Aug 2025

Before and After

For many of us, we can think of a defining moment in our lives that seems to separate our lives into life before and after the moment.  For Jeanne Van Roekel, the brain injury she suffered in February of 2020 after slipping on the ice and hitting her head did just that. 

Changes and adjustments that have come from her brain injury have included short term memory loss, vertigo, vision struggles, balance issues, changes in personality, frequent headaches, and the need for years of various therapies. Albeit these challenges, common threads that have spanned Jeanne’s before and after her injury have been God’s unchanging faithfulness and the experience of personal connections with and support from others in her life. 

The value and impact of developing personal relationships and connections is a thread woven throughout Jeanne’s life.  In 2004, Jeanne and her husband, Orville spent six months in Thailand for Orville’s work.  While they were in Thailand, they built a friendship with a young woman, Jutatip, who worked at a local restaurant that Jeanne and Orville would frequently visit. Jutatip and her family ended up moving to Iowa and visit Orville and Jeanne about once a year.  “We,” says Jeanne of she and Orville, “have become like parents to Jutatip.” 

Jeanne reflects on a time in her young adult life when she went through a more rebellious stage.  Her father was an avid reader of the Bible.  He encouraged Jeanne to read her Bible more, and when she turned from her rebellious ways, she remembers her father saying to her, “I knew you would come back.”  Jeanne notes with gratitude, “my dad responded to me how God responds to us when we stray and then return home.”

Jeanne and her husband Orville found a sense of home at New Hope when they started attending three to four years ago. Jeanne shares how they felt so welcomed the first time they attended New Hope and notes, “We did not realize how hungry we were to hear the Word of God be preached.”  She comments on how being a part of Life Groups and Bible studies has helped her develop relationships with other believers and to learn God’s Word. 

Jeanne has also been encouraged by the intentional connections with and support that New Hope offers to local and global missionaries.  “At New Hope,” shares Jeanne, “it is not just about going to church.  It is about how you live your life.  It is about preaching the Word from the Word.  It is not a Sunday only thing, and it is not about being entertained.  It is about personal connections and lessons on how to live that life.”

“A lot of good has come out of my brain injury,” comments Jeanne, “I would not change it.  My short-term memory stinks, but I am so blessed to have my long-term memory.  I know my family, my friends, my Lord, and I know that I love them. And I know they have come to love the ‘new’ me.”  Jeanne is thankful for the ways the teaching and fellowship at New Hope have ministered to she and Orville, have helped them to continue to grow in their faith and find ways to live it out day to day in their interactions with others.

How has God used a before and after in your life to shape your faith?