The Hurricane Season is drawing to a close. This year has been one to remember. We are so thankful to all of you for the wonderful way you have responded to help brethren in all of the Islands.
The shock is over, and now the long haul of recovery and rebuilding is in full swing. It will be months before there is anything like normality in most places.
We are getting repairs done to Church buildings. Brethren are working to fix roofs, replace beds and furniture and cabnets from flooding, and repair cars that were flooded with salt water. We hope in the next couple of weeks to start on the new roof in Abaco. Lincoln is already working on the building in Eleuthera. We still have many families in Freeport out of work until the hotels open in February. We are delivering Song Books and Bibles to replace those lost.The brethren in Long Island are working to repair damage. The windows are back in the building in Cat Island,and we plan to fly out and check San Salvador building. They lost at least two windows.
The brethren in the Bahamas, Cayman, Jamaica, Haiti, Granada, Cuba all send their love and express their gratitude for your generosity. We are also thankful to Howard Publishing Company (John Howard) for the huge discount on Song Books and the gift of dozens of fine books to put in our Church libraries in the Islands. Whites Ferry Road Relief Ministries (Don Yelton) and Healing Hand International ( Joe Smith) did things for us that we could not do for ourselves. Then to all of the congregations and individuals who reached out in a time of real need and gave supplies and hope and love, Thank you! After the first of the year, we plan a trip with Don Yelton for him to see how recovery is going and work on plans to improve our response to disasters in the future.
Efforts are underway to reach out with the Gospel. There were four baptisms last week. This week-end we will be in Freeport for the Annual Mission Day lectureship. We are planning as always a big Spiritual follow-up to the Hurricanes.Many lost their Bibles and we will need addition World Bible School materials, Tracts, Personal Bible Studies and the Fuel to deliver them. Hearts are often softened by disaster and opportunities to reach out to souls are a challenge.
We have the plane back and have done the Annual Inspection. I was delayed in Texas and Mississippi on the way back to the Islands. Bad weather and up to 15 inches of rain in Texas and then a couple of days of heavy fog in Mississippi slowed us down. We got back to West Palm Beach at noon yesterday and Dinah and I will load the plane this morning to take off tomorrow. There is no Thanksgiving Holiday in the Islands, so we will play catch up.
We will try and get our little room livable after the water damage, fly to Freeport for the Mission Day, and then next week visit and assess needs in several other Islands. We will continue to make sure that the brethren have what they need to survive as they work on recovery. We will also deliver the new song books to two Islands.
We are happy to announce that we met with the wonderful brethren in Point Comfort, Texas while waiting for good weather. They have been very generous in joining forces with us in both Hurricane assistance and Evangelism. We hope and pray that our association together will be long and fruitful in the service of the Master.
We are still receiving an occasional check, and are deeply appreciative. Some of the brethren will have needs for some time until jobs reopen and repairs are completed. Also if you would like to help with the Evangelistic efforts that are now starting up in earnest we would be thankful. Aircraft fuel costs have soared like car gas, and we still need to get to these brethren in the many Islands. Checks can be made to Bahama Mission Church of Christ and sent:
David Caskey-Missions, Gulf Coast Church of Christ
3925 McGregor Blvd.
Ft. Myers, Florida 33901
Danny Osborn-CPA is keeping carfull records of all income and expenditures and a full report will be available as we finish up in a couple of months.
Keep us all in your prayers.
david
Bahama Mission Home Page
http://www.flyingpreacher.com/
Mission Contact
David Caskey
Webmaster
Jerry Pickup
http://www.jpickup.com/
