Bonaire

Sorry I haven’t written in so long, it’s been a pretty crazy time from travelling to South America to enjoying a short stint in Nebraska for Clay and Rachel Wakefield’s wedding. But I wanted to tell you a little about my Bonaire trip as well as what will be happening in Africa.

Bonaire was great. It’s the most ugly beautiful place I’ve ever seen. It looks as if a part of the moon decided to crumble off and then smash itself in the middle of the crystal blue Caribbean. Beautiful shorelines and desolate salt pans define this little island. And the sunsets, wow, it looked as if the sky exploded. My eyes drank in those hues as if they have been thirsting for color all my life.

The main reason for my trip was to do an information piece on the radio towers on the south end of the island. Due to the high salt content of the ocean, there is a large salt farm on the southern end of the island (you Nebraska folk will be happy to know that it’s a farm ran by Cargill). The constant 30mph winds pick up the salt and blow it onto the towers, causing them to rust very quickly. They are hoping to raise the money to fix the rusted braces of the towers before it gets so bad that the towers may collapse. That would be a huge loss since these towers transmit the Gospel to millions of people, all day and every day, from Cuba to the north to Brazil to the shouth, and all the countries in-between. You can watch the video at www.twr.org/bonaire09.

Filming there was a great experience. From the sunsets, to the desolate landscape, the salt pans, the waves, and getting hoisted up 250ft by rope to film the rusting towers. Yes Mom, I was hoisted up in a little 2.5ft X 1ft chair 250 feet, with a video camera in one hand, and my other grasping for dear life on the rope, just swinging in the gusting wind way, way above the Bonaire landscape. I spent a good ten minutes just swing up there, trying to tether myself to the tower. You can actually see one of the shots of this little adventure if you watch the video online at www.twr.org/bonaire09. I think that was one of the craziest thing I’ve done next to skydiving.

It was an awesome experience. I was treated very warmly by the missionary families down there who cooked lunch or dinner for me everyday. My last day there I even got to go snorkeling (it took me a good hour to convince myself “Yes Ryan, you can breath under water”). And the waters are just as glowing blue as in all those pictures.

Now Africa. Tomorrow another intern and I will be making the 17 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa to begin our two-week filming and shooting trek through Africa. On top of South Africa, we will be travelling through Kenya, Swaziland, and Mozambique. It’s going to be quite the ride, and this is the big trip I’ve been most excited about. Please keep us in your prayers that we both stay healthy and that we can get all the footage and photos we need.

Thanks so much for your continuing prayers and all your support!

Well, I just finished my first trip to Venezuela.  Quite a beginning it was, too!  When I arrived at customs at the airport, everyone was wearing masks because of the swine flu.  I got inside the airport and had to fill out paperwork.  Not a small task because it was all in Spanish!  I filled out what I could and gave them the paperwork.  They tried to explain to me, in Spanish, what to write down.  Finally, after seeing the dumb stare coming from my face, they looked at my passport.  “Americano” one guy said.  They gave up on the paperwork after that.  

The nurse there then continued to follow me through the rest of security because I told her I had a friend waiting outside.  I was hoping it was Annabelle, the lady who was supposed to pick me up.  She spoke some English, so I was hoping she would help clear things up with the security.  However, it was not Annabelle, but another man.  Really nice guy, he called me “My friend!”  However, he didn’t speak a lick of English.  I watched as the nurse and the gentlemen talked about me in Spanish, the language bouncing around my ears.  Finally, they got it cleared up and I could leave.  Needless to say, it was a pretty silent car ride to Maracay from Venezuela.  I was just too embarrassed by my poor Spanish!

We arrived at the RTM headquarters (Radio Transmundo) downtown and I met Annabelle.  She knew English pretty well, so it was nice to finally be able to communicate.  I then spent the rest of the day getting some footage of the place, filming a radio recording, then doing an interview.

Come Saturday, they had a Battle of the Bands concert, where about five or six local Christian bands came to compete.  The music was varied from Latin music to punk rock and hard rock.  I shot B-Roll of the event.

The next Sunday I went to church with a family I met.  Katty was from Georgia, originally, but has lived in the country with her Venezuelan husband for the past 30 years.  It helped a lot having her translate, but luckily my high school Spanish starting kicking in again.  I could now talk at the level of a four-year-old.

After church, we drove around Maracay getting footage of the area.  We drove to the top of a big hill where I got a shot of the city by the lake.  I was just about to get another shot when I was busted by a cop.  Apparently there have been robberies in the area, so I couldn’t film anymore.  He followed us out of the neighborhood to make sure we left.

We then shot some footage of the locals around the zoo.  There was a student rally of some sort, so when they saw the camera, then went ballistic.  Apparently they thought I was from the Venezuelan news.  The rest of the day was spent getting ready to head to Bonaire.

First Week

Well, I have just finished my first week here at Trans World Radio.  I drove in last Friday and met up with Chris, who I met in Nashville at the National Religious Broadcasters convention and who introduced me to TWR.  He and his wife warmly welcomed me and took me out to dinner.  

I took the weekend to get situated and explored a little bit of the Raleigh area.  It’s beautiful here, tall thick trees crowding together wherever there’s a place to grow.  To a Nebraska boy who’s used the wide open plains, it can be a little disorienting, even claustrophobic.  Thank you Mom and Dad for the GPS system.

Monday, I was thrown right into the mix.  We started the day out with devotions, I met a lot of different people, had a tour of the building, all immediately followed by me having to film the president of TWR, Lauren Libby.  It all went fine though, he is a very personable man (and also a midwestern, a Kansan born and raised).  He has just begun his service with the organization after finishing with the Navigators, and has been traveling the world getting to know the people of TWR. Everyone is real excited with his arrival and his vision for the future.

I spent the rest of the week getting oriented, learning tons of information about TWR.  It is quite the ministry with a real unique approach to sharing the gospel.  Radio may be seem old hat in our American culture, but everywhere else in the world it’s still a powerful medium.  There are numerous stories of how churches have started from one radio handed out by TWR.  People listened to the daily programs and practical teachings in their own language and learned about God, and quickly small groups and even churches start forming around one little radio.

With my supervisor, David, we started into what they were looking for in video content.  One of the videos I will be making is a short piece informing donors about the rusting of their radio towers on the island of Bonaire.  There are huge salt farms in Bonaire and the salt in the air is causing the towers to rust very quickly.  They need to raise money to fix these towers or they may be in danger of collapsing.  That would be a huge problem, both financially and in their ministry, because these towers send out TWR’s radio programs all over South America and Cuba, preaching the Gospel daily.  Other videos I will be making include creating a library of stock footage and a recruitment video for a missionary convention in St. Louis.

Everyone here has been really great.  They are very warm and welcoming and I have had my fair share of free meals.  I even got to go out for barbeque with Lauren Libby.  It’s great to hear all these people’s stories; most of them have spent a lot of time in the missions field.  They have been all over: Guam, Singapore, Swaziland, and Bonaire, just to name a few.  It’s been quite an experiential week.  I even went to a Brad Paisley concert with an Austrian girl who is here for just one week.  She had never even heard of Brad Paisley, but she really enjoyed it!

Thanks again for all your support, both financially and through your prayers.  I leave this coming Thursday, the 11th of June, to go to Venezuela and Bonaire for 10 days.  Please keep me in your prayers because I will be traveling alone to unfamiliar territory.  Also pray that the shoots go well and I’m able to gather all the footage that is needed.  

Thank you so much again and God Bless!  I’ll be writing again shortly and probably from another country.