October 2023 Cameroon, China, Israel, UK
CAMEROON We have supported brother Wilfrid to travel deep into the jungle to follow up on long term contacts there, and he reports the baptisms of three young men in a very remote location. We again marvel at how the true Gospel is spreading to the very ends of the earth:
CHINA Our dear and faithful brother Donald reports yet another baptism, of 56 year old ZHANG, in a water supply pool in a village which has big problems getting enough water. Brother Donald recorded his personal testimony as follows:
I am interested in Christian and decide to be baptized because of your guidance and my wife. my wife used to be an ordinary housewife and a believer and I was an unbeliever, in the year of 2021 she was walking in the yard with moss and accidentally broke her leg. At that time, the children wanted to send her to the hospital for treatment, but my wife refused. The reason for this was also related to a hearsay in the rural areas at that time. In the end, she was equipped with a pair of crutches, and she kept holding her crutches. Her heart was rooted in Christianity. Later on, she passed away in an accident. After her death, we arranged a funeral according to her will, which was to be buried as a Christian.
At the beginning of 2023, she constantly entered my dreams. In the dream she didn't have crutches, didn't bend her waist, and had a smile on her face. She was holding a basket of vegetables in her hand, calling my name, asking me to believe in Christ. I couldn't forget this, so I started to seek Christ. This is how we get connected. Now I am getting older and I can feel my health becoming weaker, my temper has also become increasingly irritable, I guess my time is nearing. I beg that I can meet my wife again in the kingdom of God. Whilst I am alive I want to be helpful in preaching to others. God bless"
In the picture you can see him holding some of our Chinese literature:
ISRAEL
The human suffering in the Israel-Hamas war is of course tragic, deeply so. But the prophetic timetable seems to suggest that the purpose of Israel's latter day traumas is to bring them to the Lord in repentance. It's therefore interesting to see an upsurge in usage of the Bible Companion app in Israel at this time of Jacob's trouble. In this random example, 15 people using it within 30 minutes of each other, and all in Tel Aviv or southern Israel. We pray for the whole thing to be hastened in its time, towards the Lord's return.
UK
Talks this week at Lunchtime Church have been:
https://youtu.be/Ro3YYE-MATI The work of the Holy Spirit, Acts 11
https://youtu.be/ELhALqxGSVg Christians in Antioch, Acts 11
https://youtu.be/wDDgWw0v0Xc Acts 13 Man's search for meaning
And then on Wednesday it was our joy to baptize VICTORIA after the meeting. God bless her in the new life in the Lord Jesus!
We've just been so blessed with so, so much interest and response to the Gospel here in South London. We thank God, who alone calls men and women to His Son. It's been great to have brother Charles with us once / week from Hookwood ecclesia, and we really do again ask any who can come along and participate or help... to come forward. There are four meetings / week and there is ample opportunity for service:
This weekend, Evia and Duncan spent time with contacts and those baptized previously in the east Midlands, and Evia baptized sister Zara in a local swimming pool. She first came to us online- having quit Islam and then passed through the JWs. When you get text messages like this, who can't respond:
The photo above is of our Indian friends previously baptized, not of those we now write about:
We were introduced to the Muslim subculture which exists in many British cities. We heard stories of a woman marrying the husband of her friend she met at the mosque, on the woman's recommendation; of a woman discovering her husband has five other wives, all in the same city; of a sister pressurized to go to a Muslim country to have FGM and then being divorced because of it; of a sister being pressurized by her husband to give permission for their young daughter to leave the UK and spend time in a Muslim country where she would undergo FGM... and of course the danger, mental stress and huge financial disadvantage when these things lead to divorce. Of course by "divorce" and "marriage" and "polygamy" we refer to situations under local Islamic law in the Muslim subculture, none of these things are recognized under UK law. It was a sobering experience to encounter all this face to face and up front. In a standard UK city in the Midlands.
PRAYER POINTS
- For those recently baptized
- For sisters and their daughters facing pressure to have FGM [even in the West]
- For sisters in polygamous marriages [even in the West]
- For the situation in Israel
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks