Blog 127... 8 years in the making :)

Wow! I can't believe I have been doing this for 8 years. My prayer request in my first Blog was that God would support this ministry and keep me at full support...My goodness - has that been answered with a resounding YES!

Here is a look at that first blog 8 years ago... feel free to read or skip onto the pictures and the current blog :). 

This is my first Blog post and it will be very candid :). I want this to be a place where you can come and get a real look into what is going on in my life. I like my newsletters to look good and sound good and I have my wife the master editor help me with that. Here is a place where you may have to struggle through some of my more common mistakes with grammar but in exchange you will get a real look into what I am thinking (if you can decipher it, says Diane). Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

The background picture is me and my good friend Nathan T. blowing kerosene on a flaming stick. Yes this was incredibly fun and we did it twice and then probably blew up some mini propane tanks in the fire sending flaming logs of death everywhere.

As an MK in Cameroun this place which I called NKobesan (yeah misspelled for sure) was a sanctuary where all my pyrotechnic desires could be released. I went up this little mountain several times a year with good friends to camp over night. The view from the top over looks the city and is cool and comfortable until about 7 or 8 in the morning when the bugs and sun drive you back down the mountain to showers and other silly things.

I remember early in the morning looking down and worshiping God and thanking him for this place to get away. The cool breeze was rare in Yaoundé and this was a great place, although somewhat hard to get to, to find it in great abundance.

God was working in my heart then stirring me to be more then I could ever hope and dream to be. I was 17 in that picture and I'm 30 now and that great, awful, wonderful, mighty, Holy Spirit that danced played and drew me into worship then is still working hard to do the same with me now!

My heart is bursting with joy because I'm staring my dream (full time youth ministry) right in the face and it looks way more beautiful then any of the views from the top of Nkobesan. Like that mountain God created and formed this dream for me so that I can live it with him and for him.

Dallas MKs here I come arms wide open to embrace the joy the Lord has set before me. I marvel at how our wonderful God uses the weak things and the foolish things of this world the things that don't make sense in our lives and in our past to make our future exactly what it should be and really if we are lucky to see it and grasp it, make our present a truly divine gift!

Thank you Lord for the 18 years you gave me living in Africa as an MK. Thank you for the times on the mountain top and the times in the valley I know they have all served your purpose. Thank you for leading me here and for helping me get ready to stand in the place you have prepared. I love you with all my heart!

March 4th the adventure begins! The last ten years have been awesome working at the Courtyard and I will deeply miss my friends there. I know that some of them will be life long friends and others will be like the hundreds of friends I had growing up in a world that was constantly moving, friends that I am so grateful to have known for a time and hope to see again in an eternal future. One thing I am sure of, our lives are meant to be shared, relationship is essential and at the end of the day I'm not sure what is more eternal than the love shared with our Lord and with those he has put in our path.

Thank you all for being a part of my adventure, for your support that keeps me going for your prayers that sustain me, for your love that enriches my life. Let us keep on loving and serving each other as we look to the Father.

I'm sitting in my office enjoying the sun and pondering a line from a poem by J.R.R. Tolkien..."The old that is strong does not wither." It reminds me of Moses who went to his grave full of life - the life that comes from being close to Jesus, whose Spirit also gives life to our mortal body... 

Okay enough of that... let's get onto the puppies!!!! Our family has decided that we want to adopt one and maybe even two puppies. Here you see them and I know that you want to adopt them too because they are so cute... if all goes well, we will have one or both of them today!

We endured the snowmaggedon that was a couple weeks ago here in Dallas. Records were broken, and it was very costly and very cold and kinda magical and felt a little like I went on vacation somewhere. The internet was the only thing that was in and out for us thankfully and that made for some fun family times, no internet and no working, so we played... as you can see! God favored us with power and heat and kept our house safe from any damage. One day I crawled under the house to unfreeze some pipes and that was actually a great adventure, and the only real drama we endured. Our hearts went out to our neighbors who were without power and gas and water during the week. Thanks for your prayers for us during that time! One other casualty was that the school that my middle 3 children attend had a pipe burst and this is Week Two of remote learning for them. I have taken them into work with me to give my wife some sanity and the amazing grandparents are helping with the task. It truly does take a village and I'm grateful to have a very large one!

Tired and cold kids got pulled by Diane the amazing!

A mile a day even when it's in the teens! I had good company!

The snow was pretty but not great for making a snowman... as you can see!

How many robins do you see? Must have been at least a 100!

We walked to the most dramatic hill we could find and went sledding on the lid to our kids play chest! 

MK is going so well these days! On my 8-year anniversary, it just so happened to be a Monday and the first Monday that we were able to meet in person again! I always forget these things but my hero Bob Alber sent me a congratulatory text and brought back the feels. God knew and I felt very celebrated. It went really well! We had 27 kids in person and 15 on Zoom! It was amazing! I'm hopeful that we can do this more often but we will be back on Zoom only again next week.   

The first and maybe now the last kid we will visit now that we are back person! Getting face time in person has been so meaningful during this long season of Covid-19. 

My neighbor needed their tree cut down and I knew just the person for the job! My friend Joel Satre also helped quite a bit! It's nice to be able to still do some service projects during this time and to have some help was really awesome. Also as a bonus, I got to replenish my depleted firewood stack. People who didn't have any power or gas came and asked if they could have some of my wood and I was grateful to oblige. When it was all said and done, I had one lonely row of wood left, but God was smiling because He knew that the blessing of service and wood was right around the corner! 

This is long and needs to come to a close! Thanks for being with me on this 8 year journey. I'm hopeful for many more years to come! I'm trusting God and grateful that He has kept me from withering! I feel stronger now and more hopeful than I ever have and I know that is because I have partners like you praying for me and my family and giving faithfully to see His Kingdom come! You are my heroes, my friends and my family and I'm so so grateful for you! 

"Deep roots are not reached by the frost" - Tolkien

                           

Please praise God with us for His goodness and all that He is doing! 

Please pray for us as we adopt puppies and wisdom in leading this youth group during a pandemic. May the pandemic come to a swift end and please keep Diane in your prayers with her panic and anxiety attacks! 

Love you all so much!😁😁😁

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 the 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 13, Asher 11, Liam 9, Echo already in heaven, Bella 6, and Serenity 4 years old.