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Carelinks | Latvia
W
e continue feeding the ecclesia and
friends here and there have been a
string of baptisms. One very moving event
was the baptism of Alexei, he is the son of
Brother Vladimir, a former Red Army officer
baptized by Brother Maxim earlier.
Vladimir and Alexei had not met since
Alexei’s babyhood, 37 years ago. They met
by an amazing Divine coincidence, and
Vladimir immediately shared the truth with
his son. It was a wonderful moment when
Alexei was baptized after Bible class. We
studied John 19, the crucifixion, and
Vladimir read it with emotion and tears
such as we have never heard the account
read.
Afterwards, we had the baptism and
Vladimir wrote in the NEV Bible which we
traditionally present to all newly baptized,
pictured right. It was a wonderful message,
rejoicing with his son and saying that his
baptism makes him now more than a son, and
that they now have the hope of eternity
together, and holding fast to our calling is the
greatest thing. We just marvel at how the Lord
is working amongst people, making connec-
tions and reconnections, and giving abundant
blessing to those who humble themselves to
come to Him in spirit and truth.
C
indy, Ieva, Evia and little David then went
off on a mission trip to Eastern Latvia
where again the Lord’s saving and ever
supporting hand was evident. Sister Cindy
reports as follows:
“We are using a very small car here in Latvia
and travelling long distances wouldn’t work
well with a fully packed car so I went off with
Ieva, Evia and David with some trepidation,
leaving Duncan and Daniel in Riga running
things.
First stop was sister Valya who was baptized
16 years ago. Really encouraging to see
someone so full of the truth, reading her
Bible daily and really thrilled to be visited.
She is about 3 hours from Riga. We had such a
great time with her, reading and breaking
bread together, that we were delayed leaving.
Our next stop was to
visit and baptize Santa,
who is really ‘in the
middle of nowhere’ right
on the Russian border.
It’s wonderful how the gospel message can
reach such remote locations. I had booked a
hotel from the internet and drove to where
Google maps said it was, only to find an old
farm house down a dirt track. I called the
hotelier who then explained how to find his
actual location. He met us on the main road
so we could follow him - I had no clue where
I was going, just following his tail lights in the
darkness, farther and farther from the road.
We got to his place, a half derelict building.
He had clearly run out of resources for
finishing his ‘hotel’.
With a couple of dogs barking around us,
he let us in, there were of course no other
guests. Thankfully the room itself was finish-
ed, and we managed to find clean linen in the
adjacent room. Ieva and I prayed for safety. I
was so glad I had her with me! We all slept
together in one room, there was no lock on
our door. He slept in another part of the
building. All was OK, and morning broke
revealing a lovely lake outside, and also how
totally isolated this place was.
~ continued ...