New Reality

Our Patos church has fully adapted to the new pandemic reality and in fact we are doing more now and reaching more people that even before. 

To start with - every day we have the EAB/ACEV 5 minute slot posted at Midday and remaining on ACEV Patos's Facebook page for 24 hours. This is done by church members who record 5 minute Bible reflections or testimonies and send them to me for checking. I then pass them onto our internet man who posts them. It is a lovely way to involve the church at large. So far 15 are taking part and it's being a blessing.

Tonight being Tuesday we have two online groups in action. First we have the "knees to the ground" prayer meeting from 7 pm onwards. Then we have the Men's Fellowship which kicks off at 7.30 pm. Both these meetings use Google Meet and overlap time wise.

Then the Patos youth start a Conference tonight at 7.30 pm going through each evening to Saturday and open to the youth from all our churches. They will have different speakers and singers every evening. 

I have prepared my sermon for Sunday and I have now been working on the Bible study for this Thursday on Acts 6 and 7. I do my Bible studies in relaxed read and chat along style. i.e. I read a bit and then chat about it. Hence my diagnosis is that chapter 6 will be good but chapter 7 will be stodgy. I value your prayers. 

Two and a half miles

I walked two and a half miles at Green Pastures this morning. I also completed my sermon preparation for next Sunday's communion service. I will preach on Philippians 1:12-26. 

A fireman from the church released an Armadillo at Green Pastures this afternoon. Apparently a workmate had captured it to eat but our brother talked him out of it. 

It was nice to receive photos today from a man at the ex-slave community of Fonseca whose market garden is going well producing lettuce, caliandra and cabbage. 

Good service

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Last night's service was excellent. I preached on Philippians 1:8-11 and remarked how interesting and edifying it is to read and study Paul's and Jesus' prayers. I challenged the churches to try writing their prayers sometimes as Paul did. We can pray silently, speaking or writing. They are all ways of communicating with God. 

It is fascinating how this pandemic has many of our churches tuning in to our main Sunday service. Our churches at Imaculada, São Mamede, Juru, Flores, Princesa Isabel, Teixeira and Caroá were all tuned in last night as well as Patos of course. Philip and Louisa do the praise and worship and I lead and preach. We use StreamYard online.

Elder Dies

Otávio Oliveira was an elder in our first church at Princesa Isabel (we have two churches in the town) and he went down ill with Covid 19 a few weeks ago. He went to be with the Lord yesterday and is being buried this morning. Please pray for the family and church. Otávio was the father of two of our pastors: Robério and Betinho. 

History

I am taking the opportunity which lockdown gives me to write the history of ACEV/EAB in Portuguese for the first time. I have covered 1938 to 1983 to date. It is a massive job but so important now and for future generations. The challenge is that the work has grown a lot so in the more recent decades there are more churches to write about. 

Yesterday, as always on Friday, we had an online meeting for the seniors which went very well. Tonight the youth have their meeting. Next week the youth will have a special online conference with invited speakers from Rio de Janeiro and Campina Grande. It truly is wonderful. 

Bible Study

I have just given the Bible study via Google Meet. We covered the last part of Acts 4 and all of Acts 5. It went well despite it not being the easiest of passages to do. 

Philip is now singing all the old hymns for the church folk. He did one two and half hour session last week and it was very popular so he's doing another one tonight. 

3 Miles

I walked for about 3 miles on Saturday and again yesterday. It's good to keep fit! I have prepared my sermon for next Sunday on Paul's prayer in Philippians 1 and prepared for the next Bible Study. 

Sunday's service went well as did the Men's Fellowship last night. Tonight is the Women's Fellowship and tomorrow I give the Bible Study on Acts 5 as we travel through the book of Acts. This will be followed by a 'Virtual Serenade' when Philip attends requests for all the old hymns. We have totally adapted to the 'new normal' and find the church even more alive and active than in the 'old normal'!

The Covid virus situation here is increasingly bad with over 50,000 deaths and numbers rising. The problem is when you have a president who refuses to take it seriously, and just like in the USA gives a terrible example. The country has no leadership. It's not surprising that the USA and Brazil are in first and second place in the Covid statistics with Brazil apparently striving to take first 'worse' place! May God have mercy on us and help us!  Whereas in the UK you are easing lockdown as numbers fall, here they are easing restrictions whilst numbers rise. This has got to be wrong! Please pray.

Please pray for us and all our family. Please pray too for some from our churches that have got the virus. 

Bible Study

I conducted the mid-week Bible Study last night online via Google Meet and 28 took part. It went very well covering Acts 3 and most of chapter 4. 

I am working on the history of the churches and projects here in Portuguese for a Brazilian audience. I am approaching the place I already wrote about and published in English. I have now covered from 1938 to 1975 but it is not simply a case of translating from English to Portuguese what I had previously written  because Brazilian readers will be interested in different details and will not be interested in many details already published in the English version. I plan to press on in Portuguese beyond the first 40 years. 

Pressing on

Sunday's service went great and now includes a sign-language interpreter much to the joy of the deaf fellowship folk. It was the second week we used StreamYard which is excellent and means we broadcast live both on Facebook and YouTube. 

I walked yesterday at Green Pastures and have been preparing for the Bible study this Thursday. I am prepared to cover Acts 3 and 4, but I am not sure how much I will cover as when it is in ad lib style it is difficult to predict. People may ask questions etc. There's a lot of good stuff to discuss in these two chapters.

Our elder at the Princesa Isabel church remains seriously ill in ICU with Covid-19. Our leader at São Vicente do Seridó remains in need of prayer for extreme anxiety. Please pray. 

Bible Study

Last night's Bible study was very good with 28 taking part via Google Meet. We covered Acts 2:14-47. The study flowed really nicely for over an hour. 

We continue to value your prayers for our church elder at Princesa Isabel Otávio who is in intensive care with the new Coronavirus. We also ask you to pray for Nenem who leads the São Vicente do Seridó church as she has severe anxiety. 

I have prepared my message for this Sunday and will preach on 1 John 2:1-10 with the title: "Walk as Jesus Walked!" I have been working this afternoon on some project guidelines we are drawing up which cover child safety in our projects + environment guidelines etc. The work has involved project leaders and the senior leadership team of 11 people - 9 men and 2 women. 

Yesterday I walked 5,7 km at Green Pastures. It's wonderful that we have this secluded spot to exercise in amidst these difficult times. The highlight of the walk was to see for a long time a large middle aged Iguana. It's a prehistoric looking Lizard about 70 cm long. 

EAB Prayer Warriors Group

EAB has a new group which unites in prayer, as many evenings as possible, for half and hour, to pray for us and EAB in general. The group's coordinator is Joy Levermore at levermorejoy@gmail.com

If you would like to join the group please email Joy. We would love this. We have a prayer warriors group on Messenger with up to date prayer requests.

Before I came to Brazil I used to go to such a meeting at the Tuckers house in Southampton. Then there was another group led by Mary Dyer. So it's great to have another EAB prayer group organized. Please link up with it if you can. 

Men's Fellowship

There were 18 in our Men's Fellowship meeting tonight and I gave a short Bible study for the group on 2 Timothy 2:15. It was held online via Google Meet. It was a really blessed meeting. PTL!

Sunday even better

This Sunday's service was even better than previous weeks because we stitched to using a software called StreamYard  which worked great. Whereas previously I did my part and then Philip did his, with StreamYard Philip and I were able to broadcast simultaneously. The service was wonderful! It was a real blessing to everyone including us. 

We conducted communion on line and we we focused on the theme of caring for creation in the overall service. It was a real blessing. 

Tonight the men's fellowship will be online as well, joining the long list of internet activities the church already carries out. 

We value your prayers for us and the ongoing work here.