September 2020 Latvia, Belgium, Georgia, UK, USA, Iran

We strongly recommend you download the "Bible Companion" app, from where you can access Carelinks messages, daily Bible readings, Bible Basics, commentary on every verse of the Bible and audio exhortations on every chapter of the Bible.
For Android / Google Play at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carelinks.bc
and on the App Store for Apple / iOS at
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bible-companion/id1475914490

11 baptisms and a lot of joy and also need to report this week.

GEORGIA
Again as a result of the Bible Companion app, we were able to teach online sister MASOUME and her two children, teenager ABADI and daughter in her 20s ZOHREH. Masoume converted to Christianity in Iran and thence had to flee for her life to Georgia, taking with her the two children and also another daughter who is mentally ill. She lives with them in really great poverty, with absolutely no Government support and none of them able to work legally nor go to school. We are arranging to send funds to her.
We really are open to your donations to support brothers and sisters like this- asylum seekers who have genuinely turned to the Lord Jesus in spirit and truth, and who do need support in various ways. Please do be as generous as you can.
   

USA
Pleased to report more fruit of the Bible app and related websites. TIMOTHY from rural Arizona baptized himself in the idyllic but very remote setting of Alamo Lake. A quick Google will show you how remote this place is. He writes:
"I just wanted to thank you for your website and your YouTube channel and guide [app] that helped me out. It was absolutely wonderful today. God knows I'm very visual. I include a bunch of pictures for you with my day. There was no doubt that it was the right time for me. Everything worked out beautifully today. And after I immersed I pretty much lost my footing and almost fell over in the water. And when I was done all the birds that were around the water started singing for a long time and then I was singing with them a praise song and they sang with me. Even the burrows or one that was across the way started honking lol... And the fish were jumping. It was very quiet when I got there. So I will include some pictures so you can see my day. Again I thank you so much. God bless you and your family and we will meet someday.
Thank you.
PS this place is out in the middle of nowhere I mean there is no way you would think that there is water here. A complete barren desert. If you look on a map look up Alamo State Park in Arizona and you will see how isolated this place is. I was the only one in the lake. Which made it even more fantastic. But I hope you enjoy the pictures if you haven't been here to Arizona. But thank you again and God bless you".
               

LATVIA
Our soup kitchen feeding work this week had the highest attendance since lockdown. It is the usual mixture of people absolutely living on the street, to former middle class who have been busted by the economic collapse.
       
We plan on moving in to a cafe for meetings from this Sunday GW so we will finally be able to do breaking of bread and Bible study again whilst we have a "banket" ['banquet']. Talking to them on the street as they wait for their food, or eat it, is really very limited as a way to teach and pastor them. Cindy often gets a few words in with folks about spiritual things as she serves them, but really we do need to be able to sit down and teach them. Which in the current situation at the hall, it's not possible for us to do. We also can no longer take responsibility for ensuring 2 meters social distancing, and so that responsibility will fall upon the cafe and not us.
               
And consuming the food around the hall leads to lots of spillages and disinfection issues. We've also stepped up distributing Winter clothing and spectacles. Some come with their trolleys, made from abandoned push chairs [prams], in order to take the clothes back to where they are squatting.
       
Video of it all at https://youtu.be/-GAbHoSapdA
Next week God willing we're going to have to release a major appeal for funding for the work in Riga with the hall, up to £1000 / month, so... prepare your pennies if you can.
           

BELGIUM
From a house group in Perth, Western Australia, to Steve Sue on a mountain in Wales, a group of us gathered together online to witness the baptism of AZADIEH in Antwerp. She began very nervous, but showed such joy and delight after the baptism was done. Again we rejoice at the spread of the Gospel and the potential given through technology to do the Lord's work worldwide.
       

UK
Thanks for your prayers for the efforts of various brethren with the Iranian contacts. Last Saturday saw a great house church again in Croydon. 5 baptized in the bath tub upstairs. Wish we could've been there but saw it all on Zoom, along with some from Australia. Ieva, Charles, Ed, Joel Megan did a great job. Baptized were sister FAHIMEH and brothers AYOUB, JABAR, REZA and FARSHAD, followed by a breaking of bread and a meal prepared by Ieva . A lot of joy all round. This is all more fruit of the Farsi Bible Companion app . Please do continue your prayers as there are many more related contacts whom our UK team are following up on.
           

IRAN
We were able to baptize online FARZAD. Really sincere brother, who first heard the Christian Gospel preached on the internet some years ago, and prayed the sinner's prayer and gave himself to Jesus. But, he realized there was a lot more to learn, and he has been using the Farsi app daily for some months now.

PRAYER POINTS
   - For those recently baptized
   - For those undergoing persecution and needing basic support
   - For wisdom about how to continue our work in Latvia
   - That the believers in Riga can meet together and break bread again

With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks