Preaching to Jews; Norway; medications needed; socks April 2010
According to the Bible Companion reading planner, Acts 10 is the chapter for Sunday, and there's an MP3 study on this chapter at http://aletheiacollege.net/acts10.mp3
PREACHING TO JEWS
We've occasionally mentioned in Carelinks reports that a number of people from Jewish backgrounds have been baptized in the Baltic states- and thanks to the Holocaust, the once thriving Jewish community there is now quite small. So statistically it's amazing that so many, relatively speaking, have been baptized. We are well known in the region, and anyone searching for a Christian group who value the Hebrew roots of Christianity and seek for Old as well as New Testament exposition of "the hope of Israel" is now coming to us.
We're delighted to report the baptism of two more this week, YURIEL and VLAD. After they had given their confession of faith before baptism, we asked as usual: "Do you have any questions?". The actual immersions took place about three hours later! We had a wonderful time together- Vlad is a very careful Bible student who has been seeking to expound the Bible correctly for over 20 years. "Why in Ezekiel 16 is it said of Jerusalem that her father was an Amorite and her mother a Hittite?". "If the man of sin in 2 Thess. 2 is the Pope, how can he appear in the temple of God?". "Why in Revelation 8 was the seventh seal opened as a result of the incense?". And no quick fobbing-off answers were allowed. We really rejoice that at least a "remnant" of God's people are responding to the true Hope of Israel.
Photos: Brother Vlad with his well read, falling apart Bible; Brother Yuriel explaining a point during his confession of faith, with Brother Yuri, who conducted the discussion from Bible Basics, looking on; our two new brothers with the 'Shabbat' plate we use for the breaking of bread at the Riga Bible Centre
One Jewish woman called Rita has been attending for some weeks and has studied Bible Basics. She quit attending the Riga synagogue after failing to find answers to her questions- we were the first and only Christian group she's ever attended. If all Carelinks readers pray for Rita to accept Christ- that would mean a few thousand prayers ascending to Heaven for one Jewish woman in Riga, Latvia. Why don't we do that and see what happens?
MEDICATIONS NEEDED
Cindy writes:
Our young brother, Mantas, in Lithuania has lupus and has also recently been diagnosed with pulmonary artery hypertension, and told he has maybe 2 years left to live. He's in terrible pain. A relatively new medication has been approved in the USA to alleviate a lot of his symptoms and improve his quality of life, but in Lithuania this medication is still not free for him. The tablets costs about $3 per day if ordered online ($1 per tablet, and he needs 3 tablets per day). If you would like to order some tablets online for him, or donate money towards some, please let me know and I'll send you the appropriate information. Someone could just order them online, run their credit card and get the medicines mailed direct to him.
Thank you!
Cindy
SOCKS
Cindy's trying very hard to set up needy sisters in Eastern Europe with some form of income, and so she's created a website to try to sell socks knitted by sister Dzintra. It's at http://www.qualitygiftsocks.com . Idea being that you can order socks on the site and get them delivered to your friends as ready-wrapped gifts.
NORWAY
If you look on a map of Norway, you'll see half way up the West coast, in spectacular scenery, the island of Gangevika. Not far from there, on a smaller island, there's a fisheries research station. A senior executive from the Department of Fisheries in Malawi was chosen to address the problem of replenishing the declining fish stock in Lake Malawi, and was sent there to that Norwegian island for 18 months to learn from the Norwegian fisheries experience. You'll see from the map- this area of Norway is in the middle of nowhere. Whilst there, he continued his interest in the Bible and desired to be baptized after studying Bible Basics. His lovely wife is also with him, and they were both eager for baptism. So with great joy we're pleased to report the baptisms of ESAU and HILDA. They are such lovely people and will surely be the light of their world wherever they are, and Hilda is keen to begin translating Introducing Bible Basics to some African languages. It's just amazing the connections which God is making worldwide. We just seek to follow where He leads through the hands of providence.
Photos: Esau and Hilda very joyful after their baptisms; reading the Bible together every day as they have been for a long time, more recently with the aid of Bible Basics and The Real Devil
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks