This page contains e·mail updates and
e·mail
versions of the
Robinsons' Herald that covers September 5 to the end of 2001.
Sept 5,
2001
September thru December
2001
September 5
e·mail update,
Dear Friends and
Supporters of the Robinsons,
We are thankful to report
that we have had a good trip down south. I (Walter) also got a good report
from a doctor of internal medicine who performed some last minute tests on
me because of some stomach problems I have been having for a few weeks. He
did an abdominal ultrasound and upper GI endoscope examine of the stomach
with routine biopsies. I saw him earlier today (Wednesday, September 05,
2001) and he reported that everything came back clean and okay.
We finished packing and
closing a crate later on today and have just about finished last minute
packing of bags that we plan to carry on the plane and also check in.
We plan to leave the
missionary apartment of Cross Lanes Bible Church at 5:00 AM and fly out of
Yeager Airport [Charleston, WV) at 7:00 AM. We are scheduled to make three
changes (Dulles International; Dallas, Texas; and San Juan, Puerto
Rica
L]
and finally arrive at Point Salines
International on the mainland of Grenada at 10:12 PM. Please pray for us
during the entire duration of the flight and especially as we clear
immigrations and customs at the end.
We will likely be out of
e·mail contact for a few days until I get my overseas internet serviced
reestablished. We will try to write as soon as possible. Thanks for your
prayers ahead of time.
Still looking up,
Walter Robinson II
The Robinson’s Herald
December 12, 2001
(E·mail version revised
for posting on LCM)
September through December 2001
Greetings from ‘Next to Heaven’ in
Carriacou,
Grenada,
West Indies!
NOTE: Our praises and prayer requests are enumerated at the end of this
letter. This letter is quite long, but it is designed to supply information
for some that want to know “everything” that is happening. Those that are
more interested in our praises and prayer requests can simply page down
until you get to that section. Thanks.
We are
getting into my favorite season for the southern Caribbean. The temperatures
are milder, ranging from the upper 70s at night to the mid 80s in the day.
The foliage is lush, green, and generally picturesque. Our cistern is
running over and most of the island’s ponds are nearly full or full.
Most
of you should have received an e·mail update shortly after we initially
returned to Carriacou on September 7, 2001. This letter will provide more
details and bring you up-to-date on what has happened since.
We
were thankful to find our home and pets in fine shape just as we had left
them in January of last year. We were pleasantly surprised at our first
service at Windward Bible Church (WBC) with nearly thirty people coming out!
I believe some of those came out of curiosity to see what was going on, but
about twenty of them were the faithful ones we had been accustomed to seeing
before the accident on Christmas Eve of last year. It was a blessing to see
all, exchange hugs, and to get caught up on what had been happening in their
lives over the last nine months.
We
did, however, miss seeing one young lady since we have returned. She is in
her early twenties and had traveled to England for job related activities.
She had been saved early last year and showed much growth and zeal for the
Lord Jesus. I had spoken with her about her need to be baptized, but before
I could follow up further, I was injured in the accident and had to travel
stateside for treatment. Thankfully, she did follow through and allowed
another missionary lady here to spend a few weeks teaching and preparing her. She was
baptized shortly before she left for
England!
It is truly a blessing to have believers take that step in becoming a
disciple of Jesus Christ.
We are
deeply thankful to other missionaries here for stepping in and filling the gap to carry
on the work of Windward
Bible
Church
in our absence. It took much work and sacrifice on their part to fill in for
us. Thanks to them and their families for their help.
In
addition, some of them—and several from the congregation of WBC—painted part
of the sanctuary walls white! Years ago, I had met Jeff Dworsky, a
man from Maine that was visiting Carriacou. We soon became good friends, and
he periodically returns to visit. Jeff visited the island early this year,
attended a service, and contributed money for the purchase of materials to
paint the sanctuary. The walls really look nice now thanks to his
contribution and the labor of those who did an excellent job painting. I
hope to have our website updated with photos in the next couple of weeks.
When I have done so I will e·mail the link to you so you can take a look if
you desire to do so.
Another missionary family are currently working with us at Windward Bible
Church. They have been transporting people to and from services, which is a
tremendous help.
We
have now expanded our Sunday School ministry, which is something that we
have wanted to do for years. I am currently continuing to teach the adults
and teens in Sunday School. Linda is teaching the children eight years old
and younger.
We are
currently preparing to visit the two nursing homes and the one hospital on
the island on Christmas Eve as we have for several years. We will probably
leave home about 9:00 AM. We plan to offer an abbreviated part of our Christmas
program, present a brief evangelical message of hope to focus on the
greatest gift ever given, and then offer each patron or patient a plate that
contains fruit, some type of treat, and a Bible tract. It will probably end
with our folks meeting at our house or the church where we will enjoy
fellowship until about
6:00 pm.
The Christmas and New Years
season is often filled with much revelry and partying for most of the
island. Three of the worst days of this ungodliness are referred to as "Parang."
Some have told me that this is also referred to as the “Bacchanal.” This is
one of the “works of the flesh” that is mentioned in Galatians 5:21 as
“revelings.” Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says the following about the
original expression translated as such:
... a nocturnal and riotous
procession of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who after supper parade
through the streets with torches and music in honour of Bacchus or some
other deity, and sing and play before houses of male and female friends;
hence used generally of feasts and drinking parties that are protracted till
late at night and indulge in revelry
Such is the behavior
connected with the Parang holidays here on Carriacou. There will likely be
much drunkenness and super loud worldly music going on if this year’s
activities are like those of the past. At best, it is something that mature
believers shun. Some of us will have to endure it if we happen to find
ourselves living next to someone who wants to fill the neighborhoods with
the music of their choice.
On a more positive note, we
just finished a week of special meetings with Evangelist Glenn Mathews of
Revival Times Crusades. The Harbour Light Radio Station hosted them as part
of the station's 10 year broadcasting anniversary. The meetings were held in
the rented community center in Hillsborough. Thursday night last week two
teen girls went forward and professed faith in Christ. The meetings were
very good and our family personally enjoyed having another West Virginian on
the island. We also took the time to paint the floor of WBC! Some of the
other missionaries here—and even the guest evangelist, Glenn Mathews—helped us put
down two heavy coats. Linda, Jeshua, and some people from our congregation
also helped. The floor looks very nice now, and we are very thankful. As
mentioned above, I hope to post photos on our website in the near future. So
stay tuned.
The Robinsons also had the
privilege of gathering with other American missionary families at one of
their homes for the American Thanksgiving celebration. There was plenty
of good food, fellowship, and singing that lifted our spirits.
When
we are not having services, special meetings, or engaging in other types of
ministry, I have been working on some “projects” to repair some equipment
that we depend upon and use frequently. For example, it took me until the
middle of November to get our four-wheel drive 1987 Dodge Colt Vista back
into service. It still needs to have an axle boot replaced and much rust to
repair, but it is running good right now. The bus also has much rust that
must be repaired soon. Both need painting to make them more presentable as
vehicles that are used in ministry.
When
we initially returned to Carriacou on September 7, our old stove had only
three burners that still worked. A couple of weeks after we arrived, it
developed a big gas leak in the pilot light supply tubing that resulted in a
fire that could have been disastrous if we had not caught it quickly and got
it shut off! About a week after that, another burner stopped working due to
rust eating a hole in the supply manifold, which is what caused the other
one to stop working about a year earlier. We were truly glad when our crate
finally arrived a month ago that contained the replacement stove.
Short
of a few scratches on the oven door handle (that I should be able to easily
cover) it looked just fine. The next day I spent some three hours installing
the liquid propane gas (LPG) conversion kit and hooking the stove up to the
LPG supply and electricity. I am thrilled and happy to report that it works
beautifully! The ignition is completely electronic, so we no longer need to
use matches whenever we need to light a burner. In addition, since this
stove does not have a pilot light for the oven, we hope to cut down on our
LPG costs considerably. This is a blessing every way we look at it!
I also
have two other items that I have not been able to repair yet. Our six year
old electronic keyboard is giving us a lot of trouble right now. It is an
Alesis QS-6 that is supposed to be a top notch and dependable instrument.
However, it has had problems from the first year we got it and placed it
into service. We now have to turn it off and on severable times to get it to
work. I checked everything possible and it seems the motherboard (computer
circuitry) is dying a slow death. Eventually I expect it to stop working
altogether and we will have
to replace it. I suspect that replacing the motherboard would cost more than
a suitable replacement. This time I will likely seek to acquire a Yamaha
keyboard, a brand that I have found to be not only much less in cost, but
also much more dependable and durable.
Our
seven or eight year old Minolta EP-5400 copier is still down, hence I can
only send out mostly e·mail versions of our prayer letters. Like the
keyboard, it has an electronic problem that I have not yet been able to
pinpoint. I have even sent most of the circuit boards to a special facility
in the states to have them diagnosed and repaired, but they found nothing
wrong with them. I can only hope that the problem is a poor connection, an
intermittent short, or a defective sensor of sorts. I have spoken to a
Minolta technician via phone in the past, but he was not able to help
either. We really do need a copier on a weekly—if not daily basis. The last
time we had copies made in town at the secondary school, they cost about
forty cents (US$) per side of each copy—and they could be made only when the
copier was working, which was too often not the case.
On a more personal note, we
are all doing okay health wise. Jeshua is still growing and is now
noticeably taller than his mom. He is also getting on with his schoolwork.
Linda is quite busy preparing the children for the Christmas program, home
schooling Jeshua, and unpacking and putting away items that she had put in
the crate.
I am still moving slowly
and trying to be careful not to do anything to hurt my leg. In August, the
surgeon that repaired my leg told me that it will take several more months
for the fracture to fill in completely, thus I must go slow and not over do
it. A few times my leg has gotten very stiff and even painful for reasons I
do not yet understand. Sometimes the episodes are followed by cool rainy
weather, but not always. I also still have to contend with the ongoing
discomfort that is caused by the chronic prostatitis and lower intestinal
problems. Yet, when compared to a few years back I believe I am getting
better, however slowly. Lastly, and as I mentioned in passing above, about
four weeks back I came down with a very bad cold that made me feel pretty
bad for about two weeks. About three days into it, I broke a tooth while
eating popcorn! I had had a root canal performed on it about ten years ago,
and it has been filled two or three times. Six days after it broke, and I
began to get over the cold and feel better, I caught the ferry over to the
mainland to have the tooth extracted. The gum has mostly healed up and I am
doing much better now.
Our
current praises and prayer requests are listed as follows:
PRAISES
-
Crates and contents arrived safely
-
Provision and installation of replacement stove
-
Grenada Customs treating us reasonably when we imported our crate and
goods into the country
-
Attendance at Windward Bible Church services is good
-
Finally getting our Vista station wagon back on the road
-
Painting the cement floor of our meeting place the first week of December
PRAYER
REQUESTS
Robinson Family personal requests:
-
Walter’s continued strengthening and healing of leg.
-
More repairs that need to be made on our car and bus
-
Repair of our copy machine that I have not yet been able to diagnose
properly.
- The
supplying of a much needed gas welding kit
-
Solving our piano problems
Windward
Bible
Church
prayer requests:
- A
young lady that made a recent profession of faith in Christ. I have spoken
to her about her need to be baptized, but she had not made a commitment to
do so.
-
Same lady mentioned above and her boyfriend to make the commitment to
marriage and make the necessary preparations.
-
Spiritual growth for another young lady, 18, who made a profession of
faith in Christ a few weeks ago
-
Another woman and her two oldest children (boy, 15 and girl, 13) to commit
to being baptized
-
Baptism preparation class for those committing to be baptized.
- A
young man,
18, and another young woman Wendy, 22, who have committed to be baptized
and take the class
-
Upcoming services to the two nursing homes and the hospital on Carriacou
on Christmas Eve.
-
Linda working with the children in preparing them for the Christmas
program
- Two
older women in our congregation that have ongoing heath problems. One is
recovering from cataract surgery, and the other is suffering from chronic
high blood pressure.
- A
gentleman who is suffering with a severe cold or flue that has him staying
in bed most of the time. His sugar is also somewhat elevated right now.
We give thanks to God, and
to all our supporters and prayer partners. Your faithfulness has been a
source of continual encouragement in ways that are difficult to express in
words. Thanks again!
Still looking
up for Him as your coworkers,
Walter Robinson II for the Robinson Family
Copyright © 2000 Last Chance Ministries. All rights reserved.
Revised: June 13, 2006.
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