Pretty inspiring, huh? That’s why I swore I wasn’t going to post this week. Who wants to listen to something like that? Who wants to hear about struggles and illness, about how Satan can grind you down? Good Lord, most people have enough of those issues in their own lives and the lives of their… Continue reading The No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Week
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!
Illness – Again!
Sorry for the delay in posting. Most of the family was laid out with sickness after our return from Kuala Lumpur earlier this month. I in particular had the joy of dealing with it not just once but twice, after I thought I had recovered from it. Frustrating but not too terribly awful. Fevers at… Continue reading Illness – Again!
Lutherans in Indonesia
Before I joined the international team I would never have guessed at the number of Lutherans in Southeast Asia. While in Kuala Lumpur I had the opportunity to see two different churches that are part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Malaysia (ELCM). Zion Cathedral is located in downtown Kuala Lumpur, shadowed and dwarfed by… Continue reading Lutherans in Indonesia
First Meeting – Bishop Lawrence of the ELCM
I was blessed today to meet with Bishop Steven Lawrence of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Malaysia (ELCM). He set aside not just time to meet in his office and to introduce me (and my wife, Gena) to their staff, but also to drive us 90-minutes to visit one of their ministries – the Women’s… Continue reading First Meeting – Bishop Lawrence of the ELCM
Hello From….Kuala Lumpur!
No, Kuala Lumpur is not, in fact, in Indonesia. It’s close by though, just across the Malacca Strait, and an hour from the Medan airport. We landed and discovered it was Malaysia’s independence day. Which means in the past two months we’ve celebrated three different independence days – America’s on July 4th, Indonesia’s on August… Continue reading Hello From….Kuala Lumpur!
Biawat
You’re awakened at 3 am by strange sounds. Better still, you’re awakened by your spouse at 3 am, who was wakened a few moments earlier by strange sounds. Now, after trying to make sense of them in the dark, they’ve wakened you. Groggy, you listen to the bumps, scrapes, and thuds emanating from somewhere vaguely… Continue reading Biawat
Adjusting
It doesn’t seem like much but on our first flight from Jakarta to Medan in February it was deliciously unexpected. Just like the in-flight meal on the two-hour flight was unexpected. And after close to 25 hours of traveling and transiting from the US it was a much-needed pick-me-up. A much-needed bit of excitement, as… Continue reading Adjusting
Home!
It was a long weekend. We were up at 6am to catch a 10am, two-hour flight from Phoenix. A 2-hour stop in San Francisco and then a 10-hour flight to Narita, Tokyo where we had 30 minutes to make it to our next flight, a seven-hour flight to Jakarta, arriving at midnight Saturday night Jakarta… Continue reading Home!
The Nelson Family Indonesia 