September 2026

God’s Hand

“I was visiting seminaries,” Kley De Jong remembers. He wasn’t heading to law school, and he certainly wasn’t moving back to his hometown of Orange City.  

You might recognize Kley from leading worship and offering a brilliant riff on his electric guitar or from the courthouse where he represents and defends people’s legal interests and rights. His path to these roles was neither straightforward nor in Kley’s original plan.

Looking back though, Kley sees God’s hand at work throughout his journey and his life.  “Seminary just never felt right,” he explains. After studying Biblical Studies and Theology at Bethel, Kley took a gap year.  In that time, he felt the leading toward law school, where he then spent the next three years at Drake. 

Married to his wife Kelsey, and with an infant daughter in their arms, the De Jongs made the choice to move to Orange City after Kley passed the bar exam.  Here, Kley began work with his dad at the law office.  He finds tremendous purpose in this role to which God led him.  “When you’re a lawyer, people are relying on you.” Kley gets to help people with a wide array of legal matters.  Some of these are joyous occasions, but for a lot of situations, he is stepping into their lives during some of their hardest, most trying days. 

“There’s satisfaction in helping others.  It’s my job to tell their stories.”  He describes his role as that of an anchor in a storm.  People don’t always know their options, and as children of God, they have value and rights.  “Helping them is a matter of integrity.” As Colossians 3:23-24 remind us, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

God’s hand in Kley’s life led him and his family not just to Orange City, but also to finding a home as part of the church family here at New Hope.  “We immediately felt a ‘come as you are’ mentality,” Kley explains when talking about their first visit to the church.  He sensed so much wisdom from the leadership at New Hope that he wanted to absorb.  “I just wanted to be a sponge.” Kley describes the Biblical teaching and preaching as “heavy metal” and “pretty sick.” 

Plugging into New Hope quickly led to Kley joining the praise team.  He sheepishly explains that he started playing guitar in college with the thought that it might help in getting girls.  We might have to check with Kelsey to see if that was a deciding factor or not.  

Kley played on the praise team while at Bethel, and then when they moved to Des Moines for law school, he joined a much larger team of a much larger church.  “I was like the sixth electric guitar out of six,” he jokes, but God used that time to grow his musical ability. 

“At New Hope,” Kley explains, “it's never been about the acoustics or the show.”  The motivation has always been worship.  With a pure heart, Kley just wants to “help the congregation sing”. 

Kley says that over the last ten years of being part of New Hope, he, Kelsey, and their daughters: Norah, Lucy, and Ellory, have been poured into in so many ways.  From opportunities to play his guitar to leading the singing, from studying God’s word in a small group to preaching, Kley feels like God plugging him into New Hope has been a great equipping for his life. 

God may not have been calling Kley to seminary, but the work of His hand is evident in Kley’s life.  His encouragement to the rest of his family here at New Hope who are considering different ministries would be to “dive in.  It’s worth it!”