Denmark & Italy June 2009

The true Gospel continues to spread powerfully even in secular Western Europe.

Denmark
Denmark has become home to several refugee brethren. But this time we were pleased to make a visit to Denmark to visit and baptize some native Danes, MORTEN and ANNE THERESE

Italy
We reported earlier this year the baptism of two brethren in Naples, Italy who run a church there. We gave them a boxful of Bible Basics and they have been updating us about their progress in teaching their church. We spent a weekend with them recently. And what an experience it was. Brother Festus had been the pastor of a large church, comprised of African immigrants, of whom there are many in Naples. But he was convinced of the truth, was rebaptized by us, and told his congregation that they no longer should believe in things like a personal Satan, trinity, and that Jesus is returning to earth to establish the Kingdom here. Each week he has been teaching them a chapter from Bible Basics, at the end of each session he asks them the questions and they note down the correct answers. His congregation has dwindled to around 25 people, but they are truly on fire for the Truth. We turned up at the large hall they have, and found it in a way sad to see Festus mount the platform and speak through the PA system to just a few people, with masses of now empty seats.
         

The group turned up on time, mostly in their own cars, with their Bibles and "Bible Basics", dressed in Sunday best and some in their traditional African costumes. We video recorded Festus' lecture about the Kingdom of God coming on earth, and his asking the group the questions from the final lesson of the course.
    

It was really most impressive to see their love of the word, their eager taking of notes, and to see how on fire they are. You can see in the video how earnest they are. They took up a collection to defray their expenses, and then there was a very lively African style praise and worship session. It's amazing the power and volume of 25 dedicated people! They had been planning the baptisms for a long time, and everyone was prepared. So after the we drove down to a beach and baptized those who had succesfully and correctly completed the course: brother CHIEDU and sisters EDITH O., EDITH I., DORIS, MERCY, ROSLYN, GLORIA and SANDRA . It was a windy, rainy day, but surely the Lord was present there on that beach.
         

You can see a video of the day at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbhqcLX_LQU . We hope to make a pastoral visit to this wonderful group later in the year, God willing. We continue to be humbled at the Lord's usage of our small efforts, and we are humbled too through our partnership with Festus, a man of unusual humility and yet energy, blessed with an excellent knowledge of the word, able to quote and reason freely and with power. We really do pray that this group will continue to blossom; we owe them all the support we can give them. We see ourselves as very much in partnership with those to whom we have been led like brother Festus, simply giving them the teaching and spiritual infrastructure with which to spread the Word further, helping them to trade their talents to the Father's glory.

Meanwhile, we have more exciting news coming in from Myanmar, China and Latvia- but that's for next time, God willing.

We've also uploaded a short video about the Riga Bible Center, and continue to encourage brothers and sisters to come over and assist in this exciting and fruitful work- see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0TC_jqTRhc
or better quality at
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=85714433838&oid=69292278377

For all this, we truly give thanks

With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks