WELCOME : THIS IS THE "STARTER PAGE"

11/28/17 WELCOME : THIS IS THE "STARTER PAGE" , and we will give you the next link
 in the near future. 
[note: some of the below photos are by me, others are from a free photo website for illustration purpose only]

here are three Christmas links for you to browse: 

Christmas Link #1 from vk

Christmas link #2 from vk

Christmas link #3 from vk

Meanwhile, I HOPE all is well for you all wherever you may be...

you are ALL in our thoughts & prayers...we hope you know by now who is sending these particular Christmas postcards every year....; 

the Lord is our Shepherd...,let us continue to follow Him like smart sheep, united sheep...; we really must be truly united as Christians 

(protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, non-denominationals, "Just Jesus Christians",

Jews for Jesus, lutherans, reformed, Christian reformed, protestant Reformed, Dutch reformed,

presbyterians, pentecostals, and so many more various "brands" of Christianity. 

and yet we are called to  be united..not a "Pauline" Christian or a "Peter Christian" or a "Matthew Christian" ...; we MUST be united worldwide as the Body of Christ...; that's what Christmas should be a reminder of, in part, ,...;

and that's what we are called to do ...to remind, encourage, inspire...etc...

NOT just the professional pastor in the pulpit, but ALL of us are called to act& do & believe & be united 

We will be blogging here up until Christmas Day as our Christmas Card to you, and with a link(s) to other important information as well. God bless you all ! We love  you. 

12/2/17

i have not yet send any Christmas cards, so you probably haven't read this yet, unless you randomly search blogger...;

 i have been quite tired lately, not sure why, some of you know that I have had some health problems over the past several years, especially chronic pain on my left side of the body 

(arm, leg, hip, neck, sometimes back too)...some call it "peripheral neuropathy",

 others call it "spinal stenosis", still others categorize it as "arthritis" , and the list goes on.

I am scheduled for another MRI on December 11. We'll see what happens. I did a few weeks of physical therapy in November 

which helps relieve the pain for the day but that's about it. The next day, same ol' same ol'. I recently got a new knee brace which helps a little sometimes. 

Nonetheless, I continue onward "running the race" as we all must do. My ultimate goal is to keep "shining the light"

...telling others the Good News of Jesus Christ as Savior, and to remind fellow brothers & sisters in Christ to remain UNITED, or become united as it may be, or more united...this means ALL OF US: protestants, catholics,

 orthodox, et al. (as mentioned above). We MUST be united to fulfil the "kingdom" plan. Hear our prayer Lord: Father Son Spirit !

stay tuned for more. God bless you all. 

12/4/17...around this time of year I always reflect on all the "institutions" that I've been a part of over the years, and I just want to mention them by name

and let you know that you are in my thoughts & prayers ALL YEAR LONG, including various classmates by name

and/or in general, or former co-workers, et al

 i will try to go chronologically:

ALGER ELEMENTARY…my first elementary school, almost right across the street from our house on Griswold…

1)           

my first friends including Mike Waalkes, Kenny Norman, Gubby Dalson (sort of),

and cute girls including Cathy Mendels (hey to the mendels family !) , Amy Hornung, & many more,

& Teachers I remember: Ms Lawrence, Ms Edwards, Ms Page, & our principal Mr Clements

…ALSO around this time I started playing “rocket football” with my friend Mike (his dad was a Riddell football helmet salesman

& gave me my first helmet, better than the average helmet most kids wore at that age, maybe it saved my brain ha ha !,

 later gordy became a Puma salesman, still later I remember seeing him working behind the meat counter at Boorsmas grocery store,

where I had worked as a teen packing groceries, doing carry out, stocking shelves etc.

And Mike’s mom , Patty (RIP), was an aide at Alger school…she was always so nice.

 I also delivered newspapers for the GR Press on Merrifield & Hazen Street near Eastern & Burton.

The Paper had to be delivered on foot by hand 7 days a week/ 365, and we had some big snow days too…I remember trudging thru some high banks…FUN !

 I loved the snow.& we went skiing at Cannonsburg : the quad & the face !

great moguls . Other fun times I remember include : Camp Optimist with my cousin Brian,

& also Camp Rogers (pottowattami & Algona) in Rockford.

& the cottage / Holland / lake mich, summer trips out west, & much more

Seymour Christian Elementary…around 5^th grade I transferred over to the Christian school, just a few blocks away in Alger Heights..lots of new classmates

& making new friends, albeit one guy didn’t like me almost immediately, not sure why..

dave dejong picked a fight with me almost my first day

there..later we would become friends (sort of, albeit it is still ambiguous as to the intent of this so-called “friendship”);

 other classmate/friends included dave Engelhard

(Engelhard family was pretty good to us as a family, hope all is well, Dave Sr RIP) , Greg Bouwer, Keith Steensma, Rick Otte, Jack HOlwerda, Cam Vandersloot, Greg Heynen,

 Colin Piers, Steve Griffeon and the list goes on.

Lots of girl classmates also, some more friendly than others: including Amy Dice, Amy Meyers, Joan Ganzevoort, Julie Lubbers, Susan Quist, Lisa Korf, Rachel Sytsma,  and the list goes on.

& teachers I remember: Ms Gebbens& Ms Van Kley….Thoughts & prayers , Merry Christmas, lots of memories !

From Seymour all of us went on to Millbrook, which was further away, near the original Steelcase headquarters 
at 36^th & Eastern,

so we had to take the bus every day.

A few new classmates here came from other areas, including Joan Dekker, Rick Minnema, Brad Rottschaefer , ,

and some of the older students I remember include Dan takens 

(now the superintendent of Byron Center schools, believe it or not, and his sister Dianne was in our class, & Doug a few years younger), also Dan Haverkamp (big farmer boy),

Betsy Bouwman (younger), Shelly Peterson, the Quist sisters (they were also at Seymour), and teachers: Mr Bulthuis (band), Ms Bylsma,

Mr Duyst, Mr. Sweetman (also attended our church),  Mr. Brouwer (strict!),

Mr Steensma (his son was my age, & a friend, sort of; his older brother Daryl lives in San Diego now), mr Vredeveld  (“clare dog”!), among others, & our principal Mr Buma .

Millbrook was a FUN SCHOOL…& I played a lot of basketball among other things..,

(unfortunately, they didn’t have football, which was my big sport, my biggest passion, starting with rocket football) 

HOWEVER, my eyes were going bad..ie bad vision, & this was before soft contact lenses…

I tried hard contacts but they were painful, & I didn’t like wearing glasses,

so this impacted my life in various strange ways…one of them was that I started SQUINTING to see better,

& SOME people wrongly thought I was glaring at them..

people got the wrong impression, I was just trying to see better. It also meant that I didn’t play baseball very good…if you can’t see the ball  you don’t do too well..

however, miraculously, I played little league for a few years and even got a few homeruns and managed to play 3^rd base at a mediocre level.

Later, after high school,  I started wearing soft contact lenses all the time…

& now I wear glasses most of the time, but it’s fun taking

them off and walking around & remembering the way I “saw” things” back in the day for so many years

(I don’t know  how I did it, crazy me !) We also had a fun band

class with Bulthuis. I played cornet  and we went to “festival” every year (ie band competition). And in the summer we

spent a few weeks at our grandpa’s cottage in Holland MI, and our Aunt Diana came also with her kids. 

Our half-relatives Mark, Ani, 
see their letter from 2011 at 
https://www.wherevergodwills.org/BlickleyFamily%20in%20Togo.htm

Teri, & Nancy also were there. SO MERRY CHRISTMAS

to all my millbrook classmates, friends, teachers, et al. Hope all is well. God be with you all & bless you.

From millbrook, most of us went on to Grand Rapids Christian High (GRCH, the eagles!) ..and this was where ALL the

Christian schools (from the CRC ) merged…&instead of competing as middle schools (ie millbrook, westside , east paris, oakdale , sylvan

, et al) we were NOW classmates & teammates !

So now the Klunders were on our side instead of competing against us, among others. Here we made lifelong friends,

 maybe…;

&  yet there was still a bit of segregation based on which elementary

& junior high you came from because this was the “side of town” you were from..

nonetheless, the lines sort of blurred after a while… 

 12/14/17 

WOW , CHRISTmas  is approaching SO QUICKLY...this last week I've been trying to do some of the annual Christmasevents they have around here in southern California, some of which I also videotape...such as some of the Christmas parades...this year so far I've attended the San Pedro Christmas Parade, the Compton Christmas Parade , & the Wilmington Christmas Parade, and made a "movie" out of each one (ie made a parade video, which means taking each segment and putting them together...because you cannot simply hold the camera up and on continuously...there are WAY TOO MANY GAPS in time; maybe at the Rose Parade you could do this because they keep it moving so efficiently, but even at the 'GrandDaddy' of them All, there are still glitches at times, plus it is NICE to have individually titled segments for each entry so that they  and their fans can find themselves on youtube later on....one group at the Rose Parade every year is called the "green band" from Japan (which apparently is different bands from Japan but they all go generically as "the green band" , and when I post them on YouTube , the views stack up quite rapidly...it is gratifying to me that their fansfrom Japan are SO EAGER to see their band here on TV (youtube)..and it's fun too. And then I try to add some Christian evangelical material to my videos as well so that it is a "mission project " of sorts. 

after HIGH SCHOOL (by the way, we had moved to california during my senior year of high school, but i finished in grand rapids) I went to calvin college 

...unfortunately, didn't make a lot of new friends because GR Christian High students at Calvin College tend to hang around with the same friends from high school...it is one drawback of GR...

and so, after my freshman year at Calvin i decided to try something else and went off to hawaii   for a year, or half-a-year to be exact, at the University of Chaminade, Honolulu, a Catholic institution. 

see an old video i made at 
https://archive.org/details/SemesterInHawaii86ByVanDerKok


BY the way, i am doing MOSTLY VIDEO CHRISTMAS cards  this year...so only a few will receive a physical paper card in the snail mail with a link to this blog

PRAY the NEWS update 1, 12/16/17 LARGE PRINT

12/16/17 nine days to the Big day, BUT actually Christmas is MORE than one day, especially in the Catholic tradition, which I respect in many regards…

And so I hope you receive your “snail mail” card  in a few days, or find your video card on youtube and come here sooner or later…

May this be a PHENOMENAL CHRISTMAS season, with BIG IMPACT ! MAY it be transformational for ALL of us !

After Calvin College I worked at Pine Rest Hospital for a year. Being a psychology major (with honors) I was seriously considering getting a doctorate in psychology, 

but that’s a different story…albeit that’s why I worked at pine rest for a year, along with my desire to “help” people. And my dad was a chaplain there for 14 years so I was familiar with the setting, and some people knew me because of that era.

There were some good times working there, but also some very sad & tragic moments, including a successful suicide attempt in the adolescent unit by a very nice young boy.

And there was an “escape attempt” that led to me getting hit in the temple with a portable radio, causing a black eye for a few days. But most of the time we were dealing with troubled kids who just needed a new setting, some compassion & care, and prayer !

After working at  Pine Rest I had decided a different route: law school ! why? I still  don’t know. I think I wanted to be a “justice warrior” so to speak.

And I was accepted into Wayne State law school, which is a pretty good regional institution, but as the first semester progressed I think God spoke to me very clearly letting me know He had other plans for me. And so I decided to leave and “go west.”

That is, return to California, so to speak. I had NO PLANS other than to go west, and see what happens. Of course my family was there, so it wasn’t like going “cold turkey”.

Back in california a few months later, after Thanksgiving,  I got a call from a friend in michigan and he told me that somebody we knew from school (& church ) had commit suicide. Very saddening. 

a few photos of Doug
I knew him


 quite well from childhood thru Calvin college.  I went back for the funeral. Still don’t understand it. also see
http://random-matters-by-me.blogspot.com/2014/03/remembering-doug-kosters.html

But it led to me also starting a suicide awareness & prevention blog, for what it’s worth.

Back in California after the funeral I was involved with our local CRC (Bethany)  and a young peoples group called “koinonia” …several other calvin grads in it.

Then a earthquake hit Costa Rica in 1991 and I volunteered to do disaster relief , …

But allow me to digress for a moment, back to my “calvin years” (ie the original 4 years), I also did a semester in Hawaii as mentioned, & a semester in Spain, and while & spain there was a gal named Audrey Van Oen who apparently “took note” of me . 

She was from Canada, …I didn’t really know her or much about her while in spain, but after we returned somehow we fell into similar social circles…[this is not about a romance with her, but something nebulous]

 ,…I think she had some friends or family “in the know” about my extended family, including Leo Peters,  & may have talked about me in such a light, but as usual, people who talk about others  without talking to the one they are talking about (ie GOSSIP)

usually get a wrong impression, wrong facts, inaccurate information etc.

Whatever the case may be, something very strange evolved from her “befriending” me along with a few other “liberals”, at a time when I really did not have the sophistication to understand their “agenda”. I WILL leave it at that for now, maybe come back to it later. 

So I went to Costa Rica, & did disaster relief with CRWRC (now “world renew”) and then was offered a job teaching at a tourist camp in the rain forest in the south of Costa Rica (accessible only by boat or horse at the time, or a long hike).

 It turned out to be a GREAT EXPERIENCE..beautiful area, tourists paid a lot of money to come there, 

&  I was being paid (a little) to stay there & teach 2 elementary kids four days a week, and help out with the tourists the rest of the time (horseback riding, fishing trips, hikes, etc).

Can’t complain about that. But my “higher calling” kept nagging me. Otherwise who would return to the USA & go back to cold Michigan as winter approached? 

Only me. I thought I was going to go to Calvin Seminary,  actually did , for a few weeks or months, but felt depressed about it, & switched back over to the college to

 get a 2^nd bachelors degree (English/education) & my teaching degree. 
SAMPLE PHOTO
That kept me busy for the next 2 years. In 1994 I had completed that program & passed the teaching exam(s) 


& had a provisional Michigan teaching license in my hand, albeit with the tentative intention of being a “missionary teacher” in hungary for a CRC- associated program.  

AND MY AUNT INVITED me to their home in Jackson , Wyoming (ie “Jackson hole’) …actually their part-time home…they live in Kirkland Washington most of the year, 

& periodically drop in to Jackson for R & R, …MY uncle is a businessman albeit it’s not that he is so wealthy to afford a house in Jackson as much as he

BOUGHT the plot of land at the RIGHT TIME many decades ago, and started with a trailer (if I recall correctly) and then built a house..it’s a 

beautiful house with a nice view of the Grand Tetons,  & a short drive to either the city square or to the airport & onward to Yellowstone etc. We had been 

there as a family a few times during “summer trips” but I had never lived there on my own. It was nice of them to offer me a room for the summer, & I found a job at an 

old-time photo studio that caters to tourists…that was interesting. I also helped out with hot air balloon rides  (albeit they never gave me a ride in one, shame on them !) 

AND then at the end of the summer, I took off for Coachella , for my first teaching job  (actually, 2^nd, or 3^rd, if u include student teaching & costa rica teaching)…coincidentally, the hot air balloon  company from Jackson also goes to Coachella in the fall-winter, & they were flying right over our house in Indio every week.

SO I stayed at this teaching job for 2 years, it could have been better, but the new principal Alex Franco had his own intentions

 (ie wanted to bring in some of his old pals from his "glory days", that is to say, this principal was a former student at this school, and I think he regressed in the familiar old environment & he actually started hiring people to coach teams that were not teachers, but some of his old friends (per contract, teachers are supposed to a have first priority) ,

but I was always thinking of my "higher calling"  even while I was teaching . Sure, it was a decent salary, but that's not enough if you have a feeling that you should be doing something "more". 

I stuck it out for the 2 years, then went off on a mission trip to Africa: Kenya ,  Tanzania, & South Africa.  Upon return I was told that the friend who had called me about the teaching job in coachella had died in a car accident, along with a few others on their way to a  youth pastor conference in Big Bear. Very sad. 

Nonethless, I carried onward, & returned to Calvin once more, this time for the seminary, & stuck it out, despite it never being a very gratifying experience, to say the least, ... even despite some professors who I thought were familiar & friendly. 

After a year there, having completed some of the prerequisites & requisites , I transferred to Fuller Seminary, & the rest, as they say, is history ! 

But seriously, while continuing to work on my M.Div,  I also returned to being a "missionary teacher" , this time for the LAUSD, as a substitute teacher. 

This was nice, because I could come & go, depending on my other schedules, & my mood, & my energy level. 

BUT being an evangelical, i was not content to remain "as is" for very long, & wanted to get out & "go" & fulfill the great commission.  So i started my own ministry, & began finding & trying new ways to do evangelism, to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to others. 

After transferring from Calvin seminary I  finished most of my  M.Div  at Fuller in Pasadena. I had an office right next door for a little while . But I spent a lot of time on the road with Lola (my golden retriever for 14 years). 
i did a lot of exploring as I also evangelized around california, & a lot of hiking too.  even hiked Mt Whitney with Lola , WOW ! it is the highest peak in the continental USA , above 14000 feet.

You don't have to be a highly experienced hiker/climber to do it, but it's not a "day hike" either  . Most people camp one night half-way. I didn't. I hiked thru the night, with a bit of a hitch, & made it the next day. What a great experience, in 2007, or was it 2006 ? wow, am I losing my memory now ?  

anyways Lola died one  year later. One day I returned to the house & found her lying on the floor with blood by her face. 

She was still alive, but apparently, as best as I could tell, she had a "seizure" of some sort. I cleaned her up & took her for a walk but she 

would stumble when we would go up steps or up a curb. I couldn't figure it out. It was AS IF SHE WAS BLIND ?! 

SO i put my hand in front of her eyes & waved it back & forth & sure enough, she had GONE BLIND, just like that ! i almost started crying, it was SO SAD. She was such an active, fun-loving dog...she loved to chase anything, especially in the water. She was now 14 years old, which is about the average lifespan for a golden retriever.  I guess I could be thankful that she lived a pretty long life, mostly happily. But now she was blind. I didn't know what to do. I took her to various vets. Some wanted to do a lot of expensive tests. Maybe a brain tumor, etc. I wondered if she was a victim of the bad dog food problem that had happened around the USA around that time. She could still walk on a leash. She wasn't whimpering or acting as if she was in pain. She was just blind. One vet said that some people keep their blind dogs for years. But she was also still having seizures. I felt like it was time to let her go. It took me a week or so to get up the nerve to take her in for the final time. I feel SO SAD right now as I write this, still miss her, like a best friend. 

12/21/17  WOW, it was so cold last night (relatively speaking)...in the 40's here in so cal is pretty cold. But we still won't have a white Christmas, unless we go up to Big Bear. It did rain in Palos Verdes . But no snow. I wonder if it has ever snowed this low around here. I know it did in the foothills a few years ago, but not further south in the city. 

And I went to see Dr. Wong this morning. She is always so nice to see. Always positive, encouraging. It's nice to go to a doctor who keeps herself healthy. And she has a Christmas tree in the lobby, and wears a little cross around her neck.She's catholic, maybe from the Philippines originally, not sure...but looks like she did attend medical school there, albeit she doesn't talk much about herself. I know she also speaks Chinese  so maybe she is from some other part of Asia, but she also speaks perfect English. I think we are about the same age. She apparently is married but was unable to have kids . She told me that, but didn't tell me why. So she recently adopted a child. She used to talk more about herself but now seems to be reticent to do so. She told me to come back on January 2 to pick up a referral, but that she wouldn't be here. I said "You're taking a vacation? " And she said "Just one day" I said, "You deserve it"  

We discussed my MRI results. I had two at the same time, one for the lumbar, another for the hip. That's a lot of time for one visit in the MRI tube. Lying still without moving at all is not easy, especially when you have an itch on your face, or something. 

The hip MRI was "unremarkeable" meaning nothing evidently wrong with the hip area itself, but the lumbar MRI showed the same problem pattern as previous, & the doctor thinks the pain i feel in the hip is "radiating" from the lumbar problem. 

so the next step is to see an "orthopedic" again, & try to get a referral for an "epidural" ...since I already did physical therapy a few months ago...which only helped relieve the pain for the day, but didn't cure it or resolve it long-term 

4:47 PM,pst, 
looks like the Thomas Fire  is finally somewhat  under control or "contained", more or less, now they say it is the 2nd largest fire ever in California, ...un-bee-liev-able. 

SO some of you must have received the snail-mail card by now...hope so, Merry Christmas week ! 

so I am going to leave it at this for now, since not that many people will actually read this anyways. 

GOD BLESS YOU ALL
MERRY CHRISTmas !