China, Baltic Bible School June 2009

CHINA
We now have quite a network of baptized believers throughout China, and their work on the internet results in fresh contacts applying to us for Chinese Bible literature every day. We fund local brethren to go and follow up on those contacts and baptize them when they're ready. The huge number of internet users in China means that our work there has been on a J-curve for some time. We're considering later this year, God willing, holding a get together for all these scattered converts so that they can fellowship with each other and even further strengthen their work together. Any interested in sponsoring this or coming along, please contact us. The latest news is that JING was baptized. His first email to us after reading our websites included this:

"I;m serious want to get the bible book,so can you send to me?i also don't believe trinity,it is a mistake doctrine came from other religion group.i read a lot of religion book,it is nice to know you".

So as you can imagine, there was lots of eager correspondence. Jing is a schoolteacher in a village, and runs a special class teaching the children about the book of Genesis. He's a great advocate of creationism over evolution, and this is not an easy thing to advocate in China. His fascination with Genesis led him to study the promises in Eden and to Abraham, and we're pleased to report now his baptism. Brother Feng reports:

"Hi,I just got off the bus and write to tell u how it went .You can see the photos I took at a sauna where the baptism was performed. Jing is a teacher,so I travel to meet him at the weekend when we can have enogh time to talk about doctrine". Our brother spoke with others too, and comments on them: "it seems that catholic beliefs have an influence on many people here in china.which is really depressed me so much".

Photo: Brother Jing just after his baptism in the sauna. Please pray for him.

BALTIC BIBLE SCHOOL
Another happy School was held at the property which Carelinks have been renovating in northern Latvia for the last 3 years. There's still plenty of work to be done there, and we do invite anyone interested in doing light repair work to come over and assist, or consider sponsoring some work there. At this moment, Brother Josh Thurlow of Australia and Sister Abi van Heerden of South Africa are up there. The home is now occupied by the local family of whom we've written before in these messages.

This Bible School was blessed with a special act of grace, in that Sister Yvonne from England kindly came over and did the catering for us, taking a huge weight off the shoulders of 8 month pregnant Cindy. Yvonne doesn't speak Russian or Latvian, but her gracious act of service was a great example to the local brothers and sisters. Anyone else out there interested in such service- do get in contact!

Sister Yvonne serving food:

We were also blessed with the baptisms of three sisters in the river which borders the property: NATASHA, ELENA and NORA. Nora has been attending our meetings for over three years. This School was also characterized by the presence of two local women, neighbours in the village, who have read Bible Basics and meet with sister Liga for Bible discussions. One of them gave a most moving testimony to us all at the end of the Bible School, breaking down in tears as she thanked us for being such sincere lovers of God and His word, of the type she has so long been searching for. You can see her short speech on the movie we made of the School- see http://aletheiacollege.net/latschool.html .

The Latvian sisters have done so much around the home, and as before, some of them brought flowers from their land and transplanted them into the garden at the property. Here's sister Vera with her walking stick, transplanting some of her flowers:

The worsening economic crisis here is on everyone's minds- pensions slashed by 20%, reduced benefits for pensioners, higher prices for medical care and medicines etc etc all make life almost unbearably hard for so many of our very dear ones here. The sisters eagerly gathered up the eggshells left over from the cooking, in order to crush them up and use them as calcium tablets for those with osteoporosis:

This time we made a special effort to ensure that as many young people as possible came, which involved driving around Latvia picking up some of them from their villages. The effort was worth it, as they became great friends:

Do take 5 minutes to view the video: http://aletheiacollege.net/latschool.html . The work here in Europe really is great, there have been over 30 baptisms this last 6 weeks.

With love from your brothers & sisters of Carelinks