Finding Purpose - Song of my Life - Kristine van Dooren

Today, I am talking about two important things in life; joy and praising God’s Name with dancing. Oh dear, that might seem like a strange thought for Christians, who live in Western countries. But as I am always looking to the Bible for instructions, this is one of those “hard to relate to” topics. Last week, I mentioned the command from Psalm 149, verse 3, that says,”Let them praise his name with...

Particularly in the early 80s, my heart and desire to share the gospel, and to lead in worship was growing. I had the opportunity with women from other churches in Munich, to do exactly that, through our AGLOW group. The purpose of our women’s meetings was to share our testimonies, and to introduce our guests, to praise and worship music. We asked the Lord, to give them open hearts, to hear the tr...

In my last “story” episode, you heard about my parents,visiting us in Munich, and listening to all of our family music. A special part of that summer, was driving with them in our church van to Florence, Italy. It probably took us at least eight hours, including a few stops along the way. The plan was to stay at Andy and Linda’s spacious apartment, and then do some sightseeing. My parents had neve...

Welcome to part two of our fascinating conversation! Our paths crossed in November of 1974 in Eureka, California. We were being sent out to Germany, and Jim and Diane, were wondering where God wanted them to go. Listen to the adventures and places they went to, before finally ending up in France, as missionaries. Our families had some special times together, both in Munich and in France, in the mi...

Welcome friends to our video conversation! You have heard the stories of Thomas and I, ending up in California, looking for something we called truth. Today you will hear Jim and Diane's search for the hippies, in California, in the early 70s. Hitchiking to the nearest commune, taking drugs for enlightenment and hanging out with musicians, was much better than going to college. For the first t...

Sacrifice and Persecution (tape recording from Germany in 1975) I want to begin with Thomas’ words to my parents on the tape. He went to great depths to explain to them why we came, and why we were willing to make sacrifices. Both of our parents, would have preferred that Thomas get a normal job, and that we would live in a normal house. This reminds me of the first conversation Thomas and I, had...

Practical and Spiritual Progress - 1975 in Germany (includes old tape recordings) In our early years together, we were going with the flow, of the hippie movement. Thomas would play his flute on the top of a mountain communicating with the universe out there. I was writing poems to our family, saying our baby had chosen us, to be the parents. And Thomas’ mother, was seeking to know the future of o...

Last week I was talking about the conflicting messages we were exposed to. So the question is, how did Thomas and I, stay on the course, that we started on. Simply because we were taught what Jesus said, “If you abide in my word you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. As we learned to read, to love and to obey His word, we experienced that His grac...

In the last episode, I was talking about our involvement with Christians, in other countries. In Thomas’ letter he mentioned that an outreach, was being planned in the UK, for June 1984. The occasion, was a Billy Graham Crusade in Birmingham, where our church friends lived. Thomas would have loved to go, but he had his regular freelance job, that he had to keep up with. He worked for Nikon cameras...

Today I will give you a peek into the developments of our missionary goals in the early 80s. Depending on the denomination, and the country that they are sent to, there are different understandings about the work of a missionary. The dictionary meaning says, a person who has been sent to a place, usually a foreign country, to teach Christianity. This story, is our experience, coming from a young m...

Today, I would like to consider our marriage relationship, in the midst of everything else going on. In the middle of themonth, on a Wednesday, Thomas was taking a train to Paris to meet some American friends. They were planning on starting a church there. Thomas was on a 10 hour train ride, from Munich to Paris, and was equipped with everything he needed to keep busy. I found a letter, he wrote o...

Meet the Dertners: Part Two Tomas finishes the story from the last video about speaking with 13 Rabbis. Their first reaction to hearing about Jesus was, they covered their ears. But the person, who really benefited from Tomas' report about that meeting, was his sister. The Dertners have a unique way of explaining what it means to be a Christian and why many people reject the typical gospel mes...

Meet the Dertners: Part One Listen to Tomas and Erin Dertner's fascinating life stories from the 70s in California. It was such an honor for Naomi and I, to speak with them for my podcast. I met Tomas the night before Naomi was born, so this was fun to hear about what happened before our paths crossed, on May 17, 1973 in Mendocino, California.

The common phrase “life goes on” comes to mind, remembering that dark Sunday, we experienced as told in the last episode. The danger had passed in a day, but it could have still haunted us, with fears of what could have happened. The next morning our girls were glad to see that Daddy was home. He tried to spare them of the scary details that happened the night before. The main thing was, that he w...

So you are probably wondering if we were happy and enjoying life, why such an episode title like “A Dark Sunday", could come about. This is a story of a dangerous and unexpected situation, that was about to take place in our midst. Only God knew, what was going to happen at our Sunday service, one fateful day. Shortly before that day, Thomas preached the following message on the 17th of April...

This is not to be taken for granted, that they have learned to sing Christian songs, learned to pray for all kinds of needs and they like to read Bible stories. It is a blessing and reward for being a parent; to see my daughters and their husbands training their children in the ways of the Lord. It reminds me of the teachings that Thomas and I, as adults, received way back at Living Waters, 52 yea...

My last episode ended with the popular song, “I love you Lord”, that we sang  in the 80s. It was representative of the message, that came out of the "Jesus People" movement; “Jesus loves you and calls you to follow him.” Our daughters were growing up, with the modern choruses of praise music, that began in the early 70s. Gone were the days of singing the hymns that I grew up with in the...

I have been thinking about the miracle of new life that Thomas and I, both experienced. There were also many other young people in our day who were healed and renewed. On the other hand, some of our friends, were not so fortunate. Even today, I know people whose family members, weren’table to get out of the cycle, of drug addiction. I was pretty surprised though, to hear Thomas saying in the last...

Today, March 16th, I started writing this episode and realized that it’s Thomas’ birthday. He would have been 73 years old. My family would have had a party for him and made his favorite German cheese cake. Instead, I am listening to him tell about his life, and what was important to him. All of these stories, helped form the direction of my life, and also that of our daughters. In an old episode,...

I have so many impressions about my new documentary to think about. I uploaded it on YouTube, a few days ago. I finally had the time to prepare the description and title for the film. It ties in perfectly with this particular episode, where Thomas described, the dangerous situation he found himself in. Besides today’s podcast, you can listen to more details in my older episodes.  Scroll back to Ep...

In my “ hippie conversion ” episode I ended with the fact, that Thomas and I, couldn’t believe we had become Christians literally overnight. We prayed together, that Jesus would forgive our sinful hearts, and our sinful ways. In those days we would have said “it blows our minds.” It was a unique experience, that both of us, heard the gospel message at the same time. Then laying in our sleeping bag...

In the last episode, I ended with this statement, “I read the Bible for the first time when I was in jail.” Maybe you have heard the details about that crazy story. But when I told the Christian ladies at the meeting in Berlin, they were shocked. Of all places to read the Bible, this was not what they were expecting to hear. I told them that I had grown up going to church every week with my family...

Usually Thomas as a pastor, was the one who had speaking engagements at various seminars and events. But this time, because I worked with the women’s Aglow group in Munich, we were both invited to speak at one of their meetings in West Berlin. The main purpose was to tell our story of how we found faith in Jesus. An important part of the meeting, was singing modern choruses, which we called “prais...

As if Thomas didn’t have enough projects going on thatyear, he and his co- elder Steve, had been scouring the newspapers for a new meeting place for our church. When I consider our lives at that time, it’s like Thomas had two families, that he was responsible for. Fortunately we had agreat team of dedicated men and women, who worked together on the church developments. Most of us had the example,...

Not long after our flight home from California, we got some faith shaking news. At the end of July, the well known singer, Keith Green, had died in an airplane crash. I don’t remember how we heard about the accident; maybe a call from our friends in Eureka, or in the newsletter from his ministry. The report said that Keith and friends, had taken off in a twin engine plane on the private airstrip,...