Well pretty soon anyway. This is a quick update on Saturday before we begin the trek back to Roatan tomorrow. Yesterday was a big, big day. After 10 years of part time classes, full time work, and more than full time management of his cystic fibrosis, we finally got to see Jesse walk across the big platform with over a thousand other graduates to have his picture taken with the president of the University of South Florida. Woo hoo!! See the pictures and video below.

Later this morning, we’ll be going up to Land ‘O’ Lakes to spend some time with our church family from Candlewood at sort of an open market where they set up a booth once a month to meet other people in the community. Then we’ll be heading to the beach for a baptism service, joining up with our other home church, Oakwood.

Tomorrow, after church, we’ll be heading over to Orlando. There’s a restaurant Jesse wants to go to. Then he and Kristin will be dropping us off at Eddie and Janie Upchurch’s home there in Orlando where we’ll take a brief nap before Eddie and Janie take us to the airport for a 7:00 am flight back to Roatán.

We’ve had an incredible time, but now Roatán is calling us home and we are ready.

Jesse’s big walk! from Jerry Petersen on Vimeo.

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We find ourselves back in Ohio this week at the farm where Mildred grew up. (I’m glad one of us grew up!) Our visit to Iowa was slightly longer than originally planned due to my mom’s hospitalization. We had originally intended to spend last Thursday settling in here and repacking for the short stay in Iowa, but Mom’s medical situation called for an immediate departure on Thursday morning from Ohio to Iowa. Now it looks like she’s patched up again and ready to go for a while longer. She’s had problems for many years with the arteries in her legs clogging up and had to have another angioplasty last week. A few hours after she got home from that, her heart started racing, so they brought her back and actually had to briefly stop her heart to get the rhythm back. She’s home now and will soon be talking to a specialist about a procedure to prevent any more episodes of tachycardia. In the meantime, they say that next time that leg artery closes off, it will mean bypass surgery. So we would appreciate your prayers, not just for Mom, but for the rest of the family for grace and wisdom – especially my sister Terry and her husband Howard who are the ones living closest and who play a huge role in keeping Mom healthy.

Now that I’ve spent a whole paragraph not dealing with the title of this entry, you might be wondering what in the world GDS³ stands for (GDS cubed for you non-mathematicians). Well, according to our station manager, Peter Silseth, GDS is short for “goofy dog syndrome.” He uses that term sometimes to describe their dog, Saydee. But she is not nearly as goofy as Lucy, Frankie, and Lady. They are Terry’s and Howard’s dogs. Lucy and Frankie are beagles and Lady, a labrador/springer mix, thinks she is a beagle. I’m pretty sure that Terry and Howard secretly feed them nitroglycerin, but I didn’t accuse them of it right to their faces. What a riot these dogs are! If they could talk they would be like those two ‘possums, Crash and Eddie, in the animated movie Ice Age 2 – Meltdown. Only there are THREE of them and they are way bigger than ‘possums.

But there is a magical incantation that always calms them. Howard shared it with me. Just yell “SQUIRRELS!” You might have to say it two or three times, but it’s guaranteed to make them run to the windows and make a frantic, but all too brief, search. The other thing you need to remember is that they don’t – remember that is. So, after about 15-30 seconds of looking out the windows for squirrels, they forget what they went to the windows for and resume chasing each other around and licking everyone in sight. But that’s not a big problem since, as I said, they don’t remember. Just yell “squirrel” again and off they go to the windows. It’s just hilarious.

Another of my sisters, Sandi, got to West Branch a few hours before we did, so it was a bit of a family reunion. We had a big meal on Easter with all of the above characters except the dogs, who were safely locked away in their kennels, plus my nephew Tim and his family, Casandra, Alex, and Albert. As you can see from the pictures, we all had a great time. We got to visit like we haven’t done in years and it was really sweet.

Now here we are, back on the farm, getting a little rest, visiting with supporters and family, helping prune the apple trees, and getting ready to speak this Sunday at Ebenezer and Williamsport United Methodist Churches. We’re just a little over one month from our return to the real world – Roatán – and we are beginning to long for our adopted home even amidst the great times we’re having here in the land of family and infrastructure.

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Before I get started, I want to just take a moment to thank those of you who follow our adventure in serving Christ here on the Gazette. We appreciate your prayers. While on vacation, I talked with someone who said he hadn’t had much opportunity to view our pictures since he had to click on the “photos” link to see them. It took me a while to figure out how that was possible because the pictures are always a part of the story. It seems that he was only reading the portion of the blog entry that was on the front page. I’m telling about it, not to embarrass a good friend who will remain nameless, but to help any other inexperienced blog readers who may have had the same issue. I told him he was not only missing the pictures, he was missing most of the story – often the most important part. To read it all and to see the pictures, he needed to click the “read more” link. The purpose of that device is to have multiple stories on the home page and keep it to a manageable length. If you have ever read an old fashioned newspaper (the kind that needs no electricity or anti-virus software) you’ll be familiar with the method. I wanted to mention this while it is fresh in my mind, especially since we have a special prayer request today that you won’t know about without reading on. So, if you can endure my babbling and have the time to spare, read all the way to where it says, “read more,” and then click that link so you can read more. 

I can’t say we are really back in sync with everything yet since we just got here Thursday afternoon, but it sure is nice to be back in our own bed. If I could change anything I wanted to about travel, but was limited to just one thing, it would be finding a way to sleep in my own bed while on the road. All other discomforts and inconveniences are minor and brief compared to spending the night not being cushioned in the bed I’m used to. I know I’m probably getting old in my old age, but I’ve felt that way about my bed since I was a kid. I love to travel, and there’s not a thing wrong with MOST of the beds I’ve slept in, but to slightly alter Dorothy’s homesick chant, there’s no bed like home, there’s no bed like home.

I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t help it. We had a very restful and pleasant vacation – except for one little episode on the way back. Well, it was really a little series of minor aggravations apparently set up to get us ready for our return to the land where almost nothing works right. But even that little mini-adventure demonstrated in subtle ways how good and in control God is.

We spent our last two nights at Mildred’s sister’s house near Houston. Cheryl and Mark were great hosts, but as we were getting the suitcases ready, their bathroom scale was having a little fun with us. We could never get the scale to read the same weight for the same bag twice. But we gave it our best shot. Then all we had to do was decipher the confusing signs that kept leading us away from terminal “E” at Houston International. We finally unloaded at another terminal and walked over there. But there were more obstacles in our path. When we got to the terminal, their scales showed three of our four bags being over weight, and the fourth one had no more space. So, rather than pay $150 for three overweight bags, we pulled out a little duffel and put the extra stuff in there. That would only cost an extra $100. (Only!? Ain’t air travel fun these days!?) We soon learned that we were not yet home free. As they say on the infomercials, “But wait! There’s more!”

When we finally got to the counter, we found out that there is a limit this time of year on flights to Roatán – two bags per passenger … period, no exceptions. By now, we figured we we getting close to not having enough time to get any food to take on the plane and the travelers among us all know that they no longer give you an actual meal for all those hundreds of dollars you shell out. The steam was just about to come out of my ears when the Lord calmed me down and gave me one of those “duh!” moments. That was a pretty small duffel. I asked and they said that I sure could take it on the plane as a personal item in addition to my carry-on. Whew! Thank You Jesus!!!!

So, after enjoying yet another TSA social gathering (all those people standing around and no hors dourves), we put our shoes back on and quickly grabbed a couple of Aunt Annie’s pretzels and hurried to the gate, arriving just as they called our seating area. After waiting in that line, the lady scanning our boarding passes told us we had to go back over to the gate counter a foot to her left and show them our passports first. Sheesh! We showed our passports at the ticket counter and security already. So, we walked around the back of the line, did a 180 around the last person in line and went up to the counter. We showed that lady our passports and she blessed us so we could start all over in the boarding line. We still got to Roatán at the same time as the rest of the passengers, but I really do think there is some sort of secret contest among the airlines to see who can annoy their passengers the most.

Here in Roatán there are no air conditioned jet-ways. That’s both good and bad. Sure you have to go out in the heat or the rain, but you can get off the plane twice as fast if they open the rear doors. However, due to our seat locations, we were just about the last ones to hit the tarmac regardless of which door we used. By the time we got through customs about 45 minutes later, our bags were very easy to find because they were the only ones left in the room. As a matter of fact, our friend Winston, who helps with baggage at the airport, already had them loaded onto a cart and was ready to wheel them out to the curb for us where Sandi picked us up and brought us home. At last, we were back home, and we even had all our luggage. So, all in all, it was a much better than average trip.

We hit the ground running when we got to the house. Adjust the thermostat and turn on the water. Then we started unpacking, but before we got done, Peter offered to let me borrow their truck so I could go into town to see how ours was coming at the paint shop. The part that was done looked great. But Perry said it would be next weekend before it is finished. So we are without wheels for a while longer.

Friday is Peter and Sandi’s day off, so Mildred and I went right to work. Peter and I need to sit down Monday and figure out the order of battle for this week, but I suspect we will first start painting the big metal gates at the new transmitter site. I also have a new solar powered security light that I want to install up there.

If you have been following the news, you probably heard that there is a lot of tension here in Honduras these days. The leftist president is getting very tight with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Honduras is as divided over their president as we are over ours. Honduran presidents are limited to only one consecutive term in office, but he wants another. So he wants what he calls a poll to see how many people want to change the constitution and allow consecutive terms. It is supposed to take place today, if I remember right. But the supreme court and the legislature said that it is illegal to do that so close to an election. So now, all the leftist countries want to butt in to support their friend and everyone I’ve talked to is pretty concerned that it could lead to violence. We would appreciate your prayers not only for the safety of the staff here and for our continued ability to minister, but also pray for the nation as a whole. This country has come to depend a great deal on tourism, and you can imagine what civil unrest would do to people’s ability to survive in an already impoverished country. In fact, I just checked the news as I was finalizing this and read a report that president Zelaya has been arrested this morning by the military.  http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/28/honduras.president.arrested/

Well, this is starting to sound a little heavy. So here are some pictures from our trip that I wanted to share. You have already seen the ones from the big anniversary celebration. Here are some from the Sipes farm, from the Florida Aquarium, and the double Father’s Day we enjoyed at the Reilly’s house. It seems that much of that Sunday afternoon, Jesse’s father-in-law, Dave, and I watched golf while the others geeked out on their laptops and iPhones. But we did play some other fun games, ate burgers, hot dogs, and pizza, caught up on family news, and some even fell asleep on the floor. Like I said, it was a great vacation. Now, back to the real world.

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At least it looked like everyone enjoyed the big open house for Mildred’s parent’s 60th anniversary. The celebration actually began Friday evening with a big family dinner at the Galion, Ohio Country Club. Most of us went home painfully full of all sorts of culinary delights.

And then, yesterday was the big event – the open house at Ebenezer United Methodist Church south of Galion. This was the first time that all Mildred’s siblings and their kids had been together in ten years. And now there are great grandkids in the mix too. It’s a pretty big family but of course there were a lot more people there than just family members The guest book had 154 names, but we know there were many who did not sign in.

It was great to see so many people that we had not seen in a long time. The only drawback is that there were so many there that we didn’t have time to talk with each one as much as we would have liked to.

Mildred’s sister-in-law, Linda, took charge of the food along with the help of a wonderful caterer. The food was delicious and way more bountiful than we expected. In fact, we are getting ready to work on some of the left overs in a few minutes.

So, I think I’ll wrap this up and get ready to get back to all the family fun. So far, this has been one of our best vacations ever. Hope the pictures tell the story for you.

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I just can’t wait till Saturday to tell you about the terrific Monday we had here. After failing to get the new FM tower up last week, we did some assessments and made a few changes to get ready for the next attempt. First, we lightened the load by about 160 pounds by removing the antennas and associated hardware. I redesigned the pulley system atop the big tripod. I made it so that when the rope goes above the pulley, it catches the bolt at the top of the pulley and just lifts all that hardware off the top of the tripod, which makes for a straighter pull. It was pretty cool to see it work as designed, but a couple people were a little alarmed because we forgot to tell everybody that it was supposed to do that.

We seemed to get off to a slow start, though. Peter and I went to see a listener friend who offered the use of his block and tackle gear for pulling up the tower. That seemed to take forever. Then we needed longer rope than what the borrowed gear had. Buying the rope was an even slower process. They guys who coiled it for us put a couple thousand twists in it, which I had to take out. It takes a loooonnng time to untwist 320 feet of rope! But once we got it rigged up, things went unbelievably quickly.

Our helpers showed up at around 2:30 and we were almost ready for them. We had a few of the same people in the group who helped last week and lots of new faces. I really appreciated Antonio’s help with the rigging and knot typing. He used to be a seaman so he really knows that stuff. Steven was another big help to me with the rigging. Most of the gang came in a big tourist bus driven by Antonio. Our friend, Jeremy, has a high school choir here from Seattle this week doing concerts and he loaded the boys into Antonio’s bus. They were a great bunch of tower pusher-uppers. In fact, Mildred and I plan to go hear them tonight in Flowers Bay.

Another change I made was using the triple block and tackle setup I mentioned above rather than come-alongs for pulling the tower. It turned out that with the changes we made to the pulley system, the block and tackle were serious over-kill. Once the people pushing got the tower up to about 45 degrees, Steven, Antonio, and I just grabbed the whole bundle of ropes and pulled it right up. It was seriously cool to see that 70′ tower rise up from behind the security wall as we watched and pulled from way down the hill.

Now we can see the tower from our house. It is dwarfed by the nearby cell towers, but we still like it. With binoculars, we can just make out the flags that Oliver and Alice Henderson made for it.

Mildred, Sandi and Marlies were up there yesterday, too, taking lots and lots of pictures. I’ve put a few up here so you can get a better idea what was going on. I’ve also included the HRGS Audio Update, which we just recorded this morning.

When I had previously mentioned that Monday was going to be the day for raising the tower, lots of people said they would be praying. We can’t thank you enough for that! Now, we move on to mounting the antennas and brackets, installing the lightning protection, finishing the wiring for the transmitter room, building a new rack for the transmitter and related equipment, installing and connecting the studio-transmitter-link hardware, and then – finally – relocating our FM transmitter to the new and improved location. Whew! I get tired just thinking about it.

To hear the Audio Update, you’ll need to go back to the home page. For some reason, when I used the “more” command to break this up, it put the audio file only on that page and not here on the page with the whole blog entry. Very strange.

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