Happy New Year from Indonesia! We celebrated Indonesian-style – by launching fireworks on the street outside our house. The din from fireworks going off all over the place throughout the city was impressive at midnight! We pray your New Year celebration is safe and happy!
Category: Culture
Merry Christmas!
Moving to the other side of the world necessitates choices. What to take, what to leave behind? There was no shortage of advice from people on both sides of the world about what they found invaluable or what they realized they could do without. But at the end of the day we had to decide… Continue reading Merry Christmas!
Standing Out
We’ve been in country now for nearly 11 months. I’ve learned to ignore the stares (mostly) and turned heads from locals amazed at seeing a bule (Caucasian) way out here in Medan. We have routines of a sort, places we usually go, and after a while you stop thinking about it. This is partially necessary… Continue reading Standing Out
Christmas in the Tropics
While I was gone the family was busy not just with visas but with preparations for Christmas. We were ecstatic to find out (back in September!) that Christmas decorations (including artificial Christmas trees) could be purchased in Medan. The kids were particularly excited to make the place feel a bit more festive for the Advent/Christmas… Continue reading Christmas in the Tropics
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
As I was off traveling, the family needed to renew their visas. Currently because of travel we are staying in Indonesia courtesy of Visitor on Arrival visas. These are good for 30 days from the date of entry into the country, and can be renewed once for another 30 days. While there are other, more… Continue reading Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch
Thanksgiving II
Our second Thanksgiving took place yesterday afternoon and evening. Pre-Covid, our language school had a habit of hosting a cross-cultural Thanksgiving experience for their students. This year, they expected 120 people to attend to learn about American Thanksgiving and get a small taste of traditional American Thanksgiving food. At least as close to traditional American… Continue reading Thanksgiving II
Thanksgiving I
Living overseas you know things will be different. You don’t always know which things or how they’ll differ, but you know in a general way life is going to be different. One of the more obvious differences is holidays. Each country and culture celebrates their own holidays. Some overlap, others don’t. Thanksgiving is one that… Continue reading Thanksgiving I
Christ the King
We worship at an English-speaking congregation that isn’t Lutheran. Given the choice between attending a more Lutheran service in Bahasa Indonesia when we can’t understand it at all, or dealing with doctrinal and traditional differences where we could hear the Word and be part of Christian community, we opted for the latter. It has been… Continue reading Christ the King
Scholastic Life
The biggest aspect of our lives in Indonesia at this point is language learning. Five days a week from 8:30am to 10:30am we are in formal classrooms. Gena and I are in one class, the kids are in another, but we’re all at the exact same place, covering the same material. In Unit 4 we… Continue reading Scholastic Life
Watching Others Work
There are, of course, many other Christians beyond Lutherans at work in Medan and Indonesia. As we grow our network here we get to meet them and sometimes learn more about the work they’re doing. For instance, I had no idea there were Eastern Orthodox in Indonesia (Antiochan Orthodox, to be more precise). Then I… Continue reading Watching Others Work
The Nelson Family Indonesia 