Roslin Orphanage Blog

This was our happy time after breakfast with the little ones

lets sing our old favorite songs

YEAR* 50-54* http://www.tropicalglen.com/Jukebox/50-54Top/myjukebox.swf

It has been a privilege for me to know that I am so rich with so many wonderful brothers , sisters and friends in Singapore and even abroad from the very far away places. After the news paper was publishing about our situation more friends are contacting me and so many prayers and help are being done. So many of them came to know more about what we are doing and some are planning to come and help us to run the orphanage on site.  Thank you to bro James and sis Agatha for making more people to be able to know and participating upon making the efforts to help the children . Some of our wonderful bro and sis came to know that we are in the process of changing the roof top of the main building and they are helping us to buy the new roof for the main building and for the new storage room. A brother and his friends were telling me that they will come with me next month to evaluate the place and possibly to help us building the girl’s dorm and a proper study room for the orphanage. Praise The Lord that The Lord has sent His children to show up and help us with what we need to provide things for the children. Thank you to FCAP,bro Alex, bro Eddy, sis Tina,bro Chiam , bro Raymond and Philip Tan  , bro Hoi Sau Kheng, sis  Ang Mar Lyn, sis Sophia Ross  and captain GB Dawson . In about  one month time we will have the building to be a healthier place for the children to stay and in few months time may be the girl’s dorm and the study room too. Thank you very much for all your prayers and help.

As for my new job search , I am still trying my best to get one. Any job is a good job as long as it is a legal job and enough to finance my chidren needs as far as schooling is concerned. I am hopingthat soon it will be happening so that I can do things without any unnecesarry  stress. It has been quite hard to deal with some uncertainties for the last few weeks.

Good news, our dog at the orphanage is giving birth to a twin puppies . It is a Rottweiler type dog and the puppies are one male and one female. I am stil thinking about their names making. I will share the picture when I got them in two weeks time or less. Our  daughter Christine and our son Christian are currently at the orphanage helping their mum. A friend of Christine ,  Nikolas Bare hansen is there too for helping us with our day to day routines. It is always a great day when we are able to be with our children and friends. Nothing better than working hand in hand with family and friends.

Next month will be another exciting day for the orphanage. It is not because only July is the best season in Timor but we will be seeing at least 8 more children which came to us as one , two or three days old babies will be starting their schooling days. It will be a kindergarten school for Cynthia, Ivan, Janson, Carlos, Julita , Cornelis and  Lala . Another boy will be Iswan which came to us in April 2009 due to an extreme  poverty situation. It will be a new perspective about life to these young children as they must start to learn about responsibility, to study for their own good and to wake up every morning. It was hard at the beginning for the earlier children too but day after day it has became into a habit ( routine) for them to wake up in the morning, having breakfast at shorter time and doing the schooling matter.

baby Carlos , Cynthia , Cornelis and Ivan next month will be starting their schooling.

I wish that I can drive them to school on their first school day like what I have done before for the older children. By July we will be making an adjustment for sending the children to school because it will be at least 15 small children on a small car ha ha ha. The school is about 6 km from the orphanage. It seemed that we have to make two sorties for them to go to school. We hope that we can maintain the car properly so that they do not have to walk again to school.

By having the children growing up and doing their schooling we are having an ability to get some sort of condition where by we win without having to fight. It was from some people which are not happy with us and accused me and Peggy that people should be careful to us  simply because we live in Singapore so that we will sell the babies.  By having the babies growing and growing and now even going to school and still staying at the orphanage ,those people who accused us before , they will have nothing to say anymore. Yes we won but we did not fight for it  or putting some one down as a looser, Praise The Lord.

cornelis and Carlos now

Cynthia  wants to be number one

Lala and Julita

This July will be an exciting July because our good friends Alex, Eddy ( both from Singapore) , Tina ( from Canada) and Margaret ( From Australia) who were just visiting us in April will be with us again. It will be some sort of reunion for us and this time will be even better because in July the weather will be very pleasant. In the morning the temperature will be around 18 C and the afternoon around 25 - 28 C. I hope that I can be there with them for a longer time. During this month we will be able to sleep in a tent at the farm and the comfortable atmospheric condition is really there to be enjoyed. Another friend from Sydney , Janet Collins is also coming and she  booked her flight Kupang for July 7th.

The main agenda for July is to complete the main building roof’s replacement and to put a roof for the storage room.  Again the main reason for us to change the roof is for the health reason. We are changing the asbestos roof into zink roof. Once the storage room is completed we will be able to give the children plenty of room for their activity and sleep. We are now forced to used a limited room for them but it will not be long for this condition to be changed completely.

The second agenda is to put up a swing and some kind of playground for the children. It will be a place where they can play with sand and jumping on it. The sand will be white sand and we are getting it from the beach area. This will enable them to be trained such as a long jump and high jump ha ha ha. I hope that we can make it happen soon.

to be continued

The orphanage is not only a blessing to the orphanage children but also for me. Sharing the joy that we are having at the orphanage made me capable to share about God’s work which has been done to the children for all these years. Again what we are having now at the orphanage is way beyond my capability as an individual but because of His work we are having good progresses which is more and more every day.  Sharing His work is a joyful tasks for me and I do not need any preparation at all. What I have to say are just the things that God has done for us from day to day which many of them are actually has been written in the bible . This sharing brought me to have more and more families where ever I am going regardless where I am . My last New York trip was a great trip indeed where by I had a chance to be together with 5 leaders from different churches and denominations. Indeed God has brought us together just for Him.  One thing that I can say and share is : It is hard for me to be alone as God will always sends me His people to be with me whenever and where ever I am ha ha ha.  Indeed being with Him we will have no worries, no border on making friendship , fellowship and classes in the society. Praise The Lord for the peace and joy has yet to be enjoyed by ever one.

An amazing coincident is to find out that pastor Lee ,from a Korean congregation and leaving in New York will be going to Kupang in July 15th. We are at last some  19 000 km apart yet we will be able to meet up in Kupang in few weeks time ha ha ha .  That is the date that I planned to be there with our friends from Canada, Australia, Singapore and may be Germany too. Pastor Lee will be coming with some 150 church choir group and the trip is already booked. It is so strange that I happened to meet pastor Lee in New York where ;ater on he is making a link for me to another pastor who is in Jakarta. I hope that I can be a help while the group is there ( at least I can surely practicing my rusty Korean language ha ha ha . Some kind of a self serving for me ha ha ha ).

left to right

pastor Yongky, pastor Lee, Budi , pastor Hank, pastor Rene and pastor Tim

my new family from Family Altar cell group

Hearing me sharing about His work , most of them are able to lean more to The Lord and thankful for having Him as our master. Some even feel burdened to help out and indeed making our day to day tasks easier. Thank you to ibu Henny Wong for your love gift which already been sent to the ultimate receiver during my recent trip to Indonesia.  With so many brothers and sisters involvement we will be able to finish up the storage room which currently only needing the roof to be finalized. I hope that when pak Alex Chee and pak Eddy Chew are there we will be able to share the physical work ha haha ( so much to do and so much fun to do it). If the storage room are done ,we wil be able to make more rooms and more activities for the children at a much a larger space. Thank you to pak Alex and pak Eddy for your involvement on this storage room matter and especially for the whole roof change on the main building. It will be  a great relief that we can get away from the asbestos roof

Good morning to All.   It is so cloudy out side so far.  This morning I got a news from the company that Singapore Airlines will not be able to renew my contract upon its expiration date. It was said by the top management that for those are having their contract is due for renewal for the current fiscal year will not be renewed. My chief broke the news to me just now. I just got back from a nonstop  New York flight yesterday and it is my first day off today. Instead of a relaxing day and getting back to the local timing after suffering the jet lag,  I got the news where by I will be out of job quite soon.  Sadly it was said that it was not because of my performance on the job but it is the company’s policy that made this happening.

Its time for me to find jobs else where now and it is not going to be easy as other airlines are now facing the same situation with the business. The economical crisis is really an unseen matter and so many business are really finding the hardship without having enough preparation. It is not an easy situation indeed. I can not imagine if I have no job after living Singapore airlines. I have 3 growing up children and must continue running the orphanage at the same time( 42 children inside the orphanage and some hundreds of children outside the orphanage).  Just to finance them all on their education will be a hard tasks already but not something that is impossible to The Lord.

Indeed is a hard situation but EVERYTHING HAPPENED or  HAPPENS FOR A REASON. May be this is the path of life that I ( we)  must go through for us to reach  better things in the near future. It is not the company who is giving you or us the job but God is. God is in control and He is in control all the time. God sees things the best for us and He will deliver us to the best situation in HIS TIME.  As a Christian I can quote it from Romans 8: 28 and Ecclesiastes 3:11. We should expect the best ( Mat 9:29 ) and do not expect bad news ( Psalm 112:17). Life span is not always the same for every one and it is not a smooth ride all the time. The ups and downs are one of the ingredients or spices that will make up whats in the future.

Please help us to pray and getting the best job ever so that we can continue to do what a parent can do and also to continue running the orphanage at the same time.

If one window is closed to us at a time , there will be doors to be opened  else where.

Pray to be a strong person and not to be having an easy life. Obey God’s way and He shall do His part(s). It is written on Psalm 37:5.

Let it be a testimonial from me soon when I can share a good news upon me getting a new job else where. This is going to happen and it will happened surely.  I have been applying for jobs at few different company and airlines.  I was said to be short listed for some jobs.  For making our self ready for some challenge which might happened in the future, I will suggest to all my pilot friends to take up some university degree studies or others which will make us to be more resilient on weathering the facts of life.  Again God is in control but we should do our best upon preparing our self for something unknown to a normal reasoning to us all.

At the moment my resume has been received by some airlines already and some of them already told me that I am being short listed for a possible job in the near future. A job is a job and any job  is a good job for me ( as long as all of our children are able to continue attending their schooling).

Have a blessed day to All

Long before we are running the orphanage we have been trying to assist the less fortunate family in Kupang. We do not help them by means of giving them money directly but we are helping them by giving them a job. Many people who are living in the out skirts are living well below the poverty level. Because of the family planning knowledge  is not able to be understood by most of the population so it is common for the majority of the people to have a rather large family. No electricity, television and / or radio broadcasts are able to reach the people so no knowledge transfers nor education news being heard by the people. Indeed is a sad case every time we are visiting villages we will be facing a condition where a living is a matter of survival living thing. People are not lazy but most of the time they are stuck with the condition which they can not do anything how to over come the bad situation. For example many people in the out skirts can not find water. Even dirty water to do a simple planting is not available . So if we are talking about proper farming or sanitation we will always be stuck with water lagging.

Our way to assist some families are by sending their working age family members to work in Jakarta or even overseas. We are  giving them some simple training about sanitation, maintaining a clean environment, how to wash clothes, simple cooking and some other skills if they are good enough with the basic skills already.  If we are considering the girl/ boy is ready to work , we will send them to our good friends or friends of our friends.  Before sending them to work else where we will ask the boy or the girl to understand that they will not be receiving their salary in full every month but we ask the employer to keep their money in a bank. The full amount will be given when they are going home. Upon going home they will be able to buy so many things which are useful for their family such as a land for farming, upgrading their house, making a proper toilet etc.  We send them to their work place without them paying anything. We will ask their employers to pay  us back according to the expenses that we are paying for them first ( receipts will be  given to their employers).No profit whatsoever for us. Even so we are providing them new clothes, sandals, uniforms and the most important one are their under wears.

We have been doing it since end of 1980s and we are so happy if we are seeing that the girls/ boys are going home after 2 years with money on hand.  May be we have been assisting more than 200 families since we started. Some of them are even working in Singapore for the last 6 years . Recently the girl who has been working at one of my friend’s place in Singapore went home to her home town in Timor’s village.

We are so happy that her family now is able to get a house with bricks, proper roofs and proper toilet.  A very basic living condition has been made without us paying for it. The family has changed its living condition because one or more of the family members are working out side their village.  Here is one of the example of one girl who has been working in Jakarta as a domestic worker . Her name is Rina , she is from Tepas village. When she left Timor she was so low on her knowledge about being clean and how to live a clean life. Now she is so confident with her self and her knowledge sort of improved by far.

Rina’s home before she left in 2007

the toilet

the hut house ( kitchen)

We are hoping that these condition will be changed in a better condition after Rina is bringing her salary back home and using the money for the family needs. She told us that she hardly use any money for her self and she has been saving her salary since she was start working.

taking her home after 2 years way from the family

part of the road to Rina’s home

meeting the mother in the middle of a dried creek

so exited to see each other again in the middle of no where

walking home

arriving at home

glad to be able to helped Rina to get a job and bringing her home again

Since two days ago we were doing the rice harvest at our Oefafi farm. Peggy has been there supervising the actual harvest and upon separating them from the bunch into an individual rice seeds. Later we will dry them out on the sun and mill it ( separating the rice from the husks ) to make them into rice . Our Oefafi farm is a farm that is only depending the planting on the good rainy season . So it is only a once a year harvest instead of two like our other farm at Oel farm. Indeed the artisan well ( water) is a blessing so that we can plan trees all year round.  Instead of using the manual labor for separating the rice from the bunch , we are having the privilege of owning the mechanical equipment to do it. We even able to lend the machine to other farmers too.

our precious rice field

preparing to separate the rice from the bunch

starting to separate the rice

extended to the night hours

feeding the machine

coming to the daylight again

This kind of harvest it is quite common that we are doing it for 3 days and 3 nights non stop. It is a hard work but it is quite fun to stay on the filed for 3 days. The main problem is no bath rooms ha ha ha.

For harvest at our other farm ( Oel village’s farm)  will be done around the 20th of this month.

Last night the person who officially opened the orphanage was passed away in the hospital  in Jakarta.

Mr Alexander Piet Tallo ,was the former governor of Nusa Tenggara Timur province , in Timor Island.

When he was still the governor some time he was just showing him self at the orphanage in the early morning hours .

Indeed is a sad news but it is a happy moment too for knowing that he is already with his Father in heaven.

Our prayers be with the family , may The Lord give the comfort and strength.

Good bye uncle Piet and till we meet again

Another trip to the orphanage and its another fruitful one indeed.  A trip which not only having one thing achieved but more than what we are planning for. First of all the flight from Singapore to Jakarta  then to Kupang with a transit at Surabaya were having a great weather. The trip and the good weather was a blessing on its own. Praise The Lord.  Upon exiting the custom I met with a lady friend ( Mieske) and her daughter Olivia. I have known her when they are in Germany and now she lives in HongKong but it was a great surprised that we met in Jakarta unplanned.

Mieske and her daughter at Jakarta airport

A wonderful couple Mike and Tina Vanderpol visiting us all the way from Vancouver, Canada and they even have their lovely children Justin and Linden were coming along. Their visit alone is a blessing on its own and  as it is what kindness that can make people to travel from such  far away place to come and to share joy for others which they never met before. Their visit is another encouragement to us to do better than what we have been doing. They came directly to the orphanage even when I was there to greet them.  Thank you to the Vanderpols for visiting us . I am sure that there are so many nice places that you can go for your holiday but you rather go to a place that is unknown to you and visiting us instead. You are greatly appreciated.

Linden, Tina , Mike , Justin and Budi at Tenau port, Kupang

They came on April 1oth while I was  only coming on the next day the 11th. On this trip I came with very special friends as far as the orphanage is concern. I came with Mr Alex Chee which if you can remember that he was sent by God to help us since when we were starting to build and run the orphanage. To make things even better Mr Alex Chee was coming with his long lost friend for some 30 years, Mr Eddy Chew. Even our trip was not as long as from Vancouver but it was quite tiring too. We went from Singapore to Jakarta and to Kupang with a transit at Surabaya.  The flight was felt so good as we were having some kind of quality time all the way . So much that I have to learn from them both about life and loving others.

Alex Chee and Eddy Chew the new type of Indians

Mr Alex Chee , Mr Eddy Chew and Budi

On the 11th afternoon we were having Mrs Margareth Heather from Perth, Australia also came to the orphanage . I must make a special request to her to be apologized as I was forgotten to remind Peggy to pick her up at the airport upon her arrival.  I was still on the air when she was actually arrived at Kupang ( Eltari airport) . It is lucky that she is able to speak the Bahasa Indonesia language, so she has no problem to ask around for some information. Sorry Margareth it was my fault ha ha ha. Mrs Margareth Heather is my friend from Rotary Club. Her home club is in Armadale ,  Perth , Australia.  On April 12th another wonderful lady Mrs Janine Mcleod, for her we do not want to make another mistake, so I pick her up my self on that day. Both Mrs Margareth Heather and Mrs Janine Mcleod were coming in responds to our ” train the trainer ” program . A program which our Rotary Clubs are pursuing to help the potential teachers to teach others English.  We believe that by knowing more about English we can understand more about the world and it will surely help the students upon their studies. Mrs Janine Mcleod is a lecturer for Curtin University in Perth, Australia.

Mrs Margareth Heather , Budi and Mrs Janine Mcleod

on the 13th another lady friend from Singapore also came, Miss Pauline Chong. She was with us to collect some data which might be useful for the new foundation which will be having the HQ  in Singapore for the children of Asean ( TOCA). It will be a great foundation as the main target is to help the children in 10 ASEAN countries ( preventing child prostitution, helping orphanages, creating a learning center, giving vocational training etc).

Miss Pauline Chong at the beach in Kupang

Why the trip was said as a fruitful one ? First of all we were able to spend time with the children and made some quality time with them. This is the prime agenda as if we are visiting a children home. It is not important for us to bring or buy an expensive toys or items for them but the most important one is to spend your precious time with the children. On this trip we were even playing without involving expensive toys . At one afternoon Mrs Tina Vanderpol and I just made the children a paper plane and paper helicopter. If you ask about the price , well it will not cost us even 1 dollar but the joy that was created from it was priceless.

Mr Alex Chee and the quality time that he made

its singing time

watching the children singing

Mrs Tina Vanderpol and her tender loving care

Martina and Tina

Mr Mike Vanderpol being attacked

priceless moment

Mrs Margaret Heather and the quality time that she made

Vitamin all the way from Vancouver for the children

book and story reading in English for the older ones

The boys corner led by Linden Vanderpol

game corner

Justin Vanderpol playing his tunes

Victor wants to be like Justin

Lodi also trying to learn guitar from Justin

Based on my observation may be one day we will have our orphanage children to be a good musician. May be on my next trip I will plan to buy some more guitar so that we can conduct the guitar lessons to the children. The earlier the better for them to learn. Looking at their ability to sing , I am certain that one day soon we will be able to have a choir group consist of our orphanage children. It will be even better if they can also playing the musical instruments them selves. Surely these are things which can be done in the near future if we are having a good teacher on singing and musical skills. At least I will personally teach them some basic guitar skills as I am limited too about playing it ha ha ha .

One of the agenda during this trip as what we have planned is the program that we will run it together as Rotary Club activity.  Our target is at least if we can get some good potential candidate to be trained on English language. Mrs Margaret Heather and Mrs Janine Mcleod  were doing their best upon preparing the lessons and the steps upon making the selection. They prepared both for the best materials and the programs for them it. Our thanks to Rotarian Irvin Philips and Rotarian PP David Jenkins for the ” train the trainer’s proposal and this follow up evaluation trip. If this program is running later on the next during the new Rotary year ( July 2009- June 31st 2010) it will be sponsored by Rotari Club Armadale, Perth of Australia  and Rotary Eclub3310 of Singapore.

the potential candidate being evaluated

Mr Cornelis Lakusa and Mrs Janine with the group of student

encouragement from Peggy

posing with school principle Rachel Tallo of SMA 4 Kupang

the little ones at the orphanage are also getting their sessions

Clean water project by RC Suntec City of Singapore and RC Rotaryeclub3310 of Singapore on Matching Grant

A joyful day for Familia Orphanage of Sikumana village in Kupang area was happening during our visit too. Together RC Suntec City , RC Rotaryeclub3310 and Rotary International were financing a program for a clean water project.  On the 16th or April we were able finally said that the project is over and the intended project was able to be made into a reality. Some 105 orphanage members are now able to take a bath and getting the badly needed water for their day to day needs.  Thank you very much to Rotary International for Matching the  required funding.  Sister Dion , the head of Familia Orphanage asked me to pass their appreciation to RC Suntec City members who directly give their give to this project . For President Lim Swee Kim , please convey their thanks to your members accordingly for the 3 PHFs from your club. Also to our RC Rotary Eclub3310 they send their appreciation for doing what the Rotary values into the practicality and reality too. This project was to respond the request by PP Mathilda Salu of RC Kupang. Due to her accident ( she was unable to walk properly as she was fell in the bathroom at her residence) , she can not do any thing much. President Felix Rebhung took over but due to his very busy roster he can’t do much too , Treasurer Theo was actually the one who is doing most of the job. This is what a good team and togetherness is all about. Praise The Lord for the job that has been done . At least 600 people now can enjoy the fresh water because of your help. Do come with us some time and  I will take you there personally. The water table is 47 meters deep which is far less than the prediction of 70 meter. May be because of the rainy season but at least the water is about 27 meters deep. Usually the water will go down some 10 - 2o meters during the dry season. We can only hope for the best.

My personal thanks and appreciation to Dr Ho Loon Shin who was helping me to composed the proposal and calculating the numbers. To Ta Cheh DR Doris Ang , your participation is made into a real work and done.  To RC Suntec City we are proud to be able to work together with your club. Surely we will do more projects together in the future. For this project RC Suntec City was participating with 100 % of their love to these beneficiaries and 3000 USD ( 3 PHFs or Paul Harris Fellows program in Rotary International).

the soil that must be penetrated

the break through

the pump controller

The water storage at the school

no more excuse for going to school without taking a bath please

the water tank before distribution to other tanks

a happy day indeed

leading the prayer to thank you for the project that has been done  and met the objective of the Matching Grant.

Indeed it was so happy for us to be able to work together and to made the dream of having enough water into a reality. This is accidentally what the Rotary Motto is all about. For this year Rotary International theme is ” MAKE DREAMS REAL” . This is the theme under Rotary International president Lee Dong Kern  leadership. He was enduring hardship during his childhood and he was working so hard to be successful businessman in Seoul , Korea. We know for facts that until now there are so many childhood dreams are unable to be reached because of illnesses , sicknesses and many other reasons. One of the efforts to stopped the illnesses or sicknesses is sanitation and to live a clean living environment.  We are hoping that this clean fresh water supply will be one of the different can we can collectively do and stopped from making people getting sick and to live a clean living condition. One thing that Rotary does since more than 20 years is the Polio Eradication in the world. It is because of the hard work of all Rotary International members , the world is almost free from the terrible Polio disease. Because of Rotary International the world’s Polio sickness has been eradicated and eliminated up to 99 % ( ninety nine %) . It is the target for Rotary International to eradicate Polio 100 % for good . Currently  there are still 4 countries are still having the fight with Polio cases , they are Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria. It was a hard long work for all Rotary International members ( about 1.3 million members world  wide) for more than 20 years to fight a good fight and we are hoping that Polio can be eradicated soon. When I was attending the Rotary International conference in Los Angeles  last year June 2008 , it was so clearly explain why and how we should totally eradicate this Polio. Thank you to Rotary for the work that has been done to the world to be a better place.

On this trip I can also able to share with you the happy thing but unfortunately there is a sad thing too that we must face for knowing the facts of life.  The happy thing is about our great expectancy for the next rice harvest. It was not too long ago that our orphanage was in a situation where by things must be bought to fulfill our needs to eat. But as you may know that since April 2008 we have declared that Roslin Orphanage has been self sufficient for the rice needs. In about few more weeks we will have our 3rd harvest of rice and more to it is a harvest of plenty. This was made to be possible because God is allowing us to have it and it is the fulfillment of God’s promise to all of human kind that God will look after the orphans and the widows. It is written in the bible in many parts of it but this a link to some of them .  In this matter on my opinion that we can also say it that Children are God’s hidden treasure ha ha ha . One day for sure  there  will be a child from a particular part of the world will come up to safe the world with his intellectual skills or ideas . It can be the child that you are supporting now which no one knows about it yet.  Anyway we are eagerly waiting for our rice harvest which was made possible by God by the gift of the spring water ( artisan well) that was given to us since  late 2008.

our first and precious water source from God

Tina Vanderpol looking at our 2nd water source at the farm

the rice was made possible to planted because of the continuous water source 24 hours per day , which flowing as God’s love to the children

exceedingly and abundantly provided to the orphans

we are the witnesses for God’s love to the orphans

join us next month to harvest God’s love in the form  of rice

Here is one of the very sad case that is still around us for a long long time. Extreme poverty. The world is a not a perfect place for people in different geographical locations. On April 17th we are ” sad” as we are getting richer with 2 more children , one is Lisa  1 year and 3 months and the other one is Iswan 6 years old. Few days later we are ” sad” also by getting even richer by 4 more children joining the orphanage plus the mother who is in a desperate situation. Extreme poverty and poor health condition case. We are really sad to have been experiencing these kind of condition where by the basic needs of a human being are unable to be fulfilled. In other hand we are happy to be able to do the small part of helping them with food and shelter especially to the little and innocent ones. The picture below is one of the example of what some people are currently living. Nothing is proper in the house where it is supposed to be a place where we can have our comfort and quality time with our family. The word ” nothing like home” is quite hard to be said in this instant.

a home for a family of 6

the wall is free for the mosquito to enter

the roof is free for the dew and rain to come down

no drawer nor cupboard

the main bed and the main bed room

the dining equipments and what they have

the meal for the morning , lunch and dinner on that day

Most of the children who are with us at the orphanage were living like this or even worst. Gerson Mangi , one of our older orphan was living in a place where there is no father , no mother , no home and no body and no bed of course. Now he is at the orphanage and a medical student at the university. He is one of the example that if we want to , we can polish a stone into a diamond. We really hope that he can be a good doctor one day.

Another reason why the trip was so fruitful

Even though the time that we we spend there was not that long we were able to give baptism to 9 of our orphanage children. It was a fine Sunday on April 12th. We are doing the baptism according what the child’s relative of family known to us. If they are from the Christian we will do it at the Christian church and if they are from the Catholic church we are doing it at the Catholic church. What we really want the children to be after they are an adult and capable to stand on their own , we will ask them to go back to their own home town. We are really want them to help their own people first instead of helping some where else. We really want them to go back to their own society after they are educated and finished with their  university studies.

praying before the baptism service being conducted

pastor Sahanaya who conducted the service

the Vanderpols attending the baptism service

Carlos being baptized

Cynthia being baptized

Yanti being baptized

Ivan being baptized

Janson being baptized

Jen being baptized

Sonny being baptized

Martina being baptized

Pauline being baptized

May be it is just a normal baptism for some people but for Peggy and I who are representing for 9 children was something else. We are hoping that one day all of the children will be able to stand on their own and even able to help others both on the physical thing as well as the spiritual thing. Praise The Lord for letting us to be the care taker for these children. After the service a simple food was distributed especially to the children.

RIGHT AFTER THE BAPTISM

Right after the baptism we are scheduled to visit Tasipa Village again. Some of you may be asking why we are quite frequently going to this village . Tasipa is one of the place that is enduring quite frequent famine. Can you imagine now is only the end or the rainy season yet the water is already hard to get.  Tasipa has been a place where we will be visiting during the difficul months. may be our help for them can be just a truck load of water if not the simple food for the children. may be some of you might notice if some of the children are wearing the T shirts of schools in Singapore. This is one of the place that we are also distributing the clothing that you gave us before. One rare occasion that one of our friend was able to spotted their children party dress being worn by the villager at the mountain side during our visit. Indeed it still a party dress as the girl was wearing it for the Christmas party. Just one in million perhaps that such a case was happening.  It was great to be able to proved to her ( our friend)  that we were actually giving away the clothes and not selling them.  The best will be best if you give it directly to the ultimate recipient. You will be able to see a genuine smile because of you. I can assure you that it will be very rewarding to see it. Especially to see them from a distance where we can watch them so happy upon receiving your gifts.

buying veggie at midnight  market

hot chilly

fresh and organic

preparing it together

packing them together

what would you like to be dear

encouragement from Peggy

enjoying the girl singing

Koala bear and candy after singing from Margaret and Janine