Bahama Mission
November and December 1999
November and December 1999
I have gotten behind in my reports due to many different activities. The
four hurricanes in five weeks has dominated our time with relief efforts,
the trip to the International Relief Conference, the wedding of our son and
daughter-in-law, Jason and Lori, the regular evangelistic work, the serious
illness of my father in Texas, and the natural slow down that takes place in
the Bahamas during the holiday period. We have tried to keep you informed as
much as possible by e-mail. There are now nine hurricane reports on the web
page. We are still not able to send e-mail directly to one or two of the
congregations sharing in the work. We continue to request a contact from San
Augustine and Weldon. These contacts give us quick access to you and allow
us to be much more effective with communications. Again our e-mail address
is : flyingpreacher@mindspring.com and our web page is:
http://www.mindspring.com./~flyingpreacher/
As we come to the end of the year, we have moved into phase three of our
Relief efforts. This means that we are trying to help our brethren get roofs
and windows repaired. We are slowly working on all of our Church buildings
that were damaged. This work will continue for at least a year. We were
recently able, with the help of a new man who recently moved back to
Abaco,to repair rather than replace all of the 25 windows in the Church
building in Marsh Harbour. This was a real savings.
We now have permission to begin work on the school building in San Salvador.
This will give us a place of worship and also a place to teach as we
continue to work with this new congregation just established. We are also
planning to fix a place to keep the car we sent down last year, and try and
prepare a room for us to stay in to cut down on the cost of hotel bills.
This effort is being shared collectively by all of the congregations in the
Bahamas.
Each congregation has developed an evangelistic plan for the year 2000. More
than 1700 have been baptized since we joined the work in 1982. We are happy
about the new congregations established and also the growth numerically and
spiritually with the three Churches that were meeting at that time.
Help is still arriving to aid with the Hurricane Relief. Individual brethren
in Ft. Myers have collected more than $1100 to purchase coloring books and
crayons to be distributed to the school children as a part of our emotional
recovery work. We will also be giving Bibles, Bible Studies and a tract on
stress recovery to each person in the damaged areas. Most of them lost
everything they had, including their Bibles. We are using this final phase
of work to reach out in evangelism. We have done what we can to help them
survive, but all of this is for nothing if we do not give them the
opportunity to know Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.
We were saddened last month with the untimely death of Pearl Dames in Abaco.
She was just 49 years old. Pearl had been a strong supporter of the work
there, and will be sorely missed. She was a fine Christian lady. Liver
Cancer left her a very short time to live.
We were happy this month to attend and perform the ceremony for our son
Jason and his wife Lori. They were married December 18th, in Columbia ,
Tennessee. They are now home in Auburn, Alabama, where they are both working
on Masters Degrees.
We rushed from the Wedding to Texas to check on my Father who was in
critical condition in the Hospital in Arlington, Texas. Dad started and has
directed Mission Printing in Arlington for a number of years. He preached 65
years and did mission work in Africa and Jamaica. He is some better now, and
is in a Rehab Ward. He is very weak but has hopes of going home in a couple
of weeks. He and Mother celebrated their 61st Wedding Anniversary in the
Hospital. One of the difficult things about doing Mission work is the fact
that you are a long way from parents when something like this happens.
We are pleased to announce that we have had two congregations increase their
support to off set some that have had to reduce theirs. The Lord does
wonderful things. We never seem to get ahead, but seem to always have enough
to pay the bills. We are most thankful to each of you for your generous
support and dedication over the years. This is truly a team effort, as we
work together in the service of the Lord.
We are thrilled that the Frank Sarvers are returning to Abaco for the 8th
year to teach and do personal work. They are loved deeply by the people and
do a great work. We wish we had other retired families who could come and do
the same thing either in Abaco or on another Island. A preacher friend of
the Sarvers will be down in January to conduct a short meeting in Marsh
Harbour.
We are still most excited about Todd Brunner moving to Abaco as the preacher
in June. The other good news is that the West Broward Church of Christ in
Ft. Lauderdale will be his sponsoring Church. We love these brethren and
look forward to a closer association in the future. We are encouraging them
to visit and be personally involved with the Church in Marsh Harbour. Todd
is bringing a group down Spring break to conduct a special program.
Our next large expenditure will be for Bibles for the victims of the
Hurricanes. We usually only give Testaments since they are lighter and
cheaper, but most will need Bibles after the storm. We plan to buy between
$4000 and $5000 worth in a month or so. We will welcome any additionally
assistance in this effort.
We begin another year and pray for the increase to our planting that can
come only from the Lord. We praise you for your sharing and pray that all of
us can work in the Kingdom to the best of our ability and to the salvation
of souls.
Checks can be made out to:
Bahama Mission Church of Christ and sent:
Attn: David Caskey Missions
Gulf Coast
Church of Christ
3825 McGregor Blvd.
Ft. Myers, Florida 33901
David Caskey
