Our Testimony in Jesus Christ.
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Rune and Jocelyn had different experiences about Christianity growing up.
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We both grew up with vastly different impressions of Christianity. For Rune, Christianity was a distant and misunderstood concept, something he associated with rigid rules yet full of hypocritical behavior. He had never heard of the gospel growing up. Never hearing the idea of a loving, personal Savior. Biblical Christianity was obscured by the rituals and unrealistic expectations imposed by the community. The faith was more about appearances than a personal relationship with God. Church was something you did because you were supposed to, not because it meant anything profound in that person’s life.
For my wife, Jocelyn, Christianity was a special part of her childhood yet misunderstood in a different way. She attended church until about fifteen years old, went to a Christian camp every summer for seven years and even went to Christian private school in early elementary school. Yet, she never fully understood the gospel as well. She believed God was a mostly wrathful God and that she needed to be saved by her own good works. When Jocelyn's parents divorced, she walked away from Christianity.
As children, these experiences planted seeds of confusion towards the Christian faith in our hearts. We both harbored a sense of disconnection from the truth of who Jesus Christ was and what he accomplished for us.. These early experiences would set the stage for the spiritual journey we would both embark on leading us away from God.
After each of our parent's divorce
we both grew more lost...​
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Our childhood impressions of Christianity were further complicated by the challenges of each of our parents' divorces. For both of us, our parents’ separations marked a turning point in our lives, leaving us feeling lost. The stability we had known was shattered, and we each responded to the pain in a similar way by searching for truth in all the wrong places.
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We both disconnected from our families and turned inward, searching for meaning through books, philosophies, and eventually spiritual practices that promised self-empowerment through spiritual healing. It promised a sense of control and autonomy that we both felt was missing in our lives.
During this time Jocelyn was in an abusive relationship where she conceived and gave birth to her son Kane who has Down’s Syndrome.
We both became
New Age Teachers.
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Jocelyn took an interest in the holistic health community and Rune started studying Chinese Medicine.
Rune went on to become the youngest certified acupuncturist at the time in Holland but soon realized his passion was drawing him more to study the Chinese medicine form of psychology. This eventually led him to study and become a practitioner of Qi Gong, Chinese spiritual practice. He studied for seven years under a Chinese Master of Qi Gong. He quickly became prominent in the community and was a certified international teacher and speaker. He eventually opened his own spiritual coaching business where he focused on mental health with a mixture of eastern philosophies and practices.
For Jocelyn, she took an interest in the occult. She started studying New Age energy medicine, astrology, meditation and ancient cultures as well as their rituals. She began organizing online global meditations for a New Age company, where thousands would collectively meditate at once. During this time she began writing for a prominent New Age online magazine. Through her writing she quickly rose in popularity in the New Age community on becoming a spirituality coach. Eventually, specializing in a variety of practices aimed to help women heal holistically, spiritually and physically.
We were both convinced that we had found the truth and that we were helping others find it too. In many ways, our lives seemed perfect. We were doing what we loved, helping others, and living in what we thought was spiritual freedom.
We met in New Zealand.​​​​
Our paths crossed in the most unexpected of places—New Zealand. We had both traveled there independently. For Rune, the center where he was trained in Qi Gong practices was located there. Jocelyn had traveled to New Zealand because the blog she worked for was located there.
Rune and Jocelyn were individually invited to stay at his brother’s farm at the same time. Rune was skeptical of Jocelyn at first but soon as we learned more about each another, we fell deeply in love. We were drawn to each other by our shared passions and the belief that we were on a profound spiritual journey together.
We fell deeply in love...​
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Our connection felt destined, and we quickly became inseparable. Together, we dreamed of a life filled with spiritual exploration.We stayed in New Zealand together for a little over six months until Kane’s visa was denied.
We decided to move to the United States together, believing that our combined energy and love would lead to even greater spiritual growth and success. We were excited to start a new chapter in our lives, convinced that we were on the right path.
We decided to move to USA together.
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However, the move to the USA marked the beginning of a new phase in our journey—one that would challenge everything. Life in the States was not what we had imagined. The pressures of daily life, coupled with the strain of trying to build a new life together, began to take their toll.
But our lives fell apart when Jocelyn joined a New Age Cult,
and we separated.
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It was during this time that Jocelyn met with a leader of a New Age cult to recruit him into a global meditation. One day during a “business” meeting with the leader of the cult, he told Jocelyn with his self-professed psychic powers that he could see if she chose to stay in a relationship with Rune that she would become very ill and potentially die. He also offered her the chance to take time off from her personal career to rest. Even though no one knew other than Rune, Jocelyn was suffering with an ailment at the time. Feeling shocked and worried about this prediction, she left Rune to be in a relationship with the cult leader.
Rune went to live in New Zealand, Kane stayed in the US with a private nanny and Jocelyn traveled around the world with the cult leader. Almost a year later, Jocelyn left the cult leader and returned to the US.
We reunited again and got married in the US. But with our complicated past, we didn't last long...
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It was a devastating separation and when Jocelyn returned to the US, she reflected on everything that had happened. She wanted to apologize to Rune for everything and explain what had taken place during their time apart. We started talking more frequently and despite the emotional chaos that had separated us, we decided to try again. Rune moved to the US and we were married. We hoped that this would be a fresh start, a way to rebuild our lives together.
But the wounds from our past were deep, and our marriage did not last long. The unresolved issues from Jocelyn’s time in the New Age cult, combined with the pain of our earlier experiences, were too much for us to overcome on our own. We drifted apart, and eventually, we divorced. It seemed like the end of our story—we separated, and both kept pursuing our careers in the New Age.
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We were divorced and not talking when Jesus saved us both individually.
In the darkness of our separation, something miraculous happened. Individually, we both encountered Jesus Christ in a way that we had never experienced before.
For Rune, it was a moment of complete surrender to Christ. In meditation,
he realized that all the spiritual practices, all the searching, had led him to a place of emptiness. In his brokenness, he cried out to God, and He answered. The love and peace that he had been searching for his entire life flooded his heart, and he knew that Jesus was real. Rune bought a Bible, started listening to John MacArthur, heard the Gospel, and was confronted with a deep sense of his sinfulness. He repented before His Holy God and understood that Christ laid down His Heavenly Crown, came into our world to save sinners, died a substitutionary death and rose again the third day.
"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" 2 Corinthians 5:21
Jocelyn had a similar experience. In the depths of despair on the tenth day of having Covid with a on-going fever, she cried out in repentance, feeling if she passed away from the illness she would face a good and Holy God. The Lord broke the fever shortly after her prayer.
After being saved it all started to make sense to both of us individually. Once in the Faith, the practices we taught and explored, and the answers we were seeking, we realized were never healing anyone let alone ourselves. In the New Age, there is always a deeper level to reach, another truth to uncover. Perpetuating a lingering sense of emptiness that no amount of spiritual practice could fill. The teachings and practices that had once seemed so powerful now felt empty in comparison to the overwhelming love and grace of Jesus Christ.
It was a complete transformation—a rescue that only God could have orchestrated.
After being saved, we
reconciled our marriage and were remarried in the church.​
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After our individual encounters with Jesus, we were led back to each other when a paper needed to be signed to finalize our divorce. We were both shocked and curious that the other had an encounter with Christ and were pursuing Christianity.
We started talking once again since we were the only Christian friends we both knew in a New Age community. We found a local church that preached the Bible faithfully and when the pastor and his wife learned about our story they offered to begin counseling us.
With hearts full of gratitude, after almost a year of being chaste with one another, we were baptized together and after 12 weeks of marital counseling we decided to remarry, this time in the church before our God. Our wedding was a celebration of not just our love for each other, but of the incredible work that God had done in our lives. It was a testament to His grace, His mercy, and His power to redeem and restore what was once broken.​
Today, our mission is clear. We have dedicated the rest of our lives to serving others by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with them. Our journey has taught us that true fulfillment and peace can only be found in Him. We are committed to helping others find the same hope and healing that we have experienced.
Through our ministry, we reach out to those who are lost, just as we once were, offering them the love and truth of Jesus Christ. We know that God has called us to this work, and we are humbled and honored to be able to serve Him in this way.
Our story is one of redemption, of how God took two broken lives, and how God restored a broken marriage. We are living proof of the power of God's love, and we are excited to see how He will continue to use us to bring others into His kingdom.
We want to dedicate the rest of our lives to serving others and share the good news of Jesus Christ with them.
The Lekkerkerker Family