We are not Heirs of the Past, but Stewards of the Future
Mr. Marshal Manengkei is an Evangelist of the Body of Christ Jesus and as such he is a fundamental born again Christian, following the purity of the Bible as the word of The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
After his baptism he minister a small congregation in the town of Venlo in the Southern part of the Netherlands for a decade.
The Lord gave him another call and he moved to Apeldoorn. Led by a vision based upon the second letter of Peter it eventually brought him to developing sustainability as the basis of living, labor and leisure. The result: the concept of the Energyneutral City as the cornerstone of urban sustainable development.
For the City of Apeldoorn he develops the first photo-voltaic houses of the Netherlands. Many new technologies were implemented by him as project manager for sustainable urban development as already described elsewhere in this profile among others the development of an industrial estate as a power plant of renewable energy. After achieving the highest ambitions in the Netherlands Mr. Manengkei is now busy to give a contribution to Indonesia, his beloved native country.
Mr. Marshal Manengkei is also one of the most successful producer, singer and songwriter of contemporary music and pop music in the Netherlands from 1974 till today. One of his biggest successes are “Song for the Children” sung by Oscar Harris and “My Love” sung by Rosy & Andres. His songs were adapted by among others Eddie “Oh Mein Papa” Calvert, Nana Mouskouri, The Tumbleweeds, The Tielman Brothers, The “Ramona” Blue Diamonds and Mel Jersey. His musical abilities expend from pop, rock, country, jazz to keroncong and folk music.
The above picture shows him in action on stage at the "Malam Tembang Kenangan" in Hotel Ratu Bidakara Serang for Governess Ratu Atut of the Province of Banten. He was invited as Guest Star of the evening amidst of Indonesian Stars like Christine Panjaitan, Rafika Duri, Iis Sugianto, Rano Karno, Fatur Java Jive and Andre Hehanussa. All the artists were accompanied by one of the Top Bands from Indonesia "The Audiensi Band".
Next to his Musical, Technical and Spiritual abilities and achievements, Marshal has also implemented his engagement for the communities he was involved in and realized many social responsibility projects.
He was just attending Junior High School when he made paintings for the annual Fancy Fair of the Dapena School in Surabaya to raise school-funds. During these Fancy Fairs, he led a school choir and gave performances also to raise school-funds.
He also became the vice-chairman in the Central Board of the Bond van Minahassers (BVM) in The Netherlands and fulfilled this duty for 11 years. This association was the biggest association of Minahassian people in The Netherlands with 5.000 members at the peak of its existence divided over 9 regions which have their own boards. For this association Marshal managed to transfer 31 Roentgen devices for the health programs of tuberculosis of the Province of North Sulawesi in Indonesia. The devices were static and mobile devices from Siemens and Philips. The latter were meant to be used in the remote areas like villages in the forests and rural areas. This was the biggest project of the BVM and Marshal to support his homeland Minahasa.
He was also one of the founders of the Stichting Sedap Malam (a foundation that tried and is still trying to accelerate the assimilation process between the Dutch and the Dutch-Indies societies) in Roermond, The Netherlands. He organized every last Saturday of the month dance parties where all kinds of cultural aspects were exposed and performed by Dutch and Dutch-Indies artists. During two consecutive years he successfully organized so called Pasar Malams (Night Markets) in the Town of Roermond, which was attended by the Indonesian Ambassador.
One of his favourite sports was and is badminton. So he became a board member of Badminton Club Roermond (BCR) and designed the logo of the club.
For several years he led the housing owners of the Stichting Caspol Koepel in Roemond into a victory over Bowfonds Limburgse Gemeenten, the developer of a Housing Residence in Roermond. He managed to force the developer and the contractor to renovate their bad constructed houses.
Marshal was a member of the Provincial Advisory Commission for Building and Living of Gelderland, an advisory board for the Governor of Gelderland. His election and membership was based upon his skills in sustainable urban development.
Marshal has initiated the first environmental friendly Centre for Seniors Citizens in The City of Apeldoorn: Rumah Saya. At that time he was a board member of the Stichting Nusantara. Many senior citizens of the Dutch-Indies died younger than the Dutch senior citizens. After a published report by Berenschot Consultancy the conclusion was that due to their regression when they grew older the Dutch cultural living conditions became the reason of their diminishing quality of life environment. So the foundation managed to receive a special support from the Dutch government to improve their center with the implementation of their own rich Indonesian cultural life aspects.
The Dutch Government represented by the Department of Defense and the Municipality of Geleen, had asked Mr. Marshal Manengkei to be a volunteer in the Defense Drafted Military program of military duty for every male citizen. According to the Laws he was exempted from this national service, being the head of the family (mother, kid sisters and a kid brother). But because of his extraordinary talent for military strategies, which was the outcome of the regular tests of the Department of Defense, the Government would very like to see him performing his duty as a Dutch drafted soldier. At that moment Marshal felt he should do something in return to the Government who offered him the opportunity to study and obtain his degrees. So he accepted the invitation. He proved himself worthy of their request and became an officer in the Dutch Army. From 1973 until 1996 (the Drafted Army was then ended with the downfall of the Warschau Pact) he did his duty as a Dutch Officer reaching the rank of Captain of the Dutch Infantry and in the function of the Head of the Intelligence Department (S2).