Finding Purpose - Song of my Life - Kristine van Dooren

Last week, I promised to finish the story, about the program we did for the church fellowship in France. It was a cozy meeting place, with about 60 people in attendance, that included friends and neighbors. I have been describing the event directly from a video that I have. In following the example of the musical we had done, Thomas introduced our songs with a personal explanation. Because most of the songs were in English, it was important that our pastor friend, explained the meaning in French.

So Thomas picking up his guitar said, “We’ve come to our last two songs now; the Lord’s prayer which Naomi will sing. And Kristine, will express the words, with sign language. When we prayed for this evening, we asked the Lord to do specifically two things. That you would be encouraged and inspired, in your relationship with the Lord. It is so important in our everyday life that we learn to look to Jesus. Sometimes people say, “Where is God?” We tend to think, if he was here, I wouldn’t be in this trouble. But the truth is, Jesus is with you, in the midst of the trouble. He wants to help, we only haveto turn to him. The second thing we prayed for, is for those of you, who don’t feel close to Jesus at all. Perhaps this song could help you, have more confidence, and trust in Jesus. He is not far away in heaven. He is not unreachable, but he is interested in you, right now!

Our new year had gotten off to a roaring start, already during the winter vacation, we were on our way to France. Our friends that invited us, lived near Geneva, a good seven hour drive from Munich. There we would be doing a day seminar for families with the emphasis on praise and worship at home. The means of travel in those days, was a Peugeot station wagon with three rows of seats. It had already taken us to the UK and various locations around Europe.

We had become adept at packing clothes, food and drinks, and the favorite music tapes for the long ride. There was always the extras we needed for the family musical presentation, like costumes, the set list, Thomas' guitar, and his preaching notes. Because we traveled so often, the girls had learned how to occupy themselves and take naps along the way. Even little Debby, who was three, was a happy traveller. Stay tuned for video clips of this event on Instagram: vandoorenkristine

Here are 2 videos from our Youtube channel, "vandooren5" - some musical family history that includes films from the 70s and 80s, that I talk about in the podcast.

https://youtu.be/tEznjyHAFcY?is=gHp20DG9E9AKJWZg 

https://youtu.be/YUe3LZUI14o?is=MQFhe4UadwZrXLmP 

The Van Dooren Sisters' album on Spotify:

https://youtu.be/CbI5Fl0ZFpI?is=K9FqKgJNyFytJK4Q 

It’s always interesting to me, reading old newsletters about our mission work, in Europe. Though our family lives in Germany, our hearts were often with our church friends, in different countries. Thomas began a letter in January of 1989 by saying, “God loves Europe and wants that many people would get saved, established and fruitful in his kingdom. By his grace, and because of your faithfulness in prayer and support, we are able to labor in this great harvest . As we look forward to this new year, those of us in England, Germany, France and Italy are expecting much growth. The economic, political and spiritual challenges continue to rise, but so does the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thomas continued with two major events that took place in Italy and in Poland. He wrote; “During a visit with an Italian family, a young man asked me to pray for him. He had been diagnosed with an aids related disease. Salvatore, one of the church leaders and myself, were able to lead him to salvation and then prayed for physical healing.

Actually, for the podcast title, I thought of these words first; let the light in! I was considering all the things we experienced and learned over the years. For some reason the idea of light, took me back to the iconic song, “Let the Sunshine In.” The single became an anthem in April of 1969. And this was also the year I was hoping to go to Europe, for the art, and for the music. The song was a chant of hope for my counter- culture generation. The melody lived in our hearts; “Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, oh, let everyone sing along, come on now, everybody just sing along and let thesunshine in. Open up your heart and let it shine on you, and when you are lonely, hey let it shine.”

That could even sound like a Christian song, except that the light of the sun could never compare to Jesus, who said of himself; “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 

This reminds me of how close, but how wrong, the New Age religion of universalism is. Today this philosophy is more popular than ever.  Many of the same teachings permeate Christian books, churches and podcasts. The big difference is; the sun is a temporary physical light, and the light of Jesus is eternal. His light is able to penetrate the darkness of a person’s heart and mind.

Last week I mentioned a question that Thomas asked the congregation on Sunday; “Where will you be in ten years?” That made me think, about applying that question, to our children at that time. Where would they be when they became adults? Thomas gave the example, of Jesus telling his disciples, that the most important “work” they should do concerns eternal life. Jesus answered, it is to “Believe in Him, whom He has sent.” The Greek word meaning, an active surrender to Jesus, as Lord of your life. To truly believe that God and Jesus exist, is deeper than head knowledge or religious tradition.

Thomas and I, loved reading the stories of God’s people, in Hebrews Chapter 11. Their foundation is explained in the introduction; “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. For therein the elders had witness borne to them. By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen, hath not been made out of thing which appear.”

Each generation is tasked with carrying forward the faith, preserving God’s teachings, and serving him in their lifetime. Ultimately, every generation is invited to follow Jesus, and build a foundation for others to follow.

As you have noticed in my episodes, I go through our varied experiences, in a chronological way. This has brought me up to the end of 1988. I have been reading the detailed outlines from Thomas’ German sermons, at the end of that year. His notes give me insight into our lives at that time. They are also an example of how God does miracles in people’s lives. In the"Good Shepherd" podcast, you heard Thomas say that when he was eighteen, he did not believe in God.

Then in the following sermon, which was eighteen years later, he was teaching about believing in Jesus. What stands out to me, is the amount of scriptures that he used, because now a days, this is uncommon in most churches. I found a great, “Three Part Series”, that he gave on the subject of trusting God. It's fascinating how he began with a personal touch of looking back over the year, what we did, and what he learned. Then he talks about God’s purpose, in teaching us faith, obedience and trust.

He began with the question, “Where will you be ten years from now?”  This is interesting for me today, because I know where we were ten years later, but that is another story!

Today I’m reflecting on the past episodes about our experiences in the 80s. It stands out to me, that there was a culmination of both edifying influences, and misleading examples in Christian circles. Actually, this goes back to 1975 in our first year in Germany, as missionaries. I have talked about those days in my early podcasts. There were new teachings that proclaimed the coming of miracles and big revivals. All of this, distorted our understanding of God’s command to evangelize, and simply make disciples.

A particular interest of mine, has been analysing and reflecting, on the steps we took during those days. It’s important to understand, how we were able to live according to our foundations in the word of God and at the same time; take on new teachings that were contrary to what we had learned. I am reminded of Paul’s words to young Timothy, “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” A modern analogy would be called a “slow burn,” a very gradual development, in certain kinds of relationships. This also extended, into our understanding, of the character of God.

Finally, our family’s summer vacation time had come. After returning from the UK, my goal was to get our house ready, for my parent's arrival from California. We had not seen them for two years, and exchanging letters and tapes was just not enough. They were most anxious, to see little Debby for the first time, and celebrate her second birthday with us. Our lifestyle had also changed a lot since we had moved into a bigger home, and now we had two teenagers.

I prepared our downstairs guest room and was gearing up, not only for their stay, but Thomas’ mom Nadja would also be joining us. As usual my dad, had some traveling plans in mind, and this time it was to Italy. Nadja had found a holiday center in the town of Bibione, a seaside resort area in northern Italy. It was the closest beach town that we could drive to from Munich, and would take five to six hours to get there. Since a guy in our church had given us his old car, we had two cars available. Thomas reassured my dad that he didn’t need to rent a car for the trip.

I will get right into the story where I left off last week. Thomas and I, so appreciated, each one of the over a hundred people, who joined us in “Celebrating His Holiness”. The scriptural songs resonated in many of our hearts, because this was our spiritual foundation. We had been born again to a “living hope”, as the apostle Peter, so beautifully put it. The narrator text for the musical, described our understanding of the Word of God, with the following points;

“God is a loving Father, he is holy and righteous. Redemptionfrom a sinful heart and life is through Jesus Christ. He grants forgiveness and gives believers His righteousness. Through his Spirit we have strength for daily living, peace, joy and love. The unity of God’s people, crosses all cultural and language barriers.”  The central theme of the musical, is taken fromRevelation, the final book of the Bible. The musical choir led the worship, and the dancers dressed in white, represented the people of God.

This episode is going to be fun, especially for me, because we were doing our favorite thing. To get started on this story, I had to pull out boxes of videos, tapes and photographs of the musical, that we brought to England in the summer of 1988. I sent some pictures to our friends who participated asking for their memories. I found out things I didn’t remember, and one woman said, “I am smiling as I look at these beautiful photos.We had a wonderful time as a procession group, learning the dances, finding matching dresses, and rehearsing together. It is a very cherished memory in our hearts.”  

Thomas and I, as you heard in the last “flashback episode,” could have never imagined where God would take us in the following years. In episode, “One Step at a Time”, you heard a tape recording of me, talking about an exciting challenge. It was the opportunity to present “Celebrate His Holiness” at the “Fire Conference” in Birmingham. Our church friends inNorthfield, were already looking forward to working with our experienced German team. As a group, we had done the musical in German, three times in Munich.

In that tape update to my parents, I said, “If it’s the Lord’s will, then we will have the people, and be ready to pull it together. It not, that’s fine too, because it would be a very big project.” Little did I know, that would turn out to be a process. For my podcast last year, I did two videos with Jim and Anne, who had directed the first musical in England. Jim said something funny but wise, concerning such an endeavor, “Be prepared to have a plan B, or C, or D, when you set out on that adventure.”