Today was a busy day. The morning was spent at the local immigration office where Caedmon, Gena and I were fingerprinted and photographed as the final step for my Indonesian work visa. We’ll return on Tuesday afternoon of next week to pick up this new visa which will cover the three of us until next June. It’s been a long time in coming but God is good and we’re very excited to have this at long last!
Then we accepted an invitation to attend a luncheon for an orphanage. A woman we met at church came from the US to Indonesia and is launching a house dedicated to women seeking recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Prior to this project she built a relationship with a local orphanage, and wanted to host those kids at the recovery house (they don’t have any recover clients yet). So most of the family journeyed about 20 minutes to the recovery house and were introduced to an amazing bunch of kids ranging in age from probably three years old to those in their late teens.
We’ve agreed to serve as advisors for this recovery house, since our family was involved in ministry to women in recovery at my last parish in Santa Barbara. It’s exciting to see how the Holy Spirit equips us for continued ministry in surprising ways.
We enjoyed a lunch from a next-door restaurant specializing in bakso, a type of Indonesian meatball. It was served with either noodles or as a soup and was delicious (especially with an extra helping of sambal – Indonesian spicy sauce and this sauce was especially spicy!). This was after a time of worship, singing Indonesian worship songs and listening to a testimony by one of the women who is helping run the recovery house and recently returned from a 3-week training program for this in India.
Indonesian style is to sit on the floor, and we all did. It was a great opportunity to see how the Holy Spirit works in myriad ways to care for God’s creation. We look forward to seeing how this encounter may lead to further opportunities. I met a local pastor who runs the orphanage with his wife, and he was asking if I could mentor him. Please pray the Holy Spirit continues to show us how to bless the people of Medan!
The Nelson Family Indonesia 