May 2025 Greenland, North America, UK, Zimbabwe
GREENLAND We were all set to go to Greenland this weekend but ended up spending a day at Gatwick airport as the flight to Reykjavik, Iceland was progressively delayed... and cancelled. Our contacts were messaging us concerned whether we could land in Nuuk, Greenland due to extreme weather conditions. And then we got the message that our flight from Iceland to Greenland had been cancelled due to those weather conditions. And there was no other flight for at least two days. And so our trip was cancelled, and we are working on persuading our friends in Nuuk, Greenland to baptize themselves. It was of God's grace that the outbound first leg to Iceland was cancelled, otherwise we'd have ended up stranded in Iceland. And then began the phone calls from throughout the UK from various existing brethren and other contacts, all followers of Croydon
Church in a Pub. And so we returned from Gatwick airport and used the weekend to get around the UK and see them, from Swansea Wales to Liverpool. It was just amazing. Eight of our friends and contacts were baptized in 2 days. We want to serve the Lord and He chose to repurpose that desire from Greenland to the UK. You can read more of that weekend in the UK report below.
NORTH AMERICA
So pleased to witness the online baptism of MARCUS in his bath tub, brother Jim Barton will do the follow up.
UK
After Pub church last Sunday it was such a pleasure to baptize STEVE, a native of Croydon who spent 20 years working in Hong Kong and 2 years in Australia... before returning to Croydon. Such a lovely and sincere guy. And it was so good to hear Tony's testimony to him at the baptism, having been baptized in that same bath tub quite recently. Truly the Lord is at work transforming people.
On Bank Holiday Monday [May Day] we went out on the streets of Croydon again offering New Testaments with Bible Basics. Take up was amazing. Around 50% of people whom we approached asking if they'd like to have and read a Bible said "Yes" and took one. Our supplies were gone in no time. We mentioned in a previous Carelink message the statistics which point to a huge revival of interest in the Bible here in the UK, particularly amongst younger white people- a group previously known for their apparent disinterest in the Gospel. Several of you contacted us with stories confirming our impression that indeed those statistics are a fair reflection of how things now are in British society. You can see our video about these things
at https://youtu.be/8QAC7fkwV5o
And our experience this May Day bank holiday yet again confirmed the picture. We're praying for wisdom as to how best to leverage and capitalize upon this interest, bearing in mind that there is so much scepticism about "church" in its traditional format. As you can see from these two photos, one after the other, people are saying "Yes" rather than "No":
And as ever, do think of coming to help us in South London as we can always do with more boots on the ground in this great work:
As mentioned above about the Greenland trip, we spent the 'free' weekend just going where the Lord clearly had in view for us in the UK. First stop was South Wales. What a transformation in sister Tamsin after her baptism recently! She is dead keen to get out in her local shopping area in Mumbles [Swansea] distributing free Bibles, so we took her Bibles plus the vests and caps. We picked up our friend ROY who has been watching us online for about three years and has a very mature grasp of the things of the Gospel. We took him with us to sister Tamsin's home group, where we had a baptism service and a time of on our knees prayer, really a very spiritual time; then along with Howard, a regular attender, we went down to the beach [walking distance from Tamsin's flat] and baptized Roy and then took him back home. The pub that looked so ideal for a Church in a Pub project has gone up market to being really a high class beachfront restaurant, so that's not going to work. But Tamsin will look out other more cheap and cheerful venues in central Swansea. Let us know if you'd like to be in touch with Tamsin and share in her amazing witness in Swansea and Mumbles.
After leaving Swansea... the Lord really started using the weekend more intensively. All sorts of people who follow our pub meetings online have now been using the Bible Companion app for two years or so, and are coming to see the truth of the Lord Jesus and the need for baptism into Him. From an ambulance paramedic to women off work struggling with cancer... GEORGE, BELLA, PAUL and his Thai wife SAI baptized near Manchester, and then on to see brother Lincoln whom we baptized last year and who has kept in touch and told us of how he is spreading the Gospel to other people from Zimbabwe working in Liverpool. It was an amazing afternoon spent together with his group at his flat, resulting in the baptisms of TENDAI, PRAISE and TONY in the same bath tub where we had baptized Lincoln. And he says others are interested. We left everyone good supplies of NEV Bibles, Bible Basics and other literature for distribution further to their friends, families and work colleagues. It's not every week that we have 9 baptisms in the UK, including 8 in just one long weekend. We are not short cutting to quick baptisms, these are people with long and proven commitment over one to three years who have watched, read and listened to our teaching in that time and prayerfully thought it all over. There is no shortage of other churches in the UK for these folk to attend, most of whom offer baptism. But they somehow like and click with our message and approach. The harvest is plenteous but the labourers few. Do let us know if you want to be involved in reaping this amazing harvest and pastoring these new converts. We don't advertise "Church in a Pub" and haven't for a long time as we're out of space, but we note a 160% increase in people searching online for "Croydon Church in a Pub". Word is getting around the UK and people just seem to be attracted to the concept, eager to watch online [especially on TikTok] if they can't attend in person. We have between 500 and 900 viewers of each Sunday's sermon on TikTok alone. Plus Facebook live, YouTube etc. We're not smooth professionals, just stick the material up there, no nice intro music or branding, not bothering to edit out the interruptions, squeaking door whenever people go out for a smoke or to answer their phone [despite all the frequent exhortation to refrain from both things]... and it seems folk somehow like that, as well as all saying they love the message and no nonsense Bible exposition. "The more real, the more credible" it seems. All those we met this weekend knew all about the people who come to Church in a Pub Croydon because they all watch regularly. Asking how's Tony, how's Dotti going with her bad leg, how's Karen... And what we're seeing in Swansea, Liverpool and elsewhere is the development of local groups meeting in homes. Please, do pray for us as we think of the wisest and most spiritual way to take forward this great leading.
ZIMBABWE
This week we were so happy to have the online self baptism of TAWANDA after returning an excellent full set of answers to all the questions on the Bible Basics course.
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For wisdom in engaging with the huge explosion of interest in the Bible and Christianity amongst British people
- The labourers are few. Even the Lord Jesus prayed for more, and so do we
- For our contacts in Greenland to find a way to baptism
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks
