Visit to Carambola Gardens

October 28, 2010 By

Today, after Mildred and I went up island to get groceries and eat lunch at The Bakery, I took a solo trip to Carambola Gardens just to play with my old Nikon D100 camera. It’s been way too long since I went out to make art just for the fun of it. I like the great video that our new point & shoot takes, but for beautiful images, the big old Nikon is the bomb. Mildred has a touch of the flu that I had earlier this week, so she didn’t feel up to spending the afternoon walking the trails at the gardens after an hour of pushing around a grocery cart.

I got there just as a crowd from one of today’s cruise ships was leaving, so my timing was perfect. I had the whole place to myself. The young lady at the counter, who took my $6 admission fee, said, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” I sure didn’t remember ever meeting her before, so I asked which church she went to. It turns out that she’s a Radio HRGS listener and she recognized my voice, not my face. But she did claim to have remembered seeing me at the marriage conference that our mission president taught at the end of August at the Baptist Church in Coxen Hole. I’m still not used to being a bit of a celebrity, but it’s always fun meeting listeners.

That reminds me that I got a wonderfully encouraging phone call yesterday from a listener who said she has really been enjoying Sunrise Serenade. Normally, Peter does that program four days a week and I do it one day for his day off. Of course, with the Silseths being on furlough, I get to do it every day, and I really like it — except for the getting up at 4:30 almost every day part. ;-)

Anyway, back to my tour of the gardens. I hadn’t walked far before I started to notice that some kind a small critters were scurrying off the trail into the bush ahead of me as I walked. Once I slowed way down, I started to catch glimpses of them. Many were monkey la la lizards, which are very shy and incredibly quick. I finally found one that thought I couldn’t see him on that tree root and got my best ever pictures of this endangered lizard. Not many of the flowers were in bloom, though, so I need to go back again, hopefully when the orchids are blooming.

Have a look at some of the images from my stroll and then mosey on down to the bottom of the page for the HRGS Update to find out from Jim and me what’s been going on around here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:23 — 5.1MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Flowers, Photography, podcasts, Scenery

Sunshine at last!

October 19, 2010 By
Cruise Ships

Cruise ships seen from above Loma Linda and Spanish Town

Wow, it’s been wet. Seems like all I’ve done lately is talk about the weather. Last year the rainy season almost wasn’t rainy at all. I think this year is going to make up for it. But we got some sunshine today, which we really needed. It’s been about two weeks.

When I got back from Utila, one of the first things I wanted to do before it got too soggy [Read more...]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:17 — 5.8MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Photography, podcasts, Scenery

Utila Guy Wire Project

October 10, 2010 By

I don’t think I’ll write much today. For one thing, I’m very sleepy. I’m still trying to catch up after the long days over on Utila and the long days of preparation during the weeks leading up to the trip.

Ken Anderson from Bible Basics in Tampa came down on Saturday the 25th of September. He brought along Carl Hompstead, a tower expert from Michigan. We spent some time making sure all our ducks were in a row before going to Utila on Monday afternoon, the 27th. When we went, we took along two island men, Marvin Williams and Elmore Fisher, who were a tremendous help to us. We could not have gotten the job done without their assistance.

As we soon found out, our ducks were not lined up as well as we might have hoped. The weather certainly could have cooperated better, but it also could have been a lot worse. We discovered that we didn’t [Read more...]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:03 — 8.0MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Events, Photography, podcasts

Talk About Bad Timing!!

September 23, 2010 By

We’re just about ready for the Utila guy wire project. On Monday I went to La Ceiba where our friend Walter Bush helped me find a good price on some highly rated marine paint. He drove me all over to various paint stores and also to several hardware stores shopping for rope. Would you believe that we could not find a hardware store in the 3rd largest city in Honduras that could sell us three pieces of rope 420 feet long? So we bought some here and some there as we grazed the city.

Tuesday was another big day. Jim and I, with the help of one of Dr. Solomon’s workers, pulled the well pump up from 120′ down so we could replace a broken part. That was another day in which I got little or no studio work done in preparation for being gone next week. Thank the Lord that the well’s fixed for now and that it didn’t take as long as I’d predicted. I hope that I can finish all my studio work tomorrow so people don’t have to scramble to cover for the things I let dribble through my fingers.

Ken and Karl are due to arrive here Saturday at about the same time as what meteorologists are so far calling Invest 95. It has an 80% chance of becoming at least a tropical storm in the next day or two. It looks like it’s coming right at us and should get here late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Ken and Karl are due in at about noon Saturday and we are planning to go over to Utila on Monday morning. So we are praying that it doesn’t develop into anything serious and that it clears out soon enough to allow us to get our work done on the AM tower.

So far, though, we’re having typical weather for this time of year — hot and dry. There are a few clouds here and there and they have rain on the mainland mountains almost every day. Here’s a picture I took yesterday just before sunset.

Carnival Valor

The Valor passing Osgood Cay

I was hoping to catch the full moon coming up out of the sea, but there was too much haze to see it. I wondered if maybe I’d gotten there too early. I came back in the house for a little bit and, when I went back out, I saw that the Carnival Valor was just pulling out of the Carnival port up in Dixon Cove. So I grabbed my longest lens and a tripod once again and set up on the other side of the road to wait. I captured this just as she came out from behind Osgood Cay (pronounced Key). With all the haze, I had no idea that the moon was right there, too! I didn’t see it until I got the picture into the computer and turned up the contrast a little bit. It just barely shows through the haze.

I’ve been pretty busy so far on our “day off.” I had to go up to the station for an hour or so. Then I did some work via phone calls lining up helpers to go to Utila with us next week. Now, I think Mildred and I are going to try to relax the rest of the day. Out to lunch, maybe some shopping. And, if there’s time, maybe I’ll get to just go take some pictures. The moonrise picture from yesterday put me in the mood.

I’ve been pretty negligent about the Audio Update this week, especially considering it’s kind of special. It has a definite feminine quality to it this week. Here you go!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:30 — 7.8MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Photography, podcasts, Scenery

Adventure Shipping in a Tropical Paradise

September 15, 2010 By
Jim Avella - Master electrician

Jim Avella - Master electrician

It’s been quiet here at the Gazette lately — not because there’s nothing to write, but because there just hasn’t been time to write it. Praise the Lord that Jim and Karen Avella are here now to lend a hand or four. It’s fantastic to have them back again. Jim already has made several improvements to our network security. He’ll talk about that on the HRGS Update below. Karen is working in the studios to make Mildred’s work load lighter. They will be here till early December. Now let’s bring things up to date on the truck damage and the shipping of the big spool of cable.

Karen Avella in the studio

Karen Avella in the studio

Last Friday, if I haven’t scrambled the days too badly, I got the pick-up into the shop so they could replace the glass in the back window. Once the rains associated with Tropical Storm Karl leave our area I need to get the truck back in the shop so that they can do the bending, welding, and painting that it still needs. I hope that will be tomorrow.

On Monday this week, Jim and I got the cable back into the truck and took it to the shipping company and that brings us to the “Adventure Shipping” portion of today’s title. The bed of the pickup is almost [Read more...]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:05 — 5.7MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Daily Life, podcasts, Video

Best Wife in the World

September 7, 2010 By

The best wife in the world is on the right. That's my look-alike on the left.

I know some of you guys might differ on me with this, so let me tell you what happened today. We have been working on getting a shipment of materials for the AM tower guy wires replacement project through customs. It was quite the comedy of errors, but today everything came together at last and we were ready to go.

Our truck was in the shop getting the undercoating beefed up. That was partly because the coating was wearing out and some rust was starting to show up. And it was partly because we have several hundred dollars worth of new parts under there which we want to protect. I got the truck back just in time to go up island to Hybur shipping and load up 3,300+ feet of 3/8″ galvanized steel cable. It was on one big spool and weighed in at over 900 pounds. Once the forklift loaded that in the truck and we tossed in the other bits and pieces of hardware, I headed toward the road. And here’s where I did a bonehead thing.

shattered window

At least there's good airflow now.

I’d noticed that the forklift driver didn’t get the spool of cable all the way to the front of the truck bed. So I tapped the brakes to see if I could scooch it up ahead of the rear axle. Yup, it scooched all right. WHAM!!! Now I need a new back window on the truck as well as some bending, welding, and painting. There goes some more time and money we don’t have.

shattered glass

The whole window only filled a few inches in the shop vac.

What does that have to do with Mildred being the best wife in the world? Well, I called her on the way home and gave her the good news that I got the stuff – followed by the bad news of my knuckleheaded stunt. From her response, you’d have thought I was her little boy telling her I didn’t get the part I wanted in the school play — a tender “Awwww!” She didn’t seem to even come close to being as mad at me as I was.

off-loading cable

Come-alongs -- one of the greatest inventions ever!

So, now I have that to deal with along with getting our passports sent off to Tegucigalpa tomorrow, picking up Jim and Karen Avella at the airport (the good part!), and finding someone to take all that hardware from Roatán to La Ceiba and then transfer it from one ship to another so it can get over to Utila. Before I can send off the hardware, I need to inspect it and then, somehow get it back on the truck. It was easy to get it off the truck with a come-along.  But I don’t think my crane has the reach or the lift capacity to put it back in there. It’s probably about time for me to come up with another invention. Inventing stuff is a big part of the fun of being here. ;-)

For more news from down here take a listen to the HRGS Update.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:39 — 4.6MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Daily Life, Humor, podcasts

Visitors — Sleep Deprivation — and Marriage Enrichment

September 1, 2010 By

We are off and running as we enter what is already a tiring week. Sunday night Rev. Evan Drake, president of our mission, began a three-night series of meetings about the biblical family. Families are just as dysfunctional here as they are in the U. S.  Each night’s meetings were very well attended and he really seemed to have everyone’s attention.

Rev. Evan Drake

Rev. Evan Drake - marriage seminar

Monday night, Evan broke out of his outline briefly to talk about purity before marriage. At then end of the meeting, he invited the young people to come forward if they were serious about remaining pure until marriage. There was a pause of maybe 20-30 seconds and then one young lady came to the front. Then all or nearly all the others came forward too. Next Evan asked if there were any couples who wanted to improve their marriages. In about a minute the front of the church was pretty packed. What made this surprising was that he did not make a lengthy invitation, and he didn’t apply any pressure. He just said to come if you want to do this and he let the Holy Spirit do the convincing.

Dr. Eugen Priddy - West End

Dr. Eugene Priddy - preaching in West End

At 1st Baptist Church - West End

At 1st Baptist Church - West End

Sunday morning, our founding president, Dr. Eugene Priddy, spoke down in West End. At the end of the service, a man came forward to receive Christ. Pastor Bush asked me to pray with him as he surrendered to his Savior and King. What a wonderful privilege to be there to witness a new birth. Pastor Bush said the man had been coming to church for a while and they had talked several times about his need and Sunday was the day he finally took that all important step. Several people have recently trusted Christ at that church and are continuing to attend, read their Bibles, and grow in faith. I’m very excited about what the Lord is doing through Pastor Bush in West End. Even so, as he told me the other day, the need seems to be growing faster than we can reach people with the good news.

After church on Sunday, we (the visitors from BBI and the Radio HRGS staff) went to the Argentine Grill in West End for “lunch.” I put “lunch” in quotes because [Read more...]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:03 — 6.9MB)

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My Interruptions Keep Getting Interrupted!

August 26, 2010 By

Tomorrow is the big day! Well, it’s another big day, anyway. We have lots of them here. We’re getting ready for a visit from our founding president of Bible Basics International, Dr. Eugene Priddy; our current president, Rev. Evan Drake; the vice president of International Ministries, Rev. Herman Meister; and BBI’s Spanish director, Rev. Samuel Montoya. This weekend is the celebration of 50 years of ministry for Dr. Glen Solomon, the president of Baptist Ministries here, and these men are coming to participate. They will also be conducting some seminars in the days to come. Herman even said he would help fix the mower and then use it if we get it going.

Sandy Bay Sunset

At the bottom of this entry, you’ll find this week’s HRGS Update. Once again, we had way too much fun with that! But first, let me tell you another reason why being flexible isn’t enough for Roatán missionaries. We need to be liquid. That’s why I’ve included this sunset I shot a few weeks ago to help calm me down. ;-)

In an effort to get things looking a little less “lived in,” I wanted to finish setting up the new work station I’m building for our studio operations. That project has been sprawled all over the reception desk and the plan was to get it done and into place on Wednesday. I didn’t want our president to walk in and have the first thing he saw be computer parts scattered all over. He probably wouldn’t mind, but I would. However, at about noon on Tuesday, the florescent light in the on air studio quit. It would have been nice if it was just burned out bulbs, so that was obviously not the case.

First thing, Wednesday morning, I went to the shop to get my electrician’s tool belt. When I got to the shop, it was hot, hot, hot!! No air conditioner. The line conditioner that we had installed recently blew its fuse, probably because of abuse from the power company the night before. I briefly lamented the fact that it uses a fuse instead of a breaker. (Peter hadn’t noticed that when he bought it because he thought it was the same as the one he’d gotten previously for his house.) Then I dug out a 10 amp fuse, put it in the fuse holder, and found out that the fuse holder was just a tiny bit smaller than the fuse. I tried to pull it back out and the end came off the glass fuse. When I tried to pull out the remains of the fuse, they just crumbled. Sigh! So much for hurrying up to replace the light ballast so I could get back to what I needed to be doing.

I rooted around and found a fuse holder that takes a normal sized fuse and soldered it temporarily in place until we can get the right circuit breaker and install it. I fired up the air conditioner and the compressor did not run. Now what!! I eventually found a loose connection in the control section of the A/C and was finally able to get back to the original interruption, replacing the ballast in the on-air studio light fixture. I think I got to work on the computer for about 30 minutes Wednesday. Oh well! Since today is our day off, I didn’t touch it today. I still have till about 11:00 tomorrow morning to check all the satellite downloads and get that computer wrapped up and put in a better place. No pressure.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:57 — 7.5MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Daily Life, Scenery

Working on my Phd

August 17, 2010 By

No, I’m not going to school, unless you count the school of hard knocks. “Phd” stands for “Piled higher and deeper.” That’s what it feels like so far this week.

As you probably know, if you’ve been keeping up with our blog, we got the computer changes made for the updated FM broadcast computer. That was Saturday night and all seemed well Sunday. But on Monday the gremlins came in swarms and they continue to stream out of the woodwork today. There are all sorts of strange things happening on the network — things like copying files and finding that some are at their destination and some are not, file names changing by themselves, computers disappearing from the network and coming back on their own, and so on. (Virus scans are negative!) On top of that, the studio air conditioner has started acting up. Our mower is on the fritz and we are expecting VIP visitors in about 10 days.

The shoulder I injured last November is needing almost 10 hours of therapy a week. And there are countless other things I need to fix or invent on top of getting ready for the project to replace the guy wires on our AM tower. As you will hear in the Update below, I found some rust at the base of our new aluminum FM tower that has stainless steel fasteners. Things really do seem to be getting piled higher and deeper. Or, as my mom would say, “The hurrier I do, the behinder I get.” Hmm… that sounds familiar. I guess I’ve said it here before, but that was almost two years ago. ;-)

It feels a little overwhelming sometimes. So today I stopped to remind myself about what it was like in the days following my surgery when I got the titanium plate in my right wrist and had a cast on the other hand. I guess this hasn’t been all that tough of a week after all. And compared to the life the Apostle Paul led, even that time in my life was like a walk in the park. Paul really had his priorities squared away. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” — Romans 8:18. In my reading, I found that at the Nicene Council, of the 318 delegates attending, fewer than 12 had not lost an eye or a hand or did not limp on a leg lamed by torture for their Christian faith. I guess I can put up with balky computers and malfunctioning machines to help share the Good News to these islands. In fact, if 1 Corinthians 9:16 is true — and it is, I’d better keep it up. “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.” There is nothing better than being where God wants you to be and doing what He wants you to do. May we all lean on the Lord’s strength while we work on our Phd’s.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:39 — 8.5MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, podcasts

Who Says We Have No Culture!?

August 10, 2010 By
Island Kids

Island Kids

In the early years of modern missions, the philosophy seemed to be that, when entering a new mission field, the first task was to westernize the local population before focusing on sharing the actual Gospel. Thankfully, we have grown a little wiser over the years in that regard. But the loss of heritage in any society is tragic. While presenting the Gospel and dealing with sin, it’s important that missionaries remain sensitive to the non-sinful traditions that make each culture unique. I love to learn about the history of this place. Beside being fun for me, I think it helps me relate and communicate better.

That brings us to a special HRGS Audio Update. I’ve probably lamented publicly before how the mainland culture is overwhelming the island culture. I would guess that somewhere around 40,000 people have moved here from the coast in the last 10 years, roughly tripling our population. The younger generation is losing their sense of history and forgetting much of what makes this such a special place. But there is a group of people who are working to rekindle a love for the culture and history of these islands. Two of them, Artlie Brooks and Pastor Felix Gale joined Peter in the studio this week to talk a little bit about our history here in the islands and some of the activities they are planning.

The Update starts, as usual, with Peter and me reminiscing and prognosticating and then moves on to Artlie and Pastor Felix. I really enjoyed hearing this conversation because I love to learn about the history of the places where I live and visit. If you enjoy that too, set aside about 27 minutes and learn a little about this fascinating place.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:06 — 21.7MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Daily Life, podcasts

Never at a Loss for Words

August 3, 2010 By

This week, as Peter and I sat down to record the HRGS Update, we wondered what we would talk about. We felt like last week was such an uneventful week that we would not have much in the way of news for our listeners. Having been slowed down with some kind of bug that showed me a lot more mercy than it did Mildred, I was a little behind on just about everything last week. Then, of course there was the trip to Utila, which put me even further behind.

But, as you will hear, we just started in recording and soon discovered that there was plenty to talk about concerning HRGS, especially our exciting new programs. At the end, we mentioned that Emily Mitten was about to be induced so that she could deliver the remains of their baby. That happened yesterday and the baby’s remains as well as the placenta came out quicker than expected and with no serious incidents, praise the Lord. She is feeling much better, but the whole Mitten family needs our continued prayers for comfort and guidance.

Mildred is feeling considerably [Read more...]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:25 — 7.2MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Daily Life, podcasts, Prayer Requests

A Bitter-Sweet Week

July 27, 2010 By

We had a mostly glorious week this past week with one major exception. You’ll remember Travis and Emily Mitten who had to return to the U.S. because of Emily’s incredibly difficult pregnancy. We learned last Wednesday that they lost the baby. She is still carrying it and and we are all praying that her body will release it soon and naturally because she is so weak from her illness that surgery is pretty risky right now.

Travis was here with us when Emily learned of the baby’s death. He and his brother, John, had come (along with John’s two oldest daughters) to finish cleaning and packing their house. Almost all their big items are in a storage building now. Thanks to tremendous help from some friends, they finished quickly and, on Wednesday morning, we all went to the beach. When I got back to my phone I had a message from Emily to have Travis call home right away. You can read Travis’ perspective here: Light in Our Hearts. We also talk about it in the HRGS Update which you’ll find at the bottom of this post.

That’s in contrast to an otherwise fabulous week. We are now [Read more...]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:41 — 7.3MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Daily Life, Photography, podcasts, Scenery
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