Riga Bible Center, Norway December 2010
This Sunday's Bible Companion readings are from 2 and 3 John, there's an MP3 about them at http://www.aletheiacollege.net/audio/23jn.mp3
The blizzards have been awful in Latvia and the snowfall heavy throughout Eastern Europe. Many of our brethren can get a few coins for clearing snow so attendance at the Riga ecclesia was down to about 75 last Sunday, but then there were the blizzards too which must've kept some away. For the old folk in the night shelters who have nowhere to go, trundling the streets with their walking stick and bag or so of belongings is just awful- we took this photo out of the window at our new hall. As our blind brother Oleg remarked, having a white stick isn't much help in the Winter:
We received the following photos of the situation in Russia, with problems caused for brothers and sisters not just by the drifts but by the weight of snow on flat roofs:
As the weather in Riga has been so awful we let folks stay for another 4 hours on Sunday and put on a movie about the life of Christ- most of them left as they had the chance of earning some money shovelling snow, so only the really needy ones remained. You can see from the photo that folks looked in through the windows [see to the right hand side of the photo] and saw our old and infirm watching the movie, and a few came in and watched with us:
Aivars still hadn't been able to get a jacket after his one was stolen at the night shelter [they have to pretty well sleep in their clothes in those places to avoid having their clothes stolen especially boots and jackets], he has somehow been walking about all week just in a sweater, and has got an awful cold, so he was really grateful of the jacket we got him:
Cindy's been trying to get the kitchen up to EU standards, one of which is that workers must wear cooking uniforms, which we've just received. Our African brethren looked rather smart in them [never mind the unsheathed cable going to the cooker! Brother Peter Stringer will fix all that soon God willing when he arrives from Australia to assist in more building and renovation work]:
There's still the need for a lot more equipment to be provided, and we need to be producing 150-200 meals / week to feed just our own brothers and sisters twice / week. Please do consider donating monthly for this as the costs are significant.
Here's a quick snap of Brother Peter in heat wave Sydney Australia packing blankets kindly donated from NSW and Tasmania to fly half way around the world to Latvia:
We're grateful for some welfare packages sent over from brothers and sisters in New Zealand, and you can see sister Velta here with one of them in her lap as she chats after Bible class:
LEJLA [pronounced Layla] was baptized after Bible class this week, other sisters were present and very supportive. She says she was greatly helped in her decision by our struggles to understand Job's sufferings, which has been a theme of our recent meetings. Our contingent of kids rocked up again to Bible class, no activities this time as Cindy was busy with other stuff, but they sat quietly and listened through 90 minutes of pretty deep discussion re Job, Habakkuk and 1 Peter. We really need a "minister for youth".
NORWAY
The hand of providence continues to work worldwide, using various interconnections to call people to Him and spread the Truth of Christ to all parts of the world. We reported a while ago the baptism of brother Esau in Norway, and now he has returned to Malawi and his former pastor and some others have recently been baptized by local brethren there. It was our pleasure this week to visit and baptize ALEX in northern Norway, and he is soon to return to West Africa, earnestly intent on developing the Gospel there. One is amazed at how God sent a man from Africa to far northern Europe, from the steamy tropics to be baptized at a spot where the sun went down over the snow covered airfield at 3p.m. And now he returns with the message of hope to his own land. Our brother just emailed:
""hi duncan, thanks for your reply and the pictures.may the God Lord richely bless you for all that you did for me today. it has been a remakble day in my life.greetings to your family and the entire church members. i will see to read my bible every day. pray for me and remember me in your prayers.thank you very much. alex."
With love and joy from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks
PS Another reminder of the Carelinks UK conference, 25-27 February 2011 God willing. Details at http://carelinks.net/doc/events