Before the Calling – My Journey to the Calling

My life did not start on an easy path.
In my younger years, I hardly knew my parents.
They divorced when I was three, and I lived first with my mother, later with my father.

At eleven, I ended up in an orphanage.
School was difficult, and I never truly felt at home anywhere.
At fifteen, I moved to the Netherlands with my father, and for a while, life seemed better.

By eighteen, I had left school.
I worked for a time, but soon lost my job.
I went from one relationship to another, often being left behind.

Frustrated, I stopped paying my bills and tried to “enjoy life,” but it all went wrong.
I lost my home and became homeless, staying with my sister, my brother, and sometimes a friend.
I worked briefly at Ahoy, then moved back to Hoogezand and found a job with the NS railway.

At 32, I finally got my own rental home.
During that time, a 16-year-old girl with no home, living under deep stress and carrying a lot of pain, came into my life.
Despite my own financial struggles, I decided to take her in.

It was not easy — we had to crawl through the struggles together, but we survived.
I had never been a father before, yet suddenly, I became one.
Over time, my financial situation improved, and at the age of 40, I bought my first home.
We even went on holiday together, I arranged her driver’s license, and made sure she had a car.

I am still deeply grateful that I could be there for her — until the day she could spread her own wings and begin her own life.

Four months later, in the spring, something happened that changed everything.
The calling began — an inner voice telling me that everything I had endured was preparation for a greater purpose.