Brother Maris, Refugees, Bible Center September 2009
BROTHER MARIS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate
are some statistics that need some reflection. The Baltic States in Eastern Europe are amongst the highest in the world for suicide rates- Lithuania is THE highest in the whole world, and Latvia is number 7 worldwide. Russia is also in the top 10. You can see the depressive situation which forms the background against which we preach. The true Gospel of course reaches out powerfully to the truly desperate, and we're pleased to report that MARIS, the son of one of our sisters, was baptized recently in a very remote spot in Latvia- after driving 40 minutes by forest tracks, we had to walk the last bit. The area is cut off to transport when under snow. But Maris although only 17 has made several suicide attempts, and badly needs appropriate care, medication and counselling. Please do pray for him, and so many others like him who are far from even primary healthcare.
In another rural part of Latvia our sister Larisa also needs prayer- her two sons and their wives, her daughters in law, were involved in an awful road accident which left her daughter in law in a coma and unlikely to come out, and her sons unable to work because of bone breakages. She has to care for grandchildren, and has sold her land to meet hospital bills.
RIGA BIBLE CENTER
- continues to grow dynamically. We're delighted to report the baptism and receiving into fellowship of another sister, AINA, who has been studying with us for over 6 years. Here she is with some calcium tablets, kindly donated from the USA:
The meal we provide after the Sunday meeting is the only reasonable meal which some of our brothers and sisters have in the week, some have said it's the only time they get to eat meat at least. Likewise with the refreshments we put on for the women's club held there every Mondays. Cindy estimates it costs about 30 GBP [60 AU$, 50 US$] / week in food alone- anyone willing to sponsor that can contact her direct at cindyheaster@gmail.com . The meetings are going really well. After the breaking of bread service, there's the meal, and then we do a Bible study on the readings from the "Bible Companion" and discuss questions. The group's getting bigger by the week it seems, and lots of good friendships developing.
We're getting more and more visitors, and many can't afford to buy a Bible- so we're actually out of Russian and Latvian Bibles at the moment. Latvian Bibles are quite expensive because it's a small language and not so many are published. Both Russian and Latvian Bibles can be purchased online- we assure you there are a lot of eager recipients. Readers are welcome to purchase however many they can online and get them shipped direct to us at: Sindija Histere, a.k. 90, Riga LV-1007 LATVIA. We also have Sunday School activities. There have recently been published some excellent materials in Latvian for primary age children, the workbooks are for sale in the Christian bookshop in Riga but are quite expensive. To get sets of materials as we'd like would cost about 80 LVL / 160 US$.
We're also continuing to minister to the various needy brothers and sisters whom we've mentioned in previous Carelinks. Dear brother Leonid continues to hang in there despite so many difficulties. We also are getting folk from the women's shelter coming along. They not only have a meal with us but seriously read the Bible with us by the "Bible Companion" planner and are getting more and more familiar with Scripture. The blue booklet in the photo is the Russian edition of the Bible Companion. Note their bags- they can't leave anything at the shelters, so have to take their belongings with them in the day time.
With love from your brothers and sisters of Carelinks