Kelly & His Pedestrian Mobile Radio

Tomorrow is it! The big day of our Walk For the World walkathon. We went to the beach this past weekend for a trial run of Kelly being “mobile” with his ham radio. The photos show you the set up he has designed for himself to be able to walk with the radio & antenna and talk with other states and countries. We were working out the bugs and did find a few things that will need to be tweaked.

Tall Antenna and Bicycle Flag

The antenna is pretty tall, as you can see in the photos, and the bicycle flag did what it was suppose to do, but the wind gave us a challenge. We sure attracted a lot of attention from the other beach goers, as you might imagine.

Kelly Talking to California

The important thing is that the radio worked! He talked with California, Michigan, Chicago, Ontario and even heard from Spain. (For a more technical explanation go to Kelly’s blog www.k4upg.com.

Kelly Tuning His Radio

We’re Ready for the Walk! 

Now Kelly is making last minute adjustments for the radio setup and all our other gear is ready to go. We have been blessed with responses from several of you to sponsor us, and others have committed to pray for us and for a successful event.

Can we hold up for the 10 mile walk?

The weather is suppose to reach a high of 90 degrees and the humidity will be up, according to the weatherman. We will start early to beat the heat, around 7:00 am … we are suppose to finish just before noon.

Not all funds have been collected yet, so a final tally announcement on how much was brought in will come later.  So, stay tuned for a report and photos of how it all goes! (And, pray for us!)

Set up on the Pier with Ocean in the Background

And by the way, we had a great weekend and visited with the Missions Chair Person at a church in Tarpon Springs on Sunday. We counted the whole tripl…a big success. (Except for the sand flea bites I got on my ankles.)

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The countdown has started, and March 28^th is “D” Day for our big walkathon event – one week away. Are we ready for our 10 mile challenge (40 laps)? Wait until you see how ingenious Kelly has been in preparing his “Radioman” setup.  See Kelly’s K4UPG.com Blog for photos of our weekend at Honeymoon Island. (More about this below.)

The Cause:

Our PIONEERS staff is walking to raise $100,000 to send missionaries to 6,500-plus unreached people groups around the world. (Click here to see a brief description how the funds will be used to accomplish our goal.)

Multiplying the Blessing:

A foundation has established a matching grant enabling us to double what we raise, dollar for dollar, for up to $250,000.

The Radioman:

Kelly is taking his ham radio with him to help pass the time as we walk. He has designed a creative way to talk to various countries, states and cities on his amateur radio while walking. Wait until you see!

Pray As We Walk:

We have asked sponsors to give us their prayer requests so our staff can pray for them as we walk. There will be a manned “prayer station” along our route that will be passing out these prayer requests to the walkers as they pass the booth. Kelly will report to the prayer station the countries/states/cities he has contacted, and they will pass that info on to the rest of us so we can pray for those places also.

hfpack_man_tm Pedestrian Mobile

The Design Challenge:

Radioman calls this type of radio transmitting being “pedestrian mobile,” in Ham Radio talk.

• Challenge #1: He had to figure out how to “wear” the radio while still being able to reach the controls.
• Challenge #2: He will also have to carry the rather large battery that powers the radio.
• Challenge #3: He plans to mount his “Buddistick Antenna” onto an Alice Pack Army backpack (instead of on the extended stationary mount, as seen in the photo below).

Kelly mobile with his radio, and his Buddistick antenna in a ground mount with 3 guy lines for stability

Stay Tuned For Results:

Many thanks to those of you who have agreed to either pray for our event or to sponsor the two of us. We will post results of how well we do in funds raised, how many laps we actually walk, the names of places Radioman contacts, and of course, some fun photos of the event and of Kelly’s pedestrian mobile design.

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Connie has won…

…the ladies’ Biggest Loser’s contest held at the PIONEERS office. Today, during a staff meeting the announcements was made and prizes awarded. The winner was not determined by the “amount of pounds lost” but by the greatest percentage of body weight lost. Connie squeaked into first place losing 12.8% of her body weight. Now Connie and Kelly are planning how they are going to best use the $190 that she won.

Kelly came in 3^rd place…

…in the men’s division, but he considers himself the real winner – health wise. He lost a total of 8 inches and has only 3 more pounds to lose to make his personal goal. Both of us are now caffeine free and feeling great! We feel ready for our upcoming walkathon…more about that in my next post.

Combined Weight Loss…

The total weight loss among the 32 particpants was a whopping 311pounds. So there are several of us walking around a few pounds lighter and feeling healthier.

Executive VP, Ted Esler gives Connie Cash Prize for Biggest Loser Contest

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Stella proves that it’s never too late in life to do something that will make a difference in eternity. She is just one of some 20 snow birds – retirees – Saints of the Lord – a true angel in disguise, who is storing up treasures in Heaven doing volunteer work at PIONEERS. She is freely giving of her time, giftings, and talent to see the Kingdom expanded.

Meet Stella our Volunteer

For the past 11 years Stella and her husband, John, have been spending the winter months of their “golden years,” serving the Lord through volunteer work at PIONEERS. John is a retired business man and his wife is retired from 30 years of corporate work. But they aren’t sitting back in a rocking chair…no sir!

They drive their 5th wheel down from Michigan and camp in our KOA campgrounds. Orlando S.E. / Lake Whippoorwill KOA has over 120 sites for campers and RV’s of all types, and also cabins and cabanas that can be rented. Visit the website link above to see all the amenities and activities that are provided. Below is an example of what you might see at the KOA site.

Sites for all size RV's are Available, Like this Super Sized Lot

Cabanas to Rent

Stella Helps Kelly & Connie

Stella has been a real trooper, working in a different department each day. One day she helps at the receptionist desk, another day in the finance department and on Thursdays she has been helping Kelly. She has organized all his files, inventoried my web-store resource materials and helped update our database by making data entries for us. She’s saved us a ton of time and work.

Stella gets Kelly Organized

Kelly's Office & You Can See Connie's Computer & Desk in Background

A Bushel of Blessings

There are many other volunteers working in areas where they can use their own special talents and gifting. Some help in the area of maintenance: building repairs, carpentry, plumbing, painting, & grounds upkeep. Some enter computer data for various departments, do filing, help in the mailroom, housekeeping for our guest rooms, kitchen help for meals, making airport runs to pick up guests and visitors. They all have true servants heart, willing to do whatever the need is.

But it’s not all work for them. They have their share of fun in our rejuvenating Florida sun. They go to the beach, visit tourists sites, fish in our lake, gather for grill outs and picnics and often meet in the Rec hall for games and planned activities.

Fishing, Canoeing, Biking, Swimming, Hot Tub & More

Swimming Pool in Walking Distance

Showing Appreciation

This will be Stella & Johns last year as volunteers. After 11 years I think they deserve a break. But, they aren’t leaving us; they will still come down next winter with their 5^th wheel and just enjoy themselves.

Thursday night we had a special “Volunteer Appreciation Dinner” for all of them. But truly, there is no way of repaying them for all they do for us. Those rewards will come later in the form of a crown with many jewels.

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THE YARD SALE:

Well, we blew up the balloons, laid out our meager items and they came to buy. The weather couldn’t have been more agreeable, maybe a little less windy but who’s complaining with sunshine and 80 degrees. So how much did we make????

You can see in the photo below that we didn’t have a lot to sell and nothing was marked over $5.00. Most things were $1.00 or 50 cents. Yet, we still made $55.00. The best part was that we only took a few items home, which was our objective…unloading stuff to create more space. No, let me correct that, the best part was meeting so many of our neighbors. We couldn’t believe how many people came to look and buy. We started at 9 am and packed up at 1:00, plenty of time to still enjoy the rest of our afternoon. Kelly even got in a little radio time (amateur radio).

Kelly - the great salesman!

Monday is the end of our office “Biggest Loser’s Contest”. So, stay tuned for final results. You’ll see them posted here. I’m shooting for the ladies first prize.

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