Mark was born in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on February 5, 1979. With his parents, brother and sister he lived in Afghanistan between ages 4 and 10. He attended an international school, spoke English early on and had friends from all over the world. Mark is 5 years old when he tells his dad that he wants to follow Jesus and be a pilot.
In 1989 the family moves back to Ermelo, Netherlands.
Mark attends secondary school, does his A-levels and then begins the training to become a pilot.

Annemieke (van Leeuwen) was born in Zeist (NL) on July 3, 1980. She lived there until she was 12, when this family also moved to Ermelo.
Via common friends of our parents we got to know each other. We attended the same secondary school but it took many years before the spark was ignited.

Just before the move to England our oldest son Joas was born (January 2004). He was followed by our second son, Tim, in June 2006.

Eventually we lived in England for 4.5 years. During this period our desire to serve God by means of the flying got increasingly stronger. We applied with the MAF Netherlands and we were officially accepted in the summer of 2007.

But God had different plans:
Instead of going direct to Africa with MAF, we follow a longer road of preparation. Whilst praying we moved to Chantilly, France, in March 2009.
Here Mark continues to work for EasyJet and he hopes to become a captain soon.

To our great sadness on June 1, 2009, our daughter Hannah was stillborn after a pregnancy of 28 weeks. Click here to read more about this.

As a family we are being moulded and formed by God. We learn several European languages and get to know the cultures. But everywhere we notice that God is the same! His faithfulness is eternal!

“In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength”

(Isaiah 30:15)

Do you want to fly with us?