Happy Birthday, Ann (or reflections from a refugee from China)

 Road to Indonesia, Day1 to 16!!! A very long post, but if you want to really follow our journey in deciding to relocate to Indonesia, this will bring you up to date. They are copies of my FB posts as we traveled along.  I will send individual posts as I write from here on.

Road to Indonesia

Day 1----Road to Indonesia

Sometimes we lead an interesting, even exciting life. ....This is not one of those times. We are driving across the US, which is beautiful but mostly just long miles of driving. However, some people like a blow by blow of life and living. If you are not one of those people, just skip the rest. I will always put the important parts of our needs at the beginning of a message so you will not miss anything. But if you want to pray for us as we start this first step on the journey towards Indonesia, I will try to keep you informed.

We left Hood River, OR about 4 in the afternoon. I was finishing up my responsibilities at Horizon Christian School until then. It was a long night on I 84 going over the pass. There was snow, there was rain, there was gusty wind that threw me into the other lane, which would have been dangerous if there had been traffic,,,,, but there was not. At one point the little icon of a car with kid marks behind it came on, and the words "stabaliztrak" started flashing. What does that mean??? There was some undiagnosed problem with this on our way out to OR, but we were never really told its significance. Anyway, we decided we would just keep going and ask at a Chevy garage in the morning, whereever we may be. We slept at a rest stop from 10 until 2 and then I slogged on. Got to Boise at 4 a.m. , and stopped where we knew a garage would be. Finally our hotspot device worked (no signal even for that through the mountains) and I graded 7 papers. (I was up until 2 a.m. the night before grading papers. The online stuff only works if I stay ahead of it.) And then we slept until 8 and asked the garage. They said, "Forget it" So we are not going to worry about that message. This morning I see there is a little button on the dash that has the same icon and it says "Off". Should we be using that button? I just finished my stint driving and am going to sleep. I graded 3 more essays and am writing this update. haha. We are at the Idaho/Utah border. No idea how long this trip is going to take...... oh...I have only seen one medium size dead animal of indeterminate origin along the road yet. These animals better up the sacrifice tally if they are going to live up to the quota of 55 that I recorded on the trip out here.

 

Day 2—Road to Indonesia

1. The director of Hillcrest International School sent us an email yesterday offering us the choice of 2 apartments. One is on the second floor with a balcony with a view, and a larger kitchen. The other is a first floor apartment with AC. We wrote back that we would gladly, gladly accept either one. That the other couple coming should have first choice. To keep things in perspective: we are currently living in a 24 foot RV. If they had a large closet that they could fit a double bed into, we would be fine.

2. The first 36 hours of this trip we were driving in falling snow. Sometimes light, sometimes quite heavy, but snow. This morning when we woke up we seem to either have outdistanced it, it has passed over, or it has dissipated. We are in Nebraska and happy.

3. In the middle of the night, twice, I saw a huge, huge display of blinking red lights. I had seen the same display on our trip out here, but on the route farther north. All three times, I was looking down on the display from a higher elevation and the sight completely confounded me. The only thing I could think of was the runway lights on an airport signaling for a night arrival. But these locations were very, very rural, and the configuration appeared more random than that and went on for a long time, and it truly was the wee small hours of the morning. The scenario that seemed the most consistent for me was the X Files episodes where there were wicked secret installations in the middle of the cornfields. However, last night the road led closer and on a lower elevation. They were huge fields of windmills.

4. Another confusing aspect of last night was that Rick lost his glasses. We scoured the RV, which is small and quickly “scoured” quite a few times and found not a trace. However, in the middle of the night I had stopped driving and was walking back to the bathroom in the dark, and stepped on them right in the middle of floor! One of the lens was missing, so how far could I have caused the lens to go by stepping on them? Further scouring. Not until we were crawling into bed did we find the lens. His glasses must have somehow worked their way into the bed. Been slept on so the lens fell out, and then was swished out on the floor when Rick crawled in I feel better having solved that mystery as well as the windmills.

5. Our “stabaliztrak” light came on last night in the 45 mph wind advisory. We ignored it.

6. Our radio quit yesterday. More time for praying and thinking, which run together for me, but it is a loooooong trip.

 

 

Day 3—Road to Indonesia (If this is less than coherent, it is because I am a wee bit tired.)

Arrived at Peter’s at 10:30 tonight after a long day’s haul. Good to be here. We traveled over 3,000 miles in the past 3 days.

As we travel, we have time to think, (since the radio is out) and I just sent an email to HIS (Hillcrest International School) to discuss what resources I will have available for teaching Brit Lit and a small group of grade 8 students. Jane Eyre? Tale of Two Cities? What wonderful fun!

But we also have been in intense conversations about the process to try to get our money out of China. Because the chip on my ATM card malfunctioned I have not been able to access my salary since we arrived in the States last December. Rick’s got blocked starting in September because of a password malfunction. I have tried everything imaginable to get the $1,000’s that are sitting in China. Finally, about 2 weeks ago we got word that the process would not take mailing our actual passports to China, but a copy of the passport would work instead. I am going to quote from ERRC, our organization, what the process will be (Just skim this, but I wanted to show how complicated and time consuming):

“Dec 21 (Monday) finish the letter ( with our info and the person who will obtain the money in China) and fill out the application form(for the Secretary of State in SC) and have CVSC(visa agent) preview the letter to be sure all wording is included. Process your Indonesia visa in rush. and the passport should be back to you before Jan. 5. Copy your passport in color ( 2 sets) with all of the pages.

Dec. 22 ( Tuesday) do notarization and go to the S.C. state capital for certification (two hours from us). Mail the documents to the US Dept of State by Fed Exp.( need information where to send)

Jan 4 (Mon) The Dept of State mail the document back to you.( after 8 days, if after 10 days, it will be Jan.6.)

Jan. 5 (Tue) Mail all of your documents with fees and fill out the application form with your passports and copy of the passport to CVCS and their form for them to process in the DC Chinese Embassy.

Jan 11 ( Mon) CVCS mail the documents and passports to you ( We may have to ask them to send the passport to you and the documents to our office by Fedex)

Jan.12 ( Tue) you receive your passport ( assume your visa to Indonesia is done )

Jan. 13 ( Wed) depart for Indonesia. ( This is the earliest time that you can depart, I will suggest you depart on Jan. 18 to give some room for any possible delay. “

And that is absolutely best scenario. And when ERRC actually called the US State Department they said really now it takes 9-12 WEEKS. Wow.

Therefore, we will get done what we can, and then wait for the rest of it until we are back in June. What a mess. I just wanted to give you a feel of the complexity of many situations overseas, but also specifically dealing with China. God is able, and I feel He is directing us to continue to be patient. Please pray.

 

 

Day 5. Road to Indonesia

What a whirlwind. A Holy Ghost whirlwind, but a whirlwind. Discussions over the weekend had us convinced that we simply could not get our money out at this time. But I called the PA State Dept this morning and the lady said it we got the paperwork to the dropbox between 8 and 9 tomorrow, she would deliver the paperwork to us in the street within an hour!! Then we will drive it up to NYC to the consulate and deliver everything with our passport ourselves. Our passports should be back to us by January 6. Wow. Pretty much a miracle if this works out. At this point I can't imagine a life without a steering wheel in my hands, and we are tired, But God is good.

 

 

Update on Day 5--- Road to Indonesia

We have made it to Purity's, even though had to detour around an accident so took longer. Our director just read that the counsulate in NYC is temporarily closed, but gave an email. I sent an emergency plea, but no idea of next step. Wait and see after we have the PA department of state signatures, which will be quite a miracle to obtain. If we cannot drive on to NYC tomorrow, we will try to turn paperwork over to an agent to figure out. It will mean more time and much much more money.

 

 

Day 6... Road to Indonesia

Done!! Up this morning at 5 to go to Harrisburg. Tried a couple early places to notarize, and found a UPS. Put documents in drop box at capitol. Drove by 45 minutes later and a lady walked out and gave it to us. Done. Everyone else needs a week or so to process. We do have to send paperwork to NY Consulate by mail. If they insist on our passports, we just will not do it now, so that is the next prayer request in this miracle. We are now on our way to SC. Peace flies in tonight. Purity will drive down tomorrow night. Looking forward to family time.

 

 

Answered Prayer Request #7,

Day 10 – Road to Indonesia

1. We have our visas!! The director of Hillcrest said miracles do happen. It was about a week turn around, with vacations breathing down our necks. We are waiting now to hear what flights they can book for us, maybe as early as Jan. 1. We have to have a negative covid test within 72 hours of departure, which becomes tricky because of New Year’s and weekends. We hope for the earliest departure possible, because jet lag is very difficult for us, and school starts Jan. 11. You can imagine what our minds and bodies are feelings, having had covid 2 months ago (be it ever so mild), driving to OR, working at Horizon and grading our online Chinese English lessons, driving back to SC, rush 2 day trip to PA, Christmas, and now going to pack, fly to Indonesia, finish up our online lessons, prep and then start school. This will be finished within a month’s time period. Surprisingly we feel more excitement, and less exhaustion than one could expect. Our lives have often revolved around flexibility so we know how to flow with the surroundings, but even for us, this is pretty fast.

2. We are on the last step that we need to be responsible for in drawing out our money from our China account! We will FedEx the paperwork we had certified by the State Department of PA to an agency, which will then take over the presentation to be authorized by the Chinese consulate in NYC. The agency will then FedEx the paperwork with our ATM cards to a friend in China who will present the documents to the bank. She will then receive new ATM cards and draw out the money that has accrued in China and wire transfer it to our US account. She will then FedEx the cards to Purity who can handle transferring our monthly salary through the ATM card to our US account. On paper this should work!! They do not need our original passports, which has always been the sticking point. Although of course, there still could be glitches, this is the most promising scenario for the money that we have envisioned in the past year. God is good.

 

 

Prayer request #7

Day 12....Road to Indonesia

This was the note from Tim Cripe, the director of Hillcrest in Indonesia:

" The Indonesian government has just announced that they are not allowing any foreigners into the country from January 1st to 14th. This is very disappointing to us as we have a number of people trying to come in that time frame. I think it is an over reaction to fears based on this new strain of Covid that seems to have come out of the UK. So there is a level of irony to the statement you made that you could be out the door within hours because at this point if you want to leave before the 14th of January then you would need to leave the 29th in order to arrive before the 1st.

There is further news that all people coming into the country up until the 1st will be forced to quarantine in a hotel in Jakarta for 5 days at their expense and then need a negative PCR to be released. Now your letter might exempt you from this but I can't guarantee anything at this point. We would of course pay for your stay if you did decide you wanted to come quickly and ended up being required to quarantine in Jakarta."

Soooooo, we have tickets out tomorrow, Dec. 29, at 5:30 p.m. You can imagine the whirlwind today has been. We have our negative covid test back just now, but need to wait for paper copies tomorrow morning. We also need the 3 month prescription of Rick's adderall, which has been a monster to get transferred from SC to PA. I had most stuff packed yesterday, but need to finish up. I am so glad that my inclination is to do everything "yesterday" and felt particularly urged to keep moving and get everything done. It is paying off now. Many little steps that God had prepared for us, to make sure we got messages on time, etc. etc. We still both have online work coming in from China by tomrrow night, but it will have to wait until we are sitting for 5 days of quarantine in Jakarta. I am very excited that it worked out this way. I would just sit around here being agitated until we left and this way, we can just leave. We will be able to get over our jetlag before school starts Jan. 11, and maybe even rest a bit. All things considered we are very happy. Prayers for a safe trip would be appreciated. A further note from the director: "OK I finally got you tickets through United. I didn't like the itinerary as well because the other route was much shorter and you arrive in the morning but on this one you arrive at 11:55 PM on the 31st so cutting it very close. I think they will allow this flight in since it is scheduled on the 31st but it made me nervous booking it."

 

 

 

Day 13--Road to Indonesia

Our flight from Greenville to Chicago on United was canceled!!! I tell you, one can't make this up. We moved heaven and earth to get ready to leave for Indonesia in about 30 hours. A half an hour before we needed to leave for the airport we were still sitting in a lab waiting for our written covid report. Felt so good to have achieved all we needed to....and then to hear it was canceled. Well, that was simply not acceptable. I stood with the agent and got on the phone and called every possibility including driving to Charlotte and Atlanta. Finally, the agent did what I assume he was not suppose to do and told us American airlines had a flight to Chicago right beside them. This was 3:55 and the flight was to leave at 4:25. We ran over, paid for one way tickets, and pushed through security....to find that I had left my computer on the United counter where I had been researching flights. Rick took off and ran faster than he has in the past 50 years when he was in cross country. I went through security and went as fast as I could towards the gate. As I was going up the escalator, I heard, "Last call for American flight to Chicago. Door closes in 6 minutes." My walking has greatly improved, but I cannot run yet. But I can yell, and I started to yell and wave my arms, "Gate 3. I am your missing passenger. Don't close the gate." I was heard and she waved back way down the concourse. Rick arrived a few minutes later running, pushing the two carry on's, after being delayed in security. Uneventful flight. First I had just sat for a few days. But Chicago was a mess with snow and ice and sleet. It did look like we might be some of the last to land. Then while Rick went for the luggage I hiked off to find an agent to help make sure that our tickets would still be good, even though we were not using the first leg of the flight. I kept pushing them to find another route that would maybe get us out of Chicago right then, so we did not have to see the weather deteriorate even more overnight and not make it out at 10:40 on Air Nippon tomorrow. None of the options worked out, even the ones through Dallas, or Istanbul, or Ireland. Although we probably would have ended up flying out on Air Turkey if they had had space. So we headed out for our annual free night at Holiday Inn. Only it turned into a 2 hour wait for a taxi as the hotel tried booking one for us! I am finally lying in bed in the hotel waiting for the morning. Please, please pray that it clears enough for us to be out tomorrow. If we miss the connection to Jakarta, I really don't quite know what we are going to do. But I assume God does.

 

 

Day 14 (maybe, not quite sure at this point)---Road to Indonesia

We are at the airiport. One hour before we are to start boarding our Always Nippon Air flight. Looks good so far, and our paperwork is accepted. So far I don't see more than a handful of people waiting for the flight??? Wow, wouldn't that be nice. It is 13 and a half hours to Narita, then 2 and a half hours in Narita, and another 5 hours (I think) to Jakarta. We have been told we will need to quarantine for 5 days in Jakarta. I sure pray that Rick and I could be in the same hotel room for that time or they accept our paperwork showing we have had covid and waive the quarantine. On the other hand 5 days in a hotel room does not sound real bad right at this point. When we finally got to the airport last night we did have a very nice sleep. I am sure there are people all over the world praying for us. I am only partially kidding when I say that I have had visions of Michael struggling with Satan and finally prevailing in some of the roadblocks that have been in our way. When do we take it as God saying no (like returning to China), and when do we need to keep pushing forward to overcome the obstacles. I really do not know. I pray about it and then am persistent in trying to make it work. (And I am VERY persistent and resourceful.) Finally my spirit says, "OK stop", and I pray that I am sensitive as to when that step is.

 

 

Day 15 (Maybe, depends on which side of the International dateline maybe) ----Road to Indonesia

Absolutely wonderful perfect 13 hour flight from Chicago to Japan!!! I don't think there were 30 people on the plane, and it was one of those huge ones with 10 seats in each row. The hardworking Japanese hostesses did not have enough to do. At one point, a nice hostess met me at the lavatory door, bowed, and opened the door for me. Rick had a row of 4 seats to sleep on, and I had a row of 3 seats to sleep on, and everyone else did too. The snow in Chicago was still there and some ice, but the plane got off OK. Met a couple and 3 boys here in Japan that we were told to look for. They do translation work and teach at Hillcrest as well. Nice to meet them. Waiting now for the last leg. Will the government let us through without quarantine (or as Peace, our daughter, has often written: "Quentin")? We get in at midnight. But we were told the next flight is just as empty and so we should be able to sleep. I don't know yet what time that is in the States. Have not started to do that figuring. Nor even what the money is called. Sure feeling less stress than yesterday. God is always good, but sometimes it is easier to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 16 ( or there about, New Year's Day in INDONESIA!) ----Road to Indonesia.

Very uneventful flight from Japan to Jakarta. 7 and a half hours, I guess. (Which means today it was 13+ hours on one plane, 2 hours off, 7+ hours on the next plane....but they really were pretty good flights. Your prayers really paid off.) Got in at 11:30 p.m. so they let us in the country. I had requested a wheelchair, because the length of walking and then standing in lne is still too much. (And considering how easy it is in the wheelchair I think I will make it so it is always too much when it comes to the airport.) They did not give me a chance to "plead my case" about not being infectious because we have had covid. They just signed papers and herded us along to a "wait for bus" area. ....But what bus? The nice young man who was pushing my chair did not know any more than we did about what was going to happen next. Finally we were approached by a man asking if we were looking for a quarantine hotel. We said, "Yes! How much?' of course he quoted the price in rubiah. We came so quickly we have not researched what the exchange rate is, or even the name of the currency. This is the first time we had heard it. He translated it to $93 per day for the two of us. Sounded high, so we passed on it. But it is now into New Year's Day (no idea when 2020 even died), and there were not many other choices. Found another gentleman who said he was representing hotels and he could do it for $90 a day, so we said, "Sure." Choices were even more limited than we thought though, because the two men worked for the same hotel! We loaded all 6 big pieces onto the bus. (Before you judge the number of pieces we have, I want you to remember that we pretty much have lived the past year out of carry ons, and afterall we are moving to Indonesia for at least 6 months. ....but I obviously am feeling like it is a bit excessive or I would not be apologizing, but there were 2 free bags each with the tickets so we filled them.) So we got on the bus, and then drove and drove and drove, down through a very dead Jakarta for a New Year's Eve. After half an hour the bus went into an alleyway and laboriously turned around and returned much of the way he had come. Finally a Japanese lady who was sitting beside us looked up the name of the hotel on her gps and started directing them and after half an hour more they found the hotel!!! Only we would be doing this from 1 to 2 a.m. on New Year's Day in Jakarta, Indonesia. We have a lovely room in a Marriot hotel. The price includes 3 meals a day for 4 days, so it might not be as high as we thought. And they seem to think that we can roam the property, eat together with the rest of the quarantiners, swim in the pool (It is 80 degrees right now, eat your hearts out.) No dr. to take the first of the covid swabs that we need at the beginning and end of our stay, but they said the dr. would show up tomorrow..... or the next day. Not to worry. So we are here. Rick is asleep. I am not quite ready yet. Instead figuring things our like how to plug our computer and phone into the different plugin configuration (the hotel is out the adapters tonight ,but will have some more tomorrow), and how to use the phone to call the desk (inside the hand set is an on/off button.) Tomorrow will hold another whole set of figuring things out, even if we are sitting in a hotel for 5 days. After all these moves we usually at least know the things that are going to need clarification....maybe.