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.