Peter and I were hard at work after midnight this morning. Yesterday was the day we’d set for installing the “new” refurbished FM computer. It would have been much easier if we actually could have installed it. I use the term “‘new’ refurbished” because none of the computers for our dual language project are new. They are just cleaned up with new hard drives and upgrades to the operating systems and other software.

We had run into a bit of a puzzle when I had the new FM computer almost ready and tried to install a new video adapter so that we could spread the desktop over two monitors like the old FM computer. When I powered up the refurbished computer with the new adapter installed, nothing happened. No power on self test, no beeps, no humming of hard drives, nothing but a blank black screen. So I tried a known good video adapter from my own computer and had the same problem. I wondered if the power supply wasn’t up to the job. So I unplugged everything but the motherboard and one hard drive. Still no joy. It looks like the video slot on the motherboard itself is bad.

That brought us to plan B which we executed last night. Plan B was not too difficult because both the old and “new” computers have the same motherboard. We pulled all three new hard drives from the refurbished machine and when the broadcast day ended at 11:00 pm last night,  we shut down the old FM computer and went to work. We removed all the hard drives from the FM computer and gave the inside of the machine a good cleaning. Next, we popped in the new drives and connected all the internal cables. The next step was to put the computer back in its cubby hole and hook up all the external cables.

When we powered it up, we found out that it was confused about which drive was which. That was an easy fix. Then I installed the drivers for the dual head video adapter and the audio card (which was slightly different from the one in the original “new” computer). After making some adjustments to the audio levels and screen resolution, we were off to the races.

Once we tested everything we could test, we headed for home. I got to bed about 1:00 AM. I know, that’s not late for many of you, but I usually get up at about 5:30. This morning I slept in till about 5:55. After putting on some clothes, I stumbled to the office on the other side of the house from our bedroom and turned on the radio. At precisely 6:00 the Honduran national anthem began to play. Had Mildred been awake and had I been a little more awake, I may have quoted young Anakin Skywalker when he first started up the pod racer he’d built – “IT’S WOORRRKIIINNGGG!!!!” Let’s pray that it keeps on working so I don’t have to.

Dual Language Short Clip from Jerry Petersen on Vimeo.

Yes, indeed, we are now on the air all day in English and all day in Spanish. The liftoff was this morning and went off without a hitch. We go on the air at 5:00 AM, so Peter and I both got there a little ahead of time to move the AM feed to the new dedicated AM computer’s control console and also do some file maintenance that can’t be done while we are broadcasting.

We have spent the rest of the day fine tuning the various settings and automatic file copying processes. A little before lunch I started working on the computer that used to be in our middle production studio. When I get done it will be our new FM broadcast computer. That will take several days to set up and we’ll want to test it for a day or two so it doesn’t give us any unpleasant surprises once it’s on the air.

We are highly excited about our expanded programming hours and the new speakers (preaching/teaching programs) we have on HRGS. Tomorrow (Tuesday), for example, we’ll have the following English lineup:

FM

• 7:00 – The Islander’s Hour may be our longest running program. I think it goes all the way back to 1990.
• 7:30 – The HRGS Update, which you can listen to using the player at the bottom of this page.
• 8:00 - Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. We started airing this several months ago and it’s been well received.
• 8:30 – Guidelines with Dr. Harold Sala.
• 8:42 – The Love Language Minute with Dr. Gary Chapman.
• 8:45 – Stories of Great Christians from Moody.
• 9:00 – Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman. This is a new-to-us weekly one-hour program that we’ll be repeating on Saturday on the AM.
• 10:00 – Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
• 11:00 – Grace to You with Dr. John MacArthur.
• 11:35 – Revive our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Another recent addition that seems to be a hit.
• 12:00 – Request and Dedication, our all time most popular program.
• 1:00 – Love Worth Finding with Dr. Adrian Rogers.
• 2:00 – Insight for Living with Dr. Chuck Swindoll. This is a new program during our extended FM English broadcast. We have been airing Insight for Living Weekend for quite a while now.

AM

• 3:00 - Precepts for Life with Kay Arthur. This is another new program for our female listeners.
• 4:00 – Family Life with Dennis Rainey, yet another of our new programs.
• 5:00 – Revive our Hearts is a repeat of the one aired at 11:35 on FM. It’s one that we have had a lot of positive feedback about.
• 6:30 – Keys for Kids. This little program also airs at 6:30 AM during Sunrise Serenade.
• 6:45 – Mission Network News. This is another repeat from Sunrise Serenade.
• 7:00 – The Islander’s Hour, repeating the morning program.
• 7:30 – Bible Basics, a program written and produced by our own mission, Bible Basics International.
• 8:00 – Living on the Edge is a new-to-us program with Chip Ingram.
• 9:00 – Walk in the Word with James MacDonald. This is another program that will be airing for the first time tonight.

If I counted right, there are six brand new programs slated for Tuesdays. We have a few other new ones coming up on the weekends such as Sports Spectrum. I’m still wrapping my brain around it all and wishing we could receive our own AM signal here at our houses and at the station.

I won’t try to give you all the Spanish programming or this will be a mile long. Besides, I really know very little about that side of it so far. I’ve been too busy getting the engineering part of it ready to fly. This has been quite a complicated process and we give the Lord all the glory for guiding us through it all the way. I hope you’ll pray with us that we can quickly and successfully get all the other pieces in place and, especially, that the Holy Spirit will work ever more powerfully in the lives of our listeners – and that more and more people would find Inspirational Radio on their radio dials and keep it there. Thanks.

We’re starting to get more and more into the mood to head back to Roatán. Last night Mildred and I had what we think is our last church engagement in Ohio. (There is still one more in the Tampa area.) We spent some time sharing with the youth group at Open Arms Christian Church north of Mt. Gilead, Ohio. We had already spoken there on Sunday during both Sunday School and worship. They sure are warm and generous. We still plan to make a trip or two up to Findlay before we head back to Tampa next Tuesday. We have a few more personal meetings scheduled locally as well as up in Findlay. We love seeing our many friends and relatives up here in the States, but our passion is the radio ministry and the people we serve on Roatán, so it’s tugging at our hearts a little more each day.

My mom is doing well. She had her catheter ablation done today. My sisters say that it went very well and the doctor reports that her heart should not have any more racing spells. In the meantime, Mildred’s dad is scheduled to see a specialist tomorrow (Thursday) to discuss the possibility of a pacemaker, defibrillator, or a combination of the two. It’s been 3 years since the cardiologist last mentioned it, so it’s time to re-evaluate once again. These are busy medical times for all of us. Even so, Mildred’s dad is feeling pretty well, all things considered. He and I even planted some fruit trees yesterday. So praise God for His mercies.

Mildred and I are both getting very excited about Jesse’s graduation from USF in Tampa coming up on May 7. He seems pretty excited too if his Facebook posts are any indication.

By and large, we just go to meetings, eat, and try to get some exercise when we can. Well we do have a few diversions. For example, Mildred is spending lots of time with members of her extended family getting her family tree information up to date. They have also been sharing photos and information. And I’ve started reading “Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper. A close friend warned me to not read it because it’s life changing. As I have already been learning independently, Piper makes it clear that real joy in living is not mutually exclusive with serving and glorifying God. In fact, real joy is impossible without serving and glorifying Him. As always, thanks for your prayers on our behalf. Let us know how we can pray for you.

I love it when a plan comes together – even if I’m on plan “D” when it happens. Plan “A” was to go to La Ceiba on Monday morning and go straight to the medical center downtown for an ultrasound to try to discover the source of my mystery pains. Then I would proceed on over to Utila to install a timer to make sure the transmitter shuts off after broadcast hours end. When I got to the the medical center, I found out that I was not supposed to have eaten breakfast. Gee! That would have been nice to know beforehand and it didn’t matter that breakfast was a light one and that it was five hours in the past and my belly felt like an empty sack.

On to plan “B.” Since I needed to run some errands in La Ceiba, and it was too late to catch the morning ferry to Utila, I took care of the errands while I was there. After lunch I was just tired of that stuff, so I went on out to the docks and just hung out until the Utila Princess was ready to go. I figured that I could go to Utila, get my simple little task accomplished, and then return in the morning to La Ceiba for the ultrasound.

While I was waiting I observed what looked like an interesting example of Latin American foresight – or lack thereof. Notice the pictures below. This flatbed truck had about 150 bags of cement. Rather than pull up alongside the ship, they backed up to it. No problem for the first few rows of bags. But,with every row, these poor muchachos had to carry the bags farther and farther. At one point, they were bent over, gasping and spitting while their boss yelled at them to get a move on.

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Eventually it was time to go to Utila and, thankfully, we had unusually smooth seas. I didn’t know that it was going to be such a short-lived condition. We were a little late getting to Utila, and by the time I got to the transmitter site, it was nearly dark and the sand flies and mosquitoes were in a feeding frenzy. Deep Woods Off was not a problem for them at all. I could barely see what I was doing and they were driving me insane. (Or should that be more insane?) Anyway, I had to give up for the night. That meant that I could not take the morning ferry back to La Ceiba. So much for plan “B.”

Plan “C” was to get this timer installed in the morning and then do a few other chores. Then take the afternoon ferry to the coast, spend the night at a hotel in La Ceiba, and get my lab work done in the morning, maybe even in time to get the morning ferry back to Roatan. But, the simple little timer installation had some surprises for me, and it took most of the day to get it all sorted out. It works great but it made me too late for the afternoon ferry.

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I found out, when I got back into town, that it didn’t matter anyway because the ferry could not run that afternoon. A norther came in with high winds and forced the harbor in La Ceiba to close.

So I went to plan “D.” I went to supper and met a nice couple from San Pedro Sula there on a short vacation. He is originally from Oregon, but has lived in Honduras for several years now. Then I set my alarm for 5:30 so I could catch the morning ferry, if it was running. When I got to the ferry ticket office Wednesday morning, they were still waiting on word from the harbor captain in La Ceiba. We soon got the all clear, though, and boarded the ferry. This time it was the bigger of the two Utila ferries. During the voyage, I learned from the mate that the small one had actually broken a beam on a wave the day before and would be under repair for a few days. Wow! I’m glad I wasn’t on board for that!!

The seas were rather gentle (but still pretty high) and we made good time getting to La Ceiba. I got right in to the medical center and did not have to wait long for my ultrasound. The results were the best I could have hoped for. The liver, gall bladder, spleen, and pancreas were all fine. The tests confirmed what I’d already known; I am still the proud owner of a hiatal hernia. I guess it’s just getting worse.

Coming back on the Galaxy was a fairly nice trip. I shot a few pictures in the La Ceiba harbor, which was looking kind of somber in the drizzle and fog.

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When we got back to Roatan, there were two cruise ships docked right across from our dock, so I took the best pictures I could in the fading light. I had to boost the camera’s iso all the way to 1600, so the pictures are pretty grainy, but I’m just glad I had the Nikon with me so I could get them.

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This morning I went to see the doctor and he made some changes to my medication. We’ll see how that goes and take it from there. God is always good, even when He makes us be flexible.

Alrighty! Here is this week’s HRGS Audio Update and the story of Peter’s no-fun ending to a Sunday afternoon basketball game. I’ll let the audio speak for itself.

The news on my shoulder is that it’s doing much better. The doctor gave it a second injection yesterday and told me to keep throwing that ball at the wall. He also wants me to go swimming three times a week. I have NO idea how I’ll find time for that! I think I need a Wii. Anyway, I needed to pay for the medicine at the adjacent pharmacy after he finished with me. But I got to talking to some friends there in the waiting area. By the time I was ready to head for home, I had completely forgotten about that payment. I remembered it about the time I pulled into our driveway. So I went back this afternoon and settled accounts. It was a little embarrassing, but they we really nice about it.

Another nice news item from yesterday is that our lawyers in Tegucigalpa reported to me that they received the package I sent them last Friday with what we hope is the last batch of documents that the immigration office is asking for. Please pray that this is finally the end of the new requests and we can just sit back and prayerfully wait for final approval, which normally takes several months after they get the documents.

Well, enough rambling. Here is this week’s HRGS Update.