Music Band 2015!

Saxophone is the instrument that my boy had chosen to play on their Music Band Concert. His class is blessed to have a talented and amazing music teacher. Mr. L loves to play different folk songs, from a movie theme song  and always a hymn. He loves to dedicate his and the students' talent to the Maker of Music! 

The Middle School Students had played the final countdown, Old MacDonald had a farm and Joyful, joyful we adore thee and many more. It was an incredible band concert which was well-played by incredible and talented students. We are so proud of them.

6th Grade Class
( from a multi-culture folks: S. Korean, American, Dutch-Filipino, Aussies and Canadian)

We are grateful for teachers that have hearts for the Father and love to serve Him.

Pill Box Seminar!

Papua is a malarial infested place. Dengue is also another disease that fear us living here. Older missionaries taught us to be cautious and be prepared. Nowadays, we have cream and mosquito spray help prevent diseases cause by mosquitoes. 

Some Bible translators in the village find ways to also help the villagers not getting the diseases by educating them. The Pill Box is a tool used by M. de Vries for the people that lives in the village where they do translation. 

PILL BOX

The village people have no education. They are illiterate. So health workers would use color-coding to identify which meds each person need to have. As you can see in the pictures above. If they need Amox for antibiotics, or simple as Paracetamol.

Some expat health workers would use drawings... to illustrate if a person is sick with diaarhea, fever, malaria, scabies , etc.

A family, with the use of plastic containers and materials to illustrate if one is having a malaria or dengue by filling them with water and inject a red food coloring if one is infected.  I thought, it was a brilliant illustration.

Vision Trip- Mamit village!

MAF has changed our Manual to go on vision trip to a village. Before, it was only the wife but presently, it is the whole family which great! A family can stay for the weekend with other missionaries in a village.

So we did! We visited Mamit village where Wes and Esther Dale stationed for more than 10 years. If you have read the Lord's of The Earth book, you find out that Wes' father was speared with bows and arrows and was eaten by the cannibals. It is ironic that Wes came back to Papua and became a missionary to neigbouring tribes. It was quite special to meet Wes and his wife Esther and know a little bit who they are.  They live simply and sacrificially put themselves into serving the Dani tribes of Mamit. For now, they have 75 families are studying at their Bible School. 

During our visit, we had the opportunity to meet and have fellowship with the women at their little church. Our own children were playing with the Mamit kids while the men went on hiking to different villages to preach. This is great! However, there are also tons of men that easily go lucky. They don't care about work.  Some challenges there.

Pictures below:

Arrival in Mamit 

with Mamit kids and Esther and medical team 

Some kids are at school

Some aren't so J&M have playmates

"Hunay"- Papuan homes in the interior village

 Glenda introduced them a song entitled, " My Lord knows the way to the wilderness, all I have to do is Follow!"

Together with Esther and Robbie the nurse who is " a Cousin"!

New Kodiak and the new Trained Kodiak pilot!

Several months ago Papua program  received a New Kodiak. We were thankful that few weeks later, we were given the license to fly it.  The Maintenance Team put their hands-on to inspect the aircraft. It is always good to inspect a vessel right before we use it for our safety.

One day, I (Glenda) was at Marielle's friend's birthday party! I had parked my car on a grassy place. I don't usually check my car before I go. So this time I am about to go but one dad of my girl's classmate told me in Papuan language that I had a flat tire. How glad I am I didn't start to drive my car yet! So it is always good to check our vehicles, aircrafts or ships before going somewhere!

Above pictures were taken when we had to shower a new pilot with buckets and hoses of water (as what has been the practise)! At this time we had pilot Dave R. who did his first solo flight with Kodiak PK-MAF! This is the newest Kodiak plane we received from the States!

Dave with his wife Linda and son Ryan posed for a photo after Dave's solo flight!  They have two sons who are studying at Hillcrest International School!

We are grateful to God for giving us this new vessel and a new trained-pilot for that to further His kingdom and to help the ministry of MAF in Papua! Please do continue to Praise and Pray to our  Master Creator as we serve HIM together!

GIVE THANKS!

" Give thanks to the Lord for HE is good. His love endures forever!

The kids were having a week of vacation. This time I was molding them to be more responsible. I asked them to help do household chores.  One day, Johan baked some yummy chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter! While Marielle was washing the dishes and helped painting the hen house.

On Thanksgiving day no one from the American folks invited us for thanksgiving instead  most of them left on vacation.  However, we invited few of our friends to eat with us for thanksgiving!

Johan and Marielle had to paint these words to place on top of our table.

The table was set for our dinner!

Some candle-lighting to make the home cozy!

We invited the Henradno family, Yeti with Nikita  Marielle's Indonesian classmate at school with her dad! They are the owner of Victory Store in Sentani.

We had Leon and Lauren Dillinger with us. They have been missionaries in Irian Jaya (Papua, Indonesia) for 50 years! They mentioned that the first pilot at that time was Betty Green. The first female pilot of MAF way 1950's! How cool is that?

That was a very special day! 

We Give Thanks!

Theme: Disney Characters!

Month of November is a crazy busy month for expatriates.  Around 5 years ago, Papua was considered to be remote... but after that Papua is climbing into civilization!  Why did I say that? Do you know that Papua, Indonesia has its own fancy Mall and a  Cinema? Are we hapy about that?  Well, if you only know about Papua. That is the best perk we have living here. 

To go back to being busy, the expatriate community thrive by uniting themselves, expressing and performing their talents as a way of entertainment.  HIS International School Seniors held a concert with the theme of "Be Our Guest" in which performers were to wear Disney Characters costumes.

Viewers were also asked to wear disney costumes if they liked to.  Therefore our creative thinking activated and design a Tinker Bell costume for Marielle! Eventhough, she wasn't one of the participants we want her to feel special and be part of it! The costume is the left-over fabric of the kids poufs/seats. Here she is:

Our little Tinker Bell!

Tinker Bell with Captain Hook

Tinker bell with other Tinkers

Tinker Bell with Peter Pan

Finally, Tinker Bell is with her brother that wanted to be normal as he can be!

Why did God create mosquitoes?

Why did God create mosquitoes? 

Living in Sentani has certain things that you can't just avoid. It's full of nature. It's beauty. I must say mosquitoes are part of nature but they aren't necessarily a friend to all. Sentani is one of those places in Papua that is malarial infested area which threatens some lives. Not to mention dengue fever and other viruses caused by mosquito bites!

Waarom heeft God eigenlijk muggen geschapen?

Het leven in Sentani brengt bepaalde dingen met zich mee waar je niet omheen kunt. Prachtige natuur, heel mooi. Muggen zijn een onderdeel van de natuur, dat is waar, maar eigenlijk is er niemand echt vriend mee. Sentani ligt in een malariagebied. Malaria kan levensbedreigend zijn. En dan nog niet gesproken over dengue en andere ziektes die deze muggen verspreiden!

Based on the different bites I have had, it feels like malaria- carrying mosquitoes bite sharper than any other non-carrying ones. Don't know if you believe me!  Anyhow, because mosquitoes are not our friends here, you are allowed to be a killer! Yes!   There are many ways to kill them, namely;  by slapping them with your own hands ( can, can with other hands! ;-), electric badminton  (that's how I name it!) that would zap them to death, anti-mosquito cream or anti-nyamuk oils ( mosquito). And lastly, eradicate them (that day only!) by fogging the mosquitoes with chemicals!

Het lijkt erop dat muggenbeten van een mug die het malaria virus bij zich draagt meer pijn doen dan een beet van een mug die het virus niet bij zich draagt. Dat is tenminste mijn eigen ervaring. Geloof me of niet. Maar goed. Omdat muggen niet tot onze vrienden behoren mogen we best een keer een moordenaar zijn! Yes! Er zijn verschillende manieren om ze te doden. Bijvoorbeeld: sla ze dood met je eigen handen (of met die van iemand anders ; ), of gebruik de elektrische tennisracket (tenminste, zo noem ik het) die ze de dood in slaat, gebruik anti-muggencreme/olie. En als laatste:  door de muggen uit te roeien met chemische rook (alleen die dag)! 

The very last option is quite hazardous to your health. You must take cover! Wear a mask, cover or take away any food items and just be "sombong" means "just be you" that moment as you try to close doors and windows and stay inside your house where smoke cannot even get in!

Deze laatste optie is gevaarlijk voor je eigen gezondheid. Je moet er even doorheen! Masker opzetten, voedsel opbergen of afdekken en terwijl je de ramen en deuren sluit en binnen blijft waar het veilig is voor de gevaarlijke rook.

By the way, have you read that book?

Have you ever seen a mouse sitting proudly on top of the cat's head?

"Why Did God Create Mosquitoes?" is a story about the sad cat who despises the pesky mosquitoes for making her friend sick and go to heaven. With the help of the smart mouse and other "annoying creatures," she realizes the value of God's creation—big and small.

Children, moms, and dads, enjoy reading!