August 2025 Italy, Norway, Ukraine, UK
ITALY On and off over the last 25 years since we connected with brother Godson in Sicily through
Bible Basics, we've visited him and his group in Sicily. He is a legal, long term immigrant to Italy but he has worked tirelessly over the years with the many undocumented migrants who arrive in Sicily by boat from Africa, many with harrowing stories of nearly losing their lives at sea and being tortured in Libya and elsewhere as they crossed the Sahara to the Mediterranean coast. We've not been to visit him for a few years and it was such a joy to reunite with those baptized on earlier visits, to see their children growing up in the Lord, and to baptize DES. It was a truly wonderful time of fellowship and so reassuring to see those baptized over the years still holding on in faith, despite very difficult lives. It was good to see the children heavily involved in the meeting, with their hard copy Bibles clearly well read by them. Without doubt there's something special about reading the Bible hard copy rather than always off a screen. Evia got lots of practice with child care.
As happened on previous visits, local white Italians who were sunbathing asked if they could watch. One woman asked if she could video us and said she'd tell her [Catholic] priest that this is what Christianity should look like rather than the cold ritual of Catholicism. They were respectful and clearly had never seen anything quite like this. An amazing witness. We continued to give welfare support as some are really in a hard situation there.
We also spent a joyful day with Junior and Silvana, who along with their children used to regularly attend our Church in a Pub meetings regularly when they lived in Croydon UK, and remain strong followers online. They've now shifted to Sicily to live on a plot of land Silvana inherited- on the upper slopes of Mount Etna, the only live volcano in Europe. It's been a huge change for them, moving from London life to being pretty much subsistence farmers on barren land in the blazing sun and oppressive heat of Sicily in Summer. You can sometimes see fire at night from the top crater- they are relatively close to it. They are very hard working and have already established themselves as a small solar farm and are eager to use the property as an AirBnB or "live with a family" accommodation to get some more income. The location has amazing views from the house- up Mount Etna on one side, and across a vast plain to the Mediterranean, pockmarked with the results of Etna's last eruption. They are zealously trying to spread the Truth to the residents of the other houses near to them- a hard task in Catholic dominated rural Italy. Really it was so great to resume the fellowship we regularly enjoyed in Croydon; and to see how continued, regular "following" online does achieve some legitimate level of fellowship. Silvana bought Cindy a gift for Evia to take back to her as a sign of how she misses us all; if you'd like to visit with them, do let us know if you fancy vacationing with them.
NORWAY
It was some time ago that we received this message from ELISE who had been following us online- yet another young European, this time from Norway, who has turned to the Lord in spirit and truth:
"My name is Elise. I started seeking God about three years ago, and have, slowly but surely figured out more and more about the truth. Recently I realized that I need to be baptized and that baptism is not optional at all, but is in fact how we get incorporated into Jesus' body and united to him. The problem is that since I do not believe in the trinity, or many other modern church notions/beliefs, I could not find anybody to baptize me. I could not go to a "normal" church because then I would get baptized into "the father, son and Holy Spirit" instead of simply in the name of Jesus, and I could not get baptized by Jehovah's Witnesses either, because they refuse to baptize me since I do not submit to, nor believe all the same things they believe or everything the Watchtower says and commands. I was starting to lose hope a bit, but then I stumbled upon your website. When I read that you don't believe in the trinity and that you know that God is truly One and that Jesus isn't God, and that the Father alone is God, I couldn't help but cry with joy. And then I read more about your beliefs and was amazed. I believe almost everything you do. The penalty of sin is death, not eternal torture, the soul is not immortal, people who are dead now are really dead/gone but will be resurrected when Jesus returns, God will create a new heaven and a new earth and will establish His new kingdom here etc... It felt amazing to finally find people who know and see a lot of the truth and I am so glad that I suddenly stumbled upon your website. I now feel less alone. With that said, I read about the gospel you believe in, but I didn't understand completely how you believe that we are saved, so if you could explain what you believe about that to me, in maybe a little more detail, then that would be amazing. Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope to hear from you! Kind regards, Elise"
There were many twists and turns in the resulting discussion. Here's one challenging bit:
"I do actually have one question (which you can of course answer whenever you have the time again, so it's no pressure): do you believe that figuring out the right theology saves us? And, do you believe that God is the One who is showing us the truth through His Spirit, or do you believe that your salvation partly rests on you figuring out most of the right theology? So do you believe that it is part of what saves us? And do you think that we figure out right theology/the truth, by God's power or by our own?"
The correspondence continued over some months, concluding with Elise begging, really, for us to come and baptize her as she [understandably] wasn't happy with self baptism or asking an unbeliever to baptize her:
"If i's okay, I would like for you to baptize me. I don't believe in self-baptism. August sounds great! I also want to mention something though, just to be open with you: I did ask my stepdad, who is a non-Christian/unbeliever, if he'd be willing to baptize me. He hasn't said yes or no yet - it's been a couple of days and I get the sense that he's not fully comfortable with it. And honestly, part of me feels that it's more fitting for someone who follows Jesus to do it. And I feel that it is more respectful towards God and Jesus. I just wanted to share that, out of respect for your time and effort. But I still very much hope it can be you, if you're willing"
It was a long trek. She's on the far north coast of Norway. Even in August, the height of Summer, the temperature wasn't even 20 C. But we made the trip up there and what a blessed time it was. We did the baptism on a beach near her, the water was cold but we managed. There were an old couple watching us from a bench. Speaking Russian. We chatted with them, turned out they were refugees from Ukraine whose house in a village in Eastern Ukraine had been burnt down and they were left with nothing. The lady started weeping as she recounted how they'd lived in that house for 42 years. Always, the Lord is making connections. It makes no difference where we are baptized, but one has to remark that the scenery there was just stunning. There's a video of the baptism, including some footage of flying in at low altitude over amazing landscape,
at https://youtu.be/fRA_97NMy3M
Here you can see sister Elise with our book "The Real Christ", an NEV Bible, and the Bible Companion app on her phone. Do pray for her in her great isolation.
UKRAINE
Please do pray for the upcoming trip of brother Mike Flaherty and brother Duncan to Ukraine, so many cases of need and limited time to get to everyone. The bombardments continue unabated at this time. And it's so hard for those struggling with cancer to get treatment as for many people there's only at best emergency medicine available. Do pray for those of our number in Ukraine struggling with cancer.
UK
Last Sunday was a great day for the Gospel in London. The day started with a visit to CARL now in the last days of his life in a hospice- just a stone's throw from the birthplace of brother John Thomas in Hoxton Square, central London. With the assistance of his son we baptized him. No photos, of an emaciated body now dedicated fully to the Lord Jesus. Why delay baptism until your deathbed? Because he had been caused to stumble by legalistic, unhelpful and damaging "religion" rather than spirituality. But finally, he separated church from God and urgently wanted to be baptized, and we're so happy to assist in such cases. Our brother will soon fall asleep in the priceless and blessed Hope. But inevitably we wandered around the corner to Hoxton Square, the small square built around a green space that has retained its original layout for centuries, with some of the houses pre-dating the birth of John Thomas in a house in that square in 1805. Inevitably really we reflected on what has happened over those 220 years, and the damage caused by those who legalistically follow men and thereby cause others to stumble. Men like Carl, although by God's grace he got there in the end, but only just in time. Our reflections are positive about brother John Thomas but, inevitably, with cause for reflection on what some have built upon him. If you're interested, they're in a video at
https://youtu.be/DhqTY8T3GDE [and some chat about Hoxton Square too]
We did the baptism early that Sunday morning and dashed back to Croydon for Church in a Pub, which ended with the baptism of ANDREW a South African living in London whose wife Chrissy was baptized previously. This was after a long time attending our meetings, and at the baptism service he expressed that he was moved to be baptized with us exactly because he felt safe to do so, and had observed over time that we were not in any sense spiritually abusive. Again we have a case of someone having been delayed responding to the Lord's call because of legalistic, damaging church behaviour. By clearly eschewing and avoiding this, we are doing at least something right, creating a truly safe space for people who seriously want to study the Bible and come to the Lord Jesus, assured that there are no hidden terms and conditions. So here are the pictures of yet another baptism in Croydon,
video at https://youtu.be/teKEvg0uYT4
and a special one of sisters Cindy and Cis, quiet dynamos behind our work in South London:
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For our African migrant brethren in Sicily and elsewhere
- For those in Ukraine and elsewhere struggling with cancer with little treatment
- Thanksgiving that so many baptized are holding on in faith over the years
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks