September 2019 Canada, Australia, China
The
Bible Companion readings for this Sunday include Luke 22 and
there is an MP3 file about this at
http://www.christadelphia.net/audio/lk22.mp3 You can see the archives of our MP3 files at
http://christadelphia.net/audio.htm and on iTunes at
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/christadelphian-bible- talks/id987163468 Download the
NEV Bible with commentary and
Bible Companion bookmarks at
http://n-e-v.info/NEVBIBLE.pdf Helps for the
Bible Companion readings this week:
1 Chronicles http://n-e-v.info/1chroncomm.pdf Ezekiel http://n-e-v.info/EzekielNEVCommentary.pdf Galatians http://n-e-v.info/NEVGalatiansCommentary.pdf There is a great take up of the
2020 Creation Calendars; you can order from brother Marcus, email bible.basics2020@gmail.com.
You can see the PDF of the calendar at www.carelinks.net/docs/2020- creation-calendar.pdf
AUSTRALIA Brother John Thatcher is in touch with various women's prisons in Australia and has had positive response and requests from the chaplains; for not only calendars but also Bibles for the women prisoners. Here's an example: "Would it be possible for me to have 50 calendars, 25 soft cover NT and 15 soft covered full bibles. It would be great to have these as they are always asking me for a diary or calendar".
CANADA Carelinks Canada are pleased to share with you some exciting news. Sister Pat Boutell has written to various prisons in Canada, offering
Glad Tidings magazine and also copies of the
2020 Creation Calendar produced by brother Marcus Heaster. This calendar includes offers for more free literature and also a detailed doctrinal statement of our beliefs; you can view the electronic version at www.carelinks.net/docs/2020-creation-calendar.pdf
Response so far has been excellent.A total of over 1000 calendars have so far been requested by chaplains in prisons throughout Canada. The intention of some of them is that every prisoner will be given our calendar. This is great response and is a wonderful way of sharing the Gospel with those in dark places; as you will see from the PDF there is an extended doctrinal section at the back of the calendar and offer of our free
NEV Bible. Obviously the cost of providing them is significant, as they have to be shipped over from the UK and that alone is expensive. The real costs so far are well over $2000 and we invite your donations and especially your prayers that the recipients will respond.
Sister Pat Boutell writes:
Calendars sent to Prisons in Canada Last year I watched with much interest the preaching effort with the beautiful Creation Calendars that Bro. Marcus Heaster put together.
As I am a librarian and worked in a prison library for a short time, the outreach to the prisons in the U.K. was particularly interesting to me. I worked for 27 years with the Great Lakes ASK committee, and continue to send out the
Glad Tidings magazine to contacts and wanted to order a calendar for each, to include with the magazines. Three of the contacts are in a long-term prison, so I wondered if I could send the 2020 calendars and G.T. magazines to all the prisons in Canada.
After talking to Bre. Grant Abel (ASK Chairman) and Jim Barton (
Carelinks Canada), we decided to go ahead. The results have been very rewarding.
On our behalf, Bro. Marcus has mailed out 1300 calendars directly from the UK to 5 institutions in Canada, plus I have mailed 100 calendars to 4 more institutions. I have had 5 requests for
Glad Tidings (GT) subscriptions: 3 would like 1 copy; 1 would like 6 copies and 1 would like 20 copies. The calendars are wonderful for contacts to have a daily reminder of God's word. It is beautiful, and reinforces the GT magazine,
Bible Basics, or any other material on a daily basis. Here are three of the responses received:
(Note: Correctional Institution names are withheld for
confidentiality purposes)
1. "I think the Calendars would be very helpful in my ministry. Our Centre is small and holds a maximum of about 28 girls but numbers can go a little higher at times. This would be a nice addition to their Christmas gift and I can use it in my Book Club and Bible Study. Whatever number you can provide I would greatly appreciate."
2. "It is encouraging to hear words from people like you who partners with us in the service of inmates. [Our] [name omitted] institution has a capacity to hold 500 inmates, often times the institution is full. As you suggested calendars are popular among inmates especially as we get closer to new years. I would like to appreciate you generosity for both the calendar and the
Glad Tidings magazine in behalf of [name omitted] inmates. Also I would promise you that we would make a good use both of your Calendar and the magazine donation in our chapel."
3. "You are right. This job can be very rewarding but at times disappointing. I received the calendar and the Magazine today. Thanks so much. The
Glad Tidings Magazine is already in the Prison Library and Future ones can be sent to [name omitted]. Calendars are requested here every week and although we do get some from [name omitted], and from [name omitted] Ministries, if we could have 100 of yours it would definitely be a variety. And I very much like the Scripture reading for every day."
"We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, but it is fed and watered by God's Almighty hand" (Hymn 426)
Your sister by God's grace
Pat Bouttell"
So we really appreciate your donations to enable this outreach to happen.
CHINA "I baptized brother WANG in a bath pool,below is the short report and his testimony. Xining is a typical immigrant city with multi- ethnic groups and multi-religions. Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Christianity and Catholicism coexist. The influence of Tibetan Buddhism and Islam is particularly far-reaching. Minority Hui people are a large part of the population. They believe in Islam and mosques are built in the areas where Hui people live together. Brother Wang was born in a small border town far from Xining. His parents had believed in Christianity before, but since the founding of New China, many movements took place in China. All churches, including government-funded religious organizations were banned, replaced by atheism and Marxism. At that time, his parents' Bible could only be secretly hidden in the ground, because if caught, it would be considered a feudal superstition and they would be locked up.
So life goes very quiet for him,living in a non-religion teenage.when he grow up,In order to make a living, he had to go out to work and came to Xining, the capital city of the province he lived. This place is located in the northwest of China. It is a poor place in the eyes of the people in the mainland of China. Both in material and spiritual, especially in the aspect of Christian missionary work. It lacks the dawn of Christ. But everything goes better after 2000, in order to develop the economy, the government relaxed the control of society a lot, and various churches and other religions began to flourish. At this time, as he grew older, he missed his parents and remembered many past parents' stories. he began to look for Christian books. We met on the Internet and he was eventually be baptized. All glory be to Christ. God bless"
PRAYER POINTS: - For resources to get the calendars out to all those thousands of prisoners we now have openings to, in Canada and Australia
- For those recently baptized
- For more workers to come forward for the soup kitchen work in Latvia
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks