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The Robinsons’ Herald
E·mail 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
five-page 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.
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.
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 deleted from online version for
security reasons)
Walter Robinson II
(For all the Robinsons on Carriacou)
Copyright © 2000 Last Chance Ministries. All rights reserved.
Revised: March 18, 2008.
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