Bahama Mission Update
February 26, 2009

Dinah and I have covered a lot of ground in the past days. We flew out of West Palm Beach after putting new tires on the plane and rebuilding the brake calipers. We were loaded with Bible Class Materials, Bibles and other items needed in the various Islands. I had some money for Lincoln Young so that he could pay his bills after he was robbed. (Thank you for the contributions to replace his money lost. This past week we received enough to cover half of his loss.) He had asked that I come and preach. We drove up to Treasure Cay from Marsh Harbour and visited with Jack and Donna Steward. We invited them to travel with us to Rock Sound on Sunday morning early. They contribute to Lincoln and the work there each month. Jack is recovering from knee surgery and he had a tough time folding his stiff leg into the small plane. He is a retired American Airline pilot. I rested and studied my lesson while he flew us to Rock Sound. Lincoln had some one to pick us up and take us to his house where some of the members had prepared a nice breakfast of Chicken Souse and Johnny Cake. We had a great time visiting and also talking with Jamie Hunt who plans to go to Crowley Bible College this summer. He has been helped in this effort by the brethren in Wynne Arkansas. Our hope and prayer is that he will return to someday be the preacher in his home Island.The front strut collapsed again after landing. I have had an intermittent problem with this strut since September. I had it completely rebuilt and have continued to have it collapse. We got back to Marsh Harbour in the last afternoon. Sister Brown had saved Dinah and me some lunch as she always does. We had enough to share with Jack and Donna along with our coffee before the evening service. On Tuesday we drove back to Treasure to let Dinah attend a Bible Class that Donna is teaching with winter visitors to the Island. We enjoyed meals with a number of my patients and former patients. Dinah had us go several times to visit and play with Cony whom she calls Cony Island. Cony is 84 and has the mind of a four year old. She loves to have Dinah play and color with her. She is happy, stress free, and lovable. She will most likely outlive us all. On Thursday night before we left for the southern regions, we ate with some former patients. They prepared a large dinner of "Cracked Conch". The long hard preparation of this dish is a labor of love. Dinah thanked them for having us, and was told by the husband,"You two have done so much for our people, you may not get thanks from all of them, but it can come from others:! I worked on the strut along with Terrance Baker who is an A&P. (Aircraft Mechanic). We thought we had it fixed.

Friday morning we loaded up and flew to George Town, Exuma. We got fuel, cleared Customs, and noticed that the strut was part way down and leaking oil on the outside of the housing. We landed a little later in Deadman's Cay, Long Island and were met by McDonald Burrows the preacher. We unloaded, loaded into the van, and unloaded at Vincent and Learlene Burrows house. She had food prepared for us and we ate and caught up on news. After food we all went out to the front of the house and visited. Members of the congregation drifted in after work and we had a great time. Mama Burrows insisted that Dinah and I sit in her new lawn chairs.McDonald complained that he had never been invited to use one. I told him they were reserved for Christians. Judy his wife chimed in, "Yes for foreign Christians"! We had a good laugh. Judy had been frying fish in the outside kitchen. The elders from Highbury Park in Nassau had visited the week before to teach a leadership series and to encourage. Two of the men in the congregation had taken Brother Bill Miller out fishing and caught more than 150. Many of these were cleaned and sent back with the elders for their families.

Things are quiet in these little Islands and we all retired early when dark and the sand flies and mosquitoes came for their evening feed. I tried to listen to my little radio to find out what was happening in the world. The Cubans jam every English station with the same programs on Radio Cuba. I gave up. We have no internet connections, power is in and out, and the telephones work sometimes. Our satellite phone is the only connection to the outside world, and I hate to use it standing outside in the rain. We did get some rain that night which made the mosquitoes happy. They sang all night!

The next morning, after daylight I went out to the plane and double checked the strut. It was still up some, but lower than when in Exuma. We loaded up the Church van and went to visit with some of the older members. Aunt Jessima was cooking tomatoe sauce in the outside kitchen and pouring it in bottles to cap and can. She gave us a bunch of Hog Bananas as our journey bread and to share with other brethren as we travel. She also gave us hot peppers and white Yam. The white yam is a slimy, nasty, tasteless, root. Pappa Burrows cleaned it and grumbled that it was "rubbish". Mama Burrows said we should be thankful for food and it was not rubbish, her sister gave it to us. We then went north a few miles and visited with Sister Fox who had been very ill. She keeps having seizures. She is afraid that she will not live long and wanted me to try and find her son and his family of 12 kids living somewhere in Texas. We have not yet been successful although folks in Pecos, Texas have made contacts. Then it was off to the little trading post to let Mama buy groceries. Dinah always buys her a bunch when we are there for several days. We do not want to be a burden on these generous loving people.We visited with town folks, saw some of the members at the store,and met a new sister in Christ who works there (Andreika Taylor). We visited with several town's people and invited them to worship with us Sunday. Later in the afternoon we visited with McDonald and Judy Burrows. I made a trip to the airplane for more Bibles, and to have one to present to Andreika next morning. Unknown to me I dropped the keys to the airplane in a banana field next to the airport. Next morning, mama needed a couple of AAA batteries. I told her we would stop by the plane on the way to the Church building. I started looking for the keys, went into panic mode,searched out little room and the van. We went to pick up Sister Fox, stopped by the plane to see if I had left them in the door. I looked carefully in the Banana field with out success. Papa Burrows followed me and found them. He may be deaf, but has the eyes of an eagle. We all rejoiced and I got back to thinking about my lesson for the morning. We had three Bible Classes. Two met in the building and one under a tree outside. We had a good crowd for morning worship. I think the number was 41. We all visited afterwards, and Edward came to present Dinah and me with a "Liza" pot. It is a pot cut by hand with a hacksaw blade from an ancient steel buoy that floated across the ocean years ago from the far east. They make great bean pots.

Lunch was goat, pumpkin, white yam and rice and peas. Afterwards we loaded up and went to visit some of the other members. One family has moved into a new unfinished house and are camping out but happy. I noticed that the gas gage on the van suddenly dropped. I then realized that no fuel is available on Sundays. We made it back to the Burrows and Judy said, "Oh I forgot to tell you about the gage"! We had studies that night and early the next morning I was up and waiting for the gas station to open. We had breakfast of "fire engine" and "snow", that is a peppery corn beef with grits. We were given dilly fruit and bananas for our journey and to share with other brethren on other Islands. Our next stop was Cat Islands to visit with John and Francis Deveaux and their family. They had 12 children and Margaret was the first to die. She was 48. The strut was still up a little and I was feeling good about flying back to Marsh Harbour. As we taxied out, we heard a loud bang. The left brake disk had broken. We were able to place it so that the brake half worked and we took off and flew back to Marsh Harbour. We were blessed with a soft landing and easy roll out. My friend Lewis Key had a spare one and I borrowed it till I could get to the States and get a new one. I ordered two as they were both the same age. More work was done on the strut. It was up when we left Friday morning to fly to Freeport. We carried a friend with us (Barbara)who is an executive gourmet chief. This would be her first time to attend worship with us. We were met by Joyce Bent with a rental van and vouchers for our lodging. We checked in, went to the grocery store for dinner supplies. One of my patients in Marsh Harbour had given me 10 lbs of lobster tails, and Barbara was doing a great dinner. We then rushed to the airport to pick up two couples who were down to look at the work in the Islands for a congregation in Oklahoma. Royce and Debbie Caskey (His grandfather and mine were brothers), and Stephen and Tina Gray. We had never met any of them, but were soon firm and fast friends. We had dinner, showed pictures of the work, talked till late and retired. Royce is like me and we were having coffee just after 3:30 a.m.After Daylight Royce and Stephen helped me jack up the plane and fill the strut with hydraulic fluid. Later in the day we took them to one of the smaller settlements to visit a family whose 98 year old father and grandfather had died. We then showed them around the Island some and visited in the afternoon with other members. Sunday was "Bring Your Friend Day". I spoke, we visited and had lunch with one of the elders. Monday was another busy day, and we got Barbara on a small commercial plane back to Marsh Harbour. Tuesday we put them on a plane and took off for Florida. I am going in just a while to see the man who rebuilt the strut to see if we can get it fixed. I start a meeting for 4 days in Clewiston Florida on Sunday, and then back to the Islands.

Thank you again for your support and prayers. Checks can be made out to Bahama Mission Church of Christ and sent:

Att: David Caskey-Mission, c/o Gulf Coast Church of Christ
9550 Ben C. Pratt/Six Mile Cypress Parkway
Ft. Myers, Florida 33966.

david

Bahama Mission Home Page
http://www.flyingpreacher.com/
Mission Contact: David Caskey

Webmaster: Jerry Pickup
http://www.jpickup.com/