May 2022 Ukraine, UK
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 You can break bread live online as follows:
Saturday mornings 09:00 a.m.UK time; on Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6697401754?pwd=K0VWNDlScGwzaThPM2tiU0didmNyUT09
Meeting ID: 669 740 1754 Passcode: XPb9Sz.
Sundays at 3:00 PM New Zealand time. That's 1 PM in Sydney Australia; 10 PM in New York, USA on Saturday evening [run by Br John Aldersley in New Zealand] on
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87934245299?pwd=WmVDdGdPaG9JU0RTTnFtcW1VNk1pdz09
Meeting ID: 879 3424 5299 Passcode: 411793
Sundays at 10am North American Eastern Time [3 PM UK GMT time, 11 PM Sydney Australia time]. Run by Br Jim Barton in Canada.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9123758179
Meeting ID: 912 375 8179 . Also, Bible class on Wednesdays at 7 PM North American Eastern Time
UKRAINE
Our local brother and sister in Donetsk were able to meet and baptize MARIA and NATALYA. So through all the carnage, somehow God still works to save His people. The situation in areas of Eastern Ukraine which were occupied by Russia in 2014 is really bad- economically and in every way. There is constant suspicion of people being agents of Ukraine or the West. So we won't be publishing any photos.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, sister Vera and her family managed to escape from a Russian occupied area through a very risky corridor. They are now in Poland, but she has major health issues. Her grandchild has constant nightmares, fears any loud noise or bright light, can't sleep well... these are the PTSD issues that so many have and Poland isn't providing much help for those issues. But they are considerable.
The family we evacuated last week are moving closer to coming to the UK; they're currently in rented accomodation in Warsaw, Poland. The night after the evacuation, their town was again bombed with bombs landing near them. So the decision to evacuate was as it were confirmed. Sister Irina wrote: "We slept well in the apartment. But today at 6 am a bomb fell on our hometown. Next to our house. Thank God our loved ones are alive. But we are extremely worried about them. We spoke to them by video link. Our worries about them are especially severe today. We are praying".
Ukrainian forces are suffering heavy losses and so many of our brothers are likely to be whisked away by the military and this is happening. There is no conscientious objection. There are also many of our folks with unbaptized family members who are now serving at the front and often they have no contact with them for a week or so, during which time they naturally fear the worst and live in great stress. Do pray for them.
Brother Serhej was forcibly taken against his will into the army, he was arrested at home and taken. He protested his conscience for Christ and without any military training is being made to man a roadblock at night, unarmed.
Brother Yuri [who is over 60 and so technically could have left Ukraine] was forcibly taken to Russia "for his safety", having been told Ukraine had surrendered. He's now stuck in Russia.
UK
This has been a great week for the Gospel in the United Kingdom. Mark Hawkins from Perth, Australia was able to come out and distribute Bibles in Croydon and was impressed with the interest. He has a great way of chatting with the many interested folks- Video at
https://youtu.be/lGYiXbBPWAI
Here's Mark having a chat with a group of teenagers one of whom said she would like to give her life to Jesus but didn't know how and seemed put off by churches:
We had some wonderful sessions with CLARE at the Costa cafe in Croydon's North End, Clare had been in contact for some time from the app and had been given a hard copy NEV Bible. She is a great person who has been seeking the Lord many years. It was with real joy that we baptized her; video of the service at https://youtu.be/rj8b1-Gik6k . She has many friends and contacts whom she has been witnessing to, and she invited one of them to watch online, which he did; and he is now up to study 8 of Bible Basics on the app and we look forward to his baptism. You can pray for Greg, and many others of Clare's friends, that they too come to baptism. Interestingly, she lives very near the hall we are currently hoping to secure for the Lord's work in Croydon. Greg is already so grateful for now having God in his life, for experiencing the wonder of prayer for the first time etc. It's so wonderful to see ordinary British folk coming to the Lord like this. Here you can see Clare giving her good confession, and Lisa baptizing her:
We also made a visit to South Wales to fellowship with those baptized recently. We met sister Jackie, who like so many , baptized herself during the pandemic. And a truer convert to the Lord Jesus would be hard to imagine. She was once an ardent Marxist and atheist, and she describes how as a young woman she would walk the streets of Cardiff distributing "Living Marxism", "Marxism Today", and tell Christian preachers that religion is the opium of the people and they should quit it. She explains all this in her testimony at
https://youtu.be/LmVzHmgR6WA
And now she went out with us on those same streets distributing New Testaments. She was just so happy. She named her daughter Darwin in honour of Charles Darwin, and raised her as an atheist. But now she has come to the Lord Jesus, and Darwin is now 22 years old. Do pray that Darwin too makes this huge change. Again we see the power of the Lord, even in urban Wales.
PRAYER POINTS:
- For those recently baptized and for their circle of friends and family to also accept the Truth of Jesus
- For the Ukrainian refugees with PTSD and no access to help with it
- For those of our brethren in Russian occupied areas living under constant suspicion of having Western connections
- For those with family members at the front whom they don't have contact with
- For those who have been taken forcibly into Russia itself "for their safety"
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks