Action Schools

 We have received photos from our Action Schools at Flores, Caroá and Matureia showing the joy of poor children receiving food hampers for their families together with hygiene kits and lessons for the children to do at home in the light of the pandemic.

I have been talking to Pastor Betinho at Ibiara about the deaconess Samara there who attempted suicide. I am glad to report that she is much better and steadily improving. She has asked forgiveness for what she did but said everything had got on top of her so much. She now asks for the pastor and others from the church to come and have little services at her home and she sings with them. She is being given support from a psychiatrist too so we have much to thank God for.

Our EAB/ACEV pastor Umbirajara, who has Covid in João Pessoa, still stands in need of our prayers. He continues with a high temperature, has some discomfort with breathing and has viral pneumonia affecting 25% of his lungs.

We have had a little more rain with 5 mm on Monday and 8 mm on Tuesday so we are now up to a total of 307 mm this year. Please pray for some big heavy rains for us at Green Pastures.

Brazil finds itself amidst great political tension because President Bolsonaro sacked the Minister of Defense who is an army General. He sacked him because he rightly refused to attack the High Court over a recent decision which the president didn't like. The general also refused to attack lockdown which the crazy president is also against. So once Bolsonaro sacked the Minister of Defense the chiefs of the army, navy and airforce all resigned in solidarity with the Minister of Defense. This news is the first item of news on the BBC World News today. Please pray for Brazil.

Poetess

Last night's online service in Patos went off very well despite an early problem with the transmission caused by the web camera jamming. This meant that we could hear Sacha singing but the visual part was frozen. I had to keep talking whilst the problem was fixed by our technical man Ray. It was funny because people were asking me to sing whilst we waited! Anyway once this problem was sorted the service went off fine without a hitch.

I noticed during the service that amongst the many people watching was the Poetess Zenilda Lua who lives at São José dos Campos in the State of São Paulo which is over 1,600 miles away from Patos. She is a lovely Christian lady with whom I have a partnership. I provide a nature photograph from Green Pastures and Zenilda writes a poem to go with it and our work is published from time to time in a Brazilian Christian magazine. So towards the end of the service last night I invited Zenilda to write and say a poem on Easter Sunday which she has agreed to do. This will be a nice change and I am sure it will be a real blessing to hear Zenilda's resurrection poem.

We have had some rain over the weekend at Green Pastures. On Saturday night it rained 30 mm and on Sunday night it rained 14 mm so this takes us up to 294 mm this year. This means we have about 700 mm to go! Please keep praying.

This morning we have helped another extremely poor family who were going hungry at Passagem, which is a village about 20 miles from Patos where we have a little church. The situation was so desperate that we gave them 2 food hampers plus a whole lot of fresh fruit and vegetables.    

Another Toilet

 This week we built another toilet/shower unit at the Barra de Oitis Village in Diamante County. This time it was built in the back garden of Katiana Lucas Ferreira's house where she lives with her husband and two sons. The nice thing was the fact that her husband has just got back from the interior of the State of São Paulo where he had had to go to find work picking oranges. He got back to the nice surprise of a toilet/shower unit being built at his house. It is quite a revolution because it's the first time this family has had a toilet or shower in their lives.

Please pray for EAB/ACEV pastor Umbirajara who is the senior pastor at our first João Pessoa church. His illness with Covid is worse with his blood oxygen level down to 90. He is coughing a lot and will have a CT scan of the chest tomorrow. 

I have spoken to Pastor Francinaldo at Manaíra this morning who told me that 85 year old Brother Silvino is home from hospital a lot better than he was. Thank you for praying.

I am all ready to lead our main service of the week tonight at 6.30 pm. As the clocks have been put forward in the UK it may lower our UK audience in the light of a 10.30 pm start! Sacha will be doing the praise and worship and our assistant pastor Rafael will preach. I will be preaching next week which will be Easter Sunday. 

Action School

 Liz and I have just had an online meeting with the Patos Action School's headteacher Gerlânia which lasted one and a quarter hours. It was an excellent meeting. As I said some months back Gerlânia had told us she felt it was time for her to move on to different work and we were sad because she is so good. What we agreed today was that we will try and put in place to help Gerlânia a deputy headteacher so as to ease the load. We have a suitable person from our church in mind called Iris and we will now approach her to see if she would like the job. In this way we hope that Gerlânia will stay with us, but if she doesn't we will have someone properly trained to do the job. Please pray about this matter which is very important.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Green Pastures for a walk, and to check things over, but we ended up not walking as it started to rain and rained 14 mm taking our total this year to 250 mm. It has rained again today but I don't know how much.

I laughed yesterday because the British press was making quite a lot of song and dance because a number of the very large bird called the Greater Rhea were circulating in Hertfordshire. These birds are native to Brazil so I agree that they shouldn't be in England but they are harmless birds who run away from human beings. We had a pair of the Greater Rhea at Green Pastures for over a year until they moved on elsewhere.

Please pray for our Pastor Umbirajara in João Pessoa who today is on day 6 of Covid and he has a high temperature. 

Deborah

 Our eldest daughter Deborah had her birthday yesterday so Liz cooked her lunch for her and her sons and we took it to them. Whereas we would have had a meal together in normal times we had to take it to her house yesterday duly masked!

It looked good for rain yesterday with lovely dark clouds, but sadly again it just promised rain which didn't fall. I was talking to Valdemar this morning at Caroá and there they have had 425 mm of rain, whereas we have only had 236 mm at Green Pastures! Difficult times.

Dr. Izar Aximoff is a post-PhD biologist in Rio de Janeiro and he has contacted me proposing that he write a scientific article on the Green Pasture mammals which I have accepted. We have now started work together on this. It will be produced in both Portuguese and English so I'll let you know when it's available.

Last night's Bible Study in the book of Philippians had just over 20 taking part including Philip from the UK. We use Google Meet for such meetings and all went very well.

Prison uprising

 Last night there was a big rebellion by the prisoners in the Patos Men's Jail. They set fire to mattresses, smashed things and even destroyed a wall. The police only restored order after midnight. These uprisings often are started so that one criminal faction or gang can get at a rival faction and kill their enemies. Thankfully nobody was killed last night.

Yesterday my son-in-law Hutan's Uncle Zé Gomes was released from hospital finally free from Covid. Hutan thanks everyone for their prayers. Please pray for Zé Gomes's wife who is now in hospital. Please also pray for another of our pastors who has gone down with Covid. He is Pastor Umbirajara who is the senior pastor of our first church in João Pessoa.

Yesterday afternoon it rained 12 mm (half an inch) at Green Pastures which is better than nothing, but we desperately need some big rains. One of our two Bushnell Camera Traps at Green Pastures has just again registered the presence of two Jaguarundi wild cats which are about double the size of a large domestic cat. Jaguarundi cats are either a reddish rust colour, as these registered were, or greyish/blueish and we see both colours at Green Pastures from time to time. They hunt the wild guinea pigs and a variety of lizards that we have in abundance.

Vaccine

This morning Liz and I had our first dose of Covid vaccine with the second dose due on the 20th of April. The vaccine is the Chinese Coronovac which is one of the two vaccines being used in Brazil at the moment. The Coronovac is made in partnership with the Brazilian organization Butantan. We had finally received the word that the days for our age group's vaccination at our local public health office would be today and tomorrow so our youngest daughter Sacha went to the office early this morning and got us tickets numbers 57 and 58. In view of the fact that the vaccination system was not well organized like in the UK we asked to be vaccinated in our jeep when our time came so as to avoid the crowd at the health office. All worked to plan and we are very happy to have finally got through round one of our vaccinations.

Last night we had a good amount of rain in parts of Patos (an average of about 40 mm) but sadly it didn't rain at all at Green Pastures. We were very disappointed. Please keep praying for rain.

Yesterday I spent many hours preparing a sermon on 'the fear of the Lord' from Proverbs 9:10 - "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom".

I am glad to report that Deaconess Samara is improving after her sad suicide attempt. Our local pastor Betinho and his wife Maciene are doing a great job giving her spiritual support at this critical recovery time. Please do keep praying for Samara.  

Mandioca Pancakes

 Liz and I went for a walk at Green Pastures yesterday afternoon although Liz only went as far as the dam because her foot is still a bit dodgy after her slip a few weeks back. I walked as usual up to the lake which is totally dry waiting for rain. We saw a fascinating nest of a Long-billed Wren made in the doorway of the large camp kitchen! They have hatched 3 babies that are still without feathers. We also saw a Rufous-bellied Thrush on her nest on top of the wooden pillar in front of Deborah's room.

When we got back from our walk we had showers and then ate savory Mandioca pancakes with scrambles eggs and melted cheese rolled inside. This was followed by a sweet of Avocado Pear. If that doesn't make your mouth water I give up!

The rainy season continues to be very weak. We had 11 mm on Sunday night and 3 mm last night so we have only had 224 mm on the 23rd of March. Normally in a good rainy season we would be at about 450 to 500 mm by the end of March so please pray. Our lake is bone dry as is the stream which should be flowing through Green Pastures at this time of year. In a good year water would be rushing down the stream and cascading over our little dam at Easter so that we can relax and lay down at the dam letting the water flow over us. It is very relaxing. However this year there is no water at all.  

Bristol, Danbury & Patos

 Today I have travelled virtually a lot. This morning I took part, together with Liz, in the service at the Bristol Ivy Church. This afternoon I took part in a meeting of the Danbury Mission in Essex. Now I have just finished leading the service here in Patos and in all of it we felt the blessing of God.

Yesterday I received messages of thanks from the nuns who I spoke to. I was told that I had spoken to nuns from the states of Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and Alagoas. Praise God for every door that he opens to us in ministry.

I sent a message to the Governor of our state of Paraíba to encourage him for his good work in trying to contain the pandemic. I felt I should publicly take a stand with him for good in the light of the opposition he is facing from President Bolsonaro who just makes fun of it and say lockdowns are a waste of time. I know the Governor received my message but I also made it public on Facebook and Twitter. Now you should see the reaction to my message! On one hand people applaud but on the other hand people spew out all sorts of aggressive insults because they are fanatical supporters of President Bolsonaro. Brazil is in a terrible mess.

Please pray for 2 men from the Patos church who have gone down ill with Covid. They are Clayton and Ernane. 

I think there is the possibility of Liz and I receiving a first dose of vaccine in the next one or two weeks. I estimate this by the age groups they are now nearing and the amount of vaccines being sent to our state. The vaccine will either be from China or from the UK as these are the two being used so far here.

Pastors

 My role in the work of God in northeast Brazil is as chairman of EAB/ACEV's 11 person leadership team. The team is elected by all our church leaders every 4 years and it has 9 men and 2 women in the team which includes Liz. Hence one of my important tasks in difficult times like these is to support our pastors around our over 80 churches and advise them as necessary. Yesterday I chatted a lot to one such pastor, who will have to be nameless, as he shared with me about being in debt as his church isn't keeping up with his monthly payments from which he lives off. He said that no matter how much he preaches about tithes and offerings it doesn't seem to change the situation! So I agreed to help him over the next 6 months or so which will give him breathing space to sort this out, but his church will not know we are helping him otherwise they might never get their act together!

I also had good talks yesterday with pastor Iremar, who leads the Juá church, and we discussed how the church is going etc. I also had talks with pastor Wostenes. 

I have now finished the year 2011 for my book on the history of the work here, so that's 7 years to go. The book is in Portuguese for a Brazilian readership and will cover the first 80 years from 1938 to 2018. It will be something very important for future generations in the EAB/ACEV churches and in Bible Colleges.

Yesterday I had another good walk at Green Pastures and filmed a nice Tarantula spider in the bargain. We had a light shower (2 mm) of rain before we got there. The rain situation here gets worse and worse. Please pray.

Where's the rain?

 The rain situation here is very serious. I know it is difficult for people in the UK to understand but in the interior of northeastern Brazil the rain comes in one period and that's your lot till the following year. So the fact that it's not raining at all in March is very worrying as this is our main month for rain in the rainy season. We need some nights of very heavy rain between now and the end of April or we will be in the middle of a very bad drought. Please pray for rain!

I am very glad to tell you that Pastor Sandro of the Patos Congregational church, together with his wife and daughter, have all come through Covid and been given the all clear. He sent me a lovely message thanking for all our prayers so I pass on the thanks to all of the EAB prayer team.

Hutan is our son-in-law and married to our daughter Lynn. He has asked prayer for his Uncle Zé Gomes and his Aunt Edizia who have both gone down with Covid in João Pessoa so please add them to your prayer list. It is lovely that Hutan has asked prayer in this way as he is a staunch Roman Catholic.

Toilet/Shower

 Our projects team is at Barra de Oitis village in Diamante County monitoring the different projects EAB is carrying out there for the poor. I have just posted photos of Francisco de Assis Bezerra, Maria de Fátima Lucas and their two children who are just getting their first toilet at their house in their lives together with a shower. The circular bathroom with a two and a half metre diameter has been built with a water tank on top and it now just needs the finishing touches together with a cope of paint. Then the cess pits will be built too. The family is very happy. Thank you for supporting EAB.

I am afraid I have to ask you for prayer for more Covid cases here. The situation is desperate. I today received prayer requests from 5 more people with 3 in Patos and 2 in João Pessoa. All 5 have asked not to be named so I will of course respect their requests. So please just pray for these 5.

Critical situation

Brazil is in a critical public health meltdown and there are at this time in our State of Paraíba 70 people with serious Covid-19 conditions who are in a queue for a hospital bed or intensive care. In the city of Porto Alegre in the south if somebody dies from your family you will have to queue for 5 hours to get a death certificate to be able to proceed to the burial.

This morning the Patos psychologist Suênia da Costa, aged 50, died with Covid. Liz and I were interviewed by her on FM radio in 2018 about our successful long lasting marriage. She was a lovely person. We are all saddened by the news. It is very clear that younger and younger people are dying in the pandemic as 2 other women in their 40s died in Patos over the weekend. So please do continue to pray for us and the overall dire situation in Brazil. The State of Paraíba Governor is doing what he can to get people to stay at home as much as possible and has rightly imposed a curfew every night. However at the same time you hear President Bolsonaro saying that lockdowns are a load of rubbish and encouraging his fanatical followers to resist!

Please add to your prayer list Sister França of our Juazeirinho church who is in hospital with Covid in intensive care. Brother Silvino from our Manaíra church continues in intensive care.

Sunday Service

I have just finished leading our Sunday communion service online. Our main service of the week is always on Sunday night from 6:30 pm to 8 pm. My granddaughter Louisa led the praise and worship tonight and our assistant pastor Rafael preached about the resurrection of Jesus. It was a lovely service.

We again ask you to pray for rain as our rainy season is half over and very little rain has fallen to date. Last night we had a shower in Patos and we held our breath hoping it would keep raining, but it didn't. At Green Pastures we didn't even get a shower. However last week we had a strong wind at Green Pastures which blew down a very big Prosopis Juliflora tree so we had to cut off all the branches and clear up the mess. The trunk is now a bench for the camps.

I have just heard that in some cities in Brazil you now have to queue up to get your loved one's death certificate. There are so many deaths, at over 2,000 a day, that there are queues for death certificates!    

Samara is home

Our dear sister Samara, who sadly attempted suicide, was brought into the Patos General Hospital for further recovery treatment but today her pastor Betinho came and took her home to Ibiara after she was released. I have given quite a bit of advice to the young pastor about supporting the deaconess together with his wife. Please especially pray for Samara at this difficult time.

Yesterday afternoon Liz and I went for our usual walk at Green Pastures and observed the effects of the lack of rainfall this rainy season. We planted melons, water melons and pumpkins but sadly much of them have died owing to the lack of rain. Please pray as this is a very bad rainy season so far.

I have been preparing the online communion service for tomorrow which I will be leading. The preacher will be our assistant pastor Rafael. I also posted on Facebook a photo from our market garden project at Sítio Glória Community in Imaculada County. The photo shows some beautiful lettuces. It reminds me of my Dad's old joke: What do couples most like to eat on their honeymoon? Answer: Lettuce alone! 😂  

Deaconess

 We were greatly saddened last night by the news that Samara, who is a deaconess at the EAB/ACEV Ibiara church, had attempted suicide by cutting her arteries in two places. Thankfully she was rushed to the Conceição hospital in time to save her and she has now been brought to the hospital here in Patos for further repairs. Please pray for Samara. Samara is a nurse and like all nurses has been under tremendous psychological pressure coping with Covid. She has the added worry that she has a serious eyesight problem, which I understand has no cure, so this was also getting her down and playing on her mind. I have been talking to her pastor Betinho and giving him some advice on how to handle this very sad case. The issue of mental health is critical in these times of the Covid pandemic.

Good news now is that our pastor José Vieira and his wife Raimunda in João Pessoa have both been given the all clear after having Covid. They are very grateful to all who prayed for them.

Nun

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from a nun called Sister Aparecida who is the headteacher of a Roman Catholic School run by a convent. Sister Aparecida told me that a network of convents would be having a regional meeting and they would like me to speak to them! I gladly agreed and so today I prepared a message and recorded it on video. Please pray. Such relationships build up over years and we praise God for this open door.

Yesterday was the first day we had over 2,000 covid deaths in 24 hours in Brazil. We had no less than 2,349 deaths! How terribly sad this is but still the national government refuses to act. Our President Bolsonaro is a disaster.

85 year old Silvino from our Manaira church is worse in hospital with Covid at Serra Talhada, I have been told by his pastor Francinaldo today. Please pray. However good news on 40 year old Manassés in João Pessoa is that he has been sent home much better from hospital. Praise God!

Couscous

 Yesterday afternoon Liz and I went to Green Pastures for our usual physical exercise although only I walked the full two miles as Liz has to take it easy on her injured foot. We checked on the work being done there planting trees etc. and all is going well. However we badly need more rain as we are well below average for rainfall in this our rainy season. Please pray. When we got back we had couscous with egg in it for our tea which I love.

We have received good news regarding Manassés who is the man about 40 years old with Covid who used to be a member in our Patos church. He has now been declared out of danger by the doctors. PTL!

Please pray for 85 year old Brother Silvino from Manaíra. He has Covid and has been taken to a hospital in Serra Talhada which is in the state of Pernambuco.

Today our oldest elder in the Patos church has his 89th birthday. Liz and I have spoken to Pedro Guedes on the phone and wished him well.

I am a member of the BBC's Global Minds panel and have just answered one of the surveys we do now and again. I have been part of such BBC panels for a very long time going back to the days when Frank Dyer and I used to listen to the BBC news at 3 pm everyday on short wave radio as this was the time of day for the best reception. Now of course we have access to the BBC World service on TV, computer and mobile phone. How times have changed.

Early morning

Today started first thing with a young man contacting me to talk over an anxiety crisis he feels is affecting him. We had a good chat and I prayed with him. Please pray for him. I can't give his name. I felt our chat helped him which is good. So many people are facing anxiety crises in these difficult times.

Please continue to pray for Pastor Sandro and his wife and daughter, of the Congregational church, who are all ill with Covid-19. Pastor Sandro had a scan yesterday which showed his lungs 40% affected by the disease. Please continue to pray for Manassés in João Pessoa who continues to be in intensive care with Covid though he has slightly improved. Our Pastor José Vieira and his wife Raimunda are improving from Covid. They are also in João Pessoa.

I am doing a lot of work researching and writing the History of the first 80 years of EAB/ACEV which will be something very important for our churches here. I plan to publish the book this year. The book is in Portuguese and written for a Brazilian audience. I have now completed from 1938 to 2009 so I can see the end insight with 2018. 

International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day so I take this opportunity to praise God for all the women who support and work on behalf of EAB and the furtherance of the Gospel in the interior of northeast Brazil. Thanks too to all the women of prayer who faithfully remember us before God's throne. May the Lord bless you all.

Last night's service in Patos went extremely well. PTL! I led the service and I preached on the Kingdom of God as "God reigning" in our lives, family, church and community. I have had a lot of positive feed back so that is good.

This morning I have sent out our latest EAB Diary Update which is a copy of this blog put into one email for those who don't read the blog. If you know of anyone who would like to receive the update then please do send me an email.

Please pray for pastor Sandro and his wife who have gone down ill with Covid-19. He is the pastor of the Congregational church here in Patos. 

Live transmission

Last night the praise and worship group from our first church in Campina Grande, called 'Tenda do Encontro', did a live presentation on YouTube for two and a quarter hours. All went off very nicely.

Another toilet/shower unit at Barra de Oitis village is in the process of being built. I posted photos on Facebook which show the start of the toilet and the cess pits. 

I have some good news regarding answers to prayer. First of all Gideão (Gideon) at Campina Grande thanks everyone for their prayers. He is now at home and much better though he does have some lasting after effects of the Covid-19. Then there is Manassés who is now off the ventilator but still in intensive care. Also our pastor José Vieira and his wife Raimunda are on the mend. So thank you to the prayer team and all who pray for us here.   

ICU

Please pray for the increasingly serious situation with the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil. The World Health Organization made an appeal to Brazil yesterday to take the pandemic seriously but tragically that is exactly what our president Bolsonaro refuses to do. To the contrary he told people to "stop whining" this week at exactly the time that deaths from Covid in Brazil are at an all time high.

Here in Patos all 100% of intensive care beds are full and 80% of Covid wards are full. The situation is extremely serious because whereas most countries, like the UK, are seeing infections and deaths fall in number as a result of lockdowns and vaccinations, the president here says there will never be lockdown as far as he is concerned! The result in Brazil are numbers of cases and deaths soaring to record levels. The Mayor of São Paulo says the president is mad!

Chicken Run

 Aldenora Lucas Ferreira is married to Luciano Alexandre Ferreira and they have 3 children. They live in a mud and sticks house (hut) at Barra de Oitis village in Diamante county. They are thrilled because they have been selected to receive a chicken run in our 2-Wings project. They will receive in their backyard a chicken pen 3 metres x 2.5 metres with wire-netting 1.5 metres high to protect the hens from foxes or wild dogs. At one end of the pen there will be nesting boxes for the egg laying and this part will have a roof on to give shade. When the chicken run is constructed they will receive 7 laying hens duly vaccinated. This project is a great help to poor families as they sell the eggs and thus have increased income to add to the government benefit of 59 pounds per month they at present live/survive off. Such projects help the poor to help themselves and give them pride and dignity in the process.

We have had another 12 mm (half an inch) of rain at Green Pastures taking us up to a total this year of 208 mm (8.6 inches). Please pray for rain for us as we are below average for what we need in the rainy season between now and May. 

Market Gardens

We will be able to soon establish another 3 market gardens for the very poor. The area at the back of people's little houses are securely fenced off to keep all free from invading animals. The people are then given teaching from an expert to teach them to plant vegetables and fruit trees in the most productive way. The project then equips the people with all the gardening tools they need as well as a 2,000 litre water tank, a watering can and shading netting is hung over part of the area for plants that need protection from the sun. Then the people are given a wide range of seeds and seedlings to start their income generating market garden which will greatly boost their income and so help the poor to help themselves with dignity and well being. Please pray for the market gardens project.

Liz has had the mother of Manassés sobbing on the phone this morning because her son, with Covid-19 in João Pessoa, continues intubated in intensive care but shows no signs of improvement. Manassés is about the age of our son Philip. Please pray.   

Pernambuco

 We live and work in the northeastern state of Paraíba which is north of the state of Pernambuco. Our pastor Nemias (Nehemiah) leads the EAB/ACEV church in the town of Flores in Pernambuco state and he told me yesterday that in Pernambuco there is a longer curfew than here now which starts at 8 pm through to 5 am. Then at the weekends nothing is allowed to open (including churches) for the next 2 weeks as the pandemic situation is so catastrophic here. Please pray.

Yesterday Liz and I went for another of our usual walks at Green Pastures but Liz didn't walk too far as she still feels pain in her foot and arms from her tumble last Friday. We checked on the 106 tree seedlings being planted and things look good. We met up with a wild tortoise on the walk which is lovely and something we often see.

We have managed to pay off the rest of our workers' little house at Belém (Bethlehem) village in the county of Tavares so that is good. 

I have been talking to our pastor Maésio up in the mountains at Teixeira and he is overjoyed with the conversion of a man called Odemar who has come from a previous life of drink and drugs. Odemar is now really enthused to serve the Lord and learn about him and has opened up his home to serve as a further point from which to preach the Gospel.

My sister Joy has sorted out the problem of the post office here not sending letters to the UK owing to the pandemic. I sent her the letters by email, to go to the 16 on our snailmail list, and Joy is going to post them in the UK. 

Cookery

I have been discussing with our projects team the continuation of our Desert Flower Project now that Tearfund backing for it has finished. The project is important to be continued as it restores dignity to very poor women and teaches them ways to create their own income. The project's name 'Desert Flower' is very fitting as our aim is to make women flourish in difficult circumstances. An important aspect of this project is teaching women in the field of cookery so as to generate income. The teacher is one of our pastors João George. He is very good. He teaches 10 women in a series of 6 workshops how to bake bread, how to make and ice cakes, how to make the typical tasty savories eaten at parties in Brazil etc. Our difficulty now is to fund these workshops as ingredients for all 10 women makes it expensive at about 170 pounds per workshop. Please pray. The next edition of Desert Flower Cookery workshops is planned to be held at the painfully poor Barra de Oitis village.

Yesterday I prepared my sermon for this coming Sunday when I will both lead the service and preach on the Kingdom of God.

Last night we had another 12 mm (half and inch) of rain at Green Pastures. PTL! It rained for a long time but it was a fine drizzle.    

Prayer

EAB has a prayer team made up of supporters who commit to praying for us and the work of EAB at some time every day. We greatly appreciate this team and all other EAB backers who pray for us because prayer changes things. It is very encouraging for our leaders when we tell them the EAB prayer team is praying for them. We have seen two of our pastors pull through Covid-19 (Wostenes & Jânio at Campina Grande) and now we have a third, José Vieira and his wife Raimunda, (at João Pessoa) down with this awful virus, but they know they are being prayed for by the EAB team every day. So I want to encourage all members of the prayer team. You can see prayer requests in this blog or in the team's group on Messenger. You can also receive prayer request updates from the team's coordinator Joy Levermore by contacting her at levermorejoy@gmail.com . 

We have a group of 16 elderly EAB supporters who receive a monthly postal snailmail update from us as they do not have email. The problem is that since flights between the UK and Brazil have been halted the Brazilian post office refuses to accept our letters. This means we now, on the first day of another month, have the third letter waiting to be sent so we are going to have to find a way round this problem.

We have been keeping careful records of our rainfall at Green Pastures for 21 years. In the first two months of 2021 we received 184 mm so we are 24% down on last year on this date. Please pray for more rain for Green Pastures.

Yesterday afternoon at 5 pm a man was gunned down and murdered at Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) where EAB/ACEV has a church led by Ramos & Tica. The killing took place not far from our church in this old fashioned wild-west type small town or village. Please pray for peace to be restored and justice to be done as regards the killer. May nothing happen to hinder the progress of the Gospel at Curral Velho.

Thank you for your prayers for Liz. Her foot is a lot less swollen and she is limping a lot less. Praise the Lord! Thank you for praying for the service last night in Patos. I enjoyed leading the service last night and had fun with my sign language (I'm hopeless!) as the deaf pastor's wife Jessica had her birthday so I clapped her in sign language! Sacha led the praise and worship absolutely beautifully and the assistant pastor Rafael preached the Gospel. It was a lovely service.