Natalie and her husband David joined MAF in 2000 and spent 17 years in Indonesia in the provinces of Kalimantan and Papua. In 2018 they relocated to MAF’s headquarters in Nampa, Idaho, where David now serves as President/CEO and Natalie writes for MAF and the local newspaper. They have four children and a miniature dachshund.Imagine sending your baby boy off on a motorcycle every morning into the craziness that is Sentani Traffic.
Never mind that this “baby” is a 17-year-old six-foot-tall young man. He’s still your baby, and that traffic is still crazy.
After driving in Indonesia for almost 14 years, I have a renewed sense of the wildness of the […]
A funeral procession passing by the Holsten’s house.
It happens almost every day. Dozens of blaring motorcycle horns signal that another funeral procession is making its way up our hill on its way to the local cemetery.
My house helper E shakes her head as she watches the procession and declares, “Orang Papua […]
It’s a sultry day in the tropics, and in the shadow of Mount Cyclops, palm trees wave over a collection of buildings perched on a hill. Inside one of the buildings, teenagers are transported away from their equatorial surroundings to 19th century London, where they follow the adventures of a young man named Pip as […]
“Mom, I just can’t do it!” my son Luke cried out in frustration as he handed me his notebook, Indonesian Bible verses scrawled across the page. His assignment to memorize these verses had overwhelmed him to the point of tears.
I felt his pain. Flashbacks to language school—having to memorize words that made no sense, and […]
It’s September. At least, that’s what the calendar says. Outside, though, here in Papua, it’s screaming July. Hot, humid, tropical, ain’t-no-such-thing-as-fall July.
The end of September launches an annual time of seasonal delusional disorder (SDD) that affects ex-patriates hailing from temperate climates now finding themselves in perpetual summer.
The first stage of SDD is […]
Natalie with two of her kids at the start of a long church service. “Long church service? Bring it, we’re ready!”
Sometimes I imagine a future job interview in the U.S. The interviewer scans my resume, frowning slightly and tapping a pen on the table.
“Well, Mrs. Holsten,” he says.
“Yes?” I lean forward hopefully.
“I see […]