Inner Mongolia, Carelinks Conference, January 2009
INNER MONGOLIA
We reported previously how requests for Bible Basics are coming in from every corner of the earth, and how we even got a reply from a man in a remote village in Inner Mongolia. It turns out this place is so remote it's 120 km from the nearest transport; our brother Donald spent 2 days getting there and had to charter a vehicle to do that last part. But we're delighted to say that XUFEI was baptized into the real Christ by brother Donald, after having studied the Mongolian Bible Basics.
Brother Donald reports:
"Although Roman Catholics are relatively popular here, our contact still insisted on studying the Bible without the aid of the church , discovering the truth from the Bible Basics and so eventually he decided to be baptized.As it is already winter, the temperature is as low as -15centigrade . There is nearly nothing to see when travelling through the vast Steppe of the Mongolian desert. I took some photos by cellphone about the journey.I got stuck in Beijing and Chifeng city for nearly7 days due to the coming of Chinese new year.The number of people traveling by train during this year's Spring Festival travel peak is expected to hit 155 million,and it was almost impossible to get the tickets"
It's easy to forget the problems faced by travellers to remote areas- getting stuck for 7 days on the return journey is quite something!
CARELINKS CONFERENCE
We're pleased to say that a most encouraging number of brothers and sisters gathered together for a highly simulating conference near Chippenham, UK. Our especial thanks to those who organized it locally, to our speakers, and to the musicians. Now we've found such a suitable venue we're planning on making this an annual event in the UK, Lord willing. The talks tackled some stimulating matters head on and positively- the importance of doctrine, whether or not, or to what extent, we should be getting involved in charitable work in our communities; how to 'win the West'; how to practically engage in contact with people and how to structure conversations to lead them to the Lord. We were especially encouraged by our international visitors- Br Paul Jones from France, Br Alan Eyre from Jamaica, Br Charlie Klennert from America. There was specially composed music by Brother Robin Field, and plenty of formal as well as spontaneous singing, leading up to the performance of the song Brother Robin had composed especially for the conference. Not sparing Robin's blushes, his musical compositions are one of our community's hidden gems; more information about his CDs and musical work is available from us or directly from him at jandrfield@mypostoffice.co.uk
Photo: Lively discussion
Photo: Singing round the piano
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks