I normally resist posting anything of a political nature. There are too many different people, cultures, opinions and believes in this world for my words to make everyone happy. Some of my words will make people angry. Sometimes though, words need to escape my brain and my heart. Today is such a day.
Yesterday I again sat in horror and watched terror unfold in another place I love. A place where I have friends. A place where I frequently stand, with my family, with my friends, with my children. Yesterday I, and a big group of our friends, received a text from a friend at Zaventem, a panicked text. She was there, she was nearby, she was okay, her children were home, she was traveling for work. Then nothing till early this morning. It makes your heart stop.
I am a former missionary. Not just in a foreign country, helping feed & clothe the poor & starving, but also at home in the San Francisco Bay Area. An incredibly wealthy area, filled with mansions the size of small palaces, garages built for 18+ cars, private swimming bowls, movie theaters, and playgrounds sized for adults in the backyards of people who have too much. In that same area there were, there are, families sharing a one-bedroom house. Multiple families sharing a one-bedroom house. They do this in 8-to-12 hours shifts. It breaks my heart.
Now I am here in Germany, in one of the most beautiful, well-cared for, efficient countries I’ve ever seen. My last six years here have been amazing. Safe. Happy. And then, suddenly, life changed. Last year refugees starting coming over the borders. Not one or two, or in small handfuls, but streams of refugees. Thousands of refugees. Millions.
War is a terrible thing. Loss of freedom is a terrible thing. I can understand escaping it. I cannot understand why now. Why so many. Why there are all these young, healthy, fit men coming here. The news is not accurate. My own eyes have seen nothing but healthy, fit, disrespectful, angry young men. We have 40 in our village of 500. They spit at women. They refuse to speak to them. Their disdain for us is palpable. Our local crime rate, small as it is, has gone up. They do not accept offers of help from women. I do not believe they are here for good reasons.
I do not doubt there are refugees escaping these same men I now see in my village. I would not, I do not, want to live around them. They have no respect for other cultures or believes, only their culture, their believe is correct. They happily take the money, the free housing, the food, the German government gives them, and then insist the Germans change to accept them. Or they, we, are racist. They use our own political over-correctness against us. They do not accept the culture in the land they now call home. We must accept them. We must become them.
I do not have a better solution. I strongly believe in saving people being persecuted. Tortured. Terrorized. I do not believe in letting in the persecutors, the torturers, the terrorists. Sadly, there is no good way to discern between the two.
Already there are more controls at airports, railstations, borders. Already there are armed guards in public places. Already, as my friends say, “it looks like war.” The few, evil, men & women that make these acts of terror are sowing not just fear, anger and hatred but they are setting back years, decades, centuries of peace and understanding between people. People like me.
Where once I was young, idealistic, eager to help those less fortunate, I am now cynical. I see that many of the suspected terrorists are not newly immigrated refugees but citizens of European nations. Even European born. Yet their roots, their anger, their war reaches back to those same countries and places that are now sending millions of refugees our way.
I hate that I have such mistrust in my heart.
Belgian Flag at Brussels Grand Place
Built in 1698 at Brussels Grand Place
Walking into Brussels Grand Place
The iconic Manneke Pis; a tiny statue, a big symbol of Brussels & Belgium
Me & Belgian fries in Brussels… I’m sorry France, but these are better!
My family at the Royal Galleries of Saint Hubert, Brussels
Tess & Zoë leaving Brussels from the Central Train Station
You write so well Toiny and I wish everyone could read this. The world has become a different, darker place these last years; I’m afraid it’s going to get worse. Evil does change one’s spirit.
Thank you Evelyn.
I love reading all your posts. You are so very interesting and well traveled. We are returning to Europe again in 38 days for a 6 week trip. Normandy, Paris, Slovenia, a 2 week cruise on the C. Vista and a pilgrimage thru Spain, We are working with a personal trainer to get us better fit to hike the Julian Mountains in Slovenia. LOL
Anyway, I need to go back and read your posts on London. I remembered you did a few days there not long ago. We are making plans for London, the Canary Islands and all of Ireland in the Fall. Ours days in Ireland are pretty much planned already. It should be very interesting, flight to London, train to Holyhead and the ferry to Dublin. Now on to London, where do we stay and for how many days? I will read your posts again to get some ideas. Stay healthy and safe for all of your readers.
I would spend extra time in Normandy. It is beautiful, historic and the people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. I would also spend as much time as possible in Ireland (Dublin, Giants Causeway & the Dark Hedges were my favorite). In the UK we try always try to stay in a Staycity.com managed apartment. It’s one step up from a hostel, clean, your own bedroom/kitchen/washing machine. Fantabulous prices. I’m not a fan of cities and London has so incredibly much to see. It is a very personal choice. We loved the night bus tour, and just stopping by the famous places. We did not do any other tours. Of course, the Harry Potter Studio tour is nearby and my absolute favorite day ever.
Giants Causeway was a must for our trip. 9 days I have planned in Ireland so far. Dark Hedges, I will research this place. I have not read about it. Thank You, I remembered reading about your stay in the place near London. I will check it out. We are not organized tour people either. The night bus trip review, it looked like we should do this. Thank You
We do, indeed, live in chaotic times. We want to help refugees when we see the beautiful faces of children caught up in war. Jesus told us to love our enemies and to pray for them. Not always easy! Thank you for your description of what’s really happening in Europe. I can tell your words are coming from a place of love.
EVERY regular person shares your thoughts and fears, it’s only the politicians that choose to ignore it and by the time they find out that the “refugees” don’t really want to get away from the violence, but are embracing and spreading it, it will be too late to change it. I tried to share what little we have, but got a blanket thrown back in my face by a refugee, because it was not new…. (and it is a better one than I’m using) and when I see that we have to be on a list for an affordable house for 7 to 10 years, and they get one right away, AND money to decorate, while we have been getting by on hand-me-downs from family and friends, because if we hadn’t we’d be sitting on the floor….. When a citizen (born and bread for as long as records are kept) asks for just a little bit of help, and get’s told that it may be time to go somewhere else, while thousands of people cross the border and get everything they ask for, just so they can’t say they’re discriminated against…. There’s something wrong! I don’t want to and won’t adjust to their beliefs and customs, I want to be able to walk where I want, when I want, and how I want in my own country, without worrying, without being harassed or treated like dirt. We outgrew that kind of barbarism about a thousand years ago! You are guests here. You don’t have to like our ways, you just have to follow them, or go away! We’re happy with our country and our customs and our way of life. Don’t mean to offend, but it needed said.
It is sad … I so understand & agree with you. It gives a bad reputation to those who are truly in need.
Mom & I were just talking about this last night. The hate is heartbreaking, wretched & impossible to understand. Sending our love & prayers for your family’s continued safety as always, as well as your currently burdened village.
Thank you for your post today about of how your village and our world has changed, well stated. Praying for you and your families safety. I always look forward to your posts and love reading about your travels in Europe and your families stories.
Toiny, ever since I first saw the pictures of the hordes of so-called refugees, all the young, fit, well-dressed, Middle-Eastern men, I’ve been concerned for you & your family. Those men are not there for any reason beneficial to the Western world. Germany, and the rest of Europe, made a huge mistake in letting any of them in and is learning to regret it. And I’m afraid our President is determined to have the same thing happen here. Do I remember correctly that your family will be coming back to the States in the near future? Probably a good time to be out of Europe. Our nephew, who’s in the Navy, and his family are in Seoul, S. Korea right now, also kind of an iffy spot. They go back to Japan in June, but maybe still to close to that nutcase leader in N. Korea.
So many people in our country have not seen what you are seeing and do not believe it when they hear it. Our media has become so distrusted that even when it is shown, they think there are hidden political motivations behind it. We really are being tested in our faith by the radical elements from these countries. Our community is slated by the Obama administration to receive over 800 of the refugees from Syria. Like you say, these are not for the most part families and women, they are young men, angry young men with an agenda. Thank you for sharing from your heart.
Thank you Toiny for your thoughtful and thought provoking words. It’s a sad time for the whole world and it seems that there is no end to this evil madness.
You have said all that there is to say perfectly, Toiny. We live in very sad times, where one of the biggest problems is the lack of respect for each others feelings and way of life and more so the lack of respect for human life. Killing people has become ‘so easy’ and if you have an ideology or any other reason you feel is valid, it makes it even easier. I have feared for Europe since the influx of immigrants began and I said to my husband when it started : ‘This is going to be trouble’. Of course I feel deeply for innocent people caught in the war zones of the world, but there is more than meets the eye with the influx into Europe and I do believe that as you say, the media is painting a very different picture to the reality that is being experienced by the people living with this. I have no idea what the answer is for our torn apart world, but all we can do is hope that somehow things will improve for all of us soon.
Everytime I see the havoc in Germany on the TV news I immediately send a prayer to God to build a hedge around you to keep all harm away from you and your family. It’s really horrible what is happening there as well as so many other places. The German govt. was so open to helping these refugees but I fear the refugees have been infiltrated by the horrible hateful ones — just like what they have done here in the US. I wish these darn politicians would put the very ones they represent first before endangering them with all this crap. I’d better stop here or else I may go on and on about just what I think of the DC politicians who are more worried about their own positions and wallets and could care less about the people they are suppose to represent. Stay safe and always pray for your guardian angels to surround you and your family to keep you safe and especially pray to our God for His safekeeping.
Hi Toiny, you have written so well about the problems we have in Europe. A small community of 500 people near here have been told to expect 150 refugees, with all the problems that come with them, this is an impossible situation.
I lived in the Middle East for a few years and the disdain and contempt that women are held in are being transferred with the men coming here to the UK and there are TOO many single men coming and expecting us to change our ways.
We have a thousand and more years of history and we are going back to the dark ages of invasion. The following is a part of a prophecy written in 1870 when Britain was at it’s height, I think it also applies to other countries who are not thinking of the dangerous times we are living in.
Albion’s Fate?
A few extracts from D. W Nash’s 1870 The Fox Prophecy.
“The footsteps of the invader then England’s shore shall know,
while home-bred traitors give the hand to England’s every foe.
Disarmed before the foreigner, the knee shall humbly bend,
and yield the treasures that she lacked the wisdom to defend”
Thank you for your post today. The media does not paint an accurate picture of what is really happening. That makes me angry. They should tell the truth so that we can better protect ourselves. I too was amazed at the number of healthy young men that was seen crossing all these borders. Why did they leave their wives, daughters, mothers, sisters behind to escape to safety themselves? I had surmised that they were all there for another reason. Please stay safe! You and your family will be in my prayers.
Hello Toiny, This is so haunting to me …..Albion’s Fate?
A few extracts from D. W Nash’s 1870 The Fox Prophecy.
I am so impressed reading all the posts to you from your followers – no I mean friends! Stay safe, we will remember you on this Good Friday day in our prayers Bev
It does my heart good to see so many of you reading, worrying, and standing with me. Thank you. We must continue to speak our hearts, our worries, and push our governments to keep us safe. Only then can we provide help to those truly in need.
Well spoken, I wish I were one who spoke Eloquently as you do. Sadly, those in their home towns appear @ least in the states to be the terrorist & yet the real terrorists, are the very ones who our government(s) cater to & we pay for it, (our taxes pay for a lot of things we wouldn’t support, if we could get away without forking over the money). It seems the disrespect is spreading throughout the world & though different things are going on @ different rates, we are all (or most of us) saddened by what is going on. It is claimed they want to tighten the borders here between Mexico & Arizona & yet, we’ve allowed the Mexicans & anyone coming over from Mexico to come to the states & their needs to be catered to. When we are checked out @ the Border Control Points, it appears they are controlling the situation, supposedly not allowing the Mexicans in. However, I believe it’s not as things appear: for we have catered to their needs & given them free health care, etc…….: so why wouldn’t they come & make their home in the midst of us!! I’m sure it will get much worse as time goes on & worse things then spitting in ones face will happen. I believe it is a sign of the times. “Lord Come Quickly!!”