Finding Purpose - Song of my Life - Kristine van Dooren

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 grace, would lead us through all the troubles that came our way. The first song that Thomas wrote when he was 22, was to verses 9 through 11 in Psalm 119. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse hisway? By taking heed thereto, according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee, O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart.” Singing these words, helped make the meaning, come alive in hisheart.

That famous Psalm 119, begins like Psalm One, saying; ”Blessed is the man who walks in the law of the Lord, and it continues with instructions, on how to stay the course. Words like, I will rejoice, I will meditate, make me to understand the way of thy precepts, so then I will speak, of thy wondrous works. Not only we will speak but we will sing. In Psalm 89,1, it is written, “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, with my mouth will I make known, your faithfulness to all generations.” This foundation of reading the Bible and singing it, was the most important thing we learned as new Christians. Plus, not to forget, that the Psalms, were writtento be sung!

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 doing translation work. We also had our vacation time set aside, because my parents were coming in August.

But six people from our church and five people from Italy were going. A team of eight, from a ministry called Forward Edge in the States, were also coming over to help the Northfield church. They were hiring a double decker bus, to drive the teams to the meetings at Villa Park, the largest football stadium in Birmingham. According to their newsletter everyone gathered in the mornings for prayer and worship, and then divided up in teams.

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 ministry in northern California in 1975. We had no direct affiliation with a traditional church like Baptist, Presbyterian, or Assemblies of God.

Though Thomas was German, he came to faith in California, and received his Biblical training there. I had my first exposure to European life, as a 19 year old, but knew nothing about the old, and new churches there.   

We came to Munich to share the gospel with Germans, and found ourselves, receiving many people from European countries. We even had a man join us from New Zealand and a man with Indian background. We were young, and learning as we went along, how to share the gospel with variousnationalities, and different kinds of religious beliefs.

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 on the way, and mailed to me from France. It's like a diary and his thoughts on that day. It would have been normal for him, to just be caught up in the job at hand, and lose sight of the matters of his heart. Like the verse in Proverbs 4,23 that says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” I also think the dangerouskidnapping episode, was like a wake- up call for him, to bring into perspective the eternal things of life.

The letter is very sweet and personal, and at that time I would have never shared it, with anyone else. But today, 42 years later, I notice certain aspects of his letter, that reflect our love and deep friendship.

On Youtube the song, "He gave me beauty for Ashes"

https://youtu.be/SNflUQAMdeQ?si=Ci4HtMB6faLcxdRA 

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 message. They are afraid of getting stuck in a box, that the traditions of church denominations, tend to put people in. Tomas said there is a difference, from being rebellious, and being a free thinker or authentic. Lots of food for thought in this conversation!

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 was able to get the little boy, back to his parents. It was a normal Monday morning and time for them, to get off to school.

We didn’t even consider that their teachers, would be seeingThomas’ picture in all of the newspapers. Most of them, didn’t know anything about our church group, or that Thomas was a pastor. It must have been on the TV news, but we didn’t have a television, so we didn’t know what other people were going to see.  

Thomas’ mother Nadja, called in the morning, before seeingthe newspapers. She wanted to know if he was Ok and hear exactly what happened. She was thankful that everyone was safe but she did have the question; “Why would God allow such an evil thing to take place, especially during church.”

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 1983. His sermon was on the “Grace of God,” (Die Gnade Gottes), which I found in his old files. It’s hand written, with a list of 12 scriptures, and the points he wanted to make concerning the topic. I would like to take some time to consider his teaching, because it was laying a deeper understanding about God's will in ourlives.

I think especially for Thomas, he was being prepared for a scary event, where his responsibility as a pastor would be challenged. This was going to affect not only our family, but the whole congregation, and people related to us.

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 years ago. A verse that we found really practical at the time, is in Deuteronomy Chapter 6. It speaks of loving God, and then in verses 6-7 it says, “And these words that I command you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when your rise.”

It is amazing that it doesn’t matter what country we live in, what language we speak, and what generation we are born into, the Truth is always the same. Knowing God in His word, transcends all boundaries, traditions and cultures.

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 Methodist church. And the organ was being replaced by guitars, violins, flutes, tamborines and microphones for the singers. There were new churches and ministries springing up all over the world. For Thomas and I, our exposure to this kind of music, started at "Living Waters"; singing the scriptures to melodies, that were written by people that we knew. This development of new praise was organic, and stemmed from, an inspirational type of Bible teaching. I look at it now, as a historical period, in modern culture that partly resulted from the counterculture movement called the “Summer of Love”. For many young people like myself, we were hearing a fresh kind, of Christian message. It was simple, it was real, it was miraculous, because lives were being transformed. Many people, had no idea that the influence of the “Jesus Revolution”, was also taking place all over the world.