Bahama Mission Update
September 29, 2009

The past few weeks have been busy and productive. My age seems to be catching up with me some. I broke a blood vessel in my eye, passed a kidney stone, and had an ear infection all within a day or two. I talked to a Dr. friend of mine and showed him my eye. He said I broke a blood vessel and could do one of two things. I could go to an eye specialist and he would tell me to leave it alone and it would clear up in ten days, or I could leave it alone and it would clear up in ten days! Anyway, I was grounded for a few days and had to rearrange my schedule. Dinah flew to St. Louis for her mom's 85th birthday and I drove to Nashville to check on Bibles with the Nelson Publishing Company and to spend a couple of days with our kids and my grand daughter. McKenleigh is 21 months old and changing all the time. I had a great time, but was sore from crawling on the floor. ha I also drove to Ft. Myers and spoke for our sponsoring congregation. We stopped and visited with brethren in Clewiston, Florida. They are doing great. They had gotten down to about 5 in attendance and were talking about closing the doors. Willie and Gizelle Smith moved there to preach and help them. I held a free meeting earlier this year and have scheduled another one in Feb. of next year. They have been working in their community. We had 56 on Sunday of the meeting. They have baptized a number of people with two more this week and are running about 40 or so each Sunday. We rejoice with them and pray God's continued blessings. This proves that the Lord gives the increase when we reach out with the Gospel.

When we flew back to Abaco, we took a new air mattress as the old ones seem to wear out every couple of years. We have been sleeping on a King size air mattress in Abaco for about 20 years. We were loaded heavy with Bibles, World Bible School Materials, and also had radio tapes for Freeport. We faced a heavy headwind and it took a little longer than usual. Fuel in the Bahamas is still very high, almost $5 a gallon for car gas and about $6 for aircraft fuel. I was still having trouble with one of the main struts on the plane. Terrance Baker met us and we think we have it fixed now. The little Schrader valve on top seemed to have a tiny leak. We replaced it and so far so good. Terrance is a member in Marsh Harbour and an aircraft mechanic.

Our good friend and Marsh Harbour member, Bernice Brown, had her 71st birthday. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday. Her reply was a Bible for her grandson Cory! I told her it was not Cory's birthday! She said, I know but he keeps using my Bible for his school assignments and he is messing it up!. Cory got a new Bible for his grand mother's birthday! Our little friend Cony, whom Dinah calls Cony Island turned 85. She is so sweet and continues to have the mind of a sharp 4 year old. We went by and sang Happy Birthday and Dinah played dolls with her for a while. Our good friend Olga Russell died last week. She had been a friend for almost 30 years. We will miss her.

We flew down to Rock Sound to visit with Lincoln Young and speak on Sunday. We were able to deliver his new lap top and install the new Dragon Speaking program.These were a gift from dear friends in Phoenix. It takes about an hour to install the Dragon Speaking program and read things for 20 minutes at a time so that the program can get used to his accent and the way he speaks. This program allows him to speak and type. The new one is very sensitive. One time he signed after reading a long page of stuff. The program typed "sigh". He is really excited to have it all working again. If you have not heard from Lincoln in a long time, it is because he had no computer. The only problem now is getting his internet provider to work part of the time. At worship on Sunday morning, we met Dan Oliver. He is an American from Michigan who is working at a new resort being built about 40 miles from Rock Sound. He is a big help when he is able to make the trip. We asked him to lunch at Sammy's where we were taking Lincoln and Tony. He accepted and then bought lunch for all of us. Thank you Dan! Monday we checked the weather and it looked good to fly back to Marsh Harbour. The remnants of "Fred" were still hanging around to the east of the Bahamas. All looked well. We took off and about half way we hit a wall of storms, black clouds and heavy rain. I flew down to about 500 feet over the water and could not even see the windshield. I climbed back to about 65 hundred feet and was still in a mess. I talked to some local pilots on the radio. We were all trying to help each other find open areas. The weather was not forecast and it just jumped up due to the unstable air. The 50 minute trip took an hour and 20 minutes with all the zig zagging and they closed the Marsh Harbour airport when we were about 20 minutes out. I flew over to Sandy Point, Abaco where the runway was clear, They opened Marsh Harbour about that time. When we landed there was about 6 inches of rain on the runway. We rolled out without touching the brakes and Dinah was ready for a nap. The local pilots talked a lot about the weather that day. It was strange that it changed that fast.

While in Abaco, we got our Internet fixed, our telephone working and our TV up and running. TV had been out about two months, the telephone had not worked in about 3 or 4 months, and the internet had been up and down. The power stayed on a lot better and we talked about how nice it is to live in the 21st century. ha I spent a lot of time with my free clinics and we enjoyed some fellowship and meals with patients and friends.

October 9-11 is the men's retreat in Abaco. Last year we had men from Freeport and West Palm Beach join us. This year we are expanding it to all of the Bahamas. The ladies also decided to have a retreat at the building at the same time. We have been using Camp Abaco the past two years and it is a great place. Last year there was a good breeze and the mosquitoes and sand flies did not come to visit. We are hoping for some more wind this year. Jason Quashie, the preacher in Abaco, blew two tires on his pickup and spun out in the rain and hit a light pole. I am sure that he hit some pot holes that were underwater. Also like me, he most likely had old tires. Sometime back I had problems with the van. The tread looked great, You do not drive far on an Island. When we checked the tires, they were originals on a 1993 Van. Dry rot creeps up on you. Jason seems to be fine and we are thankful.

We went to Freeport to deliver Bibles, World Bible School Materials and Radio tapes. The Elders had also asked me to speak on Sunday. Joyce Bent, our good friend and travel agent always gets us a place to stay and a very reduced price. This time when we checked in, I was talking to the manager. Her mother was from the Turks and Caicos Islands. We discovered that I had known her grand father way back in the mid 60's when I went to Grand Turk and Salt Cay to preach and visit with Bible Correspondence Students. She decided to upgrade us to a suite. Wow, now we know how the rich and famous live. At breakfast we met a couple from Texas. Toby and Lori Hayes. They have a business in Beaumont, and a lake house in Conroe. They were looking for something in the paper. I asked if we could help. "We are looking for someplace to go to Church". We invited them to go with us and then we had lunch and a nice visit. We hope to see them again in April when we are in Texas to report to supporting congregations. We really enjoyed our time with them.

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/