My Writings. My Thoughts.
Protected: Pete & Marilee’s Web Gallery
// March 11th, 2009 // Enter your password to view comments // P&M Tribe
Protected: Tom & Melissa’s Web Gallery
// March 11th, 2009 // Enter your password to view comments // T&M Tribe
Protected: Annette & Steve’s Web Gallery
// March 11th, 2009 // Enter your password to view comments // A&S Tribe
Protected: Homesteading @ Palisades
// March 9th, 2009 // Comments Off // H&N Tribe
Dear Family & Friends
// March 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // Family Mall
A year to be thankful for!
2008 was the year that we truly “retired”…..
With Project MARC’s nine-year medical mission in Vanuatu completed by the end of October we sailed Rivendel II — our faithful “home on the ocean” — some 2,000 km to Australia. There we bade our teary farewells and left her For Sale in a small marina near Brisbane.
We are deeply grateful — and still nearly speechless — 
for the dedicated volunteers who stepped forward to continue the Project. The best Xmas present Henk and I could possibly have wished for!
You as friends and family have stood by with emotional and material support, thereby enabling our work in Vanuatu. You have no idea what a little encouraging “SMS” means in the middle of a beautiful but lonely ocean. Thank you for your patience and never-failing love.
We still hope to return to the Vanuatu islands, but this time only as Project MARC participants. And in case you had any doubts: if we had to choose, we’d do it all over again! Not only were we often able to assist where help was needed, but we learned and received so very much in return….
Of course, 2008 was not “all work and no play”…… We climbed Mt Everest base camp in April (18,500ft) and rafted in Cataract Canyon. We backpacked across Olympic National Beach and sailed the Coral Sea. What a world of beauty!
May God bless you and keep you as He has done for us;
Nelleke and Henk
Our homestead straddles the foothills of Palisades Wilderness Study Area !!
