This morning I am blessed to attend St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Baguio City, a member congregation of the Lutheran Church in the Philippines, a partner church body in full altar-pulpit fellowship with the LCMS. I arrive at 8:30am for the Bible study which, typical to Southeast Asian culture, doesn’t really start until 9:00am. Pastor… Continue reading Pre-Worship
Category: Life
Long Time Gone
At least it will have been by the time I return. Today I head out for a three-week stint abroad. Traveling in and out of Kuala Lumpur with buffer time for some catechesis with a young teacher there, the bulk of my time will be spent in the Philippines. The Lutheran seminary I visited in… Continue reading Long Time Gone
Exploring and Celebrating
This past week we celebrated Gena’s birthday by visiting a part of Sumatra we haven’t been before. It’s only about 50 miles outside of Medan, but our drive to Berastagi took nearly 4.5 hours because of rain and it being only a two-lane road all the way up and down the hills. Did I mention… Continue reading Exploring and Celebrating
Busy In Singapore
I still pinch myself. Here I am, sweating my brains out, clothes soaked through, lugging a 60-lb suitcase through the subway system. By all accounts I ought to be miserable, and I certainly do wish it was cooler. But then I remember, I’m in Singapore! That seems almost unimaginable still, even though Singapore is getting… Continue reading Busy In Singapore
Reaching Out
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… Continue reading Reaching Out
Graduation!
Today was a special day for our family. Everyone (except Paul!) graduated from language school! Although I had to drop out after the core program (6 units of study), the rest of the family continued for the final 3 units. Their studies culminated in a 2000-word research paper and oral presentation – all in bahasa… Continue reading Graduation!
God Provides
It wasn’t the night I expected. I awoke shortly after falling asleep, realizing something wasn’t right. After tossing and turning for a while I realized I had some sort of food poisoning, most likely. The already-short night was tragically spent mostly not in bed sleeping. By the time my driver arrived I was dressed and… Continue reading God Provides
Home Again
Thank you all for your prayers. This evening Gena, Caedmon and I were able to successfully re-enter Indonesia on e-visas as prelude to receiving my Indonesian work permit in the next 30-days or so (God-willing!). We still need to go to the local immigration office to finalize the work permit but that should be relatively… Continue reading Home Again
On to Singapore
I flew from Kuala Lumpur (KL) to Singapore today. As a tangential note, it’s fun learning new airport codes on this side of the world! While I still think that Phoenix has the best airport name in the world (Sky Harbor International Airport – how cool is that?!!??!), airport codes are a bit less sexy.… Continue reading On to Singapore
Broadening Relationship Circles
Living overseas as an expat and minority of a larger culture and nation means you think about things you wouldn’t at home. How’s that for the understatement of the decade?! 🙂 For one thing you tend to notice other expats, others who obviously (or less-obviously) are not native to the local culture. Those relationships become… Continue reading Broadening Relationship Circles
The Nelson Family Indonesia 