Show member avatar for guests on custom template page

[gigaenvy]

Originally Posted by Dismounted

So you want to show a random avatar for guests?

Not exactly. I created a new template in my style that serves as a homepage. In the middle column is a listing of threads displayed with postbit of the posting user and the first 100 words to grab the visitors attention and then pull them into a discussion. The template is called from a custom index.php file that fetches this template. Everything works great, except I cannot show the avatar of the user who made the post for either a guest or registered user.

Any ideas on how a guest or registered member can show the avatar of the poster on a custom template page that is driven by VB? There must be something in global.php or somewhere else.