June 2025

God of All Comfort

With deep family roots in this area, you might think Anne Kooiman grew up in Sioux County. Did you know she spent over five formative early years in southeast Arkansas? Norms, even within the church, were very different there. Another five months were spent living with a family in Paraguay right after college. She has lived in a number of different places that have exposed her to different cultures, landing in Minnesota for her first teaching job. That’s where she met future husband Scott. He got up the courage to ask her out, figuring she must be single since she had just returned from living abroad. He soon took care of that! By the time they moved to Iowa, she was Mrs. Scott Kooiman.

After many years of living in Orange City and growing in their faith and knowledge of church as a couple and family, God used Scott and Anne’s various experiences in the church to prompt Scott and Anne to seek out a church home that would help them deepen and grow in their understanding of Scripture.  During this time of seeking God’s direction for their family, not only did Anne learn new depths of submission to God’s wisdom as they waited on Him, but God also led Scott and Anne to New Hope. Since coming to New Hope, Anne has learned to appreciate the discerning and gracious application of Biblical truth demonstrated by the leadership of New Hope.

Along with the spiritual depth she has found, Anne has been deeply touched by the genuine love and care shown throughout the church. She has experienced authentic biblical love through New Hope's people who have cared so well for Scott, for her and for their children during Scott's cancer journey, his death, and the grief journey that has followed.

 "If I had to choose one moment that stands out for me," Anne commented, "it would be the special Wednesday night worship service when the church surrounded our family with love and support during Scott's battle with cancer. It was so encouraging to us." She recalled how the focus of the night was not on their struggles or sorrow as a family, but rather on God, claiming His Truth in the trials, and on worshipping and glorifying Him. 

Anne describes her family’s journey as devastatingly beautiful, noting that through the sadness and sorrow that she and her family have walked through, it has brought them to a beautiful place of surrender to and worship of God.  She notes how she and her children have experienced the beauty of 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 being lived out at New Hope:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

Through tears of joy and sadness, Anne gives thanks for how the God of all comfort has used others at New Hope who have experienced His comfort in their own troubles, to minister to Anne and her family.  How might God be prompting you to use how He has worked in your experiences to minister to others?