China, Brother Valerij, Riga Bible Centre, Interview November 2010
Our daily Bible readings this Sunday are from Acts 20, and there's an MP3 about this chapter at http://www.aletheiacollege.net/audio/acts20.mp3
BROTHER VALERIJ
Baptized in the mid 1990s, Brother Valerij has been an active member of the brotherhood in Latvia, often bringing others to our meetings, and his witness resulted in the baptism of the daughter of a co-worker, and also eventually his boss, as reported in a fairly recent Carelink. Valerij did much work at the housing project in northern Latvia, plastering the ceilings etc. He was a lovely and active witness for the Lord Jesus in all he did and was. Originally a white Russian refugee from Kyrgyztsan, our brother came to Latvia in the early 1990s on the breakup of the USSR and the explusion of many Russians from central Asia. His family are either dead or he has lost contact with them. His spiritual family meant so much to him. Just 2 weeks ago our brother was diagnosed with cancer and has rapidly gone downhill. He has been in unbearable pain and is now on morphine awaiting his falling asleep in Christ. The hospital refused to keep him, not for money nor any amount of pleading, and would only give us a wheelchair for use on their premises. We had to pick up our brother from the hospital and take him to the apartment of his ex-wife who has agreed he can be with her until the end. The cancer is in his bones and every movement is terribly painful for him. Especially without a wheelchair. The apartment we took him to is on the top floor of a block which has no lift; we had to shift him up 10 flights of stairs, with him screaming in pain due to the cancer in his bones. It took four brethren to do the job- Duncan plus Aziz from Afghanistan, Charles from Nigeria and Bashir from Iran. But even then we couldn't do it so well, and in the end our strongman Aziz picked up our brother and rushed him up those stairs as quickly as possible. It was an amazing sight, in one sense- an Afghan refugee carrying a shrivelled up, screaming in pain, now dying, Soviet Russian brother in Christ, who not so long ago in the 1980s had been sworn enemies. Indeed as Charles pushed Valerij from the cancer ward to the car, as Asians, black and white loaded him into the car, and then got him out of it and carried our dying brother up the stairs of that lower class tennament block... people stopped and stared. As you can see from some of the photos. This is unity in Christ, our greatest witness. The pictures speak for themselves... note the chair, the only chair they had in that apartment, which we initially used to carry him on:
RIGA BIBLE CENTRE
We were heartily encouraged today by the baptism of ZHENNYA, a 29 year old woman who lives in the night shelters, who was prepared for baptism by Br Vlad and another sister, sis. Olga. Zhennya was so happy to be baptized. It's a sign of real success when a group like this becomes self-reproducing, although they still have a long way to go in many ways.
We continue distributing Winter welfare and heating support. We're delighted to report that the housing project we run in northern Latvia continues to house a large family, a refugee brother from Africa, and a steady stream of other individuals in the brotherhood who need a roof over their head for a while. The project has produced a large amount of fruit and vegetables this year, which we're distributing to those in need this Winter. Here's a selection of the fruit and vegetables awaiting packaging just a few days ago. We're so grateful for God's blessing upon that project.
As we write this, we have a wonderful team of brethren working on installing more toilets and a kitchen at the new hall in Riga.
Here's Bre Graham Mitchell and Peter Eichorn beginning to install the first toilet; and Bro Dave Bushell on the electrics. We're enjoying the company of Br Steve and Sis Sue Gretton whilst Br Steve leads a Bible weekend this weekend.
CHINA
Brother Donald reports on his visit to a contact on Zhoushan Island:
"I baptized bro Ji who was already in his 50s at a Reservoir in Zhoushan island. As a successful university teacher in engineering who also is active in Bible studying,He went to church every Sunday and knew of several pastors,Catholics and Protestants.When Bro Ji doubted their basic Christian Doctrine about Trinity and asked "why?", actually he found they can't figure out "why?". The explanation they gave was that it was beyond our understanding because we were merely ordinary people, God just intended for us to accept these Doctrines. So he searched on the internet for christian literature on the topic and found Bible Basics.It was pleasant surprisely he had the common view with us .therefore after more study he requested for baptism to the real Christ; when we parted, he told me he would like to keep correspond with us and continue to walk in His way after the baptism".
INTERVIEW
On Halloween night, Brother Duncan was interviewed on The Voice of Reason about what the Bible teaches about the Devil. The host, John Anderson, has stated his agreement with our beliefs about the devil issue and several other doctrinal areas. It's amazing how elements of the Truth are being spread now so publically worldwide. You can hear the MP3 on his station or at
http://www.heaster.org/audio/jainterview2.mp3
It's an hour long... toooo many commercials, but a witness was made worldwide by this.
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks