Archipelagos

These past 4 years have been almost exclusively spent on an island—Java. In addition almost all of our travel has extended to other islands. While these island experiences have been incredibly diverse in their characteristics it’s fun to start linking them together in different ways. We have visited:

·         Some of the largest islands including an island continent (Australia), the worlds 3^rd (Borneo), 6^th (Sumatra), 11^th (Celebes or Sulawesi), 12^th (South Island of New Zealand) and 13^th (Java) largest geographic islands in the world.

·         2 of the world’s most densely populated islands (Singapore and Hong Kong)

·         The world’s largest island by population (Java)

·         Islands off of other islands (Nias off of Sumatra, Gili Trawangan off Lombok, Bunaken off of Sulawesi, Philip Island off of Australia).

·         An island in a river delta (some tiny little island in the Mekong delta where we stayed for a night) and an island on an Island (Samosir at Lake Toba on Sumatra)

·         Both tropical island resort paradises (Bali and Lombok) and islands with glaciers and penguins (New Zealand’s south island and Philip island)

·         A island housing a famous volcano (Krakatoa)

 Not only are these islands linked statistically, they may also be grouped by our experiences in each of them with different friends that we may have travelled with, stayed with or even the stories that we have shared with others about those places.   Perhaps most of all, these places can be joined by the Christian communities that exist there, even though often we just travelled there to see a new place and have a good time.

When speaking to friends back in North America, Janet and I often feel that our experiences in Indonesia (Java) have been a very isolating. Realities (friends, experiences, day to day life, travel) in Jakarta are just so different that any attempt to connect our life here to a North American context has been almost impossible. Some of this is our fault as we lack the ability to tell a good story or to seize opportunities to relate relevant perspectives to our friends back home.   In spite of this fact, as we end this journey here and move back to the U.S. I pray that our time in Indonesia will build archipelagos of knowledge, understanding, and faith to all the places where we live.

Thanks for listening for these 4 years.