Ask the Woods Wednesday #10 /  by Kali Wood

Today’s topic is all about baking! While it may seem like a small topic to most, it’s near and dear to my heart. I LOVE baking! I love making treats for co-workers, for family gatherings, pizza for our weekly movie nights, and especially decorating cakes for my kiddos’ birthdays.

After we moved here, baking was a challenge. We had an extra large toaster oven, which would just fit a 9x13 pan and took some practice to bake things just right. Recently we bought a proper gas oven. It even has 2 shelves!!! Now I’m so used to my small electric toaster oven, that I have to re-learn how to use a full-sized gas oven.

Here’s my short list of challenges and benefits of baking here:

Challenges:

  • The heat causes buttercream frosting to lost it’s shape and melt.

  • The heat causes butter in cut-out cookies to soften too fast and they don’t keep their shape.

  • Ingredients can be difficult to find or are expensive.

  • The humidity and heat seem to cause baked goods to mold quickly.

  • Using the oven in my non-air-conditioned kitchen can feel like a furnace.

Benefits:

  • Bread and yeasted recipes rise quickly and beautifully.

  • Butter that needs to be softened will soften in minutes on the counter.

  • Palm sugar is a local, affordable alternative to brown sugar.

  • I’ve learned lots of tricks to work with the heat and humidity that I wouldn’t have known otherwise.

  • I get to experiment with local flavors (like Pandan, Coconut, and Banana) in my baking.

Overall, it has been a fun experiment finding out what works and what doesn’t here. I’m thankful for my friends here who have shared their tips and tricks. Laurel has become quite the little baker. She thoroughly enjoys making bread, brownies, cookies, pizza dough and chocolate cake. I thoroughly enjoy having a responsible child who can help with these things.

Ask the Woods Wednesday #9 /  by Kali Wood

Today’s topic is all things HOMESCHOOL!

The first part of the question is: Why did we choose to homeschool our kids?

The answer to that begins 6 years ago and about 9,000 miles away when we were still in St. Louis and before Matt had even known about a possible call to this side of the world. Laurel had finished PreK at one of the local Lutheran schools and we realized that we couldn’t afford to put her in school full-time there. The public school wasn’t a good option and so we talked with other homeschool families and made our choice.

When we moved to Indonesia we could have chosen to enroll the kids in an international school. There are 3 of them in town. There are 4 reasons that we did not:

  1. When we arrived we didn’t have a car and using a rideshare to and from school twice a day would add up monetarily and with my time.

  2. The tuition for these schools are quite high and we would rather spend that money elsewhere.

  3. We wanted to solidify our family unit. We going through a HUGE transition and wanted to have the kids around us as much as possible so that they knew that no matter where in the world we were, if we were together, we were home.

  4. We enjoy the freedom of the homeschool schedule. We can take short breaks when we need to and spend time together as we need to.

We choose to follow a classical Christian curriculum and it has worked well so far for Laurel and Eleanor. Laurel loves the reading and enjoys learning Latin. Eleanor benefits from the memorization of it and looks forward to studying some of the subjects that Laurel has already done. Caroline is ready to be a student in the fall and has already learned some skills from just observing her sisters.

The next part of the question is: Do we have any fun field trip experiences?

Unfortunately, here in Medan there are not too many. We have swim lessons each Thursday and the 3 girls attend a gymnastics class once a week. That covers our P.E. time, but not much else for enrichment such as museums or zoos.

BUT… we do have access to other cities, islands, and even countries for field trip opportunities. When we travel, I look for places that would be educational or can be connected to something we have learned. We go to zoos, museums, or historical sites.

That said, we have taken two trips to Bukit Lawang to hike in the jungle and have used our knowledge from Laurel’s Mammals class and Insects class when looking at the wildlife there.

The last question is: Do we have a homeschool community near us?

Yes! While it is a small community, it is a great one. There are 3 families that we have really connected with who homeschool. We have weekly play date with them, do seasonal activities (such as: dye Easter eggs, learn about St. Patrick, Valentine’s themed STEM activities, and so on).

Ask the Woods Wednesday #8 /  by Matthew Wood

Welcome back to Ask the Woods Wednesday. We received another question and this one is related more specifically to the ministry here with the Gereja Kristen Luther Indonesia (The Indonesian Christian Lutheran Church, GKLI). Here it is: What is the Lutheran Church in Indonesia like? Are there any unique ways in which the culture has impacted the practice of Lutheran faith?


What is the Lutheran Church in Indonesia like?

This question takes some unpacking because most Indonesians who consider themselves to be Lutheran belong to a church that calls itself protestant. The largest of these church bodies is the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (The Protestant Batak Christian Church, HKBP). This church body was started by German missionaries in the 1860s. These missionaries were heavily influenced by pietism and the forced union between Reformed and Lutherans in Germany. The missionaries quickly translated Luther’s Small Catechism and held to important doctrines about Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. However, over time the Reformed/Calvinist influence strengthened, especially at the seminaries and among the denominational leadership. So the HKBP, at least officially, says that they are not Lutheran. Instead they say that the HKBP is the HKBP, but if you ask a member of the laity who still memorize Luther’s Small Catechism they will proudly declare that they are Lutheran.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

The Church body that we work with most closely in Indonesia, the GKLI, was formed in the 1960s after a conflict within the HKBP. The founder of the GKLI, Jethro Sinaga, was insistent that this new church be explicitly identified as Lutheran instead of generically protestant. (I am told that Pastor Jethro would loudly stomp his feet if he felt that a sermon was missing the Gospel.)

The GKLI has been committed to learning and implementing explicitly Lutheran practices in the life of their Church. We are currently working on developing a hymnal with them to strengthen the proclamation of the Gospel in their worship services.

So, what is the Lutheran Church like in Indonesia? Well it depends on who you ask. It is not so much different from Europe or North America in this regard. The HKBP is a large church of about four million members. Their commitment to explicitly Lutheran teaching is not as strong as it could be, but there are many members of the laity and pastors who are firmly committed to it. Like in North America many of the congregations have grade schools and high schools associated with them. The GKLI is much smaller, about 20,000 members mostly on the Island of Sumatra. For both the HKBP and the GKLI congregational life centers around Sunday morning worship. Many members attend a weekly prayer meeting on Wednesday night. All in all the basic structure of their congregational life does not very wildly from what is familiar for an LCMS member in the USA.

Are there any unique ways in which the culture has impacted the practice of Lutheran faith?

The missionaries from the 1860s feared that traditional Batak (the tribe with whom the missionaries worked) cultural practices, collectively called adat, were too heavily influenced by their pre-Christian religion, known as Parmalim. So they sought to outlaw adat ceremonies rather than utilize them to proclaim the Gospel. Eliminating the adat was unsuccessful and today adat ceremonies run parallel to Christian ceremonies even as most Batak people reject the old Batak religion. What this means is that the unique elements of Batak culture do not impact the weekly worship life of the congregation. However, the adat still plays a strong role in family life, because the adat formalizes the social responsibilities of Batak people, most significantly who is responsible for caring for and serving whom. So, the Batak people who became Christians rejected their former gods, but continued to embrace their traditional family structure and thus still follow the adat in order to strengthen their family life.

Pastors and elders gather for a picture after worship. Pastors are in black and elders are in white.

The Christian traditions of the HKBP and the GKLI are influenced by many different European traditions. The traditional vestments and church polity come from the Dutch Reformed tradition. The worship service of the HKBP is influence by the pietism of the early missionaries. The worship service of the GKLI is influenced by Norwegian practices introduced by the founder’s time at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, MN in the 1950s, when the seminary was still part of the Norwegian Synod. These traditions were later strengthened by their partnership in the 1980s and 1990s with the Norwegian Lutheran Mission. More on their worship and music will come in a later edition of Ask the Woods Wednesday.

Their sanctuaries are nearly identical to what you would find in small town USA. A small narthex sits at the back of a large nave and the pastor and elders lead the service from the chancel. Pulpits are generally, but not always, elevated. They follow a three year lectionary which is just slightly different from what you would find in the LSB. The sermon is almost always on the Gospel and typically lasts about 45 minutes, most of which is an explanation of the text followed by application. Due to the lack of affordable wine they celebrate the Lord’s Supper about four times a year. The price of a bottle of wine in Indonesia is about the same as a weeks salary for most pastors, and depending on the location it could take days to find.

One unique aspect of congregational life in Indonesia is that they love to sing. It is not uncommon for three choirs (women’s, men’s, and youth) to offer a musical piece during worship. It is also fairly common for participants at a theological workshop to spend their break time singing Christian songs together karaoke style.

Ask the Woods Wednesday #7 /  by Kali Wood

Welcome back to another installment of Ask the Woods Wednesday.

Today’s question is all about Transportation and it’s brought to you by John S. in Michigan!

What is the travel situation like, both locally and nationally?

Traveling around town is mostly done by car, motorbike, becak or ongkot (minibus). Because of the heat there is not as much walking to and from places. Walking to and from the ongkot stop is most of it.

Going from one island to another there are many domestic airlines. The roads here are in rough shape so it’s often quicker to fly from one part of the island to another rather than driving.

Are stores, church, school, restaurants within walking distance?

As Medan is a large city there are things within walking distance of most places. In every neighborhood there is a school, a mosque, usually a church or two, lots of little warungs (small open-air restaurants), and convenience stores. There are many things to walk to near our house, but unfortunately there are no sidewalks near our house which make it unsafe to walk around as a family with small children.

Is there a lot of bike riding?

Bike riding is not very popular here but there is a small group that we see bike riding in the mornings on the weekend for fun and exercise. It’s a rare occasion to see someone riding a bicycle to work. WIth the traffic patterns here I would fear for my life riding a bicycle on the roads.

Do ride sharing (uber) platforms exist?

We have 2 main ride sharing programs here: Grab and Gojek. You can choose to order a car or a motorbike for these apps. This is what I (Kali) use most of the time since I’m don’t drive the car here. It usually costs about $1-3 USD for a one-way ride, which makes it quite affordable.

Is public transportation highly used?

Many Indonesians use the ongkots here. We have been told as bule (forgeigners) to steer clear of them due to pickpockets.

Being an island nation, do railroads exist?

There are no railroads on Sumatra but they are building a subway system in Jakarta and there are a few railways that go through Java to get people to and from Jakarta from the outlying cities.

Do many of the islands have bridges to connect them, or do you sail or fly to destinations?

There are a couple bridges that connect a couple islands but most of the islands use ferries or planes. The small islands only have access by ferry, and the larger ones have both airports and ferry ports.


Ask the Woods Wednesday #6 /  by Kali Wood

“What has been the most challenging aspect of living there?”
— Barb W.

Laurel says that the most challenging part of living here is missing her friends back in the States, especially those that she made during our time living at the Seminary. Her second thought is not having access to a library with English books.

Eleanor says that there is no snow at Christmas time. On other occasions when I have asked her what is difficult about living here she has told me that she wishes she had the freedom to run around outside more. She’s specifically thinking about our time at the Seminary when she could roam around the Seminary grounds to find friends to play with. She would wake up, eat breakfast, find some friends outside and we’d see her again around dinner. Those were her perfect days.

Caroline didn’t seem to have an answer for this question, but as I’ve heard her talk about missing her friends from the Seminary, I think that might be her challenge.

Kali: I think finding my place in this new culture has been a challenge. I will always be an American, but now I’m an American who isn’t very connected to America. I live here in Indonesia but I’m not Indonesian. Even if I learned everything there is to know about Indonesian culture, I will always be seen as a "bule” here. It’s difficult knowing you’ll never quite fit in inside any culture anymore.

Matt: The annual work visa renewal process is the most challenging thing about living here. We have to essentially ask the government for permission to live and work here for another year. There’s always added stress around that time of year (now) when we anxiously await the approval.

Ask the Woods Wednesday #5 /  by Kali Wood

“Are people there as connected to electronics as they are here in the States?”
— Cindy W.

There are some large similarities between technology use in Indonesia and the United States as well as some large differences.

Some similarities are that just like in the States, most people 12 years old and above have cell phones and spend a lot of their time on them. They spend time on many of the same platforms as Americans: TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, Netflix, Facebook, and so whatever else is trendy these days. They are just as addicted to their phones and technology as Americans.

Here are some of the differences that we have noticed over the years here:

First off, most homes do not have computers in them. No laptops, no desktops, not even tablets Quite a few don’t even have a TV. People are content with just using their phones. This seemed crazy during the pandemic when kids were doing school on line and they had to do it in front of mom or dad’s tiny cell phone screen instead of on a laptop or tablet. But parents made it work.

Second, there are cell phone towers everywhere. Even the jungle and tiny islands have towers so that you can be connected to the internet almost everywhere. You may think that is not something so different, but remember, Indonesia is made up of 17,000 islands. That’s a lot of area to cover.

Third, cell phone service is affordable and there are no contracts. SIM cards are easy to purchase and plans can be purchased daily, weekly or monthly. They can include minutes, SMS messages and data or just data. Most people just purchase data plans and use services like WhatsApp for calling, texting and videocalls.

I will say that I see a lot more people actually talking on their phones here than in the States. While people do send text messages, there is still a lot of people who actually talk on their phones, which I see less and less of in the States.

Ask the Woods Wednesday #4 /  by Kali Wood

“Was learning the language difficult?”

Both Matt and I will agree that learning Indonesian was not difficult. But we wouldn’t qualify it as easy, either.

The language itself is pretty easy. It uses the Roman alphabet and each letter makes the same sound with very few exceptions.

When we first moved to Sumatra in 2019, we enrolled in language classes right away. Matt and I were in class together and we had 6 units to complete. Each unit was 4 weeks long. We had class 2 hours a day and 5 days per week. Each day we were expected to spend 2 hours after class interviewing the locals and practicing our verbal skills and 2 hours on our written homework and general studying. So for about 6 months our full-time job was learning Indonesian. While we were exhausted during this time, the schedule made it easy for us to learn the language because we were constantly immersed in it.

Matt and I on our way to our last language class on March 20, 2020.

Let’s fast forward to almost 5 years later. How are we doing with language now?

Matt has retained most of his language skills and has added to his vocabulary exponentially. He even did some translating when other LCMS workers came to Medan for our family retreat in January.

My language has definitely lessened. I am good with everyday tasks and getting around, but I struggle having an in depth conversation in Indonesian. I’m hoping to go back to “school” for a language unit this summer when I have a break from teaching the kids to help me improve.

Laurel has even take a language unit with other expat kids last spring. It was a good introductory course for her and taught her the basics. She is more willing to ask how to say things in Indonesian and to try and figure out Indonesian signs when we are out and about.

What do you want to know next? Please comment with a question for next week’s installment of “Ask the Woods Wednesday.”

Ask the Woods Wednesday #3 /  by Kali Wood

“What is your favorite Indonesian food?”

Matt: If I have to choose just one: Ayam Sambal or Ayam Gebrek. It’s basically fried chicken with sambal and rice. But I have some favorites that I’ve only ever had at restaurants. One favorite is called Sate Andaliman. It’s grilled chicken skewers with a very spicy sambal sauce made with andaliman peppers.

Kali: There is a dish made up of shrimp and tempe covered in sambal (chili sauce) served with yellow rice that has become my favorite. It is simple but delicious. I have come to crave the sambal here. While you can find jars of it in the States, homemade sambal is the best!

Laurel’s favorite non-sweet dish is a simple chicken soup. It has celery leaves in it instead of actual celery pieces and is a little peppery tasting. While Indonesians eat it with rice, she likes to dunk bread in it.

Eleanor’s favorite food is Soto Ayam which is a chicken soup in a coconut broth. She calls it the “green chicken” because it’s often made with pandan leaves boiled in the broth which gives it a green tinge. This may also be Kermit’s favorite food. He eats more than one helping when we have this for lunch.

Caroline’s favorite Indonesian food is simple fried chicken. Often fried chicken here is served with sambal sauce and rice, but Caroline is happy with just the chicken, rice and some ketchup.

All of the girls favorite dessert is one called Bolu Kemojo from the Riau province. If you’re interested here is a recipe for it, but you’ll have to use Google Translate since I couldn’t find a faithful recipe in English.

Ask the Woods Wednesday #2 /  by Kali Wood

Here’s our second installment of Ask the Woods Wednesday!

“What seems weird now when you visit America?”
— Anne G.

Matt’s response:

When we first arrived in Medan I was shocked by the chaos. It seemed like there were no rules. Food being sold wherever anyone could set up a stand. Traffic moving according to a mysterious rythm. And it was dirty. Now that we have made this city our home I have grown to understand it all better and to love it. When we are back in the States it's shockingly clean and orderly. It seems sterile and while it makes some things easier it does seem strange and I often long for the chaos of the streets of Medan.

Kali’s response:

When I am in America, I am always surprised by not hearing the call to prayer 5 times a day. In Medan, it is broadcast from every mosque in the city. We have 3 within walking distance of our house, so it gets pretty loud. It has become embedded in the background of our every day life. When we are the States it seems quiet.

Connected to Islamic culture, I’m always very aware of the lack of clothes people wear in the States. We have become accustomed to seeing girls and women dress in very modest clothes despite the heat, humidity and lack of appropriate air conditioning. Even bathing suits are long sleeved and often accompanied by leggings.

Laurel’s response:

All the people with white skin and not having to speak Indonesian (such as: Permisi=excuse me, terima kasih=thank you, sama-sama= you’re welcome, and maaf=I’m sorry.)

This is Kali’s commentary on Laurel’s response: While there are quite a few bule (white people) living in Medan, we don’t see them often when we are out and about. If we see a bule at the store, we do a double take. Unless we are intentionally meeting up with friends we are not likely to see anyone with white skin.

Ask the Woods Wednesday /  by Kali Wood

Welcome to our first installment of “Ask the Woods Wednesday”. Each week we will post an answer to a question that you have submitted. If you have a question for next week, please post it in the comments.

“What is the best thing about where you live?”
— Submitted by Anne G.

Laurel says:

Friends, going to malls, swimming pools and taking weekend trips.

Eleanor says:

Friends, going to the pool, and the cats in the neighborhood

Caroline says:

Friends and gymnastics class.

Kermit thinks:

While he doesn’t talk yet, my guess would be the abundance of bananas here and our cat, Ginger.

Kali says:

Hands down, my favorite thing about Indonesia is the people. Indonesians have been so kind and friendly to us ever since we arrived. They are gracious with our language or cultural mistakes. They dote on our children. While we stick out wherever we go, we have always felt welcome.

My second favorite thing in this country is the food. I enjoyed mildly spicy food before we arrived here and now I crave the spicy dishes that are made here.

Matt says:

What I like best about lining in Indonesia is the opportunity to teach those who joyfully desire to learn about and proclaim the story of Jesus' death and resurrection for us. The humility and friendliness of the people here combined with the deep faith in Christ that the Christian minority has is inspiring. I also enjoy that so much of Indonesia remains very local. Each city provides it's own unique foods and customs that have not yet been corporatized which makes for unique discoveries and experiences everywhere you go.

U.S. Holidays in Indonesia /  by Kali Wood

During this time of year we are often asked by our supporters what Thanksgiving and Christmas look like in Indonesia.

Let’s start with Thanksgiving. As Thanksgiving is a purely American holiday, it is not celebrated in any public way. The only way you might notice Thanksgiving is approaching here is seeing 1 or 2 frozen turkeys in the grocery store.

While it is not publicly celebrated here, we celebrate it. This year we invited some South African friends over for dinner. It was a delight to share our traditions and food with them in this place. It made a plain Thursday into something more festive for them. We cooked almost all of the traditional foods. We bought one of the few frozen turkeys in town (which I didn’t read the price right and paid WAY too much for). We had sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie. I even made a special, last minute trip to the one store in town that sells cranberry sauce, but I forgot to put it on the table for the meal. Whoops.

Serving up pumpkin pie to the kids.

Onto Christmas….

If you drive around town or do any shopping you will know Christmas is coming. There are Christmas trees in front of stores, Christmas music throughout the stores, signs with candy canes, Santa hats, or snowflakes on them and big displays in the malls. But it is still miniscule compared to the U.S. displays. There are no special Christmas light displays. It’s just a different feeling.

We have found a few wintery things in town. Two malls have installed ice skating rinks. One mall has a “snow” playground. I’m pretty sure it’s a whole lot of shaved ice for kids to play in.

The ice skating rink at one of the malls.

We will celebrate with friends by having a Christmas cookie exchange and on Christmas Eve we have invited some friends over for the kids to decorate gingerbread cookies. Christmas day we will attend church and have a meal with the other LCMS family working with us in town.

What are your Christmas traditions?

How do you do it? /  by Kali Wood

A question that I (Kali) am asked often is “How do you do it?” Sometimes this refers to homeschooling, sometimes it refers to bearing the heat of living near the equator, but lately it has referred to traveling with young kids to the other side of the world. So here’s my post about how it’s done.

As we’ve done this trip 6 times as a family, we have learned a few things.

  1. Less is more. Our children are content to watch the movies that are on the plane or play on iPads when they aren’t sleeping on the flights. Only Laurel is an independent reader, so she will bring a chapter book. This trip’s book of choice was “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” If we bring anything else it creates arguments and clutter.

  2. Don’t force sleeping or eating. When one travels for 40 hours, sleep is bound to happen. If the kiddos are happy watching a movie, we don’t force a nap because we think it’s time for a nap. Same goes with meals. My kids are rarely hungry for the meals when they come around on the flight. We let them eat what they like from it and leave it at that. Airplane food (as most of you know) is not great, and even less so to tired, picky eaters.

  3. Lots of patience. Patience for everyone. It’s helpful for Matt and I to trade off parenting when one of us is over-stressed, the other can come in with more patience. (Usually this is me being overly stressed with high emotions while traveling and Matt being calm, cool and collected.) Traveling is hard, moving is hard, and our little ones don’t have the emotional maturity to handle it well all the time (sometimes neither do I). The more patience we can give them, the happy we all are.

  4. Jet-lag is real. They say that it takes one day for every hour that you’re adjusting from to get over jet lag. That would be 13 days for us. Luckily, it usually takes us about a week to really get back on the right schedule. In that first week, sleeping happens at odd hours and odd places. Our first night back we went to bed by 5pm and woke up at 3am. Breakfast was made by 3:30am and we just got on with our day, like it was not the middle of the night. We don’t plan more than one major activity per day for the first week we are back, and it always happens in the morning. We just never know how we will feel after 3pm.

We love living here, but we don’t love the long flights it takes to get here. We are thankful that our kids are super travelers. They look forward to long flights, walking through airports and packing their own backpacks for the trips.

Above are pictures of the girls enjoying a 6 hour layover in the Singapore airport. (Not shown is the 1 hour nap we took at an empty gate).

This is a bassinet that they attach to the wall right in front of my seat. It’s a life saver traveling with an infant. While he is awake in this photo, he spent most of his time sleeping throughout the flights.

More Pictures! /  by Matthew Wood

I recently sent out a newsletter in which I promised pictures of our Son, Kermit. I realize that I have only posted one picture when I made the birth announcement. So here are a few others. Since Kermit’s birth our family has been doing some traveling to raise support for the ministry in Indonesia. I have included some other pictures from our travel as well.

Kermit Lawrence /  by Matthew Wood

Our son, Kermit Lawrence Wood, was born on the commemoration of Saint Lawrence, August 10, 2022. We chose his name, Kermit, after my paternal grandfather. Kermit was baptized on the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, August 14, 2022 at Concordia Lutheran Church in Maplewood.

Once we receive his birth certificate from Saint Louis County we will apply for his passport, and once we have his passport we will be heading back to Indonesia. Our tentative date of departure is October 24.

A Tale of Two Cultures /  by Matthew Wood

I have just returned to Medan from Tuapeijat, Indonesia where the GKLI hosted a preaching workshop and graciously invited me to be the main presenter. I hope to write a brief update on that soon, but what’s on my mind right now are the conversations I had with the GKLI leadership and pastors about cultural differences between Indonesians and Westerners.

The following story (my very brief scan of the internet suggests it comes out of Brazil) gets to some of what we were talking about, though I don’t think it adequately gets to the cause of the differences.

Once a fisherman was sitting near the seashore, relaxing under the shadow of a tree smoking his beedi. Suddenly a rich businessman passing by approached him and enquired as to why he was sitting under a tree smoking and not working. To this the poor fisherman replied that he had caught enough fish for the day.

Hearing this confused the rich man who then replied, “Why don’t you catch more fish instead of sitting in shadow wasting your time?”

Fisherman furrowing his brow, and inquired, “Why should I spend my time catching more fish?”

Exasperated as though the answer was obvious, the rich man responded, “If you had more fish you could sell them and earn more money.”

Puzzled the fisherman puffed on his beedi and directing his gaze to the sea asked “Why do I need more money?”

The business man swung his hand toward the modest boat drawn up on the beach and said, “With more money you could get a better boat.” Anticipating another objection he continued, “You could go fishing in deeper waters and catch even more fish and earn even more money.”

The fisherman rested his back upon the palm tree and wondered out loud, “What would all that money buy me?”

The business man looking to the sand and massaging his brow explained, “You could buy more boats and go into business and become successful like me.”

The fisherman responded, “What would success bring?”

The business man almost chuckling to himself explained, “After a few years of hard work and dedication you could earn enough to retire and enjoy your life peacefully.”

The fisherman put his hands behind his head and took in the ocean breeze and answered, “But that’s what I am doing right now.”

A quick reflection on this story concludes that the moral is money doesn’t necessarily bring happiness and one does not need wealth to enjoy life peacefully. And that is probably a moral of this story, but I think it has more potential than that. While the story doesn’t explicitly say that the businessman is a westerner and the fisherman is a native of the tropics, I think assuming that fact helps to draw out major cultural differences which I have seen at work between western expats in Indonesia—like my family and me—and the native Indonesians.

I have frequently heard westerners here make the observation that Indonesians do what they need to get by, but they don’t do what they need to thrive. Implying that if they worked just a little harder they could improve their quality of life. It’s two different definitions of ‘thrive’ that this story draws out.

Our definitions of success are much different. I think they are influenced by the reality of harsh winters. Think of the stories we hear and tell our whole lives. Stories about ants and grasshoppers teaching that we must work hard in the Summer to have enough for the winter. This instills in us a very long term view of success. It is natural to see success as something that only comes after years of hard work and planning. Indonesians don’t tell those stories because there is no winter to demand long term food storage. The land is continually producing. It seems that their definition of success and their definition of ‘thriving’ is more short term than ours. We might call that lazy, and we’d be wrong. I wonder what they would call our definition of success and thriving?

Leaving so soon? Part 2- Caroline's Birth /  by Kali Wood

Here is part 1 of “Leaving so soon?” and it contains no birth story, just a simple explanation of why we are returning to the States for a few months.

If you’d like to hear more about Caroline’s birth and why this solidified our decision to have baby #4 in the U.S., read on. Don’t worry it’s not a graphic birth story, just some of the incidents that helped us make our decision.

One of our first visits with my Indonesian OBGYN, we asked if Matt could be present in the O.R. with me. The doctor said that traditionally that is not the case but since we are “bule” (foreigners) it would be allowed. Unfortunately, this did not happen. As they were wheeling me in to the O.R. for my anesthetics they told Matt that he was not allowed to join me, leaving me slightly frightened and him more than worried.

Once in the O.R. things went smoothly at first. Caroline was delivered within just 20 minutes. I met her, saw them weigh her and had a quick snuggle before they took her to get cleaned up. But I noticed that it was taking a while to sew me up. The doctors didn’t tell me anything and I remember looking at the clock and noticing that at least 25 minutes had passed since Caroline arrived. They should be done soon, I thought.

The next thing I know I wake up in a room full of 20+ beds with no one around me. No Matt. No Caroline. No nurses nearby. I look at the clock and realize 2 hours have passed. I realize they must have put me under general anesthetic (without telling me) and something must have gone wrong. Due to horomones, confusion, and fear I began crying and asking “Di mana bayimu?” (Where is my baby?) because I don’t know enough Indonesian to ask all the other questions going on in my head. A nurse politely told me to be patient and wait.

30 minutes later they brought me to my room where Matt was waiting. They wheeled Caroline in after that. During my 2 hours in the recovery room, Matt got a glimpse of Caroline as they wheeled her out of the O.R. and down the nursery. They did not tell him what was going on or let him spend those 2 hours bonding with Caroline.

My OBGYN came in for a follow up later that day while Matt was picking up Eleanor and Laurel to come and meet Caroline. He told me that the complication was due to my previous C-Sections. My uterus had adhered to my abdominal wall. This didn’t affect delivery but closing up they had to un-adhere them and do some extra stitching. He told me I shouldn’t have any more babies because that is likely to happen again. I would just like to point out that he told me this just hours after I was under on general anesthetic, on some heavy pain meds, and my husband wasn’t. By the time Matt arrived with the girls, I couldn’t remember what exactly the doctor had told me. Luckily he told me again when I was discharged 2 days later.

All in all, I’m thankful that myself and Caroline were healthy but I would not like to go through any of that again. I will stick with a doctor that I trust who will communicate with me clearly (and in my own language) and where I feel comfortable and safe.

Leaving so soon? /  by Kali Wood

We get this question from both our friends here in Indonesia and our friends in the U.S.: “You just got back to Indonesia, after such a long wait, why are you returning to the U.S. so soon?”

The simple answer is: to have a baby.

We delivered Caroline in Indonesia in 2019, after only 3 months of living there and let’s just say… it was difficult. There were medical complications due to her being my 3rd C-section and the standard of care here is less than ideal. After delivering Caroline my Indonesia OBGYN told me that I shouldn’t have any more children because delivering them was too difficult. Upon returning to the States in 2020, I visited my St. Louis OBGYN who after a thorough check-up said it was just fine to have more children and he wouldn’t be worried delivering them.

And so, when we found out we were expecting another blessing, the choice had to be made: try and find a new OBGYN in Indonesia who doesn’t mind performing a 4th C-section or come back to the U.S. where we know we have a trusted doctor. The choice seemed easy for us.

Yes, we could have just stayed in St. Louis until the baby was born and received his/her passport and visa instead of returning to Indonesia for only 2 months. Had we done that, we would have been stateside for a total of 23 months. I don’t think Matt’s or my mental health could have handled that. We dearly wanted to get back to our home and life in Indonesia. These last 2 months in Indonesia have been so uplifting for Matt and I. We have reconnected with friends, co-workers and the people we have come to serve. Matt has accomplished so many things in this short period of time. It’s been a blessing to be here, and it will help us get through the next 4.5 months of being Stateside.

Please continue to pray for us as we say goodbye to our Indonesian home on Thursday, June 2nd and arrive to our temporary St. Louis home on Saturday, June 4th. Pray for safe flights, lots of rest and low stress. Continue to keep baby and me in your prayers as I embark on my 3rd trimester and we await baby’s arrival in early August.

If you’d like to know more about what some of those complications that were involved with Caroline’s birth, you can read about them in my follow-up blog post: www.theseaside.asia/blog/2022/5/27/leaving-so-soon-part-2-carolines-birth

Happy Eid! /  by Kali Wood

We arrived at the start of Ramadan. The end of Ramadan is called Idul Fitri (or Eid), which was celebrated last week. Most people take a 7-10 day holiday from about 2 days before Eid until the following Friday or Saturday. Throughout these 10 days, people go visit their kampungs (or hometowns/villages) or stay home and have friends and family visit.

Our helper did a combination of both. Her and her family took a short vacation out of town and now have returned to entertain friends, family and neighbors. The girls and I were blessed to be invited to her home today for a time of visiting and delicious food.

We entered her modest home and sat on the floor while her children brought in drinks, snacks and plates. We were kindly given spoons (but most Indonesians do not use them and just eat with their hands). On the menu was Roti Jala which the girls enjoyed plain and I covered in delicious chicken curry and acar. There was kerupuk bawang (homemade onion chips), telur gabus (cheese sticks), and my favorite Kue Nastar (pineapple cookies). The girls politely tried everything but enjoyed the telur gabus the most.

I enjoyed the time to chat with our helper in her own home during this visit. While I chat with her at our home often, there is something special that happens when someone else invites you into their home. The visit was short, maybe an hour total, but it was worth the trip.

Wait, wait, wait.... NOW GO! /  by Matthew Wood

Our story may be unique in the details, but generally we are not experiencing anything new for others involved in international ministry. The stresses of visa applications and how life gets worked up into a frizzy when it comes time to travel internationally is what I am specifically referring to right now. As I write this I realize that we leave in 5 days and 15 hours. There is so much activity that is going to happen in that time and then when we into Indonesia there will be more activity to follow. We are going to need prayers and the prayer needs will likely change daily. Check back to this specific blog entry for updates. I will try to update our progress here. I have also allowed comments here if you would like to leave a word of encouragement or ask a question.

Saturday, March 26, 2022:

Franticly packing today and preparing to preach tomorrow. We are realizing how much we have acquired during our time here in the States. Our girls are saying good-bye to a lot of toys and I am saying good-bye to a lot of books! Prayer requests: that the Lord grant us focus and energy to keep up with everything that needs to be done in the next few days.

Sunday, March 27, 2022.

We had a day of rest and relaxation with friends today. I preached and lead Bible Study at Concordia Lutheran Church in Maplewood, MO followed by a quiet afternoon and a good-bye dinner with some close friends. The calm before the storm.

Monday, March 28, 2022 -

3 days and 14 hours from the writing of this update to our scheduled take off.

Today it finally hit, the pure crazy of getting everything ready to go. We began the day by organizing everything into stay and go piles. From there we began to pack. We also worked to reset some of the rooms of our apartment back to the condition it was in when we arrived.

An additional stressor that we have been dealing with is some identity theft. In January someone decided buy four or five iphones using my credit. Today I finally got that resolved with the cell phone company that let it happen. Thinking that was all resolved I got a brand new debit card in the mail!! The thing is it was for an account that I did not open. So some time today has been dedicated to getting that taken care of. Apparently this happens a lot because the customer support for these companies is tremendously efficient. Almost no time on hold today. Thank God for that at least.

Newest Baby Wood in the family. Ultrasound tech said that baby was stubborn.

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

As I write this—on Wednesday morning—we leave in 2 days and 36 minutes. Yesterday was a big day. We made a lot of progress packing, and most impressively we were nice to each other the whole time.

We also had the joy of going to the doctor for an ultrasound. This routine checked showed that everything is normal and healthy with the baby! Praise God!

March 30, 2022

As I sit down to write this on Thursday morning we have one day and 37 minutes. Yesterday was a whirlwind of activity. We were all tested for covid-19 at 7:30 a.m.. The results should be in sometime today, which is certainly cutting it close, but its the only way to do it. After that we dropped Eleanor off at Pre-K, went to chapel at the seminary, picked up an Enterprise car rental, returned our Righteous rides rental—which was an hour away. We finally got back to the apartment at about 2:00 p.m. and continued to pack until 5:45 when we went to Lenten Service at Concordia in Maplewood, MO.

For me a general stress and anxiousness will loom large over my attitudes and emotions as we wait for the covid-19 tests to come back. They need to come back in time and they need to come back negative. That will be a huge relief. And then there’s always the question of will the airlines let us on the plane. In the era of covid-19 any random form can be asked for at any time and if you don’t have it or didn’t know about it your journey is brought to an end immediately. So that’s what’s stressing me out today. Pray that everything goes smoothly today as we get the last of our stuff organized and packed/put away, and pray for our travels.

March 31, 2022

Too much to do, too little time to do it. A frenzy of packing today. Eleanor’s last day of pre-school. The biggest stress today was that Total Access Care and Quest Diagnostics lost Kali’s covid-19 sample and then just told her that it was in process. All the test results were delayed, I ultimately ended up going to Total Access and having them print the test results out for me after lunch and that’s when I found out there was a problem with Kali’s test. They said just wait… NO THANKS! We’ve had enough of following that advice. We found another pharmacy that produced results within the hour. (Total Access never did produce results for Kali—I’m sure they will have not problem processing the bill for insurance though).

We were all packed and ready to go by about 9:30.

April 1, 2022

TODAY IS THE DAY! Laurel and I left for the airport in our car rental at about 4:15 a.m. Kali followed with a neighbor at about 4:45. And so it began 35 hours of travel.

  • 5:00 a.m. Check in and document review (5 Visas, 5 Covid-19 tests, 4 vaccine cards, 5 passports, hotel reservation, flight itinerary) goes well in Saint Louis. Flight for Dallas takes off on time, no problems!

  • 10:00 a.m. off the plane in Dallas, documents checked again still not problem. Quick meal at Chick-Fil-A. We board the plane to Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan. This is our big 13 hour flight. Turns out they had the wrong plane for this flight. They had rows booked up to about 45, but there were only 38 rows. Luckily our tickets weren’t affected, but man it sounded stressful for a lot of people. Our family was split for this flight, I took Eleanor and Kali took Laurel and Caroline.

2 April 2022

  • 3:00 p.m. (Tokyo time) arrive at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. This airport experience was absolutely awful. It began with our third document check. These took hardly any time at all in Saint Louis and Dallas. In Narita Airport I waited in line for the entirety of our 3 hour layover. We had a brief scare when the lady behind the corner noticed that Eleanor’s last vaccine was within two weeks and according to Indonesia travel requirements you can’t travel to Indonesia until two weeks AFTER your latest vaccination. We worked around it by mentioning that technically 5-year-olds are not required to be vaccinated to enter. So we just took back her vaccination card and promised not to show it to anyone in Indonesia. Kids took the wait like champs.

  • 6:00 p.m. (Tokyo time) We board the plane to Jakarta. We have passed all the document checks, we are on the plane into Indonesia! CAROLINE THROWS UP as we walk through first class to our seats. Not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. The stewardesses are quick to help, but then they start talking quarantine and taking temperatures—good thing you don’t need a normal blood-pressure to enter. That all calms down by the time we take off and the rest of the flight presents no challenges.

3 April 2022

  • 1:00 a.m. Jakarta time. We’re there! We get off the plane and go through our fourth document check at the Jakarta Airport. I am amazed at how smoothly everything goes. There were no hiccups, no tears during the covid-19 tests, no long lines at immigration, no questions or interviews regarding my work visa. Everything was efficient and straight-forward.

  • 2:00 a.m. Get to baggage claim all our bags are there waiting for us. I get an alert on my phone, our hotel reservations have been cancelled. I don’t want to make a new reservation, so I gamble. I don’t mention it to anyone, get a taxi to the hotel.

  • 2:45 a.m. I hand the Hotel concierge a printed copy of my reservation and prepare myself for the worst. We get checked in without a hitch and are in our rooms trying to rest by 3:00. Whew. I get an email wondering why we didn’t show up at our hotel… meh, a problem for another day.

Thank you for all your prayers as we have traveled to Indonesia. It’s great to be back. We still have one more flight to book, Jakarta to Medan, but first we are going to rest for a day here at the hotel.

Why a PhD? /  by Matthew Wood

Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, MO

I was recently accepted into the Doctor of Philosophy program at Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis (CSL). My concentration will be Theology and culture. Obtaining a Doctor of Philosophy degree has been in the back of my mind since college. I haven’t pursued it until now mainly because I didn’t have a noble enough reason. Yes, to have my name followed by Ph.D. was tempting, but getting any degree just to get one isn’t a suitable reason nor is it a recipe for success. Additionally, I didn’t have a passion for any specific area of study and I have seen ambitious young men and women begin a PhD program before they have a topic of interest. It makes the program more challenging.

So what changed? To put it succinctly, our family’s time in Indonesia. The Church here is remarkable. She is a minority, only making up 10% of the population, but she is joyful. I believe we who have grown up and participated in the life of the Church in American can learn a great deal from the Church in Indonesia, especially as we become more of a minority. So I hope my time in the CSL PhD equips me to listen to the Church in Indonesia and bring her voices into our theological conversation.

The PhD program will—already has—help me more faithfully and effectively accomplish the goals of our ministry with the Gereja Kristen Luther Indonesia (GKLI). One central aspect of our ministry in Indonesia is to mentor and teach. One can hardly do this effectively without first having the tools and the skills necessary to listen, discern, and begin to know the people and culture in which he works. I believe that the CSL PhD program will upgrade the tools I have and sharpen my skills.

How will this impact ministry in Indonesia? Our family will continue to live and work in Indonesia throughout the program. I will travel to CSL for two weeks in January and two weeks in June each year until my course work is completed, which should be in January of 2024. After course work comes examinations, dissertation research, and writing. The timeline on completion varies greatly I don’t want to offer over optimistic estimates. Ultimately, though, the program is built so that ministry can not only continue during the studies and writing, but also benefit from them.

The goals of the Theology and Culture concentration, as listed in the CSL Academic Catalogue are “to apply theologically critical thinking to questions of contemporary cultural importance, in order to articulate and to foster theologically sound responses and practices in the church.” These goals parallel nicely with the goals of our ministry outlined above and so the time is right to enter the program.