AM 1400 * 94.5 FM
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John & Karen McPherson
Dear Praying Friends and Supporters,
Much has happened since our last letter. We have been busy with the normal routine of radio station and church. We are seeing some spiritual growth in the lives of several of the young people at Open Door, and continue our young men’s Bible study on Thursday evenings, and the teen girl’s class that Karen teaches Sunday evenings. It is a blessing to see young people show faithfulness to the Word and express a desire to please the Lord with their lives.
Then on December 6 th we experienced an earthquake. The epic center of the quake was between Dominica and Martinique, and it was felt all up and down the Island chain. The quake was a 7.4 on the Richter scale. We thank the Lord that we had no damage from the quake. I was working on the lower cistern drain at the station when the quake struck. I thought I was hearing a truck rumbling down the road above the station and looked up only to see our empty 500 gallon fuel tank bouncing up and down on the cistern lid. I was thinking to myself surely the wind wouldn’t do that. It was later when I walked up to the studio buildings and the ladies asked what I was doing during the earthquake that I realized what had happened. It was a vivid reminder that God is in control and safety is of the Lord.
December is a stressful month with all the additional activities that come with the season. Karen has been super busy this past month or so getting things together for our Christmas programming. She has put in long hours getting things organized and putting programs into the automation system. Of course, all the staff have been involved with producing and organizing special Christmas items as well. We just had our Harbour Light staff Christmas party, and it was a good time of fellowship. Our Christmas program at Open Door will be December 23. We are praying for good weather, a good turnout, and that the program will be pleasing to the Lord and a blessing to God's people. We also have praises to share:
Our youngest daughter, Alyssa, has now finished her last semester at Bob Jones University. She will be graduating this coming May. Lord willing, we will be coming to the States for her graduation. Christina is doing well and continues to enjoy her second year of teaching Spanish at Grace Baptist school in Columbia SC. We also praise the Lord for His continued patience and goodness in Michael's life. We look forward to and long for the day when Michael turns back to the Lord, or turns to the Lord for salvation. Thank you for your continued prayers for him. Coming up this January we have a work team scheduled to come and finish up the work on the basement of the missions house. There are a number of things that need to be done to get ready for the team. Pray that we will be able to have everything ready to go, and that they will be able to accomplish everything that is needed. They will be doing a little block work, painting, electrical work, and a suspended ceiling. We thank the Lord for all who willingly give of their time, talent and money to help us here. Again, thank you so much for your prayers, help, patience, and support over this past year. And, we want to wish each of you a very blessed Christmas. John and Karen McPherson
Aug, 2007
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Ps. 107:8-9
Dear Praying Friends and Family,
You might have watched the news as Hurricane Dean roared through the Caribbean, causing much damage to many of the islands to our north. Since Karen is the one who keeps up with the station weather gathering and storm monitoring, we watched as the storm progressed from a depression to a hurricane. As it approached, it became evident that we would be spared the brunt of the storm. Since many of our listeners, on other islands, were in the path of Dean and since we were under a tropical storm warning, we stayed on the air all night Thursday, giving storm updates as they became available. Actually, we got very little wind and rain until after Dean had crossed the chain of islands. Then the feeder bands coming up from South America dumped over 4 inches of rain on us. We thank the Lord for his watch care for us, sometimes through the storms and sometimes from the storms. It is the same in our spiritual lives sometimes the Lord brings us through the storms of life and sometimes keeps us from them. Either way He is with us to guide, protect, and provide.
Harbour Light news: One of the things that I
have been working on since getting back to Carriacou
is repairs to the generators. Both generators needed
radiators--one of which was done before we returned.
The other was installed after a lot of checking and
having a radiator custom built. Both radiators
required modifications to the shrouds on the gensets.
Our Winco generator has a intermittent regulator
module, which (the module) is just out of warranty.
We ordered a replacement module which we hope to
have soon. The temporary fix is to open all the
On the home front, Christina, after surviving her first year of teaching all levels of Spanish at Grace Baptist Christian School in Columbia, SC, has really enjoyed her summer break. Besides relaxing, she worked a part time job and volunteered to use her Spanish to help others learn English. She is now back into the swing of teaching for the new school year. Please pray for her and her roommate to be able to find an affordable apartment in a safe area of Columbia that is close to the school and church. Also September will be an extremely busy month for her, it is also the time she and her room mate need to move. We know that the Lord has just the right place and will work out all the details. Michael is working hard as an electrician, wiring new homes. He is living in our house in Greenville and helping out by doing repairs. Michael “received” Christ as a youngster, but there is no evidence of the fruit of salvation in his life and we don‘t know if he is truly saved or not. Please continue to pray for him that he might find Christ if he is not saved, and that he will return to Him if he is. Alyssa has had a busy summer with two correspondence classes and two jobs. The Lord gave her a job working for a chiropractor for 4 days a week, and then He gave her a nanny job on the 5th day. She was living with Mrs. Moore for the summer, her “adopted grandmother” , who lives right behind our house where Michael is . How we have thanked the Lord for Mrs. Moore and how He has used her to be such a blessing to us over 25 years. Please remember Mrs. Moore in prayers as she has numerous health problems and is up in years. Alyssa is now moved back in the Dorms at Bob Jones for the upcoming school year. This is her last semester at BJU. She does her student teaching this fall, and except for one Bible class she will be done at the end of the semester. She will graduate this May.
Open Door is moving ahead, though we aren’t
seeing a lot of new folks, we are encouraged that
the folks there are faithful in coming. We have a
number of folks that come regularly, but are
unsaved. Pray that God will use His Word to
penetrate their hearts and thoughts, that they might
see and understand the truths of God’s Word and
receive Christ. I have been helping Michael Bethal,
one of the believers who attends Open
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support. Please continue to uphold this ministry before the Lord in prayer. Pray for fruit that remains, both at Open Door and through the radio broadcasts. Pray for our children, and the young people at Open Door, that the Lord would use them in his service.
Because of Christ,
Dear Praying Family, Friends, and Supporters, March, 2007 We want to encourage you, as you were such an encouragement to us during this past furlough, to be a faithful shining light for the Lord this year. We should all be careful that we don't hide our light under a bushel, because if our light is hid, it is hid to those who are lost Matthew Henry says this about 2 Corinthians 4:3 "The treasure of gospel light and grace is put into earthen vessels. The ministers of the gospel are subject to the same passions and weaknesses as other men. God could have sent angels to make known the glorious doctrine of the gospel, or could have sent the most admired sons of men to teach the nations, but he chose humbler, weaker vessels, that his power might be more glorified in upholding them, and in the blessed change wrought by their ministry." Thank you for your prayers for us during our furlough. Over 10, 000 miles were traveled, mainly between late June and early October. Our visits with family and friends were refreshing and precious to us. The folks in our supporting churches were so good and generous to us. It was exciting to see how the Lord provided many needed items for the work here through individuals and churches: air conditioner for the Suburban; a 4-in-one laser color printer; many good books for the Hillsborough library; many, many baby items for the New Mother's Ministry; tools; the list could go on and on. A very grateful "Thank-You" to each one who had a part in giving to us and the ministry here. Now, we are just waiting for the crates to get here. A mixed blessing, as Karen isn't sure just where we are going to put everything! : ) Thank you for your prayers for us as we traveled back home. The Lord answered our prayers for "affordable" tickets, and the best price on tickets was for Christmas Day. The girls dropped us off at the airport in Atlanta, GA. When John finally got up to the check-in counter he was informed that we had technically missed our plane because we did not get our luggage checked in an hour before the flight. We had not realized that was the rule, and the tremendous crowds did not allow us to get to the counter in a timely fashion. But, the Lord worked it all out without extra cost to us, and we got another flight that was actually better--it flew directly to Puerto Rico instead of stopping in Orlando, Florida first. After we arrived in San Juan, our connection went as first scheduled. Once in Grenada, we had no problems getting through customs. Something "funny" happened though that was a reminder of the fact that we were back in a developing country. As it was on Christmas Day evening there were no stores open, and the hotel did not have any drinking water or anyplace to buy it. We had not planned ahead very well and did not have any bottled water with us. Thankfully, we were so tired that we went right to bed. One of the first things Karen did at the Grenada airport was to search out a shop and buy something to drink. Ah!!! : ) We had a very interesting flight over Grenada, one that we have never experienced before--a flight right over the middle of the island. The ocean was seen on both sides, and we flew right near the highest peak, St. Catherine. As we crossed over the mountain ridge, it was also a very bumpy ride. The pilot was not bothered at all. In fact, once we were back over the ocean, he let go of the controls and wrote in a logbook. The plane went merrily on its way and began to slowly turn back toward Grenada. No problem...When the pilot was done with his writing, he put his logbook down and got the plane back on course. There was quite a bit of swinging back and forth from crosswinds before we touched down on the Lauriston Air Port in Carriacou. For a moment, we weren't sure which we appreciated more--to be home or to be on terra firma. : ) After being in the cool temperatures of the 30's and 40's in the States, the upper 70's, which is a little cool for Carriacou, felt so good! There is one hard thing about being a missionary--all the work leaving the field, and all the work coming back to the field. In the process of getting settled back in I discovered one thing I wouldn't do again, and that is use biodegradable garbage bags to protect our boxes of books. What a mess!! They were biodegrading all over the house. I finally got them all out, but, what a job! Karen did quite a bid of "spring cleaning" to make our house our home again. Randy very generously gave us time to get settled in before scheduling us to work at the Station. A special thank you to Pastor and Dawn Walker for filling in for us. What a blessing they were to us and to the people on Carriacou, especially at Open Door, and at the Station. Thank you for your prayers for them. The Lord answered abundantly! It was a special joy to be back with our church family again. The New Year's meal went very well, and the Lord was pleased to give us good weather. There was a little light drizzle a time or two, but nothing that would send us inside for cover. (How time flies, as the Easter dinner-on-the-grounds is coming up soon!) Please pray especially for Sister Agnes and her family. She is a new Christian and undergoing a very trying and discouraging home situation with an unsaved husband. Satan would love to get her sidetracked by bitterness and fear. Pray that her husband would get saved. May God be glorified through this situation. Also, remember Mr. Fritz and Sister Cox, who are not able to attend church or leave home very much due to health problems. We praise the Lord sister Cox made it to church this past Wednesday evening. Alyssa recently had a scary incident one Sunday morning on her way to church. The Suburban stalled on her, but she managed to get it started again. At the next stop light, a woman ran up to Alyssa's window and said that the Suburban had rolled back into their car and damaged it, and that she had better pull over over the police would be after her. Alyssa was flabbergasted, as she didn't recall rolling back and hitting anything, but she pulled into a gas station to check things out. The couple was pretty intimidating and called the police. To add to the situation, the door locks were not working and Alyssa had no way to keep the couple from entering the Suburban, if they had wanted to. Alyssa called Michael to come help her, which he did. After the policeman came, he checked things out, then told the couple that there was no way that the Suburban could have done the damage to their car and gave them his reasons. They argued with him for awhile. Finally, the policeman told them to move on and stayed with Michael and Alyssa until they did. Since the Suburban wouldn't start now, Michael towed it to a repair shop that was nearby. The whole situation sounded like this couple was trying to pull a fast one. We don't know that for sure, but we are sure of this-- the Lord was taking care of her and protected her through the policeman and Michael. Just another reason to ask you all to remember our children in your prayers for us. The Men for Mission's team, headed up by Wayne and Jane Camfield, worked hard on the basement of the mission's house. There were 5 couples and one single man. All but two of them have been here before. Ray and Barbara McDowell were at our house, working hard with Karen to re-upholster the sofa and love seat. We came to the field with them needing attention, but we just got a throw to cover them. Well, the throw has worn out, so we threw it out. John's Mom will be thrilled to see them covered, as she bought the upholstery fabric about 7 years ago. It will be a blessing to have two beautiful and sturdy pieces of furniture again. All we can say is thank you Lord for sending the McDowells to take care of this need. February found us with an exciting baptism service on the 11th. Six believers wanted to make public their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. What a thrill it was to baptize Agnes Roberts (mentioned above), Katrina Cornelius, and 4 young men-Tyrron Polson, Jake Jaffier, Nathaniel Moses, and “Beans” or Imran Joseph. Please pray for their continued growth in the Lord Jesus Christ, especially as Satan will try his best to sidetrack them or discourage them. Each of you have had a part in this fruit. I wish you could have heard their testimonies—what a blessing. Just as we were getting this letter ready to be sent out, Tyrron Polson, our right hand young man at Open Door, had an accident. He was “bounced” by a vehicle when he was riding his bike from town to his house. We thank the Lord that he was not “damaged” more than he was—a broken thighbone. As his mother is in the General Hospital in Grenada, and as his father was visiting her at the time, Karen and I rushed to be with him and his brother and sisters. I accompanied him on the chartered plane to Grenada. Grenada has a socialized health system. It was a week and a day from the accident before he was able to have surgery to pin his bone. The day after his surgery, Karen joined me in Grenada to visit and minister to him. Just last Friday (16th) evening we had the joy of picking him up at the Hillsborough jetty and transporting him back home. Thank you for your prayers for him. He has ahead of him physical therapy, and then in a year's time, another surgery to remove the pin from the bone. We rejoice at the good testimony and witness he was while in the hospital—they hated to see him leave. One young man in particular will miss him: 16 year old Andre who had leg and spine damage while playing football (soccer). Tyrron left his Bible with Andre (unsaved), who said that he would read it. Andre is suppose to go to Trinidad soon for further treatment. Join with us in prayer for him, that he would get saved, and that he would somehow contact Tyrron and let him know that he got saved. Tyronn's mother is still in the hospital in Grenada. Pray that the doctors would discover the cause of Tyronn's mom's health problems, and for her healing. Again, thank you for your faithful prayers, your Christmas cards and gifts, your emails, your support, and your love!
Serving the Lord with gladness, PS Just this morning, Wednesday the 21st, we saw Tyrron off on the Osprey as he was recalled back to the General Hospital in Grenada. He is having some swelling, pain and heat in his leg and they are concerned about possible blood clots. The doctor that did his surgery wants Tyrron to be where he can observe Tyronn's progress. We are praying that they will do physical therapy to get his knee bending again. Thank you for your prayers for him.
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December
2007
Greetings
in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Isa
9:6 tells us, “For unto us a
Thank
you for your prayers for us. I think that the word
“Stress” would describe the past few
Another
cause for stress was the disruption to our home
Not
only have we experienced stress, but our Winco
generator had some stress applied the
We
are thankful for the Ramdhann
An
update on Tyrron Polson, who, in March, was
“bounced” by a vehicle. He went through surgery to
put a rod in his thigh bone to hold it so it would
grow back together. In April, after he was
discharged from the hospital in Grenada, he
developed a blood clot in his injured leg, requiring
that he return to Grenada for another hospital stay.
He is now back home, and recovering well. Continue
to pray for his healing , that he will get back full
motion and strength in the injured leg. Next year he
goes back for surgery to remove the rod. Tyrron was
able to give away some Bibles while in the hospital,
as well as, to encourage a young man named Andre who
was across the ward from him. Andre, it turned out,
had bone cancer that was discovered after he had a
sports related accident that put him in the
hospital. Many of us at the station and church
prayed for him to get saved. In June, Tyrron
received a call from Andre’s sister saying that
Andre had died, but that he had received the Lord as
his Saviour a few days before!! We had also asked
prayer for Tyrron’s mother, who was sick and in the
hospital at this same time. She is slowly gaining
her strength back again, and came home, but is now
having blood sugar problems related to her diabetes,
and is in the hospital again, here in Carriacou.
Please continue to pray for her health needs as well
as her salvation and the salvation of the rest of
Tyrron’s family. Many of you have been praying for
these needs and we thank you. 
doors
on the generator building to keep it cool when we
run it. Our Onan generator was due for a top end
job, values, injectors, etc. Peter Thurley who
rebuilt our Winco generator engine while we were on
furlough, wanted to do the top end on the Onan, but
that did not work out. Instead, the Lord burdened
Harold and Kelly Brandeberry, friends from
Greenville, to come and help. Harold, who is a very
knowledgeable mechanic, did the work on the Onan. He
also brought many tools for working on the generator
equipment, for which we are very thankful. All those
who had a part in providing tools we say a hearty
“thank you “and “”Praise the Lord for putting on
your hearts to provide in this way.” We really
appreciate all the work Harold did while here:
working on the station generator, and preaching to
us at Open Door. We even managed to have a teen
outing where he brought the challenge.. We
appreciate Harold’s heart for the Lord and the work
here. He is even now helping us by being our legs in
Greenville to obtain parts for our generators and
vehicles. It is such a blessing to have those at
home holding the ropes for us who are here doing
what God has called us to.
Door,
to build a small fishing boat. He lost his previous
boat and has to depend on his brother to tend the
few fish pots he has out. It has been a great
encouragement to him to have me help cut out the
timbers for his new boat. I have learned a lot about
how they do it here, and it's been a good time of
fellowship with him. Our Young Men’s Bible Study
continues, and it is an opportunity to get to know
these young men better and teach them from the Word.
Most of these young men were recently baptized and
it is a joy to see spiritual growth in their lives.
We are planning an overnight outing, primarily for
our Bible study guys, but have also invited some
young men from the Gospel Hall to go with us to
White Island this next week. It will be a time to
get away, relax, and reflect on the goodness of our
Lord. We will have our Bible study that week there
at the camp out. Karen is planning a sleep over for
the young ladies since I will be out of the house.
Elizabeth and Eve Jaffier, now living in England,
came back to Carriacou for a short visit. It was
exciting to see them and to hear how the Lord led in
finding them a good church. It is an hour's ride on
the bus, so they are only able to attend one of the
services. Mr Fritz no longer comes as his health has
declined. A praise: Mrs. Cox, who also has many
health issues, has been able to get out for church
on a more regular basis. Church time is about the
only time she gets out anymore. Sister Angnes is now
working a full-time job and raising two children
which isn't easy; pray that she will have the will
and strength to faithfully make it to church. Thank
you for your continued prayers for these folks.
