Sweden, Spectacles, and Aletheia, April 2007
Reconstruction work continues at the property we're reconstructing in Latvia, and brother Phil Worsnop from New Zealand has been working like a trojan.
Here he is with a sewage trench he just dug last week:
We welcome anyone interested in assisting with anything from gardening to painting to heating to contact us to arrange a time to come over and help.
SWEDEN
We're delighted to announce the first baptisms throughout our community's history in Sweden. It was with much joy that we baptized and received into fellowship Sister I [a refugee sister], brother Alishir and Sister Bara; Alishir and Bara are brother and sister in the flesh as well as now in the Lord. We always love to see the joy on the faces of people as they come out of the waters of baptism; the camera only sometimes catches it, but when it does, it's a wonderful encouragement to us to continue also in "newness of life", holding fast the rejoicing of our hope steadfast to the end. Our new brother and sister immigrated some time ago to Sweden from Uzbekistan and now rejoice in the true "Hope of Israel".
Photo: Happy fellowship straight afterwards
Sister I is a very shy and intense woman from Egypt. She left Islam for Christianity, and made it her life. For this she was rejected from her family and persecuted, and fled to Sweden where she knew nobody. She has been given support from the Swedish Government and came into contact with us through the internet. Now in her mid 30s, she has devoted her life to the study of the Bible and attempting to share her faith with other Moslem-background people. We were able to get her large quantities of Arabic literature, which she walks around the many Arabic / Moslem immigrant areas of Stockholm distributing. She's totally singleminded in her devotion to this calling she feels she has. It's a very hard task, too- for those who reject Islam even in Islamic families living in the West are subject to great rejection and persecution. In many of those families and suburbs, many of the immigrants still speak only Arabic and mix only with other Arabic speakers. We were especially touched to meet up with our sister, to find she had brought along an empty suitcase, in order to fill it with the literature we were bringing.
Please do pray for this little group the Lord has raised up in this northern land. They are about as different in temperament and background as could be imagined, but as the Lord predicted, it is the very witness of our unity which leads to the world coming to know Him.
SPECTACLES
A Sister in Eastern Europe needs some spectacles, strength -3.5 .We've had some difficulty obtaining these- if anyone can help please let us know and we can let you know the address to where you can mail them.
ALETHEIA BIBLE COLLEGE has a large number of books and magazines held in various locations. They have now been partly catalogued and made available to the brotherhood- see http://www.aletheiacollege.net/libraryindex.htm . We are happy to receive any Biblical magazines or books not on those lists. If you wish to dispose of books, please contact us. Maybe we could receive them from you at one of the upcoming Carelinks events- see http://www.carelinks.net/events.htm .
With love from your brothers and sisters of CCM