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'I come from a pretty interesting heritage'

Multnomah English professor is proud of her family's Dutch background

Multnomah English professor Christine Van Belle had never considered being a teacher before she entered college. "In college I swore I'd never be a teacher. I was pre-law for a long time, I was a history major and finally I decided to just become an English major. I think because I liked English majors. They were neat people, and we had to read interesting books and talk about interesting things."

She found Multnomah in the phone book while inquiring about teaching positions at local colleges. She and her new husband had just moved to Portland, and she was staying at home to write the great American novel. Three months passed before Ms. Van Belle decided she needed to get out of the house. When she called Multnomah, she was connected to Barbara Darland, English professor and head of the general education department. "I guess Barbara Darland had been praying for someone for some time. I first started as adjunct faculty, easing some of Barbara's load. Then when she retired last year, I came in full time," Ms. Van Belle said.

Ms. Van Belle's name proclaims her Dutch heritage, which she highly values. "I come from a pretty interesting heritage, I think. I try to be aware of that. I think that that really shapes me," she said.

Ms. Van Belle's father and his family immigrated to Canada shortly after World War II. A wave of Dutch immigrants emigrated during that time because of the economic and social breakdown in the Netherlands. During the war, German soldiers often rounded up Dutch men and forced them to work for them.

"My father saw his father taken twice. The first time my grandfather was taken, he was taken to a concentration camp to move bodies," Ms. Van Belle said. "My dad's town, which was right on the German border, got bombed quite frequently because there was this really important factory right across the border that the Allies were always trying to destroy." Ms. Van Belle's mother immigrated to Canada in 1960. Her father had been a pastor in a Dutch church during World War II. The German Gestapo was known to go to church services all across the country to make sure that no anti-German rhetoric was being preached from the pulpit. She and Ms. Van Belle's father met in a Dutch immigrant community a few years later. They were married and moved to Florida where Ms. Van Belle and her three older siblings were born. They moved to Seattle, where she spent the rest of her growing up years.

Ms. Van Belle went to college at Dordt College, a Christian liberal arts college in Iowa, for four years and then studied at Oregon State University for graduate school. She and her husband, Jim Anderson, met at a Christian fellowship house on the OSU campus in the fall of 1994. They quickly became friends and were married July 6, 1996.

Mr. Anderson and Ms. Van Belle's honeymoon was a month of camping. The trip took a dramatic twist when Ms. Van Belle became deathly ill between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. She received medication in the Los Angeles emergency room to help with the nausea.

The next day, as Ms. Van Belle and her husband were leaving Los Angeles, she started reacting severely to the medication. Luckily, they noticed some friends of theirs passing them on the Los Angeles freeway. Mr. Anderson got their attention, and their friends quickly led them to the nearest emergency room. Ms. Van Belle was admitted immediately, and the doctors were able to reverse the reaction. The couple went on to complete their honeymoon and had a wonderful time.

Ms. Van Belle has not taken her husband's name. "I thought that keeping my name would be a way of respecting and keeping my Dutch heritage," she said. "There are so many stories to be told. I feel my name represents that."

Ms. Van Belle is also using her heritage as a foundation for a novel she is writing. She wants to portray the diversity among the people of the Netherlands and Europe during World War II. According to Ms. Van Belle, many different categories of Dutch and German people existed during World War II. Some Dutch worked with the enemy Germans, but not all Germans were evil. Confusion reigned about who was the enemy. "When you start to break down those categories and see those people as individuals, it makes it hard to hate them," she said. That is something she is trying to explore in her novel. Ms. Van Belle works on her novel when she has spare time. Classes keep her busy during school hours. She will not be teaching at Multnomah after the spring semester of 1999.

"I think I am feeling a nudge or push in the direction of working with non-Christians," she said. "I like Multnomah, and I appreciate the mission here. The professors who are here have high and good goals. Part of me is sad not to be a part of that." She said she feels she is taking a step of faith because she does not have a job lined up yet.

Ms. Van Belle said she wants her students to see that no line should divide the secular and the sacred. She wants them to realize that being a Christian is more than just reading the Bible and discussing religious things. That's why she challenges them to stay current with the issues of society.

"I like her different opinions on things. We have a lot of good discussions," freshman Heather Mortimore said. "She sometimes brings up things she doesn't agree with just to see what everyone else thinks," said Charlene Severin, another freshman student.

Amy Lineburg, Ms. Van Belle's friend and the faculty secretary, agreed. "Her graciousness stands out as who she is as a person. I also think she's very brave to believe what she believes and to share it with non-Christians," she said. "I respect her walk as a Christian and the way she lives Christ."