The Hurricane Season has been kind to us so far. Hurricane Franklin sat over Abaco as a Tropical Storm( 60 mile per hour winds and 5 inches of rain) and then moved away before gaining strength. Keep us in your prayers as we face the rest of the season.
The Church in Exuma has been busy conducting two camps with young people.Groups from Georgia came to head up this work. Steve McQueen lost his mother. She was a dedicated Christian woman. I was thankful that I had the opportunity to have a visit with her in Nassau just a few weeks ago. She had a tremendous influence on Steve and his decision to preach. Our sympathy is extended to the family.
Lincoln Young is still checking on his health and needs our prayers. The group from Wynne, Arkansas did another outstanding job in Rock Sound. They had a number of good studies with individuals and several baptisms. Dinah and I were really excited to hear about Ann Sands who is a Bahama Customs Official. We had gotten to know her on several of our visits to Eleuthera. We were saddened by the sudden death of a dear friend Albert Sands. Albert was a very influential business man in Rock Sound and had been a real help to us on many occasions when we were working with Hurricane Recovery and also when we needed things for the Church.
The work with World Bible School continues to grow. Freeport has really taken a lead in this work. We hand out the lessons and pick them up from the individuals.They are graded locally and then returned in person. We have our own Bahama Certificates that we hand out after each course. We like to do this after services on Sunday so that we can invite the students to worship with us and perhaps bring their friends and family. A number of personal studies have been set and a good many have been baptized. I confessed to Tex Williams, when I saw him at the Tahoe Encampment, that we were not following the WBS plan exactly! His reply was "Write me an article for Action" and keep saving souls!
A group of 40 from Kentucky is making plans to come to Freeport in the Spring and do some painting on the building as well as evangelistic and spiritual work. My Brother in Law and Sister will come down early in the year and we will use her talent as an Interior Designer to lay the ground work for the group of University Students. The building in Freeport took a real beating during the Hurricanes last year.
Frankie Simmons( Member at Highbury Park in Nassau) preached in Abaco for two Sundays while Jason and Katrinka were at the Semi-Annual Mission Day in Richardson, Texas. They also visited with the Highland congregation in Lakeland, Fl. Highland had given the first money on our classroom building in Abaco.The small group from Marsh Harbour presented them a plaque in appreciation. They then moved south and took a group of young people to the Youth Forum at the Palm Beach Lakes congregation in West Palm Beach. Jason was thrilled on his return to have a study with Culford Rolle and to take him to the sea. Culford is about 50 years old. The growth of new men in the congregation in Marsh Harbour is a great blessing.
We made the long trip to the Tahoe Family Encampment in California. The experience was a delight. We met many new people, renewed association with others and were stimulated by the great lessons and classes. Dick and Beverly Parker arrived in spite of a lot of surgery and some additional health problems. We really enjoyed our time with this good couple who spent almost a quarter of a century in the Bahamas. We are hopeful that their health will allow them to come to Freeport for the Annual Mission Day in November. We lunched with a number of people we had not seen in some time, and with others that live near us, but where we and they are so busy we can not get together. Joe and Merriam Holland are in West Palm Beach, but are usually busy as are we when we visit the area. We also met Ray Caskey and his extended family. We are comparing notes now to see if we are related? I was busy speaking 10 times during the week. The 8 a.m. class was on leadership, and at 11:00 a.m. I taught a Personal Evangelism series in one of the tents. My keynote topic was on Evangelism not Housekeeping. A highlight was a lady who took the Word to heart and obeyed the Gospel. Shirley's husband, Chuck, was honored to baptize his wife. Shirley sought me out to tell me that the lessons had convinced her that she needed to obey the Gospel. Paul and Pat Methvin have been working with Encampments for 37 years. They do an outstanding job. Paul has held 14 meetings in the Bahamas, but was always on another Island. We met for the first time this year.We are trying to arrange for him to come and let us be together on the same Island at the same time.
Dinah and I had planned to take a few days off after the Encampment and see some of the country in northern California and Oregon. We met a number of brethren from the area and accepted invitations to speak Sunday in Rogue River and Grant's Pass, Oregon. We were delighted to meet these brethren and also spend Monday climbing Mt. Scott for a look at Crater Lake. We gave one of our Personal Evangelism Studies "What All Mankind Should Know" to a lady who visited Sunday night, and a study was set with her by her hosts. They have now had two studies with her. The Word of God does not return unto Him void! We did get two delightful days of R and R before our flight back home.
Thank you for your prayers and support. Checks can be made to Bahama Mission Church of Christ, and sent:
Att: David Caskey-Mission, c/o Gulf Coast Church of Christ
3825 McGregor Blvd.
Ft. Myers, Florida 33901.
david
Bahama Mission Home Page
http://www.flyingpreacher.com/
Mission Contact
David Caskey
Webmaster
Jerry Pickup
http://www.jpickup.com/
