July 2020 Conference, Iran, Canada, UK, India
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
CONFERENCE A reminder of our international conference which will be held on Zoom, on Saturday August 22nd God willing. Let us know if you would like to make a presentation about anything.
CANADA Pleased to report the baptism of SONIA. She was raised a JW but then got involved with HW Armstrong and the United Church of God. Having spent a lifetime loving the Bible and yet also involved in these very controlling groups, she was left with the struggle between religion on one hand, and personal relationship with Jesus on the other. They had made her feel that baptism is only valid if done by their organizations. It was therefore a lifetime's journey from that, to actually baptize herself in her own apartment. This was after many hours of phone calls , emails etc. with Jim and also Phil Martin in UK, who also spent many years with HW Armstrong before coming to the Truth. Sonia hopes to join in at Jim's twice weekly Zoom meetings.
Our sister is so happy to be baptized: "
i just got baptised about an hour ago in the bathtub. I feel very happy and loved... i feel brand new, although i am still a sinner".
Jim's Google ads continue getting lots of downloads in Canada, and some are contacting us for hard copies of the literature.
UK Pleased to say that Marcus is out of hospital and now home, getting on with his various preaching and literature distribution efforts, truly serving to the end- much cheered up by a visit from Evia and Duncan:
Whilst in the UK we were able to get around and meet contacts and had three baptisms. They were all of middle aged, formerly secular people, who had come to think about God seriously in later life. The
Bible Companion app is leading us to penetrate the mass of secular society, and is bringing forth fruit. If we really want to take the Gospel to the world, we will find people responding who are just as they are, with no airs or pretensions, and who are just starting the journey which some of us have been on for decades. First there was BARRY. A truer and more total convert to Jesus would be hard to imagine. He started to look for God and realized the Bible was His word. But he wanted an app to have the Bible in modern English. And he began reading the commentaries. We then sent him a hard copy
NEV Bible; and then he asked for one for his neighbour Olga in the flat opposite. Barry really gave his life to the Lord and His word. It was a great honour to baptize him. When we arrived, he took us to Olga's flat as she had a better bath tub, and they had already filled it with water. We spent a lovely time reading and praying together. We have not removed the cigarettes from the photo- because we keep saying that secular, ordinary people are being impacted by the true Gospel. And there you see it. Cigarette smokers in council flats are putting their hands together in prayer, and reading the Bible and
Bible Basics and using the app. The Gospel is making an impact.
There's a great video of Barry at
https://youtu.be/yOZzajlhb50 You cannot but love his prayers after he dried himself off after the baptism. So from the heart. Do have a listen. You will also notice his appreciation of the Bible app.
Driving back to London we were stuck in a major traffic jam on the motorway. There was no way to turn off- traffic was stuck as the motorway was closed by a major accident. We explained to the next contact that we weren't going to make it. MAHOMOD had travelled a fair way to brother Gholam's flat in central London and was waiting for us- and we were stuck a total of 4 hours in traffic. We told Gholam to baptize Mahomod but instead Mahomod said he'd wait for us until whatever time. At 10 PM we arrived and baptized Mahomod in Gholam's bath tub, again a very sincere and committed convert to Christ:
And then finally the next day there was LYNN.
Evia writes: "
Daddy and I went to baptize a lady called Lynn. She was very nice. She really loves the Bible. She is I reckon the most deserving person for one of our new green Bibles. Her old Bible was amazing. She had guinea pigs and when I first saw the Bible, it looked like the guinea pigs had been eating it. But what happened was that she read it so much that the pages had got all eaten as she loves flicking through it. The New Testament was more worn than the Old Testament. The Bible is only six years old but she had read it so much. She was really nice and listens to the app every evening. That's why she wanted to get baptized".
And then, also in UK, we were able to witness the online baptism of SAM, who we first met at one of the sessions we used to run with the migrants in the cafe at a migrant center in London in 2017. He wasn't baptized then but kept in touch, asking many questions, and finally decided to be baptized. Jim Anne from Canada and Steve Sue from UK were also present. And again, after the baptism as he was drying off, there was great fellowship and much heart felt expression of appreciation.
ITALY We have a major pastoral trip set up this week, to see the African migrant brethren there. We are open to your donations for this. But we need your prayers especially.
INDIA Bro. Mark Hawkins from Perth, Western Australia reports the baptism of SAMUEL in India who came to the Truth from Bible Basics in a strange way.
He writes:
"Bible Basics is free. It helps to understand what God is teaching people, in the Bible. BUT, a naughty person sold brother Samuel the free Bible Basics book and now brother Samuel has been baptized. The only great God works in strange and wonderful ways". And indeed that is so, and this would be far from the first case of the Lord working like this.
IRAN Again, the
Bible Companion app advertising has resulted in another baptism here, of HOSEIN. He had previously been studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses and was so glad to have found the Truth now. Again we marvel at how the Lord is working in so many lives.
PRAYER POINTS - For those recently baptized
- For all the thousands of previously uncommitted, secular people who are now considering the Gospel for the first time
- For the huge adjustment in thought and perspective of those who are becoming Christian for the first time
- For this week's trip to Italy
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks