November 2008 China, Iranians

We continue to receive requests every day for literature from people throughout China. The zeal of our local brothers and sisters in using the internet is wonderful, they have even set up their own system of online breaking of bread. We have been in correspondence with a young woman, who initially wrote to us having read our material about Satan at www.realdevil.info . She was fascinated by our approach to the topic, and studied more. We also put her in touch with a brother in England who's happy to answer Bible questions from such folk, and also with our local brother Feng. He in turn corresponded with her in Chinese and this weekend travelled a long way to baptize her. He reports:

"Hi,I arrived in Xi'an city ,one of the oldest cities in Chinese history, at 6 o'clock  in the morning to baptize the contact,R.
Her place is situated  about 70km from the hotel I stayed in, so she had to take bus to the hotel . R is a new believer,and is very interested in the Bible and Christianity. She realized that only through baptism into Christ can we get rid of the  burdens of pain, guilt and be saved from our sins. She understood the necessity  to know the  true gospel before get baptized.
.
She was very happy to follow Jesus and be baptized,and she promised that she will keep on reading the Bible, spreading His word among her classmates and visit carelinks website to learn more.
God bless us for this great work. "

Meanwhile, we have received heavy news from a brother in Iran.

We reported a while ago that the Iranian Government is currently beginning to enforce legislation more strongly mandating the death penalty for all men who convert from Islam to Christianity; and life in prison for all women who do so. And they are also seeking to prosecute people outside Iran like ourselves who preach Christianity in Iran through media such as the internet. You can read more about this here: http://www.bibi30.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1949&Itemid=63

Brother I was arrested, imprisoned for 35 days, and his computer seized, which includes our emails and other important data. He has been released and writes as follows in various chat messages to us:

"long time i didn't write for u because i had some problems with Islamic regime because of our home church and activities. they arrest me and they took my PC too. i had very very bad time... they put me in a room without any window about 35 days and they told me if i tell any one about what happend they will do more bad things other time. im affraid i didnt tell any one here just my family knows. they told me i have2 ways one to deny Jesus and say other people i was in wrong way the other way work for them and say the names of people in our home chuch and other places. i told them i will stay in jale till i die and i dont do that. now they tool my pc and ibook. and the control my phone calls...pray for me to be brave and ask God to give me and [Sis A his wife] power to fight....but Duncan we are confused what should we do? our family are old and they don't have anyone... we have to wait and pray and lets see Gods willing...I'm tired on my mind and I'm very depressed, pray God help us. now I'm using 2 diazepam 10 MG every night for sleeping. my soul is really sick. pray for us...oh thanks God u r on line. no they didn't beat or hurt me. just they made me crazy believe me I'm very very depressed. please take care of our people who come from Iran. now we are in a very bad situation. they arrest many people you can read the news about Iran in this website  http://www.bibi30.com    all of these news are true. last week a group came from turkey they arrest 2 of them. during these 3 or 4 months they arrest about 50 people.take care of our people. when u want to invite them to turkey or other people tell them to come separate. not to gather and tell them don't bring Bible or any other books with themselves".

You'll notice the immense nervous pressure upon our brother. It's all very well accepting that our brethren are persecuted and we may be relieved he wasn't physically hurt, but don't underestimate the enormous stress under which our brother and so many others live. The least we can do is pray for them. What's happening in the fundamentalist Moslem states is very, very scary- and it's too bad that US elections and the financial crisis keep this off the screens of Western media.

At the time of writing we are preparing our first visit to Syria, in the hope of maybe baptizing our first brethren in this land where to date we have not baptized anyone. Again, please pray for this work with all the attendant difficulties faced.

With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks

ps UK readers, don't forget the Carelinks Weekend planned for January! Register now! More info at http://www.carelinks.net/doc/events