April 2024 Indonesia, Iran, Ukraine, UK
INDONESIA Sister Emy is a regular attender at our online meetings especially those run by our brethren of
Carelinks New Zealand. She has a passion to take the True Gospel to people and has been holding Gospel meetings with a group of cancer survivors and sufferers and their families. We saw some of them at our Saturday Zoom meeting and they were also online with our brethren in New Zealand. Let's pray for Emy's huge efforts for the Lord.
IRAN We were delighted to online baptize FARHAD this week.
UK
There were no fewer than nine baptisms this week in the UK... this is amazing.
It was a great Sunday at Church in a Pub. There was a very high attendance, all bar stools and chairs taken and many standing. Afterwards quite a crowd came back to Duncan & Cindy's place for the baptisms of AMIR, SOHRAB and MOHAMMADREZA. We had a lovely service with such powerful testimonies from others recently baptized, and also from brother Marcus now celebrating 73 years walking in the Lord since his baptism at Clapham in 1951. His words of encouragement were translated into Farsi by brother Sala, you can hear them at https://youtu.be/GB1VWUh2te4 and the
video of the baptisms at https://youtu.be/n4QowUNM90E
Here you can see our Iranian friends eating with us after Church in a Pub [not sure what they made of Yorkshire puddings]:
Brother Amir was brought to us by brother Ali, whom we baptized in 2018. So good to see brethren holding on to the faith in the long run.
This week Duncan spent 48 hours on the road doing little apart from driving or baptizing, all contacts from our online followers of Croydon Church in a Pub broadcasts. Throughout the UK, so many are following us and what we say, and our approach resonates with so many. The quality of the broadcasts isn't good- doors slamming, chit chat, interruptions, a few stupid questions... but it seems "the more real the more credible".
In Liverpool their lives SHAUN, a retired builder whose back is done in from too much lifting of heavy materials, living in a very nice ground floor flat. And who has come to the Lord in spirit and truth since the lockdown made him think more carefully about truth. What a lovely brother and human being... the only person I know who actually keeps wild squirrels as pets, tempting them into his kitchen with various nuts, calling them by names, and they even bring him mice they catch as some kind of gratitude present for him...
For some time, we'd had contact with SAMMY, an invalid who lives in a lovely Scottish village. He so wanted to be baptized into the Lord but being 180 kg. [28 stone] nobody much wanted to help him. He and his wife arranged for the private use of a pool, but it was over to me to come and do the baptism. I was concerned about how I was going to baptize such a heavy person- if he slipped and went under, I'm not so strong and muscular as to pull up 180 kg. out of the water. I really needed someone to help me. I was thinking of this for some weeks before the baptism. And then the phone rang, and it was a man from Glasgow called KIERAN, disillusioned with church and wanting to be baptized just into Jesus in spirit and truth. I asked if he could come to the pool and be baptized and then help me baptize Sammy. And that's just what happened. As is said, "You can't make this stuff up". The Lord provided just what I needed, just what He needed... a good strong brother to help baptize Sammy. So, as you can see from the photos Kieran was baptized and then the amazing, determined Sammy.
Video of Kieran's baptism at https://youtu.be/Ixc7uh4pLGk
and Sammy's at https://youtu.be/Hp8w5UVlI40
It was a long slow drive from one side of the UK to the other and then southwards to county Durham, to baptize ANGELA in her home- another good-hearted woman who in middle age had turned to the Lord Jesus but didn't find church really cut it for her... and being pretty much housebound, going to church isn't much of an option for her. She was so happy afterwards and wrote "Thanks so much for today, I feel much lighter in my spirit somehow, and thanks for the Bible!"
By this point only driving on with God's energy, despite roadworks and delays, I got to Derby where there's a lovely married couple MATTHEW and ESNATH who have likewise come to the Lord Jesus in spirit and truth and wanted to commit themselves to him. What lovely people, reading and studying the Bible together, and coming to the greatest truth of all, which is relationship with the Lord Jesus and Hope of His Kingdom.
Video at https://youtu.be/SM5gomafIBg
UKRAINE
Following recent reversals at the front, Ukraine are seeking to mobilize a further 500,000 men and send them to the front. Large numbers of Ukrainian men are living in other European countries, 200,000 in Poland alone- including many of our brothers. Ukraine is now refusing to give consular services to Ukrainian males of military age outside of the country. This is very bad news for many of our brothers. They will be unable to renew their passports or get other documentation required for renewing residency permits. Many are now reunited with their families outside of Ukraine and the prospects of poverty and family breakup are huge. Some countries such as Poland and Lithuania are looking to actively deport Ukrainian males of military age from their countries. This creates massive issues for so many. Do pray for them all and for us as we seek to assist as we can.
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For our Ukrainian brothers living outside of Ukraine
- For the work in Indonesia
- For some ideas as to how to pastor such a growing number of isolated individuals here and there
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks