After seventeen Hurricane Reports, we will try and get back to normal. We continue to get a few checks on the Hurricane Recovery efforts, and are caring for a number of families. The storms are past, and the emergency supplies have been distributed. We still have many families who will never be back like they were before the storms. One thing all of us have learned is that material things are far less important than life and spiritual relationships. We thank you again for your compassion and sacrifice.
Last Saturday morning Brother Frank Sarver was flown out of Marsh Harbour in a hurry. He had begun to hemorrhage on Friday and after seeing a local doctor Saturday morning was told that he needed to get to a hospital. This was ten days before they had planned to leave after having worked in Marsh Harbour ten weeks each year for the past fourteen years. Saturday was a long day for them. They arrived in Morton, Illinois about midnight. They were met at the airport by two of their daughters who asked if he was going to the hospital "peaceably" or were they going to have to "hog-tie" him? He was admitted and got to a room around four a.m. Yesterday they did surgery for malignant polyps. We are awaiting news from the lab about additional treatments. Please pray for Frank and Bea and their family. They have been most effective in their periods of teaching, and because of their love for the people of the Islands, have a special place in all of our hearts.
Dinah and I continue to travel to various congregations making reports and offering thanks for the outpouring of love following the Hurricane Season. We drove more than 2500 miles and visited with brethren in Desdemona, Weatherford, and Arlington, Texas: Monroe, Louisiana.; Wynne, Arkansas, Missouri,( We had a visit with Nancy Pyle who is battling cancer and has been a great worker in Rock Sound) Shelbyville and Columbia, Tennessee.; Auburn, Alabama, and Lakeland, Florida. While in Lakeland, the Ron Hasten family donated a new electric wheelchair to the Bahama work. We will be finding a way to break it down into various parts and fly it over. We are thankful for this gift. We have a number of members who are in wheelchairs.We will be in Ft. Myers, and Clewiston, Florida this week, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. next week. (Additional trips are planned in April and May.)
After the trip to Chattanooga, we will attend the Commonwealth of the Bahamas Lectureship March 25-27 in Nassau. I am to speak Friday on the subject,"How is it possible to Saturate the Bahamas with the Gospel of Christ?"
We have received our shipment of new Bibles. We continue to be thankful for the young people of the Longmire Road congregation in Conroe, Texas for their untiring work and sacrifice. We have also received a number of boxes of tracts and booklets from Mission Printing in Arlington, Texas. They are given out along with World Bible School booklets with the Bibles.
Dinah and I got the new batteries and new solid tires for Lincoln's wheelchair and flew them to Rock Sound, Eleuthera. Lincoln was thrilled to be back in business again. I am not a wheelchair mechanic, and it took me about 3 hours to make the transfer.
I put a new nose wheel on the plane and spent a morning servicing the struts on all three wheels. It seems that there is always work to do making sure the plane is safe. Dinah pays a lot more attention to the aircraft condition than she used to. ha
Two brethren visited Exuma from the Chattanooga area and were a lot of encouragement to the Steve McQueen family. I am looking forward to being in Chattanooga and Ringold, Georgia on March 19-21.
The Sarvers and others have taught a number of studies in Marsh Harbour and we have been blessed with several baptisms, and some restorations. We are still waiting for shingles of the right color to finish the roof on the building. We are also hoping to get a steeple built and add it to the top of this well designed building. It would be nice to have it look like it did before the storms. The blocks for the classroom building have been delivered and paid for. The contract has been signed for the Block Layer, and his work has begun.
We have been shocked lately by the cost of aircraft fuel. It has more than doubled. We are now paying between $4.45 and $5.00 a gallon. Car gas is still a little below $4.00 in the Islands. We have received several special contributions that have been put toward the gas deficits. We are hoping to have an increase in our monthly budget for this item, so that we will not to have to limit our efforts to visit and supply the Island congregations.
We continue to thank you for your concern and prayers. 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.
Last Friday afternoon Michelle Victor was baptized in Marsh Harbour.She had been attending since October and had studied with Katrinka Quashie and Donna Stewart, before the Sarvers took over after their arrival. It was a cold windy blustery day. Frank Sarver went by to see her at 3:00 p.m. to see if she was still going to be baptized at 5:00 p.m. He was a little concerned as Bahamians do not like cold or cold water. We use the "unheated" sea as our baptistry. Her reply to him was,"He took nails for me! I can handle a little cold water!" After the baptism, Frank said she kept saying, "I am so happy".
david
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David Caskey
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Jerry Pickup
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