 Creator thinks about you all day, every day. What a wonderful truth that gives us hope for today. And we're so glad that you're with us here on Hope Today. I'm Anna, and I'm here with Sydney and Tom. Tom, tell us about what to expect today. You guys are gonna love this. You know, it doesn't matter where or how you start out in life. God has a plan and purpose for everyone. And that's the message of piano artist, Kim Deardorf, who we had on the show with us last Friday. You may have heard him. But coming up in just a few minutes, you'll get to hear the continuation of my conversation with him and how God's using his life to encourage and inspire others. Plus, you'll also get to hear another one of his moving piano performances. You're gonna be blessed by that. We've also got a little biopic of him, a little three-minute video that he did of his life so if you missed Friday, you'll get to hear the beginning part of his story. It's so powerful. You know, it's just really powerful when we hear other stories. It gives us hope. It gives us a determination to believe that God did it for them, then he can do it for me as well. So we always love to bring you encouraging and inspiring stories that you can be inspired and bring hope to your soul. Yeah, truly each one of us have a story. Like God has written this beautiful story for us to tell, to be a light. And I tell you what, if you are in a dark place today or maybe you've come out of a dark place, I mean, I just want to encourage you that so often we have to die to ourselves. We have to go through that dark time, that winter season where everything feels dead and lost, but know that springtime is coming. And when you're down in that dark place, God is working a new thing to bring you back to life again. And that's truly what we're gonna see in the story today. Well, I do love people's stories. There was a praise song like 20 years ago or so that said, Gadot is as his people, we're here to seek his face. To each there is a story of his amazing grace. And I have that story, we all do. You have that story too, if you know him. Yes, you do. And now we're gonna take some time to play something called Stump the Host. Let's go. All right, here's question number one. What type of insect did John the Baptist eat in the desert? This is easy, isn't it? Locust and honey. It was locust. Can I just say our marketing director here, when she was away at a conference, she ate locusts. Like to experience the John the Baptist. I mean, I was at that conference and apparently one of the places had those. I'm glad I didn't go by that. Here is our second one. Which God was Paul mistaken for in Leistra? He was mistaken for Hermes, okay, because he was the main speaker. They were him and the other, I forget who was with them at that time, they were mistaken for Zeus and Hermes. It was Hermes. Okay, there we go. All right, all right, take that, take that, David, Neil. We are watching their faces. Oh my God, oh my God. Here's the last question. What was the name of Judas Iscariot's father? Oh, I don't know. You know, it's funny, I was just reading about this, but I don't remember. This is when we want to pay attention to the lineage, the list of names probably. Judas Iscariot, I have no idea. Carrot, no, is carrot. No, oh my goodness. There's something in his last name there, Iscariot that means something like that. Larry just buzz, like Rick upstairs just buzz us. We just buzz us. We got it, we have no idea. We are stumps. Signed Iscariot, you were on the right track. No, I think I was on the wrong track actually. I think I jumped the track. My brain jumped the track on that one. Boy, I'm glad you played along. Right now, take a look at this video of Kim Deirdorff sharing his story. My name is Kim Deirdorff, and this is my story. I was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1964. I was found in the garbage when I was just a few days old. I was taken to the Holt Orphanage, and I spent the first several weeks of my life in a hospital where they thought I had something wrong with my eyes and they thought I might be blind. They gave me the birthday of January 1st since they didn't know when I was born. And this is the LA airport. This is the airport that all the parents gather to fly over to Korea to adopt their children. And here they're flying from LA to Seoul. And here they arrive in Korea, and everyone's excited about meeting the children for the first time. And this is my adoptive mother and my adopted sister, Kathy. And this is my adoptive father, and he was helping out at the orphanage. And during the week, they were shooting the story about the Holt's. Harry Holt dies of a heart attack, and this man who devoted his life to saving others was gone. He devoted his life to saving children, and I am one of those he saved. And here we are at his funeral in Seoul. And this is another picture of my adoptive mother and my sister, Kathy. And after that emotional week, all the families are excited about returning back to America to start their new lives. And everyone has a story, and this is my story. And here I am, I'm four months old, and I weigh eight pounds, and I've been saved twice through the blood of Jesus Christ. And this is my life, and I wouldn't want any other. What a powerful story. Kim Dyrdorf is with us to share what God is doing and the rest of his story. Kim, thanks for coming back to the show. Well, absolutely, it's an honor to be here. Let me ask you, something that we didn't cover last time is you're self-taught, completely self-taught as far as the piano. That's right. And I think that's an important thing because I don't have all the formal training and background and degrees to fall back on or to rest on. I have to just accept the fact that God gave me the ability and a gift and a wanting to learn this instrument and a willingness, and he really supplies all the power behind it. So we heard your story last time, and we just saw the video. What has God done in 2000? You had a new direction in your life. What's God's done there? Sure, so I'd been in Florida for five years. You know, every year, January 1st is my birthday, so on New Year's Day, I'd pray and ask God, well, what's next? What might you be wanting me to do this year? And in 2000, I somehow felt an overwhelming desire or leading to move to Nashville, Tennessee. 1987, when I was in Texas, I entered my first and only songwriting competition. It was a national Christian songwriting competition in Anastaspar, Colorado. I didn't place first, but I placed third nationally, and I was invited to move to Nashville in 87. So for 13 years, I'd been thinking about moving to Nashville. And over 13 years, God eventually said, you know, I think it's time to move to Nashville. And I didn't even know how or why. Yeah, so what happened when you went to Nashville? What did God do? Sure, so I'd spent 18 months doing freelance work in Orlando, and God had blessed my business tremendously. I was competing against multi-million dollar production companies out of my bedroom. And so I moved to Nashville just strictly on faith and God's leading. And I left my friends behind. I left my professional clients behind. I left my church family behind. Yeah, you're like the rhinestone cowboy walking the streets just looking for the opportunity. Well, you know, it's interesting because had I moved in 87, my whole goal would have been to just become a famous songwriter. And 2000 after 13 years of waiting, my heart's goal and desire was just to follow God's leading in my life. And so I moved to Nashville. I called over 285 studios, producers, editors, video production companies. I went to all kinds of industry functions. I had one day of work in 18 months. And I went through depression like I'd never gone through in my life. Nobody was calling. I'd left all my friends and my support, you know, people back in Orlando. And it was just me and God. And, you know, I laid on the floor for like two weeks because I was just in depression thinking, well, I moved to Nashville now, what's happening? A year and a half later, I get hired to be a teacher at the National State Community College. They were teaching the very first class in digital audio recording. I was the first teacher off of that. I was invited to train all the audio engineers at Country Music Television because that was the software that they were using. At the end of that, I was invited to be the first ever audio freelance engineer in Country Music Television history in Nashville in the city of thousands of engineers. You know, and it's just, again, it's just God leading my life in a very unconventional way. When I was teaching at the college, I didn't even have a degree. And so that's just God opening up that opportunity. I ended up, you know, up and down financially for the next six years. I found some original footage of when my parents adopted me back in 1964. I edited it into a three minute video. I put it up real early on. That's what we just saw, isn't it? Yes, that's right. I put it up on YouTube and I started getting people writing to me from all over the world. I got invited to start speaking at conferences. My first ever conference was in Portland, Oregon. I'd never done a conference before. I'd never spoke before. And I show up in Oregon and I found out I'm the keynote speaker for the weekend. Oh my goodness. Wow, this is a Joseph story here from, you know, not having any work at all for a year and a half to kind of being just behind the scenes, to teaching, to then this, what happened with the conference? Well, you know, she asked me for an outline of what I'd be speaking on. I didn't have an outline course. I'd never done this before. I did three days, 90 minute talks each to high schoolers. And you know, you can tell when the Holy Spirit shows up. Based off that experience, I felt like, well, maybe God may be preparing me to share my testimony more. And so I kind of was thinking in that direction. In 2008, I'm sitting in my room. I'm two months behind on all my bills. Financially, I'm really struggling. I was invited to Knoxville, Tennessee to represent Holt International, the agency that I was adopted through when I was a baby. And I was representing them and inviting people to sponsor orphans for the organization. I didn't even have money to travel from Nashville to Knoxville. I was FedEx the check of $200. I went to Knoxville. I'm sitting behind a table that first night. And the head of the conference comes up to me and says, hey, would you share part of your story and tomorrow morning's appeal and help interest other people to sponsor children? So I met him at 10 o'clock. We walk around to the back of the auditorium. I said, I also have some music CDs I brought along. He said, that sounds great. He said, why don't we offer some of your CDs to the people that sponsor children? Well, I only had 110 of them left. I was two months behind all my bills. I just walked through a room where all the speakers had all their DVDs, videos, books. And I saw stacks of money on the table. And he was asking me to give my last 110 CDs away. And I said, I'm just going to trust God. And I went out and I presented my story in a way I had never presented it before. And the Holy Spirit's presence was so strong. They had record number of sponsorships that weekend, more sponsorships than they'd ever had at any other event. And I was invited to go on tour with them to finish out the tour. It was a group called New Song. And over the next six and a half months, I did 73 cities. You went from not sharing your testimony at all, not knowing what you're going to share hardly, to all of a sudden, you're the main speaker for 73. They featured my story. I got to represent Holt. Halfway through the tour, we were doing the Christmas segment. All the kids on my bus were half my age. I was 47 at the time. They were all in their 20s. And they were always encouraging Eddie to maybe have me play some music at the program. And so he calls me up. He said, we have 15 minutes before the program. He says, can you play some music during Christmas? He said, where are you going to play? I said, I'm going to play Silent Night and do other songs. He says, well, I don't want them to get bored. And I said, well, I said, Eddie, this is what I'm going to say. I said, I'm like the little drummer boy. I have one style of music. I wish I had all these other styles. I'm the little drummer boy. I have one drum. I said, all I can do is take my one drum and place it before the lord and ask him to bless it. And the response was so good that he had me play for the rest of the tour. And my point is, don't ever feel limited by what God gives you, even though you don't feel it's enough, because it's God's interacting in what he's already done in your life that provides the platform. Provides the platform. And he did a lot in your life. So tell me now, you mentioned you were 47. So I guess you met Sherry along the way here. And you got married at this point. Well, you know, at 47, I was invited to talk at a small group. I saw this girl. She came up and we started talking. We went on our first date four days later. We got married two months after that at 47. This year is our 12th. You were making up for lost time, brother. I will say this year is our 12th anniversary. But what I also say is, when God moves, it doesn't take a long time for him to do something. I was always lamenting that all my friends had already gotten married, had families, bought a house. And at 47, at 48, I bought my first house. I married Sherry. I inherited three beautiful, loving kids. So in one year, I'd already caught up with all my friends. Wow, how about that? So let me ask you about today, right now. What is God, how is God using your story? How is God using your involvement with Holt or how's God doing that? So in 2020, Sherry lost her job and her mom on January 3rd on the same day. And we decided that we wanted us to do more ministry work. So we started a 501C3 called My Story Kim Ministries. And it's really dedicated to me doing this, where I get to share my story, what God's done in my life, what God can do in anybody's life, as long as they accept him into their heart and allow him to lead. And right now, we're partnered with Holt, the agents. That's the agency that adopted you way back. Right, so we do events and churches and conferences, and I share my story and we invite people to sponsor Children Through Holt. So if somebody's watching and they want to sponsor a child through Holt, how do they do that? Just go to my website, it's mystorykim.com. And on the first page, there's a whole, there's links where people come together. And what does that mean to sponsor Holt? It basically means they get to go to a webpage. They have children from all over the world that they can select a particular child. They provide food and education and support. A lot of these kids aren't being adopted currently, but they're needing support in foster homes. And so they're able to lend help with their education and their health needs and that kind of thing. And we'll be sure to put a link on our website, ctvn.org, to your website. But I want to ask you, we're gonna hear your music in just a moment. One final thing, what has God, what was the one word God's given you for to share with everyone? I think the key in my life and in anybody's life is identity. Before I met the Lord, before He solidified His relationship with me, I was just, I didn't know who I was. I especially didn't know who I was as biologically. But I didn't know who I was, who God made me. And so I think the most important thing for anybody is to learn their identity and that their identity can be a child of God through Christ. That is such a good word. Kim Durdorf, thank you so much for sharing. Absolutely, thank you so much for having me. Powerful, I know there's a lot more to it, but I appreciate what you've been able to share with us. And we're gonna ask you to share some music with us. And so we're gonna hear from Kim in just a second. But I think it's so important for us to pause a moment and say, what is our identity? Some of us who grew up in Christian homes, we struggle with our identity. We struggle with where is God, when the things are difficult, what does God think about me? I wanna tell you right now, God loves you. He's a loving father who pours out his love upon you. And even when it's dark and even when it seems like things aren't getting through to God, he's still caring and he's still moving. Well, right now, Kim is gonna share with us the song, This Is My Father's World. Kim Durdorf said he had one drum. Like the little drummer boy and you all know the story. What can I give to the Christ child? Well, I give my drum, my talent, the thing I do. And that's what Kim has given to the Lord. And God is using it mightily. So what's that thing for you? Guys, I just, I think about this. I think we all have that drum. We all have that thing that we're, that God's given us a talent. Sometimes we don't recognize it. Sometimes it comes out later, but we have that thing to give to the Lord. Yeah, we absolutely do. And you know, I just love how he said, if you feel limited in what you have, like maybe you look at other people and you're like, oh, I wish I had their talent. I wish I had their gift. Like look at all the ways that God is using them. Well, God has given each one of us a talent to use. And so our job is to search for what that is, to practice, to step out, step out of our comfort zone, try different things and see what the Lord does with it. So as you saw Kim in faith, he stepped out. And when we do, God is so faithful to multiply and use what he's given us. You know, Anna, when you're speaking, I just think of that scripture where the gifts of God, they're without repentance, they're irrevocable. So what he gives every one of us, whether we're in the kingdom or not, we all have a gift. But the thing is, I think it's so important with our gift, how are we going to use it? How are we going to use the things that God has given us to glorify him and to bring others to his light? And so as you're watching Kim's story, just pray that whatever gift that God has given you, no matter what it looks like, just to seek God's face and to know that you could use that to bring healing, to bring light, to bring love, to bring deliverance, to set other people's free, to bring them to Jesus. That's what it's all about. You know, you said so much to me when you said that God gives each of us a gift. Even if we don't know him, even if we don't know him, there's gifts inside of people that they can use for good or bad. In fact, some people have used their gifts of leadership or their gifts of influence or the gifts of music or their gifts of whatever for wrong. But God wants to take, that's one thing I love about God is when we come to him, when we come in humility and say, I need you in my life, Lord, please come into my life, be my Lord and Savior. When we do that, all of a sudden he says, hey, guess what, I've put this thing inside of you. You've used it wrongly. Maybe you didn't even recognize it, but you've used it wrongly. Now let me take that thing and let me form it and with the character of Christ in it and let me use it to glorify God and bring life to the kingdom of God. Those things, it's just incredible. I've seen it over and over again in people's lives. Yeah, and something both of you said that I just wanna magnify is that it really is about glorifying God that your life would bring glory to God. It's not about bringing glory to ourselves, which is why we have to trust God to develop it, to give us the opportunities to step out. So today, know that your life was created to glorify God. So push that fear away, step into that faith and see what God will do. You know, even though we're just having this conversation, I think no matter what the gift is, no matter what he's given us, I think it is so important for us to be a living sacrifice. That is something that God has just been building and burning in my spirit every day is that how do we come before God? How do we lay ourselves before him? He is the king of kings and he is the Lord of lords and it is so important for us to get off of ourselves and to say, you know what Jesus, you know what God, you are the creator of the universe and I give my life, I give myself, I give my all to you today. So we just want to ask you, are you ready to be a living sacrifice for Jesus? That is the greatest hope that we have. Have a great day. On tomorrow's Hope Today, encouraging the next generation to get outdoors and get to know God. Author Erin Lynam invites parents to help their children re-engage with the natural world by teaching them the connection between God and creation. Don't miss tomorrow's Hope Today. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.