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: Current Events
Happy 18th, Mika!
Hard to believe it, but our daughter turned 18 Saturday. Her birth was in Arizona, her first few birthdays were in St. Louis, fourteen of them were in California, last year she celebrated in Arizona again, and now in Indonesia. Instead of a birthday cake Gena made her a bunch of cinnamon rolls. I know… Continue reading Happy 18th, Mika!
Mika’s Birthday!
How can it be that our daughter is about to turn 18? It seems so improbable, such a long time in the making to be over in the blink of an eye. So Gena and I went out to get her birthday present. I thought the store was a short walk away from where we… Continue reading Mika’s Birthday!
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
Prayers for Earthquake Victims
About 1:21 pm (local time) a 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Java in the central western region, a bit south and east of the capital city of Jakarta. The epicenter of Cianjur has suffered destroyed and damaged buildings, and there are an estimated several dozen dead and many more injured. This is not… Continue reading Prayers for Earthquake Victims
Healthy & Planning
We’re all past whatever ailments dragged us down for a week or more. Thank you for your prayers! We were also able to get our wall repainted, the electrical outlet checked out, a new gas cannister and a newer, heavier-duty regulator and we’re back in action kitchen-wise as well. We’re in our third of four… Continue reading Healthy & Planning
A Difficult Weekend
Hot on the heels of a great time with friends visiting last week was a pair of national disasters. The first occurred about 2:30am in the morning, Saturday. Centered to the south of us a considerable distance, an earthquake rated about a 6 on the Richter scale struck. Thankfully there was only one fatality and… Continue reading A Difficult Weekend
Our First Visitors!
Outside the visit of our Regional Director and another Office of International Mission (OIM) worker back in May (which was lovely, to be sure!) we haven’t had any visitors until this past week. But we were blessed this week to be visited by the Cima family. The Cimas work with church partners in Cambodia. They’ve… Continue reading Our First Visitors!
A Visit Home
This summer LCMS teens from around the country will gather together – as they have every three years for nearly 40 years – for the National Youth Gathering. What’s different about this one is that for the first time (as I understand it) a scholarship is available to enable families serving the church overseas to… Continue reading A Visit Home
More Guests
Overlapping Deaconess Rein’s time in country but missing actually visiting with her was Regional Director for Southeast Asia, Rev. Charles Ferry. He visited with us on his way further westward to assess the situation in Sri Lanka, which has been troublesome to say the least. Our workers there, Rev. Steven Mahlberg & family, are safe… Continue reading More Guests
The Nelson Family Indonesia 