Looking back you see an endless list of activities, hundreds of thousands of participants and visitors. Special moments of learning have been described in the previous chapters. It is amazing how God has used THIS ministry to give so many innovation-impulses to the churches and artists from Europe…

1. new ways to communicate with contemporary christian music, started in 1969/1970 with the Continentals
2. to serve the community with recordings; the first European christian record company with contemporary christian music started in 1974. Besides its own recording and import, songbooks and books came out
3. Christian ROCK and POP-music from 1974 and onwards with artists like: New Hope, Barry McGuire, Wings of Light, Second Chapter, Jerusalem, etc
4. new forms for praise & worship music: 1974 and onwards with artists like: Merv & Merla Watson, Davel & Dale Garratt, Graham Kendrick, etc
5. PraiseDANCE and other performing arts: 1974 and onwards with artists like Shekinah, Randall Bane, Springs Dance; and from 1984 as part of CA-Seminars
6. new forms of black-gospel(started in 1975 with Choralerna, they created the basis for groups like Oslo Gospel Choir and such
7. new forms of training and international cohesion for artists in all art-disciplines (1981 and onwards via the Christian Artists Seminars)
8. the importance and rediscovery of the visual arts(especially for protestants): 1986 and onwards via the CA-Seminars and national associations
9. central arrangements for copyrights for churches, musicians, choirs, etc 1984(with the PRS) and the CCLI arrangements for the Benelux in 1989
10. the need to unite and as an artist to be engaged in social and political developments (1989, the acceptance as an artists trade-union)
11. new ways for working with teenagers and the use of teenmusic: 1992 with the Young Continentals
12. The National Academic Youth Survey, the largest study ever done among christian and secular youth, done by the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. This study provided a lot of knowledge about youth
13. new ways for working with kids and kids-pop-music: 1999 with the Continental Kids
14. the Art of Living, 2ooo,how to understand the future. A key study of 25 of the best Christian scientists and thinkers from Europe, with contributions from the (future) prime-minister of the Netherlands
15. the last innovation is going to be the new European Academy for Culture and the Arts, opening in 2004. With great new solutions for post-academic adult education/ life-long-learning.

We can be proud to have been used for these great innovations, but no reason for pride, as that would clash with Gods glory. It was God who used us, inspired us, gave directions, gave the revelations…

Respect
How many times Leen and Ria have wrestled with that… As many times pastors, Christian leaders didnot show respect for all what Leen and Ria had been doing. And as you have read there has been quite some animosity to Leen and Ria as people, when they were young. They have always worked hard and prayed a lot that those negative experiences would never come in the way and would ‘colour’ their decisions.
To be innovators… rejection comes along with that, so be prepared if you want to impact the status quo…

But sometimes God corrects what is incorrect:
1999: Leen became knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau as Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands had recognised the enormous contributions for the culture and the State. Some Christian leaders were quite surprised and were put to shame as they had never realised and respected the enormous effects of Leens work and ministry
2003: In April Ria also received the Royal honour to become member of the Order of Oranje-Nassau as Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands had recognised Ria’s special contributions for the wellbeing of many… And again surprise… but for Ria it was well deserved.
It is very rare that such happens to a couple, so it is quite a testimony of restoration of respect.