Personal Pictures

Since some have asked to see a more informal side of me it seemed like the right time to do this. The first two sections of pictures are of my dear family and the last sections are of a few hobbies which I enjoy. I haven't put anything here about some hobbies I enjoy such as oil painting, SCUBA diving, or helping Anita gather shells for her collection. Maybe I'll add those later.

Christmas of 1996 was the first time in many years the Emmerson clan got together at Bob and Anita's home in
Maryland. They included (L to R 2nd row) Cathy and Bob Emmerson, Dave and Kathi Jensen, Bob (holding
Michael Allan Jensen) and Anita Folkenberg, Sandy, Rick, and Ariel Emmerson, (L to R, 1st row) Dorothy and
Ken Emmerson, and Allison Emmerson.

Christmas of '98 both Bob Jr. came from Taiwan with his family and Kathi and her family came from Florida to visit us in Washington. While they were with us we braved the cold wind blowing up the Potomac to visit Mt. Vernon, President Washington's mansion, and while we were there we gather on the lawn a family picture (left).

   Bob Jr. serves in the Northern Asia-Pacific Division. They have lived in Beijing and now live in Taiwan. But in mid-'99 they are scheduled to move to Hong Kong to serve in the new China Union. Here Bob Jr., his wife Audrey, and their three children, Robbie, Randy and Katie pose in front of the sign at the entrance of the Toroko Gorge in Taiwan (top, below).
     Bob Jr. and the boys (2nd row, left) "enjoy" "Cho Tofu" (literally "stinky tofu") at an outdoor stand a few yards from their apartment where the cook deep-fries cubes of fermented (not to say rotten) tofu. The stench dominates the atmosphere for a hundred yards in every direction. Before serving the "cook" pokes a hole in the top of each cube and pours in a mixture dominated by sautéed garlic, a dab of very hot sauce, topped off with pickled cabbage, and serves it with chopsticks and a smile. Getting the tofu to one's mouth is a memorable experience. Once in your mouth it has a flavor that, given persistence and time, can move appreciation from tolerable to good.
    Katie poses like a little angel (2nd row, right).

Dave is a partner in a computer business in Florida and our daughter, Kathi, is a registered nurse who dedicates herself full time to being their kid's mother. When Kathi, Dave and the kids were at our home Christmas '98 we took the picture of Michael Allan playing with grandpa (top, below), of Kristi enjoying Grandma's love, and then of Dave, Kathi and the two kids at the entrance to Mt. Vernon (below, right).

About twice a year (spring and fall) a few of us load our camping gear into our bikes and trailers (mine is the 1st below) and head for the mountains for a few days. October of '98 the group included (left to right, 2nd picture below) Mike Ryan, Bj Christiansen, Ken Coonley, and my brother Don.
We found a beautiful site right beside the Bullpasture River (in the mountains east of Stanton, VA) where we pitched our camp and enjoyed the beauties of nature.

    Thanks to a contact initiated by Don Noble (President of Maranatha Volunteers) with a high ranking government official, the government hurdles were finally cleared and I was authorized to go for a ride in an F-16 jet fighter. On Tuesday (Oct. 27) I spent most of the day at Andrews Air Force Base getting fitted for some of the flight gear, and the initial entrance and ejection seat training.
    On Wednesday, October 28, I returned for the one-hour flight. We were granted an "unrestricted clearance" (vertical take off) up to 10,000 feet. What an experience was awaiting me! Words are definitely inadequate to describe what happened. When Major Hartwig brought that GE powerhouse up to 28,000 lbs. of thrust, then kicked in the afterburner, I was treated to a level of acceleration I didn't know was possible! In just a few seconds (about 6-8) we'd reached 160 knots and we lifted off and began a gradual climb during which we accelerated (almost instantly) to 450 knots (another 3-5 seconds)! Then the pilot pulled back on the stick and, we pulled about 4½ g's as we turned vertical and went straight up to 10,000 feet! Well, at that speed we climbed the two miles (to 10,000 ft) in just a few seconds. As we approached 10,000 we nosed over, and went weightless, but when the pilot saw we were climbing too fast and were going to "bust" 10,000 feet, he simply rolled over (it happened so quickly it seemed almost instantly) on our backs and pulling back (another 4.5 G's) toward the ground! The effect this had on my internal organs cannot be described. Somehow the insistence of medical science that what I felt originated in my inner-ear and not in my belly was less than persuasive! The rolls were so rapid my helmet hit the wrap-around windscreen.
    It must have been many years since Major Hartwig's first flight and it seemed to me he'd forgotten the effect 90 degree banks, rapid-roll-rates, and extreme G-forces have on an individual's body! Later he confessed that he'd thrown up on his first seven flights! The next hour that we flew in the military restricted air space on the southern Chesapeake Bay was wonderful. Even though I felt queasy I got to fly the plane most of the rest of the flight. It was great! What an experience it is to ride a bullet.
    But let's take a look at the planes I used in mission (and other) flying before launching in the F-16.

	On May 20, 1971 that I first flew this Super Cub which had most recently served as a crop duster until Gerald Brooker (now of Santa Rosa, CA) and Art Fisher (of West Tennessee) worked it over and prepared it for mission service. After (over)-loading the plane to its limits, the next 44 hours of flying to Tegucigalpa were filled with adventure.
A few months after arriving in Honduras with the Super Cub businessman in Honduras offered to trade me his Cessna 180 for the Super Cub -- straight across! When I asked what the "trick" was, he told me it was lying on its back on the beach on the North Coast. Sight unseen, I told him that if it was flying when it arrived in Tegucigalpa, I'd accept the offer. When the Cessna 180 arrived, we took the wings off, replaced some parts, overhauled the engine, refinished the interior and repainted the exterior, all for US$1,700, and with that we had a plane that was to be my "workhorse" for the next 1000 hours of flying!
	On April 24, 1974 Elder J L Tucker, speaker of The Quiet Hour and a godly visionary, handed me the keys to the Aztec (left). I flew this plane over 1000 hours all over Central America - even landing on dirt roads! Then, during a flight from Guatemala to California, I got into serious trouble because the plane wasn't turbocharged, and didn't have oxygen or weather radar. I determined that if I survived I needed to get both a plane and the training to handle such situations, so I started looking.
I found the 10-seat, turbo-charged, 250 mph Navajo Chieftain in Wenatchee, Washington and on August 31, 1977 I began the flight to Guatemala. On Sept. 1, in Riverside, traumatically I changed category--from a pilot "who will" to a pilot "who has" landed with his gear up! How embarrassing! Fortunately, due to little damage, I continued my trip to Central America less than two months later. It was in this plane, September 26, 1979, during the flight check-ride for my ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) rating, the cockpit filled with smoke and I began to sweat -- but passed!!!

	During my last two trips to the South American Division I had a chance to refresh my helicopter-flying skills in this helicopter -- pictured here on the lawn of our Publishing House in Brazil.
In Dayton, Ohio, on July 19, 1996, I enjoyed one of the high points of my flying experience when I was able to fly the Wright "B" Flyer (right), a privilege which was arranged for by Mrs. Virginia Kettering and Frank Perez, President of Kettering Medical Center.

I put in 5 drained "grow beds" (5' X 20') filled 24" deep with topsoil, with a sprinkler so the garden would be watered during my travels, and covered the beds with material to keep out weeds. Anita holds some of the cabbage we produced (right). My tomato plants grew to over 9' (3 meters) high. Outside the fenced area I put in 4 more grow boxes (4' square) in which I planted melons and squash.

For the last several years I've taken 3 days each January to visit and ride the sand dunes in Southeastern California with friends. These dunes are as high as 3'000 ft (1,000 meters) and the vehicles we ride (called "quads" -- 1st picture below) are capable of speeds well in excess of 60 mph (100 kph). Riding around the "bowls," which look like inverted volcanic cones, is enough to leave one with aches and pains of sufficient magnitude to dominate one's attention for at least a week. And even that painful outcome is minimal compared to the suffering that is guaranteed when (not "if") a rider falls off his/her quad!

While riding around the desert on Monday I stopped to get a picture of some of the beautiful flowers that grow even in these extremely hot conditions.