The Nelson Family Indonesia

Today I flew back to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore. Another good day for travel! My short visit in Singapore was fruitful in several different ways.

Most importantly, I received word while in Singapore that my Indonesian work visa has arrived! This simple detail is an immense source of relief after a year or worrying and wondering about it. It will simply my life immensely and make me a better guest of Indonesia. It will also cover Gena, and for a year until Caedmon turns 18 he’ll be covered under it as well. What a huge blessing!

But something I’m also proud about is a new achievement in terms of my getting to know Singapore further as a place I minister to. This is the first trip I’ve made to Singapore where I didn’t need to use a taxi or Uber or Grab the entire time. All my comings and goings from touching down at Changi Airport to departing from the same airport were accomplished using Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (MRT). It’s a subway/light rail and bus system that provides comprehensive passenger service throughout the island nation. I’ve used it some on earlier trips but planned this trip (as I will future trips) to utilize this exclusively.

As I mentioned a few days ago part of my responsibility as a good partner working for the Church overseas is to be financially responsible. My travel costs are part of my budget and are reimbursed but I want to make good use of that money. Taxis in Singapore are much more expensive than the MRT. I’m grateful to have discovered and started implementing cost-savings in Singapore both in terms of space usage and personal transport!

An added bonus is the view is often very good, athough a lot of the subway portion of the MRT is underground.

Public transit in Singapore is extremely efficient and reliable. Subway trains stop every four minutes at each station, and there are ten or so different subway lines that criss-cross Singapore. On future visits I’ll start experimenting with using the public busses. The subway card I purchased (looks like a credit card!) can be topped up whenever I need to with more funds, and is usable both on the busses and the subways. Really handy as it’s SOOOOO hot and humid here that walking more than a block or two results in a lot of sweat and misery! They’re having a heat wave right now and daily temperatures hover around the 95 degree mark (and with humidity levels probably about the same!).

Finally it was good to reconnect with some of our people in Singapore. Though we didn’t have worship and the Sacrament this time we did discuss private Communion in the future when necessary, and I’ll be working with the group in the coming weeks and months to have them take some responsibility for this ministry financially in terms of helping to pay for the room rentals and possibly storage for a suitcase of resources we have had stashed in Singapore for years (LSBs, paraments, etc.). It’s great to see the Holy Spirit working here and humbling to be a part of it. Thank you for your ongoing support of my work in Singapore and beyond. So far my work in the past year has taken me to nine different countries (including Indonesia where we live!). I pray for continued strength and health to serve the Church as and where needed.