Carelink messages Promoting care and Prayer amongst us
MOSCOW BIBLE SCHOOL
Bible Schools are the highlight of the year for many of the 1500 or so baptized in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan over the last 20 years. At our last breakfast together, several were visibly in tears as they ate their food. They are all in isolation or small groups, and for many the Bible Schools are their only experience of ecclesial life. The joy and enthusiasm to discuss God's word was amazing. We ended up having one hour sessions on average to discuss each of the Bible Companion readings for the day; brothers and sisters were so keen to discuss and share the thoughts that had been building up over the last year. Our Australian visitors, Andrew Fotheringham and Rick & Janine Hennig from Adelaide, were warmly received and their talks enthusiastically discussed. One of the great things about giving talks in Eastern Europe is the high level of response to the teaching given and the practice of careful note taking. It's amazing to reflect that some of those now so deeply discussing Scripture, and able to quote so fluently from it, were atheists before their contact with us. We had with us the recently printed Russian New Testaments with commentary and reduced version of ‘Bible Basics’ at the back. These will be very helpful. Brother Igor reminded us that he first came from atheism to faith after having been given a New Testament by a man for whom he helped change a wheel on a country road; he's delighted at the chance to distribute New Testaments with the Gospel correctly explained within the same volume.
The distances travelled were huge- most spent at least a day travelling, whereas some travelled up to 5 days to be present. Many thousands of km. were travelled by the entire group in total- a colossal achievement, bearing in mind many are in poor health. Here are three of our older brethren so happy in each other’s company; note 2 of them have walking sticks, and the other is 84 and travelled four days on the train from Siberia in the cheap wagon. You can see Cindy seeing him off on that long return journey. Brother Valerij from the far north of Russia is being rightly congratulated on his arrival at the school after several days journey; as usual he had just a small bag, water bottle and his two walking sticks. No wonder he has something to say in the discussion after every Bible talk; he has nobody at all to talk to about his faith where he lives.
One pleasing feature was to see the baptism of the grandchildren of those baptized many years ago- YANA and KSENYA, granddaughters of Sister Galina from Kazakhstan; and ALINA, granddaughter of Br & Sis Georgij Chaplinsky from Ukraine; Georgij was baptized in 1993. Sister Galina explained how her granddaughter used to sleep on the same divan as her at night, and she would always cuddle her and pray with her as a little girl. As the girls grew up, Galina read the Bible to them; and then when she lost her sight, they continued, reading the Bible to her. Their baptism was a wonderful dream come true for Sis Galina. Here they are at the Bible School together:
We also rejoiced in the baptisms of VIKTOR and TAMARA from Kazakhstan. Our commnunity has been forbidden from meeting together in Kazakhstan, partly as a result of racism against Russians there, and also the growth of Islam in Kazakhstan. Because of this we are getting candidates for baptism to meet us in Russia for baptism wherever possible. Br Viktor travelled 3 days on the cheapest railway seats for his baptism. There were a number present who had had operations and cataract operations as a result of your support over the years, who would otherwise still not be with us, or not able to see. It was great to have sister Antonina with us, she cares for her severely handicapped spastic grandson and has to carry him up and down 10 flights of stairs each day, as well as constantly care for him. So it was a great break for her to be away for a week and not even have to cook, and to have the opportunity to read the Bible all day together with others. She so so deeply appreciated your donations which made her presence possible.
There were many more who would have liked to have come but places at the Bible School venue and funds to sponsor them were limited. About 60 attended but there were another 200 or more eager to come. The last evening we had a good discussion about local brethren giving more talks, and we have prepared some guidelines for giving a first Bible talk; these may be useful for others in other parts of the world. See http://www.aletheiacollege.net/ww/a8.htm. So again we give thanks, real thanks, to God for the work of His Son and the word of His grace which has so powerfully worked in this part of the world, resulting in a community of true servants of Christ and loving students of His word.
