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20 76

CHURCH OF CHRIST James & Sarah Redmoh

Box N1674

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Nassau, Bahamas

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Sponsoring Church: South Side Christian Church

26'Cf S. Mac/rthur Blvd.

Forwarding .Agent: George C. Meador

449 Vvest Lake Prive

Sprifigfield, IL 62704
""
Dear Fii-ieiids:

Springfield, IL 62703
Ji^NUARY - FEBRUARY 1976 :
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T^is year marks the fourteenth anniversary of our service in the Bahamas.. =
On January 19, 1962, Sarah and I arrived in Nassau and began ministering .to the Coconut Grove Church. At that time Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey Payne and Alice Hughes and her two children were here- Also newly arrived were th% Spencers*

The Paynes and tiughes returned to the States early in 1962. Since that time our family has grpwn. Sherry is'noW 13 years old and nearly as'tall as Sarah. Chris is il years old and will graduate from sixth grade this yeari The small
frame building in Coconut GroVe was replaced by a block building three times as large. The Spencers moved to Andros and last year the church in Nicholl's Town moved into their new building. We shifted our attention to a new section

of the ip^^jsind and.moved into a new building in Golden Gates.

Besides these

four.efforts, four more attempts we^e made by local workers. Three of tihiese Fox Hill, Nassau; Kemp's Bay, Aiidrds; and West End, Grand Bahama - suffered disastier when the Bahamian men who had been trained in a Bible Colliege in the States, returned to America to take up ministries. The fourth group was started by a Haitian who has had no close ties with our work since. The two older churches in Nassau are both led by uiritrained Bahamian men who will likely re main i^jitrained due to lengthy work schedules. Because of all this, it's very har^ to ascertain exactly where we stand after all these years. Baheimians care nothing for^keeping records and I have no authority to inquire into the affairs of

thesej^hurches. ; I.help both groups when I'm called-upon which means mostly in
times of sicknesis and strife. Personal problems of niembers occupy most of

my time and energy. ' I would father be used in leadership, training and evange- .
lizing but Satan.has kept nie fully occupied otherwise. ^
COMPETITION

One of the important factors as we face the future Is'competition.

Unlike
There

most mission areas, we work in a field that cldims to be 100% Christian.

are no other niajor religions in the B^amas.' The various '-'Christian" groups here are investing far^more money and manpower than we can reasonably ex-
pect to ma,tch. For instance, the Baptist International Mission started only about seven years ago. They have planted three churches in Nassau and a school that ranges from 'tcindergarten through high school. This has cost enormously. They claim to have 42 missionaries, many of which also teach in their, splipol. The;ir church near us has three large school buses plus four van
type buses that bring in kids from all over. an island 5 by 21 miles. That's pretty stiff competition on

Then witness the fact that there are about 200 Baptist churches in the BaheLqias with 50 of them right here in Nassau. They claim 50% of the total population within their membership. /. dd to that another 200 Pentecostal churches of various sorts. The Anglicans and Catholics have worked the islands vigorously and continue to spread rapidly to hold their young people. Ill tjjie past two, months the /^nglicans have started three new churches. Within three months from, start to finish they dedicated a new building in our area of Golden Gates. They have great funds and prestige. Lately other groups such as the Missionary i^lliance and Church of the Nazarene have come in with large
investments to buy land and erect buildings- This week even Herbert W. Arm strong came to Nassau, booked the largest, fanciest ballroom in town, gave '

free rides to his lectures and ran full page .ads in the paper, even paying the
reporters $100 just to attend his press conference.
These are a few of the facts of the competition we face in one of the small

est countries of the world.

; -ri-T ~

A land where Baptist, Methodists and Anglicans

; - i.

have a 200 year head-start on us.

, So wHikt can we aspire to do? Certainly not to conipete in labors or funds.

We work hard, we gain those by-passed by other groups^ We build on people

with eiibrmdiis mbr^^^

emotional, educational, or sometirbes jisychdlbgieal

problems. These folk are precious and dear to Christ and to us but they make slow work in establishing strong churches. "W e have not "bought" members
with buses or schools or prestige. Our work is slow and often discouraging. We cannot match the numbers of African missions. The field is too stti'all to ' ' '

start a Bible College or involve a lot of workers. There is no way the normal survey sheets to guage success will be'meaningful for this field.

With ill the great number of churches, the Bahamas-"is still a vei'y-wicked and imrHdral lan^^^ ' its' church leaders have been corr\ipf dnd ChHstiah "principies hav'^ not'totidWd the daily lives of the people. There is a real need arid a

real'keWbut it's nbt eksy. 'These are the facts we niust'4ive with;a^ we try %b
bear Wi^:hes's to the genuine nife^aniiig of the church as the body of Christ.' '
, I ,1. .,.,,1 , . , fTOaKGES

Looting back fO' 1962 again,' we came to the BahamaS'v!''ith $300"a month
support^ ' 'We'im!mediately discovered this wias short of our needs'*but Gad prb-' viti^ii 'tfe' added ahiourit. ' Duririg the following years our family" douMed in ' and dbstis zbdi^eti sky highV' At the sarifie time our churches h^ve bee'ti faithftil ' to feeep^|ia6^^- -0^ course'; 'sbrne churches never change theiir budget-biit miany

have beeri'given th^'faith arid wisdom to realize that riiissibriariiea live SXritH-the c'
-s^me 'iri<jt'rbalsndb(33^^ ariybne else. Ou^ spons<>ring chure^h^^n S|>riisgfiel4 - has iricrfeaSeii f^driii $100 to $450 a month plUs many adiiitioriarbeiriefitsv: The : year^ i975 brought the highest income in our history. Income totalisd $21, 034.75

but eipWii^ys last year were $23v6'45. 90. The year ended with us-reduced to ^ paying bills as funds came in. We spent $10, 000 on the'new building in Golden
Gate^V An outstanding gift of $3,000 came from Ft^ Lauderdale, Florida like

a blessing from heaven. Our sponsoring church contributed a special $1,200 gift to pay the cost of our family attending the Convention in Detroit.
Now what will it be like in 1976? I wish I could know how much to expect

prices to increase. I know we are now paying $175 a month more in rent. I als^o know that gasoline has gone up another 3^ per gallon. I knbw that our 1969
V. W.' bus has had 84, 000 miles of city driving and is now losing a quart of oil

for every lO gallbris of gas. I know the floor-boards are rusted out and the seats need recovering. It's going to cost an extra $1,000 this year to keep the
bus running. Since we will not be building this year, a few special gifts or small increases in monthly support should see us through. We thank God for
in t97'6 -as-we workfor Christr-l_ ^ ^ ^

14 years of service and faithful backing of loved ones at home. Pray with us
Jim & Sarali Redmon

For display material, contact Mrs. J. C. Redmon, 2495 Dodson Drive, East
Point, Georgia 30344.

Atlanta'Christian Cbllege

im ri,

2605 Ben Hill Road

East Point, (:jA-'^0344

J;.':. r.V, '.fo. 64801

Non-Profit Org. Postage

"PAID

East Point, GA Permit No. 10^

Bahama Mission News Jim & Sarah Redmon

CHURCH OF CHRIST
James & Sarah Redmon

JfinU 76
.
: '

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; .-o i

^9^ N1674
Nassau Bahamas

Sponsoring Church:
South Side Christian Church
2600 S. MacArthur Blvd.

Forwarding Agent:--"=
George C. Meador

449 West Lake Drive

Springfield, IL 627Q4,,
March - April, 1976
Dear Friends:

Springfield, 11.^2703 "

How can you express thanks to so many people? That is a problem we have all .the time because of the loyal way you have cared for our needs. All that it seems we can do is to thank God and ask Him to bless each of you. We delayed writing this newsletter because of the uncertainty about the Spencers. Ed and

Dona went on furlough last Jtme. Just as they were coming back, Ed's step father was hospitalized in critical condition. Eventually Ed decided to accept the ministry of his home church in High Hill, Mo. to be near his folks. Ed and
Dona had to go back to Oregon to settle their affairs out there, then come to Andros to see about the church in Nicholl's Town. After two weeks'on Andros they came to spend a weekend with us. The church has several older men and

is enthusiastic about the future. I may need to go over at various times to help
them along and for s^jecial occasions. Please do remember us and the church

in Andros. Pray also for the Spencers as they settle back in the U.S. after 14 years of foreign service. Ed's stepfather was out of the hospital but still very
weak.

APRIL MEETING IN GOLDEN GATES

. We were preparing for the last week in April. There was so much to do that we s..ort of ignored Easter. The rest of the auditorium had to be plastered and

the sl^Q-etrock ceiling put up. Sheetrock prices were going up faster than our
money .was coming in and time was flying. It was a race against time and we won.

The morning of April 24th the sheetrock was up and the joints taped as we swept
out the building and cut the grass before racing off to the airport. Carl and Debbie

Paschal brought their three eldest daughters as a family evangelistic team. His 5outh-Pade. Christian Church in Miami was a big help and encouragement. Another of the church families with their three children came along to make a team of ten They brought puppets and new songs and messages and loving enthusiasm. We geared the week to the youth of our three churches so I had a whale sized transpor.fcation"job. The old bus survived and that week 15 of our young people were
Other church folk sent material to recover

baptijZ^e.d.":. We.have a lot to be happy about. Family structure is very weak here
so-these itwO; families were a big help.

the bus .S;^a,tS[, ,fpod and a reel to reel tape recorder for our use. Now at long last

I have the' r^eans lOf taping a narration to go with slides. So praise God for April
^.nd all who helped r
"ROBBER GET CATCH"

That might not be good English but it's good Bahamian idiom.

I've mentioned

before that robbery has been a constant problem here. We have two puppies arid a high fence to help in our home protection plus a large shepherd dog. One morhing I left the house to go down to work at church. Sarah was out doing the weekly

wash. I had to take Brother Rolle to his job with the handicapped and had the feeling someone was breaking into our house. Sure enough I pulled up in time to see three fellows jumping out of our front window. They were in a corner and I rushed them with a pipe wrench I had in the bus. I told them to lay down and I tied their three hands together with a rope, that wa.s handy. I put the boys in the
bus as they tried to convince me there waS; a fourth fellow inside with a gun. Any way, I backed up and took the rotor from the distributor of their stolen car, then went for help. We have no neighbors within a block. When the police came they searched the boys and found their pockets full. Our house was in shambles and

they-had'a whole pile of things in the living room that they intended to take. The
newspapers" f)'ut the story on the front page and ever since I have been-kidded. T:w'6 of the boys we're 16 and had been out of jail only a'few days. Crime is with us'.daily. There were 6 more rapes last week and the police are working long shifts to halt the crime wave. Gangs of boys roam everywhere looking for trouble.
There is no doubt at all that this island needs Christ. With hardened criminals at

such an early age our job will not be easy.

YOU CAN HELP
rt.v -

"Pfe'ople often ask for small ways.tp help us.

things we could use. 1.

Today I'd like to mention somie

We can use left over Sunday School papers for all age groups.

' ''

Zir We can use any information about using puppets, books with puppet plays', '
designs, or ideas of any sort. .

3.:" We can use ideas of new songs.

The words can be written out and your group

qj '-can sing them for us. Our young, people love new songs but neither SaraJi nor ;vil5 play'any instrument so we need a ,way, of hearing them in order to teach them.
4. VV We have been gone so long that we know nothing about various youth progi*arhs
being used. gram here. We need comments pro and con to help us develop a good pro Our time is too limited and we have.no resources. This may

.,j:. take more time, than' sending a check but please help us with some advice.
'Blea'se continue to pray for us.
r\

We have V. B.S. coming up in Juljr.

(For"display material; contact Mrs. J. C. Redmon,, 2495 Dodson Drive, East ' Point, Georgia 30344. )
. i

Atlanta Christian College

2605 Ben Hill Road

Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID

East Point, GA ,30344

East Point, GA

(Return Requested)
OZARK bible: COLLcGi

Permit No.

10
ii:

lUl -i* MAIN JOPLIN, MO. 6430r

Bahama Mission New.g ; Jim & Sar^ Redmon- ,i.

!>C; '

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LOES 3h
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CHURCH OF^CHRIST '

James & Sar^ih R^dmon
Box N1674

Na s s au, -;.B'^hainas
Sponsoring Church
Souijh/ Side Christian Church 2600 Sv MacArthur-'Blvd.

!P.

Forwarding Agent: George C. Meador.

449 West Lake Drive

iH't

Springfield, :IL "^61704

H 5

Springfield, IIj
August, 1976

62703

June - July -

M^^eerings' about summers in^bur work here is thatr^^m~thankfulr^to

survive. So for another year we can praise the Lord for survival. Each month brought its own events, so let's look back at them one at a time.

-i-rioJa
jyjyv

JUNE
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.,

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f",

..V cFirst, of all, schools'h'ere are still in progress during Juhe'v^^l^^^^

Sherryiw CEiimentioned that- schooling costs, like everything elseV kee^s.:. !^^
increasing.
this year,

graduated^ from'the sixth graSe and will now be in the same School as

It will cost us about $500 to get them started"in school

o^fnSejbond/:-io'spenti^^a' lot of time looking at riist." Our '69 VW bus was ih

gendy brake cables;broke and the exhaust system rusted out, Thi^ bud,had'^ cost j$2800 new. We thought abcbiit trading but the price had ^oii'e ;up .to^^^ aboiit $6,000 the last time I had checked. Checking again I "Siscov^red'
that .VW is now bringing in their vehicles from Brazil and it*^ like the

disgicafcef^l.'Condition and- sdihfething had to be dohei' The engihe had been losing oil afefia -rate o one =<|Ucirt for every 10 gallons of gas. This sud denly-changed etc 2 quarts f Or every 5 gallons. At the same timie the emer-

pre-*68 models. The price is now up to $10,000. After that bit of infor mation, I put the bus in the shop for repairs. Once that was accomplished,

Sarah and I worked together to recover all the seats with material furnish
ed by thei South Dade Church in Miami. Next was a search all over .Nassau . until I found a small sheet metal shop where I could secure a piece of galvamized metal to replace our floorboards that were full of holes and showered our passengers on rainy days. The next problem - all the holes ^

inc theibody work and doors; some of these were so big that I had to cove:?!,' them fwith sheet metal or fiber glass. Then with Bondo and a lot of sanc^-^''
ing, things started looking better. I toughed up the places by hand and borrowed a spray gun for a good all-over paint job when the rains descend ed. ;I still haven't been able to return to that project but hope to soon. We are very thankful to several groups that raised special funds to cover the costs arid dduibly thankful to have th6 bus looking better.
JULY v.':- f
"f .r; As soon as schools get out in June we have to begin Vacation Bible Schools. This year we had the added problem of recruiting and training three sets of new teachers. All of the ones we had used previously were

unavailable. We decided to break our schools up into 4 classes ari^ try to keep the schools relatively small. The first one would be a morning

school^ in Golden Gates because a large percentage of the youn^ people.

, , ^ . ^ ^, topk the two older classes and four of our older girls wereypai

were panhing to spend the summer with relatives on the out Islands.

into

We;':!!

teams for the two younger classes.

The houses in Goilden i3ateg'a!ce''s

widely.scattered so I had to make several trips to transport nearly all of the students. We had a high day of 87 and an average of 73., .
With a one week break for the Independence celebrations, we re organized and started an afternoon school in the Coconut Grove Church.

The same system was used except that no bussing was necessary. This school had a high day of 95 and an average of .81, The third school in

Grantstown was next and it averaged 51.

The Grants town church is smaJ^J...^.r,.c,

and struggling without much leadership. Their people are sjcattered,so again, I had to pick up everyone. With the oppressive suitmifer heat we just try to keep going with no energy left for anything else.

"

.-c

One upsetting thing did happen - just as we were going to sleep one
Sunday night we heard a terrible screeching of brakes and a crash, I dressed quickly and grabbed a big towel and jumped in the bus to go see what happened. Several blocks away on the main road, I found the crowd at the crash scene, A young man had been racing with another driver when he overtook two teenagers on bicycles. was going sixty when I hit them," he said. One boy was dead and the other badly mangled. The Orthopedic specialist was on the scene and said therboy appeared to have a broken

neck along ^ith all the other damage. The doctor had a telephone in his car ^o hie called the hospital to find out what was keteping the ai^ulance. The government had just opened a new seven million dollar extension.tothe hospital with an ultra-modern emergency section. The hospital told

thei^Ocfcor^'ithey didn't have any ambulances. After asking :thera^to repeat thatrithree times,, the doctor finally decided to place the boy in my bus to get him to the hospital and at the hospital there were four doctors who gave him immediate attention. The boy still died. We had relatives and friends of. these boys in our classes which itiade a. sobering illustration

tq .go with our lessons on the dLmportance and fraility of life.

. ' august'"

We:know from previous experience that August is a nronth'when storms cook up SQ we thought this would be a good tinie to take a few days vaca

tion tp Abi^aco., A friend had built four cottages near Treasure Cay, so we
The plan was to go over on the ma^ilboat and carry

Qiir topd and little car.

wantedto see i t a l l .

reserved one ;of those.

The island is nearly 100 miles long and we

: : :

loyalists settled Abaco when the U.S/declared its, independence and w^re

.^aco is, rich in history especially in this bicentennial year.

The ;:

again the center of controversy three years ago at Bahamian Independence. ripf .course, nothing goes as planned when travelling in the Bahamas, When Ii\went ^down to the mailboat to make final arrangements the mate informed

raeiftjtiey.were.going into dry dock because they had lost a propeller. This
meant we , had to travel oii our. notorious national airline,

theiii showed that they didn't have a flight the next day arid tjtie da^ f6l- . lowing was fully booked, O.K.>; we would leave two d^ys? later an^i repack,

A check.with

', wonderful and relaxingi

, .

a couple, oi hundred miles creating a,little excitement and beautiful '

swells which Sherry and Chris enjoyed ridin^^^^
..."

the a]?:ea were all broken down.

didn' t have our car and .the j.r.^tjal vbnes^n

;
_ . j. ^ ^ ^' . .

Hurricane Belle was born just ofi ^hore.,

.. .

Before going on vacation I.was having trouble with ray hands and the doc.tor ran,, some tests and ^said I had gout (which I had always thought was

for drunk old sailors).

Even after vacation, it was still a ccoipie of

-

weeks before I could do a lot of things.

getting the children ready for school.

The remainder of the month we have, been catching up.

I have been preparing to igo ahi^di

Sarah has been'.

with the finishing up of the inside of our building in Golden Gates, Pray
with us as we work for progress this year, (For display material, contact Mrs, J. C. Redmon, 2495 Dodson Drive, East

Poiio^, Georgia

30344,)

Atlanta; Christian College

2605 Ben Hill Road

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage .

V .>\.PA1D

East Point, Georgia

.f.r.c....

30344

Eaist Point, GA
Permiit No ,. 10

(Reiturn Requested)

Bahama Newsletter Jim .& Sarah Redmon ;

OZARK 8IBLS COLLEGE 1111 N. MAIN

JOPLIN, MO. 64801 . ^

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