We are being hit hard with the Hurricane Season this year. Charley caused massive damage in Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Cuba and Florida and the U.S. East Coast. Gaston has just pounded Carolina again, and now Francis is poised to come into the Bahamas and maybe the east coast of Florida. I have been on the phone with brethren from all over the Islands this morning and all are bracing for the strike to come in the lower Islands by Thursday. By Saturday morning it will have either skirted east and missed the Islands, or have cut up through the middle, or maybe with the degree of error even come into the east coast of Florida. Please pray for those in the path, and keep praying for those hit by earlier storms. It takes months and sometimes even years to recover. Brethren on the Florida West Coast have worked hard to take care of the needs of those in their many communities.
News from the Islands includes some good news for the new growing congregation in Exuma. They are having a lot of visitors and just baptized a lady who was a WBS student. World Bible School has really been effective in Exuma. We are anxious to get more materials down to Steve McQueen so that he can reach out to even more. Lincoln Young plans to ride out the Hurricane in Eleuthera. He laughed and said when the last one hit he was holding a meeting in Abaco, and it followed him up there, so no need to move. I joking suggested that he might take a boat east into the Atlantic to see if it would follow him. The Deveaux family requests prayers for Zeta who is having surgery today in Miami. They were not able to take care of her in Nassau. The brethren in Long Island are getting ready for the Hurricane and Judy Burrows is recovering well after her surgery. In Abaco they are working to secure the building and bolt down the steel on the new classroom building. The brethren in Nassau and Freeport are doing well and trying to make preparations for the storm. All of the congregations have had busy summers with groups coming from the United States conducting meetings, Vacation Bible Schools, evangelistic outreach efforts, Bible and social strengthening programs in the schools, and even a singing school in Freeport. The Church in Freeport sent a special contribution of $700 to help with the plane. We are thankful for all of the assistance we received, but really thrilled with the participation from the congregations in the Bahamas.
Victoria Fraasa requests a part in our prayers as she faces cancer surgery this week. She and her husband Steve were the ones who filmed the "Flying Preacher" video that many of you had a opportunity to view. Jerry and Sonia Pickup are proud parents of a baby girl. Abigail weighed 9 lbs. and 2 ounces and was 23 inches long. Jerry is the man who provides our Bahama Mission web page.
I have been busy catching rides and writing new study materials as well as doing half hour radio tapes to be used in the Islands. I have had a number of funerals to conduct and we are stockpiling Bibles, World Bible School and personal evangelism studies to be delivered to the various Islands. We have been so encouraged by the great work that is being done by the various congregations, and are anxious to get back in the air to help supply the tools they need to grow and develop.
The plane should be ready for me to pick up early next week. We have continued to have set backs in finding new parts. We are thankful every day for our lives after we discovered that both the engine and prop had the log books falsified. We were very blessed that the engine quit when and where it did. We had a very slow time finding new parts to build the engine and even a new prop. The cost exceeded what we had planned as we did not know that the engine and prop had just been spray painted when it showed an overhaul. We are about $5000 short of what it has taken. The down time as been a real lesson in patience for me, but we are now confidant that we have a good engine and prop as we get back in the air. The plane was to have been test flown last Friday, but it was discovered on unpacking that the freight company had dropped the prop and bent the end. (This has been par for the course all along.) It had to go back to the factory. They did test run the engine and all was well.
It now looks like we will need the plane to begin the recovery work in the Islands. Had we gotten it last week, we would most likely be taking it out of the area at this time to keep it from being destroyed by the storm.
We will be back in touch as soon as we can after the Hurricane passes. We anticipate that we will need help to provide relief for the people of the Islands. The storm dropped back to a category 3 this morning from a 4, but is expected to strengthen as it moves up over the warmer waters.
We continue to be thankful to you for your prayers and support. Checks for this work can be made out to Bahama Mission Church of Christ, and sent to:
David Caskey-Missions, c/o Gulf Coast Church of Christ
3825 McGregor Blvd.
Ft. Myers, FL. 33901.
Bahama Mission Home Page
http://www.flyingpreacher.com/
Mission Contact
David Caskey
Webmaster
Jerry Pickup
http://www.jpickup.com/
