Carelinks | Israel
A recent Carelinks visit to the brethren and sisters in Israel began by visiting and breaking bread with brother Vladimir and sister Galina near Haifa - great to see them strong in the Faith. We baptized Vladimir 13 years ago in the river Jordan, and Galina came to the Moscow Bible School to be baptized last year.
Breaking of Bread near Haifa
Next we spent a day with NASIR, an Arab Israeli in Nazareth, who literally lives in a house on the cliff on which their city is built (over which the inhabitants wanted to throw the Lord). He turned to Christ 30 years ago and is very intense in his faith and efforts to preach the Gospel to both Jews and Arabs. These have led to many problems for him, including stones being thrown at him for passing out tracts in Cana of Galilee, just a few miles from Nazareth. It's really so hard to be an Arab Christian - so many Israeli Arabs who were traditionally Christians are now converting to Islam. We baptized him in the river Jordan. He gave a wonderful and intense prayer before his baptism.
You can hear a video of his baptism and testimony in English at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbx-Nlmxh5M And he also gave it in Arabic at: http://youtu.be/0MpuyshoLOY
On our last trip to Israel, we reported meeting SHIMEON, one of the many Russian Jewish intellectuals who left the USSR for Israel when the USSR broke up. We told his amazing story of survival as a child in the holocaust against all odds - see http://carelinks.net/doc/1624658007. We mentioned that he sadly and inexplicably backed out of baptism then and we asked for your prayers for him. This was nearly 18 months ago. Now he has turned the corner we were delighted to baptize him and record a very, very compelling presentation from him about how he turned from atheism to belief, and how reading Bible stories to his grandchildren led him to believe the Bible as inspired; and then, accepting the Old Testament as inspired led him to accept the New Testament, and thence to accepting Jesus as the Son of God. There's much background noise in the recording, but it's a story that a cameraman would wait 1000 years to catch on film. It's in Russian, but for interest it's at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGZ7FH6K9VU Pictured right is a still from the video of this wonderful Jewish brother in Christ.
Finally we went to Southern Israel, to the small towns of the Negev desert where many Russian pensioners have been settled. We had an encouraging memorial meeting with brother Nikolaj whom we baptized last visit, and met Emil, another Soviet Jewish intellectual who has been in touch with us a few years and studied Bible Basics to the end. But like Shimeon, something stops him getting baptized. Please pray for him - by God's grace he may follow the same path as Shimeon. 
In their old age, these men have turned to God and their Messiah in spirit and in truth. Blessed are those who remembered their creator in the days of their youth and decided for Him and His Son then, so that they might serve Him in their lives, rather than having to spend a large proportion of life working through basic questions about God and Jesus.
