Christmas Eve - Eve Breakfast

We, at TWR, had a Christmas time breakfast at Eddy's Restaurant, just down the road from the office.  I had a nice early morning bike ride to work up an appetite.  (it is dark at 6am these days.  I could see Jupiter and Sirius all the way to Karpata)  Eddy and Sonia used to have a catering service back in the day, but have been operating this restaurant at Sand Dollar for a number of years now.  Their food is a yummy as ever.










I've noticed quite a few big holiday events taking place at Eddy's this year.  It is a great place for a party. 
Check out the real live Poinsettias! 












Brandon did the master of ceremonies thing and thanked us all for our hard work this year, and said that we'd have to work even harder in 2014 because of the 50th anniversary, TWR Partners conference and other events and projects.  But we didn't mind 'cause he was feeding us!










Besides all the usual breakfast buffet items like Sonia's made to order omelets, we were treated to some European and Latin American Christmas specialties.  They were VERY tasty indeed.

On the other hand, while we were all standing in line to get a custom crafted omelet, Brandon made a beeline for the APPLE JACKS!!

New Bonaire Bird Book

A little over a week ago, a new bird guide book was released by the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance and STINAPA Bonaire.  Besides telling about the birds of Bonaire, it provides some information on the best places to observe them.  Sounds good to me.
The introduction was held at Addo's Books downtown.  By the way, there is now an Addo's Toys just around the corner from the book store.





The book was introduced by Elsmarie Beukenboom, who later graciously signed copies for us.  Hmm, I wonder what a first edition, autographed at the introduction event, will be worth on eBay...  Oops, it's not "mint" any more, I was looking at the birds.












But wait, there's more!  Jerry Ligon gave an illustrated talk about Bonaire Birds, and signed books too.  Congratulations and a hearty thank you to everyone who made this event and this book possible.

Christmas Greeting from Radio Trans Mundial

Has the Christmas rush got you in a tizzy.  Wait until you see our TWR - USA Hispanic ministries department in action in this cute Christmas Greeting and video clip.

TWR Africa Salutes Nelson Mandela

You can read what TWR's International Director for Africa, Dr. Emmanuel Mbennah, had to say from our Africa Regional Office, located outside Johannesburg.

Ministry Report from the Field

I write from time to time about the enthusiastic listeners to TWR Bonaire that live on a certain large island to the north of us.  Our TWR representative there recently made a trip to some remote areas on the eastern edge of the country.  Here are some excerpts from his report.

"Just last week, we travelled to meet listeners and have a preaching workshop at xxxxxx, the eastern municipality of our country.  People live across the mountains in humble and very small wooden houses. It is a very isolated and deserted area, almost entirely without running water. Houses do not have bathrooms or anything like that. Roads don’t exist in some areas.  But thousands of people live there!  The good news is there are churches everywhere and almost every person has been a TWR listener for many years. Many of them became Christians just by listening to radio programs. They also have electricity service and have radios (TV and DVD players, as well. How it is possible?).

In some places there are modest but good church buildings, but the majority of churches meet in homes, led by new pastors, many of them without seminary training. You can see a church or a home isolated on the mountain, but at night, it is exciting to see how the people get down from their places with flashlights and you can see a crowded temple or home church every night everywhere. It is really marvelous!!

Thinking about the way that people live, it is exciting to know that even though they have almost nothing, the Gospel has reached them giving salvation and hope. They were very excited because of our visit. “Nobody visits us ever”, they said constantly. “It is unbelievable to have people from TWR visiting us!” They came to see me and touch me. They were proud telling me: “I am a TWR listener, do you imagine what it means to listen the word of God every night in that mountains?” Although they have radios, TVs and DVDs players, they are really forgotten and abandoned people with a lot of need.

How many people live on the mountains?  It is impossible for me to say. But I thank God for being a part of a ministry which is touching and reaching people for Christ everywhere."

United Airlines Update

Susan, at the Bonaire Insider, has dug up some information on the upcoming United Airlines schedule changes for their flights to Bonaire from Houston and Newark.
On one hand, these last minute changes have wreaked havoc with some of my friends travel plans.  On the other hand, United has added some more flights during the peak season, which can only be a good thing for those of us here on Bonaire, and those of you who want to be here on Bonaire.

Here is a link to the Bonaire Insider article.  It includes a handy dandy PDF chart showing what flights are flying on what dates.

For example:  from Newark, it looks like there are both Saturday and Sunday flights (at the new daytime time slot) every week from January through March.   It looks like there is also a Monday flight on Jan. 6.  And there are also Friday flights during the whole month of March.

USA Sunday Mail Deliveries are BACK!

Whoo whoo, our son, Richard, just mentioned that he received some stuff from Amazon from the USPS on Sunday this past weekend.
Here is an article telling about Amazon's deal with the US Postal Service.  Ordering Kindle books provided instant gratification.  Now the pesky weekends no longer get in the way of almost instant gratification for other stuff too.  At least if you live near New York City.

New United Airlines Flight Schedule to Bonaire

My brother just got tickets to visit us in March.  I was amazed when I saw that his flight from Newark, left at like 9am, and not 11:55pm.  I went online and found out that the March flights from Houston are daytime flights too.  Looks like the redeye specials are a thing of the past.

Our son, who is coming here in January, just got an email from United saying his flights have just been changed to the new schedule too.  So my guess is that the new United changes are happening pretty much at the start of the new year.

So if you are heading here or planning to head here, be sure to keep the new schedule in mind when looking for connecting flights to Newark or Houston.

International Bible Church happenings

We had a clean up day at the church recently.  Lots of people turned up, had a great time, and got a lot of sprucing up accomplished.












The IBCB added three new Elders to go with the two who were already serving.  Here is a view of their installation, thanks to Rick Veldman, who remembered to bring a camera that week.  Pastor Doug is on the left.









We recently had a service of appreciation for Pastor Baran and Felicia, recognizing and thanking them for their years of service with the IBCB.  I don't have any pictures at the moment, but the audio from the service is available on the church Web site.  The audio clip begins with the installation of the elders and then continues with the tribute to the Barans.
Pastor Baran and Felecia continue to have an active counseling ministry at their home in Nikiboko, and Pastor Toto is still the voice of the church radio program, heard on BON FM (102.7) on Sunday afternoons at 4:30.  Some of the radio programs can be heard on the church Web site as well.

We had a men's breakfast this morning.  Dave Pedersen cooked up a hearty breakfast, and Pastor Doug shared a tongue in cheek lesson on the Top 10 Ways Fathers can Exasperate their Kids.

When is a Dog Not a Dog?

When he's a chew-toy Hog.

Another Bonaire Sailing Prodigy

I recently wrote about Bonaire's world class windsurfers.  They started young and have been at the top of their sport for some time now.  They recently started a "Children of the Wind" foundation to help facilitate the development of the next generation of young windsurfers.  Way to go guys!

I didn't get out to take pictures of the 46th annual Bonaire International Sailing Regatta back in October.  It was a smaller event overall, than it has been in previous years, but the Sunfish and Optimist fleets, in particular, had a great turnout from both Bonaire and the region.

There was close racing too.  The battle for the overall win in Optimist-A came down to the last race on the last day of competition.  It doesn't get much better than that!
And the Optimist-A fleet forms the setting for today's story.  In 2011, Yorick van Blerk won the Optimist C-class.  Last year, Yorick graduated to Optimist-B... and he won again.  This year found Yorick sailing against the big boys in Optimist-A.  And guess what?  That's Yorick in the middle with the first place award.

The Optimist-A races followed one of the yacht racing courses; starting by Klein Bonaire, coming in to the Regatta house in Playa Pabou, and then heading way out to the Southwest Corner of Klein Bonaire, before beating back upwind to the Plaza Resort.  This ambitious race course was made all the more challenging because we actually had WIND for the regatta this year.  They were recording solid 20 knot winds out by the SW corner of Klein.  And the seas in this region are not sheltered by Bonaire.   If you've ever been out there in a boat, you will probably remember just how huge those swells can get.  It was truly extreme sailing for kids in teeny tiny boats...  tiller in one hand, bailing bucket in the other, and the main sheet gripped with one's teeth.

So congratulations to Yorick van Blerk, for bravely battling the heavy conditions, and for making it three straight wins in the Optimist class.

Here is a shot of Yorick in action at an earlier race, under calmer conditions.  I don't have any sailing shots from this year, because Yorick's dad, Johan, was kept busy helping repair the broken rudders and other carnage in the Optimist fleet caused by the high winds and heavy seas.

Anniversaries

TWR Bonaire will be celebrating 50 years of broadcasting from Bonaire in 2014.  I think the official anniversary events will be in August.

The Bonaire water and electricity company, WEB, is also celebrating its 50th anniversary, as evidenced by this giant logo that recently appeared on one of the water tanks in Hato.







WEB will be doing some community projects as part of the anniversary celebrations.  Their first effort was to renovate the well at Dos Pos. 

They repaired the windmill and spruced up the whole area.  It looks great!

Fixing up this well, which supplies water to many in the Ricon area ties in really well with WEB's mission.

Brandaris (again)

I took a camera along on my bike ride yesterday am.  The sky was clear, the winds were low and the scenery was beautiful.  Here is a shot of Brandaris.  If you search my blog on "Brandaris" you'll find that this has been a recurring theme.  Kind of like that Devils Peak in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Dec 1 Sky Show

The Moon was stationed between Saturn and Mercury this morning.  Here are a couple pictures, as seen from the TWR offices.
The object to the upper left of the Moon is Saturn.
The star almost straight up from the Moon is Alpha Libra - Zubenelgenubi.  Alpha and Beta Libra were once considered to be the claws of Scorpius, the scorpion.  Now they are part of Libra, the scales.
Mercury is below the moon, about two thirds of the way to the horizon.
I can spot Mercury in these small images, but it is easier if you click on them to see larger versions.