Believe it or not, a new storm is brewing in the Caribbean. Gamma will be number 27 for the season. It is forcast to move west and hit central America, but who knows these days? Wilma did much more damage than we had thought. Six million people without power in Florida, and many of them do not have it back yet. There was much more damage than we saw on the East Coast last year after two back to back storms.Blue plastic roofs are back in style as we fly over. Grand Bahama was really hit hard again this year with Wilma. The winds were not as strong, but the tidal surge of 15 to 19 feet destroyed most of five settlements on the western end of the Island.
We are very proud of the brethren in the Bahamas and the way they have responded. The brethren in Freeport began right away providing food and clothes. The brethren in Nassau sent people to help distribute and cook along with money, food and clothes. In Abaco we loaded up a 40 foot boat and 4 men made a 14 hour open ocean voyage to Grand Bahama. The boat contained food and clothes and they also gave $1700 dollars in cash and to buy the fuel for the boat. They were met with lunch by brethren in Grand Bahama along with two trucks. Quickly the supplies were given out in the affected areas and received with gratitude by the victims. The brethren in Freeport also began cooking hot meals as most of these people had gone more than a week on snacks and sandwiches. They have been preparing 600 hot meals a day.
We are thankful to Whites Ferry Road and Don Yelton for again coming to our aid with a very nice $5000 donation. We are pondering what can be done with so many people who have lost everything. Houses, cars, memories all washed away with the tidal surge. We are thankful that they survived at all.
I preached Sunday morning in Abaco as Jason Quashie had been on the high seas until way after dark Saturday night. They had left the dock in Abaco at about 4:30 a.m. and returned about 9 p.m. We were saddened and shocked Sunday morning with the death of James McSweeny. He had been active driving the Church bus and was found dead early Sunday morning in his bed. He had been to the doctor earlier in the week with chest pains and was to have gone to Nassau for more tests. He worked in Abaco as a security guard. He had two teenage children. James was just 39 years old. Several from Abaco will travel to Eleuthera for the funeral on Saturday.
We are very thankful to Steve and Nancy Lee Brown, from Ft. Myers, Florida for the donation of a large van that we are equipping as a handicap van for Lincoln Young. We are adding a ramp and will remove one of the seats to allow him to drive his wheelchair into the center section. I got to the mechanic this morning before 7 a.m. We changed some belts and gave it a good going over. It had new tires and is in excellent shape. We will finish it up and continue to check it out before shipping it from Port Everglades, Florida to Rock Sound in a few days. This will be a great boost to Lincoln and his work in Eleuthera. Donations like this provide what would otherwise be beyond reach. There is a 75% duty on imported vehicles along with the cost of shipping.
We have been very active in handing out more World Bible School Materials. I started 6 students among the Bahamas Customs Officers in Marsh Harbour and with the help of sister Ruby Rolle who is a teacher in the Central Abaco High School, we have started more than 75 students among the pupils and teachers. Ruby believes that this will really grow in the next few weeks. I am thankful to Sandy and Fran Haney for making up special grading sheets to be used in all of our Islands where we have so many WBS students. This will really speed up the grading process.The last plane load to the Bahamas contained only WBS to be distributed in several Islands.
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/
