Georgia, Latvia, USA, China, Iranians, Morocco, August 2008

GEORGIA
We appreciate the prayers and concern expressed for those in Georgia. We've heard from Nino & Agahi in Tbilisi. They happened to be in their home village just a few kilometres from the Ossetian border when the fighting started and managed to flee back to Tbilisi, where they live; the village was pretty much destroyed but they are safe. Email contact has now opened up again and they report that Tbilisi is full of refugees, the Russians are burning forests and many villages  have been mined by them- which isn't currently reported in the press. We've still not had any contact with the ecclesia in Marneuli, which was bombed as there's an air force base in the village. Please continue your prayers for them.

Here's a file photo of them from our previous visit there:     

LATVIA
We're delighted to report the baptism of MARTA, mother of our sister Ilva and grandmother of Liva. We also met up with a Latvian sister living in the UK and received quite an insight into the difficulties of Eastern European immigrants working for very low income in a country where everything is so different for them. They typically aren't given full time jobs, only part time, so that the employer has fewer liabilities; they earn the minimum hourly wage with no holidays; have to do 2 or 3 jobs / day involving awkward public transport etc. And they're often unaware of things like Council Tax, which hit them unawares and catch them unprepared as they have no savings. They're eating very poorly, have little free time, feel obligated to send funds home to their family, and find little support from other Latvians as they are in the same situation, watching over every pound they earn. And life is often unbearably stressful and lonely... so we did what we could for our sister, as we do for others like her around Western Europe.

Here's a photo of Cindy saying a hard goodbye to Sis Ilva on the streets of a British city... it really is a lonely life, but she's reading her Bible daily and showing a wonderful faith in a hard situation:     

IRANIANS IN TURKEY
Reza and Mona, the Iranian couple whom we recently married, are having a hard time. The Turkish Police won't allow asylum seekers to live in Istanbul, and so they are being forced to live in another (much smaller) town. Mona is very broken down by this and the constant pressure is starting to take its toll. Please pray for them.

AMAZING PROGRESS IN THE U.S.A.
Over the past few years we have had over 23,000 requests for Bible Basics from North America. Over the last few weeks, thanks to unsolicited recommendations on various websites, we've received around 7,000 requests. We write to them all and ask them to confirm their interest, explaining we're not Trinitarian etc. Very many have confirmed their interest, which has kept the Tacoma ecclesia and their team of co-workers throughout America very busy. They have many contacts throughout the USA who are interested in baptism and have rejected the Trinity.

Here's a session at the ecclesia stuffing envelopes:     

And Br Scott and Sis Lisa continue trucking around the USA as OTR truckers, keeping in touch with so many isolated bre & sis and contacts. You can see the re-vamped Tacoma Ecclesia website and learn more at www.tacomaecclesia.net . There's a special report on the latest spike of Bible Basics requests at http://www.tacomaecclesia.net/bbmailings.pdf . It's simply amazing what's being achieved there.

CHINA
We've been corresponding for some time with LIDONG, who lives in a remote part of northern China. The internet is really a blessing if used properly- our brother printed out a lot of material about , as he calls it, "the false of trinity" and came to see the need for baptism. Our beloved brother Donald again made a several days round trip to meet, discuss with and baptize Lidong. He reports: "hi,i just came back and also had baptized our new bro Lidong as he requested! He lives in a little county area. In order to let him know the true doctrine and his salvation ,I printed some article about the false doctine of the trinity before my trip. eventually,i baptized him in a swimming pool in the evening. before the baptism,i told him that

Romans 6:3-6 “All . . . who [are] baptised into Christ Jesus [are] baptised into his death? We [are] therefore buried with him through baptism into death . . . just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . we too may live a new life”
Mark 1:9, 10 “Jesus . . . was baptised by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.”

So he was baptized by full immersion in water... I felt very happy to meet and baptize him. Sure,I will still keep contact with him ,and discuss the Bible question together!"

Photos: Baptism; printing out material from the Carelinks Chinese website; Bro. Lidong with his wife and baby, having threshed a good grain harvest in their yard
                 

We appreciate your donations which enable us to fund local brethren like Donald to do this kind of work.

MOROCCO
As we go to press, we ask for your prayers for a difficult Islamic persecution situation in Morocco. We're doing our best to assist those involved and will report more, God willing, next week.

With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks