North America May 2005
We're pleased to report that the work of the CCM is progressing well in North America. John
& Tina recently travelled with Duncan to visit various ones of the over 2000 contacts who have
responded to the alcohol counselling program we are running. The Halifax County ecclesia are
taking care of the pastoral follow up to this program, for which we're so grateful; and
we're grateful too for the members of the Portland ecclesia who are assisting with the mail
out of literature. We're pleased to announce the baptism of MICHELLE and are hoping for more
fruit from this exciting work. Sister Michelle will be under the care of Halifax County
ecclesia.
We were also able to make a visit to a CAT contact of Bro. Marcus, Troy, who is currently in
prison in rural Pennsylvania. He had completed Bible Basics with excellent answers. As there is
sometimes concern expressed about the level of knowledge of those we baptize, we've scanned
his answers and they are viewable at www.carelinks.net/troy.htm . You'll see that he has
seriously studied the doctrines of the Truth and grasped them well. We were able to clarify a few
areas where he might have been unclear according to his answers, but the prison authorities
didn't permit us as visitors to baptise him. However there are baptismal facilities in the
prison and we are hoping to hear that he's been able to arrange his own baptism. He says that
Bible Basics has been his meat and drink for the last 3 years, and he's done a lot of other
research, making good use of his Strong's concordance. He has others interested in the Truth
and we're hoping to mail him more copies of Bible Basics with the prayerful hope that he may
be able to get an ecclesia going there. He certainly needs our prayers as he seeks to respond to
the call of the true Gospel in a difficult environment. He's also been in touch with the mid
Atlantic ASK and we're very happy to work with them in this exciting opportunity to spread the
freedom of Christ to the captives.
It was also a great pleasure to meet with 5 of our Iranian refugee brothers and sisters who are
now in Canada. We had a very intense and wonderful meeting with them in Toronto airport whilst in
transit there for some hours. It was sobering to hear of their faithful struggles to live the
Truth in the materialistic Western world, a source of temptation and challenge to faith just as
strong as the persecution they experienced in Iran. Bro. Mahmoud now has a job as an unarmed
security guard and came to break bread with us right after his night shift. We're grateful to
the ecclesias they now belong to in Toronto for their support. Bro Nima described our meeting as
one of the happiest days in his life. After so much worry and stress, the appeals to UNHCR, the
many dramas from which the Lord preserved us... we were finally together in the West, and breaking
bread together was the natural and appropriate way of expressing our thanks to the Father and Son
who made all this possible. Truly, "there's nothing like the Truth". That cafe
became hallowed ground in the intensity of prayerful fellowship which we enjoyed there.
Photo: 
Breaking bread in a cafe in Toronto airport
Photo: 
Our Iranian sisters, who are hoping to enter college soon
Whilst passing through New York, it was possible to drop off some of the scarves and rugs made
by our dear sister Anita and her family from Latvia. They were enthusiastically bought up by
brethren and sisters there, and we're happy to pass more orders on to them. This is a great
way to provide much needed aid in the form of a fishing rod rather than a fish, as it were.
Photo: 
brethren & sisters in New York with their newly bought scarves and rugs made by their sisters
in rural Latvia
Whilst writing, we'd like to ask you to pray for some excellent contacts we have in Iraq
who are avidly learning the Truth. Quite how we get to them is something we're also praying
about.
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks Christadelphian Ministries