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The Robinsons’ Herald
Email version for April Thru August 2005
Greetings from ‘Next to Heaven’ in
Carriacou, Grenada, West Indies!
Greetings from the
‘Hurricane Alley!’ I had begun
preparing this quarterly Robinsons’
Herald the latter part of June so that I could send it out early
in July. However, much has happened that has kept us busy elsewhere. I have
sent out a few quick notes back in July, but I hope to bring all up to date
fully with this issue. I apologize up front for the length of this report.
We are
now well into the ‘rainy season,’ which is also a record breaking ‘hurricane
season’ this year. The good news is that the ponds are all
overflowing and the island is green and lush all over. We have had some good
rainy periods since late in May and early in June that resulted in most
people having a good supply of water in their cisterns.
Praise!
As you may recall from the “Robinson’s
Herald” for the first quarter of this year, we had been working
with a pastor from Mississippi that had been led to bring material and
laborers to Grenada to build some homes for those suffering in the wake of
Hurricane Ivan. Pastor Coy Rice had contacted us through my website the
latter part of 2004 after Ivan came through. He and the team from Gautier
Baptist Church arrived at the end of March and were able to accomplish much
in the four or five days the team was able to work. They built three or four
homes (14’ X16’) and even rebuilt the upper and main floor for Providence
Bible Church, all on the mainland of Grenada. The folks there were truly
blessed and thankful for the gracious help and encouragement. Brother Coy
had truly wanted to build a couple of homes here on Carriacou, but they did
not have the time. Yet, I was thrilled and thankful for all they
accomplished on the mainland where the help was most needed.
Thanks
for you prayers!
Hurricane Emily Does Much Damage to Carriacou
On
July 13, 2005, we were blasted by our second major hurricane in less than
one year! The eye of Hurricane Emily passed right over us.
We lost power about two A.M., Wednesday
morning, and the wind was much worse that I had anticipated. We had been
expecting a tropical storm, not a hurricane, until a little after midnight
on Wednesday. Some of our windows were broken, and we lost some 14 or 15
pieces of our roofing material. The water poured into half of the top floor
and seeped into the basement where we all were hunkered down to ride out the
storm. We were thankful to have part of the basement kept dry so that we all
were also able to keep dry. However, the inadequacies of our roof
became much more apparent when this storm hit.
The damage was much worse
on Carriacou than when Ivan hit last year. Thankfully, the mainland fared
much better this time. Yet, the storm did much damage to our home and many
other homes and other buildings here – including the meeting place for
Windward Bible Church (WBC), which lost
all of its new galvanized roofing that had been installed the
later part of last year after being damaged by Ivan. (More about WBC church
later.)
The day after Emily
ravaged us, we took the remaining sheets of roofing that remained on our
veranda (i.e., porch) to
replace about fifteen over our living area that were blown off during the
storm. We still have some persistent small leaks, but the house is staying
mostly dry right now. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do for our
meeting place right now. I will say more about this further down and later
in our prayer requests.
With us during the storm
we had a team of fourteen adults and teenagers from Charleston, West
Virginia, and a Bob Jones University (BJU) student that was here doing his
internship! The Lord was gracious and merciful in protecting us all.
The team was from Cross
Lanes Bible Church (CLBC),
our home church, in Charleston, West Virginia. All in the group handled the
storm well and were a tremendous help to us through it and afterwards. They
helped with cleaning up the smelly mess and replacing the missing sheets of
our roofing.
They were originally here
to conduct a Vacation Bible School (VBS) and take over our regular services
from July 9 through the 16th. One to two weeks before the team
arrived, we were told that the Dover Government Primary School was going to
be undergoing renovations, thus, it was necessary to procure the
Hillsborough Community Centre with the Lord’s gracious help. Because of
Hurricane Emily, they were only able to hold one day of VBS at the community
center. That day went very well with nearly seventy children showing up!
That is remarkable because we had never held VBS there before. In any case,
the one day VBS was well received.
The BJU intern student was
Matt Templeton.
He arrived Saturday, May 28th, and remained with us until
Wednesday, August 3rd. He did his internship with us in
preparation to enter his senior year this coming fall. He preached
regularly, led each song service, worked with the teens and children, taught
Sunday School, helped with visitation and witnessing, helped with the bus
ministry, and much more! He was a blessing and encouragement to us the
entire time – including during and after the storm. He also helped much with
cleanup and roof repairs. The folks of Windward Bible Church and we miss him
very much already.
As mentioned earlier, the
roof on our home desperately needs the covering replaced, which was supposed
to be done several months back. However, from what little feedback I have
received, either the contractor or the shipper that is supposed to be
getting the materials has been telling the owner that the materials has not
been available. Yet, most around us have found materials and have already
had their roofs repaired or replace. Even may new homes have been built from
the ground up and those contractors have told me that the materials have
been available on the mainland of Grenada, as well as in St. Vincent and
Trinidad, which are alternate locations used for sourcing materials.
Regardless, it now looks
like we will have ride the remainder of this hurricane season out with a
weak roof. Our hands are tied, unless we foot the estimated $7.000.00 to
$10,000.00 bill – or move. The estimates for the latter part of 2004 were
set at $6,000.00 to $7,000.00, but one contractor volunteered to tell us the
estimate would likely be higher now because of additional damage that has
occurred since. Because the roof is in such bad shape, we have not done any
painting anywhere in the house – including in Jeshua’s room.
Moving
is not likely an option right now. It would be very difficult to find
another house this size, unfurnished, and available for long-term
occupation. It is also very unlikely that we would find another comparable
house available for the same rental cost. Financially, we are not able to
take on more expenses in the form of additional rental cost, even if we
could find another place and move. There are simply not many houses
available for renting on our thirteen square-mile island home of Carriacou.
This hurricane season has
already broken many records. As I recall, the earliest named storm on
record, the earliest major hurricane on record, and the most named storms
this early in the season are just some of the records that have been
shattered already. This morning I watched the weather channel and discovered
that they and others are predicting 18 – 21 named storms and 4 – 6 major
hurricanes this year! There have already been eight named storms and two
major hurricanes – which are usually the average for the entire season!
However, we have not even reached the peak of the hurricane season this
year, which usually occurs in mid September.
Please
pray for our personal safety and the protection of our personal effects
through the hurricane season and until the landlord gets our roof fixed.
News about Windward Bible Church
As I mentioned in my last
prayer letter, the latter part of last year, one of our supporting churches
sent a special gift to start a vehicle fund. I am thrilled to report that in
May someone sent another special gift to bring the total in the bus fund to
$10,000.00 (US$)! After praying and looking high and low, Linda and I
traveled to the mainland of Grenada early in June to check out and
ultimately purchase a used bus that we hope will be reliable, safe, and
trouble free for sometime. It is a 1999 Toyota HiAce 18 passenger bus. The
body and interior look great, and it drives and rides very well. I did spend
some days correcting some wiring problems after we got it. However, many
here have complemented us and told us that they believe we got a very good
deal on it.
We
praise and thank God for this much needed answer to prayer.
Amazingly, our old bus
and the newer one both developed carburetor problems while the team from
Cross Lanes was here! To make a long story short, both carburetors had
clogged jets from fuel deposits. No one had put anything in our fuel tanks,
as both have locked access panels to the fuel fillers. I took them apart and
cleaned them out, and both are running good now. I shared that because I
believe the Enemy himself did that to hinder us along with everything else
that made it necessary to cut the VBS short. Yet, I want to report that the
Enemy did not get the victory here. I will say more about this further down.
As explained already, our
meeting place in the Village of Windward suffered much damage from Hurricane
Emily. It lost all of it new galvanized roofing and over half of our
sanctuary has several inches of standing salt water in it. We will not be
able to hold services there again until a new roof is installed. As a
result, we have been holding services in the basement of our home since the
first Sunday after the hurricane. We put forty chairs out in our open area
and thirty were present!
Before this last storm,
we have been recovering from some problems that had been going on in our
congregation that had been hindering us. The problem had been unbeknownst to
us until the last year or so. The problem has been corrected, and since then
I have seen many that we had not seen for quite some time!
Two of our older ladies
still have physical problems that hinder them from attending services
regularly. Two of them have severe arthritis that seems to be getting worse,
but another has recently returned from the states after undergoing eye
surgery. We are glad to have her back, and she was in our services a few
times since the latter part of June. An older gentleman is still in New York
where he has been working for over a year. He is working and saving to
purchase tools and getting more experience so that he can reopen his auto
repair business when he returns to Carriacou sometime in the future. We also
have a teenager now attending a college in Texas.
Please
remember to pray for the health of Sisters Scott, Stafford, and Williams,
and also Brothers Clement and Alexander.
In the past, we had
hesitated to reach out to those in other communities because we could barely
carry those that had been coming in the one 18-passenger bus we had then.
Our car has been out of commission since about November of last year. Even
when running, it carried only four adult passengers and maybe two small
children. Since we have gotten the additional bus, we have been able to
carry many more.
I hope to install all the
new parts and put the car back together this month. I then hope to sell it
and use what we get out of it to restore our old bus. Alternatively, we
could sell both our car and the old bus and use the proceeds to purchase
another bus to replace the older one.
Please
pray for me to have the wisdom, stamina, and strength to complete the
repairs of our car, and for us to get a good price for it when we sell it.
Also, praise the Lord with us for the new bus for which we are very thankful.
Our new
bus has been used much since we got it – especially during the week of July
26th though the 29th. As I shared above, the VBS at
the Hillsborough Community Center was cut short due to Hurricane Emily.
However, after the team safely returned to the States, the Lord led and
helped WBC to hold a four day VBS at our home here in Meldrum!
The team
from Cross Lanes left many materials that they were unable to use due to the
interruption by the storm. Matt Templeton then devised a new plan, and
working with Linda, and with my oversight and approval, they tailored it to
reach out to most of the children that attend WBC and those that live in our
immediately surrounding neighborhoods.
On the
first day, that Tuesday, about twenty-eight children came from the villages
of Bogles, Beausejour, Belair, Belvedere, Dover, and Meldrum. By the week’s
end, nearly fifty were present. They played games, memorized verses, did
crafts, listened to Bible stories, and competed fiercely in various fun
competitions each day. They worked very hard in doing all the above and
behaving properly to earn ‘Pirate
Pickings’ dollars (in denominations of 1, 5, and 10 dollars) to
purchase various gifts and prizes that were left by the Cross Lanes team.
All together, the little ones and young teens earned and spent more than
$2,400.00 in ‘Pirate Pickings.’
They purchased ‘Hot Wheels’ cars, puppets, watches, pens and pencil, etc.
They also received a tasty treat at the end of each day. They had a
wonderful time! More importantly, they heard the gospel explained clearly
and simply.
Everyone worked together and the VBS went very
well. Many of our adults helped, including Kathleen Alexander, Franklyn
Scott, Jeshua Robinson, and even Mavis Mitchell. Mavis surprised us with a
visit from the mainland, and she joined in to help as well.
We were
touched when the majority of the children responded on the last day to
indicate that they had put their faith in Christ! We praise and thank the
Lord for making the VBS possible, working through each of the adults, and
for reaching into and touching the hearts of the children. Thanks also to
CLBC for the materials that helped make the VBS possible.
Please pray
for the spiritual growth of each child that understood and responded with
open hearts to the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
very likely that very few will receive encouragement and instruction from
parents at home.
Last Chance Ministries Website
I have not
done much to my website this year. Yet, we still get many visitors each day
and notes from them from time to time. I have including a few excerpts here:
From Pakistan
Dear Fellow
worker, Walter Robinson
This is Pastor Muazzam John
the National Director of GPC, We really have enjoyed visiting your web site.
We are pleased to see your plans and purposes for the propagation of good
news in Christ to the whole world. God is in control and He has directed us
to make contact with your ministry.
.......
Dear Heart in Christ, You are
prayerfully invited to Pakistan as God has put in our heart. Yes, we like to
see your ministering in Pakistan. .... We believe that God is going to bring
a great revival through your dynamic ministry and people will see great
works and glorify the Father in Heaven.
Your impressive ministerial
work should be introduced here in Pakistan so as to reduce the tension among
Spiritual Field workers and in this way the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
would grow more and more. So please prayerfully consider your fellow workers
in the Holy Field.
I look forward
to hearing your heart burning desires and vision. You are in the center of
our prayers. We love you. May God bless you and keep you in His love Care!
Amen.
Short and Sweet
From Zarrin Shahr, Iran
TANK YOU
Afshin Telebi
From Capetown,
South Africa
Praise the lord pastor.......
I am a new born-again young
boy studying at the university of Capetown am doing my Msc. in engineering.
I have decided to go back to my lord I was really far away from him and now
have decided to return to him. I
believe in my own I cant but
through prayers I can make it and now am writing this mail to you just to
ask for your prayers and if possible some advices on how to live this life
believing in God and the main thing is how to stay strong in him.
Many Thanks
Gwakisa
From a Missionary
in India
Thank you for including Ford
Porter's tract in Hindi on your website. Very few organizations have such
material....
Bill Patterson
From a Witch in New York;
It really gets me angry how
you call me, alot of my friends and 1/5 of the United States is evil. Yep,
acording to you, Everyone who is Wiccan is evil and goes to hell. Maybe you
should actualy ask a witch about their beleifs before you condem anyone to
your imaganary hell. As for the satanic beleifs, wiccans don;t even beive in
satan. And I really want to know why you think we are evil when we have done
nothing evil to Christians.
(By the
way, there was not one mention of witches on my website at the time this
person left this comment. She simply had searched the internet for
“Christian websites to leave comments.” I included this excerpt to show that
people with all kinds of beliefs find their way to our website in various
ways.)
There are many others have written from time to
time. Some (mostly from Africa) have asked me to send them the MP3 Bible
teaching messages in MP3 format on CDs. For many, internet connections are
still slow and expensive.
There is so much more that could be done with
the internet ministry if I had the resources, time, and help.
Please
remember to pray for the power and effectiveness of the Word of God being
broadcasted through LastChanceMinistries .com and LastChanceMinistries.org,
and WindwardBibleChurch.org.
As I believe you can see, the Lord is using it to reach people in places I
could never reach in person — even witches in New York!
Prayer
Requests and Praise for Answered Prayer
1.
(Ongoing and Urgent.)
As mentioned already, we desperately need the roofing on our home replaced.
Also, pray that we would not get showers or rain while the roof is in the
process of being replaced – whenever it takes place.
2.
(Revised.) We need to get our old car
back in running condition again so that we can sell it. It has been down
since late last year. We plan to use the money to repaint and reupholster
our old bus, or sell the old bus and use the proceeds from both to purchase
another bus.
(We have the parts and I began
reassembling it in June, but had to stop due to back pain, and then being
busy with VBS and hurricane recovery. I hope to complete reassembly this
month, Lord willing.)
3.
(Revised.) We need to sell our old
bus or recondition it. We must constantly watch the temperature gauge and
add water to it because it needs a radiator. It must be replaced soon or we
could lose the engine. (I now
plan to fully restore this bus or sell it and replace it with the money I
hope to get for its sell and the sell of our car after I have gotten it back
in good shape. We need to get $6500.00 to $7,000.00 (US$) from selling them
both. This past May, we received a gracious gift of $9,000.00 to meet our
targeted goal of 10,000.00 to purchase another bus! We found and purchased
another bus in June! This is a big praise and answer to prayer. Please pray
for us to find the exact one the Lord has for us.)
4.
(Ongoing.)
The purchase of welding tanks so that I
can make repairs to our vehicles and the bars on our church building.
5.
(Ongoing.) We need to have a sign
made for our meeting place in Windward for
Windward Bible Church.
6.
(Ongoing.) Purchase of several sheets
of decorative plywood to replace paneling on the walls that was damaged in
our meeting place during the storms and subsequent rains.
7.
(Ongoing.) Completion of electrical
wiring for our meeting place so that we can get our own power meter.
8.
(Ongoing.) A small desk and chair for
my office in our meeting place.
9.
(Ongoing.) Paint to repaint the
concrete floor of our meeting place.
10.
(Revised)
Funds to pay for the purchase of two small window air conditioners and a
closet-shelving organizer arrived in April. We must keep one room in our
house with controlled humidity to protect precious books, electronic
equipment, and recorded media from the salt air and constantly high
humidity. We are currently using my office in our home for this. I estimate
the total cost at $250.00 (US$).
(We
received these items in April. So far, the church that purchased these items
and shipped them to us have not told us how much we need to pay, though I
have phoned the pastor and asked twice. I am currently waiting for his
response. However, I am thankful to report that all shipping and import fees
have been covered! Thus, we will likely only need to pay for purchase cost
for the items.)
11.
(Ongoing.) Funds to
build a restroom attached to our meeting place. We need a toilet, sink,
pump, and other plumbing necessities, construction of a septic tank, and a
small cistern (or tank) to store water caught from the roof.
12.
(Praise!) The team from CLBC brought some seventy of the 100
hymnbooks with them. They have already been put to use and none were damaged
during the storm! We are thankful
and praising God and our people are truly enjoying them.
13.
(Ongoing and Urgent.) For a few additional churches or
individuals to begin to support us until we take furlough next year or in
2007. We would rather take furlough in 2007, but may have to do it in 2006
because of the pressing need of additional support.
14.
(Ongoing and Urgent.) We desperately need another family to
come and work permanently with us in the work here. We need a man to work as
both an assistant pastor and youth pastor. A woman is needed to help in the
ministry to young children and help Linda with ministering to the ladies.
15.
(Ongoing and Urgent.) We will also need one or two families to
take over for us when we do take furlough in 2006 or 2007. We will likely be
on furlough for six to twelve months. I cannot see how we can take furlough
unless we have someone to take over in our absence.
16.
(Ongoing.) Ongoing health and continued improvement for me
(Walter). I have been doing much, much better concerning the health issues
that were treated last year. Linda and Jeshua have also been doing well.
Yet, I have been suffering back pain since the latter part of May after I
pulled the engine out of the car to repair it. Sometimes is just a nagging
nuisance, at other times I need to lie down and try to lay flat until it
gets better.
(Please remember to continue praying for this need, and especially for the
Lord to strengthen my back and heal it.)
17.
(Ongoing and urgent) For guidance and provision as Jeshua
seeks to learn the Lord’s will for his life as he plans to further his
education. He finished his twelfth year and is now looking forward to
attending college. He is interested in medicine – specifically dentistry. He
is considering a couple of schools at this point, one located in Huntington,
West Virginia, and the other in South Carolina. Yet, his mind is not made up
and he is still seeking the Lord leading and provision.
18.
(Ongoing.) Hurricane season is well underway and breaking
records along with our windows and roof. Meteorologist are predicting this
year to be much worst than last year! Some on the mainland and on Carriacou
still had not yet recovered from damage and destruction from last year, and
now they are contending with damage and destruction cause by Hurricane
Emily. Please pray that all of Grenada will be spared from another direct
hit from hurricanes and tropical storms this year.
19.
(NEW and Urgent.)
Proper repair of our meeting place for Windward Bible Church in the Village
of Windward. Our landlord had spent about $3500.00 to buy new roofing
material last year. She is not wealthy and I believe she had to borrow money
to purchase those materials. She has told me that she is hoping to have
someone from Grenada to use as much of the old sheets as possible and to
install them more firmly than last time. However, she cannot say when this
will be done yet.
20.
(New.) We need to replace our old standby generator (made in
the 1960s). I prefer another Onan RV twin-cylinder type rated at five or six
KW, with remote start and shutdown capabilities. Either LPG or gasoline will
work. This type is built to run for long periods and they are rather quiet
and less likely to disturb our neighbors. Our old one is worn out and
burning one quart of oil every one to two hours of operation. A used one in
good condition would be great and cost much less in duties to get it into
the country. This is not a
luxury for us when the current goes out for long periods after a hurricane
or for other reasons. We need it to keep our refrigerator cold and to supply
water to our house by the electric pump.
As
mentioned in our last two prayer letters,
we would like to take furlough in 2006
or 2007 – the Lord Willing. We really do need more support to bring us up to
our set support level. Perhaps you know of a church or pastor that is
looking for, or is open to taking on the support of new missionaries – even
if it is only temporary – until we take our next furlough. If so, please
send me their contact information. Even better, you could put in a good word
and recommend us to them. They can find all the information about us they
would need at:
www.windwardbiblechurch.org
In the mean time, please pray
for new churches, individuals, and groups of like faith to be led to support
us to help meet our current needs.
Lastly, I hope to send some photos and post them on my website when I get
the time to do so. They will be of the team, the hurricane damage, the new
bus, and both Vacation Bible Schools. I would include them here, but this
issue is already long enough. Did I hear someone murmur,
Amen? Shame on you!
J
In any case, stay tuned....
Thanks again to each of
you that stand with us by your prayers, support, and words of encouragement.
You are indeed constantly touching our lives and all those we reach each
day. We are truly thankful to God for each of you.
Still
looking up for Him,
(Signature Omitted For Security Purposes)
Walter
Robinson II
(For all the Robinsons on
Carriacou)
Copyright © 2000 Last Chance Ministries. All rights reserved.
Revised: September 10, 2006.
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