 rejected you and that my friend is great news on this Friday. We're so glad that you're with us on hope today. I'm Anna and I'm hanging out with Angela and we've got a story coming up in just a few minutes. So Angela, tell us about it. Oh, I'm telling you, this is one you want to sit tight for. God has a plan and a purpose for each and every one of us. Every life is important to God. And coming up in just a moment, you're going to meet piano artist Kim Dyrdorf. He has an incredible story of being found in a garbage can in Korea when he was just a baby. He was eventually rescued and is now using his story and his life to encourage and inspire others. You'll also be blessed by his beautiful gift of piano playing that will surely touch your heart. Anna, when I hear his story, I am blown away by the power and the choice of living for God. Yeah. And to think about the fact that he was left in a dumpster by a likely his parent, like his parents rejected him. And, you know, I'm just thinking about you at home. You know, there's not many who have been left in a dumpster, but maybe you have felt that rejection by a significant person in your life, such as a parent or you have felt that rejection from a friend or from a spouse or somebody along the way, like rejection has the potential to shut a person down. But we know that when God gets involved, when you draw near to him and you understand his love for you that his purpose still exists, that he has chosen you to be his, that he is your father. Woo, you can get up from whatever you have experienced and move on to fulfill that purpose for the kingdom. Yeah, you know, and Anna, the significance of fathers in our lives, we all are very well acquainted with. This Sunday, we actually celebrate Father's Day. And so as Anna spoke, this may be a sore spot for you. This may be a place where you've had hurt and pain or maybe you've never even gotten to meet your father. We wanna take a moment and just pray for you and pray for those of you who are fathers. So, Anna, would you take a moment and just pray for those who are watching? Yeah, absolutely. Well, Heavenly Father, we first just want to lift up those who are maybe struggling with celebrating this Father's Day. Lord, we just pray that your presence would wrap around them, that they would feel your perfect love for them, that it would go down deep into the marrow of their bones, God, so that they can truly celebrate, that they are loved by a perfect father. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. And we are so thankful for the fathers out there who are doing the work of fatherhood that are speaking life into their kids who are being intentional about spending time. And, you know, it's fascinating, Angel. There truly has been studies done for decades, talking and showing the importance of fathers, the significance of dads in their kids' lives, and how it really does improve the well-being of that child. It's so critical. Yeah, we can never underplay the role of our fathers within society and within the family. And I think that strength. Today, if you're watching and you're a father and you think, oh, you know, I go and pay the bills. I work my job and get the kids what they need. You are so much more than a paycheck. You are the very essence of their being. They will emulate what you do and how you show up. And so we just declare blessings over you today and we say, dad, you are significant. Everything you do matters. Well, today we have a beautiful interview here. So let's now go over to Tom, who's with piano artist, Kim Dierdorf, as he shares his unbelievable story of being saved and how he's using his life to make a difference. Our next guest has been blessed with an incredible gift of music, but he also has had tremendous challenges to overcome in his young life. You're not going to want to miss his story. He began playing melodies at age three and started writing on the piano when he was just five years old. Today, Kim Dierdorf is quite an accomplished pianist and he's been blessing others with his wonderful music. Kim, it's great to have you with us on Hope Today. Well, thank you so much, Tom. It's an honor to be here. Well, let's go into your story. Sure. Because it is really, in many ways, it seems unique to us. I'm sure others have had similar difficulties, but tell us your beginning was very difficult. Absolutely. So when I was just a few days old, I was found in a garbage can in Seoul, South Korea. I was taken to an orphanage where I spent the first two weeks of my life in a hospital. They actually thought I might be blind. I had something wrong with my eyes. And then they didn't know when my birthday was, so they gave me the birthdate of January 1st. And four months later, I was adopted by some American parents. And with a girl that was also adopted at the same time she became my sister, I was taken back to Michigan. Okay, so you were put in this orphanage that was run by a Christian group? It was. It was called Holt International. And it was interesting because the time that I was adopted, a prominent news media group was shooting a documentary on international adoption. It was kind of new at the time. And they happened to shoot the whole trip on my parents' trip over. So what was it like then to grow up in America, again, from a background where you didn't know, you were obviously Korean and they didn't know, what was that like? It was different. Me and my sister were the only Koreans in our little town. You would think that that beginning was the beginning to something really nice. And in a lot of ways, of course, I'm very fortunate to have been adopted. But I also went through 18 years of an abusive adoption home where, I think my mom in particular, I think she just had a troubled background. She had wounds that never healed. She expressed that how she never really wanted me. And every day of my life growing up, I was told how worthless I was and how I would never do anything with my life and that I just, she wished she hadn't adopted me. And so I would go to bed every night as a child thinking, why would God rescue me from the garbage and put me in this situation in a home that they didn't want me? Were they at least outwardly Christian? I mean, did you know about God? We went to church every week. I grew up in some of the Adventist church. My dad never went to church. He never graduated from high school. He hated every, he worked in a factory for 35 years, hated every day of his life. But you know, at the age of three, I've somehow just felt God's presence over my life. And I'll say that being found in the garbage is actually one of the greatest blessings that God has ever given me because I realized that I'll never be in a more vulnerable position, more helpless situation. And yet God saw me there and chose to rescue me. And so I've always felt like God's had his hand over my life. At the age of three, we had limited records at home. We had about 15. And I was told that I started playing melody self-records when I was three. By the time I was five, I started writing things. And the piano for me was a way for me to connect to something beautiful. The first time I ever played a note on the piano, it just, the sound and the tone of the instrument, even though it was an out-of-tune piano, never ever was made in 1900, it was a terrible, terrible piano. It just connected with me and allowed me to feel a sense of God's beauty or something beautiful in my life. At the age of 14, my parents got divorced. My dad went to live in a hotel and my mom didn't want me there, so I became homeless again. Basically, I spent a year in boarding academy. I spent a year living with a faculty member that took me in at the age of 18. I left home the day after I graduated from high school. My mom said, you know, either go to community college or go to this Adventist college outside of Chattanooga. And she said, if you're gonna go there, she says, get your stuff ready because we're leaving at six o'clock in the morning and we drove all the way to Collegedale, Tennessee. She dropped me off and I was on my own. The bad thing of it was is throughout my childhood, I'd never been allowed to make any decisions. And so I was really unprepared for life. And I was lost, I was completely disoriented when I got to college. So here you are, having to grow up real quick at school. So where does God begin to enter into this? That's a really good question. So I was taking a class called The Life and Teachings of Jesus. And even though I'd gone to church my whole life, something about reading God's word in that particular class, it just, God just spoke to my heart and you know, and he changed my heart. I was hanging out with some not so great friends at college, I mean, they were a positive influence. And at that moment, I had to tell them that I was making a change in my life, that God was coming into my life and he was setting a whole new direction. Sometimes what is at least outwardly a Christian school, that can be a hard stand to take even. It is. Yeah, so then where did God lead you? Did you finish school or did you go on to something else? I dropped out of college two and a half years. I didn't really have anything that I knew that I wanted to do. I spent a couple years, I mean, I spent a summer in Kentucky living with a friend. I got called to Texas to Adventist College outside of Fort Worth. And they were starting a recording studio. I was asked to come down there. I spent six months just reading books and working at a place for the abuse children of the state of Texas. For six months I did that. Somebody donated $75,000 to the college and I was asked to build a recording studio. So your reputation was going before you that you were someone who understood music or how'd that happen? I just wanted, I love technology and recording was kind of somewhat new in college campuses at that time. And the director of music knew that I was interested in music and music technology and recording. So he, that's how he invited me and that's how I got started. So I spent three years doing that. I spent a year almost starving to death trying to get music projects in Fort Worth and Dallas, ended up writing music for Del Taco, Bell South, the Dallas Cowboys, this kind of thing. But all through that process, God was just speaking to my heart. He was just sustaining my life. I mean, there was some really hard times. During that time I lost, I didn't have enough money to stay in my apartment. I had to live out of my car and... So it's not something like we got to the real good part yet. I mean, you know the Lord and everything, but where's he taking you? Where's God moving you? You're working there, building out this technology for music? Yes, and while I was doing freelance work in Dallas, I get a call from a gentleman in Thousand Oaks, California and he asked me to, if I was interested in coming out there and working in their production office and their audio department. And that goes through a whole set of circumstances that we can go into later. But basically in Dallas, I'd gotten hooked up with this con man who took me in and I got involved in his dealings. I actually had a warrant out for my arrest because of being connected with him and God delivered me from that whole thing. I went to California. I worked there for five years. I learned audio digital recording. It was kind of new at the time. I'd spent a week in education on this one piece of audio software and my first project was a $5 million animated film after one week. And what I realized is that I always struggled with my self-worth and self-confidence because of what I'd went through as a child. But I realized that God, when he gives you an opportunity, he always gives you the ability to be successful. And I always had a hard time trusting people or trusting anything. And what I came to the knowledge of is I could always trust God. He never let me down. He hasn't never let me down. And not only that, he's just taught me so much through different things and working in my life. So where does God take you from there? He's moving you along here. Right, so five years there, I get a call from a friend of mine in Orlando, Florida. A new production company was just starting. They needed an audio engineer. I went down and interviewed with them. They had already hired and fired two audio engineers in the first six months of their business. I was the third one that they were interviewing. I spent a week with them. They offered me the job. I moved to Orlando two weeks later. My first project was a million dollar commercial for Walt Disney World, The Tower of Terror. I had an ear infection in my left ear. I couldn't even hear out of my left ear. And here I'm supposed to be the audio engineer. And so again, by the grace of God, by God's faithfulness, he allowed me to be successful even in that situation. So where was your music at this time? What was God doing with you musically during all this period? When I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a composer. I wanted to be a famous songwriter. I wanted to see my name on a piece of music or on a record. So I could tell my mother that I actually was, that I actually was able to succeed. But you know, it's just gotten through God's directing and his prompting and his humbling of my heart. I was always able to do music. I was, you know, I wrote some music from the commercials. I was able to do music production for some of the other productions that I had when I was in Orlando. But it wasn't the prominent thing, audio production. We ended up doing, I ended up doing all the audio work for all the exhibits at NASA at the Kennedy Space Center. And all the theater. It's a great place. Yeah, it was quite a project. So, you know, from a little kid coming from the garbage, growing up in nowhere in Michigan and being able to do these kind of things, I felt like that was really something. But you know, that was really only the beginning of God teaching me things about my life. So when you reflect on, and we're gonna get to more of your story and we're gonna have a follow-up in our next show about your life, we're gonna hear some of your great music in a little bit here as well. But when you reflect on God, what was God showing you about himself through all this? A lot of people look back and say, hey, God, why did you give me this, deal me this bad hand? But what was God showing you about himself? He was showing me that he could be trusted, that he was faithful, that whatever his plans for your life, whether it be, you know, positive or having you go through challenges, I think a lot of it is, you know, when God sends you through the challenge, he's able to, he's able to display his glory, he's able to display his power. And he's also able to draw you closer to him as being dependent on his power and not your power. Have you been able to communicate that with other people as God did? I sure hope so, I sure hope so, because you know, I learned a lot about, throughout my life, I learned a lot about waiting on God. I didn't get married till I was 47. And that's a big part of people's lives is learning how to wait on God. I spent 11 years as a freelancer sitting in my bedroom doing outside projects. And you learn a lot about patients when you sit in a room by yourself for 11 years or when you're single for 47 years. And you think, well, life is passing me by, all my other friends are, you know, they've graduated, got professional degrees, got married, bought a house, you know, and I'm just here struggling. So it's the faithfulness of God. Yeah, I mean, that is, there are people out there saying, well, I hope I don't have to wait 12, 47. Of course, of course not. But you know, that's, God gives us the strength that we need to go through those times. And everybody's story is different. And you realize that God's timing is always perfect. And one of the things that's helped me in my life is to also realize that if you're following God's leading in your life, there's never a missed opportunity. Well, we're gonna hear more about your story and what God's been doing in your life in our next program. But I'm gonna ask you to just be, to share some of your music with us. Absolutely, of course. So we're just gonna take a moment now to just reflect on what Kim has shared already and think about where God has taken him and where God has taken you. What is God speaking to you through Kim's life? Right now we're gonna hear from Kim. The song is called The Love of God. What a powerful testimony from a garbage can to abuse, to homelessness and loneliness. Kim certainly has proven with his life that truly it may not be good, the things happening, but he was able to find a good God whose love satisfied his soul. Anna, that is a powerful man of God. He's a living testimony of where God's glory is displayed and this scripture, God laid on my heart during the story, it's from Isaiah 41 verses nine and 10. I want you to listen closely. There's so much in this where God says, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, you are mine. I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. When we get this revelation that we are chosen by God, that he has not rejected us. No matter what your background is, where you've come from, what you've done, your God, your Father in heaven has not rejected you. David says in Psalm 139, like, where can I go from you? If I go to the heights of the heavens, there you are. If I go into the depths of darkness, there you are, darkness is as light to you. No matter where you are today, God is with you. He is fighting for you. He wants to draw you close so you can feel his heartbeat. If you've never received Jesus as your savior, today is your day. Know that our prayer line is here to pray with you, to tell you more about how to start that relationship with Jesus is 888-665-4483. We're here for you. All you have to do is call out Jesus, repent of your sins and ask Him to be yours. What a glorious, glorious hope that we have in God. Truly, you know, I think about all that he had to overcome and what a testimony his life is, Anna, even as you said. I mean, to go from days old in a garbage can and to now be an accomplished pianist, it is powerful. Listen, you wanna stay tuned here on Thursday, June 22nd for part two of Kim's story. It is surely powerful. You know, Anna, I love that he shared that in the midst of it all, it wasn't like this quick turnaround for his life. It wasn't like, but it was these hills and these valleys. And you know, I don't know where you are today. If you find yourself on the mountaintop experience and you feel like, man, this is really what life is about. I'm living in my purpose. Or if you feel like you are in the deepest, darkest valley, Kim's story, and more importantly, Jesus's testimony, is that all of these things Jesus has overcome. Take heart, my friend. Stay encouraged because God is on the throne. It may not look good. It may not feel good, but the good God we serve is surely to be here for you today and into your future. Every day that we walk this journey, we have a choice just like Kim did to either grab a hold of faith or hold on to fear. I believe today is your opportunity to hold on to faith and declare there is hope today. God bless you.