June 2023 Australia, Austria, Cuba, UK
AUSTRALIA A group of us from all over Australia and worldwide gathered online to witness AUSTIN walk from his home to the ocean near Melbourne, Australia, and baptize himself in the surf- in very cold water, just as the sun was rising. Again, we are encouraged that a young, secular man in the western world would start reading the Bible for himself and respond to the clear calling of God through His Son. You can see the video at
https://youtu.be/6gpkylgok-Y We give thanks to God for His continual calling of people to Himself.
AUSTRIA Brother Iliya is holding to his determination to start an ecclesia in Vienna and invited his friends and contacts to a church service held in the basement of the block of flats where he lives. This lovely photo reflects the spirit of the Truth and do pray that more come in spirit and truth to the Lord Jesus through his preaching. They are all users of the Bible Companion app.
Carelinks have undertaken to pay for McDonalds to be delivered to this group so they can have some kind of a meal together and hang around and discuss the message taught. Your donations welcome and do pray for them all!
STOP PRESS: We've just heard the group has expanded and they had another meeting just now in a park, more news next week Lord willing.
CUBA
Our Spanish speaking brethren continue to run various groups on social media teaching and presenting the true Gospel. Brothers Ben and Pedro are active it seems around the clock in this work. So, it's great to report more fruit to it, in the baptism of YANET in the sea in Cuba. A group of us were able to be with her online as she did it.
UK
On Monday at Lunchtime Church, we had one of those "moments" when one really does feel "it's all worth it", the personal testimony of Tamica who was baptized last year... 5 wonderful minutes of testimony to how the Lord really does work to heal and transform the most broken of lives -
https://youtu.be/8e-7Ovz5-bM
We baptized our sister about a year ago, and she now a year later makes a quite amazing testimony as to her transformation. She speaks of her experience as a child being sex trafficked, and the unthinkable indescribable damage done- and how the Lord has made such a major transformation of her. Lot of tears and also glory to the Lord in this.
And then after Lunchtime Church on Wednesday we were so happy to baptize MARK who has been attending our meetings:
About 2 years ago, sister Marianne from Teneriffe was in the UK for a while, and whilst walking on the beach near Newquay in Cornwall, she met a young man of 18 walking the family dog. She gave EWAN the good news of the Kingdom and followed it up with social media contact and sharing with him our material online. The seed sown took two years to come to fruition, but this weekend Evia and Duncan drove down to Newquay to baptize Ewan. It was a real triumph for the preaching of the Gospel, and again we rejoice that a 20-year-old Cornishman in the UK [he speaks a bit of Cornish- only a few hundred people know Cornish] has turned from the secular life to the way of the Lord Jesus. The sun came out and the cloudy sky turned blue as we were in the water doing the baptism- a wonderful moment:
Seeing Ewan there with his NEV Bible and hard copy Bible Basics- thank you to all who donated over the years so we could print and distribute so much literature in hard copy for free. So much fruit came from it, and it keeps coming.
Afterwards our new brother shared with sister Marianne his feelings and transformation, and she reports:
"He is very happy with your bible app and listening to the youth bit and then the message/sermon bit too... and reading Bible Basics ... He is very happy ... said he had the best solid nights sleep that he hadn't had for ages and that he felt clean and relieved. And that he noticed that altho it was a cloudy day that the sun struck his face as he was coming out of the water".
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- Thanksgiving for the real transformation of lives by the Gospel
- For those suffering the long-term effects of abuse
- For the new group developing in Vienna, Austria
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks