I've been told that love means never having to say that you are sorry... well I guess I don't love you all very much because I'm going to say it... I'm sorry for taking so long between posts! I'm going to try and make this as succinct as possible so that you will actually take time out of your valuable day and look at it a little bit.
To quote Dak Prescott... Here we go!
First, I will spare you millions of pictures... and instead give you millions of slide shows... with millions of pictures ;). To start, here is a great compilation of life from November thru the Superbowl... pictures of my Birthday, Christmas, FORT events and much more. I hope you love it!
It was a real joy being home from end of October thru February! I loved the holidays with my family and friends! We had an amazing Talent Show and Silent Auction where God truly blessed us with a great turn out financially! Here is a special treat for you... Asher performing stand up comedy!
I got older and felt loved, the year ended with a bang... mostly from Fireworks... and January brought some really fun cold weather and subsequent time off of school for the kids... and also a call back to the great COVID days where FORT was on Zoom. Fun stuff! January also continued the tradition of the Cowboys valiantly taking an immediate play off exit and me going through my favorite January tradition of anger and frustration at a great season that ended poorly, only to greatly anticipate a Chiefs Superbowl win and then more very well founded hopes that this next year is in fact the Cowboys year, I've only been off by one year for the past 20 years... it's like the Tomorrow song... it's only a season away :).
Boston!
This trip was the first in a two-part trip where I would be away from home for a very long time. It was great to have Diane with me for the first part, and great to leave her behind for the second... no, not really :). It felt favored and anointed. God used His people to lavish us with love and the whole trip was so much fun, from touring Boston to sharing my messages on storms in New Hampshire. It was so much fun to be able to have Diane there to talk through my sermons with and debrief afterwards and the generosity of the church was incredible!
I miss my cousin and his family so much! Jordan picked me up at the airport and the rest was just awesome. So incredible to be back in the place I great up in. Everywhere had a memory, from my first kiss, to breaking my arm (similar experiences... no, not really). My cousin lives in the house I lived in when I was there in High School, and I was able to get to know his precious family so well. There were so many moments where I was hanging out with him and another great friend I went to HS with and felt so blessed to be back with such good friends. You can't make "old friends" and there is nothing like them; we don't keep in touch, we just pick up where we left off.
I did a Men's Retreat to start and then did the Spiritual Retreat for my RFIS. I loved going to school with Jordan and living the day with him! He's the Athletic Director, PE Teacher and co-founder of Petrichor (a soccer club). He's busy, full of life, full of God and great at making coffee. It was a joy to get a real taste of his life. The messages were received so well! I got great street food, was harrased by police, went canoeing on the river... it was awesome!
There were lots of highlights, but two things really stand out...
1. I told the kids I love Way Maker... 3 of them sang it during Karaoke!
2. I talked about a challenge I do here in the U.S. called 20/20 Bringing God into Focus. 20 minutes a day of concentrated prayer for 20 days. One of the teachers challenged the whole school to do this!
My flight was cancelled and that gave me one extra day in a place that feels like home with people I love! It was so special.
It was great getting home after all that time away and then I was thrown right back into the thick of things with a FORT campout and then training the next week. I was really tired by the time it was finished and have still been seeking rest where I can find it. Spring is here and the mowing has begun. I love working in my garden and listening to interesting things while I mow!
The Campout!
It was really special to have me whole family there for part of the time! What a great trip! I love working with these amazing MKs!
Well, I hope you liked this format... I don't know that I will always be the slide show guy, but for this one it felt appropriate. I encourage you to get a hold of me if you want to hear more about any of these adventures. I have included my sermons so that you can get a taste of what God has been doing in my life lately. I'm looking forward to sharing these messages here as well. It feels good being used in the Kingdom... and I recognize that I couldn't' do any of this without YOU! Thanks for your financial support and your spiritual support. I feel you with me while I'm out there, and while I'm here too! Spurring me on and encouraging and comforting me along the way.
I'm about to head out again, this time to Uganda! Please pray for that trip to go well. Also please pray for the ministry here, one of our families lost a 19-year-old child and we are all grieving.
Thanks for your faithful partnership!
Blessings,
Caleb
If you want to support what I do a little or a lot, on a one time basis or with recurring gifts, the easiest was is to use Zelle. You can follow this link zellepay or scan the code below. That will start the process of getting you set up to use Zelle with your bank or If you already use Zelle it will direct you to the banking app you use and give you instructions from there. To send me money use my email caleb_robbins@sil.org. If you would like any help setting that up feel free to contact me directly! 214 558 8431.
Another way to donate to the ministry if Zelle isn't an option 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. If you would rather set up a bill pay or have any other questions you can call the Church at 817-451-7561. Let them know you want to Support Caleb Robbins and his ministry serving Missionary Kids.
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 16, Asher 14, Liam 12, Echo already in heaven, Bella 9, and Serenity 7 years old.
I hope and trust that this blog finds you well and cozy and enjoying some nice cool temperatures and a heart ready for the joy of the Holydays!
So much has happened since I last wrote... let's start with this video recap of our F.O.R.T. camp this year. We went to a brand new location and enjoyed one of our best camps ever. I co-taught with my amazing colleague, Nad, some lessons that I had prepared back in 2014. This group had never heard them and with a few touch ups, they were ready to go. The camp was so fun, with dancing in the rain, laughter and great connections to put a nice bow on our new camp spot (hopefully) for years to come!
Diane turned older!!! My parents spent some time in Cameroon this fall and during that time Diane was able to get a weekend away at their place to relax. All my trips have added a lot to her already busy life, so it was her turn to get away. A really fun part of the weekend was getting to go with her to "the best concert" we have ever been to! Kings Kaleidoscope was so good and dropping her off afterwards at the apartment made me feel like we were back dating again before we were married. It was so fun!
Last year I missed her 40th birthday because I was in Malawi doing Trauma Healing... this year we tried to make up for it with a much deserved birthday weekend away with friends. It was so nice to get away and celebrate my amazing wife!
Speaking of amazing women in my life... here is the incredible Serenity! She finally got to have her birthday party in September... just 5 months after her real birthday. Kind of cool to get two birthdays in a year :).
October is the birthday month to end all birthday months... especially when you celebrate birthdays late :). Liam got to go see his favorite band (Owl City) with one of his favorite people (Diane) for his birthday. What a cool kid... he's like a son to me... very very much like one!
I was sad to miss his actual birthday as I was headed back overseas on my last trip of the year! It is so hard to keep saying goodbye, especially to this sweet Bella girl. She takes it the hardest of all my kids and it was so sweet of her to come to the airport and see me off.
Getting to Tanzania was a miracle, especially since all our luggage also made it. We had so many tight connections, but the tightest one was in Doha where our next flight was already boarding as we were getting off the plane. That was a bit stressful! But God is so faithful and got us and our luggage there! That was nice since after we landed we immediately got on a 7 hour bus ride. There was no way to wait for and recover lost bags.
While I was gone, Diane got to run Ragnar again, her third year going! She did great and had a blast! It made our time away fly by!
Tanzania was so fun! I love Africa and I love being able to server PBT there. It's my first time since 2016 doing an overseas trip for my own organization and it was such a treat to get to know the missionaries and their families better.
We had some fun on zip lines and I loved being able to give a mini sermon (if you can believe that I can even do that) out on these rocks. We had a great group and went through some lessons that Nad and I developed together and tested out on our youth group here first. There are four lessons that go from recognizing and articulating what you believe to creating a training program for your soul and then letting go of all the things that get in the way of you knowing God. It was so good!
We spent a lot of time traveling on a bus. In fact we spent more time traveling to and from than actually enjoying being there. The location was great, the group was so fun to be with and I treasure the relationships that were built with the youth! I look forward to seeing them again and to have the joy of continuing to serve more and more PBT families overseas. A fun bonus was getting to see giraffe, elephant, baboon, and zebra while driving through the game park.
I got back and immediately was reminded that I'm in concert season with my wife and family. Diane and Creed and I got to go see one of Creed's favs, Judah and the Lion... who were opening for one of my favs, Needtobreathe.
The day after that was a karaoke birthday party for a good friend Bri. It was so much fun being able to sing my heart out! All these events helped me stay awake and get over jet lag quick!
After all this travel it's been really nice to be home! Another friend, Rodney, came and gave his testimony at youth group the Monday after I got back. He knocked it out of the park! He's a teacher and really knows how to connect with our kids well. I really enjoyed getting to know him better through what he shared.
We love costumes! Diane just likes to dress this way and kiss her muscles in public, so this photo is unrelated. Isn't she strong!
It happened... my girls won some goldfish! They are now dead... the goldfish, not the girls. They were fun for the week that they were here, probably the best week of their lives.
The Fall Festival at my church got cancelled for the first time since I've been going to it. Too much rain! But we still had the MKs over for a fun movie afternoon and watched "Meet the Robinsons" One of my favorites!
We have finally started doing lunches with the kids again! Schools are harder to get into, but since we have some home schoolers we can do lunch in the dining hall here on campus. It's great to see MKs present and past join us! Once an MK, always an MK!
Guys group is working on making some great items for our fundraiser coming up! The Talent show and Silent Auction! Yay! I'm so grateful that my volunteer Jeremy is so good at making things... good enough that we can actually auction them.
Asher decided he wanted to go to a concert too! We took him to see ARIZONA... on the night the Rangers won the World Series! It was so fun seeing how the band responded... kinda ironic given the team the Rangers beat was from Arizona :). They stopped the show and made a toast to the team and walking back to the car through downtown Dallas after the concert was so fun. People were definitely out celebrating!
When the Rangers won the game someone from the crowd threw a jersey to the lead singer signaling the victory. He put it on and kept it on the rest of the concert. It was so cool!
I still love getting in costume... especially when the costume is close to what I would wear any way.
I can't tell you how many anniversaries I've celebrated overseas with my wife, or sadly without her. This year we celebrated apart - I was in Thailand and she was in Duncanville. But we finally got away together for a couple of days and got to enjoy a Serenity birthdayesque celebration, 4 months after our actual anniversary.
We went to Frederiksberg for 3 nights and did the things. What a joy to have 20 years with this beauty, and hoping for at least 20 more! Diane, you are truly my best friend and it's a great privilege to do life with you!
There you have it... you are all caught up on what's going on... Next week I will celebrate my birthday and Thanksgiving and then we will start the final countdown until Christmas! I'm so thankful that I'm here until February! I just got my tickets to Cameroon yesterday. Please be praying for that trip with me. I go first to Boston to do a retreat (hoping Diane can come too) and then I fly from there to Cameroon to do a Men's retreat and then speak at my high school retreat. I did that in 2014 when I last did the relationship lessons we shared at camp this year.
Pray for good connection with my family and an ability to feel rooted here while I'm here. Pray for me as I plan these future lessons, that God would speak His words through me to others. Pray for my support that seems to ebb and flow. I trust that God will continue to provide...Pray that he would continue to bring in the money for the trips I take and for all the other day to day things. I have lost some support since COVID and with the changing economy.
If you are interested in one time opportunities to join my team or regular ones please let me know. My trip to Cameroon will cost $1,100 for the tickets and visa.
I praise God for you and all the ways your prayers transform my life in many ways that I may never know. Thanks for being there for my family as I'm traveling and while I'm here! Thanks for your encouragement and for being such a big part of all the things that God is doing in my life! I can't do this job without your backing and as a result you are such a big partner in all the good work that God is doing! Thank you so much! Ten years at this and hoping and trusting God for many many more!
My final thoughts...
God is teaching me about storms as I prepare my lessons on the topic "Through the Storm." Jesus tells us that putting his words into practice is how we build our house on the rock and remain through the storm. I'm trying to be faithful to not just read, but learn how to practice what I read as I go through the Bible. One thing that I've been trying to figure out is how to determine what kind of storm I'm in while I'm in it. Some storms Jesus quiets miraculously, and expects his followers to learn how to do the same. Other storms are opportunities for God to be glorified and for us to grow. They can't be avoided, they are a part of following. I hope that when you find yourself in a storm you are able to see what kind of storm it is and respond in a way that grows your faith, glorifies God, and prepares you to thrive and help others thrive in the next one!
Blessings,
Caleb
If you want to support what I do a little or a lot, on a one time basis or with recurring gifts, the easiest was is to use Zelle. You can follow this link zellepay or scan the code below. That will start the process of getting you set up to use Zelle with your bank or If you already use Zelle it will direct you to the banking app you use and give you instructions from there. To send me money use my email caleb_robbins@sil.org. If you would like any help setting that up feel free to contact me directly! 214 558 8431.
Another way to donate to the ministry if Zelle isn't an option 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. If you would rather set up a bill pay or have any other questions you can call the Church at 817-451-7561. Let them know you want to Support Caleb Robbins and his ministry serving Missionary Kids.
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 16, Asher 13, Liam 12, Echo already in heaven, Bella 8, and Serenity 7 years old.
Don't start here... oh no... here is the order (with links to show you that I want to make it easy and that I understand technology :) that you should read them in. Don't worry... this is the last one and has no links in it... other than the ones below...
If he really understood technology, wouldn't he just have posted these in the correct order? Good question...
Myanmar. The third and final overseas destination on my busy summer of traveling! I was home about two weeks after Thailand... just enough time to get over jetlag before heading back. I had a great final day with my family before heading off to the airport to start my lonely journey to a country just a little north and half an hour behind time wise from the last country I had been to.
God smiled on me and I had three seats to sleep across on my 13 hour flight to Seoul. I nearly fell asleep at a lounge in Seoul before getting on my final flight to Bangkok. Great flight! I slept nearly the whole time and arrived at midnight. I gathered my bag and headed to the hotel and met James Covey for only the second time ever in person.
The trip into Myanmar was fairly seamless. We met up with a nice missionary in Yangon who took us out for a nice lunch of authentic Myanmar food. This is a popular breakfast dish.
The fun really started when we got to Myitkina. It has the most interesting and tiny airport I have ever seen. The tiles in the baggage claim have not been glued down, most of them are broken. There is no luggage carousel, you just go and get your bags off the cart as it is pulled closer to the terminal. They checked our visa and passport yet again and made sure they knew where we were staying and then talked to the guy who picked us up and got his number. They then called him a few days later to verity that we are actually staying at the hotel where we booked. Foreigners can only stay in designated hotels... we couldn't stay with the team even if we wanted to. There are many closed off areas to foreigners. When he called our host later on to check in on us they realized they are from the same people group, language crosses barriers! Now they are friends.
The hotel had nothing for us to eat, but it is sandwiched between two other really nice hotels that do have kitchens open for dinner. After a nice meal we went to bed. James is coming from Spain... a whole different jet lag than Dallas. While we were together I would get up really early and he would stay up really late.
Amazing carving outside a restaurant you are about to see.
Facilitator dinner the first night! Amazing food on the river.
I love interesting vehicles!
The labyrinth of forgiveness. It's not a straightforward process!
I love seeing the creative ways facilitators from different countries come up with to teach the material. This is fight flight or freeze... if your Burmese is a bit rusty.
James and David! What a fun couple of guys!
Indian food with Tom and his wife! Tom was a widower who remarried someone from Myanmar. He lived in Yangon through COVID and the coup and now lives there permanently working with the Seed company. A very cool story!
Trip advisor recommended visiting this temple. Really cool from the outside. Not a lot from trip advisor in the area :). There is a great pizza place just past the temple.
The door into a church, inlaid with jade. Amazing.
Our fantastic gifts! They are so generous!
The incredible group!
I love watching them doing with the youth what we just did with them!
James and I visited the four groups of teens before he left. They were in two locations.
My amazing $6 haircut that cost me most of my beard. But the shampooing and head massage and facial cleansing was incredible. That is before the beard left me. No I'm not sharing a picture of the loss.
The training was fantastic. How often do you get to do Teen Trauma Healing with one of the authors?! It is so cool to learn from James and hear the things that didn't quite make it into the book and also understand the behind the scenes better. James and I are very similar, both extraverts, both up for a good time and full of energy and with a similar sense of humor. I had such a blast working with him and having fun with him while he was here. He left Saturday and I'm here until Thursday.
I have never done the training with a translator before, this was a new and growing experience. Sometimes you say a few words and it turns into a long translation and vice versa. Overall it was great having James to share the load with and to watch and learn from.
David is our host and an amazing man with a heart of gold! He did all the translating and is local and speaks incredible English. He is behind bringing Children's, now Teens, and Adult Trauma Healing to this area through a capable team that he has mostly hand picked. He showed us where he plans to build the future TH headquarters.
Things here are very cheap due to radical inflation. No one wants this currency, unless you are here and must use it. Once you have it, it's yours and you can't turn it back into dollars or even baht. This has really hurt the people who have lived in uncertainty for the past three years since the coup. Many children missed two to three years of school which is a real hardship. It's hard to have hope for the future. Things were getting really good hear before the coup, since then the train has stopped, inflation has sky rocketed and government services in general have stopped working. Many officials are fearful as there are still freedom fighters looking to put things back the way they were.
But on an average day you can barely tell that any of that is happening behind the scenes. The people are hospitable and kind, they aren't pushy or desperate at all. Crime has gone up due to the inflation but I have felt very safe in all the places I've been.
God did great things through the training. 12 facilitators got trained and they are doing a camp for 50 plus teens! Healing is happening and God's kingdom is advancing! Nothing can stop that for sure. Here it sometimes feels like I get a front row seat. There is a Hindu teen in particular that was so touched by the lesson on laments. She wept and wept as she poured out her pain to an unknown God! May she come to know and love this true God who came to take her pain and give her beauty for ashes.
I miss my family and am looking forward to finishing my time up here strong before heading home... for more than two weeks in a row :). The power goes out here all the time, but then comes right back on. The voltage is very irregular. It makes life more interesting and really warm sometimes as the AC struggles to keep up. The training was toasty! I have caught a cold (I wanna throw it back) with all the warm cold transitions and lack of sleep.
For whatever reason after the facilitator training I was told that I don't need to be there all day for the camps. That is nice since I wouldn't understand anything anyways. I come by for the debriefs. I have today off and tomorrow will go in for the closing ceremony. I'm trusting God to make the most of this time and trying to view it as a sort of spiritual retreat. Yesterday I got my hair cut and lost most of my beard too... lost in translation :).
I miss you guys! I'm looking forward to getting back to my amazing family and friends and my work back in Dallas... and Football is here! Camp is a week and a bit away and I'm excited for that too. I want to pick up the pieces of life back home, but I'm grateful for the adventures. Thanks for being worth missing. And thanks for your prayers and support while I have been away. For checking on my family and for your words of encouragement.
Higher up and deeper in!
I'm up for coffee... not so much rice of any kind :)... if you wanna get together and hear more! Love you guys! Grateful for you!
Fin
Blessings,
Caleb
If you want to support what I do a little or a lot, on a one time basis or with recurring gifts, the easiest was is to use Zelle. You can follow this link zellepay or scan the code below. That will start the process of getting you set up to use Zelle with your bank or If you already use Zelle it will direct you to the banking app you use and give you instructions from there. To send me money use my email caleb_robbins@sil.org. If you would like any help setting that up feel free to contact me directly! 214 558 8431.
Another way to donate to the ministry if Zelle isn't an option 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. If you would rather set up a bill pay or have any other questions you can call the Church at 817-451-7561. Let them know you want to Support Caleb Robbins and his ministry serving Missionary Kids.
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 16, Asher 13, Liam 11, Echo already in heaven, Bella 8, and Serenity 7 years old.
