October 2025 Australia, Ukraine, UK
AUSTRALIA A shout out for dear Phil & Miriam, who keep coordinating the work of sister Emy with the homeless in Indonesia and also running a wonderful Bible study group at their home in Ipswich QLD, attended by relatives and friends of brother John Chol, most originally from South Sudan. Let's not forget them in prayer. It's so good to see young secular folks in Australia studying the Bible like this, and one by one being baptized. The pictures show them and their working through
Bible Basics and other teaching material:
UKRAINE
The media is so selective in what they report, readers may have missed the fact there have been huge attacks on power infrastructure throughout Ukraine this week. This means many of our dear ones are without heating and electricity as Winter falls. Battery packs are so valuable for everyone, as keeping your devices charged is these days more important than having light or even heat! Internet seems to generally remain available. But... it's no fun living like that, especially for the elderly and sick, and those caring for them, and for those with children. This is the kind of damage being done by drones and missiles constantly targeting the power grid, local substations as well as the main power stations:
Mark and Duncan leave for a longer than usual visit to Ukraine next Sunday, Lord willing. Appreciate your prayers.
UK
Evia, Ieva, David and Duncan had a great evening down in Aldershot on Tuesday, visiting and baptizing a lifelong friend of sister Tanya's, AMANDA. Amanda's commitment to the Lord was wonderful, and she invited her adult children and granddaughter and also the neighbour from the flat downstairs. And she also set up a livestream so Tanya could be present too. It was just an amazing evening, and yet again evidence of how ordinary people in the UK, especially young people, are now open to the Gospel in a way they have not been for generations. Everyone commented that they had been somewhat sceptical of the idea of a woman being baptized at home in her bath tub, but all said afterwards that they now want this for themselves and it was obviously real and legitimate before God. Let's pray there are more baptisms in that bath tub in that flat in Aldershot. Truly where two or three are gathered together, there is the Lord in our midst. That was a verse that kept coming to mind throughout the evening. We recorded the entire evening, the video is
at https://youtu.be/bOLno42azds
Even Amanda's dog was totally happy for her:
Amanda asked why she doesn't feel spiritually strong all the time and we recorded the discussion... https://youtu.be/pMscFKfpWOo
And then it was up to Scotland to baptize such a very, very sincere man, STEVE, in the bath tub of his flat on the Cumbernauld council estate in Glasgow. One of Glasgow's roughest estates, known locally as Scumbernauld, there is an absolute diamond of a man. Now in his 60s, he spent time in prison soon after he left school. At that point he couldn't read or write and was taught to read and write by attending classes in prison. He used to tear pages of India paper from Bibles and use them to roll cigarettes. But it was from doing that that he began reading the Bible. It was one of the first books he seriously read. And so he spent the rest of his life wanting to go God's way according to the Bible, but was disillusioned with churches. After decades of searching, he stumbled across the talks from Croydon Church in a Pub, way down south in London, England. His baptism was a true testament of the hand of providence working together with humble human response. You just couldn't ask for a more humble and sincere seeker for the Lord. Recently baptized sister Victoria drove over from Motherwell to be present, and her presence and words of encouragement were so special. There were just the three of us in the flat, and truly where two or three are gayhered together, there indeed was the Lord in our midst. Having had a very strict Puritanic background in the Free Church and other 'reformed' churches, believing in an angry God who almost delights in hell fire, she had also been taught that any display of emotion or praying out loud was just wrong for a Christian woman. She is growing by leaps and bounds, and was totally overcome with emotion at Steve's baptism. After some encouragement, she uttered the most beautiful prayer for Steve. It really was wonderful and again, so humble... and humility is so, so important to God. The entire baptism service with all the chit chat is
at https://youtu.be/Gf_xplhlsD8
and the prayer referred to
at https://youtu.be/E9pPcmn4QKY
Sister Victoria is coming down to Croydon to help with the catering at our retreat in November, Lord willing, so you'll get to meet her there.
You can see in the photos how Steve has progressed from watching our meetings at Croydon Church in a Pub, to the Bible Companion app and to hard copy NEV Bible with Bible Basics... a method the Lord is definitely using
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For those under bombardment and without power in Ukraine
- For sister Amanda's family to also be baptized
- For sister Victoria's great desire to witness in Glasgow
- For Phil & Miri's amazing work in Queensland, Australia
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks