The tale told in reverse because the pictures came out that way. Haphazard indeed my friends... haphazard indeed :).
It was a great time returning to the island and continuing to make progress on the house we were working on a year ago. We poured the roof of the bedroom and helped get the next room ready for the roof to go on as well as other odds and ends. We bless the England family, and in turn their family is a huge blessing to many in their community! We also got to return to Westhaven, a handicapped orphanage, and love on the kids and the staff. We were able to feed the kids and helped do laundry as well as sing and play and dance with the wonderful beauties that live there.
God is good and that is what you like to hear when someone tells you about a mission trip... I know. But seriously how God involved Himself in this trip was remarkable to me and flows directly from the verse above. We didn't have what we needed individually but God gave us all what we needed as a body!
I got sick and didn't have the medicine that I needed but so many people on the trip had medicine to help and one individual actually had the exact pill that brought the cure! Someone on our trip had their bag get lost in transit. But, they received all the things they needed from the group to carry them through until it was recovered and delivered. God allowed the bag they did get through to have the swimsuit and church clothes they needed! I didn't feel the need to give one devotional this trip and I'm grateful because God gave so many members of the team wonderful devotionals to share.
I really appreciate the system of honor that these trips have developed. We all truly believe that we all have something of great value to offer everyone else. There isn't this separation between leadership and the rest of the group, we all take our turn offering what God has provided and we all benefit so much as a result! It's like family, the body working together in harmony, and it is truly beautiful and promotes living from rest!
Okay now the cacophony of photographic bliss that will appeal to the deep center of your heart through the cornea of your eye :).
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| It is good to be home... and I'm tired :) |
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| What a great looking group of missionaries! Christ in them brings hope! |
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| So silly! I love this group! |
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| Dancing during a power outage. Joy when you could complain! Great group, and talented! |
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| I love these guys! It was so great to see them again! I hadn't seen O'Neil in far too long (the one on the left). |
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| Our famous toothbrush parties continued this year :). |
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| Sometimes they turned into toothbrush/dance parties :). Clean teeth is exciting :). |
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| A wonderful evening devotional by our birthday girl. We had two people with birthdays during this trip! They were celebrated well! |
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| We decked and poured this roof over the bedroom! Hard and wonderful work! |
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| My cousin is a great carpenter and had some lovely help filling in some gaps in the back of the house. |
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| These shoes have finally died... very sad to say goodbye... they lasted 16 years and I guess that is pretty good. |
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| As you can see I'm beloved... :) |
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| The lovely birthday ladies! |
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| Tony drinking from my Superman water bottle! Makes me happy :). |
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| We had a traveling Ukulele band with us! |
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| Making our lunches everyday! PB and Jelly/ honey/stuff? |
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| The view from the roof where we stayed all week. |
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| Devotions! Yay! |
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| Church... I forgot my own shirt... but someone had one for me :). |
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| I enjoyed getting to fly with these great people! |
It was fantastic to get back to the island and to be able to love on the people there that mean so much to us! We built a lot more than a cement structure. Some sow and others water but God makes it grow and their was evidence of growth in us and them since we had last visited.
The word here that leaves the greatest impression on me is the word 'can'. I submit that living in fullness and from rest lies somewhere in the idea that when we choose to live like this we can only live from rest. It's not I only do... it's I 'can' only do. I want to live like this, I want to live with the idea that I 'can' only do what I see my Father doing. "Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter but only the one who does the will of my Father"... how better to know the will of the Father than to live this way. I 'can' only do... and so may it be with you!
Thank you for your support and your prayers! This trip was incredible and you are a part of the harmony and blessing and environment that was established here. You prayed for something great to happen and you put your resources behind that and I want to tell you that God came through in a big way, not only in our lives and the lives of the ones we went to love but in the lives of all who saw the 14 lights that walked around and showed Montego Bay what it looked like to live like Christ. The kids sang praises from the beach to the airport from the work site to the last few minutes before sleep. People noticed and were touched and heard truth because the amazing MKs didn't hide the light that God made them into when they decided to follow him! Our guard was particularly blessed by their singing and commented on it several times. We then had many worship sessions with and for him. It is a good thing to praise the Lord!
And I never stop praising Him for you - you who make this possible! Thank you for being a part of something so amazing and special! I love you and I couldn't do any of this without your support!
Pray
My trip to Thailand is coming fast, the tickets are purchased and we are excited. Please pray for God to bring in all the funds for the team! The cost is $2500 per person! We leave the last half of July.
Blessings,
Caleb
If you want to support what I do a little or a lot, on a one time basis or with recurring gifts, click on the tab "Supporting the Work" at the top of the page and sign up for Chase Quickpay. You can then send your donation to HCLC - Caleb Robbins Ministry using my e-mail address caleb_robbins@sil.org. If you would like further instructions on setting that up, please click on the link at the top right of the page called How to give. Or feel free to contact me directly! 214 558 8431.
Another way to donate to my ministry is via check. If you write a check to "Holy Cross Lutheran Church" and put "Caleb Robbins Ministry" in the memo line it will get deposited into my ministry account.
The address is:
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
4400 W Arkansas Ln, Arlington, TX 76016
Diane is my beautiful wife and the mother of my precious children Creed 10, Asher 8, Liam 6, Echo already in heaven, Bella 3, and Serenity 1 year old.
