To encourage you, I want to share my life story, everyone has their restrictions. “Every house has its cross and every heart its grief” If the situation which we are in and our feelings determine our happiness in life, then we become miserable and vulnerable, this is the cause of the many psychological problems today.

I entered the world, as the 1^st July 1974was drawing to a close. My parents already had four healthy children and I was the fifth, with a difference;

for no medical reason I had no arms.

I am physically handicapped.

At that time, back in the past, people didn’t know what internet was and so it was something new for the local medical world. Today, we know that there are hundreds worldwide who, without any medical reason, are born without arms.

Fortunately my parents didn’t get too down or depressed as to how things would turn out for me, but treated me no differently than my brothers and sisters. After I was born, another four sisters and five brothers arrived and it was always very sociable.

Although my father was not a farmer, we lived in a big farmhouse and had many animals and possible places to play.

From the start I automatically did everything with my feet, picking things up, eating, writing and playing.

In the early stages my parents bought me a go-cart, which I had many years pleasure from. After that I had a bike. My youth was, what you could call care-free and I didn’t have much bother with my handicap, I could do lots of things myself and the things I couldn’t do, my brothers or sisters did for me without complaining and it always happened in a playful manner.

I loved skating, swimming and sailing and I copied many of Ravensburgers paintings.

Fortunately I was able to attend a normal school, where I enjoyed myself, but studying wasn’t one of my favorite things and I was only too glad, when at sixteen, I no longer had to go.

We had, at that time, a neighbor, who dealt in forklift trucks and such-like. I filled in my free time on Saturdays by driving crane, forklifts and sweeping, etc. He did me a good deal, seeing that he bought and sold many forklifts at once, wholesale, I was allowed to advertise what he had in stock and sell forklifts to the final buyer. For each forklift sold, I received a sum of money and in so doing I had my own, most certainly variable, income. My sixteenth to my eighteenth years were a great time for me.

Then in 1992 polio broke out, mainly within the group of people who were very scrupulous about vaccinations, and as a family we supported that idea. Fortunately, at that time, I was convinced of this too, and was not only scrupulous about vaccinations but insurances too. It was November and I thought I had the flu, but it was the poliovirus, which, as the only one in my family, completely paralyzed my legs and I would have to use a wheelchair from then on. I now see vaccination and insurance as a medium that we are allowed to make use of so long as we don’t put our trust in it. I am convinced that we should be more responsible, more responsible than we want to realize, for our bodies. (12 December 2006 there will be a documentary about us on TV)

However much I experienced God in my illness and rehabilitation, I had no assurance of faith and the Lord Jesus was unknown to me. After six months rehabilitation, with no results, I stopped, and, for myself, I entered a very difficult period, everything and everyone carried on as normal, and I too had to get on with my life.

In 1997 I found peace with God and the Lord Jesus went before my life . A whole new world came open for me. How we have to get through this life below doesn’t matter any more then, the best is yet to come.

I have been blessed with a loving wife, we are certain that God brought us together and that gives us rest and strength. We both realized that our marriage would be different than normal and therefore our slogan was “love overrules everything” and we believe that. Really, love is the word which everything circulates around in this world and in the Church, but more importantly, God is Love.

However dependable I am on others, I am thankful for what I can do myself, writing and typing I do the same way as I eat, with my mouth and in the same way I bake and cook, which I enjoy. With my right foot I guide the computer mouse and the wheelchair

Depending on others also has its advantages, Karin and I live as a close team. We have had two lovely boys and two lovely girls, which we are very thankful for.

At the end of 2004, after a long wait , I was able to get hold of an adapted bus and that was a great advancement for me. Now I can go everywhere with my family without having to get out of my wheelchair.

Our government is good for the disabled and I am thankful that I am Dutch because in most countries many of the handicapped are not as well supported and the government does little, almost nothing for them. On my trips to Russia, Romania, Africa etc, where I was able to encourage many people, I was shocked at the situation of the handicapped.

In years gone by I have been enabled to carry on selling forklift trucks and in 1998 my oldest brother and I started up a business in Hardinxveld Giessendam. However often it is said that society is difficult, I haven’t experienced it like that, most people understand and respect enormously, the fact that I work to earn my bread.

Most disappointments, in people or society, arouse from a too high expectation and not being clear.

After moving a couple of times we now live in a spacious house next to the business.

Looking back I can’t say anything else but “Ebenezer”.

Whatever restrictions we have, our Creator gives His spirit and that is the most important thing, it is than that you become free, even though you live in an “imprisoned” way. Everyone has their restrictions, but God uses them for our best will. We are not here by chance or for a joke, but God moulds us so that we can be with Him for everlasting life.

I hope that the Lord Jesus also lives in your heart, then He will carry you from day to day too. I wish to encourage you, with my story because in our society everything circulates around outward appearance and special acquirements and unfortunately this has crept into Christianity too. For example there is much talk about “healing”. I hope to give my opinion about it, in the future, on this site, using articles or a poem, which I can agree to wholeheartedly.

You can email me at: pieter01@solcon.nl or write in the guestbook.