February 2023 Australia, Latvia, Mexico,Turkey, UK
AUSTRALIA We are planning some events in Australia around Easter, Lord willing. There'll be a
Carelinks Conference in
Perth around Saturday 1st April and also in
Adelaide on Saturday 15th April. We also plan some preaching activities in those areas and maybe a "
Church in a Pub" meeting in
Perth... contact brother Mark Hawkins in due course for more details mark.ppah@gmail.com Tel. 0400 772 190
LATVIA
We have had such a wonderful time with the brothers and sisters in Riga, Latvia this week. Meeting up individually and as a group, breaking bread, talking about the old times as well as about the Kingdom, providing food and firewood and a nice meal for 20 of them in a cafe, sorrowing at the news of even more now very infirm or fallen asleep in the Lord in the great Hope. Inflation at 21% the last year, economic collapse evident everywhere.... Larisa using her remaining sight in one eye to read the Bible off her phone, Comforted that decades of work in this land by so many has brought such a great and abiding harvest. And new brother ALEKSANDR the classic old Russian wise man with his long white beard, and again our beloved brother Vladimir, now blind but still a true shepherd of the flock, really looking like it with his white stick. So much blessing. Soli Deo gloria. With the Ukraine war having become a media battle, the level of Russophobia observable is terrible. A blind old Russian man asking for help to cross a busy street... shouldn't be met with racist abuse because of his ethnicity. But this kind of white on white primitive racism is now endemic in many parts of Europe, and it goes on unchallenged. So please do pray for those affected.
MEXICO
It was a joy to break off from delivering firewood in snowy Latvia to join Spanish speakers from Spain, Mexico and the USA to witness the baptisms of ROBERTO and AURORA, an older couple who came to the Truth of our Lord Jesus through the untiring online work of brother Pedro in Florida, USA. Despite not being confident balancing the camera for us to view them, we spent a lovely time hearing their confession of faith and then watching them baptize each other in a lake:
TURKEY
Pleased to say that not without difficulty, the funds sent to our brethren have arrived and been gratefully received. They are now in a bad situation in the various camps established in unaffected areas. The damage some have endured is total- their homes, livelihood, everything. And there is little real help available for the longer term reconstruction on a personal level. Do pray for them in this awful situation especially enduring cold weather at the moment. Brother Mehmet writes: "We will really need your help, because we lost our job, we lost our house, we don't have clothes".
UNITED KINGDOM
This week our work continued as usual with Sunday meetings in the Orchard Pub, and three lunchtime church meetings during the week. Attendance continues to rise at the lunchtime churches, nearly all from local British folks coming along. It's just amazing to witness this interest from a social group that we had tended to assume were disinterested. Not at all. There's real interest. This week was half term and you can see the kids helping out with the snacks and coffees at
https://youtu.be/F2Rmv3-UG3Q
There really is "room enough for all" in this great work.
SPECIAL APPEAL
Carelink readers will have followed the growth of our "Croydon Church in a Pub" over the last 9 months, and the prior preaching and baptisms that led up to that. The Sunday meetings at the pub continue and are a wonderful example of how a group of interested local people can grow into a real, dynamic church who are friends with each other, hang out with each other outside church meetings and truly are growing in grace and truth in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus. We are limited by space there, and there is clearly much potential in south London. A lot of people are looking to connect with a non-standard, no frills Bible based church. We can meet that need, and there are baptisms most weeks. So we're holding "Lunchtime Church" on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in a rented location in central Croydon, offering a free meal, tea and coffee, a warm space to sit- and a Bible talk and fellowship each day. Baptisms happen most weeks. We have a Russian group and also a Persian group, but the majority of attenders are local British folk living locally. BUT WE NEED MORE BOOTS ON THE GROUND.
Help is needed- in catering, setting up and cleaning up, chatting with folks, arranging things, providing help for some needy folk who attend... Can you come and help? Do you know anyone who can? If you're in the UK, could you commit say one or two days / week to come and help? If you're not in the UK, would you consider coming over for a week, a month...?
There's work at least 4 days / week, and more if you want it. We could arrange local accommodation. And you would have free time to do the tourist thing in London or the UK if that's attractive to you. The need is the call... pray about it and see if you're led to respond. You need no qualification apart from a desire to serve your Lord. Do get in touch directly with Duncan if you want more info or to discuss it- freebibles2000@gmail.com
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For more workers in London UK
- For those suffering long term consequences from the earthquake
- For those enduring old age in the cold with little state support
- For our ethnic Russian brethren suffering from Russophobia
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks