Cobus & Tronel VanDerMerwe
Sent from: MAF New Zealand
Serving in: Papua New Guinea
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The Story
Cobus became interested in aviation during High School and maintained a keen interest in all-things aircraft related. His other interest is alarms, and he installed his first system at the age of thirteen! Cobus studied to be an electronic technician in Cape Town, South Africa and became a telecommunication technician specialising in fibre optic and microwave broadband. He owned a telecommunication company with three colleagues, and spent more than a decade installing, fault finding and project managing in Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, and Botswana to name but a few.
During their last seven years in New Zealand they have been involved in business and Cobus also worked as a contracts manager for a large security firm in Hamilton.
Tronel was involved in Missions in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi while studying to be a cross-cultural teacher. She taught in a Christian School and has a passion for Primary School Mathematics. She also qualified as a Cardio-Physiologist and worked in hospitals in Cape Town and New Zealand. She has been actively involved in supporting Cobus in business during the time in New Zealand.
They have three children. Isaac, 15, enjoys hunting, hiking, swimming, hockey and anything adventurous. Jana, 14, likes reading, writing, fashion and missions and Karlien, 10, loves animals, netball, books, coding and maths.
They are discerning God moving them to Mission Aviation Fellowship to serve with MAFI as Corporate Services Manager. The family are all very excited about this new season in their lives!
Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
Luke 17:33 (NKJV)