September 2020 Italy, Hungary, Germany, China
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A reminder of our appeal towards raising funds for brother Donald in his losses due to the chronic flooding in China
CONFERENCE
A reminder that the videos from the Carelinks Zoom conference are online at
https://www.youtube.com/playlistlist=PLqHWDPHDmR_w43RASkgmxPZinGMmXF3HJ
HUNGARY
It was a pleasure to spend a few days with a group of former JWs in the Hungarian countryside. They have been studying our literature for some time, and are fully persuaded of the great truths of the Gospel, and have also rejected the common false understandings of Satan, immortal soul, Trinity, etc. They have already commenced translating "The Real Devil" into Hungarian. They meet as a group once / week in a very quaint country home down dirt tracks. Once we had established that we were on the same squares in terms of doctrine, we then had some wonderful discussions about grace, about how knowing true theology is not necessarily the same as knowing Jesus personally, about how relationship with God is essentially so personal and not via any organization. They were wonderful sessions, and truly where two or three are gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus, He is there in the midst. And that is how it felt. So it was with great joy that over the course of three days, we baptized TIMEA, LAJOS and ZOLTAN. Let's pray for them in their enthusiasm to take the true Gospel further.
It was an especial joy for them to be able to break bread afterwards- something reserved only for the "144,000" in JW theology. There was so much joy amongst us. Truly "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free".
ITALY
Europe is now closing down again with the rising Covid infection rates, but with a few travel corridors still open, we are trying to get to our brethren and contacts in cases where self baptism is not the preferred option, for whatever reason. So again we managed to visit our African migrant brethren in northern Italy. And again one cannot be failed to impressed with their spirituality and faith, in the face of so much difficulty, poverty, discrimination and the feeling that there is no way back to Africa, and yet no way forward in Europe. And so, people like that turn to the Lord in spirit and truth. We were able to baptize two brothers and three sisters. You can see a video of the baptism service and the immersions at
https://youtu.be/82U20pzPXxo
All went well, again using the river Po, although one candidate lost his sandal in the process:
GERMANY
After much searching, VIDA, a former member of the underground church in Iran but now living in Germany, came to the Truth through the Bible Companion app. She asked for sisters to lead her baptism, and so we were able to arrange sister Lisa Hawkins in Perth, Australia to run the meeting, with prayers given by sister Grace [also in Perth] and sister Anne from Canada. With our newly baptized sister Ewa in Germany helping translate at times from English to German:
87 year old Sister Connie Hawkins was our special guest [Mark and Grace's mother], giving some encouraging words as well. As sister Ewa comments in the video, it was a really especially touching event.
Vida had prepared her testimony, which is really worth listening to, and quoted us her favourite Bible verse. It really shows what can be done when we all pull together worldwide. You can see the video at
https://youtu.be/FNnVvxFhItY
Brother Mark Hawkins reflects: "On the self-same day of our readings from 2Kings 5, our new sister Vida self-baptised. Like Naaman, she in her sufferings, heard about Jesus Christ through another maiden and of Jesus being a possible source of comfort. Her enquiries into this possible cure of human worries/heartache led her to the Bible Companion App. Like Naaman, she too has been humbled and overjoyed by the salvation in Christ Jesus, that God has visited her with. Naaman too self-baptised (check the Septuagint translation of :14). At his self-baptism there was a small company that witnessed the cure of his otherwise incurable disease; and they all would have been touched with the blessing of God on him. So also with our new sister. Here too was a small group who witnessed a heartfelt confession and a preparedness to humble herself into the command of her/our Lord Jesus and be baptised. We thank the sisters who facilitated this command of our Lord Jesus. It is well worth remembering that the "great commission" to preach and baptise, is to those that are his disciples, (period). This commission is to his disciples; man or woman, educated or fisherman, for by Gods grace, we are all his disciples".
Our new sister was really genuine joyful and grateful. And nobody wanted to leave the Zoom meeting, although it was well gone midnight in Perth WA by that time:
PRAYER POINTS
- Thank God for technology like Zoom which is enabling these online baptisms to happen so effectively
- For those recently baptized
- For others contemplating baptism and weighing up the cost
- For the new ecclesia in Hungary and the many other JWs they know who need to come to the Truth
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks