We have now seen the number of people who have made commitments to Jesus Christ, as a result of the annual 10-day Evangelistic outreach at Ibiara, rise to 20. This is really encouraging. Of course only time will tell, in the follow-up, as to how many people will stand firm and truly be converted, but the signs are promising. Please pray. We carefully monitor all decisions between now and May when we have our annual General Conference. People are of course visited etc. as appropriate.
I have just finished reading "The Kingdom of Jesus" written by Forster. It's alright, but not a book I would recommend. Other books I've read by him have been much better, but they were written in partnership with others. This reads like a copy of his preaching, without a partner, and you sort of have to stick at it to get through it. He has some good insights into the whole concept of the Kingdom of God/Heaven and the Son of Man.
Thursday, 16 January 2020
Wednesday, 15 January 2020
6 Decisions for Christ at Outreach
Our annual 10-day evangelistic outreach, this year with a team of 80, is now on day 6 at Ibiara (155 km west of Patos) and there have been 6 decisions of commitment to Christ thus far. We praise God for the good spirit and progress.
It is not easy for the teams at these events as all take their own thin roll-up mattresses and sleep on the floor of a loaned school because January is holiday time for the schools here. The toilet and shower facilities are very poor too at these government schools. Quite disgraceful to be honest! So please pray for them!
Most mornings the routine is prayer and Bible meditation, with the exception of Monday as it was market day so the team hit the market with the Gospel early. In the afternoons door-to-door personal evangelism is done 2 by 2 so that the entire town will be reached during the outreach.
In the evenings street services are held with praise, drama and preaching of the Gospel. My night to preach is always on the final Saturday. The street services are dynamic so as to attract and keep a crowd.
It is not easy for the teams at these events as all take their own thin roll-up mattresses and sleep on the floor of a loaned school because January is holiday time for the schools here. The toilet and shower facilities are very poor too at these government schools. Quite disgraceful to be honest! So please pray for them!
Most mornings the routine is prayer and Bible meditation, with the exception of Monday as it was market day so the team hit the market with the Gospel early. In the afternoons door-to-door personal evangelism is done 2 by 2 so that the entire town will be reached during the outreach.
In the evenings street services are held with praise, drama and preaching of the Gospel. My night to preach is always on the final Saturday. The street services are dynamic so as to attract and keep a crowd.
Monday, 13 January 2020
Marching on in 2020!
Liz and I praise God for the 48 years we have had, to date, serving the Lord in the interior of northeast Brazil, and for the health and strength, both physical and spiritual, that we have to continue this work with great joy and pleasure for His glory.
We are the longest serving missionaries EAB has had and it is a privilege to be at the hub of Mission activities, in churches and projects, to this day. Whilst we have health and strength our pleasure is to serve the Lord as we are doing. As we compare ourselves with three of the Democratic candidates vying to be the president of the USA this year, which is a pretty demanding job, we feel youngsters!
Thus we ask you to especially pray for us and support us in this exciting period of ministry that we are involved in for God. We are leaders and coordinators of 88 churches, (small, medium and large) & multiple community projects to express God's love including rural community projects building underground dams, drilling wells, setting up market gardens, bee keeping for honey and goat rearing. All such projects always aim to help the poor help themselves and not be simply paternalistic hand-out people. We teach, behind all this, how such community development must be done in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, backed up by our Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre which is a living example of what we preach. (Carnival Camp there from February 22-26 would welcome help to get poor families there @ £30 per person for the 5 days)
In other fields of the work we run many small Action schools for those in extreme poverty, empower women to defend their rights, combat domestic violence and generate income by training them to make handicraft (Desert Flower Project), run a Christian Care Centre where a dentist treats the poor (principally children), the deaf are blessed and our seniors too. Our food bank is run here as well, for those in emergency need.
We manage to do so much because we are "team people". That is, we enjoy working in and with teams. Our work needs to be understood as a series of multiple interlinked circles (teams) which all work together for God and our neighbour. We are leaders of a central team, and each church has a pastor and team of leaders, and all projects are church based and have teams of leaders. Liz and I have the joy of being involved with all these teams and are ultimately leaders of this, working together with this army of Christian workers built up over the years, and above all else, working together with God, and with His people who pray for us and support us, which is you.
So as we have plunged into 2020 we ask you to reinforce your prayers and support for us. The support of us your missionaries is key to these widening circles of Christian outreach and ministry. The core general fund of our Mission contributes to the entire work in terms of churches, leadership training and social action projects. We are not just leading a secular charity! We are leading a branch of God's church in a dry, barren and very needy part of Brazil which has in recent years seen much confusion, added to the religious mix, with abhorrent prosperity theology teaching.
We march on in 2020 on our knees! We march on proclaiming the fantastic good news of Jesus! We march on speaking out for the voiceless and loving the unloved because that's just how Jesus loved us!
We count on your prayers! We count on your support! All is for the glory of God!
We are the longest serving missionaries EAB has had and it is a privilege to be at the hub of Mission activities, in churches and projects, to this day. Whilst we have health and strength our pleasure is to serve the Lord as we are doing. As we compare ourselves with three of the Democratic candidates vying to be the president of the USA this year, which is a pretty demanding job, we feel youngsters!
Thus we ask you to especially pray for us and support us in this exciting period of ministry that we are involved in for God. We are leaders and coordinators of 88 churches, (small, medium and large) & multiple community projects to express God's love including rural community projects building underground dams, drilling wells, setting up market gardens, bee keeping for honey and goat rearing. All such projects always aim to help the poor help themselves and not be simply paternalistic hand-out people. We teach, behind all this, how such community development must be done in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, backed up by our Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre which is a living example of what we preach. (Carnival Camp there from February 22-26 would welcome help to get poor families there @ £30 per person for the 5 days)
In other fields of the work we run many small Action schools for those in extreme poverty, empower women to defend their rights, combat domestic violence and generate income by training them to make handicraft (Desert Flower Project), run a Christian Care Centre where a dentist treats the poor (principally children), the deaf are blessed and our seniors too. Our food bank is run here as well, for those in emergency need.
We manage to do so much because we are "team people". That is, we enjoy working in and with teams. Our work needs to be understood as a series of multiple interlinked circles (teams) which all work together for God and our neighbour. We are leaders of a central team, and each church has a pastor and team of leaders, and all projects are church based and have teams of leaders. Liz and I have the joy of being involved with all these teams and are ultimately leaders of this, working together with this army of Christian workers built up over the years, and above all else, working together with God, and with His people who pray for us and support us, which is you.
So as we have plunged into 2020 we ask you to reinforce your prayers and support for us. The support of us your missionaries is key to these widening circles of Christian outreach and ministry. The core general fund of our Mission contributes to the entire work in terms of churches, leadership training and social action projects. We are not just leading a secular charity! We are leading a branch of God's church in a dry, barren and very needy part of Brazil which has in recent years seen much confusion, added to the religious mix, with abhorrent prosperity theology teaching.
We march on in 2020 on our knees! We march on proclaiming the fantastic good news of Jesus! We march on speaking out for the voiceless and loving the unloved because that's just how Jesus loved us!
We count on your prayers! We count on your support! All is for the glory of God!
10-day Outreach - day 3
10-day Evangelistic Outreach - Day 3 (Sunday) started with morning prayer & Bible meditations, as we do every day.
The afternoon involved door-to-door personal evangelism in pairs as we do every afternoon. Every house in the town of Ibiara will be evangelized by our 80 strong team this week. Please pray!
Sunday, 12 January 2020
Blessed are the Meek
I will be off to the Patos church is an hour's time to preach my third sermon in my series on the Beatitudes. This time it is verse 5: "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth". Many are away as January is holiday month (like August is in the UK) but we pray God will bless. Sacha will be leading the praise as Philip is one of those away!
Day 2 of Outreach
Day 2 of the 10-day Evangelistic Outreach at Ibiara was dedicated to the training in evangelism of the team, by young Pastor Rafael who is an excellent evangelist, prior to the opening street service at night. Please pray
Gleydice Belchior preached the Gospel in the opening street service in the Ibiara town square this Saturday night, on Day 2 of our annual evangelistic outreach. Please pray 🙏
Saturday, 11 January 2020
10-day Outreach - day 1
Friday (10th) was day 1 of our annual 10-day evangelistic outreach, this year at Ibiara. Team members travelled to Ibiara during the day and had their inaugural start-up meeting under the stars in the school where the team is based, and where they all sleep on the floor, eat, and have pretty basic toilet/shower facilities. Please pray! 🙏
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