My Story

In 1939, I (Judith Vanderberg Doctor, MSW, RN) was born into a commercial fishing family of German-Dutch and French-English ancestry. The eldest of six children, I grew up in an alcoholic family system, inheriting an emotional legacy of emptiness, loneliness, fear and anxiety.

I was baptized as an infant in the Methodist Church. My mother pointed me to God by sending me to Child Evangelism and Sunday School in the nearby Baptist Church.

As a girl growing up on the shore of Lake Michigan, I promised myself that someday I’d get to know this God I heard about in Sunday School. I have wandered a long trail from my evangelical heritage to my own transformative encounters with a living God.

After marrying my husband Gerald Doctor in 1959, I became a registered nurse, gave birth to three sons, became a good church member, and lived the American dream—until a doctor’s diagnosis in 1970 (our seven-year-old had leukemia) propelled me into a quest for reality in a living God. If I was to survive, I needed something more than just trying to be good, following rules and laws; I needed to experience God for myself.

Spiritual quest

Living in Southern California, I heard about the Jesus People Movement and visited their dynamic praise gatherings. I learned about a missing piece in my spiritual foundation: the Holy Spirit and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1971. My quest brought me into contact with ministries from many Christian backgrounds—Protestant, Evangelical, Catholic,  Pentecostal, Charismatic—and God used them all for my spiritual growth.

In 1978, I entered an intensive search for personal growth, healing and wholeness. Responding to direction from God in a dream, I learned about how God uses dreams to help us and why the Christian world has ignored them. Ever since, dreams have played a major role in my walk with God.

At one point, I became aware that many of my thoughts and emotions were not life-giving. I asked the Lord to help me: I dreamt I was lying on an operating table with my body split wide open, filled with rottenness. Hands were packing me with salt.

Recognizing my condition, I surrendered myself into hands of the Great Physician. During the next seven years, God healed my wounds and freed me from lies that had been woven into the center of my personality.

Growing up, I’d seen myself as like an empty box, with nothing valuable inside of it. But I’d prayed, “Lord make me bigger.” As I emerged from these transformative experiences, I was given a new image of myself: I am like a treasure chest, packed full of treasure.

In 1985, as a result of these changes, friends asked me to teach them what I had learned. So my life took on greater meaning and purpose as I began to help others become more spiritually alive and whole.

For more of my story, you can listen to my audio files or look at my blog Judith Doctor’s Lifeline Posts

https://judithdoctor.com/audio-files/     https://judithdoctor.com/blog/

Voice of personal experience

I know firsthand a loving God who brought resurrection life through the crises of my life—death of our son from leukemia, battle-worn marriage, family addictions, and deep inside my troubled soul. By many lived experiences, I know that God is real, personal, and cares about our lives.

In numerous transformative encounters, I have tested and proved the truths and spiritual principles found in the Bible. I know that life comes out of death, meaning and purpose out of chaos. Although I used to feel empty, lonely, and fearful, by the power of God and the Holy Spirit I have been set free, healed, and my life transformed.

Along the way I discovered an indescribable thing called the resurrection power of God. It isn’t my power, it is God’s power living within me. I learned how to surrender myself and the things most precious to me into the hands of God and place my faith in his power.

During those years, God reparented me, strengthening and establishing me in his love. He healed my wounds, freed me from fears, and released me from lies woven into the fabric of my personality. In a dream, He showed me who I am: I watched as a vibrantly alive woman—the new creation—stepped out of the old me.

Today, I am aware of my union with Christ, capable of fulfilling my God-given destiny. No longer pulled by the demands of the Law or driven by a sense of duty to pay lip service, I can function out of the center of my heart and embrace my life with vision and purpose.

Early Christian ministry

In the early years my Christian experience included evangelism; girl’s club, youth groups, Bible studies, growth groups; programs for Spring Hill Camps; hosting tours to Israel. I also served as president of a Women Aglow chapter, state coordinator of Lydia, conference coordinator for the Institute of Christian Counseling and Therapy.

Teaching & healing ministry begins

Since, 1985 my retreats, workshops, classes,  seminars, and radio ministry have helped many people receive something more from God.

One of God’s great goals for us is wholeness, becoming an undivided person. Combining a knowledge of the Bible, psychological principles, creative exercises and interactive learning, I  create opportunities for insight and healing. By working with a variety of media, personal symbols, and emotional processing, I help people go beyond the confines of their rational minds into a deeper part of their being to see both God and themselves more clearly.

Many Christians today know God in a routine, habitual way. We need to become an experiential people who can testify with the voice of personal experience to the reality of God’s promises.

It is important to realize that spiritual growth comes not by trying harder but by seeing—by revelation and insight. As St. Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17-19, we  must pray for revelation. Once we can see spiritually, we begin to understand God’s truth in a new and deeper way. Aware of His indwelling presence through the Holy Spirit, we become confident that we can know God’s direction for our lives.

Doorway to Europe

Responding to the call of God to “open the eyes of the blind that they might turn from darkness to light,” I’ve ministered both at home and abroad as an expression of my personal faith. I have gone into the “highways and byways,” wherever doors were open,

The Lord opened the way for me to visit several clinics in Germany devoted to holistic healthcare—healing the whole person as a unity, body, soul, and spirit. I became acquainted with therapeutic community dynamics, bonding and emotional release, and the 12-step process. In 1991, I was invited to work for six months in the Hochgrat Klinik to help with the spiritual aspect of their work. Through my friendships developed there, God opened the doors to ministry throughout Germany.

In a dream in 1994, I saw a large map of Germany, with little points of light turning on all over. In particular I saw more lights in the area around Braunschweig. A man in the dream said that God was going to send me there as His ambassador. In response to the message in the dream I began going to Germany several times each year.

During those years I conducted many workshops and seminars in homes and churches. I spoke at several Christen im Beruf e.V. chapters (Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship), the Adula Klinik in Oberstdorf; the Hochgrat Klinik in Wolfsried; Förderkreis (Association for Medicine of the Whole Person) in Bad Herrenalb; and Women Aglow in Frankfurt.

Co-founded Kairos Ministries, Inc.

In 1999 my husband and I founded Kairos Ministries, Inc. [a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation], a life-giving ministry that helps people experience the loving presence and healing power of God. Kairos Ministries is dedicated to bringing the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit into the lives of people who earnestly seek him.

We provide Christ-centered programs for spiritual growth, healing and wholeness in the United States and Europe. Also, we offer personal spiritual life mentoring, inner healing ministry, and dreams consultation.

Our programs inspire people to become adventurers with God. He wants to enlarge our tents, expand our territory, and lead us to do things we never thought we could do. This requires us to trust God. We affirm and proclaim this: we can trust the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us.

In answer to my prayers, God opened a door to Romania in the late 90s. I have spoken to a number of organizations and groups, including Clinica Pro Vita (a pro-life Christian ministry) and Ratiu Leukemia Foundation. I have addressed the annual conference of Asociatia De Nursing and conducted workshops with nurses throughout Romania. I also taught at the Baptist Nursing School in Bucharest and have been interviewed on Sibiu Radio Vocea Evangheliei.

Radio Horeb ministry

Between 2001 and 2002 we lived in Germany, ministering inner healing and teaching through workshops, seminars and faith-building conversations. During this time, the Lord opened a doorway to radio. Every month since then, I am live on Radio Horeb, teaching and sharing my experiences with God (via translator). I do this ministry from my home in the USA via telephone connection to the studio in southern Germany.

Spiritual dimension in helping professions

In August 2005, I graduated from Grand Valley State University with a Master of Social Work degree. An emphasis of my studies was holistic treatment models, depth psychology, and the integration of Christian spirituality and interventions into the treatment process. As part of my studies, I described a number of spiritual interventions for an unpublished work, Resource Manual of Spiritual Interventions (2005), some of which is downloadable (Professional Papers).

Healing ambassador

I have lived a life of adventure, ministering to people from all walks of life in the USA, Western Europe, and Romania. By the grace of God I have shared my testimony with many people. As God’s healing ambassador I have been privileged to listen to countless stories of the sorrow and pain carried in the hearts of people. I have seen firsthand the power of God’s love at work, restoring hope, strengthening faith, and healing hurting people.

The things I have witnessed, the encounters I experienced, the moments of grace I received since I began my journey with God would fill untold pages in stories not yet written.

Author & blogger

Recently I published “I Forgive You: How Heart-Based Forgiveness Sets You Free” (Forgiveness Book). I also coauthored two books on dreams from a Judeo-Christian perspective (Dream Books). I have published in The Journal of Christian Healing, and in Asociaţia De Nursing Din România Journal. In my blog “Judith Doctor’s Lifeline Posts”  I write about things a spiritual adventurer in God needs to know.

Personal

Married since 1959, we have two sons and daughters-in-law, and four grandchildren. Since 1978 we have been part of The New Life, Inc., an inter-denominational ministry with a wide-spread community of both Catholics and Protestants. We currently reside in Arcadia, Florida.

Educational Background

Hackley Hospital School of Nursing, 1960

Central Michigan University: Bachelor of Science in Community Development (BSCD), 1994

Grand Valley State University: Masters of Social Work (MSW), 2005