Brother Leonid, Winter Welfare April 2009
[Information removed for security reasons- please contact us at info@carelinks.net to learn more]...Meanwhile, we continue providing winter welfare to many brothers and sisters in need throughout Eastern Europe. We've received some blood pressure monitors and more are on the way. Cindy's been taking the blood pressure of sisters in various places, and after the Sunday meeting in Riga she measured the pressure of several sisters. Each meeting we'll do this, God willing, and try to get them some mediation where needed. Some of the readings are pretty scary, and the idea is that by measuring each week we'll be able to see some progress. Here's Cindy with the sisters with high blood pressure, and also with her list of names and readings:
We've been doing the same thing with the sisters in the Women's Shelter. We take them out to a cafe for a coffee, salad and Bible reading- and this time we took their blood pressure. It was a great witness, it attracted a lot of attention from other people- the women from the women's shelter reading the Bible with us and having their blood pressure measured and getting advice about it!
There's a short movie clip of it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18z4lO-9kSI
We're also pleased to say that the large family in difficulties in northern Latvia are now safely and well established in the home / Bible School venue, although we still have to make some more expensive improvements to the property to meet local requirements:
The financial crisis hits people differently. Here's an account from a single brother in his 30s:
"Well as to "How are you?", I am fine with the Lord but after losing my job I had so many problems. After some time without work, I got a job on a dustcart for the local council. I thought I was stopping low, as you know I worked as a fine metalworker. I thought 'I can't go any lower than this but at least it's a job and I can provide for my father and sister and I will have peace from having a job and earning money'. But here everyone is corrupt and always seeking money. It costs companies a lot of money to dispose of their waste especially if it's toxic. So the dust cart team I was with would pick up waste for a much reduced price, paid directly to us, we would go to them at around 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. and we would take it to the forest or to the lake and dump it. Once we got the truck stuck on one of the forest tracks, we had to call friends to come with cars and pull it out. We were 4 men on the cart and I was the new one so it was hard for me to do anything. I naievely thought I'd tell them about the good news of the Kingdom coming on earth... but there we were destroying our beautiful country, some of the toxic waste we were tipping in the lake had such an awful smell, I have no idea what was in it. I also could see that sooner or later they would be caught. When I said I wasn't happy with what they were doing or being part of it, they got threatening with me. So I had the difficult decision to leave the job, when we really had no money at home and the others were depending on my salary. The other workers kept telling me that there are 60 people going after each vacant manual working job... and this is true. I thought God blessed me with that job, but I don't know what to think now, I see it was all some sort of an experience along the road. So I have been going to the labour exchange for a few weeks now, and nothing. And they don't like me because I was given a job and quit it. Please give greetings to all and pray for me here".
We do so deeply appreciate all the support for the Winter welfare program. It really is assisting a large number of brothers and sisters.
On other fronts, the Gospel continues to spread. We've just received the translation of "What is the Gospel?" in the Rai / Dhanwar language from our new brother in the mountains of Eastern Nepal whose baptism we recorded in a recent Carelink. It's online at http://www.carelinks.net/doc/gospel-dh . There is hardly any Christian literature of any sort in this language! According to one website, "Rai have neither the Bible nor the Jesus film in their language. Currently, there are no missions agencies targeting them. There are only 22 known believers among them"- from http://www.prayway.com/unreached/peoplegroups1/2040.html . So the true Gospel is now spreading here... all so exciting!