Singapore 2011

After a tiring day in the bird park, we strolled the glittery and bright lights hanging all-around the Orchard road.

Enjoy the water park and food.

We got to visit the Jurung Bird's Park in Singapore and enjoy the beautiful orchid flowers.

It is a huge blessing to us to let Nanay Angie, Glenda's mom and sister Janna to come and meet us up in Singapore and have some fun before our knee surgery.

home-made mayonnaise!

Step 1 Put 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 mustard, 2 tbsps. vinegar and 1 tbsp. sugar in a blender.

Step 2 Dip one egg in boiling water for 20 seconds and then put in cold water to cool.
Step 3 Add the egg

Step 4 Start blending and gently pour 1 cup of oil into the blender until the mixture has thickened.

slowly... until it thickens.

Step 5 There is the cool mayonnaise. Enjoy!!!

Men at work in the hangar!

So glad to have Miles working here in the hangar.

Miles and Gertjan is re-installing the windshield of Quest Kodiak 100. At 5 am in the morning they need to be at the hangar to do this job.

In one of our visits to the hangar,
Marielle is helping her Pappa to remove the papers from the windshield.

Our Happy Karyawan!

Here they are: Our happy karyawan and hard-working boys!

Introducing, Didi, Boy and Gasko. They are our mechanic folks helping our expats fixing and repairing MAF planes.

Our house in Papua!

Yes, this is our cute house in Sentani.

We live in MAF base. It is a 5 minute walk to the hangar for Gertjan.

Eyeview MAF Papua

MAF Office

MAF Compound


The Check-In Department

Of course, the people we are serving!

Preschool time

Marielle is in Pre-school now, yay!

Each mom who has a pre-school kid has to teach a letter in alphabet. Therefore, each week we take turn to teach a letter to the 5 kiddos . So, today is my turn to teach letter "E"!

Our craft is to make an envelope out of a colored paper. I got a very nice stamp to each of them as post stamp. The kids were so happy to make one for their moms. Inside the envelope is a cut-out heart, butterfly or a star for them to write something to their Mom or Dad.

These two girls are Dutch and the 3 boys are Americans. There will be another Dutch girl that will be joining them by December. These kids are sons and daughters of WYcliffe Bible translators, Yajasi or SIL, New Tribes Mission and Mission Aviation Fellowship.

comfort, comfort!

That's what we need for a moment. There were so many challenges we faced the past days in Sentani. A Partner in aviation of SIL/ Jaars in Indonesia just had a fatal accident which lost an experienced pilot and his passangers in the rugged mountains of Indonesia.

Please continue to pray for our pilots here for their safety and that they will have a teachable spirit to keep the work in safer side. Pray for wisdom as they fly the airplanes and that they just have to wait if the weather doesn't allow them to go. Pray for all our mechanics that they will be alert and sensitive as they fix and repair the planes.

We thank God that we have a GOD who is unfathomable unlike us humans so limited in our ways!

Plezier op de Papoea Harapan School!

Op de onafhankelijkheids dag, gingen we naar de Harapan School. De Papoea Harapan School is opgericht door Wally Wiley, directeur MAF Indonesie. De school is speciaal voor arme Papoea kinderen of kinderen uit probleem gezinnen. De kinderen op de school worden gesponsord door sommige zendings families. Vrijwilligers uit Amerika geven de kinderen les. De kinderen leren dat ze belangrijk zijn voor God.
Marielle speelt met de kinderen touwtrekken.

Gertjan en Glenda spelen zak lopen of "sack race" in het Engels. Dat was leuk!

MAF Piloot Mike Brown kon niet direct landen door de bewolking in de vallei. Willen jullie daarom bidden voor onze piloten? De weers omstandigheden kunnen lastig zijn, en er voor zorgen dat de piloot zijn werk niet kan doen omdat hij niet kan landen of opstijgen.

Na 20 minuten cirkelen kon de Kodiak eindelijk landen.

Gertjan met de Papoea's op de conferentie.

Natalja de Ruiter

Op de conferentie heb ik Natalja de Ruiter ontmoet. Zij is de juf van de familie Van Dijk. Ze heeft les gegeven aan drie van hun kinderen. Pieter Van Dijk is MAF piloot in Nabire, Papua.

the "Message" of the Conference!

A beautiful sight of the Pyramid church. This place is where the kids had their VBS with the New Heights team. I have never seen Johan and Marielle so happy and eager to tell what they've been doing and learning at VBS. Marielle was one time happily singing and dancing in front of stage to perform a song from VBS.

In the middle is Pastor Matt Hannan together with his wonderful team from New Heights.

We have learned that Exodus is the gospel of Old Testament. It talks about God's glory to reveal His redemption. Exodus, declaring the Sovereignty of God, declaring God's compassion to the people of Israel. No books of the Old Testament that talk about the Heart.

Another message Pastor Matt had said, " Sin is a very terrible task busters"! The message of Exodus is .. search your heart.. because you cannot play with a Holy God.!


Akulah Terang Dunia means, "I am the Light of the World! "

Here we are standing in this beautiful valley of Pyramid!

Conference in Action!

The Lewis's family, is one of our cooks in the conference. They are from SIL if I am not mistaken. We really appreciate their hardwork at the conference.
Gertjan, the NH team and other MAF men were playing ultimate frisbee!

The Mitch's have been the MAF cooks for many times. We love their cooking and baking. This time they were feeding 115 people. Behind them are the Papuan helpers who helped a lot in the kitchen. Thank you guys.

Marielle is playing with hannah Janse.

Johan was having fun too. As you can see, behind Johan were the Moms full of energy to cheer and playing the Team building game.

Part 3- MAF Conference 2011

This is where we get our hot water for shower in Pyramid. The local helpers had to start making wood fire at 4 o'clock in the morning and then at 4pm.
Kodiak MEC flew families to and fro Wamena-Pyramid!

Our MAF-PNG family representative presenting the Thompson's family. They are lovely people to be with! Keep up the good works guys.

Now you see the Papuan culture here. Following a pig is wealth! it is because pigs are for bride price or dowry! I guess there are many pigs in Pyramid because i could smell it most of the time.

MAF conference 2011- part 2

Finally in Pyramid, a 9- minute Kodiak flight and 12 minute flight by Caravan plane from Wamena.

From afar is the airstrip of Pyramid village.
Skyview of Wamena town. This time we were shuttled by pilot Dan de Salvo with the MAF Caravan airplane.

Wasn't that a glorious day? MAF Wamena Base, Papua.

This is the Kodiak and Caravan waiting to shuttle MAF families to Pyramid for a family conference.

MAF Conference 2011

"Becak" is most common transport of the Indonesian people.

This is some kind of a bicycle or trisikad for Filipinos. But the passenger has to sit in front while the driver is at the back stirring the wheels.

Welcome to Wamena where all the Papuans would stop and take a long moment and look at you with a smile on their faces. :) at least some.
We were flying with Trigana Airline since our MAF planes were taken by our New Heights Team from the US plus all the advance team to prepare the place for us. On the way home flight with Trigana, our sits were lose and you can imagine that i have been praying quite hard! :)

Below photo was when we first arrived in Wamena. It was a beautiful day and cooler compare to Sentani.