November 2023 Australia, Iran, UK
AUSTRALIA Sis. Candace Holewa drove down a long way to support Phil & Miri Worsnop in their outreach. She reports:
I joined Brother Phil and Sister Miriam last weekend as they set up a stand at the Goodna Jacaranda festival located in Queensland Australia, which was a big event and lots of people attended. They did a wonderful job at putting together Bible packs with books including the
Bible Basics books, some books from brother Barry Hodson and
NEV New Testaments, cards of the
Bible Companion app, cards with the link for our online soapbox church as you can see in the photos. We had many people interested in taking these. Brother Phil also did up a pamphlet about an overview of the current war in Israel and Palestine and what the Bible says about this. He also included what baptism means and how it is done properly, he included one heading '
We are baptised into Jesus, not into a church'. The war was a real talking point and the signs of what is happening for the hopeful soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The main question we got was 'What religion are you apart of?' I said we are part of the online Church and
CareLink's Ministries, and we link on via Zoom with the CRC church based in New Zealand in Wanganui. Sister Miriam said that we are preaching what was promised in the beginning to Abraham in Genesis 13 and 17 and how we can be part of that promise by being baptised into Christ. Brother Luke who came down to help said that we are disciples of Christ. This allowed people to open up and ask questions and people were particularity interested about the rapture and tribulation.
IRAN
We baptized online NAJAFI, an old lady in Iran, whose son was one of those we baptized three years ago in the earlier days of online baptisms in Iran. The block on our app and WhatsApp has meant new response within Iran has declined, but existing contacts seem to still be able to manage some contact with us. For which we are grateful to the Lord, as He continues His work there.
UK
There has been huge activity by the Lord in London this week. We have to say that the resources to keep all this going are significant. Please do all you can to support the great work going forward- in prayer, donation if you can, and on the ground support if you can.
Last Sunday was an especially wonderful day at the pub church, crowned by two baptisms afterwards, of ZUFIQ and GLEN. Glen has been attending a long time and has resisted baptism, although he reads his Bible every day despite major literacy difficulties. You can hear him explaining how he does this, and how he encourages others to, in the video. He's a lovely man, living a clean life but homeless, apart from his beloved dog whom he named Grace after his understanding of grace. Glen is a lovely guy, always offering up his meal to someone else if it seems there isn't enough to go around, always offering to walk if there's no room in the cars taking folks back to the Heaster home for the baptism gatherings. A lovely man. That dog was the joy and pride of his life and often attended our meetings with him, always very well behaved and beloved of us all. What pushed him suddenly far closer to the Lord was when the dog was accused of biting a puppy and suddenly, he was surrounded by armed Police pointing guns at him and the dog. He was arrested and the dog taken away from him. He asked us all to pray that he'd have her back, and after some online protests from others about what seemed a heavy-handed Police response, Grace was returned to Glen. He was deeply thankful to God and saw in this the Lord's hand and this encouraged him to be baptized. He gave a wonderful testimony and was just so eager to do the right thing and be baptized. You can hear Glen talk of his Bible reading despite his literacy issues and his deep desire for baptism, at https://youtu.be/IIcxMMkFJlI
The heavy-handed Police response was reported in the national press- you can read about it and see a video of the arrest at
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-3043297/Video-Armed-police-seize-large-dog-attacked-puppy-Croydon.html
It became quite a big incident in the local press... as you can read in the press report, "eight police officers had attended the incident, and took the owner down a side street away from the crowds after confiscating the dog. The crowd was beginning to get a bit restless as the police were taking away the dog. Some were saying: "Shame on you"". After a big media buzz, with the obvious complaint that the streets of Croydon are awash with open drug trading and Croydon is knife crime capital of the UK because of a lack of Police, so why waste Police time on this... Grace has been returned to Glen. A rather strange working of the hand of providence in calling yet another to Him. Here are some stills from the online protests about brother Glen's arrest, showing his dog Grace being arrested and he too being arrested, with eight armed Police involved:
One of the Facebook campaigns says the following, mentioning Glen had just left his church in East Croydon when he was arrested- the church being our "church in a pub":
"She's far from aggressive, Shes a puppy never bit or attacked anyone her owner is absolutely lovely she's his baby his world she lives the best life! He rescued her from a life of abuse and neglect. Please someone help us get her home! She did not attack; the police can't provide the evidence let alone what dog was meant to of been attacked! She had just left church from east Croydon they were on their way home and this happens. He hasn't been able to go home as grace isn't there she is his home, he couldn't eat today all he done was sob and say he can't live without her. Grace saved him and he saved her! The words of don't shoot my dog will forever stay with me. Even when glen let go of the lead or being surrounded by armed police with a gun to his head was, she aggressive her tail is still waggling!! Please let's make a stand #dontbullyourbreed. Hayley will be doing a meet up with glen tonight along with a live interview please stand by us and support this man let's get Grace home!! Hayley Barnes #letsgetgracehome Meet tonight outside Primark Croydon 7.30pm tonight".
So, with all that drama, you can understand why everyone looks so happy at Glen's baptism and why so many came back home from the pub to witness it:
Talks at Lunchtime Church this week continued through Acts:
https://youtu.be/kRMJRBzw6Iw Acts 14 Jesus Christ is real
https://youtu.be/OHgoom2l6lE Acts 15 Christians are imperfect and inconsistent but the truth of Jesus Christ remains
https://youtu.be/_m9MF63rTow Acts 16 Running a straight path with the wind of the Spirit behind you.
Other highlights later this week were that thanks to the efforts of our wonderful Shay, dear brother Glen got his dog Grace back from the Police, and now we got him a muzzle, Grace can come with him again to meetings. And got a warm reception from everyone. And then there was Sue's birthday, a warm celebration for her, after months of quietly serving food over the counter, we so appreciate her. So, joy and unity of the Spirit all round, the joy of faith in the Lord Jesus as our precious and only Saviour. We continue feeding up to 50 people / day at Lunchtime Church, and more are considering baptism. You can see Corinne, Sue and Cis serving the food [prepared by Shay] and then Corinne adding salt to Ian's meal, he comes in his wheelchair, and we're so pleased to have his maturity.
Good news from Croydon didn't stop this week. Sooo happy to say that on Thursday evening, STEVE came around to our place from Streatham and was baptized. With 90-year-old Marcus assisting. Steve's a regular attender at Church in a Pub and is an HGV driver with a great love for God and His word.
Still within the greater London area, we drove to visit KINGSLEY and MARY who had been using our app in Africa before they emigrated to the UK and attend our Saturday breaking of bread meetings online. They have emigrated legally to the UK now with their five lovely young children- but in this case they don't get any state support. And they are paying a fortune to rent one room in an HMO, a tiny room with two beds, where all 7 of them somehow sleep- sharing a toilet and bathroom and kitchen with loads of other people who live in the same HMO. It's really so pathetic. But they have put God first and the call of His Son and we were so impressed with them. We did the baptism in the bathtub of the HMO but due to high energy costs, boiler was off, and Mary especially really did squeal as she went into that very cold water. For the sake of the Lord Jesus who suffered so much more than us. As you can see from the photo, David became friends with the kids right away. They can only get the children into school from January 2024 Lord willing... so meantime they're stuck there in that tiny room.
Clearly the word of the Gospel is taking deep root. We got a lovely message from brother John, recently baptized in Scotland after encountering our meetings in London online:
"They all know I'm a believer and reader of the word and now starting out after my baptism, born again, in the book of life, sins forgiven, and so much more, I'm still getting used to it Duncan realising & taking in all that it means but with a glad heart, it's another world to my daughter one which I'm hoping her and my boys will open their eyes to, took me almost 50 years, so at some point I'm positive they will become curious and at the moment I sort of drip feed them and tip toe around looking for a way in and I'll continue to do so, my 2 g/sons too so it's a priority if I can use that word, one which I'll continue to show them by example & one which I want for all of them, been watching your casts recently Duncan just catching up think it was Saul/Paul you were doing "brilliant stuff", also started reading one of the bible commentaries you sent and am liking the way in which it's described or written, you see things I may have missed reading mine enjoying it, I will stay in touch and I will be around and again I thank you for your dedication and for your support. Wish you and your family all the best John."
We can only thank God- especially as the UK for generations has been perceived as "stony ground" for the Gospel. Clearly things are changing, for whatever reason. Please do all you can to support the great work going forward- in prayer, donation if you can, and on the ground support if you can.
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For those like Kingsley and Mary doing it hard without heating, hot water and space for their kids
- For the resources needed to continue the work in the UK at this tempo
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks