Better

Thank you for your prayers for our grandson John David with Covid. He is much better and has just received a negative test back. He just feels tired and weak now.

Our travelling grandson Arthur in Germany has been to a concert by the singer from New Zealand called Lorde. He had booked his place for this online. I looked up Lorde on Google as I had never heard of her! She has a nice voice and sings good songs which I can understand. 😃

We are very grateful for those who have contributed to our airfares for our trip to Europe in the autumn. Airfares are now very high from Brazil to Europe. TAP is clearly making up for all the money lost in the pandemic! 25% of the total cost has thus far been covered by designated gifts. May God bless you. 

We are very sad about the awful state of the young man on drugs from our Patos church. He has gone right back into drugs and booze this week in the St John's festival. Please pray for him. It is heartbreaking to see him like this.

Arthur

Our 20 year old grandson Arthur has left this week for a 3-week tour of Europe going to Germany, England, Holland, Italy and France. All this is entirely financed from his two part-time jobs which he does on top of his university course to be a lawyer. It amazes me how he does it. He saves everything, gets the cheapest flights available and uses air miles. May God care for him in this further adventure. This is his second such trip to Europe as well as a trip abroad in South America.

Please also pray for another 20 year old grandson John David who is down ill with Covid. He is most unwell. 

I received the above badge for Green Pastures from the Christian environmental agency A Rocha. We share the same vision which is to care for God's creation.

Our 20 year old grandson Arthur is in Berlin via Lisbon and Madrid. He has just sent us photos on a lovely sunny day.

Bacon sandwiches

I am reading another book called 'Bacon sandwiches and salvation' by Adrian Plass. I am experimenting reading it on Kindle which belongs to Louisa. The book is good to relax with and is full of corny jokes with Christian connections like: What is doctrine? Answer: It's what they do up at the health centre. The book has some serious Christian content too.

This week in Patos is the big St John's festival and Patos has been bubbling with excitement for days now. Every night of the week there are free very late night shows held in an open area near the centre of Patos. The shows go on for most of the night every night. Evangelical Christians do not take part in the festival. 

Over the coming weekend (24th to 26th) we will be holding a youth camp at Green Pastures with between 80 and 100 people taking part. Please pray for this event.

Sunday's service went off fine with Sunday school for all ages in the morning and the preaching of God's word at night. The children's slot at night was beautiful with them singing a lovely song. 

Cocaine

Liz and I have had a long meeting with a young man from the church. It was a session of counselling, listening and prayer. This young man, whom I will not name, has been addicted to the drug Cocaine since last year. He went all through his story with us telling us how he turned to drink upon the death of his mother and this eventually led to illegal drugs. His addiction started when he lived on the coast and he came to our church at the end of last year. Please pray for this young man. 

We have now booked our flights to Europe in the autumn. God willing we will leave Brazil on September 2nd. We will arrive in Zurich via Lisbon on the afternoon of September 3rd. We will fly to London on September 10th. Our return flights to Brazil are booked for November 2nd. Please pray for our travels and pray for a refreshing time in Switzerland and the UK. 

I guided another school year round the Green Pastures nature trails on Friday. This time it was the Cristo Rei school run by Roman Catholic nuns which is the school Liz once went to and which our granddaughter Alice now goes to. The students were exceptionally polite and well behaved. It is always a joy to influence young people to appreciate God's creation and to care for it.

Our grandson John David has just gone down with Covid. Please pray for him and us all at this time. He is studying to be a medical doctor in João Pessoa but came to Patos yesterday. He has tested positive for Covid today. 

Help

On Tuesday Liz and I went to visit one of our senior ladies called Socorro Help! She is extremely lonely and wanted to tell us about all her family problems. We patiently listened to her for an hour. Such meetings remind us of Eleanor Rigby's "all the lonely people". She was like a different person after we listened to her, gave her some advice and had a time of prayer with her. Bless her heart!

I have been doing a lot of administrative work this week and have had important discussions with Pastor Umbirajara in João Pessoa.

Liz and I have been dealing with some problems which have arisen with the Patos worship group. 

A Guardian journalist called Dom Phillips has been murdered in the Amazon region and his body was cut up in pieces. He and a Brazilian were targeted as they were investigating corruption, deforestation and things being done against indigenous indians in the area. The Brazilian was killed as well. President Bolsonaro has insinuated his support for those who ordered the killings. President Bolsonaro said yesterday that "Jesus Christ only didn't have a gun because they weren't available at the time". How Christians can vote for this man is beyond me!

Fera School

On Monday I was the guide to the 45 Year Five students of the Fera School at Green Pastures. I was up at 6 am and the trail started at 8:30 and lasted for 2 hours. I led the students round the trails and talked to them about the different trees, plants, birds and animals in a place which is totally dedicated to preservation. I told the students how I first got my love for nature from my parents and in year one at Oxford Gardens Primary School where we used to hear a nature programme on the BBC every Friday afternoon. The idea of these school trips is to awaken interest in God's creation amongst children. It was amazing how quickly they tired today on our walk. Children just don't seem used to physical exercise any more.

Danrlei is 15 and the son of the Patos church firefighter. He got his parents to take him up the mountain to our Teixeira church as he wanted to officially ask the hand in courtship of the local pastor's daughter (also 15) called Emmily. All went off well so we now have another happy couple! All this happened on Saint Anthony's Day which is our equivalent of Valentine's Day.

Green Pastures service

On Saturday night I led the service at Green Pastures for the local farm workers and it went well though numbers were down. Louisa led the worship accompanied by Rogaciano. Lindinalva sang a solo, Chico brought a short word of greeting and Rafael preached the Word. 

Liz and I had a good heart to heart talk to the young woman in our church who had expressed homosexual tendencies. She confessed her sin and asked for forgiveness in tears. We explained to her the Biblical position on the matter and we had a time of prayer with her. It was a lovely meeting. It makes such a difference when people are ready and willing to submit to God's word.

Last night I led the main service of the week and we had Pastor Ângelo as a visiting speaker. He is a very good preacher. He is the pastor that resigned from our Soledade church and he is without a church at the moment.