"Why do they get to be over there and I don't?" I asked. "Because I'm your mother and not theirs," my mother said as I yearned to be near the action. Ham radios require towers to broadcast and pick up radio signals, which are powerful enough to stretch across the globe. On this particular day my grandpa, a tireless ham radio enthusiast, was putting a radio tower out back of the house. It was a whole family effort, as witnessed by the home video that survives to this day. All the ladies stood around and worried, while the men attempted to erect the roughly 40 foot tower. There were some tense moments where the videographer lost focus on his job to run for cover, as evidenced by shots of the ground rushing past. But in the end, none of the close calls amounted to any damage and the tower was anchored in place. Over the next few years, it would serve to keep him in contact with us in the tribe and other radio enthusiasts across the world. Many hours were spent huddled around the radio, listening to crackling voice on the other end and broadcasting our news across the airwaves to anyone who might happen to listen to our conversation. Often, radio contact was the only thing that made my mother run. Various call signs would crackle through the speakers, until we heard the all too familiar, "PP8ZTR PP8ZTR, this is KB7ORF."
For almost 20 years the tower stood in it's place on the end of the garage. When my grandparents moved to a different house, they left it up. My parents moved into the house and inherited the conversation piece with it. "That's quite the tower you got there," many passers-by have undoubtedly commented. Some even offered to purchase it, but when presented with the prospect of taking it down their interest became dampened. Then one day as we were pondering the best method to take it down safely, we took a couple pieces off of it and then became fully involved in the job. It was eerily similar to the event I described in the home video, except everyone is older now, and my mother didn't have the same jurisdiction over me. All the women were worried and all the men took up their posts on different parts of the process. A couple of hours later the tower was lying, dismantled next to the garage, it's saga of pointlessly standing high above the house was over.
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AuthorWe are normal people who believe that God would have us serve Him in Brazil. We are saddened by the existence of people who do not have access to the gospel due to their location and language. We want to live among such a people group and plant a church among them, shepherding the believers as they grow to maturity. Archives
November 2019
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