Gospel News — May-Aug 2013

CARELINKS

Christadelphian Ministries

Deaf And Sick People

"To the poor the Gospel is preached", not only the materially poor, but those poor in spirit who perceive their urgent need for the Good News of the Kingdom and of the Lord Jesus who was our representative. For over 15 years we have occasionally reported on our work with a deaf family in Latvia, who are now all baptized. Sister Cindy is one of the few non- Latvians to have a certificate in Latvian deaf sign language, which she got to facilitate our work with them. We're now so pleased to tell you of the baptisms of another deaf married couple, ANDIS and RIMMA, he is Latvian and she is Russian, neither of them understand each others' language and so they have developed their own sign language in which they communicate with each other. They live with his parents, who are also deaf. Entering their home and to some extent their lives was rather like entering a secret garden and we felt honoured to have as it were

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been allowed just a little bit into their world. All prayers had to be written out in both Russian and Latvian. We have now had over 2000 views of our sign language movie outlining the basic doctrines of the Gospel. The internet has been a huge blessing for such folk.

Photo: Our new deaf brother and sister; their

Bible Basics in both Latvian and Russian.

We have made a number of visits recently to a `Pansionat', a kind of care home in the deep countryside, where folk are sent, often to die. Some have terminal cancer, others have had strokes, others have cerebral palsy etc. The break up of the family under the Soviet system means that most of them have nobody who visits them. We previously distributed Bible Basics and Bibles there. Over several visits we are now pleased to report the baptisms of brothers SERGEJ, VLADIMIR, EDUARDS, ILYA, RIKHARD and OLEG; and sisters ZOYA, ILZE, OLGA, INTA,