M & M in Suriname

On Thursday, March 6 we arrived in Apetina with Jon and Ria Dam. Jon is the secretary of the Board of Foundations for Farming in the Netherlands. As we flew over the river, we hoped to see rocks in the rapids so that we could bathe in the river. We succeeded! The first two days we could enjoy the nice water in the river. After that, the water rose 4 to 6 inches every day, so after two days, the current was so strong that we had to move to our rain shower in the house. This time we arrived in a clean house because Ilse had been in Apetina 3 weeks before us. So we were able to share the house. Ilse had even put hot water for coffee and fresh biscuits on the table. A warm welcome!

Rumikub in the evening

These ladies came to thank us for the baby food we continue to supply through Medical Mission

People come to meet us after church

It was wonderful to give our friends a glimpse into our lives and those of the Wayana. We are also looking forward to training the Wayana in the sustainable farming methods offered by Foundations for Farming.

We flew in two rolls of carpet on the plane that would bring Jon and Ria back to the city.

We continue to enjoy feeling at home in different worlds. We were able to mourn with our neighbours for the loss of their one-year-old daughter. With others in the village, we were able to enjoy the new babies in the family.

Meeting with the elders in our house

Near the airstrip, a large group of people were helping to clear a field to place the solar panels for the antenna of the Trans World Radio transmitter. What a huge project! We pray that Wayana and Trio will be there to support the vision and technology of the radio work. It has so much potential. Later that week, the studio and transmitter were tested and the signal was received on a radio! The system works.

Next to the airstrip, 6 antennas have been erected to create a radio link between the Wayana villages

The Trans World Radio studio and transmitter building in Apetina

Due to the heavy rain, it was not possible to fly the students for the local Bible school from the various villages to Palumeu. It turned out that the school would start a week later than planned. They started on Monday, March 24th, and finished on Friday, April 4th.

Ame, Susana’s husband, also attended the school. It is good preparation for their plans to go to Winnipeg, Canada in mid-May. They hope to study English at a language school during the week. Each weekend they plan to attend a church in the North End, where many First Nations people live. They also hope to strengthen relationships with the National Evangelical Fellowship or Canada when they visit their annual conference in Regina. It is a busy programme for which they are already preparing, as well as caring for the children and parents left behind in Lawa.

Tukusipan needs a new roof. Some leaves have been collected.

Online meetings are our daily routine. Here, Marjolein meets with a team from all over the world. Now, Apetina is our hotspot.

Anneke Kempeneers, the youth worker in Lawa, sent us the following story:

The Bible school in Palumeu has finished. All the students are longing for their families. For MAF this means a few days of continuous flights to bring all the men back to the villages. Four flights in one day are planned for Lawa. It’s ambitious, but if the planes can be loaded and unloaded quickly, it can be done.

The first three flights go off without a hitch. However, there is now an hour’s delay in the schedule. This is difficult as the chance of rain increases later in the afternoon. I can already see the air changing. Pilot Johan is hoping for the best and says, “See you later” before he takes off to pick up the last men from Palumeu.

5.06 PM The telephone rings. It is a colleague from MAF who says that Johan took off from Palumeu 30 minutes ago. “How is the weather in Lawa at the moment?” I am shocked and worried. I had not expected the fourth flight so late in the afternoon. It is raining and, even worse, there is a thunderstorm. It will probably go on until sunset. As so often in the rainy season. “Lord, keep them safe!

5.39 PM MAF calls again. Johan is near Lawa. What’s the weather like now? I reply that, contrary to my expectations, the rain and thunderstorm stopped exactly two minutes ago. But the sky is heavily overcast and dark. “Do you see a hole in the clouds? Johan just needs a hole. That is all I can see. A small hole in the distance. “Lord, please let Johan see that hole too”.

It sweeps through the village like a raging fire. MAF is coming! My phone’s working again. The Wayanas are calling now. “They say the MAF is coming, but it can’t be true!” The people are stunned as they listen to the sound of the plane coming closer and closer. After the plane had landed safely, I called out to one of the people, “Good, huh? He points up and says, “Thank God. After the plane had been unloaded, I heard from Johan how exciting it was. On the way, he got caught in a thunderstorm. Would he have to return? Luckily, he was able to consult his colleague Joop on the radio, who was also on a flight (to another destination). The decision was made to continue the flight. This was not easy. Joop encouraged him on the radio. Behind his back, the four passengers were praying. The Lord kept them safe. Between the lightning. And he gave Johan enough sight to land safely.

As I lie in my hammock this evening, I think about how special this day has been. This morning, the weather was good, but the telecom tower didn’t work. This afternoon, when we really needed it, the telecom tower worked fine (usually it doesn’t work during thunderstorms). A miracle. It is also a miracle that Joop, flying his own plane, was able to coach Johan on this trip. A miracle that the storm stopped just when Johan was approaching Lawa.

Last week we arrived in the Netherlands. For the next two months, we have a full schedule. More about that in our next blog.

We thought to sleep later in the evening of December 31 from 2024 to 2025. We didn’t think about our neighbors. At midnight we all woke up with a ‘pagara’ that went off. A ‘pagara’ is several meters of firecrackers with a long wick. When lit it seems like a machine gun is going off. This is how we started the new year.

Marjolein’s father flew back to the Netherlands on January 16. We enjoyed his visit very much! After two months of living with the three of us, it took some time to get our rhythm of being together again. We quickly got back in the groove, after all, we have more than 20 years of experience… (since the kids got out of the house :)).

A week later we celebrated Marjolein’s 65th birthday. We didn’t make it a big party. Cozy coffee with apple pie at our daughters’ in Paramaribo was great to celebrate. We are extremely grateful that we’re able to experience this together and that we are both healthy and can intensely enjoy the life we ​​have received so far.

Let’s talk about the 2025 plans of Wayana to go to Canada.

Ame and Susina are in the starting blocks to go to the Heartland International English School in Winnipeg for intensive English training for 10 weeks in May 2025. We are impressed by their perseverance. They have a specific prayer point: they leave 3 teenagers behind with their grandfather and grandmother for three months. Please pray that the spiritual climate with the grandparents will be good. That God comforts the children when they miss their parents?

We have calculated a budget for the trip, and it is clear they are not able to bring that amount on their own. Even for the Wayana community, this is out of their reach. Part of the budget has already been donated by some of our supporters on a monthly base. Another amount has been reserved at World Team Suriname. The Wayanas have promised that they pay the costs for the local travel of Ame and Susina in Suriname.

May we ask for your help with the following amount?

We still need US$ 8,500 to complete the total budget. An important part of this is the English course at Heartland International English School, the Language Institute in Winnipeg, which costs US$ 2,550 per person where they will follow 25 hours of lessons per week. This requires an amount of US$ 5,100 for the two of them.

You can transfer your contribution to World Team project nr 40546 ‘Wayana/Canada Mission Project’.

Online giving through World Team Canada

Online Giving through World Team USA

At the end of January, we discussed the plans for 2025 with the small group of Foundations for Farming Suriname. Both local trainers are busy. Serge guides several groups in the province of Brokopondo. Jennifer is doing a great job of developing the training center for Foundations for Farming in Suriname. That is standing with her feet in the clay. The intention is to set up the Foundations for Farming Suriname Foundation in the coming months. This year we aim to organize basic training every two months.

This month there is another weekend on the program. One of the board members of Foundations for Farming the Netherlands will visit with his wife in mid-February. We hope to go to Apetina for a few days at the beginning of March to have a look at the gardens there.

This month we will participate in a course within the World Team to fill the transition to the pension. We do this together with colleagues within the World Team. In the coming week, we will read the 11 topics that we will deal with in small groups in the coming months. Together and in a larger context, we talk about it more often that we will arrive in the coming years, but we can and could also extend it for us. Now we are practically working on the transition that this requires to think well. We are curious!

We enjoyed our weeks in Lawa. It was very nice to meet the people again and hear their stories.

Our view at the end of the afternoon

Picture moment

In the past 12 1/2 years that we have been living here, we have never seen the river this low due to the extremely dry ‘dry season’.  This has many negative consequences for the people: the cassava on their farm land has hardly grown, all food and fuel for the outboard motors must be delivered by air. As a result, prices have skyrocketed. For example, 20 liters of petrol for the outboard motor costs 120 euros in a village 3 hours downstream. The store near Lawa has run out of gasoline. A trip downstream now costs at least 240 euros. Fortunately, various organizations and private individuals support the Wayana communities by sending in rice by air.

It recently started to rain every day again and we see the water level slowly rising. We hope that prices will then drop back to the previous rates.

Meeting with the church leaders for the 2025 plans

Cross-cultural working requires a lot of flexibility. We had discussed in advance with one of the church leaders whether our arrival was suitable because we wanted to talk about the plans for future ministry in Canada. We want to know the vision of the Wayana churchleaders in this matter. It is finally Friday afternoon, December 13th. when we managed to speak to the church board.

Saturday morning, December 14th. we had a church-wide leadership meeting about the planning and the budget for 2025. We enjoy seeing the younger leaders take the lead.

Result

Explaining this telephone

half hour walk in the early morning, stretching the legs

goodbye in church

It was very nice to spend a few days with Anneke in Lawa, share things together and look ahead.

Marjoleins dad left a few days earlier

On Monday, December 16, we boarded the plane back to Paramaribo.

We have now been in our house in Republiek for a week. Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas with Elsbeth and her family. Very special that her grandfather can be with us this year.

Christmas shopping

Lights of the season

We are also planning for 2025. We look forward to what the new year will bring.

After 7 wonderful weeks in the Netherlands and surrounding areas, we landed safely in Suriname last week. It was very nice to meet a lot of people and see how they are doing. On Friday, November 8, during our fundraising dinner we briefly reflected on the fact that we left for Suriname with our 3 children 35 years ago. It was so nice to review some photos from the past.

This week is filled with preparations for our trip to Lawa next Tuesday. The boxes with groceries are filling up steadily. Preparations are also underway for the first Foundations for Farming introductory training at the expertise center in the making on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 November.

We have had several rain showers last week, but it is still very dry inland. This means that the water level is so low that Chinese supermarkets can no longer be supplied. This means that the Wayana cannot buy rice. Next Friday, MAF will fly a plane full rice to Lawa. Other organizations are also working on food aid since the drought also affects the growth of the cassava.

Suriname celebrates its Independence Day on Monday November 25 and the next day we fly to Lawa. We hope to be there until December 16th. We look forward to meeting the people again. To hear from Ame and Susina how their English is going. To learn from municipal leaders what plans they have for next year. We would also like to hear from them how they plan to move forward with their vision to reach out to the First Nations in Canada. And we would like to learn how we can support them.

At the end of October, a whole group of Wayana and Tareno planned to go to Brazil for 3 months to evangelize and encourage the churches in the Amazon jungle. Due to the presence of soldiers in the area they plan to go, they have not yet left. There is no clarity yet on when they will be able to go, so everyone in the group is ‘stand by’.

Recently, a great project was started via Trans World Radio (TWR) to build two local radio stations in the interior of Suriname. Trio programs will soon be produced in Tepu and broadcasted, in Apetina Wayana programs. The studios have been built, the antennas are now being installed, charged by solar panels. Tom Schoen, whose father translated the Wayana Bible, grew up in Apetina as a child. He now works for TWR to supervise this project. This video beautifully portrays their family history.

Last night Marjolein’s mother passed away.

We already said goodbye several times, knowing that she was living in the last phase of her life among us. We believe that she is now with her Heavenly Father and that when our time comes we will see her again.

We will stay in the Netherlands for a little bit more than three weeks and then fly back to Trinidad to complete our tasks here.

We plan to be back in Suriname at the end of July.

Time flies when you’re having fun!

In April, we spent two weeks in the Netherlands for Marjolein’s father’s 90th birthday. It is very special to still have him with us and being able to celebrate this with the direct family.

Together with a Dutch missionary who has been working in India for years, Marco was invited to present an introduction on “Trends in Mission” for ‘MissieNederland’ – a network of Mission Agencies in the Netherlands.

A special detail was that Marjolein remembered this missionary’s name from her teenage years. In the car on our way to the meeting she asked him about it. He asked if Marjolein’s father had been imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp, for then he was thinking about that very same family. When Marjolein confirmed this, he shared some things from his childhood, which Marjolein shared with her father at his request. This way the circle became complete again. Very special to experience how an unexpected conversation turned out to bring things together from long ago!

Pacific coast in Lima

17.000.000 People

From the Netherlands, Amsterdam is a great starting point for travel to Peru. KLM provides a 12-hour direct flight to Lima. From Paramaribo, this would require several layovers, making it more cumbersome and often more expensive. As we write this, we are spending 5 weeks in Peru, visiting several projects and locations.

Last week we had a team training for World Team’s workers among the 200,000 Chinese in Lima. This was a good, intensive week since we work with a multicultural group of colleagues. As we keep experiencing, communication then needs extra attention. Getting to know each other’s culture takes time. That is why we are happy to have some follow-up meetings in the coming weeks to further build relationships within the group and their vision for this work.

Last Sunday, the Chinese association in Lima already celebrated Mother’s Day. As the only non-Chinese, we were allowed to attend. Quite a spectacle with a lion dance and lots of gifts handed out via a tombola.

This week we visit Pucallpa, a city of some 350,000 people, on behalf of Foundations for Farming. We are conducting training at a rehabilitation center for former addicts. Some 100 boys/men and 20 girls/women are now in the program. The founder of this work has been homeless and addicted himself, but he was saved by God. Our hearts broke when we saw some boys and girls the age of our grandchildren! What a different world. Our hearts overflow with gratitude when we see the opportunities our (grand)children have. We enjoy the privilege of sharing God’s message of hope also very practically with this farming method in this facility.

Arrival in Apetina

“You are here again. How nice”

“We thought you had gone back to your own country.”

“Did you bring, soap, toothpaste, batteries, reading glasses and more?”

Just a few greetings when the hatches opened at our house. For us, it was wonderful to be back in Apetina after a year. The cleaning of the house went faster than expected. Very nice. Because of the arrival of the MAF crew of four who stayed overnight, one day after we arrived in Apetina, we also had to speed up the cleaning.

MAF crew in the house. Tom Schoen came over for a visit.

They brought a lot of fun and for us it was nice to be able to be hospitable to them for once. Next Wednesday we will even have 6 MAF people visiting us. They will be halfway through the two-day shuttle to fly the Bible school students back to their villages. This time we are better prepared. We pre-cooked cassava fries yesterday. There are several pieces of meat and fish in the freezer, so a nice meal should be arranged in no time now.

Students in the Weejo Bibleschool

Speaking of the freezer. The village generator has been broken since last November. That’s how long the whole village has been without power. We are extra grateful that our solar system is still doing well and providing us with power. By now, with a number of replacements, the system has also been running for 12 years.

Let’s first DO beads

Too little rain has fallen for months. This means that cassava, the Wajana’s main food, is not growing well. Many people have little to eat, besides the fish and meat they catch and hunt. This also means that there is less cassava to make drinks from…. from our point of view, a positive development caused in unpleasant circumstances.

Long waited for … RAIN

Last Saturday, a government crew came to visit Apetina to register the names of the children, for child benefits, of the elderly, for their elderly support benefits and of the people with disabilities for their benefits. They were staying with our neighbors, so we could enjoy all the fun. This registration started Sunday morning so we saw very few people in church.

This week the church started practicing in the afternoon for the Easter Conference. All the songs resound through the village. The girls and women are practicing the dances so it will be nice in sync next week.

Kids built Helicopters out of Duplo

Good Friday a MAF family will fly our way to celebrate Easter here with us and the village. Easter Monday we will then fly back to town together.

Since a week we are back in Lawa again. It is so good to see familiar faces and hear people’s stories. On the first Sunday of the year Marco was invited to share Gods Word in church. Since ‘Foundations are Forever’ he was asked to make a number of schedules in our computer for sermons, cleaning the church, etc..

Yesterday a team of elders returned from visiting the Trio village of Kwamala. They were there to support the church leadership during the preparations for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. We are curious about their stories. It is quite an undertaking for them: first by plane to Paramaribo, spend a few nights there and do some shopping. Then take the plane to Kwamala. After 3 weeks or a month, the entire journey takes place in reverse order. The costs for such a trip are also quite high. We salute them as they arrange this all among themselves.

Marjolein arrived last week after hurting her back. A few days of rest in the hammock and some Paracetamol served her well. Fortunately, she was able to lead the Bible study for the women last Thursday. Wonderful to notice that her Wayana appears again effortlessly. She will also give another study for the women next week. Since Marjolein would like to listen to the studies that the Wayana women give, she was discussing her role in this… Then two women came asking if Marjolein would train them to also bring God’s Word. This will start next Monday. These are moments that make you very happy!

We were also able to have a Board meeting with the elders of Lawa. They now plan a river-wide elders meeting on Saturday, January 20, to discuss the church plans for 2024. This concerns planning for the church-wide celebrations and the budget that each village has to contribute. We see a huge difference in planning compared to ten years ago.

Then will also be decided who will be the new students of the Bible school in the interior. It is very special that the Chief of both the Trio and the Wayana will enlist. If everything works according to plan the first module will be taught March 18 – 28, 2024.

It is great to see that Anneke Kempeneers, who now lives in the mission house in Lawa, has mastered many skills. To the Wayana’s surprise, she mows the lawn with the lawn mower and bush cutter. That’s a man’s job here. Well Anneke stands her ground!

Last Friday we loomed with some teenage girls. That caused a lot of pleasant chatter. At the end of the evening, we practiced English together. It is still difficult to ask a question or give an answer. Saturday the English as a Second Language class was online with the teacher from Calgary. It is currently -34 degrees Celsius there. For us, we can’t imagine this kind of temperature! It is very special that Marilynne has been freeing up an hour every Saturday for two years now to teach Ame and Susina and Ipomadi and Melissa.

This year we celebrate Christmas with our youngest daughter and her family in Paramaribo. For the first time in years we are not celebrating the birth of Jesus together with the Wayana in Lawa or Apetina. We see the necessary preparations taking place via Facebook. For example, an elder from Apetina went by boat to Albina, a town on the coast, to do Christmas shopping for the community meals during Christmas. We were able to help him purchase some of the groceries in Paramaribo. This shopping costs him about a week of travel time. Just a different perspective on the long lines at the checkout 😉.

Our health is well. That’s something we’re very grateful for. The vulnerability of Marjolein’s mother remains a point of prayer. Fortunately, we know that she and Marjolein’s father are safe in God’s loving hands.

Marjolein has recently given very special answers to questions from Marco. Given the fact that her father and his sisters all wear hearing aids, reason for an appointment with the ENT specialist. Last Tuesday we were told that she indeed suffers from hearing loss. It is her choice whether she wants to start with hearing aids or whether she wants to wait a little longer.

During our time in the Netherlands, Marjolein had already started translating some parts of the interviews that were made in 2022 with the Wayanas in Canada. She was 4/5 of the way through, when her iPad crashed. An attempt was made to remove the documents from the machine. Unfortunately, that did not work out. She hopes to have all parts translated in the coming weeks, so that the video maker can continue with his work. Fortunately, Marco also has an iPad and she uses that one now.

House, garden and kitchen

We get up early every morning and then spend more than an hour removing weeds from the creek. Now that the long dry season has ended and the rains are bringing in the water again, it is a race against time to scoop out all the grass and the thick layer of leaves at the bottom before the creek is completely full. The materials are good to build a compost heap and we use the leaf layer to raise the garden floor. The sand in the creek comes from the garden, so we will have to do this more often in the future. At the same time, this is a nice work-out.

We just got started here

After a few days we see nice results

We have also been busy further organizing the kitchen cabinets. Here and there a shelf to put things on. The new doors and drawer finally got a coat of paint. The other doors are also due. The kitchen looks like new again.

Foundations for Farming Suriname meeting

The last few weeks, we worked hard to prepare everything for establishing a Service and Training Center of Foundations for Farming on the premises of the Lob Makandra foundation. We received a contribution from EO Metterdaad, in the Netherlands, to finance the first phase of this project. First, the road to the entrance of the site was constructed. This required a number of culverts to be placed in a drainage canal. The road was extended over this to the entrance of the site.

Then we had to find out whether or not the dam on which we planned to build a driveway would be strong enough to fulfill its purpose. Fortunately, that turned out to be the case. Immediately after the machines had done their work, we were able to drive the car over the dam without any problems. The first part of the plot then was scraped in such a way that excess rainwater would run to one side.

The first test fields were set out last week. We will cover the fields with a layer of ‘mulch’ to ensure that no weeds can grow. We will then plant/sow the fields to demonstrate the effect of the principles we will train here.

Friday, December 8 was marked by a special meeting on the site with more than thirty interested participants. We invited pastors from churches and a number of government representatives. The Minister of Territorial Planning also came especially, to hear about our plan.

The many questions that were asked after the three presentations showed that there was great interest. The question also came up how quickly we can start our training. People see the usefulness of what Foundations for Farming has to offer and would like to participate in the training that is (still) in the preparation phase.

Christmas

We would like to thank you very much for making the work at the Wayana’s possible this year through prayer and financial support.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a hopeful 2024.

The suitcases are packed. The last shopping has been done, including seasonal goodies and a Christmas loaf that will go into the freezer for another month in Suriname 😁.

We are very grateful that Marco is doing so well. The blood thinners have dissolved the clots and the support stocking should prevent clots from occurring again. We bought compression stockings for flying. Despite the fact that we have been flying regularly for years, that idea had not occurred to us. You’re never too old to learn!

We have used the last few extra weeks to visit Marjolein’s parents a few more times, see other family members, enjoy autumn (although the many rain showers did get in the way of walks), and assist our son a few times in his building project.

As much rain as has fallen in the Netherlands this past month, so little has fallen in the entire Amazon region for months. The people have been praying for rain for months because the Wayana and Trio now have to use river water for drinking. We hear of (children with) diarrhea and vomiting symptoms. One of the elders of Apetina called us to ask for intercession for his youngest son who is very ill due to these symptoms. Last Wednesday they flew with the MAF to Paramaribo, where mother and son are now in a hospital.

Our daughter Elisabeth told us that it is raining today in Paramaribo and we hope that this is also the case in the interior of Suriname.

Tomorrow, Saturday, November 18, we will be in the car to Schiphol at 5.30 am. If all goes well, our plane will take off at 8:45 am. We look forward to meeting everyone again on the other side of the ocean!