A few maintenance tasks completed at Camp

The past 8 months on Bonaire was highlighted by maintenance, maintenance, and maintenance to infrastructure, tools and the fast growing grass and shrubs.

The first picture is just after we arrived on Bonaire and in a few months we saw how this nice green carpet covering the soil turned into a knee-height jungle.

But God is good and faithful and there was this ride-on lawn mower in one of the sheds. I cleaned it, filled it with gasoline and connected a battery and there it started very soon. I don't know when it was last used? But it was a big blessing to keep the grass under control so that the groups could use the facilities effectively.

A nice soft carpet of grass.

The carpet very soon grew into this jungle.


But with this it was tamed, regularly.

Then the grass started to turn brown and the bushes grew big. Many bushes were eradicated, with a few left to be trained into small shade trees - a much needed commodity on this "island in the sun".

Thorn bushes that were eradicated.

Then there was the much needed repair works to the buildings.

At first the holes seemed small ...


But, at the end we had to replace that whole section of roof.

A family of Oregon, America, were an enormous blessing to us as family, the camp facilities and the ministry. A BIG thank you for your willingness to serve us and the children of Bonaire.

Then there was also the wooden doors that swelled during the wet rainy season and none would open. The only solution was to take it down and plane it until it opened smoothly.

With this I also saw the destructive work of termites at work.

Nelmari's sixth birthday - 4 June 2009

1. Each of the 24 children in Nelmari's class, 1e, received a bag full of goodies.
   

Henk do the decorations after Pietjie did the baking.

The final product of the team efort.

The eating group of the team.

Candles burning under the sound of birthday voices.

Alea and Nelmari testing out the new 'hand-mobile'

But nothing beat the Skype with Grandma Maxi in Windhoek, Namibia.

All about our family

(Pietjie, Nelmari, Simeon, Henk)

Henk was born in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia on 16 July 1971. He finished his secondary school there in 1990 and obtained a National Diploma in Horticulture in Pretoria, South Africa (1991-1993). The Namibian Government employed him in the Department of works, garden division (1994-1995) and later on in the Department of Agriculture. During that time he also worked at the National Botanical Research Institute, and was responsible for the development and maintenance to Namibia’s first ever National Botanic Garden (1996-2000). He joined Child Evangelism Fellowship Namibia in 2001, as a fulltime missionary. Until 2007 he served at the National CEF Office in Windhoek, Namibia. From October 2008 to date we serve as CEF-sent missionaries to Bonaire, running a camping ministry to primary school aged children.

Pietjie was born 18 March 1975 in Aranos, a small town in the Kalahari desert of Namibia. She finished her secondary school in 1993, joined Operation Mobilization from 1994-1995 and obtained a Bachelors & Honors degree in Youth work (1996-1999). She served as a youth worker in 2000 and with Child Evangelism Fellowship, Namibia since 2001-2006 in the National Office. From 2006-2007 she was employed as a Learn-to-swim instructor by the Namib Swimming Academy and from October 2008 to date we serve as CEF-sent missionaries to Bonaire.

We got married on 27 April 2002. Our daughter, Nelmari was born the 4th of June 2003 and Simeon was added to the family three years later on the 2nd of October 2006.

Bonaire is situated in the Caribbean sea, 85 kilometers above (North) of Venezuela. Here CEF Bonaire or locally better known as APEM (Aliansa Pro Evangelashon di Mucha) own a 21 hectare camp terrain. There was a great need for a full-time CEF missionary to coordinate the development of the camping ministry. Our first phase of service will be from October 2008 – September 2010 with a furlough break of 4-5 months, and then (if God wills) up to 2013.