Responding to Challenges and Obeying Calls

The Orphanage Development of The Pa van der Steur Foundation

As the situation at the Orphanage gradually improved, new problems arose. At the end of 1964 the Orphanage building at Jl. Salemba No. 14 which had been inhabited by the children for 14 years, was taken over by the Department of Defense and Security. The Executive Board got indemnities to the amount of Rp 5,000,000.00 (five million rupiah).Not long after that, the Government imposed a currency reform, so that, Rp 1,000.00 becameRp 1.00 in new currency. Because of this it was impossible to transfer the children to another place. They were compelled to move to a dormitory at Depok that according to prevailing standards was not fit to act as an Orphanage.

Difficult years come one after another, until in the 1950s some Oud Steurtjes, headed by Bram Bernard, were asked to sit on the Executive Board, in order to complement it, in the hope that they could do something to improve the deteriorating conditions of the Orphanage.

Many parties gave their help and time, so that conditions at the Pa van der Steur Foundation were gradually improved. At a meeting of the Executive Board in March 1972, it decided to build a new compound that could accommodate all the pupils. The members of the Board spontaneously collected a sum of money amounting to Rp 63,000.00. If one considered the situation of the Foundation as well as the available capital, the aforementioned building plan could be called unfeasible.

In the midst of the diligent efforts of the Board, God showed His love. Through Mrs. Beversluis, head of the Pa van der Steur Foundation in Zeist, the Netherlands, God opened up a way for the Board to fulfill their aspirations. During her visit to Indonesia she pledged her support if whatever she saw at the Pa van der Steur Foundation was quite satisfactory. The tireless efforts and endeavours yielded results that were quite beyond expectation. In August 1973 the Board succeeded in purchasing a piece of land of two hectares at Pondok Gede.

In 1979 the entire structure to be used as a residence for the pupils was completed. The boys as well as the girls from Kindergarten to Senior High School age could all be accommodated at Pondok Gede which meant that the aspirations of the Executive Board, namely to build a place for the children in a compound, had now been fulfilled. The pupils were then able to live in a decent dorm in a fresh and breezy region, enabling them also to play safely to their heart's content.

When the construction of the children's dormitory had been completed, the Board decided to erect an Elementary School. Two years after the Elementary School had got underway, the Foundation opened a Junior High School dan a Kindergarten. After the building of the Junior High School had been finished, the attention of the Board was drawn to the dormitory at Depok which at that time was still inhabited by some of the boys of the Senior High School. Considering that the dormitory was not in a condition to undergo renovation, the Foundation decided to tear the whole building down.