REDMON BAHAMAS

ICHRISTIAN MISSION
I JAMES AND SARAH REDMON,
I
M

MISSIONARIES
SPONSORING CHURCH

B
I

SOUTH SIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

2600 SOUTH MocARTHUR
SPRINGftELD IL 62704

jg FORWARDING AGENT IB JAMES G. BLAKLEY

C/O SOUTH SIDE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH

2600 SOUTH MacARmUR

SPRINGFIELD IL 6270^

JANUARY 1983

Dear Friends,

You may have heard it said, "it can't be done." Those are the things God moves mountains to accomplish. Twenty-one years ago a young couple arrived in the Bahamas with less than $300 a month of pledged support. Strangely another couple, unknown to us, ar rived from Oregon the same week. God's ways are truly marvelous I The Spencers have act ed as our children's parents in Missouri and

I ^

we are very grateful. Yes, during those 21 years of service we had two children born,
schooled,grown up and off to college. Without a break for a furlough and only occasional short speaking tours, our faithful supporters have kept pace with increasing
costs and all our special projects. Our sponsoring church in Springfield, Illinois has seen to our needs and provided many luxuries. Every year in January we have

of thanksgiving for God's special care through you, our friends and partners.
During the fall we made three quick

YI
f
^

trips to the U.S.

business.

Two of these were on

Sarah's

The third was personal.

father was sick and in the hospital in the fall and we were only able to go by and vibriefly so we decided to go back
Christmas. For the first time in

1 M fl

twenty-one years we were in the U.S. with our parents and we were so thrilled.We have been apprehensive about cold weather since
we do not own any warm clothing. Fortunate-

J^k

ly,

warm Bahamian weather went along

with us.
lanta

Sherry and Chris came down to At-

from their school so we were all to

gether ,

MISSION NEWS

1,

Phone:

We
but were

applied for a phone last January

told there were no numbers

available. we received Christmas.

809-323-8824.

Thanks to some new equipment our phone just in time for You may dial us direct at

2.

Bus Project:

When we replaced our van several years ago, our sponsoring church loaned

us the money. This has been repaid as funds came in and we are happy to report that this project is complete now. A big THANK YOU to everyone who has helped,
3. Video:

Our responsibilities here include training leadership for our churches. With everything else this is difficult.
Several missions have turned to the mod

ern video cassette machine for help. Good News Productions and others are producing a series of lessons so we bought a mach ine and our first set of tapes. This may
seem strange to Americans who have access
to cable TV and an assortment of local channels but here satellite dishes cost

ing from $4,000 to

up all over.

$10,000 are springing

I know one house that has

four of these monsters in the back yard. In some cases the dishes occupy the en tire front yard. Since many of our fami lies are getting the video machines we will be able to use the tapes from house
to house and here at church. As we deve

lop our video library, many small groups can handle a series as a special project.
4. Canrp: With completion of our construction

projects near,

look forward to giving

more attention to the camp facility we use. It belongs to a group of business men from various churches but they have

all

become so

successful

that they

no

longer have the time to pay any attention

to the camp. several times They have encouraged me to help but I ha.d other

priority projects in hand. This year I hope to see their whole program organized

and put on a sound basis. Primarily I will need your prayers for wisdom and
strength as I gradually work into this area. We now live very close to the camp which will be a big help.

%
PICTURE STORIES

Christenings: There is an old Bahamian tradition

that encourages every mother to bring her baby to church for prayer. Strictly ob served, it should take place when the
child is six weeks old and at that time

the child is officially named. We use these occasions as an opportunity for a good lesson in Christian parenthood since

estimates range
births are

from

60% to 90%

of all

out of wedlock.

Since we at

tach no great significance to the event and all that is performed is a public prayer, we are happy to oblige the tradi
tion. We do believe that prayer changes things hopefully, the parents.
2. Hot Wheels:

On

our various outings,

the sports

equipment we use is often very simple. It is amazing how many kinds of races you
can invent with old tires. Fortunately, they

our young

folk

are not as sophisticated

as their American counterparts so enter in with great enthusiasm.

3. Old Folks:

Although 60% of all Bahamians are under 25 and a lot of our time and energy is occupied with them, there are also older people here. Sarah and I have quite
a lot of friends that we visit with and

we pray with them, Mrs. MacDonald is pro bably the oldest woman on North Andros and tells us every month that she is go ing to be with Jesus,

Bye for now,

Gbd bless you in your

fields of service for our Lord.

Jim and Sarah Redmon

lOES Sbti

J.'

'84

REDMON BAHAMAS CHRISTIAN MISSION

JAMES AND SARAH REDMON, MISSIONARIES
SPONSOBNG CHUKH-SOUTH SIDf CHIISTIAN CWffCH 2dttO SOUTH MkAITHUI
SPtlNOnilD U *2704

NASSAU ^

FOtWAIOINC AGKHT - JAMES G. IIAKIET C/O SOUTH SIDI CHIttllAN CHVtCH 2400 SOUTH MmASTHM SHINOriElO It 62704

NEWS -

JANUARYOCTOBER 1983

Dear Friends,

There was a man named Rip who went to sleep and when he awoke, the world had passed him by. Just imagine how hard it was for him to catch up and you'll know how

out of breath I feel. This has been a year of variety. No one single project as in 1982. This issue will be explanations and
I promise photos in our next one.
CLASSROOMS COMPLETED

We

had

started

an addition

to

the

building in Golden Gates.

Working along as

the church had the funds made progress show but I was patient because of the principle involved. We are all thrilled to report that this project is now complete. We have
three lovely classrooms. This has allowed
us recently to add a Junior Church and Nur

sery

a big help to the longstanding

noise

problem we had.

We have also added a fifth

class to our Sunday School which meets next door in our living room. It is a vicious circlenow we need to build again,
CAMP 1983

During the Easter school break we held

our customary week of camp. This year we were blessed with the largest staff ever.
Six young people came over from Central

Florida Bible College

and

two

came

down

from Atlanta Christian College. The camp facility has gone down in recent years due

to a nonfunctioning board. We are asking for your prayers as we work to revitalize the board. The property is leased from the government and will revert to them if something is not done soon. I get so frustrated because I know what a great camp it could be. In all the years we have had camp and taken kids on outings and hikesy we have never had an accident so I knew the odds were catching up on us. Sure enough, a boy fell out of a tree and broke his arm. Bahamian parents are so hard to understand. When the mother ar rived at the hospital, she was upset only because he wasn't serious enough to stay over
night. She wanted to collect on her insurance. hospital so she wanted the money. The medical costs are nearly free at our

SUMMER BIBLE SCHOOL

We have had to say thank you so often during our years of service. Once again we are deeply indebted to our Lord for His love. Rodney and Janice Raymond, senior students at Kentucky Christian College, spent ten weeks with us this summer. They were responsible help in a multitude of ways. Our Vacation Bible Schools were large and ran smoothly with
over 400 enrolled.

Our church in Grants Town is struggling. The area is badly rundown and overrun by toughs. Last year no one turned up the first day of V.B.S. but it grew to 30 by Fri day. This year we were able to stir up more interest and averaged 67 with an enrollment of 116. This means there is still a great opportunity in the area but we simply need
help.

Another surprise was our school in Nicholl's Town.

The day before our school was to

start we learned that the Southern Baptists had just held a V.B.S. in the settlement. When we arrived we discovered that they had used a team of 30 workers from Texas. The morning we were to begin a little boy started telling us about the lessons and it turned out that the group had used the same Standard Publishing Company material we were using. Kind of a shock! Fortunately, we have developed our own adaptation so attendance was all the four of us could handle and we had a good school with over 100 enrolled.
U.S. TRIP

This year we have been able to visit the U.S. twice. Early in the year we spent a few days with the church in Boca Raton, Florida. They were holding their first mission fair and have been very good to help us in a number of ways even though we had never met the people. We are thankful for such generosity and kindness.

Following our

summer

program we made our

annual visit to

our sponsoring

church.

Flying first of all

to Atlanta,

we visited a few days with

our parents and Sarah*s two

sisters. At the same time we did some shopping we needed to do and made contact with supporters in the area. The main purchase was a car to replace our '78 Fairmont that was

suffering chronic rust. We were thankful that friends had been watching for a good car and had a 1981 Pontiac LeMans Wagon located. The car provided us with the transportation needed for the remainder of our trip.
First of all we went to Springfield, Illinois and South Side Christian Church. After that we spent a couple of days with the Spencers in High Hill, Missouri. Ed and Dona worked with us here about 12 years and have been mother and father for our children in the U.S. Labor Day weekend we spent with Sherry and Chris at school in Kirksville,Mis souri. On Labor Day we began the long drive to south Florida. On the way we spent a night with my brother, Bill, in Lake Wales, Florida. In West Palm Beach, Allen Stevic deliver

ed us to the Fort Lauderdale airport for the flight home. Later Allen shipped the car

to

us and we have sold the Fairmont. We are so thankful our support system has allowed us to make this move on our regular support and not have to make a loan or special appeal. In less than four weeks we drive over 3,000 miles and arrived safely back home to find

everything well taken care of by Leviticus.

Once again we must say THANKS to people all

along the way.

WHAT LIES AHEAD?

With our building projects behind us we now look forward to spending our time de veloping leadership. We have purchased a video tape recorder and a set of tapes on
Christian Doctrine. The first class has completed the series and we will repeat the

series with another group of students as often as we can arrange meetings. to purchase more lessons as we find the material we need. We are starting upgrade our Sunday School teachers and will be developing a Junior Deacon year. Our young people are finally getting old enough to give a hand and

prayers daily.
time.

There are so many temptations that can snatch our youth at this critical
May God bless you as you pray for us and support us.
Yours in Christ,

We also plan a program to Program this we need your

Mostly we need more energy.

Jim and Sarah Redmon

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Pictured and Chris

here

are Sherri in earlier

Redmon

years as pictured on a Christ

mas card mailed to friends and

family.

This year both

are

enrolled in Northeast Missouri

State University, Kirksville, Mo. Sherri will be graduating

in May 84 and Chris is a soph

omore this year. Much has transpired
the

in
and

lives of the children but

also

in the lives of Jim

Sarah and in the mission.

In the mission things have changed and much has been ac

complishedbuildings have

been erected,

leadership

and

Vacation Bible Schools have been conducted,churches visit

ed and strengthened, many souls won to Christ, etc. Jim and Sarah went to the Bahamas in January of 62, conducted their first service there on January 28, and then Sherri was born there in August of 62, Both children were bom on the field. All in all they have adequately demonstrated their faithfulness in these past 21 years to Christ, their supporting churches, and to the people on the islands. We, at South Side, Springfield, II., continue to call for your faithful prayer and financial support for these dear servants of
Christ.