September 2021 Afghanistan, Australia, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, North America, Russia, Togo, 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:
Sunday mornings 08:00 a.m. GMT on the Facebook "
Carelinks Ministries" page; and 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/81015280780?pwd=LzAwNDRTTzhNcFpiRGlmaGx6YUpvZz09
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
AFGHANISTAN
As reported earlier, we remain in contact with the few Carelinks have baptized online. We are receiving messages like the following from those we've baptized there- the Taliban are regularly going house to house checking peoples' phones and devices, looking for evidence of connection with Western people and Christianity. Our brethren just delete everything from their phones after sending messages to us. We really must do as we promise our few brethren there, and pray for them in this awful situation which appears to have no immediately obvious way out:
Despite that bad news, we're pleased to tell you that this week there were many really joyful baptisms of Bible Companion app users all over the world, people who have indeed come "to know the joy and peace of true Christianity", to quote the subtitle of the Bible Basics course which is an integral part of the app.
AUSTRALIA
Our new sister Danmui has great news from Melbourne; do pray all works out this week to baptize some of her children:
"I was just too excited to tell you about my 2 adult daughters that they wanted to get baptised. Will let you know what day next week. Thank our heavenly Father and thank you for your prayers. I'm over the moon... Today is my 28yo daughters birthday the one who is going for baptism and I gave her the Bible Basics hard cover for a present."
She says she has just had to persuade them of no pre-existence of Jesus and no Satan and they accepted it.
And now adds:
"We're still in Bible discussions with the other 4!"
Let us share her joy. Let us know if you want to attend the baptisms online.
GHANA
There was no doubting the absolute joy of AMOS as he baptized himself, again after a lot of contact with us online through the app:
IRELAND
After months of correspondence, ANNA baptized herself at an idyllic beach near where she lives, so remote there's no mobile coverage there. She wrote afterwards:
"I have been raised atheist and my parents and family disapprove of God and Christ. I always hid my faith but with the Covid pandemic I finally had the freedom and distance from them to truly explore my beliefs and stand up for them. Baptism would be greatly significant for me as a new start and as prove of my connection to and with God and Christ... We live almost on the Atlantic and the nature here is truly magnificent and is a very divine setting. I never feel God as closely as I see and feel him in Nature...
Again thank you for all your help and guidance. I greatly appreciate your website and your kindness... I have received the Bible and I'm enjoying your commentary tremendously. I have read the Bible before but never with help or guidance and I find my understanding of it improving greatly. I only have energy to read a very little in the evening after our children have gone to bed, so I haven't come far yet... Again, thank you very much. I'm very much looking forward to my baptism... I will be going to the ocean to a very tiny quiet beach just a few km from our house where there is no reception (us locals have vowed to keep it that way as it keeps the tourist away that they can't use internet on the beach ha ha). therefore I won't be bringing my phone or any devices, so a digital presence isn't possible. But I would greatly appreciate your spiritual presence. Thank you... I ended up going in the evening. It was a beautiful experience and I really felt God's and Christ's presence with me on the beach. I prayed on a few of my favourite bible verses and prayed that the cold wouldn't bother me to much and that I would feel alone even though there wasn't anybody to celebrate with me physically present. Just before I went in it felt like somebody put that hand on my shoulder, I didn't notice the cold at all and the entire 15 minute drive back to my home my left shoulder felt heavier than the right. It was truly more than I ever dreamed it could be. Thank you for your prayers."
KENYA
Our French speaking team were able to baptize FABRICE, a Congolese refugee, despite it needing several attempts at meeting because of internet problems.
NORTH AMERICA
Some months ago we reported the online baptism of brother Gerald in Canada. He sent this testimony out of the blue, which is great encouragement that all this online work of apps, Zoom meetings and online baptisms is absolutely valid in spiritual terms- and they are the only terms which matter:
"Hey brother, its been awhile, the time difference between us is usually a barrier, when I wish to join some of your Zoom meetings. Anyways I wish to thank you so much. My life since being baptized has literally transformed. The Holy spirit has done some amazing things for me. I haven't looked back, I no longer have any addictions, I quit cigarettes and alcohol and pornography. I feel so renewed!! So thank you so much for being there during that essential first step. Ive dedicated my social media pages strictly to the spreading of the gospel and fellowship... The positives keep going, I was able to assist the Lord in saving my mother from years of addiction and misery, she now thanks God daily for her improvements , I have substantially progressed toward being an acceptable vessel unto my Lord, walking no longer in the flesh yet walking the spirit. Thank you again. I needed that little push in the right direction, which you so kindly provide for so many persons. May God bless you greatly".
There was this week the baptism of TAMMY, with live music from brother Jim to celebrate. Tammy took her baptism really seriously and got her adult daughter to come and video it, having arranged a pool at a friend's home. And there was again very profound and deep joy afterwards.
RUSSIA
It was an emotional evening as we baptized EVGENIJ, an app user in southern Russia disillusioned with Pentecostalism. He really, really appreciates the things of the Lord Jesus and His Kingdom, and called us half an hour after the meeting finished in tears of gratitude. He is now a regular attender at the Russian language Bible class and breaking of bread meetings which we run every week. Funding the Zoom room for the many scattered Russian brethren, some baptized over 30 years, is absolutely money well spent and we thank God for such technology which is now enabling fellowship for those who previously had little electronic technology in their lives.
TOGO
Again thanks to the work of our French speakers following up on the French Bible Companion app , we're pleased to tell you of the baptism of NENO in Togo. He has no known father and his mother died when he was 10. He works and sleeps on a job, and has only his phone and the WiFi at his work. He earnestly sought for God and the Lord Jesus, and for spiritual family. And those who truly seek shall find. He is so humbly grateful to know God's Truth and now to be in Christ. Absolutely lovely man. We arranged the baptism but he was made to work... another hour. He texted us begging us to remain online. But then it was another hour... and another. Until finally he was free, at about 2 AM our time. But that was a night's sleep partially lost for a wonderful cause. What joy on earth and in Heaven. But what hard lives and journeys some have towards God's Kingdom.
UK
Again it was a moment of joy and sincere tears when we baptized HAJAR, not online but in person in a London flat, after a few years studying our material, in the presence of her husband and adult children. A wonderful witness to the power of God's truth and the seed slowly coming to fruition.
PRAYER POINTS
- For our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan and also for those downloading and studying the app there
- For those recently baptized
- For the gift of peace to the likes of Neno who have traumatic backgrounds
- For the continued progress of the Gospel in the UK where there is so much interest at this time, realtively speaking
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks