Brother Pavel, Haiti, Outreach to the blind March 2010
The reading for Sunday according to the Bible Companion will be Luke 20, and there's an exhortation on that chapter at http://www.aletheiacollege.net/audio/lk20.mp3
Outreach To The Blind
By "blind" we mean 'partially sighted'. To the poor and marginalized, the Gospel is preached and responded to. This is a simple fact which Carelinks have found true over and over. This last week we've been pleased to baptize two partially sighted sisters, ILZE and LUDMILA. Ilza has lost one eye completely and has a glass eye; and sight is fading seriously in the other. She can just about read the largest print Latvian Bible we can find, and has learnt the Gospel largely from listening to Cindy explain it- they have very much "clicked" with each other as you can see from the photos. Ilze used to read novels and literature a lot, but never found time for religion; now she can hardly read and is discarded by her former husband and friends, she desperately searched for God, terribly frustrated she can't read the Bible very much when now, she says, this is the only book she wants to read.
It was therefore with great joy that we finally baptized her, a desire which she had held for a long time but never thought anybody would baptize her. Here she is drying off after her baptism, you can see her glass eye in the photo:
We've produced Mark's Gospel for her as a booklet in very large print, running to around 230 pages:
Ludmila's sight is not quite so bad, and she enjoys reading the Russian-English parallel Bible, although she gets headaches after reading more than a chapter
We were able to share with each of our sisters welfare packages kindly sent over from Toronto, Canada.
God really is at work powerfully in the lives of so many of our brothers and sisters; the hand of Providence really has been amazing in the life of brother Pavel since his baptism. He had been living in a derelic home as reported previously, with no heating, getting access by removing the boards over the window as the door couldn't be opened without breaking it. He had been unable to get documents for many years. But then the week after his baptism, his case was responded to, within another week he finally had a passport after 19 years without one; and his request for state accomodation was responded to. He was offered some rooms in a state owned house in a remote village in the depopulating East of the country, and also a small state pension as compensation for having been abused during the Soviet occupation. He is simply so very happy and testifies to everyone how everything suddenly started coming together after his baptism. It's not a rags to riches story, but a rags to something bearable story. So he climbed out of the window of that awful place for the last time. We loaded up his considerable belongings- all things he had found in a long time of scouring garbage cans, including rucksacks and suitcases he had found. Especially valuable to him were the Biblical books he has acquired. Here we are loading up Brother Pavel's things:
There's a 3 minute video of it at http://aletheiacollege.net/video/pavelf.html
After a 5 hour journey over icy roads, the last part on unmade roads, we got to the house, and here Pavel is entering it:
He's simply SO happy in his new home. It really is a gift from God and a reminder that He is active and not passive in the lives of those who come to Him.
HAITI
A reminder of the publicity and fundraising evening for the work in Haiti being held at the Baringa, NSW Australia ecclesia on Friday 26th GW 7:30pm at Padstow Park Primary School, Serges Ave, Padstow 2211 - more details from Sis Belinda Burns bel.burns@gmail.com ; please also keep Charlie and Duncan in your prayers as they work in Haiti at this time; and a reminder that they will God willing be giving a presentation about the situation in Haiti on Sunday March 28 at 7:45 p.m. in the Queens –South Ozone Park Christadelphian Hall, 120-22 131Street (between Rockaway Blvd. and Sutter Avenue) NY 11420 USA. Please especially pray for the many people who've been studying Bible Basics since last year in Haiti, who are hoping to be baptized soon.
With love and joy from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks