tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59510522012-01-26T21:07:03.515-04:00Brad Swanson reports on the happenings in and around Trans World Radio's station on the island of Bonaire. TWR Bonaire broadcasts Gospel music and Bible teaching programs which can be heard in Latin America and the Caribbean: in the Spanish, English, Portuguese, Baniwa, and Macuxi languages.<br>You can click on the pictures to make them <big>bigger.</big>Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.comBlogger11281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-9138773958630160412012-01-26T21:07:00.000-04:002012-01-26T21:07:03.526-04:00

Colin and Lorna Buckland have been conducting a creative problem solving workshop for us at TWR each morning this week.  They are also doing team building concepts training in the afternoons.  This is the Buckland's fourth time with us.  We have a great time and somehow learn a lot too. Colin and Lorna are at the left.  Then Donna is pretty much hidden behind Colin.  Bob Lassiter is in the

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-50620746454982713902012-01-26T20:56:00.003-04:002012-01-26T20:56:58.718-04:00

Walt, Epi and the team poured the floor for the new classrooms at the International Bible Church last week.  They added a little to floor of the youth pavilion too. They left the surface with a rough texture so that the tiles will have something to stick to, when that time comes.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-30361528502053101382012-01-19T21:00:00.002-04:002012-01-19T21:00:25.984-04:00

A friend who is planning a visit to Bonaire this year asked me how much it might cost them for a week's worth of food, if they were to prepare their meals in their condo's kitchen. So I made some relatively random notes while Sandra and I were shopping last Saturday.  Maybe you have the same question in your mind, so I'll copy and paste the info. here as well. 1/4 wheel of Gouda cheese $10.27 

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-67196898774949755412012-01-17T21:00:00.000-04:002012-01-17T21:00:08.858-04:00

Actually, in this case, it is the church building that is growing.  Now that we've been using the new building for six months or so, we're moving ahead with phase two of the project, which is class rooms on the west side of the building.  As additional funds come in, we'll build some more;  a very traditional way of doing construction here on Bonaire. Pouring the slabs by the doors at each end

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-89672785380007601762012-01-17T20:10:00.002-04:002012-01-17T20:11:42.249-04:00

Brad recently celebrated 35 years with Trans World Radio. Had some carrot cake (yum) and pastechi with our co-workers.In the picture, Sandra and I are studying a document that Brandon made up highlighting some of the changes/advances that have come about while we've been here on Bonaire.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-33058514198734214622012-01-05T14:38:00.008-04:002012-01-05T16:18:15.602-04:00

I must apologize, in advance, for the crazy proliferation of fonts and type styles contained in this post. I hope you don't find it as annoying as I do. But I don't have the energy to try to fix it, given the idiosyncrasies of the Blogger interface. Actually they have a new improved user interface, maybe I should give it a try...There is increasing interest in our nighttime Spanish language

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-28701448093560990912011-12-31T17:49:00.002-04:002011-12-31T17:57:25.373-04:00

Best wishes for the new year. Bonaire greets the new year with cooler weather (79F at 5:30 this afternoon) and lots of fireworks. It is not a good time for dogs or other creatures with sensitive hearing.Our TWR co-workers and down the street neighbors, the Veldmans, had an open house this afternoon. Dick was in mass production mode making oliebollen, yum!

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-90959548173270602742011-12-30T19:59:00.002-04:002011-12-30T20:11:54.340-04:00

Sandra and I are both active readers, so we were suitably thrilled earlier this year when two of the Stateside library systems that we visit when we are in the States began lending Kindle e-books online. The new and popular books in their inventories have long waiting lists, but we can always find something we'd like to read when we do an online search... until tonight that is.There must be a

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-39341428519917353592011-12-29T19:37:00.003-04:002011-12-29T19:57:36.165-04:00

I've been waiting for quite a while to get a chance to capture Orion rising over the TWR office building. the skies cleared up this week, so I did some imaging three nights in a row. I tried all sorts of combinations of exposures and settings. It turns out that there is too much ambient light to use the type of settings I use at the slave huts. I'll just have to hope for an island wide

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-41335374330557808232011-12-29T16:44:00.002-04:002011-12-29T17:36:26.731-04:00

Hmmm, maybe it's actually the third coolest Web site... not counting commercial sites like eBay and Amazon...I guess Google would be the most useful to me, then Google Earth; but if I lump those together, then the Photopic Sky Survey site could still rank as number two.I thought I had mentioned this site back last July, when Chris Bogart first told me about it. I just checked and it appears

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-2692398581292872592011-12-29T16:25:00.003-04:002011-12-29T16:28:56.468-04:00

I mentioned the Bonaire Panoramas web site back in March. Lo and Behold, it turns out that one of the panoramas was shot right in front of the TWR office building. Check it out!

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-84879540030080587752011-12-27T16:40:00.002-04:002011-12-27T16:45:36.893-04:00

January is just around the corner and hopefully we'll get some super clear skies here on Bonaire, so I can try some more landscape astrophotos and time lapse astro videos. I've just finished building a super neat, low tech, tracking drive from a Stanley hinge and a few screws and nuts, as described in the Aug. 2010 issue of Sky and Telescope. I tried it out last night and it seems to work. (

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-84381551339720004062011-12-22T19:11:00.004-04:002011-12-22T19:22:06.587-04:00

We had a dress rehersal for the Christmas Eve. service Wed. night. The actual service is at 8pm on Saturday. If you are on the island, we'd love to see you there.We've been enjoying the new International Church building for a half a year or so. Now we've just started adding on some classrooms to the north side of the auditorium. You can see the foundation for the classrooms in the above

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-91141559887616241872011-12-22T07:47:00.003-04:002011-12-22T07:51:46.240-04:00

Our newly augmented TWR Bonaire staff had a Christmas get together Tuesday night at the Plaza beach barbeque.Amado and Sue, and Walt and Lynne were also invited in recognition of the valuable help they've provided to us during this transition year. Amado can be seen in the foreground in the top image. Sandra and Lynne are pictured above. In the background you can see the steel band setting up

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-53077640438211585442011-12-21T07:51:00.004-04:002011-12-21T07:55:24.093-04:00

Amado and Sue Felix just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. Pictured here with them is Wai-Man Chan from the China Nobo restaurant. Congratulations Amado and Sue.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-20486224211019185192011-08-09T14:52:00.003-04:002011-08-14T20:37:30.798-04:00

A couple of our co-workers recently drove all over Cuba and visited many of the faithful and enthusiastic listeners to our Bonaire radio programming. TWR has posted some clips and images from this trip on YouTube and you can see them here.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-27185413566627520262011-08-06T18:41:00.002-04:002011-08-06T18:45:19.904-04:00

If you scroll down to the bottom of the blog, you find the current Bonaire weather.If you click on the weather forcast dot com link, you can see more detailed weather info.The only thing I noticed is that the sunrise and sunset times are both one hour too early. Sunrise is at 6:20 not 5:20 and the sunset is at 18:57, not 17:57 Bonaire time. (and Eastern daylight time)

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-37887703577822339272011-08-02T19:00:00.003-04:002011-08-02T19:20:40.949-04:00

If you look back through my blog archives, you'll notice that in the month of July each year, we seem to get a clear dark night or two and I am able to do some astrophotography. This year was no exception. I went out to a "secret spot" near Sorobon back on July 26 and spent a number of hours enjoying very clear skies and some nice meteors too.The view above is always referred to as the area

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-72317556980514538332011-07-20T13:14:00.001-04:002011-07-20T13:16:43.153-04:00

We did a snorkle a few weeks ago, from La Dania's leap to Karpata. It was windy and choppy, but we went in the downwind direction.The coral in the La Dania area is particularly nice.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-22833029377566564922011-07-13T07:45:00.001-04:002011-07-13T07:47:38.039-04:00

I've put together a few very brief video clips from the opening ceremony and first service at the International Bible Church of Bonaire on July 10.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-91813511953437650732011-07-11T16:50:00.004-04:002011-07-11T17:06:07.292-04:00

Yesterday was the official opening day and first worship service at the new International Bible Church building. There was a brief ceremony outside and then we all marched in while singing "I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart... for He hath made me glad."Bicento and Betty (Ratzlaff) Henriquez came over from Aruba for the weekend. You can see them sitting in the middle on the left

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-82746992188123421602011-07-08T13:12:00.003-04:002011-07-08T13:22:07.398-04:00

We're going to have the first Sunday worship service in the new International Bible Church building this coming Sunday, July 10.There is lots of finish work to do on the building, but it is definately ready to use in its present state. That scaffolding was up yesterday, but some volunteers are taking it down today, and I'm going to haul it back to TWR later this afternoon. Most of the work on the

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-21754097610573650362011-07-07T18:19:00.001-04:002011-07-07T18:21:34.661-04:00

I really like the stars and the colors in this time lapse video of the southern Milky Way. If you have a fast Internet connection, watch it in 720p instead of the low res default setting.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-87847449978939034082011-07-04T22:27:00.004-04:002011-07-04T22:33:36.522-04:00

The night-time sky was very nice Sunday evening so I went out to the backside of nowhere with my camera and tripod, and shot some Milky Way pictures, 687 of them to be exact. I hope to make them into a time lapse movie some time soon.Here is one frame from the sequence. It is a 30 second exposure at f2.8 and the ISO was 1600.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-39130086491378604992011-07-04T11:10:00.003-04:002011-07-04T11:19:09.795-04:00

I was using Google Earth a week or so ago to show Ethan and Andrew some good hiking trails here on Bonaire. I was surprised and very pleased to see that pretty much the whole North half of Bonaire has a new satellite picture from January 2011. You can see how green Bonaire was/is from all the rain in 2010/2011.The details when you zoom in on this image are wonderful, there are fewer pesky clouds

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-65999061955916303082011-07-03T00:40:00.002-04:002011-07-03T00:50:00.566-04:00

We had nice clear skies Saturday evening so Ethan, Andrew, Bud and I zoomed out to Red Slave to see the Milky Way. We did some binocular observing, picture taking and a little telescope viewing. The top shot was taken early in the evening and is looking a little more to the east than the shot below. It shows the stars east all the way to Scutum on the left.The shot below was taken later and you

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-51908721082652614502011-07-01T07:16:00.002-04:002011-07-01T07:26:44.024-04:00

According to a recent Bonaire Insider story, Insel Air has extended its promotional fares on the new Charlotte to Curacao direct flight with continuing service to Bonaire. These new flights are on Wednesdays and Saturdays.If you book your trip before August 13 and complete your travel before December 14, the round trip fare from Charlotte to Bonaire, including all taxes, is just $366.70. That

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-5555943553481088262011-06-26T17:49:00.003-04:002011-06-26T17:53:08.341-04:00

You'll have to bear with me 'cause there will probably be a plethora of puppy pix for a while. That table top is a safe haven from the rampaging puppy, for now...We were over at our neighbors, the Barkers, for some socializing, both for us and for the pup. He did great with the kids and with their four dogs.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-81501797351093119392011-06-25T17:52:00.004-04:002011-06-25T18:20:26.376-04:00

Sandra was in Florida for a while helping her parents. She came back today and brought a little friend along as carry on baggage. It's unanimous, the grass is greener on the other side of that metal thing.Puppy chow, yum yum.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-42525797803147209762011-06-25T13:18:00.003-04:002011-06-25T13:32:50.186-04:00

The jellyfish team had a great time at Karl's Beach Bar last night. The saw a bunch of jellies and got to meet quite a few people from Bonaire who are interested in the jellies for one reason or another. It is actually been amazing to find out how many people here have been stung over the years. Many of us (that is an editorial us) here on Bonaire spend a LOT of time in the water, and I suspect

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-51849029492941217862011-06-23T15:07:00.003-04:002011-06-24T07:00:07.514-04:00

Today, TWR and EOZ signed an agreement regarding the use of the TWR office wing at our studios on Bonaire for an expertise center for learning disabilities on Bonaire. This learning center will serve the public education system; supporting parents, teachers, and students regarding assisting students with disabilities.TWR is pleased to make this part of our building available in support of the

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-51254102842539453212011-06-21T12:06:00.005-04:002011-06-21T21:46:20.412-04:00

We just received in the mail yesterday,a Christmas card from my brother and sister in law, who live in Colorado.The postmark says they mailed the card on Dec. 15, 2010 and a bold red stamp indicates that it was mis-sent to Aruba.Must have been Aruba on the moon.... no, the card has clearly gotten soaked with water at some point, and I think the moon is dry for the most part.... wonder where it's

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-12639132050406580412011-06-20T07:48:00.002-04:002011-06-20T07:50:57.262-04:00

We're really hoping for one night this week with super clear skies, so we can see the summer milky way in all its glory.Sunday looked promising, but ended up cloudy. The clouds and haze made for a great sunset though.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-75730468454045086822011-06-19T14:34:00.003-04:002011-06-19T14:46:57.435-04:00

I remember the "Where's Waldo" books from when our son, Richard, was young. Here we have a variation, "where's the mtn. biker? It is easy to disappear in the wilds of Washington. Frank Bohm and the Freewieler Bike shop sponsored a bike ride in Washington Park today. I think there were 15 riders. Frank, left, is talking to Bud Gillan, right before the start of the ride. The Gillans volunteered to

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-24652451203486792762011-06-18T14:52:00.003-04:002011-06-18T19:12:46.246-04:00

Sandra's cousins Bud and Nancyann Gillan are here on their annual visit. We're doing lots of snorkeling, star gazing, and generally enjoying the great Bonaire outdoors. Bud's enthusiasm for jellyfish has come to fruition in the Bonaire Jellyfish Jamboree, happening right now. You can learn more about it from this Bonaire Insider story and from this Florida newspaper story. Ethan and Andrew, our

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-63770956068836966822011-06-18T14:39:00.005-04:002011-06-21T21:43:46.464-04:00

We did a great drift snorkel Saturday morning from La Dania's Leap to Karpata. The coral was abundant, the fish were ok, and we saw a bunch of turtles. There is a lot of water movement along here and lots of soft corals and sea fans flapping around.We saw some cool schools of fish. Look for the old anchor chain running from the lower left to the upper right of the picture below.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-52765122287684268292011-06-17T15:07:00.003-04:002011-06-18T15:06:32.162-04:00

The PWA freestyle championships finished up yesterday (Thursday) and our local sailors did very well indeed. You can read a brief overview on the Bonaire Insider.The wind was great on Monday and Tuesday, a little soft on Wednesday, but kicked back in on Thursday, and it seems to be blowing pretty good today (Friday) for the Pro Kids competition that is now underway. Some of today's PWA stars were

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-34347405854472780702011-06-14T07:41:00.002-04:002011-06-14T07:44:28.678-04:00

While I was watching the PWA freestyle championships at Sorobon on Sunday, I shot some video clips with my trusty pocketcam.I was only there for the early rounds and I suspect that the best sailors were saving their really good moves for the final rounds.But it is still pretty cool to see what they were doing out there.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-12184865241178207142011-06-13T22:38:00.002-04:002011-06-13T22:53:34.600-04:00

The eighth annual Jong Bonaire fun triathlon was held early this past Sunday morning. This is a fun oriented, family friendly event and all ages were represented this year. Proceeds from the triathlon are used for the Jong Bonaire center and for activities for the youth of Bonaire. The fun category consisted of a 850 meter swim, a 11.6 kilometer bike ride and a 5 kilometer run. The "pro" category

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-9694774244764930072011-06-12T23:02:00.002-04:002011-06-12T23:05:41.541-04:00

There is a nice new video on YouTube featuring George "Kultura" Thode talking about Washington Park.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-81446027078087143842011-06-12T22:35:00.004-04:002011-06-12T22:51:27.434-04:00

The Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) freestyle world championships kicked off today in great windy conditions at Sorobon. After events in Vietnam and Austria, three of Bonaire's own are ranked first, third and fifth in the world this year. You know they are going to pull out all the stops to to consolidate or improve their positions, as they perform in front of friends and family, in

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-74206943294709583382011-06-10T22:20:00.004-04:002011-06-10T22:49:16.466-04:00

This past Thursday, Vice Consul Winifred Hofstetter from the US Consulate in Curacao made a working visit to Bonaire. Some passport related matters require one to sign papers in the presence of a US official, so consular officers come to Bonaire from time to time, so we don't have to make the trip to Curacao. I hadn't met the Vice Consul on her previous visit to Bonaire. We were probably on one

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-21385330783393606662011-06-08T21:22:00.002-04:002011-06-08T21:26:55.840-04:00

Andrew and Ethan are two mechanical engineering students who are here for a couple months to help out wherever than can. They are at the left end of the front row in this picture, which I shot during sunday school at the International Bible Church this past Sunday.We went snorkling Sunday afternoon at Tori's Reef and saw three spotted eagle rays! Pretty cool.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-55849728252383075322011-06-04T11:46:00.001-04:002011-06-04T11:49:31.949-04:00

The Bonaire Animal Shelter has a great new video on YouTube.If you like cute puppies and kittens, you'll love this one.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-53626594960733003232011-05-29T15:33:00.007-04:002011-05-29T15:49:55.187-04:00

We had a very clear night last week, the first one since February. So I zoomed out to Red Slave to take pictures of the Milky Way rising over the huts.At the start of the sequence, you can see the red Eta Carina nebula towards the lower right edge of the frame. The Southern Cross and Coal Sack nebula are to the upper left of the Eta Carina Nebula.Scorpius looks like a giant fish hook on the left

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-91236910999282208392011-05-22T16:28:00.002-04:002011-05-22T16:36:54.452-04:00

Ivan is busy prepping new parts for our next round of tower rebuilding action, which will probably take place in early 2012. Notice the giant fan in the background. There was little to no wind last week, here on Bonaire, which made for great bike riding, but hot and nasty working conditions. The new cross brases are cleaned, taped, primed and painted. The braces have to make good metal to metal

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-82861638940308979332011-05-22T16:17:00.003-04:002011-05-22T16:21:45.645-04:00

We've got guys up painting the towers again this year. Lately they have been painting in between the rain showers. I suspect that is why they are working down low, so they can escape the rain when it comes along. Lionel designed and built this trap and it is working great. They caught a number of rats last week.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-20083620242340569152011-05-09T10:10:00.004-04:002011-05-09T10:57:14.647-04:00

Some of us stuck around after the monthly Saturday morning men's meeting at the new church site and did some work on the roof.Walt hopes to get the last windows installed in the next day or two, which will make the building weather tight.He also hopes to construct the platform/stage this week.As you can see, there are lots of clouds these days, but we still felt pretty fried by 1pm.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-68584384105977099842011-05-08T06:55:00.002-04:002011-05-08T07:07:45.115-04:00

Four planets are putting on a beautiful show in the pre-dawn skies here on Bonaire. It's been pretty cloudy here, so I've only seen three of the four planets so far, but I'll keep looking... The triangular pattern will change from morning to morning because the planets are on the move. The view is best here on Bonaire from around 05:15 t0 05:30. By 5:45am the sky is getting kind of bright. The

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-87835440857330216732011-05-07T07:51:00.003-04:002011-05-07T07:58:01.051-04:00

This past Sunday, the day after Rincon Day, the people of Rincon held their eighth annual community bike ride. Each year they honor one of their senior citizens who is still actively riding their bike. It is a fun family event with great support from the community and quite a few Bonaire businesses. We swarmed up and down most of the streets of Rincon.The reason they invite me each year can be

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-242905072833599342011-05-07T07:38:00.002-04:002011-05-07T07:41:45.144-04:00

We are having a work day at the new IBCB church building today. I'll see if I can get some action photos. Here is how the site looked earlier this week. We had a lot or rain yesterday so it is probably muddy this morning.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-28308283627485054532011-04-30T16:56:00.002-04:002011-04-30T17:06:05.204-04:00

April 30 is a holiday here, known both as the Queen's Day, and for the last 22 years as Rincon Day. It is also the day of the annual running race and fun walk from the Stadium in Kralendijk to Rincon. As I recall this race predates Rincon Day, but I can't figure out how many years it has actually been held.I always ride my bike to Rincon on the west side "tourist road" on the morning of April 30

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-58789405951431763202011-04-29T07:02:00.003-04:002011-04-29T07:14:02.732-04:00

Perhaps they were inspired by the recent visit of, and the painting prowess shown by, the senior class of the Perry Hall Christian School. A number of the youth from the IBC are using their Easter vacation time to paint the new church building. I only saw guys working on the church when I visited the site, but the young ladies have swung a mean paint brush in the past, so they might yet take

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-72919080724936963422011-04-19T07:49:00.003-04:002011-04-19T07:52:30.278-04:00

The heavy rain we had last week has caused some of the Kibrahacha trees to pop. I first noticed them on Monday morning. These trees are east of Antriol and North Salina. I'm not sure what the trees north of Sabadeco, and up around Goto Lake are doing.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-4293814260073380622011-04-18T19:50:00.002-04:002011-04-18T19:57:38.145-04:00

Sunday was the 33rd (i think) annual kite flying contest here on Bonaire. There was quite a crowd out enjoying the festivities and great weather. The competition was highly organized and the judges were actively involved in the proceedings. These guys were holding on for dear life to a rather large kite. Eventually they tied it off to a telephone pole. It wasn't windy by Bonaire standards, but

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-62464581905009484142011-04-18T19:31:00.003-04:002011-04-18T19:40:00.502-04:00

Cutting in the edges isn't as much fun as rolling paint on large sections of wall, but they persevered and made everything nice and tidy. Dionne, Daphney, and her friend (who's name I forget-sorry) painted the Spanish language TWR sign last summer. The crew shown here made short work of the English language sign this year. Check out the piles of weeds in the background. We had two inches of rain

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-45952019533686120352011-04-18T19:23:00.002-04:002011-04-18T19:31:51.859-04:00

Some friendly donkeys came by to check out the freshly painted building. Or maybe someone told them that the young people also trimmed a bunch of bushes and pulled out a ton of yummy weeks. Here some of the team is putting the finishing touches on the front of the office wing. It is looking very nice. Heading off to the airport with the spiffy office in the background. They wisely arrived early

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-18802008391576407682011-04-17T15:46:00.002-04:002011-04-17T15:51:59.318-04:00

It was great to have Mr. Solomon (center) at church a week or two ago. I haven't seen him out and about for quite some time. Also in the picture are Amado Felix on the left and Denny Hogan, on the right. Christophe Lusse (left) is here for a week. Denny Hogan is in the last week of his time here helping with the antenna tower rebuild project.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-56753121230049412462011-04-11T21:33:00.003-04:002011-04-11T21:46:53.955-04:00

The Senior class of the Perry Hall Christian School is here on Bonaire for a week. In addition to enjoying the warm weather, they are doing a bunch of projects for TWR while they are here. Here are some action photos. The office wing hasn't been painted since 2004. We didn't notice how dull it looked until we saw some shiny new paint on the walls. Um... those pesky cacti, sand burrs and thorn

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-78531611494980079112011-04-11T21:19:00.002-04:002011-04-11T21:32:12.312-04:00

In addition to painting the office wing, the group is tidying up the grounds. There are loads and loads of weeds to cut back with the string trimmer. It was an overcast day, which made for very pleasant working conditions, and a perfect backdrop. Was it Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn who talked everyone into white-washing the fence for him? Whoever it was, he's got nothing on these guys. Cleaning

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-63348258601268758752011-04-11T18:32:00.002-04:002011-04-11T18:44:16.105-04:00

We've been blessed with some talented and very helpful volunteers so far this year. Cees and Clary came from Canada to help our director, Joe Barker, figure out the new Dutch tax laws. Rick, from California, designed and built a few engineering projects at the transmitter site, and also thoroughly traced and documented all the control circuitry for the transmitter and antenna systems. Jim, from

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-60591553362962303762011-04-04T20:50:00.002-04:002011-04-04T20:56:53.198-04:00

The ninth annual walkathon to benefit the Bonaire Special Olympics team was held on April 3. The event starts at 5am at White Slave and everyone walks, cycles, runs etc. along the west coast, 30 kilometers, all the way to Rincon. By 7:30 there are lots of people walking past our house in Hato. Here is a vido clip I shot on my way to church at 8am. Note Johan at the traffic circle taking his palm

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-87586962147557533502011-04-04T20:14:00.003-04:002011-04-04T20:23:11.252-04:00

The walls are all up on the new IBCB church building and the windows and doors have been ordered and paid for. That covered patio is on the upwind side of the building and will let us keep the double doors open for ventilation during light rains.TWR had some extra cabinets that now look great in the new church kitchen. One of our seasonal visitors has promised some base cabinets this fall when

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-29689271466498878322011-03-17T08:57:00.002-04:002011-03-17T08:59:50.780-04:00

Bill Heatley just sent me a link to a super cool Web site. It has 360 degree panoramic images of all sorts of Bonaire locations and sites. I've only looked at a couple of them but will be back to check out more as time permits.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-26196190193118391022011-03-15T19:41:00.002-04:002011-03-15T19:46:38.634-04:00

Snndra's cousin, Bud Gillan, has just tipped me off that there is an article about the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish on the Smithstonian Web site.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-26251149964353307452011-03-15T19:27:00.003-04:002011-03-15T19:32:47.894-04:00

The sun looked pretty nice as I finished my after work bike ride today, (Tuesday) so Sandra and I hopped in the car and drove to where we could see the sun drop below the horizon. The sun almost set over a cruise ship, which would have been cool. We saw a great green flash, I'd say that on scale of one to ten, it was a ten.Then as the sky began to darken, Jupiter and Mercury put on a nice

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-33075617509934329832011-03-13T20:41:00.003-04:002011-03-13T21:08:56.227-04:00

You've probably heard of the Bermuda Triangle, where boats and planes check in but don't check out. Well, Bonaire seems to be developing a car eating Vortex that sucks in cars and spits them out all crushed up. It all started a couple weeks ago when two medical students were driving to class, noticed their car starting to swerve around, and the next thing they new they had plowed into the giant

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-59510822434138752422011-03-09T09:56:00.003-04:002011-03-09T10:06:07.235-04:00

Here is a story from this month's TWR E-Snapshots newsletter. You can sign up to receive the E-Snapshots on the lower right side of this page.A girl who lived in a refugee camp in Tanzania for ten years recently visited the TWR-Burundi office to tell how she had been blessed by the good news through our programs.She said, “I used to listen to your program from the refugee camp in Tanzania. It was

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-61360934234580692762011-03-08T20:30:00.005-04:002011-03-08T20:46:02.513-04:00

Here is a time lapse video showing the Southern Cross (SC) rising at Red Slave here on Bonaire. I drew lines along the outline of the SC in this picture, so that you will be able to recognize it in the video. You may need to make the picture bigger so you can see the SC. The SC appears at about nine seconds into the video clip.The red blob low in the sky near the middle of the picture, is the Eta

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-34874373737517862572011-03-07T21:14:00.003-04:002011-03-07T21:19:30.705-04:00

I've been taking more star pictures to prepare for some time lapse videos this summer. But most of the time it has been too cloudy. Above is a typical 3o second exposure and below is a combination of a bunch of them showing the movement of the stars over time. The star trails photo really brings out the colors of the various stars.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-66786969574246953322011-03-01T09:09:00.004-04:002011-03-01T09:36:31.382-04:00

The moon is in hiding right now, so if it wasn't so consarned rainy and cloudy, I'd be outside every night soaking up the beauty of the Bonaire Sky Park, as George DeSalvo calls it. But, since I had already gotten soaked during my after work bike ride yesterday, I stayed inside last night and played with some images from last month. You can see Orion a little above and to the left of center in

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-22886664567835034012011-02-27T11:53:00.003-04:002011-02-27T12:05:11.999-04:00

We've had some heavy rains here, beginning back on Thursday; probably has accumulated to over three inches by now.One can find fairly detailed weather forcasts for Bonaire here. AND, "trumpet flourish", you can see a weather radar map of the ABC islands here. We just had a very heavy rain band pass over us and you can clearly see it on the weather radar display, especially the moving loop -

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-41615360715193074042011-02-24T11:06:00.003-04:002011-02-24T11:23:45.536-04:00

This is the view from near the radar installation at the top of the hill above Bopec. I was able to ride my bike all the way up the dirt road to the radar site when it was new and smooth, but now it is quite eroded and I can barely push my bike up it. Brandaris is on the horizon at the left side and the road around Goto Lake is at the right.This is the view looking SW from the scenic overlook

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-13649708035539006242011-02-23T00:08:00.004-04:002011-02-23T00:26:40.069-04:00

I went to Andrea 1 this evening and shot some video of the Sunset. For a minute there, I thought the Aquaspace glass bottomed sailing yacht was going to pass in front of the sun at just the wrong time, but they zoomed by in plenty of time.The picture here is one frame from the video that I've posted on YouTube. If you watch the video, you'll see lots of green fringing along the top rim of the Sun

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-13286030873605115852011-02-17T10:45:00.004-04:002011-02-17T10:56:43.687-04:00

I was out last night to try to get some video of the International Space Station passing overhead. Well, the space station put on a great show, but I failed miserably in my video attempt.So I consoled myself with shooting the moon, which was nice enough to just hang up there in the sky for me.The video below was made with a stationary telescope so the rotation of the earth makes the moon seem to

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-87493210459995598042011-02-11T15:11:00.002-04:002011-02-11T15:17:45.758-04:00

Back in January I wrote " TWR's direct-mail partner, KMA Direct Communications in Dallas, in celebration of their home town hosting Super Bowl XLV, is sponsoring a bowl game of their own—The KMA Bowl."Well the word came out today that TWR won that contest and will be receiving a $5000 check! I know some of my readers were active in this endeavor, so let me be among the first to offer my thanks

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-83178850558444019602011-02-10T21:35:00.004-04:002011-02-10T21:47:30.894-04:00

It is cool, sunny and clear most of the time here on Bonaire now. It is my favorite time of the year, and good for tower climbing too. Tower work is in full swing with guys up on two towers each day. Above we see Lionel, Denny and Benny preparing some new tower parts for hoisting up to the work area.Yup, they are waaay up there.Ha ha, I couldn't resist the shot below. Fortunately the towers are

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-30694946197445257482011-02-09T16:19:00.003-04:002011-02-09T16:23:57.442-04:00

About 200 cement blocks and a bunch of bags of cement were stolen from the International Bible Church of Bonaire building construction site last night.A report has been filed with the police.Hmmm, maybe it is time to do a Sunday School class about "Imprecatory Prayer." But then again, maybe not.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-75357091603845849462011-02-09T15:23:00.005-04:002011-02-09T15:59:15.780-04:00

Donna, our bookkeeper here at the office, just came back from the bank with some cool BES commerative Dollar coins minted in Holland. In fact they are so cool I ran across the street to the bank and bought some myself. They'll make great gifts, unless their value goes through the roof and I can make a killing on eBay, ha-ha.I think you have to be a resident to buy them from the bank. They wrote

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-7908831776157777012011-02-08T16:04:00.002-04:002011-02-08T16:08:56.076-04:00

When I rode my bike to Goto Lake last Saturday afternoon, the road around the lake was water free. One section was still damp and water was licking at the edges of the pavement, but like Moses, I crossed on dry land. Friends report that just a couple days before that, the road was still under water.For pictures of the flooded road, start here.The TWR transmitter site is drying out too, just in

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-64061858388688513952011-02-08T16:02:00.002-04:002011-02-08T16:04:19.016-04:00

Do you hate change? I think I do, but I just made a minor change to the page layout of the blog so as to leave more room for the great Hi-Def astrophotography videos I hope to post some day.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-3824173116039327362011-02-08T15:34:00.002-04:002011-02-08T16:02:27.353-04:00

I had my fill of flying in 2010 and am hoping to stay put here on Bonaire for a while. But it is good to learn that my options have increased, should I suddenly have to head to New Jersey for some reason. (stop laughing, I like NJ)Starting next week, Continental airlines will be flying direct to Bonaire twice a week. One flight leaves Newark just before midnight on Friday nights, and the second

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-70555990367310199172011-02-08T14:12:00.001-04:002011-02-08T14:15:56.038-04:00

TWR has posted a new two minute video on YouTube titled, "Speaking Hope to the World." You can see a squashed version here or go to YouTube to see the wide angle version.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-36840457571355928192011-02-02T11:04:00.003-04:002011-02-09T16:03:30.542-04:00

The runway at our Flamingo International Airport and a lot of other things crucial to flight operations and safety are going to be upgraded beginning Feb. 13. The airport will be closed most nights, except for Fri. and Sat. for quite a few months.The actual hours that the airport will be closed vary a little bit from night to night, probably to accomodate some long standing international flights.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-63562264865862387132011-02-01T22:08:00.005-04:002011-02-01T22:38:23.060-04:00

While I was busily setting up and polar aligning my telescope mount down south on Bonaire the other night, I also had a camera on a tripod pointed South and shooting lots of 20 second exposures of the sky. I combined the images into a 25 second video clip. It plays back a little darker on YouTube than I had expected, so I'll have to work on that for next time. I have an idea what went wrong.I

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-14761592578574523272011-01-31T16:32:00.002-04:002011-01-31T16:40:22.481-04:00

Bud Gillan just informed me that their article about the Bonaire Banded Box Jelly (BBBJ) has been published in Zootaxa.A preview of the article is here.The whole article is here.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-12318518317472642842011-01-28T10:45:00.003-04:002011-01-28T10:51:09.372-04:00

If you've seen Men in Black, you know all about Orion's belt, ha-ha. Well, Orion has a sword too, hanging from his belt. It looks like three dim stars to the naked eye, but in binoculars or a telescope one can see that there is all sorts of stuff going up there.Here is a picture I took late on Tuesday night from my back yard. It show the three "stars" of Orion's sword. It is a combination of a

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-38415724122141301442011-01-26T22:20:00.003-04:002011-01-28T16:28:36.987-04:00

We are having some clear-ish nights this week here on Bonaire. They start clear and starry, and then get progressively more cloudy. But some stars are better than no stars I guess.I was out at Red Slave last night with the Bucklands, and while we fooled around with his camera and with the binoculars, I had my camera on a tripod taking twenty second long time exposures with a 14mm Samyang lens at

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-51005224702743168032011-01-20T16:52:00.003-04:002011-01-20T16:57:16.966-04:00

TWR's direct-mail partner, KMA Direct Communications in Dallas, in celebration of their home town hosting Super Bowl XLV, is sponsoring a bowl game of their own—The KMA Bowl.They have invited nearly 300 nonprofit organizations to compete for a chance to win a $5,000 donation. Participation is easy and fun…no sports knowledge or expertise is required.In addition to the chance for TWR to become the

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-27028029612061896982011-01-20T16:30:00.003-04:002011-01-20T16:48:25.446-04:00

Members of the Dutch Radiocommunications Agency are visiting the BES islands in connection with our transition from the Netherlands Antilles to the Caribbean Netherlands. There were some big meetings Wednesday afternoon. Lionel saw Joe Barker and Lauren Libby's faces on the evening TV news coverage of the events.The members of the Agentschap Telecom were able to visit the TWR offices and studios

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-39100348197118375532011-01-19T21:00:00.002-04:002011-01-19T21:18:17.869-04:00

Colin and Lorna Buckland, from Claybury International, are conducting a seminar each morning this week. We're using the master studio as a giant conference room. We had lunch at Gibi's Place on Tuesday. Yum and Yum! We are also fortunate to have Lauren and June Libby with us for a few days. Lauren, pictured below in the blue shirt, is the President and CEO of TWR international. You can follow

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-45315641837605271642011-01-19T20:42:00.002-04:002011-01-19T20:59:53.821-04:00

We have a number of visiting volunteers at TWR these days. Pictured here, from left to right are: Colin Buckland and Lorna Buckland, who are conducting a Spiritual Formation seminar for us, Donna Gassert of our Bonaire staff, Clary Bijl and Cees Bijl, who are helping us figure out all the new Dutch tax laws, and Bob Lasster, a friend of TWR who lives here on Bonaire.In the picture below, you

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-74879659586607102952011-01-18T08:46:00.003-04:002011-01-18T09:01:18.698-04:00

One time Bonaire resident, Benjamin Tangeman, was recently married in North Carolina to his sweetheard, Ruth Talbott. Below, from right to left is proud mother, Terri, Ben, Ruth, Ben's brother Cort, and Cort's girlfriend, Andrea. The serious illness and untimely passing of Ben's father, Tony, is what led to the family returning to the States a number of years ago, but God still has his hand of

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-24494014958913539802010-12-31T20:58:00.003-04:002010-12-31T21:00:39.929-04:00

There were some young flamingoes hanging out betwen the salt company and TWR. I got these shots from my car.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-8835403332886588872010-12-31T16:59:00.003-04:002010-12-31T17:21:03.329-04:00

There is lots of newness to be had here on Bonaire as we enter 2011. I just saw a good online writeup about the Caribisch Nederland, which is what Bonaire is part of now. We usually just call it the Dutch Caribbean, but "Caribbean Netherlands" shows signs of emerging as the official English way of saying it.Seems to me that "Caribbean Netherlands", with Caribbean being the adjetive, seems to

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-41690625317739410952010-12-28T11:25:00.002-04:002010-12-28T11:49:09.280-04:00

Back in August, I mentioned that we had added new Spanish language programming every night. The new segment kicks in at 11:15pm, when we used to sign off, and goes straight through to 3am, when our Portuguese programming to Brazil begins. It looks like these new programs are developing quite an audience.We recently heard from Annabel, the director of the TWR ministry partner in Venezuela, who

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-1417332271815558902010-12-26T22:20:00.002-04:002010-12-26T22:29:33.393-04:00

Here are some images from our TWR staff party last week. We had some great food... And we looked at some slides of Bonaire from back in the old days, before a lot of us were born. We also had fun playing Wii bowling... and Wii Mario Kart. Yep, four way Mario Kart is great fun on a rainy Bonaire afternoon.

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-4320723244427297922010-12-26T22:09:00.004-04:002010-12-26T22:20:05.288-04:00

We played a fun drawing game last week at our TWR Bonaire Christmas party. I guess you can call it drawing a reindeer by committee. We all sat in a circle and we each had a sheet of paper and a pencil. We all drew antlers on our paper and then passed the papers to the person on our right. We all added a tail to the picture and passed the papers again. They we all drew a nose and passed the

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-28112970411924756742010-12-25T13:10:00.004-04:002010-12-25T13:38:26.985-04:00

One part of the Christmas Eve program at the International Bible Church on Bonaire was presented by the youth group. They did a play titled, "live from downtown." As one church member observed, a number of the kids are "natural hams," so the play, needless to say, was well done and quite entertaining.The script for the play can be found online here. If LB posts any video clips from the play, I'll

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5951052.post-18125104434480794622010-12-25T12:56:00.003-04:002010-12-25T13:02:45.129-04:00

The International Bible Church had a Christmas Eve program last night. There was a great turnout, pretty much filled up the high school auditorium.The choir presented a musical titled, "Festival of Lights," by Tom Fettke. Sue Felix played the keyboard before the program and during the audience participation Christmas carol singing sections. Joe Barker, far right, did the narration segments and

Bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040073226429044860noreply@blogger.com0