April 2022 Special Appeal, North America, Ukraine
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
NORTH AMERICA
ROSANNE had been looking at our websites since 2016, studied Bible Basics online, got the app and more recently a hard copy of the NEV Bible. Here's another example of someone out there who hadn't made contact with us but had been on a long search for truth using our materials- unknown to us until she contacted us. Let's pray for all the others out there like her, all over the world, that they too will come forward for baptism. Hopefully she will attend Jim Anne's online meetings in Canada on Sundays. You can see the video at
https://youtu.be/WrR1xGM9byA
She described how she began as a Catholic and was grounded at home by her father for a month during school holidays for some reason. She got a Bible and read it three times right through, and figured as a teenager that the Kingdom must be on earth not in Heaven at death, that hell is the grave- and began a lifelong search for truth, moving away from Catholicism and then through Baptists, JWs and other groups until she found the Truth. Brother Robin from UK was able to add his testimony as an ex Roman Catholic. Her husband is Jewish and has just accepted the Lord Jesus. So it was a wonderful online baptism, with attendance from Australia, the UK and Israel.
UKRAINE
We continue in daily contact with many of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters there and those who have fled to other parts of Europe. One sister in the occupied area around Kherson says she has never in her life prayed so much. She is really quite desperate but we cannot get funds to her at this point. We are sending to others. Another worry is the amount of fake news circulating- especially difficult to cope with for older folks who only recently got smartphones and internet access. Stories about how if you to Crimea, the Russians will then let you go safety in Poland or Turkey, when in reality Ukrainian refugees who go there are shipped off to live in camps or remote settlements in central or eastern Russia. Then there is the constant worry about loved ones who haven't been heard from recently, the "not knowing". Let alone the reports of atrocities performed against civilians. The bombing of the crowded railway platform in Kramatorsk is so hard for all of us who stood on that very platform... let alone sister Lena who was from there and stood there not so long ago.
There is a huge amount of work being done by sister Cilla and other sponsors in getting through the huge paperwork to get some of our sisters and their children to the UK. Pray for that too. What with home inspections to check the sponsors have smoke and fire alarms... so, so much work and run around for so many.
Pray too for the growing number of Ukrainians seriously studying the Bible with us through the apps. So many are turning to God in spirit and truth. Who else can they turn to...
One lady under bombardment has gone through the app and wants to be baptized when she can find a more peaceful situation.
And for brother Maxim's bedridden mother sister Ludmila, and his sister, sister Lena, who is staying behind in their hometown near the eastern front to care for her mother until the end. The town was bombed this week, and is now just flooded with refugees from further east.
We are all on track to evacuate our widowed sister Nastya, her two now fatherless children, and her aunty, our sister Irina. Appreciate your prayers. Their sponsor and another brother aim to fly out and meet them in Warsaw, Poland to help hold their hand a bit through the trauma of leaving Ukraine and being in a foreign land. Before the war, Irina and her husband ran a sweet shop / general store near a school... here are some photos of how the children used to go in there after school:
You can also see sister Nastya and her two children in the shop...
But schools not working, air raid sirens all the time, many of those children now have been taken out of Ukraine along with their mothers, some lost their fathers, and others... It is sad and tragic beyond words.
PRAYER POINTS
- For those struggling through all the red tape to get our Ukrainians to UK
- For those easily misled by fake news
- For those who've not heard from their loved ones and relatives especially relatives in the military
- For those recently baptized and who are now looking for God's truth in this situation
- For bedridden sister Ludmila and her family
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks
SPECIAL APPEAL
Last week brother Duncan put out a special appeal, and has been really touched by the number of kind brothers and sisters who have come forward and offered help. The required sum however still has to be reached, so, Duncan is putting his appeal out just once more:
SPECIAL APPEAL
It's not often that we come seriously cap in hand, but the time has come. Brother Duncan writes:
"Over the last few years we have built up a significant number of contacts in the Croydon / South London area. Additionally, south London is full of migrants and refugees, and we are in contact with significant numbers of them from all over the world, from Afghanistan to the Ukraine. They keep asking where we meet... and clearly there is potential and need to have a spiritual home for them all, where they can come for food, clothing, fellowship with others and above all, the teaching of the Bible which they clearly seek. You will be aware that for very many years we ran such a centre in Riga, Latvia- resulting not only in hundreds of baptisms, but in so many radically transformed lives. So much good was done. "The need is the call". That is our credo. And the need and possibility is now with us to replicate what was done in Riga here in Croydon / south London.
We'd immediately like to open a Russian speaking church and a help point / centre for Ukrainian refugees, for starters.
We have been searching for nearly a year for a suitable premises- because for this work, you need a solid meeting place that is on transport lines. We are up against many problems- high prices of commercial property as against its value, getting somewhere with the right use class [zoning] for what we want to do, which is still in an area where there's good transport, the strong economic revival in London with the end of Covid regulations, and related to that the demand by most landlords that you sign up for a 5 year no break commitment in leasing anywhere. So the only alternative appears to be to buy somewhere with the right use class [zoning] which is near transport... and that's expensive.
An excellent suitable property, a former church hall, has now come on the market and we have been praying daily for some weeks to raise the funds to buy it, with the sole aim of glorifying our Father and His Son in the way we did for many years in Riga. My wider family and I have worked out what we can put forward or borrow towards getting it, but, we're far short- of a significant sum.
After a lot of prayer on our knees, we've taken a deep breath and are writing to you. Not asking for anyone to put themselves into financial difficulty... but, if you have significant spare funds and feel led to donate, well, please contact me on freebibles2000@gmail.com or by phone +447481122558 . Running costs going forward can be comfortably met by Carelinks but the hall purchase is well beyond them. We were in a similar situation years ago when getting the hall in Latvia and the work and glory achieved for the Lord Jesus was in the end priceless, no human price tag could ever have been put on it. I believe every penny is a wise spiritual investment and I personally am willing to put all I have on the line for this again, and I invite you to think of supporting. I've taken some experienced brethren to have a look around it and we're all convinced it would be an ideal place.
So, not sparing my blushes and awkwardness, I am motivated by "the need is the call" and I put this to you- for your prayers and, if you can, your support. No need to donate anything at this point, I'm going to see what all up can be promised and we'll see if it's a goer. I'm at peace over it- if the funds don't come, that was God's overruling hand. We just seek to be workers together with Him to His glory in the lives and hearts of ordinary people here in South London... and those people are these days folks from all over the world".