November 2020 Latvia, Iran, North America, Guadeloupe, South Africa, Russia
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:
Sunday mornings GMT on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/69292278377 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]
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87515766908 Meeting ID: 875 1576 6908
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
APP APPEAL A reminder of last week's major appeal for significant funds [13,000 Euro] to majorly upgrade the app, offer video talks and a breaking of bread exhortation for each day, and make it available in Farsi, Russian, Spanish and French on Apple [iOS] iPhones and iPads .
LATVIA We continue feeding by taking food out to our folks. Last Sunday, NELLY was baptized at the hall in Riga, there's a video of it at
https://youtu.be/2MKCbqoYBRw The video includes bro. Robert's take on how his work is progressing, his ministry is basically following up on the folks who've been previously attending our meetings who are now made homeless by Covid and the crisis with the night shelters... amazing how he was raised up to do this job, after years of living in Nottingham UK in limbo, spiritually... until he saw the Google ad for the
Bible Companion app.
Well below freezing at night here, we've been getting firewood out to the rough sleepers and homeless, amongst whom are many baptized or studying with us.
And also sister Evija's hot fresh muffins, only 20 minutes out of the oven. We don't think these folks had eaten anything like that for years, if ever.
One very grateful rough sleeper, living in an abandoned shed, had found a soft bunny rabbit toy in the shed, and presented it to Evija and the younger children in gratitude for her muffins. Please pray for us. Video of the firewood distribution and muffins at
https://youtu.be/x1OBjUgi_Oo 
IRAN This week we baptized JAVAD, again with the usual concerns about security.
NORTH AMERICA Pleased to report the self baptism of JAY in great rural isolation. She first came to us from wanting a Bible and stumbling across a video of the children distributing New Testaments on the street in Croydon, UK about 4 years ago. She's been in touch on and off since then.
We've shown photos of brother Tim Anderson's various ingenious signs on his business and vehicles, advertising the Bible app. Well in addition to that, Tim is involved in taking food and welfare into a ghetto area of Richmond, VA using outdoor tables- and pushing the app and the true Gospel to the folks encountered. Caps off to Tim for being totally unashamed to witness to all. Really inspirational:
SOUTH AFRICA As mentioned last week, TALENT, a contact from the app, was baptized by the Soweto ecclesia in Johannesburg. He too downloaded the app and studied Bible Basics on it and then started attending what meetings were possible during lockdown, and was baptized in the presence of several ecclesial members. Here you can see him [in the suit and tie] at the baptism meeting held in a car port of a brother's home, and then his baptism:
There's a video of the baptism and some lovely singing at
https://youtu.be/yhz8veEUEF8
GUADELOUPE And also about the same time as Talent was being baptized, a user of the French version of the app baptized herself in Guadeloupe, a paradise island of sandy beaches and waterfalls in the Caribbean. BRIGITTE is a French woman who retired to Guadeloupe in search of God, and devoted herself to reading the Bible. We had long and wonderful emails, as she learned the doctrines of the Gospel and accepted them. Then she passed through the usual doubts and questions about self baptism. She's a very spiritual sister who had always wanted to be baptized. Again we marvel at how the true Gospel is getting to every corner of the planet.
RUSSIA The pandemic is rather eclipsing other news in the media, but it is increasingly difficult to be an independent Christian in Russia because of the heavy handed repression of any private religious meetings and the ban on evangelizing. You can read one report of the suffering of the JWs going on right now, at
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55061919 PRAYER POINTS - For those recently baptized
- For those spending the night in very low temperatures, below zero
- For those in Iran facing persecution and many difficulties in their faith
- For our brethren in Russia
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks