Mike and I returned yesterday afternoon to our friends, Steve & Charla from the Jammin in the Hammock Festival held at Collier-Seminole State Park in East Naples, FL. It was a good festival. Mike did the emcee work and did an outstanding job as usual. We hosted a Friday night dinner with the members of The Wilson Family Band and the Tomorrow’s News band. It was a blast. We feel very blessed to have the opportunity to get to know such wonderful musicians and Christian brethren in our mission field. Our friend, Charlie stayed with us over the weekend and we enjoyed wonderful fellowship with him, as well.

This festival is unusual in the way it attracts a crowd. It is basically a two day bluegrass show depending on day tickets from both Naples and near-by Marco Island. There is very little dry camping spots available to the typical bluegrass crowd. There were a few of our usual folks there, but no where near the usual amount. With that said, we felt very blessed to have a good number of pickers for our Sunday morning Gospel Sing and Jam. The singing crowd built as we got going. The park shuttled in folks to the festival from a near-by parking lot. We estimate around 50 or so, including 7 pickers. Mike preached about the three kinds of love described in the Bible in honor of Valentine’s Day. Romantic love, Brotherly love and Agape love. He interwove a message of God’s love for us, His image bearers, in the person of Jesus Christ. Valentine’s Day has been very bittersweet for me as it marks the day that my precious mother, Rose died.

Grief is unfortunately, so much a part of our life here on earth. Nothing ever stays the same and sometimes it feels like we move from one loss to another. Sometimes it is the loss of a relationship because of divorce, sometimes it is a loss of a friend because of a misunderstanding, or the loss of a job which means the loss of co-workers that you’ve enjoyed working with. Of course, death is the ultimate loss, unless you have Christ and the faith to believe that in Christ, you will have eternal life and will see your loved ones again, as is promised in God’s Word.

Mike and I are going to be in Naples for the next week. We are planning on spending a day with Pastor Arlen & Lana from the Big Cypress Indian Reservation on Friday. We are using this time to catch up on maintenance, repairs and correspondence and maybe we’ll have a chance to work on our taxes.

I do have praise report. We heard from our friends, Elwood & Gail that the Gospel Sing at the Joe Val Festival in Framingham, MA went very well. They had 69 folks there with 28 musicians. Elwood delivered a message on Jesus the rescuer, using the situation of the earthquake in Haiti as an example of our broken world and how God sent His son to rescue us from our individual brokenness. We praise the Lord that Elwood and Gail have been faithful in hosting the Gospel Sing at Joe Val for the last 5 years.

Mike and I pulled into our friend’s yard in Naples, FL last evening after spending the weekend at Craig’s RV park in Arcadia, FL. at the Goldwing Express Festival. We were the only thing scheduled on Sunday morning as the festival was officially over on Saturday night. We had about 30 to 40 folks in total out under the pavilion on Sunday morning. Mike preached about family and how the bluegrass community is like a family in many ways. He then interwove a message on trusting Jesus in order to be part of the family of God.

The weekend was rather strange in terms of the weather. Very windy and cold with periods of some rain, but mostly just cold and windy. We had one spell of being under a tornado watch. A couple of people lost their awnings because of the strong winds. It is always quite nerve wracking being in a motor home in that kind of weather, but we survived. So far, Florida has been quite cold and wet compared to past years. We are hoping it will begin to warm up some as “jamming” at night has been impossible with the cold damp temperatures.

We did have an interesting encounter with a man named Dave. He apparently had used our books to lead a worship service over at the annual pioneer days at Pioneer Park in Zolfo Springs last year. When the preacher failed to come, he used the salvation message on the back of our book as on outline for a devotional. We were very blessed by that. We handed him a packet of books as he was going to be going back there this year. It is truly amazing how the Gospel Sing Ministry has reached such a large variety of different avenues because of the song books. I guess when we get to Heaven we will know just how far reaching handing out 20,000 books has been. We are very grateful that through the years we’ve had devoted people in our path willing to print the books for us, understanding the eternal value.

We also had the opportunity to meet a man named John who is wintering at the park. He and his wife have been in a boat ministry for the last 11 years and are considering a different path now for ministry. Our friend’s Jay & Martha had met him earlier in the season and thought we should meet. We enjoyed meeting him and having an opportunity to share with him how our ministry works. He and his wife came out to be part of the Gospel Sing with us on Sunday morning.

We will be heading over to Collier-Seminole State Park on Friday morning for the Jamming in Hammock Bluegrass festival this upcoming weekend. Mike is emceeing the show and our friend Charlie will be doing sound. Charlie is going to stay with us in “MO” and we are looking forward to fellowship with him.

We did do some updating on our website and put up the song that Frank & Barbara wrote about us last year as well as some recent Florida pictures.

Mike and I are currently camped over at Highland Hammock State Park until Thursday morning. He and our friend, Alan from Enfield, ME, are working on replacing the counter in Mike’s Mom’s park model. They are wintering here in Florida for a couple of months and Alan was willing to drive all the way from Lakeland to help Mike today, which has been a great blessing.

We left the Yeehaw Junction Bluegrass festival yesterday and traveled over to Sebring. It was a great festival.  We had a very good Gospel Sing Sunday morning. We estimate about 150 folks in our “singing” crowd and 31 pickers in our “jamming” orchestra. It was such a shot in the arm for us to start our Florida season with such success. Last year, I was in the ICU during Yeehaw’s festival, so to have the opportunity to start our season on a positive note has been a blessing for us. Mike preached a message about “change”. He talked about how some things at the festival were the same, but because of new promoter’s, some things were changed. He then interwove a message of the Gospel and how it never changes.

Mike had emceed a good part of the show as our friend, Evan was on the bluegrass cruise and didn’t get to the festival until Saturday afternoon. He received a lot of nice compliments on his emceeing abilities. Because Mike was tied to the stage for some time, it gave me the opportunity to catch up with several bluegrass friends that I hadn’t seen for a long while. It is always such a grand reunion when we begin our mission field. It feels the same way, when we get to the June Blistered Finger’s festival and can reconnect with our northern mission field.

We just received a copy of a song written about us by our friend’s Frank & Barbara from CT. We are hoping to get it uploaded to our website soon.

Thanks Frank & Barbara!!!

Mike and I made it into Florida last week after spending a few days visiting with family in Alabama. Our first Florida stop was in Inglis at the Village Pines Campground. We performed some music at the Rec hall there on Friday night. I’ve been nursing a bad cold for weeks now and I was amazed that I was able to squeak out a few songs that night. Mike preached a message on the “storms of life” on Sunday morning. We left there Sunday afternoon and drove to Zolfo Springs, FL and the Pioneer park in order to surprise Mike’s Mom for a visit. Mike’s sister Patty is here as well to visit before she begins her new adventure in Kuwait next week. Thankfully, it finally has begun to get some warmer here and I think we can safely put away the ceramic heaters and maybe drag out the fans.

We have been working on our website that our son Stephen is hosting on his server. It has a whole new look including some edited versions of the weekly update letters, without names and prayer requests. Check it out:  www.bluegrassgospelsing.com .

I’m happy to report that our 1 year old grandson, Gavin started to walk this week. That is such a great milestone. Oh, I miss my grandkids!!!!!

We are anticipating a good season of ministry and are thankful that the Lord has given us this work to do.

We are currently parked in Clarksville, TN at the Fort Campbell RV park. We’ve had a wonderful time visiting with my niece, Maureen and her family. Her daughter, Amaya is quite social and has kept us entertained with her enthusiasm. She thinks that Uncle Mike looks like Jeff Foxworthy, so of course, he’s been having some fun with that.

Our time in South Carolina was very good. We had a chance to spend some time with Mike’s sister Patty. She is about to embark on an amazing journey and different life path. Her son, Jeremie currently works over in Kuwait doing security for a private company that has been contracted by the United States government. Patty was recently hired by the same company and will be deploying on the 2nd of February. Please keep her in your prayers for safety and for this new job. It pays well and may finally give her the opportunity to have a nest egg and a little financial cushion as right now, she is barely scraping by, even with working two jobs.

We had a spirit filled time of worship with the brethren at West End Baptist Church last Sunday. We did music and presentation of the ministry through a Power Point slide show.  Mike preached a challenging message on service and first fruits. This little church has been in a God breathed revival and we were so energized to be part of it.

We will be pulling out of Tennessee tomorrow morning and will be heading to Alabama to visit with Mike’s niece, Stephanie and her family and then into Mobile to see Mike’s cousin Violet before finishing our trip into Inglis, Florida and the Village Pines Campground for a Bluegrass Gospel Sing weekend starting on January 21st.

Wow, I never thought I’d put frosty and South Carolina in the same sentence! Mike and I arrived in South Carolina on Tuesday afternoon to a freezing cold motor home. Thankfully, the new engine turned over, however, it sounded horrible until it warmed up. Everything inside of it was extremely cold. Even a bottle of olive oil was frozen into an ugly slush! We’ve been running like crazy people getting things unpacked out of the car and putting things back in order to get ready for our 2010 season.

We traveled on New Year’s Day following my father’s birthday celebration. We got into New Jersey and yes, we did beat the New England snow storm. The motel 6 that we stayed at was less than desirable and included a middle of the night prank call that kept us both awake. Following that, we traveled into Winchester, VA to Mike’s Mom’s trailer park (she’s already in Florida) to spend a few hours warming up the water line as it was frozen solid. Once we had water, we discovered a broken kitchen faucet that Mike replaced on Sunday following church. Speaking of church, we had a wonderful time of worship with the brethren at Calvary Baptist Church in Winchester. Mike preached a message on serving the Lord with your first fruits. We had lunch afterwards with the new intentional interim pastor and also our friend, Norm.

Following this weekend’s service, we will be heading into Tennessee to visit friends and relatives for a few days and then into Alabama to visit relatives before finishing our trip south into Florida.

Since our last update we traveled up to Conway, NH for a weekend and did a Christmas service at White Mountain Chapel on Sunday, December 20th. It was a good service and we enjoyed a wonderful fellowship dinner the evening before at our friends, Bob & Judy. Judy is a wonderful cook and she had invited several couples over to visit with us.

We also were able to take part in a surprise 25th wedding anniversary party for our bluegrass friends, Kim & Wendy Hemphill from New Hampshire. Their wonderful children managed to pull off a great surprise and we were happy to be part of it. We also were able to facilitate a neighborhood appreciation dinner for our wonderful neighbor’s who watch out for our home during the many months that we are out on the road.

Finally, we wish to thank all of our supporters who have stood by us, supported us financially and with prayer, over the course of the last several years. We are looking forward to beginning our 11th year in the Bluegrass Gospel Sing Ministry, our 7th year full time. We expect the Lord to do great things.

Servants of Jesus,

Mike & Mary Robinson
www.bluegrassgospelsing.com

Mike and I are winding down our time at home before heading back out on the road on Saturday, January 2nd. We have a very full schedule already planned for 2010. Our youngest son has developed a new web program for us to host our website that will allow us more pictures and even the possibility of putting up video and music clips. We are hoping to get that figured out before we hit the road in a couple of weeks.

We have been incredibly busy this furlough time. Mike has spent hours putting in old VHS video’s into the computer to make them digital. We are hoping to eventually figure out how to make DVD’s of different family events as a way of permanently documenting them for our family members.

Since my last update, we traveled to Vermont to be part of our friend Dudley’s funeral service. Linda had asked us to sing “The Far Side Banks of Jordan” at his funeral service. We were so honored to be a part of a wonderful service that really honored a life well lived. Please continue to keep Linda and Dudley’s family in your prayers as this such a huge loss for all who knew him.

We also traveled out to Franklin, MA and was part of the Sunday morning worship at The Church of the Redeemer Anglican church. They recently moved into a new space which is perfect for them. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon of food & fellowship following the service. Mike and I feel very blessed that the Lord has allowed us to fellowship with brethren who enjoy different worship styles. Christianity is exclusive in the Gospel, however, the way that people choose to worship Christ can be very different and completely wonderful as it meets the needs of those in attendance. Just like God meets his children needs in a unique way, so does the church. It has been an awesome part of our journey in faith to be allowed to take part in different worship styles and to get to know our brethren from a variety of different, however, very similar churches.

This weekend we are traveling up to Conway, NH to do the Sunday morning service at a Christian Missionary Alliance Church. White Mountain Chapel is located at 296 East Main Street, Conway, NH. The service starts at 10:00 a.m. We will be staying overnight with brethren from Valley Christian Church in near-by Brownfield, ME on Saturday night. It looks like we may be having a bit of a winter storm this weekend, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we will traveling in it.

We have a busy holiday schedule coming up with visiting and cooking and celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Mike and I were over at our son John’s house when they put up their Christmas tree. I had honestly forgotten the level of excitement that is associated to lights and ornaments and a tree, when you are a toddler. Watching our grandchildren react to it all was by far the best gift I could ever receive this Christmas season. Many of my family will be gathering in Hatfield on New Year’s Day to celebrate my father’s 82nd birthday. His birthday is New Year’s Eve. He has outlived his siblings and his parents by several years now and I am grateful that he is still healthy and able to be on his own.

In closing, we want to wish all who receive this email a Christ-centered Christmas. May you have a joy filled celebration as you consider the greatest gift of all time. Also, please be in prayer for the many people who are grieving this year, struggling with health issues, relationship issues, loss of jobs and income and for the many soldiers who are far from their loved ones on foreign soil.

Thank you from Mike & Mary and The Gospel Sing Ministry.

Friends and servants of Jesus,

Mike & Mary Robinson
www.bluegrassgospelsing.com

Mike and I are traveling today from the Upper Hudson Bluegrass Festival in North Creek, NY over to The Blistered Fingers Festival in Sidney, Maine with luxury accommodations tonight at Camp Wal-Mart in Augusta! We completely enjoyed our time at the Upper Hudson Festival. It was very well run and the location at Ski Bowl Park was a good fit for Bluegrass. The Gospel Sing was fairly well attended considering this was our first time here. We had about 60 or so folks with about 6 musicians. Mike preached about being careful not to drift away from the truth of the Gospel. He started by asking folks to think about what was the most memorable thing that they will take away from the festival and then challenged them to consider that perhaps what they hear about Jesus during the Gospel Sing may be the most memorable thing for them to take away from the festival.

We manned our booth for several hours afterwards and gave away several New Testaments and Gospels of John. We had the opportunity to fellowship with a couple named Dave & Mary. We had met them briefly at Thomas Point Beach last year. Dave’s testimony was about coming to faith after hearing our son in the Lord, Basil preach at Upper Hudson last year. It was good to have the circle completed with them and we rejoice in how the Lord multiplies in ministry.

We also met a lady who recently purchased a 70 seat theatre in near-by Fort Edward, NY. She would like to have us do a concert there next year either before Greenville, NY or the Upper Hudson Festival on a Wednesday evening. During a walk we discovered a nursing home close by that we’ll contact for next year to bring music over to while we are in North Creek.

On Wednesday evening, Mike and I will travel over to Dixmont, Maine to do a church service at East Dixmont Community Church at 6:30 p.m. It is located at 34 Church Hill Road, Dixmont, Maine. We will be doing music, Power Point and testimony for the folks there. We love this little church. The brethren here are genuine faithful followers of Christ and we always feel so energized after spending time worshipping with them.

Lastly, I just wanted to let you all know that I am feeling much better since my last bout with diverticulitis and I’m so looking forward to seeing our bluegrass friends in Maine.

As always, if you wish to be removed from the update list, just email me and I’ll remove your name.

Friends of Jesus,

Mike & Mary Robinson
www.bluegrassgospelsing.com

This has been quite an interesting week for Mike and Mary and the Bluegrass Gospel Sing. This was the first Gospel Sing in a decade that didn’t have both of us leading it. Mike reported that he had a really great crowd this morning under the tent. At least 50 folks including six musicians. He preached about God’s will starting with the idea that for Mike and I, our “plan” had been to meet all the new folks, play music at our campsite under the awning and picking tent we had set up when we first arrived. Of course, none of that happened as I was only here a matter of a few hours before being admitted to the hospital for yet another bout of diverticulitis. Mike continued his preaching about how it is always God’s will that all come to repentance and that none should perish but all get rescued from sin and have a place in Eternity with Him. Mike manned the booth for a brief time before leaving to pick me up. He gave away 5 bibles and had several good discussions with folks, in spite of the limited time he had here.

I was released from the Berkshire Medical Center this afternoon. I am feeling better although not completely healed yet. I have two weeks worth of medicine to take and will need to follow up with a surgical consult when we get home for furlough in the fall. As much as I dread the idea of having another surgery to recover from this fall, I can’t risk another bout of diverticulitis as it is so painful and I could have more serious complications with each subsequent episode.

We had received some interesting news before leaving for this festival that I wanted to report on. Our friend, Steve Dittman has decided to cut back on some of the shows that he has promoted. He has turned the Yee Haw Junction festival over to Keith Bass & Victor Hall for 2010. He wanted to make sure that everyone who had bought advanced tickets not to worry as Keith & Victor will honor them. Keith & Victor are younger and have a lot of energy. They promote the Tomorrow News festival in Arcadia, Florida and we are sure they will do a great job continuing the tradition of Yee Haw Junction. We wish to thank Steve & Janis for all of their wonderful shows that they have been responsible for and will continue to support the shows that they are going to promote in 2010.

Finally, I wish to thank all of you who emailed me well wishes during my recent illness. Mike left the computer with me so I was able to receive them in a timely fashion. We are scheduled to be at the Upper Hudson Bluegrass Festival for this Thursday. We decided to find a nice campground to relax in for the next couple of days before leaving for Upper Hudson. We both need some time to get refreshed. Thankfully, the motor home is running well and hopefully, I’ll be running well myself in a few more days. Please keep our friend Gail Martin in prayer. She is having a major cancer surgery on Tuesday. We praise the Lord that our friend Allen is doing very well since his lung cancer surgery. As always, if you wish to be removed from the list, just email me and I’ll remove your name.

Servants of the King,

Mike & Mary Robinson
www.bluegrassgospelsing.com