Our last story was in a summer atmosphere, but three months have already flown by.

What we expected has happened in recent months. We mainly lived in our small bubble in Delft. We did meet some people online. In recent months we assisted our son and daughter in law with the makeover of their new purchased (100 years old) house. We really enjoyed that. They moved into their new home November 21, but there is still a lot the need to do.

 

Marco was invited to preach in two different churches in the recent months. All were online services when looking closely into the camera to involve viewers at home was a new focus. It is special that it is possible and that you still feel the connection, while you do not see each other. The first week of November we took care of the children of friends who moved back to living and serving the Netherlands after 11 years of missionary service in Suriname. We know from our own experience how much energy that takes, so we offered to babysit so that the parents could get away together for a midweek.

After this we enjoyed a midweek in the Geul valley in Limburg, the southern part of the Netherlands. We honeymooned there 40 years ago. This midweek was a gift from our children and grandchildren. Mid November an aunt of Marjolein had a brain hemorrhage at the age of 91 and she passed away shortly after. We are grateful that we had the opportunity to visit her in her apartment at the end of September.

Sunday November 22th we were allowed to participate in Missions Sunday in our church. Because of the Corona pandemic, more missionaries were in attendance than expected earlier in the year.

Suriname is struggling economically. People are starving because the Surinamese dollar has devaluated enormously against the US$. There is plenty to eat, but different products have become unaffordable for many people. We have little trouble with this because of our income in Euros. That is very different for the people we work with. There was already a flourishing flow of goods between the Netherlands and Suriname, which has only increased in recent months. Many boxes with food are shipped off to Suriname. Within World Team, one of our colleagues in Paramaribo has started a support program for people who are now having a hard time. We also work with a number of churches in the distribution of food hampers. All good things come to an end … and so is our time in the Netherlands.

We really enjoyed everything that was possible during our furlough.

We are very grateful that we were able to fly to Suriname on Friday November 27th, as planned. That process took a lot of time to get us on the plane this time. We had to submit an application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Suriname to be allowed to fly to Suriname at the end of November. When permission was granted, that would be passed on to KLM. Then we would be contacted to book a flight. But during this process Suriname changed the rules… so we had to find out if our permission to quarantine in our own location was still valid. We tried to book a ticket but that seemed impossible to do on such short notice. Only with the assistance of vitamin ‘R’(elationship) it could be done!

We set off with a whole folder with documents and declarations of consent from the Public Health Office (BOG) in Suriname. This also includes a negative result of a PCR-test.

Now we are in quarantine until December 7^th. Then we’ll start our shopping and packing process to get back into the interior. First, we will take the time to celebrate the birthday of our youngest daughter who lives in Paramaribo with her family and celebrate Christmas together.