June 2025 North America, UK
NORTH AMERICA During the lockdown we began our Saturday morning Zoom breaking of bread [UK time] and over 6 years we've built up a really close group from Australia, UK, Asia and Europe who feel it's their church family. But it's inaccessible time wise for North America. Lord willing we're going to start another one aimed at folks in North America and also in Europe who can't make our other meeting. It'll be held on Zoom in our usual room on Mondays at 5 PM London UK time, that's 12 noon in New York or Toronto [EDT], 9 AM [PDT] in Los Angeles or Vancouver. Or midnight Monday in Perth Western Australia.
Our meetings begin with some music, and then prayer requests. We pray through those requests and then have a sermon on a chapter, then the breaking of bread and then conclude with prayer and more music. Our plan is to go through the life of David as recorded in Chronicles, starting with 1 Chronicles 10. Participants might like to read the chapter ahead of time. Our room is always the same:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6697401754?pwd=K0VWNDlScGwzaThPM2tiU0didmNyUT09 Meeting ID: 669 740 1754 Passcode: XPb9Sz.
Do come along, or share this with those you think might find it helpful.
UK
After our Sunday meeting we were so happy to baptize MAKAYLA in West London. Again this was a case of casting our bread on the waters, and finding it after many days; it takes time for the seed of the Gospel to grow. Last year brother Mark was returning from one of the Ukraine trips to Australia via London, and came along to the baptism of some Iranians in an asylum seeker hotel in West London. A woman staying in the hotel saw what we were doing and asked if she could witness it. She grabbed her Bible from her room and witnessed our service. We exchanged phone numbers and gave her the Bible Companion app. Here she is in the photo taken in November last year:
And then she sent us a message that she would like to be baptized. Now 7 months later we were able to baptize her. It was a wonderful moment, to see the seed of the Gospel come to fruition, as it is in so many throughout the UK:
Our work in Croydon continues with good attendances at our mid week meetings. We give 30 minutes Bible teaching, plenty of discussion, refillable coffees and a good meal. It all takes a lot of resources and we're open to your assistance. This week our teenage brother Daniel and sister Evia did the meal as our usual helpers couldn't make it.
Evia likes catering and is set to do the catering for the Carelinks / Croydon Church in a Pub retreat for November. Do come along...
We do really believe that we're giving a large shaft of light into the darkness of so many lives here in this socially challenged part of South London:
We also went further afield this week to baptize one of our online contacts RYAN, at Lee-on-Solent, facing the Isle of Wight near Portsmouth. As a young teenager during the lockdown he began researching about God, Jesus and the Bible as he had a hunch this was the Truth. He got a Bible and started reading it at the Gospel of Matthew... Now at 19, working in Aldi's supermarket, having come across us online, he has made a mature decision to be baptized. And it was a great joy to do this, with hope that his girlfriend and another friend will also soon be baptized as well. Ryan is absolutely typical of the great revival that is happening in the UK particularly amongst young males who are turning to God. And much of this revival of interest is the longer term results of the lockdown making people turn to God and finding Him online, without the need for "church". Video at
https://youtu.be/gjjg3JAYFfg
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For more helpers on the ground in south London
- For our online meetings
- For all our brethren and their families in Iran and Israel at this time
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks