June 2025 North America, Ukraine, UK
LATVIA Sister Evia is in Latvia for a month [having finished her exams!] staying with various sisters and you might pray for her as she does the Lord's work there.
NORTH AMERICA
Last week's first Zoom breaking of bread geared for North American time [12 noon East Coast, New York time] went well and a reminder that we're hoping to make this a regular event, Lord willing. Our room is always the same:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6697401754?pwd=K0VWNDlScGwzaThPM2tiU0didmNyUT09
Meeting ID: 669 740 1754 Passcode: XPb9Sz.
UKRAINE
At the beginning of the war we evacuated sister Nastya and her children after her husband was killed at the front. We are sorry to say that recently her father was literally abducted from the street by the Ukrainian call up officers and forced into the army. This kind of thing is commonplace now. He has been in contact with the family; he's now in enforced military training. There are many videos of such street arrests and abductions by the Ukrainian military and forcing men into the army- often older men with no prior military experience. This is how desperate they are for cannon fodder and it is of course extremely distressing for the loved ones, especially the suddenness of it. We note that Ukraine are considering bringing in forced conscription for women too. Let's pray it doesn't come to that. All males up to age 60 are conscripted into the army and those who refuse or avoid, when caught, are typically sent to the front line. Often after only 2 weeks training. The ratio of conscripts to professional soldiers in the Ukrainian military is now 4:1. And "According to an estimate made by Ukrainian commanders in September 2024, 50% to 70% of Ukrainian conscripts are killed or wounded in their first few days in combat". You can see more about these figures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Ukraine . So the call up is a major issue for many of our loved ones in Ukraine. These statistics are pretty awful. And constantly in Ukraine you see the "man-hunting" patrols, groups of officers demanding to see the ID of men on the street and checking them against the database. So many relatives of our dear ones are just staying at home all the time to avoid being picked up. Enthusiasm to join the military is at an all time low. We have witnessed many of these patrols and even been asked for our documents by them... you can read about them all over the internet
e.g. at https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/10/15/to-boost-ukraines-army-feared-patrols-hunt-for-potential-conscripts
It's a sad situation and do pray for all concerned. And for an end to this war.
And whilst the world is focused on Iran and Israel, Russia has stepped up bombardment of civilian areas in Ukraine to a level not so far seen in the war. Our dear ones around Dnipro were heavily bombed this last week.
UK
No fewer than 6 baptisms in the UK this week. Just amazing progress of the Gospel, with many others at various stages of studying the Gospel with us. At pub church on Sunday the sermon was on what it means to be a man or woman as God intends, Daniel 4 ,
it's at https://youtu.be/ZM1VpgbVdIA
Then afterwards we drove over to the Thames estuary and baptized MILLIE and it's hard to imagine a truer woman for Christ:
Croydon Church in a Pub had a bit of an outing to Southend on the River Thames estuary this week. A really lovely, truly spiritual time to the glory of the Father and Son. Bible reading, singing praise together and just hanging out with each other in the sunshine. And we baptized brother Zak's younger brother and sister, TERRY and CODY, along with our friends GLADYS and ELAINE. Elaine has a single tattoo that simply says "Pray for me". Like so many, she had been quietly in search for God for a long time. This was very much a great day for Brother Zak. After his baptism a while ago, he gave NEV Bibles to his younger brother and sister, whom he had effectively raised himself through a difficult childhood. They are now 19 and 21 years old and yet again, typical of young British people who are following their conscience toward God and had wisely turned to Bible reading to find out more about Him. But again... and it is said again and again by these young British people we're baptizing these days... standard church just wasn't helpful to them. But thanks to Zak patiently teaching and encouraging them, along with their own reading of God's word... they came to baptism. It was such a joy to go into the water with Zak and baptize his younger brother and sister. We ended up with quite a crowd of the general public observing us, many of whom clapped as the candidates came out of the water. We gave them all our small calling cards, advertising Croydon Church in a Pub, and urging them to download the Bible Companion app to study Bible Basics. The blonde lady in the photo was a passer by absolutely fascinated by what we were doing and enthusiastically videoed it and asked questions:
After the baptisms we sat on the "beach" for a bit [Southend is really polluted water and mud flats with amusement arcades on the pier and shouldn't really be called a "beach"]. And we observed a most beautiful thing. Zak, who had brought his brother Terry to faith in Jesus and baptism, taught Terry to swim. In front of us all as we sat at the waterside. Terry was initially frightened of water, but we watched as Zak taught Terry to float on his back, then took him out deeper to learn to tread water... and then to swim. Firstly cradled in his older brother's arms, but then independently. It was a beautiful thing to behold. The spiritual parallels were obvious. Here they are afterwards:
We thank God, truly thank God, for His amazing outreach to people. We drove back to Croydon singing hymns and songs. Do join in with us.
Video at https://youtu.be/RmSDTJTnI0k
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For the growth of our North American focused Monday Zoom meeting
- For those whose family members are being forced against their will into the military in Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere, and those hiding from the call up enforcement gangs
- For sister Evia as she spends a month in Latvia doing the Lord's work
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks