Finding Purpose - Song of my Life - Kristine van Dooren

Thomas had told my parents that we had a beautiful backyard. Since learning gardening at Living Waters, he had more appreciation for someone else’s hard work out there. The people who had originally owned the farmhouse had carefully arranged the tulips in a circle around the apple, pear and cherry trees. We had made it through the cold winter, but now with the spring season upon us, we had a refre...

In learning to rejoice and be content in all things, it helps to remember God’s goodness in our lives. In this episode, I come to the birth of our second child being born in Germany. Despite the trials, that had tried to damper our joyful expectations, we knew that God had a good plan in store for us. Just two years before that, we were in a completely different place, in every way. Our location,...

Fortunately, we always had some good news, that went beyond the personal struggles in the farmhouse. The men’s experiences gave more insight into what their goals were. They were getting down to business, setting up a workshop, for making leather wares. They had cleaned out the piles of old things from the house that had been stashed in the empty stalls. Peter unpacked his tools and set about teac...

When Thomas took our American friends to get their tourist visa renewed; the first question was, why do you want to stay in the country. He found out very quickly, what the wrong answer was, “I have come as a missionary”. Most of the employees at those offices, would have been a members of one of Germanys state churches, either Lutheran or Catholic. Their response was, “Germany doesn’t need missio...

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 our child, through her astrology charts.   We read all of the popular books about...

When Thomas and I, left the train station in Berlin, I had flashbacks, of all the times I had been there to get the bus home after work. On the street directly below the train platform, was a grocery store, where I did our shopping. I had so many memories there, of being on my own, and feeling lost in the store. Obviously, they didn’t have any American products, like I was used to. At least, I fel...

Little Naomi, was the first one to wake up, in our new room. She was all smiles, when she realized, she was sleeping in mommy and daddy’s bed. And I was thankful, that I, had a good nights sleep on a bed, in a house, rather than on a boat. The German feather quilts, Fedderdecken”, had kept us really warm in the night, but climbing out of bed we felt the chill of our room. The house had been sittin...

A NEW ERA ! This was the beginning of a "new era" for our little family. We were leaving the USA and returning to Germany. This time we would not be living in Thomas’ home town, West Berlin, which was the walled city within East Germany. We were on our way to West Germany, near the city of Hannover, to a very old quaint town called Nienburg. It was going to be a brand new experience for...

After that emotional evening in Eureka, and hearing the prayers and songs over us, we were ready to go to Germany. And not in a couple of months, but in exactly two weeks! But that, wasn’t such an unusual plan for us, as it might sound. We had been sent out, quite a few times with tree planting teams, in a similar way. We packed up, drove hours into the mountains, and sometimes joined other groups...

Thomas, Naomi and I, had said our goodbyes to Living Waters and drove away. We were ready for the next adventure. But after our “sending out” experience at the service that day, it looked like, we might be also saying goodbye to Eureka. Everything we owned, was packed and sitting at the house, that we were supposed to move into. Jim had announced, that there would be an official service for the Ge...

Saying goodbye to my family in the Bay Area, we headed back to Living Waters. We had enjoyed our long vacation, which was a change of pace from our lifestyle at the ranch. So much had happened during those few weeks. Especially, revisiting San Francisco, which turned out to be a special day for our little family. It reminded us of the days we had spent there, when we first came to California. We w...

Welcome back friends! Let’s get started with my 50th episode! On our drive down to the Bay Area, Thomas and I, as usual had a lot to talk about. Naomi fell right to sleep, after we were out on the highway past Garberville. We had made this trip so often over the past year, but this time it was different, because our minds were still spinning, concerning our talk with Jim Durkin in Eureka. He had e...

Welcome back friends! Besides our big adventure to LA, we had exciting news of our own. I was pretty sure that I was pregnant, so Thomas and I, were exceptionally happy. Since I hadn’t gone to a doctor when I was pregnant with Naomi, I wasn’t even considering a doctor visit to get a confirmation. Many of the women at the ranch also came from the “back to nature” lifestyle, where it was common to r...

One evening David made a surprising announcement, all of us would be participating in an upcoming outreach in Los Angeles. Our ministry in Eureka, was planning a big event that they titled the LA Invasion. This was at the height of the Jesus People movement that had been developing in Los Angeles. There were already some communal groups from our ministry living down there. The plan was, to join th...

I had this idea to do a recap now, because it has been exactly one year, since I published Episode One, of Finding Purpose. This has been a fun and challenging experience to say the least. I am looking forward to sharing with you guys, more of our stories. I hope you will continue to enjoy listening, and find out where our coming adventures take us. Even doing a podcast, writing and recording, is...

Welcome back friends! For some of you, my stories bring back memories of your own life and relationships. For others it is interesting, watching and listening, to my oldest daughter and I talk about the past. It is also fascinating for Naomi, and her adult daughter, to listen to my story episodes, and hear about her early years as a baby in California. In this interview we will be talking about wh...

The way things had developed at the ranch, Thomas and I, had taken on more responsibilities. It made a difference for me, once Naomi was a year old, that I was a little more flexible. I became the kitchen steward, that meant planning the weekly menus, making a schedule for the sisters, when it was their turn to cook or do the clean up and dishes. Since I had been helping out in the kitchen for man...

The first fun change for our family was moving out of our bedroom at the Big House. Two rooms, a small living room and upstairs bedroom, had become free. Not the kind of “upstairs” you might imagine, just a simple ladder to the attic area, with two little rooms under the roof. There was just enough space for our mattress and a crib for Naomi. We loved that there was a window overlooking the fields...

Back to our routine at Living Waters! We had missed having time by ourselves, after spending three intense weeks with our family. We looked forward to taking walks, carrying little Naomi through the forest, sharing our hearts about how we were doing, and reading the Bible together in the evenings at the Big House. We thought it was amazing, that we had just the week before, been sitting there with...

#kristinevandooren #findingpurpose #hippielife #autobiography #songofmylife    Welcome back friends!  Thank you for all of your encouraging messages! I am glad to hear that you are enjoying my podcast "Finding Purpose," and our mother/daughter talks here. My daughter, Naomi van Dooren, thought it would be fun to ask me some more personal questions about my story. This time we talk a...

There was no turning back now for Nadja. She was on cloud nine, she had found joy! This is what I was talking about in the introduction to my podcast. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or where you live, or how many roads in this life you have already travelled. Happiness and contentment, and purpose, is what we all hope to find one day. And similar to Thomas and I, her life had taken an unexpect...

   The trip so far, had been a great opportunity, for Thomas and I, to meet different kinds of Christians. We met my parent’s friends and pastor in the Methodist church, plus we discovered a new bond with our German neighbour lady, Elisabeth.    Another highlight was walking around our old neighbourhood and realizing that we had been delivered out of that dark world....

   Onward with the story of Nadja’s California adventures. She had come with certain expectations, plus she had some reservations, because of the things Thomas had written to her about. She had only been with us for a few days, and already her world was being shaken. She had been impressed by two experiences that she could not so easily brush off. She had witnessed her son’s transfo...

   Now this trip to California, would be a long travel day, but she was anxious about meeting her son again. She must have been torn between her joy, and the sad memories she had, when he said goodbye in West Berlin. Thomas had tried to share his hash pipe with her, thinking it would be a symbol for a peaceful farewell. For some reason though, he felt it was necessary to tell her th...

Surprise ! Our second video podcast just for you! Thank you for all the nice comments about our very first video podcast.  Here is my second video conversation with my daughter, Naomi van Dooren.  We talk about what it's been like for me, learning to make a podcast. It's sure not something I imagined myself doing, even a year ago! In writing my story, I have tried to remember the crazy,...