Sunday morning, my sister made me very happy when she came to the International Bible Church with me. Joanna has been very gracious, even though she doesn’t normally attend church. When certain things are important to me, she tries to participate. She soon discovered that it was a very friendly congregation. We did the rounds, with me proudly introducing my sister to everyone in sight.
The service began as usual with a time of testimony. I stood up and just praised the Lord for my sister being with me, and how proud I was of her. I got a bit choked up, and couldn’t continue.
During the song service, Tom, the Bonairian music director, was accompanied by his three sons on the piano, drums and guitar. His wife was doing the vocals, along with another lady. She gave a testimony that she nearly died giving birth to her son, now 16 years old, who was playing the keyboard. Then Tom mentioned how he stood to lose both his wife and his son on that fateful night those many years ago, and he ended up choking up and not being able to continue for almost two minutes.
It was a touching service, with a very good message by Pastor Toto on the life of David when he met Goliath. It was also fun to be able share a hymnal with my sister, and have her sing right along with me. It brought back many fond memories of our time together on Bonaire. After the service, everyone enjoyed cookies and refreshments, and Joanna was able to visit with several people. Sandra Swanson talked with her at length, and then Joanna came outside to talk with several other people.
Joanna got to know the sister of Alvin, as well as the daughter of a high school teacher. I was also able to talk with Dick about his scuba diving, and discovered that Dick has a small sailboat which they enjoy as a family.
Joanna decided not to stay for Sunday School, and that was fine with me. We went home and changed our clothes, and then came back to Captain Don’s Habitat for lunch where we were scheduled to meet Amado and Sue Felix there at 12:30. As we got there a bit early, we took a walk around the grounds, and were most impressed by the beautiful bungalows and tropical landscaping. Someone has certainly been taking care of things, and everything looked beautiful. We also spotted several iguanas, which we seem to do every day now.
Sue and Amado arrived, and we sat by the ocean, overlooking the cliff, with the tarpons circling below in the water. Once again, we had an absolutely wonderful visit with Sue and Amado, and were able to discover a bit of their history.
Sue came to Bonaire as a short-term TWR worker for two months during the summer of 1969. Amado himself had begun working at the transmitter site as a Bonairian worker at the age of 15. He helped install the original twin-diesel generators, and worked there several years. It was through this connection that he finally met Sue. After they had dated for a while on Bonaire, they corresponded for 2-1/2 years before Sue finally returned and they got married.
We also talked about Sue’s tourist-guiding business, which was most fascinating.
Amado then wanted to know what I thought about the Bonairian proposal to launch a transit service between Rincon and Kralendijk. Apparently the Dutch government has given them a grant available until the end of this year to run a pilot project for a local transit system. My assessment was that a transit system never ever makes money, and would need to be supported at least by 50% from the local government. Without that, it wouldn’t be worth Amado’s bother. Amado was to have a meeting with the government about this the next day.
As we drove home, Joanna commented how gratifying it had been to visit with this lovely couple. Sue has a straightforward manner of speaking, without any political undertones. We had also been able to discuss a whole broad range of subjects with Amado, and received some valuable input from him.
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In the afternoon, Joanna said she was tired out, and wanted to have a down day with swimming and reading her book. Of course I agreed, as that is what a holiday is for when you live as hectic a life as Joanna does as a family physician.
I called Dave Pedersen, and told him I would take him up on his request to set him up with his own website. I got there a little after three o’clock, and by seven o’clock, they had a brand new website! Dave uses 1and1.com as his server, which made the installation somewhat difficult. But since I also run the same server, and had just done it for my own blog here, it wasn’t too hard to guide him through it. Before long, the children were sending their Dad messages over the Contact page. Naturally they only have a couple of pages set up, and now begins the fun of filling in the content. The address is: www.pedersen5.com. I noticed that their son was keenly interested in website design, and I may speak to Dave about encouraging that.
We then had a light supper, and I went home just after eight o’clock.
When I got home, I, too, felt exhausted, so went to bed early. This blog is being recorded on Monday night. Sorry for the delay, folks.
So, another day – another website!