Grab is the Indonesian (Southeastern Asia, really) equivalent of Uber. It’s practically pennies to get back and forth to most anywhere in the sprawling city of Medan and a lifesaver when every day the temperature and humidity wrestle with one another for dominance. I was invited by the waitress at the restaurant across the street… Continue reading Practicing Language With My Grab Driver Who Is Also a Charismatic Pastor
Category: Culture
Scenes in Medan I
The area of Medan we know best after three weeks is the small street our hotel/apartment is on – Jalan Listrik. It’s an elbow of a street jutting out to the east and north from a major thoroughfare. This is looking out are window, facing southeast. There are two large complexes directly next to us… Continue reading Scenes in Medan I
Drinking from a Firehose
It’s hard to believe we arrived in Medan two weeks ago. Although we feel so inadequate in terms of language, we’ve learned so much in such a short time. Like this post’s title, we’re at times overwhelmed by the process of learning a language and a culture as well as how to function in life… Continue reading Drinking from a Firehose
Hungry?
Looks good, doesn’t it? Incredibly ripe and fresh. You’d like one. You know it. How would you get it? You’d have to know what it is to begin with, what to call it and then where to find it. You’d do a near-invisible sorting of the many potential places in your area you even know… Continue reading Hungry?
Kevin
Our first full day in Medan included an outing to a nearby shopping center. It’s a five or six story mall filled with restaurants and stores and on the top level there’s a grocery store. Partly to practice our Bahasa Indonesia skills and partly out of necessity for some basic kitchen goods and partly out… Continue reading Kevin
Quarantine Day 4
Because they counted the day of our arrival in Indonesia – Wednesday February 9 – as our first day of quarantine even though we spent most of that day in the air – today is our last day of quarantine. The quarantine hotel informed us yesterday that sometime after 8am today we would be tested… Continue reading Quarantine Day 4
Book Review – The Lost Temple of Java
The Lost Temple of Java by Phil Grabsky For a while, I was trying to make my way through a series of books on sociology and anthropology and missiology. All good stuff to be sure, but the cumulative nature of these books was a bit overwhelming and pretty detached from the logistical challenges of planning… Continue reading Book Review – The Lost Temple of Java
Watching & Waiting
The bank still hasn’t cleaned up our credit card purchase of our airline tickets. So, to date, still no tickets, and still four separate, identical charges for one set of tickets! Hopefully this gets sorted out soon! In the meantime we continue to watch and wait. Mostly I’m scanning the news for Indonesia trying to… Continue reading Watching & Waiting
While You’re Waiting…
No new news this week, which is frustrating but all part of the process, apparently! Our eagerness to deploy doesn’t necessarily translate into other entities moving at the speed we’d like them to. A good reminder we’re not in charge of all of this. In the meantime, here’s an article about LCMS work in Washington… Continue reading While You’re Waiting…
Starting the Process
We have a path forward – trying to secure tourist visas to Indonesia for the first of the year. How do you start down such a path, though? We know one other LCMS family that has deployed there (and hopes to again in short order) but they have a work visa, something that isn’t an… Continue reading Starting the Process
The Nelson Family Indonesia 