Russia, Mum's Club, Refugees August 2009
REFUGEE BRETHREN
We'd like to remind you of the continual stress under which many of our refugee brethren live. Please do remember them in prayer. One brother recently wrote:
"My interview was lasted 1 hour and in 2 weeks I will know if USA accepted me or not. It is gonna be long hard 2 weeks.
Godbless"
RUSSIA
The Gospel continues to spread throughout this vast country, and it's comforting to look back and see brethren baptized in the early 1990s who are still faithful and who have grown so hugely in the Lord since then. We held a study day and breaking of bread with the Moscow ecclesia and were happy to have Br Alexei and Sis Vera Hodusov present from Kazan. Alexei and Vera so thirst for fellowship. Vera is severely epileptic, and had a few episodes during our time together. She gets free travel on local trains, but not long distance ones. Alexei as her husband and carer can also travel free with her. They live 600 miles from Moscow, and as they don't like taking assistane from us with their fares, they travelled that huge distance by a series of local trains, spending hours waiting on stations as they frequently changed trains. It took them 38 hours to do the journey as opposed to 14 hours if they'd taken a direct diesel train. And what's more, they are travelling on down to southern Russia by the same method to visit their daughter and other brethren. Alexei really has a heart for the brotherhood. We were very pleased to meet with Br Alexei & Sis Vika, who have moved to Moscow from the Urals, and were pleased to break bread with them. The highlight of the day was the baptism of KOLYA and OLYA, a lovely young married couple who have devoted themselves to God's word. Like many young unskilled Russians, they work for very low salaries- as a porter and dishwasher- and will find it very hard to provide for children. The birthrate in Russia has fallen dramatically in recent times. But they are very much in love with the Truth and quite literally rejoice in hope of the Kingdom.
As before, we treated the group to some fast food at McDonald's, which was again a great joy to them and the first time some had been there. Here you can see from Vera, Olya, Kolya and Alexei. It was a moment of lightening of their otherwise heavy lives:
MUM'S CLUB
One of the great things Sister Belinda Burns was involved with in her 2 months work with Carelinks was to produce invitations to a mother's Bible reading club in Riga, Latvia. Most people in Eastern European cities live in large apartment blocks with all the mailboxes at the entrance; and these days, the mailboxes are stuffed full with junk mail and advertising fliers. And so Belinda and Cindy photocopied a simple invitation, and sewed a piece of material and a bow onto each one- so that people would go "Wow... what's that?" when sifting through the junk mail. Those special fliers got a great response; we also put up posters in the windows of the Riga Bible Centre. One woman, INGRIDA, was taking shelter from the rain in the entry of a housing block, and she noticed one of these very pretty fliers on the ground. She picked it up... and came along to mother's club along with her 18 year old daughter and 20 year old adopted daughter ZANE. Those meetings are wonderful- reading a Bible chapter, doing Bible marking, sharing tea and coffee, listening to life stories and problems, and teaching the women to pray. Ingrida took home Bible Basics, and read it right through one night. She started attending the Sunday meetings. This week, Sisters Anna and Barbara Ryder from the Horley, UK ecclesia have been in Latvia, and it was great to have their company in baptizing Ingrida and Zane in the Baltic Sea. They were both simply so very happy emerging from the water. There is really so much interest- do come and get involved or support as far as you can from afar.
Photos: Belinda and Cindy; advertizing the mums' Bible Club; prayer together; walking to baptism together; "Do you believe the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ?"; group photo after the baptisms
CORRECTION
We apologize for misspelling brother Johnny Andersen's name in a previous Carelink. Johnny's reminded us that it's spelt Andersen not Anderson.
With love from your brothers and sisters at Carelinks