nothing of value was left in the family. Even the allies got it wrong sometimes, a large section of The Haque was bombed by mistake and completely burned down, The sky was red that night. Then the time that the town went crazy when we thought that the allies were near. People started collecting all those who had hailed with the Germans, shaving their heads and then having to sneak back home again because the Germans were retaliating and freedom didn't arrive until a year later. The battle of Arnhem lasted about a year and the hunger became even worse. People were dying everywhere. But we prayed and survived. Just before the Germans capitulated in Holland I saw what appeared to be another bombing raid and cried but this time it was food that was being dropped. The Swedish Red Cross provided us with bread, That bread tasted so beautiful I can still remember it today. The Lord was with us all the time. About two years later my cousin and I were fishing near a railway bridge, I stepped on some dough we were using as bait to fish with and slipped off the pylon and into the water, not being able to swim I splashed to keep afloat. My cousin was up too high above the water and couldn’t reach me. However on that day a special train came through and my uncle had to secure the railway bridge, he came down and immediately got me out of the water or else I would have surely drowned..
HE WAS THERE !
There are several other instances in my life where I have been saved under strange coincidences, or was is the Lord. Yes the Lord has been with me all along. I came from a family that went to church every Christmas, They send my to Sunday school but didn’t attend church themselves, my parents were "Free Thinkers" the hippies of yesterday. So I knew about God from religious education and Sunday School but I didn’t know him personally. I lived what I though was a good life, even spend a year in Papua New Guinea as an Australian Volunteer Abroad. Never had any affairs outside of my marriage, was a good father, attended church quite frequently didn’t purposely wrong anyone and like many I thought that I was being good and that this was the way to go to heaven. My marriage broke up in PNG and because of this I became a very disillusioned person, I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong (that I was aware of) and yet my world was shattered, I attended church more frequently remained a single parent for a number of years hoping my wife would see the light and return back into the family. In PNG I was a senior curriculum officer and knew that God wanted me to come to Alice Springs but I could not see that there would be any work for me there and at my level. The Lord showed me to be humble. I finally listened and came, that was in 1981 and I am still here.
What I didn’t realise all those years was the fact that I was a sinner, I was rejecting Jesus and all he had done for me at Calvary, but God is good and patient. So at the age of 45 I was shown where I stood and I finally accepted the fact that I had been a sinner and accepted Jesus as my saviour. I asked him into my life. I didn’t hear any bells or saw any lights flashing but I received an inner peace. That same feeling that many are looking for today. Since then I have learned a lot and the Lord is still showing me daily that he loves me and what he wants me to do. Now I don’t just know about Jesus, I have a personal relationship with him and can say that I know him. My wife didn’t come back, my kids grew up and spread their wings, but the Lord provided me with another wife and companion. She too has had a hard time her husband died when her son was three months old, she had to work hard, finally she turned to Jesus and prayed to God and her request was also answered. We now have a daughter and I have gained a stepson to which I have become very close, he grew up without a father but he too has accepted Jesus as his saviour. Often people look at the future and get frightened when they are told that the world will soon end I heard that fifty years age when the first atom bomb fell, but when I look back I can see that God has been with me and my family even when we rejected his son and yet he saved us from harm many times over. Maybe, You too think that you have led a good life but the question is have you accepted Jesus. The bible tells us that we are all sinners and that no one can get to heaven except by accepting Jesus.
Are you ready to accept him as your Lord. Do you want the inner peace that Jesus brings, so why not accept the Lord now. He is waiting for you to come home.
Case Hemmes a member of the Alice Springs Chapter of FGBMFI, a Lecturer in Automotive at the Centralian College and is a volunteer announcer at 8CCC-FM radio. Married to Eng Heoh (Lee)who was born in Malaysia, our daughter Leanna is 6 years now (nearly 7) and attends the Araluen Christian School.
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