In this chapter we talk what happened from 2003 till 2018 and we go that per sector.

Christian Artists
We kept doing the annual Christian Artists Seminar at the SBI, Doorn, the Netherlands till 2011. As the SBI wanted to raise the prices (thanks to a new management) we moved to Germany to the KSI in Bad Honnef, Germany. Here we had in 2012, 2013; No seminar in 2014, thanks to a big discussion with the EZA/EU (who are subsidising) about our format ; We continued in 2015, 2016 and in 2017 KSI moved to Siegburg, Michaelsberg, and we moved with them. As the renovation of the new location had turned out to be so expensive, prices would go up. So we decided to move the Christian Artists Seminar for 2018 back to the SBI, where new management gave us a good price and welcomed us. More to find on www.christianartists.org.

CNV-Kunstenbond
This Christian Artists trade union was member organization of the CNV umbrella trade unions. The CNV Kunstenbond had two sides: the ones who were employed, and the ones who were self-employed. There were 5 sectors: music and media, performing arts, fine arts, writers and the national register of graduated musicians  NTR/NRM (conservatories).  As Leen and Ria grew older and were near retirement, decided was the CNV-Kunstenbond would merge with CNV Vakmensen, what happened in 2011, so securing ongoing professional help for the members. The selfemployed decided NOT to merge and stayed independant as ‘Christian Artists Association’, the same did the national register of graduated musicians NTR/NRM; in both Leen and Ria still play a leading role.

Continentals, Young Continentals, Continental Kids: blessing and nightmare
The number of tours kept growing til the maximum we had in 2008: 7 kids groups, 4 Young Continental groups, 4 Continental groups…. In 2008 the decision was taken to make Continentals.NL independant, like the Continentals in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Italy. Rob de Jong became director and he got a new board. All functioned under the umbrella of Continental Ministries Europe(=Leen and Ria) who owns the names and concepts. Unfortunately Rob de Jong took bad management decisions, so Continentals.NL got smaller each year and finally he could not cover the costs anymore, so Rob and his board filed for bankruptcy in 2014. This was very unexpected by Leen and Ria. Leen and Ria lost a lot of money thanks to that decision. And Continental Ministries Europe (= Leen and Ria) got a lot of reputation damage. Finally Leen and Ria had to inform every ex-continental about the real situation. Leen and Ria had offered several times help to Rob and his board, But that was refused every time, as they showed  a lot of arrogance….’because they would do it so much better as under the leadership of Leen and Ria in the past…’. The damage is so much that till now no Continental group could be started in the West. To show that Continental Ministries is alive and kicking Leen produced 3 new CD’s in 2015: for Continental Kids, for Young Continentals and for the Continentals. This last album won even the national dove award as best album… (quite a compliment for Leen). In 2017 Leen produced an A Cappella album of the Continentals. Continentals in Slovakia, Hungary and Romenia do well. In 2018 the situation is: Slovakia: kids, Young Continentals, New Hope Singers; Hungary: Kids and Continentals; Romania: 2 Kids, 3 Young Cons, 4 Continentals and is at the moment the largest operation world wide; an amazing blesssing. Leen and Ria oversee these Continental organizations and give help where needed. More you can find on www.continentalministries.org.

Continental Art Centre
The centre got enlarged with a beautiful concerthall for 300 seats. This hall was officially opened by prime-minister Jan Peter Balkenende in 2005. This hall became the perfect training room for the Continental groups. Besides the Continental trainings it was used for concerts, exhibitions, lectures, product-presentations, etc etc. The money for the construction came from collegue CNV trade unions. So with the merging of the CNV Kunstenbond in CNV Vakmensen the building had to go as well to CNV Vakmensen to cover the mortgage. Unfortunately CNV did not know what to do with the building and decided to sell it. So it was bought in 2014 by investor Cor Verkade, who kept the CAC going, having Jacqueline La Rivière als managing director. The CAC is used quite a lot for traings and presentation, having a nice social and cultural profile for the city. More on: www.continentalartcentre.nl.

Continental Sound (stichting)
With this foundation Leen and Ria started in 1970. This foundation has been the source for many innovations, new projects and such. Money comes from donations and memberships. Continental Sound is publishing its own magazine SJOFAR (started in 1974), this year 2018 the 459th edition is appearing. The magazine is in dutch. Money is used to sponsor young talents and continentals in central and eastern Europe.

Continental Sound Music is the publishing house and ‘daughter’ of the Continental Sound foundation. CSM published several new books written by Leen La Rivière and is producing the new CD’s and songbooks. CSM has as well quite a port folio in copyrights.
More about CS and CSM can be found on www.continentalsound.org.

School of Rock
In 2007 Leen started a school of rock for children between 8 and 18, having several age groups, teaching singing and dance to the children living in Rotterdam-eastside (where the CAC is located). Using secular positive pop and rock. This was a great success. This project closed in 2017, as the schools were doing again singing and dancing lessons, soa n extern facility was not longer needed.

Station-R
Leen did a proposal to the city to make short TV programms about the many new churches, mosqs, temples, synagogues and such. This was accepted and the city paid for those costs. Leen directed all recordings and finally 50 cases were broadcasted, later followed by 10 interesting social initiatives active in the city. You can find them on www.station-r.nl  This project was run from 2013-2017. The broadcasts are in dutch.

2018 special year
This is the year we celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Leen and Ria. Very special when you know that when they married evil voices said: that will not last long…. Well, here we are: 50 years wedding and still very happy and blessed.
Leen started a masterclass cultural leadership to hand over all the key-experiences and knowledge that made all pioneer and innovating projects possible. This first class has 30 international students, the course goes by distant learning.