May 2020 Latvia, France, Emirates, Canada, Greece, App
We strongly recommend you download the
"Bible Companion" app, from where you can access
Carelinks messages, daily Bible readings,
Bible Basics, commentary on every verse of the Bible and audio exhortations on every chapter of the Bible.
For Android / Google Play at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carelinks.bc and on the App Store for Apple / iOS at
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bible-companion/id1475914490 APP We mentioned last week how we have well over 100,000 active users of the Bible Companion app; and our aim is to somehow bind them together into an online community through an app that enables fellowship in real time between them. Thanks for all your comments. We've produced a summary of them, which is not so much a proposal but a document for you to criticize constructively, so we can garner more ideas. It's at
https://n-e-v.info/word/Proposal.pdf .
We are getting huge response to the existing app, and someone somewhere is getting baptized from it every other day. Someone somewhere is booting up the app every few seconds. Every hour or so, somebody sends in their answers to the
"Bible Basics" course.
Many are requesting hard copies of the literature. And we are deluged with appreciative feedback. We're only 8 months from releasing the English version. So far, we've had roughly the following numbers of downloads:
FARSI 29,000 FRENCH 22,000 SPANISH 36,000 RUSSIAN 33,000 ENGLISH 215,000 Retention of the app is very high- many people aren't deleting it, but keeping it on their phones. We can only thank God for this blessing. We couldn't have asked for more. Thank you to all who donated time and money in faith that this would be the outcome. We got the apps out just at the time when the lock down was coming in, people were turning both to God and to their phones and the internet; clearly this was God's hand. And now it's not weird to suggest to someone they baptize themselves with us online, as the world is now used to online living. But the need is to bind together this large, global group into something more of a real community. Do pray for our wisdom in trying to do this.
FRANCE Delighted to tell you of the self baptism of CHRISTOPHE, after years of contact. He says he just loves using the Bible app and resolved to read through the Bible again, looking at our commentaries. So this was a decision of a mature person after extensive thought and consideration. Asked how he felt after the baptism, he replied:
"Je me
sens apaisé, tout en étant plus conscient de mes faiblesses. Je te dis à
bientôt".
We'll leave you to pass that through Google Translate if you don't know French. Very profound. Again, the triumph of the Gospel in another life.
CANADA Last week we published a report of the efforts of brother Jim Barton in advertising the app in Canada using Google adwords. All that hard work has now come to fruition in the baptism of a French speaking married couple, who got the French app. CLOTAIRE and his wife CAROLINE are originally from Chad, a French speaking African country in the Sahara desert.
Wikipedia explains: "Chad is one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in the world; most inhabitants live in poverty as subsistence herders and farmers".
So the Gospel is now really spreading, thanks to migration and the spread of smartphones.
There's a brief video of the baptisms in French at
https://youtu.be/zpnSNhuFSBo 
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES SOLOMON is an electrical engineer from Ghana currently working in the Emirates. There are limited opportunities for Christian fellowship in this country, so Solomon turned to the Bible and sorting out his own faith and walk with his Lord. And he came to our app, and got into contact with us. We were online with him as he baptized himself.
GREECE The Farsi app and
Bible Basics on it was eagerly devoured by TAHER and ALI in Greece. Taher says he converted to Christianity nine years ago, and had wanted to be baptized all that time. He searched in vain for serious Bible teaching- until the Lord led him to the
Bible Companion app. After much correspondence, we set a time and date for him and Ali to go to the Aegean Sea and baptize themselves:
And so the day came. Steve Sue were present online from the UK, along with sister Nasim from America, who translated for us when things weren't clear. Taher and Ali had only one phone between them, so they each had an earpiece to hear us. The sound of the wind on the beach was significant, but we were still able to pray and fellowship together:
We then witnessed the baptisms:
And there was great joy on that beach in Greece, in Latvia, in the USA and in the UK- all reflecting the joy in Heaven:
Such is the possibility of the technology God has given us to use these days. Clearly He intends us to use it.
LATVIA We continue the feeding scheme, and al so providing food for the Indians here who have been baptized, and those they live with, who as students can't work, and who are simply not getting support from their parents back in India due to the crisis. They really are hungry and several have health issues related to poor nutrition. Do pray for them, they're very genuine people who have become stuck in a very difficult situation not of their making. We're now without brother Maxim, who has finally managed to leave Latvia after having to spend 2 months here due to the lockdown. So it's just Cindy and Duncan on the job.
You can see a video of them at work this week without Max, at
https://youtu.be/06F7zeLPfGA For those of you who remember brother Vlad, well although totally blind, he still faithfully comes along:
PRAYER POINTS - For the 7 baptized this week
- For wisdom in making an app that can bind together all these folks into a community
- For those fearing persecution in Iran as they consider baptism
- For those suffering the economic fallout of the pandemic
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks