Day Four at Bonaire

Sorry to hear about the lousy weather you are having up there. Wish I could somehow send you this great weather over the internet to you. Today had high winds, which made for some new experiences for Karen and myself. We did two boat dives in the morning. The first was to Hilma Hooker, a wrecked ship that was sunk several years ago. Seems the ship was in trouble and dropped anchor off of Bonaire, which has a no-anchor rule. So the ship was seized. But the authorities could not find any manifest or origin or owners of the ship. Turned out to be a Columbia drug ship with tons of marrijuana hid in the hulls of the ship. So after seizing the drugs, they took the ship out and sunk it to make an artificial reef. It did not land upright, but tipped on its side. Karen and I dove down to 85-90 feet to look the ship over from stern to bow and back again. We were limited to 25 minutes and made it back safely. It was interesting. But Karen and I like the wildlife more than an old ship. Maybe an old pirate scooner would excite us more.

Our second dive took us to Keine Bonair, a site called "Just A Nice Dive." And it was. We swam against the current going out from the boat and then drifted in the current coming back. We saw a very small eel, plus lots of other great fish. Our depth was only 45 feet. Karen and I are both getting better at this sport and finding it something that we both enjoy. Again, I cannot find the words to tell you how beautiful it is under the ocean surface. Even pictures and movies do not capture what our eyes see. Hopefully when we are done we will get some great pictures from those who have underwater cameras. Maybe someday we will invest in one, but right now our focus is on being better divers before we tackle something as complicated as underwater photography.

We finally got to the grocery store to get some food for lunch. Their prices are high, but that is understandable since almost everything is shipped from the USA or Holland. Bread, milk products are local. But even meat comes from Brazil, etc. Cost us $30.00 USA$ for two bags of sandwich fixings and of course my Diet Coke. Karen, the expert bargain hunter, found buy one get one free cookies, so we have lots of cookies to eat and share.

The afternoon was spent with a nap and then I have been working on the sermon for Sunday. I am looking forward to being back in the pulpit, though I could get used to this kind of life. We love all of you and hope to share with you some of our experiences in more detail. I am attaching two pictures. One is Karen in front of our first boat we used on Sunday and the other is me in front of our condo. Hope you enjoy.

Good Monday evening. It is now after 9 pm here in Bonaire. We just got done with a beautiful buffet dinner that included bar-b-q chicken, ribs, grilled fish and pork. It was very good food. This is a view in the day from the restaurant which is part of Capt. Don's Habitat.

No boat dive today, we were on our own for our own dives. After breakfast we went to a grocery store to get food for our lunches. We waited until 9:15 and no one showed to open the place. We went back at noon and it had a sign, "Closed--Chineese New Year. Guess we buy our lunch foods tomorrow.

We do not dive from this dock as it is used only for the boats. Our dock is just out of sight to the right. Today we made three dives. Karen's weights are just about perfect for her. So we could just concentrate on enjoying God's wonderful creation under the surface of the ocean. Words can not describe the variety of fish, coral, sponges, colors, and just the awe of seeing a world that is not our everyday world. We are seeing the regular fish, like Sergent Majors, Blue Tangs, Four-eyed Butterfly, and Trumpet Fish. But on occassion we see something that we did not know and study it for a moment, hoping that we can find it in the fish book. Three dives--we are almost experts. Walt is getting his sucking air time to be longer, going from 18 minutes to 31 minutes today. Karen always ends with more than half of a tank of air remaining.

The buffet tonight is in honor of Captain Don, the founder of this dive operation. He was the first white man on Bonaire and worked his whole life to make this place the number one dive island in the Caribbean. He is a character with a real peg leg. He did not lose it fighting a pirate ship, but to Diabetes. That is old Capt. Don reaching out to give Karen a hug. Yes, I am sunburned on the hairless dome. Tomorrow we have to get up early to take another two boat dives. Until then, God bless you and give you a great Tuesday.

Day Two in Bonaire

After a great night of sleep, we were up early for a 8:30 a.m. boat dive. We went to an area called North Belmen. It is named after the first two residents in the area, Harry Belifonte being the first. We dove down to 64 feet. I still suck air too fast, so we could only stay down about twenty minutes. Karen still over half her air left, I used up nearly all of mine. Shows the difference between men and women--lung capacity. Then we came back for about an hour and went out for another boat dive at 11:00 am. This time to the island Kein Bonaire. We did not dive as deep staying around 40 feet or less. But still my air did not last long. Anyway, the world underwater in this area is beautiful. God is so creative. We see just droves of tropical fish in magnificant colors. I am hoping to be able to get some pictures from divers with cameras. My topside camera is taking pictures of people, food, and pelicans. But somehow I did not grab a cord that I thought I had brought home. So I am unable to download my photos until I get home because it uses a smaller end on the USB cord.
After a nap Karen and I went diving on our own just off the pier. The purpose was to work on our weights because we were carrying too much weight and it makes things difficult when you are down deep. It was work and not fun. But necessary for the rest of the week. Hopefully we have it all done right.
Tonight I am sitting out on the resort porch and looking at the surf as it surges into the shore. We saw a hermit crab in his stolen shell walking in the preparation room. The air is warm, but the breeze from the ocean is refreshing, so no sweat.
Tomorrow we are on a free dive day. So Karen and I will work of the resort pier and just swim the reef out in front. I could just spend days looking at it. We are hoping to be doing more underwater sightseeing and not so much work at doing our staying in the right positions. Maybe I can report the sighting of a squid or a turtle or some other interesting creatures of the depths. So I bid you good night and hope that your Monday is filled with blessings.

Day One in Bonaire N. A.

We had a very long flight from Tulsa to Houston (4 hour layover) and then to Bonaire (over 4 hours flight time). But everything went smoothly for us. We arrived here at 6:30 a.m. Atlantic time (Central time would be 4:30). Took almost two hours to get our rental trucks and get checked into the resort, Captain Don's Habitat. Orientation for diving on Bonaire was at 9:00 am. Then we got to dive after that.
Karen had a great deal of time getting her weights right. She just kept bobbing on the surface. Walt had too much weight. So he dumped some of his and she added and by the third attempt, we were both doing fairly well. My air was mostly used up helping Karen get down and going in the right direction. So our dive time was only 18 minutes. But in that time we descened to 63 feet and saw the most beautiful reef. It is just off the pier of the resort. We saw parrot fish, four-eyed butterfly fish, trumpet fish, and many others. We also enjoyed brain coral, tube sponges, and other beautiful aspects of the reef.
Tomorrow we will take two boat dives starting at 8:30 a.m. They serve a breakfast buffet so we get our carbs and protein each morning. It is included in the group rate. They have a restaurant on site that serves great food. We had a pizza thin crust. It was very tasty. My woe is that Diet Coke is $3.00 for a 20 ounce bottle.
No pictures yet to post. But hopefully we will get some soon. Please keep us in your prayers for a safe diving time and some good rest.

Vacation Time

Karen and I are taking a trip to Bonaire, one of seven islands in the Netherland Antilles. We will be SCUBA diving with a group going from Aquasports out of Springfield, Missouri. There will be twelve of us, including the dive trip host Don Lee. This is our first real dive since Karen completed her certification this last fall. We will be posting pictures as we are diving and keeping both this blogpage and Walt's facebook page up to date as time and connectivity allows.

Time Flies!

I could not believe that it has been since August that I wrote on this site. Now I understand when I go to other's blog sites and do not find anything new on it week after week. We had a great Christmas with a beautiful cantata performed by our choir under the leadership of Janis Neher. She is a very talented young lady and I appreciate the hard work that she and the choir did to put this all together. Christmas Eve service was a big success with our youth doing the program and the children performing the living nativity. It was nice to see many of our former children coming home with their children. We really do grow up to quickly.
This is a wonderful time of year as we look to the future of 2009 with a new President being inaugurated and a new congress coming in session. This will also be a significant time for the Presbyterian Church USA as we vote on amendment B regarding fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness. Up to this point only thirteen presbyteries have voted and they are maintaining their historical approach. If that continues, then B will be defeated and the PCUSA will maintain its moral integrity. John Calvin Presbytery will be voting on March 7 and First Presbyterian Church of Monett is hosting the meeting. So we will have a big crowd at this meeting and probably lots of discussion.
Pray for President Obama and our Congress. Pray for the PCUSA. And always remember to pray for the persecuted Christian Church as our brothers and sisters maintain a faithful witness under difficult if not deadly circumstances.

Quick Reflections

I attended the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) at San Jose, CA, in June as a commissioner from John Calvin Presbytery. I have waited this long to write anything because I left the meeting so depressed from the majority who ignored the Bible in their decision making process. The result is that the church has been invade by the world (a reference to Dr. Donald Bloesch's book, The Invaded Church). Instead of the church being a prophet to the world, the world has dictated the way of the church. There is no difference any more between the morality of a sinful world and the morality of the PCUSA. We are the world.
Let me say that as an evangelical we must share in much of the blame. At this assembly we were instructed not to use the Bible because quoting from the good book turns people off. So, we tried to fight our battles without a sword. We lost! I don't know if we would have won if we had the sword. But at least we could have put up a meaningful fight.
Of interest now is the response that has been coming out from many quarters. I have tried to read from a varied amount of these responses. Most of them try to be comforting and civil. But the result of many of them is to say that issue is over. But is it?
We still have a wonderful opportunity to make a meaningful stand in our local presbyteries. If we can keep the fidelity and chastity words of G-6.0106b in the Book of Order instead of the meaningless and nebulous words being proposed with the overture coming down, there will be a barrier to ordination of GLBT persons and the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly will be able to reissue interpretations that will protect the moral position of the church. So we need to prepare to take up the sword and fight for the moral good of the PCUSA.