Finding Purpose - Song of my Life - Kristine van Dooren

Welcome back friends! Today we are having a family talk, that includes three generations! My daughter, Miriam is hosting our talk that includes my first granddaughter, Adina. You have probably heard her name mentioned before! She is Naomi’s daughter, and was the person who said to me, “Grammy, you should do a podcast about your life.” We discuss priorities for family living, mom and dad’s example,...

My recent stories, take place in the fall, of 1976 in Munich. I even have to remind myself, how different life in the world was at that time. Our communication consisted of writing letters, making tape recordings and sometimes phone calls. I have the benefit today, that my family saved many personal letters and tapes, that we sent to each other over the years. I recently found, in my “go to book,”...

Welcome back everyone! I turned 26 at the end of September. It was a milestone - because it marked one year, since Thomas and I, had moved to Munich from Nienburg. The beautiful house in Trudering had been secured and the other families joined us. Who would have known that one year later, we would be saying goodbye, to Gregor, and Alan’s families. At least the dust had settled in our midst, by the...

Now that we are in my “Era 2” of life in Munich, let’s get on with the next part of the story. Thomas and I, had come so far from our hippie days of living in a tipi, like I talked about in my early episodes. Now of all places, we had found our dream of living in community, in the big city of Munich. But quite suddenly, the atmosphere of love and unity, was going to be tested in a big way. This be...

Welcome back friends! Today, I am having a very personal talk with my oldest daughter, Naomi. We are talking about the “true love,” that I was privileged to experience, with my husband of 30 years. We met as young hippies, in West Berlin in 1970, and lived together there. Our lives took quite the turn when we moved to California and lived in the Redwoods. We shared many wonderful years together, w...

Welcome back everyone! Thomas and I, were looking forward to celebrating our anniversary in August. We had been married for four years, but said to each other, “We’ve been together for six years.” To celebrate, we went out to dinner for the very first time, to a nearby restaurant. I remember it, because I wore a new dress, that my mom had bought me. When we would sit together alone, we had so much...

The team from the States was gradually adjusting to their new world. Most of them, signed up for language classes, that would begin in September. Some had applied for jobs, both on the economy, and at the American army base. Marc listed some things in his book that they had to get used to. He wrote; “The Trudering house was constructed with stone and bricks, and the roof was made of tiles. As a re...

The songs you heard in the last episode were carrying us on, into the next phase of life, at the Trudering house. Towards the end of June, we had word that the next team, would soon be flying into Frankfurt. Their group consisted of 11 singles and one married couple. The only one we knew personally, was a guy named John, who Thomas was friends with at the Living Waters Ranch. They used to go witne...

The title of this episode is from the second letter, that Paul wrote, to the Corinthian church. In Chapter 5 it says “We walk by faith and not by sight.” This was a verse, that Thomas and I, were constantly being reminded of. Concerning the next developments in Munich, the first phrase that came to my mind was; “the calm before the storm.” It’s true, we did have a few calm months, after we moved i...

I hope you enjoyed the last episode. I thought it would be interesting, for my German listeners, to hear Thomas directly. You can get an idea of his relationship with his mother, and his understanding of the Bible, at such a young age. Then, I also know, that some of you understand and speak German, because you learned it when you lived at the Trudering house. So this was a little challenge, to re...

In the last episode, I tried to give you the feeling, of our lives in Trudering. On a Saturday morning, Thomas would be out flying a kite, with the children in a nearby field. Then after lunch, he would be back in our room, making a tape to my family. What stood out the most to me, in that last recording, was his comments about eternity. He said; “We are praying for you and I know we are going to...

She, and many others that we met in Germany, were also “Zeit Zeugen”, (eye witnesses) who had personally experienced, the working of God in their lives. Not only did our paths cross throughout the years in Munich, but also the lives of our daughters as they got older, and started working in their own professions. The special thing in those days, for Thomas and I, was that we were gaining friends i...

Welcome back friends, to my second interview, with Eva Maria! This time, we're remembering how our paths crossed, over the years in Munich. In the beginning, we were young parents, and got to know the same American Christians, in the city. Also, there were older men that were pastors, who helped us, and were a great example. It's interesting, how she tells as a young family, they moved to...

Welcome friends to my recent video podcast! Today I am talking with an old friend, Eva Maria, that I met in Munich in the fall of 1975. In my last few episodes, I have been telling my story, of when my German husband and I, came to live in Munich. We started a Christian Fellowship house, in the suburbs of Trudering, and very quickly became friends with other young Christians. That's when we me...

I don’t think any of us were aware, of how different the Bavarian culture, and language was going to be, until we got immersed in daily life in the city of Munich. We found out pretty quickly that they had specific customs, and a different kind of mentality, than we were used to. I will use the word “we” meaning our three families that came from California. Of course, each of us had different expe...

Maybe you saw the photos of the famous “open door” to our house, that I posted this week. At that time, we were known as the Trudering-ers, by the steady stream of visitors, who came to our part of town. They either wanted to check us out, or to participate in the Bible studies. The American guy we met, Terry, started coming weekly, to talk with Peter and Gregor. Terry was good at networking, and...

During our three week wait at the apartment, we celebrated my 25th birthday. I wasn’t expecting anything, so it was a big surprise, when Jane called us into the kitchen and presented me with a German cake. Thomas had helped Naomi make a card, and Jane gave me a beautiful silk scarf. The photo from that day shows a framed scripture that I had hung by the kitchen table. It was a sweet gift from a wo...

The last “twelve” episodes I had titled, “New Era” which was about our leap of faith, moving from California to Germany! Now in my story, the past 10 months had flown by, and were filled with life- changing experiences. We had packed up at Living Waters in November, drove to Eureka, got sent out, drove to my parent’s house, flew to NY, took a ship to Rotterdam, and now we were packing again, and i...

...The men had been scouting out, other cities in the past few weeks, to consider where we should go. They were familiar with the northern cities like Hamburg, Hannover, Bremen and Berlin, because of their work at the markets. I think Thomas, would have been happy, if we would have gone to West Berlin. But he felt confident that as a group, which included Tony now, that God would lead us to the ri...

I had a fun beginning this week in preparing for the episode. I had just listened to a recording of Thomas from the summer of 1975. Since it was a beautiful summer morning here, I decided to sit out on my patio. I could hear the birds chirping in the trees and then the nearby church bells started ringing. This was a nice reminder, of our early days, living in Nienburg, Germany. Speaking of the bel...

Today, I will continue on with the story of our life in Nienburg. Thomas and I, were learning to adjust to living with our two children in one room. In the last “episode recording” of Thomas, you could also hear the typical noises going on in the hallway. Besides the workers in the house, there were four little kids running around, and playing. For Naomi’s second birthday with her friends, we set...

I am back from a wonderful holiday with a couple of my daughters, and ready to move on with the podcast stories. Maybe you saw my photos and reels, of all the fun we had. While I was away, it dawned on me, it’s been 4 years since, I have left Germany to travel. As a family, and on my own, we had always travelled around Europe, to the UK, to the States and we even went once to Guatemala. Spending t...

Welcome back friends to our conversation! Today, my oldest daughter and I, will be talking about choosing to have a big family, and what our goals were in those days. I loved being a mom, and over the years, I have had the blessing of enjoying all my son in laws, and watching my grandchildren grow up. I hope you enjoy listening to our personal, mother - daughter talk! PS: I will also upload this v...

Welcome friends, to Part Two, of our conversation! Today we are talking about making big decisions, and a few big turning points in my life. We discuss the importance of our purpose, and foundation in life, and how that can help us persevere through various circumstances. Maybe there are some things you can relate to. If you have any questions to our discussion, feel free to write me on Spotify, o...

Welcome friends to my video podcast! Today I am talking with a good friend who also lives in Germany. Since we are both Americans, we have lots of things in common. She tells how we first met at one of our family gatherings a few years ago. I hope you enjoy our conversation! Bye for now! Check out my photo stories that correspond with my podcast episodes on Instagram: vandoorenkristine / you can f...