However, through a helpful suggestion from a contact at the Ellen White Estate, I found a collection of many archive images, mostly black and white. Some are photos, and some are paintings. Turns out there was a painting of one of the most significant events described in the December installment of this series, which was Ellen White’s first vision. I hadn’t expected to find something so perfect for the article.

Original image:

Retouched:

In this series I have tried to colorize all original black and white artwork, to make the stories more alive and interesting. The time I can devote to colorizing is very limited, and a significant part of the several hours spent in this instance was smoothing out noise and moiré patterns and fixing blemishes. The method I am using is colorizing only; I do not add objects or change details of the scene, or even redraw elements (except in rare cases where part of a picture is obliterated). The color choices are, of course, guesswork or personal preference. However, I’ve tried to follow color schemes appropriate to the time period. I’m happy with the final result.

Moments later a weather alert email appeared, saying there was a tornado watch in effect. I heard rain and thunder, and a little later my lights flickered and went out. The wind was picking up, so I went to a window to see what was happening.

By then the wind had turned to a dull roar. Sheets of rain were blowing horizontally across the ground. The trees were bending and swaying. Every so often the wind would die down just a bit, and then a blast of spray would flush through the trees, shaking every limb and leaf. The wind patterns, how they traveled over the roofs of the nearby apartments, and moved along the ground, cannot be described. It was like nothing I’d ever witnessed. It made me think of hurricane footage I’d seen on TV. (I later learned the wind gusts had exceeded 100 mph. The radio hosts called it an “inland hurricane.”)

I got my camera and took a little bit of video. But even though I was on the south side of the house, with the winds coming from the north, the currents were so strong that they kept blowing spray back under my porch, so I had to put the camera away to keep it from getting wet. Just seconds after I turned it off, I saw a tree fall in the woods behind my place, just a few feet from where I had aimed the camera.

The winds continued unabated for a little while, I’m not sure how long. It seems like it may have been an hour, and then it gradually slowed and stopped. The sun came out, and it might have been a beautiful day, if not for all the damage that had been done.

I got in my car to get my mail at the post office, and was amazed by what I saw. Fallen branches were everywhere. Small pieces of leaves were plastered to the north side of walls and cars and across roofs. I had to stop and clear away some small limbs to get through to the main road. While doing that, I noticed a new stream I had never seen before, emptying into the full and near-to-overflowing ditch that runs under the road.

On highway 34, a large tree had fallen near the Firestones’ home (formerly Dee Hilderbrand’s home, and the Sheltons’ before that), and was fully blocking one lane of the road. Other trees were down all over town. There was no power at the post office, and I was glad snail mail can be retrieved without electricity!

A little later I went into Benton to get some groceries at Wal-Mart. I was surprised to see that the power was off in Benton too, and trees had fallen across the road there in town. I had to take a side street detour to get around. A number of semi trucks, unable to take the side streets, were lined up for a block or so, waiting for a tree to be removed. Many of the traffic lights were not working, so every intersection had become a 4-way stop. It was slow going.

Thankfully at Wal-Mart the power was on. I got everything I needed. I met a coworker, Ted, and his wife there, and Ted told me several tornados had been sighted in the area. He had personally seen a funnel come down, and then go back up, apparently without doing any damage.

Naive as I was about how much damage had occurred, I expected that by the time I finished at Wal-Mart, the tree would be gone, the power would be back on, and everything would be back to normal. But I was surprised that the trip back through town was about the same as before.

I spent the rest of the afternoon waiting in vain for the power to come back. I went for walks, cleaned the house, read a little. I went over to 3ABN, and saw the main power was off there too, and they were running on backup generators. Several of the bradford pear trees were down, blocking the main entrance.

Trees blocking main entrance to 3ABN

I returned home. Eventually the sun set, and the sky turned dark. I pulled out an electric lantern, which thankfully still had a charge from probably a year or more ago, and made sure my flashlight worked. I listened to music, and then, with nothing else to do, I went to bed early — around 8:30.

Sabbath morning the power was still off. I was happy that there was still plenty of hot water, so I had a warm shower. I got dressed and went to church.

With no lighting, the main sanctuary was too dark to be used. But the church has a wing with lots of windows and skylights, so chairs were set up there, and that’s where we had both Sabbath school and church. There was a good class discussion, and in place of the sermon we had a powerful testimony by Brenda Walsh. A lot of people were moved to tears as she told about her recent experience reaching out to women inmates at a particular prison, and the miracles that made it possible. I actually enjoyed the service a lot—the smaller number of people present made it seem more intimate, and we sang regular old hymns with accompaniment from an upright piano. It was like being in a small church family.

I went back home for lunch, and spent the rest of the day reading, walking, and resting. I finally finished a book I had been working on for a couple years now! Although at times I felt a bit bored, the relaxed pace with getting to sleep early, and having no computers or internet, actually seemed rejuvenating.

Saturday night I went on a scouting mission for more groceries and ice. It was then that I began to get an idea of just how bad and widespread the damage was. The groceries were no problem, but ice was not to be found. In the grocery store parking lot I was surprised to see ten “bucket trucks” and some other service vehicles. Listening to the radio, I learned that every city and town around me had been hit, and nearly all had lost power. Some were expecting to be without power for 10-14 more days. I went to the larger city of Marion, but was surprised to find the whole town in darkness. Although the grocery store had lights on, it was closed. I learned most of counties in southern Illinois had imposed an 8:30 or 9:00 curfew because of the storm damage; it was then about 9:30.

At night it was getting quite cool. Usually I sleep with the window a bit open, but I began to wonder if the computer equipment in my bedroom contributes more heat than I thought, because with all of that stuff off, my room was getting almost cold. I actually had a hard time sleeping that second night after the storm, because I was not adequately covered, even after getting up in the middle of the night to add another blanket.

Meanwhile all my food was starting to go bad, as the refrigerator and freezer gradually warmed. My oven is electric, so I was eating only foods that didn’t need heating. I was tempted to pull out my camp cook stove just to get something warm in my stomach, but never did.

On Sunday I heard that our water was going to cease. Reportedly, there was a leak in the town’s water tower, and they were about to shut it off. So I filled every available container with all the water I could. Then, to top it off, I learned that my street’s septic system has an electric pump; with the pump not working, there was danger of it backing up into the houses and apartments. So one of my last creature comforts—an abundance of pure, fresh water, with working toilets and showers—was suddenly yanked out from beneath me. But somehow at this point, I took it in stride, and it didn’t bother me too much. (I later learned the rumor about the water tower was false.)

On Sunday I drove into West Frankfort. I had heard the McDonalds restaurant there offered free wireless internet. Also, I wanted to recharge my laptop, which I could do with an inverter plugged into the cigarette lighter port while driving. I could also catch more news on the car radio (no radio at home). And I could get a bite to eat.

McDonalds was a success. With my iPod Touch I was able to update people about what was happening. (The register attendant seemed a little surprised that I only ordered a lemonade. But what else is there for the health-conscious at McDonalds?) After that I got a “Veggie Delight” at Subway, and returned home.

On the way home I heard gloomy news suggesting that Thompsonville, where I live, might be without power until Tuesday or even Wednesday. Still, I was thankful to be faring well. Many had suffered property damage, even loss of their homes.

A bright spot was listening to the stories on the radio of all the people, businesses, and churches that were doing things to help others in this difficult time. It made me think of what our church could—should—have been doing: providing food, ice, shelter. I also heard many people repeat the same idea: that they were reading books again, talking to their neighbors again, spending time with their families again. With no TV or other gadgets, the simpler pleasures of life were coming back.

Later on Sunday there was a glimmer of hope: I looked down my road, and saw lights. Could it be true? I wondered. I got in my car and drove down to take a look. Sure enough, street lights and building lights were on. Looking down another road, I saw 3ABN’s lights on. I called to let someone know, and then returned home to see if I had power. But I learned that the lights and buildings I had seen were on another power company’s system. My power was still gone. Still, I was a bit cheered as I went to bed.

Early in the morning I got a call from a coworker, Dee, telling me that power was back on. I switched the circuit breakers back to the “on” position, and was happy to hear the sounds of devices coming back to life throughout the house. Warm water, a working refrigerator, a working oven, a computer with Internet access—how blessed we are by all these things we take for granted. But I also learned there are blessings that come when we don’t have them.

* * *

Back at 3ABN, I learned firsthand what some coworkers and others had been through. Some had trees or branches or boards crash through their roofs. The pole barn of one person’s neighbor was completely blown apart, and the pieces were deposited in their yard. One weird story was about coworkers Tom and Vicki: Someone had dumped off a full five ton sceptic tank on their property, when an axel broke on the vehicle that was carrying it. But the owner never came back for it, and the methane began to build pressure. They were told by others that if it exploded it could level their house. Thankfully, after they reported it to local state agencies, it was taken away.

Here’s a picture of the fleet of vehicles that came to restore power. I heard 1300 crew members or more were sent to the area.

To the best of my knowledge, no life was lost due to the storm. And 3ABN remained on air nearly three days without utility power, running on their own generators. And my electric shaver, rechargeable lights, water, and food never ran out.

The original photo was shot in 2007, I believe. Even then, not all of the then-current board members were available at the time of the photo shoot. I arranged for one of my coworkers, Kenton Rogers, to take one photo without the missing members, who were added later when they were able to come and sit for a photo.

The original photo:

Kenton later added the missing members:

Unfortunately, that edited version was never published, because we had to postpone publishing the magazine into which it would have been inserted.

This year we started working on the magazine again. However, the members of the board had changed over the years. We could not get everyone together for another photo shoot, so we had to update the photo that we already had. It was necessary to remove four members, and add one. But since the photo had not been taken with that end in mind, this step was a little more difficult.

Besides the four deletions and one insertion, it was necessary to move other members to fill the gaps, add missing body parts to the people thus moved, and fill in backgrounds where they had been cut out. (Computer novices may imagine that if you move a person in Photoshop, their hand that was hidden behind a piece of furniture will magically appear, and you will see what was behind them. But, of course, it doesn’t work that way. All those things have to be drawn, cloned, or otherwise added.)

The updated version for 2009:

It’s not a perfect arrangement, aesthetically. But considering what we had to work with, I think it turned out pretty well!

The new 3ABN SonBeam Channel website has been launched. Not everything is working perfectly, but it is now much more functional than before. We will be doing updates over the next couple months to add features, iron out bugs, and bring in eye candy.

Some significant new features are Verse of the Day, which is pulled from a database. You can find this on the home page. It’s a different verse to memorize each day. There is a TV spot on the SonBeam Channel that features the same verse each day. (It may not sound like much, but it was a bit tricky to coordinate an automated website feature with what is happening on TV.)

The SonBeam program schedule is also online. So now you can see what is coming up each day.

Please be patient. Some of the links are not working yet. Hopefully within the next 24 hours most of those issues will be worked out.

If you would like to learn more about this new channel, please see the SonBeam Channel About Us page.

Most of the website design was the work of my assistant, Adam Dean. The website programming is the work of our 3ABN webmaster, Steve Nelson. Some of the program or segment logos were designed by my other assistant, Nicole Issa. I was the creative director and manager of this project.

Goals of the design included making it unique, appealing to kids, cheery, bright, fun, and easy to animate. We also strove for simplicity and contemporary colors and shapes.

After several stages of review, this is the logo design chosen:

The logo looks best on dark backgrounds which accentuate the glowing sun. In those cases, the grey lettering is almost white. However, for light backgrounds we also created this version.

There is also a 3D version of this logo that is being developed. In the 3D version, the sun is a sphere, not a disc. The letters may have a tube shape. However, details of the 3D version have not been finalized yet. When the 3D version is complete, it may become the official logo in place of the flat one.

I think these guys did a great job. While there is always room for improvement, I think the site has taken a big step in the right direction. I really like the bright, open feel, as well as the human factor present in the new design.

The first evening Sandra and Kendol were here, the three of us went for a walk at West Frankfort Lake. There was a beautiful sunset, which made a great backdrop for photos.

West Frankfort Lake Sunset

Sandra and Me

We were swarmed by mosquitos!

All day Monday Sandra taped music. I got in a few photos; but most of these were taken by someone else (courtesy of Sandra).

Sandra singing

A beautiful smile

Having fun

Sandra and Kendol

Kendol and Mary, 3ABN's receptionist ... awww, they match!

On Tuesday Sandra was interviewed for a taped 3ABN Today program. I’m not sure when this will air.

Later that day we had lunch together at the Manna Restaurant here in Thompsonville. The restaurant was serving pizza (huge slices!), as well as a cold vegetable pizza-like thing that was really, really good. We had a great meal. After lunch we met briefly to discuss plans for the GC Readathon website. You can see a preview of the redesign I am working on here:

The rest of the day went all too quickly, and we didn’t see much of each other until the end. It just so happened that I caught Sandra as she was loading up her car to leave, having missed her call to let me know that she was heading out. It was sad to say goodbye, but great to have some time with a new and dear friend.

Logo designed by my coworker Adam Dean.

3ABN Homecoming is this weekend, September 25-27. We’re looking forward to great messages and spending time with visitors who are joining us from all over. All the details are on 3ABN’s Camp Meeting website. This year’s featured speakers are T. Marshall Kelly, Jim Gilley, and C. A. Murray.

If you aren’t able to attend in person, you can also watch the live events on 3ABN. If 3ABN is not available on TV in your home, you can watch on 3ABN’s website.

Those who have attended past ASI conventions may remember 3ABN’s booth, which has remained virtually unchanged the previous eight conventions that have passed since I’ve been at 3ABN (and probably longer than that, but that is beyond my time). It was basically one and then later two traditional tradeshow displays, each with space for 3 or 4 backlit Plexiglas panels. The only difference year to year was the choice of panels used, and of course the handouts and the faces present at the booth.

For the past several years, some of us at 3ABN, such as Greg Morikone and myself, had been suggesting something different — something bigger, more immersive, and more professional. In fact, 3ABN already owned a larger and better looking tradeshow display, which we suggested could be used for parts in a new design. However, year after year our ideas had been turned down, mainly due to finances and not wanting to project an image of extravagence.

However, this year someone with more say-so than myself decided that 3ABN would be benefitted by a larger booth, and so this dream finally had a chance to move forward. It turned out to be a complicated process, since the idea for the booth included a space where on-location taping could be done. There were so many people involved in the planning, there was a lot of waiting; and because of that, there was a lot of last-minute rush to complete the project.

Ultimately the structure design fell on Jason Wilhelm, who works in our Program Development department. (Jason is a 3D whiz, which was certainly handy for this project.) The graphic design for the booth panels mostly fell on me.

Using SketchUp and Photoshop, we mocked up a number of designs. The final design that I created on a whim, taking cues from our 3ABN bag which is ubiqutous at such events, used large swatches of primary colors, reflecting the colors common on the flags of the world. Flags from many countries adorned the pillars on top. I was also inspired to decorate the pillars with words that would represent the “pillar” principles of 3ABN — although the actual choice of words would be decided at a later meeting.

The multicolored international theme turned out to be the overwhelming favorite. With our administration’s approval I finally got the go-ahead to finish the project. Unfortunately, at that stage we had about 2 or 3 weeks until the truck that would transport that booth would depart for Tampa. Not only that, but I also had my other projects such as a 3ABN World magazine to finish — a project that could eat up most of that time by itself.

The biggest frustration was that the Photoshop files we were working with were so large — up to multiple gigabytes in size — that just opening or saving the files took enough time for cookies and a nap (which I never got to do, unfortunately). It was also the first real project on our new wide-format printer (we produced everthing in-house). And at the outset we did not really have a clue how exactly we were going to mount these things on the trusses that made up the booth structure. Fortunately our truck crew helped solve many of the logistical problems. Needless to say, we finally finished it, and I must say it came together pretty well.

In Tampa, we had quite a crew working to assemble the thing, essentially for the first time. Between us and the “Church in a Day” exhibit adjacent to us, that part of the hall looked, smelled, and sounded like an assembly plant.

I’ve posted pictures from ASI on my Facebook page, including quite a few photos of the booth construction (most of which were taken by my friend and coworker Idalia Dinzey).

The globe in the center rotated, and we had three satellites orbitting it:

Another view from the front:

An astounding feature of this year’s ASI was the Sabbath donation by the several thousand people present: more than $8 million in gifts and pledges! This seemed to be largely in response to the new “Church in a Day” project that was pushed this year.

One of the most touching ministry reports was from a ministry reaching out to the poor, abused, and widowed/abandoned women of Peru. It was really amazing.

It was great to see many friends at ASI, and to meet some new ones. Although my brother and Heidi were not there this year, my mom was able to come; and she had a good time. Of course, the whole event passes too quickly.

PS: If you ever get the chance to eat at a Sweet Tomato restaurant, try it! It’s like the best all-you-can-eat salad bar ever!

Our ASI event on Facebook has taken on a life of its own, with other people inviting friends, beyond my circle of friends that I personally invited. Although the number of people who have indicated their intent to attend is relatively small, it is still good to see regular additions to the numbers just about every week. A frustrating aspect of Facebook is that you can’t simply invite fans to an event (or so it seems); the most you can do is send an update to the fans, and invite your personal friends.

With finances a little tight, 3ABN has not been able to give raises for some time, and this was deemed one way of benefitting employees without increasing payrolls. Besides the advantage of having a 3-day weekend—like many church entities have, as well as various ministries—it also saves employees the expense of the Friday commute to work. With gas prices getting so high, it is potentially a significant savings.

I’m really happy about this new arrangement, and hope it works out.

Here’s a photo of her working on a small project that was finished today, uploading new Kids’ Time Praise music videos to our YouTube page.

Annette was married to Jay Christian, one of our staff at 3ABN Radio; her daughter Cari also works at 3ABN, and Annette herself had worked at 3ABN in various capacities up through the early stages of her disease.

Over the last several years, Annette has undoubtedly been one of the most prayed-for people at 3ABN. However, even in her hardest days, she was an encouragement and source of blessing to those around her. Please continue to keep her family in your prayers.

L to R: Mollie Steenson, General Manager; Don Yost, manager of Maintenance Department; Jennifer Todd, manager of Marketing Department; J.D. Quinn, manager of Pastoral Department; Shelley Quinn, manager of Program Development; Jim Gilley, President; C.A. Murray, Production Manager for television; Jay Christian, co-manager at 3ABN Radio; Greg Morikone, manager of the Call Center; Len Wenzel, manager of television editing; Tim Lass, manager of Programming Department; and me, manager of the Publishing Department.

Not shown: John Dinzey, manager of 3ABN Latino; E.T. Everett, manager of Sound Center; Brian Hamilton, manager of Finance Department; John Hauser, Safety Coordinator; Moses Primo, director of Engineering Department; and Dave Turner, manager of Construction.