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
Category: Travel
Tickets Booked!!!!
After over a week of wrangling with our bank’s travel portal, today I obtained the number for their travel service department, and a very capable woman spent over an hour with me on the phone locking in our tickets to depart (and return) from Indonesia. We’re so excited! Our plan is to depart Friday, February… Continue reading Tickets Booked!!!!
Frustrating
The messed up credit card charges from earlier have finally cleared up. Despite the bank portal giving me error messages as though the purchases hadn’t gone through, they actually *all* went through. Fortunately within 36 hours, as per the bank’s representative’s suggestion, all of the transactions were cancelled. So I figured it was safe to… Continue reading Frustrating
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
Who Gets the Last Laugh?
So I’m sitting here waiting for our bank and the airline we’re hoping to fly on to Jakarta to sort out the purchase I tried to make. Granted, five international tickets is much larger than our typical credit card transaction, but I have to admit it was more than a bit anticlimactic after multiple error… Continue reading Who Gets the Last Laugh?
Some Good News!
To be honest, the past week or two has been hard. We’re settled into our temporary digs in Arizona again. It’s nice to be back in somewhat familiar territory and close to family. But to be honest, the wear of constantly having to figure out our next living arrangement so we don’t lock ourselves into… Continue reading Some Good News!
Back in Phoenix
Two months almost to the day after leaving Phoenix for the Pacific Northwest, we’re back in Phoenix through the end of December. We made the roughly 1600 mile trek over the course of a week. In Santa Barbara we were able to connect with friends from our nearly 11 years living in the area, as… Continue reading Back in Phoenix
Visiting ‘Home’
Yesterday we were blessed to worship with my former congregation, Emanuel Lutheran in Santa Barbara, CA. I admit it felt a little strange to be in the pew instead of at the altar, but what a wonderful time it was to say hi to old friends and give them a first-hand update of what has… Continue reading Visiting ‘Home’
Shifting Sands
News reports indicate Indonesia is adjusting foreign visitor quarantine requirements in light of the newly discovered Omicron Covid variant. What was a three-day quarantine period for a short period earlier this month is being expanded to a seven-day quarantine. It is still possible to enter the country (at least from the US. Citizens of countries… Continue reading Shifting Sands
A Promising Start!
This afternoon we had a Zoom meeting with the owner of a language school in Medan. This school was utilized by the Woods when they deployed to Medan a couple of years ago and comes well-recommended. The owner outlined the process we’ll go through to be admitted to Indonesia on a short-term basis. Visitor visas… Continue reading A Promising Start!
The Nelson Family Indonesia 