August 2024 Australia, Iran, Ukraine, UK
AUSTRALIA Brother Mark has yet more good news of three baptisms in Western Australia, including a contact living very near him and Lisa in Armadale.
"We praise God that the spirit of the resurrected Lord Jesus is still searching out hearts for his kingdom and today (Saturday 3rd August), BRIDGETTE and her dad EVAN plus RALPH, committed in simple trust to the Lord Jesus in baptism, and the gracious covenants of promise due to being "In" him.
Bridgette is a prison warden and has seen the looming troubles in this world and as a result, has searched for meaning and purpose in God and Jesus. Bridgette came across our YouTube ad and eventually contacted us for baptism and as a result, we were able to bring the "good news" purpose from Jesus' own mouth and the prophets. This took but 1 hour and being convicted of what she heard, she wanted to be baptised into "Christ Jesus". Bridgette's dad Evan came due to Bridgette compelling him to do so and on hearing the gospel truth as it was taught by Jesus, Evan also wanted to be baptised.
Ralph lives just a few streets from where we live and he has been in search of God and Jesus and truth for a long time; a long time since his son died 9 years ago from cerebral palsy.
We chatted for quite some time on old testament and new testament and we tried to always stear the conversations to the promises of God and His "New Covenant" in Christ Jesus.
Ralph believes he has found the simple truth in Jesus who said "Because I live, you will live also", and on belief of Jesus and his truth, Ralf was baptised into Christ Jesus. All praise to God and the spirit of Jesus who still reaches out to forgive and save".
IRAN
This week we were able to baptism PEYMAN into the Lord Jesus online.
UKRAINE
We have quite a few brothers and sisters in Kharkov, and they are under heavy bombardment at this time. Here's a photograph from br Andrej taken this week. All those apartment blocks are just sitting ducks for missiles and even artillery, located not far from the Russian border, and we have brethren living in that area- although their blocks were not those you can see burning
UK
This week we were able to baptize five people in the London area. First there was LUKE. Such a lovely man, who now at 38 was moved by the world situation and its correspondence with Bible prophecy to do something about it, and get right with God. We had a lovely time with brother Marcus again actively involved, chatting with Luke before baptism over the kitchen table, and then helping with the baptism. We thank God that another has turned to the Lord whilst there's still time:
Tuesday was the hottest day in the UK this year, and we enjoyed a wonderful outing to Hastings on the coast to baptize CISTINE ["Cis"] and KAREN, along with brothers in the Lord and brothers in the flesh Phil, Les and Lemmy. Karen is their niece, and had determinedly decided to follow the Lord in spirit and in truth. It was wonderful to hear the heartbreakingly sincere prayers of each of her uncles, Phil, Les and Lemmy as we stood on Hastings beach having our open air baptism service. You can hear them all in the
video at https://youtu.be/DjSrhQxT5A0
As we had our baptism service on the beach, surely the Angels in Heaven rejoiced with us.
Cistine, originally from Jamaica, has literally been a God send for our work at The Venue. She has moved on from being a regular attender to being a regular helper and food preparer and also attends our Sunday meetings at the Pub. She has listened to countless of our talks, and realized that despite having been a Christian all her life she had never been baptized. So with much joy we drove her down to Hastings along with recently baptized sister Tanya who gave some lovely testimony at the baptism service [it's on the video]. Many thanks to brother Les for providing drinks and letting us use his lovely home to change and dry off in. We drove back to Croydon with huge joy, reflecting that of Heaven above.
Then on Wednesday evening at the home of brother Lemmy in Bromley, yet more of the Davies family were baptized. Lemmy's son RICHARD, a heating engineer and underfloor heating specialist; and Lemmy's granddaughter AMY, an estate agent, watched with great attention by her two year old as she was immersed. Just ordinary humble people who have remembered the teaching they received in their youth and who have now in maturer years committed themselves to the Lord and His Truth.
Video at https://youtu.be/N7_RGzG5h18
We marvel that there is a conscience for the Father and Son in every human heart; and the humble will eventually respond to it. Our appeal to men and women to respond is quite likely to succeed, with the Lord's blessing, if we are appealing for them to respond simply to Him
And our joy was complete at the end of the week in Liverpool [en route with Evia to the Llan Camp] with the baptism of NATALY wife of brother Mark who was baptized some weeks ago, the day after she had given birth at home. So now she had prepared for baptism and it was with great joy that we baptized her whilst Mark held the baby; although one of the other little ones couldn't be restrained from eagerly watching mummy's baptism at close range. These folks were totally secular, with zero religious background- but responded to their conscience for God and the Lord Jesus, seeing something is wrong with the world and with life in the flesh. Nataly tells us that Mark is a very serious daily Bible reader, and he says that despite working and having a young family, it's just natural to find time to read the Bible seriously every day. What an amazing transformation of secular lives! This is the work of the new creation, that which was "without form and void" being turned into something of ever increasing beauty. It's so good to see a young family have this happen to them. They're dreaming of making a family holiday trip to London to actually meet us all at Croydon Church in a Pub.
Video at https://youtu.be/Wl72L4ZTmNs
Mark like so many came from online following of our "Croydon Church in a Pub" material. The online following of "Croydon Church in a Pub" is really amazing, and quite beyond our expectation. Our YouTube podcast of our meetings had around 3000 views in the last month, that's around 100 views / day, nearly all from the UK [and 12 from the USA and 10 from Australia]. And the stats show that people tend to watch most of the broadcasts to the end. Clearly there's something about "Church in a Pub" that resonates with British people. When we make contact with our viewers they ask "How's Dotti's health?" or "It was great that Tony finally got baptized!", it feels for them as some kind of distant family. This has been a quite unexpected outcome of our many meetings in Croydon and we pray the Lord's continued usage of it.
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For our brethren in northern Israel and Lebanon at this difficult and worrying time
- For our brethren in the Kharkov area of Ukraine currently under heavy bombardment- and their families
- For all those out there, especially those brought up in the faith but not baptized, who are being prodded by the parlous world situation
- Simple thanksgiving for the huge growth of the Gospel amongst ordinary folk in Australia and the UK
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks