November 2008 Winter Heating, Brethren In Moslem Lands
We're pleased to report that our brother Sirwan from Iraq has had a positive interview with the UNHCR in Turkey. We appreciate your prayers for him and his family. Our brother A has been in Turkey for some time seeking asylum and is somewhat depressed. Well, he was, but recently he finally had news that he has been accepted for resettlement in the USA- here are the text messages we received, and we give thanks for this:
However, we are sad to report that further legislation has been passed in Kyrgyzstan earlier this month, banning Christian meetings unless the members give their passports to the local [Moslem] councils, and get their permission. In Kazakhstan, according to a circular from the Barnabas Fund, registration for Christians is being made toughter and "according to the new law, religious literature can only be distributed in a permanent building designated by the state". This has quite some implications for our local work with Bible Basics. We have over 200 bre & sis in those countries, and we need to remember them and continue praying for them. We are hoping to sponsor some of them to come to Ukraine to the Winter Bible School.
WINTER HEATING DISTRIBUTION
This program continues, and our experiences driving around Eastern Europe visiting isolated bre & sis have been most spiritually encouraging. Just a few examples in this report, of many we could give.
Taking advantage of a slight thaw, we got out to see our sister Nina, who had been cut off by snow drifts for some days. We went loaded with firewood, vitamins and a fur coat for her. We crawled the last 10 km to her at about 10 km / hour, even for a 4WD vehicle the lanes and tracks were very slippery.
We gave her the firewood, coat and vitamins, kindly sent over by an American brother. She's a very emotional person, but really she was so deeply thankful to God for having chopped up firewood delivered, a fur coat etc., and she spontaneously gave a wonderful prayer of thanks:
When we gave her the vitamins and some other small stuff, and explained that this wasn't from us but from far away brothers and sisters, she broke down, so overwhelmed by this grace:
We went to give, but came away having been given so much. Carelink readers may recall that Br Steve Jones set her up with a pump to irrigate her land, and this worked very well this Summer. Nina is a subsistence farmer, getting a tiny pension, and existing by harvesting what she can in Summer, preserving it and eating it over the Winter. This Summer she had a bumper potato harvest, and has really knocked herself out digging up all the potatoes, her knees are quite damaged [digging potatoes is very demanding on knees and backs] from it, and she can barely walk now. Anyway, she has a bumper crop of them, and she showed us her store room, full of the potatoes and vegetables / fruits she's managed to preserve:
She was so touched by the grace shown her that although she has counted out how many potatoes she will eat this Winter, and how many she thinks she will lose to rats, she was eager to load us with 20 kg of potatoes and much jam to give to the other sisters we were going on to visit:
Truly God's grace to us does indeed have a ripple effect. One can't be passive to it. We went there with firewood, a coat, vitamins etc., expecting nothing back- and we drove off with 20 kg of potatoes and a crate of jam, to share in turn with others. Nina has little access to shops, the nearest one is several km. walk away over the fields, much longer if one goes by the lanes.
We had no problem distributing these potatoes-to our new sister LENA [mother of our new brother Viktor] , to whom we also gave the other fur coat we had for distribution:
We also spent some time with our new brother Kostya and his unbaptized wife Tatyana. They've just had a baby, but we spent a great time discussing the Scriptures and teaching Tatyana:
Note in the picture: the baby so heavily wrapped up against the cold inside the home; the firewood; the damp in the walls; the burner with patched up holes, which exude smoke all night [the family sleep on the divan next to it]. Quite how some babies survive... is a miracle.
We're very grateful for the vitamins and other tablets sent over in response to Cindy's appeal; here she is with them, and she's been busy distributing them to various sisters, including those living in the women's shelter.
On our travels we also were able to conduct a Bible study day with the Vilnius, Lithuania ecclesia. They are somewhat better off than those we are seeking to assist elsewhere, but it was great to see a revival of the Truth in this city, and to meet again with those baptized many years ago now, and being able to have mature, depth discussion of Scripture together- with people who were either unbelievers or only nominal [mis]believers when we first came into contact:.
Thank you for your support which enables this work to go forward!
Finally, in our recent appeals for Bible School sponsorship and Winter heating assistance, we ommitted to mention that we do have a Canadian representative, to whom Canadians can send checks [made out to "Carelinks"]:
Steve and Connie Keating, 3420 Lakeshore Road, RR 3, Alexandria, Ontario K0C 1A0 Canada
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks