May 2024 Australia, UK
AUSTRALIA Some time ago LUKE contacted brother Mark in Perth, having seen his videos, explaining he had rejected his trinitarian church baptism and wanted baptism into the Lord Jesus. But he was 4000 km. away in Queensland. That however proved to be no problem, once he was introduced to Phil & Miri Worsnop. After good chats with Phil, Luke was baptized by Phil & Miri in one of their amazingly constructed baptism pools, and you can see his great joy after baptism:
Here are some clips from his various emails:
"I've been truly seeking our Lord Jesus Christ for the last year & a half, was baptised at my local baptist church in the name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. I seek the Lord each day along with full & sincere repentance for my life of sin, confessing each day with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord & truly believing in my heart that He rose on the 3rd day defeating death. I'm in the word (reading or listening) constantly, but [as a result of this] I learnt that if one is to be truly born again of the spirit & alive in Christ one MUST be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ & His name alone, I was thankful & grateful for his sincere care in telling me the truth, as I want the truth, no matter how hard it is to hear, however I truly felt incredibly deflated to find out I wasn't baptised correctly really gave me a huge, almost indescribable sinking feeling & I had to pray against the tremendously annoyed feeling I had towards the pastor, as I put my trust in him to correctly perform the baptism, I'm not angry anymore it's all forgiven & so I went to the source all I said was "Father I know nothing, you know everything, I come to you now as I do everyday, as a child (45yrs) knowing I know nothing, asking if this baptism thing is something that needs to be done again the right way, if it is, please make what needs to happen, happen, I cannot do any of this myself or in my own strength, if this needs to be done please lead me, thank you Abba Father, Amen!" That's how it went then your add came up, it wasn't lost on me the profound nature of this occurrence, so Mr Hawkins, I'm contacting you, I don't want to go through all the hassle & "churchianity" again, as I did all that & I did it sincerely so the first time, I just want to quickly & quietly get properly baptised in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. You are in WA I'm in Queensland so I'm not sure how this would work, but if there's anyway you could help me, I'd very much appreciate it... I hope to hear from you regarding this please Mr Hawkins, I believe EVERY word of Our Lord Jesus Christ & trust in Him & what He says, NOT what a pastor thinks is correct. Thank you most kindly for taking the time to read this email & I pray I'll hear from you at your earliest possible opportunity. Thank you sincerely Mr Hawkins, Kind regards, Luke".
No surprises that the Lord led him to Mark and then Phil & Miri with this wonderful result! We praise Him for His continued working through us here on earth and in sincere hearts like that of Luke.
Video of part of the interview with Luke and his baptism
at https://youtu.be/7VYiub-wmZ0
UK
Sunday was a truly great time together at The Orchard Pub on Sunday, again with folks in their 70s having to sit on the floor, we were packed out. Sermon on "Knockin' on Heaven's door" , Luke 11 the friend at midnight,
at https://youtu.be/GI8nhYUiSx0
Afterwards we had a group back for the baptisms of sisters FAHIMEH and SAGHAR and brother MOHAMMADREZA. All contacts and family of our amazing sister Sadejeh, who took brother Marcus's role of chief holder of legs for the bathtub baptisms; and thanks to the wonderfully talented Jonathan for coming with his guitar to keep our singing more in tune this time.
And then after our Monday-Wednesday lunchtime meetings were done, Evia and Duncan took over around the UK to baptize some of our online followers. First was CHRISTINE who'd love to come to our meetings but has chronic ill health in her old age, and for whom the journey would be difficult. She has so wanted to be baptized into Jesus for much of her life, and through Bible reading and independent research has discovered so much truth herself... although she found churches not so interested in taking time to engage with and baptize an invalid. It was a wonderful moment when she at 74 was baptized in her bathtub in her PJs by young sister Evia:
The Bible Companion app is a huge help for Christine, especially once Evia installed it on her tablet and explained more about how to use it:
Next was ELIZA in Coventry who likewise was a great Bible reader despite being blind in one eye and having had a lot of trauma in life, but that didn't take away from her joy in knowing Jesus in spirit and truth and didn't stop her from cooking just the greatest pancake breakfast for us before Evia baptized her in her bathtub. She has some other contacts and also her husband whom we pray will also be baptized in due course:
Finally there was LEWIS in Cheltenham, whom we baptized in the open air Lido there, despite the cold water...
video at https://youtu.be/oNzN9nKWPZE
Lewis's conversion shows for all time that young British people are most definitely turning to God and Jesus and the Bible but find "church" an off-putting experience. His first text to us says it all:
"Hi my names Lewis I want to be baptised I live in Cheltenham UK I found jesus almost a year ago now got myself a bible and have been reading it almost every day. But I haven't been properly baptised my family are all atheist which proves to be rather difficult as my dad calls me delusional because I believe in Jesus..."
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For our Iranian and other asylum seeker brethren fearing deportation from UK to Rwanda
- For brother Igor in Ukraine with his heart problems and the lack of medical care there
- For our work in France this week
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks