Long Meeting

I spent the whole of yesterday afternoon in an online meeting via Google Meet (similar to Zoom) with leaders of our Action Schools Project. The meeting was to evaluate our schools in the middle of this terrible pandemic. The meeting was very good.

Yesterday Brazil passed the horrific mark of 400,000 Covid deaths and my friend and pastor colleague Antonio Carlos Costa has organized a protest with 400 sacks covered by Brazilian flags on Copacabana beach representing those who have died. The protest focuses on the inept national government response to the pandemic. More people have died from Covid in the first 4 months of this year in Brazil than died in the whole of last year.   

Loaf of Bread

 Liz and I have over the last few days enjoyed eating a small home-made loaf of bread which was made by a neighbour. Bread from the bakeries in Patos is made as rolls so we don't have loaves of bread normally. The home-made loaf was very nice.

Pastor José Renildo and his wife Tania have been leading the EAB/ACEV church near the beach at Jacumã for some years now, but yesterday he told me that they are moving to Portugal on May the 9th to live near their daughter. Pastor José Renildo has had Covid twice so I think his daughter wants to get her parents out of here whilst the going's good.

I had a very long talk to Pastor Umbirajara yesterday. He is the regional pastor for João Pessoa and all our churches in the coastal region. One of our topics was a replacement leader for José Renildo at Jacumã. He also told me all about his recovery from Covid and how he had felt pretty rough for some time after leaving hospital, but now he is fine.

Please pray for a member of our Curral Velho church who is the brother of the leader Tica. He has Covid and has been taken to hospital at Piancó. Please also pray for Marcelo Sá who is a Vet from the Patos church who is also in hospital in Campina Grande with Covid.

Prayer requests

 I have been talking to Pastor Renilson who leads the EAB/ACEV church up in the mountains at Matureia, which has the highest peak (Pico do Jabre Peak) in our State of Paraiba. He has asked special prayer for a little girl named Alícia, aged 7, who is part of the Matureia church who has been unwell for months but the doctors couldn't discover what is wrong with her. However an MRI has shown that she has a brain tumour and so she is going to be operated on to remove the tumour. Please pray for Alícia.

I also have been talking to Pastor Nezinho Abílio who leads the Vazante and Barra de Oitis EAB/ACEV churches. He asks prayer for Sister Diana at Barra de Oitis who is most unwell having been operated on for a kidney stone and for the removal of her gall bladder. Please pray for Diana.

At 2 pm yesterday a house in our street was broken into by 2 armed men who kept a woman at gun point whilst they collected money and jewelry. 

Covid deaths in Brazil continue terribly high. Yesterday another 3,120 deaths occured which clearly means we will see the 400,000 deaths mark passed this week! Despite this sad reality President Bolsonaro continues to play Covid down and threatens state governors, who try to get things under control with restrictive measures, by "sending the army in to set the people free from any form of lockdown"!

Goats

EAB's 4-Legs Project has been running for many years now and is in action all the time here. The project seeks to function as an incentive to poor rural folk to rear goats (or sometimes hair sheep which occasionally people prefer). Goats are very hardy creatures who do well in the tough hot and dry conditions of the interior of north-east Brazil. They produce milk which is a great help for the families' young children. Of course the animals also multiply and produce income for people so that they will eventually have animals to sell. Recently we distributed 4 more goats to very poor people in Cajá de Baixo Community in Flores County in the State of Pernambuco. We also distributed 2 goats at Travessia Community in Manaíra County in the State of Paraíba. Each family also received a sack of mineral salt and medication for eventual wounds which the goats may get out in the thorny bush as well as from barbed wire fencing. The families that received the 6 goats also received a Bible and they were very grateful for all they received. This project is another of our ways of demonstrating in tangible ways to the poor and needy God's love. Please pray that the recipients might be fed by the milk of the goats and the milk of the Word. 

Doctor home

More people have died with Covid this year in Brazil than died in the whole of last year. The Covid peak here for the second wave has been reached but the levelling off at over 3,000 deaths a day remains horrifically high. Nevertheless our President Bolsonaro continues to play down the pandemic and demands that all the shops, restaurants, bars etc. should be open. I only hope and pray that he will not be re-elected in the October 2022 elections. 

One bright piece of news amidst so much suffering is that the young lady doctor, Dr. Marcília, has finally been released from hospital after having been in intensive care for over a month. She had had Covid twice and was desperately ill, but thanks be to God that she made it out of the darkness. Thank you for praying.

Last night's service went very well. I led part of the service and our assistant pastor led the rest and also preached. Next Sunday I will preach at what will be the monthly communion service.

This morning food hampers have been distributed to those in special need. One went to Sister Judite who had one of her eyes removed recently owing to some sort of abscess. Quite awful! She seemed a lot brighter this morning thankfully. Bless her heart. Another food parcel went today to Sister Toinha who has been put (I felt like saying dumped) into a new government wardened place for seniors. I feel sorry for her as it has cut her off from friends and fellowship despite her being quite capable of looking after herself. Her son, who is a very aggressive policeman, decided to put his mother into care and there is nothing we can say or do about it.

Pastor Chef

Our Pastor Chef (please note the pun! i.e. not Master Chef!) João George is the assistant pastor at our Imaculada church up in the mountains. He is a very dedicated man in all he does. He is an Action School teacher and he is one of the most dedicated teachers we have in any school. It's just how he is! He is also very good at cooking and at teaching cooking and has done excellent work teaching women to cook at Fonseca slave-descendent community in Manaira County. The aim in this project is to in this way teach women to make bread or bake and decorate cakes so that these things generate income for their families. So yesterday he was at another slave-descendent community at Barra de Oitis in Diamante County teaching a new group of women to make bread and it was a great success. It is so good to see extremely poor women treated with respect and recovering their personal dignity through such projects as this one as well as increasing their income. 

The rain situation continues the same at Green Pastures. We had 30 mm of rain the night before last and 9 mm last night so not big rains to fill our lake and stream up. With just a week left in April the situation in serious at Green Pastures. Last night in Patos it rained 88 mm of torrential rain but unfortunately this didn't fall at Green Pastures. The rain was so hard last night that I had to turn the volume up to the maximum for Liz and I to be able to watch our serial on Netflix so as to relax before going to sleep.

I have been trouble shooting at one of our Action Schools this week. Problems crop up from time to time but the Lord helps us to solve them and our experience helps too.

Thanks to those who have been praying for 85 year old Brother Silvino at Manaira who had Covid and a stroke. Praise God he is now home from hospital and much improved.

The 2 latest toilet/shower units that we have built are now totally finished and their happy owners are using them with great satisfaction. It's sad to think that these are the first toilets these families have had in their lives. How the other half lives! For the very poor here a toilet is a luxury and a shower as well is a super luxury! However the photo of Francisco de Assis, his wife Maria de Fátima Lucas and their two children shows a family all masked up and looking very serious. (see on Facebook) That's just how poor folk here are! To get them to smile for a photo is extremely difficult! I understand such people and I realize that's their normal, but it might be difficult for people overseas to figure out.

Pastors

I've been having a lot of discussions with different EAB/ACEV pastors today which is always good. I especially had talks with the two pastors, Wostenes and Hamilton, of our two churches at Campina Grande where God's work is pressing ahead well despite all the difficulties of the pandemic. The first church there in the borough of Catolé, where Wostenes is the pastor, is slowly expanding its building to cope with growth. PTL!  The second church which Hamilton leads, is in the borough of Presidente Médici, and has just managed to buy a narrow piece of land next to the church which is being used as a car park. The church has 5 years to pay for the land on the never never. So we praise God for the two churches in Campina Grande which are growing for the glory of God.

I also have been talking to Pastor Nezinho Abílio who leads the two churches at Barra de Oitis and Vazante. What a joy it is to see how that despite all the Covid problems in these villages (as opposed to churches previously mentioned in a city) both churches are progressing well. At Barra de Oitis they have 54 members and at Vazante they have 62. Both these village churches have their own church buildings which are in the process of being finished off whilst being used. So it always is so encouraging seeing people come to Christ whether in towns, cities or villages!

In Patos we have seen another person make a commitment to Jesus. She is a young woman who heard the Gospel from her neighbour Iris who is a member of our church and who was recently appointed as deputy-head teacher of our Patos Action School. We praise God for people who naturally share the Gospel with friends and neighbours and lead them to Christ.

My blood tests a few days back all worked out well with cholesterol and glucose levels etc. all fine. The only item slightly below normal was my potassium so the doctor has told me to eat more bananas and oranges to fix that. That suits me fine.  

Second Vaccination Dose

This morning Liz and I have had our second dose of the Coronovac Chinese vaccination so this means in a few weeks time we should have a fair level of immunity from Covid-19. We are grateful to God and scientists for this. We are aware that the vaccine gives limited protection but it is better than nothing. From a few weeks time onwards we will aim at getting more back to normal whilst continuing to be cautious, wearing masks, social distancing etc. 

I have been asked what my links are with LST - the London School of Theology, with whom I attended a virtual Research Conference last week. Well - I did a B.A. (Hons) Degree in Theology with LST many moons ago and this I followed with an M.A. in Theology and Religious Studies with Leeds University. I found these studies very stimulating and they were a very great blessing and enrichment to my life and work. I also find it is important to keep being challenged by Christian scholars who think deeply about a variety of Biblical topics and about the way the Christian faith relates to everyday life, science, the poor, the environment, politics etc.

At our Green Pastures Nature Reserve & Christian Conference Centre we see a lot of lizards. We have so far identified 15 species of lizards and the largest of these we are seeing a lot of lately is called Salvator merianae which grows up to 2 metres in length. At Green Pastures we supply water to our neighbours from our well. We have long had a pipe linked to one of our water tanks which has a tap on an outer front fence which means people can come and help themselves to water whenever they need it without having to come inside Green Pastures. It is always a joy to see poor people loading up their carts with water in this way.

Good Service

Our main service of the week on Sunday night went very well yesterday. Sacha and João Filho led on vocals as Louisa was away in João Pessoa with her maternal grandparents for the weekend and Fábio was at work as he does shifts, which includes Sundays every other week. On instrumentals were Mailson (bass guitar), Tiago (guitar) and Witagiby (drums). Rafael and I shared the leading of the service and Pastor Lucena preached on 2 Kings 5:1-19.

We had another quarter of an inch of rain yesterday at Green Pastures. Unfortunately it's one of those years where the rain just comes in small portions, in dribs and drabs, and the river bed and lake remain bone dry. This is going to be one of those years where our deep-bore wells will be vital in the drought, as will be our drinking troughs all over the Green Pastures Reserve for the wild life. Dr. Izar Aximoff and I have just written a very good scientific article on the 20 species of mammals registered at Green Pastures. Dr. Aximoff is a PhD in Biology at the Rio de Janeiro State University. I will publish the link to the article once it has received its final touches and is officially published in English.  

Inch & a half

The night before last it rained 12 mm at Green Pastures Nature Reserve & Christian Conference Centre and last night it rained 26 mm, so that adds up to just over an inch and a half of rain in two nights. This is good but sadly not enough to accumulate water in the stream or lake and which remain totally dry.

We watched Prince Philip's funeral service yesterday on the BBC World Service. It certainly was a beautiful sunny day for the event and everything went off impeccably well with typically British precision. What a contrast with how, when we first came here, TV was black and white and the image was awful, but now we could see and hear everything from Windsor Castle as well as you could in the UK. May God comfort the Queen and all the family.

Another of our pastors, José Renildo, who leads the church near the beach of Jacumã near João Pessoa, is recovering from a second bout of Covid-19. Sadly his experiences, rather than giving him a humble sense of gratitude to God, have given him a sense of spiritual pride and he is boasting about how he "has no fear". He is a military man and a follower of President Bolsonaro. I will say no more but just ask you to pray for us to have wisdom on how to handle this arrogance which is in the hearts of the majority of evangelical Christians here.

I will be leading part of the service tonight in the Patos church and assistant pastor Rafael will be leading the other part. Pastor Lucena (retired Congregational) will be preaching.

Liz and I are due to have our second dose of the Chinese Coronavac Covid vaccine on Tuesday.

These boots are made for walking

I always walk at Green Pastures in boots. I bought the boots in England I think it was 4 years ago. I buy boots in the UK because my feet are bigger that Brazilian shoe shops tend to stock. I wear boots because they protect me from the many thorns in the bush here and they help protect me from possible snake bites. So you can imagine my sadness when my boots developed big holes in the soles! However a Patos cobbler has brilliantly solved the problem and stuck big lumps of heavy duty tires on the bottom of my boots. They are as good as new again! 😁

I was greatly saddened yesterday at the death of my long time friend in João Pessoa, Marilo Costa, who had been in intensive care with Covid for 12 days. We worked together a lot in the late 70s and early 80s evangelizing students with the Christian Inter-Varsity ministry. Please pray for his wife and family.

I was up again at 5 am this morning for the second and final day of the LST Research Conference. The first paper today was by Dr. Grant Mason on Secularization, Modernization and the Local Church from 1919 up to the present day. Then there was a very interesting lecture on Faith and Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The Conference was well worth getting up early for.  

Research Conference

I was up at 5 am this morning and got straight under the shower to wake up! This was because the London School of Theology's Research Conference, which I am attending, started at 9.30 am (UK time) which is 5.30 am Brazilian time. I ate a bowl of cereal with melon, paw-paw and banana as I listened to the brilliant keynote speaker who was Professor Andrew Steane who lectures Physics at Oxford University. His paper was - "It keeps me seeking: the invitation from Religion, Science and Philosophy". He was so good that his allotted time just flew by! 😀This was followed by Professor Richard Bell speaking on Hegel's view of time and this dragged by like a tortoise! 😥 The final speaker today was Tim Chen, who is a Chinese PhD student at LST, who spoke on the Wisdom of Solomon. He did well and this brought to an end the first challenging thought provoking day of the Conference. There's more tomorrow starting at the same time.

China has admitted, and if China admits it that's saying a lot, that the Covid Vaccine, called Coronavac from China, is limited in its effectiveness and that they are working on improving it. This is the vaccine Liz and I have had and we didn't have a choice. We value your prayers. 

It rained hard in Patos last night but once again the rain was minimal at Green Pastures which is a great pity. Some places in Patos yesterday received 100 mm but at Green Pastures, just 12 miles away, we had only 4 mm.    

Ana Carolina

Ana Carolina is the name of a 19 year old woman who was once a pupil of the EAB Action Primary School which bears the name of our late beloved missionary Pastor Frank Dyer. This young woman has just sent us a lovely testimony of her love and gratitude for our school. She writes: "I have always loved the Pastor Frank Dyer School. I have fond memories of this blessed and happy place which has such competent teachers. Recently people who know me and my love for children and education said to me that now I have finished High School why don't I train to become a teacher? I thought about this for a few months and then I applied to the university and was accepted! I am now in the first term of my teacher training course and am absolutely loving it. I know I have a long way to go to my graduation but I am already dreaming about whether God would bless me to one day become a teacher at my dear old EAB Action School!"

Last night it rained 21 mm at Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre. That is nearly an inch of rain which helps our situation a bit but we need a lot more rain as still the lake and river are bone dry. We need abundant heavy monsoon-like rainfall to fill the lake. Liz and I walked at Green Pastures yesterday and looked at the work the painters are doing painting the wooden playground equipment which hadn't been painted for 5 years. The painting work is brightening up the swings, slides and see-saws ready for new camps once the pandemic is over. Our playgrounds are made of wood as wood is cooler for the children to play on in the intense heat here. Metal would be unbearable. 

Deaconess

I am very happy to say that our dear Deaconess and Nurse Samara at Ibiara, who had severe depression problems with extreme consequences, is much better. Thank you for your prayers. Local Pastor Betinho tells me that Samara is smiling again and turned up at his house to visit his family rather than the other way round with the pastor visiting "the sick"! And I saw a post this morning on social media from Samara with her and her Aunt happily together. So we praise the Lord!

We were again very disappointed by the lack of rain at Green Pastures last night because whilst in Patos it rained 59 mm it only rained 3 mm at Green Pastures! 😒 You have no idea how sad this is in this semi-arid region where rain is hard to come by.

The Covid pandemic keeps going from bad to worse here with the death toll now past 355,000 and the President continues to play down the problem as he ridicules all who request action. Thankfully our State Governor is doing all he can to control the people so as not make the Covid situation worse than it is, but the President unbelievably does all he can to mess up our Governor's good work. What is worse is that I am part of a small minority of evangelical Christians who raise a voice of complaint about our President. Even the President's language is aggressively foul. What a mess! 

Rain

Yesterday we had our first little bit of rain this month which is a great concern as this is our last main month for rain in our rainy season. In May we just get the leftovers. So just 10 mm of rain at Green Pastures was better than nothing of course but a disappointment. We keep praying for some big rains still in April.

It was lovely to see the dedication of our church's praise and worship ministry who spent from 2 pm to 8.30 pm on Saturday fitting and testing some new equipment and practicing for the Sunday service. Sacha is doing well leading this ministry since Philip went to the UK but it is far from easy for her at times with some of the men's male chauvinist attitudes.

Last night's service (the main service of the week) went well. My assistant pastor Rafael preached well. It was a blessed time back in hybrid mode with some physically present and others online via Facebook and YouTube.

Faith & Science

Next week I will be attending the London School of Theology's Virtual Research Conference which will discuss if "Science and Faith are at odds?" The Keynote speaker will be Professor Andrew Steane who is a (Christian) lecturer of Physics at Oxford University and I will be up bright and early to listen to him at 5.30 am. I have been reading a paper he wrote which I received as preparatory reading for the Conference. The paper has the title: 'The Role of Science in the avenues of Understanding and Appreciating Nature', and it was very good. It is very good to re-charge ones spiritual batteries and be challenged by speakers such at Professor Steane.

I have now concluded writing year 2013 of my book on the history of the work here which will cover our first 80 years from 1938-2018. This means I have five years to go so am nearly there. I hope to publish the book this year. It is in Portuguese for a Brazilian audience. Every chapter (27 written so far) has been checked and corrected by Liz and then by Lynn. We will do a final overall read and check, and add photos, before sending it to the publishers. 

Pastor home

It was wonderful that yesterday afternoon EAB/ACEV Pastor Umbirajara in João Pessoa finished his spell in hospital with Covid and is now at home. As he left he read part of Psalm 46 to the nurses and sang with them part of the song "Because He lives I can face tomorrow". Umbirajara's exit from hospital was quite an event. I spoke to him last night and he was profusely thankful to all who prayed for him.

I received the news flash on my mobile phone this morning from the BBC that Prince Philip had died aged 99. This highlights how much communications have progressed between Britain and the interior of northeastern Brazil! There was a time when the only communication was letters which took months to arrive or you could hold your ear to a short wave radio and sometimes hear the news, as long as it was 3 pm when reception was clearer. Now I received the news at the same time people received it in the UK. My sister Jean sent me a message on WhatsApp to tell me what I already knew!

I've got an empty arm this morning (for those who remember Hancock's Half Hour!) after Liz and I had blood tests done for cholesterol, glucose etc. as our routine bi-annual tests. Our blood was collected at our house by a nurse at 6.15 am. The home collection was in the light of the pandemic.

Squeeze Box

Amidst all the bad news here in Brazil I am glad to have some good news! I am happy to tell you that yesterday afternoon Antonio, who is the squeeze box (piano accordion) player from our Conceição church, was sent home from hospital and his pastor Betinho picked him up from the Piancó hospital and took him home. Antonio cried as he sent a video message of thanks to everyone that had prayed for him whilst he was being treat for Covid. So we praise God for this victory.

Good news from João Pessoa too is that our Pastor Umbirajara in hospital with Covid may be sent home today. Watch this space!

Nationwide health authorities are warning that at least 1,068 towns and cities are running out of oxygen supplies in their hospitals which are a vital aspect of hospital treatment for people with Covid. Obviously the demand on oxygen is very high owing to the pandemic, but the sad thing is that the government is slow to react. Please pray. 

Tonight is the midweek Bible study continuing in the Epistle to the Philippians.

Four thousand

 Yesterday saw Brazil pass the 4,000 mark in daily Covid deaths for the first time. Sadly Brazil reached a total of 4,211 Covid deaths in 24 hours and two people we knew were part of this total. What is so sad is that our President continues to look the other way, does nothing about it but tells the people "to stop whining" and "get back to work"! He says he'll never support a lockdown so the death toll just rises non-stop. The first time Brazil reached 2,000 deaths in a day was less than a month ago, so you can see from that how out of control Covid is in Brazil. Total deaths now have passed the 337,000 mark. I am sorry to keep on about such a sad topic but this is the reality we are living here. Please continue to pray.

On a brighter note I can tell you that our Pastor Umbirajara in João Pessoa is steadily improving from Covid. He is still in hospital but if he keeps improving today he could be sent home tomorrow. I talked to his son now who told me this and thanks everyone for their prayers. 

Our prayer request for rain also persists as sadly the rains have stopped altogether here and we have a dry stream and dry lake at Green Pastures. Liz and I went walking there yesterday and it is sad to see a superficial green coating on the trees but everything is dying underneath. April is our last main month for rain so we are hoping and praying for things to change here.

Poetry

Our Easter Sunday special service online was really lovely. It was especially nice to have the Christian poetess Zenilda Lua taking part with a poem she wrote about Jesus and the resurrection. She was born in Patos but now lives over 1,600 miles away at São José dos Campos in the State of São Paulo. Sacha led the praise and worship and I preached the Gospel.

I have two items of good news. First of all the deaconess Samara at Ibiara is much better after all her depression and its consequences. Her pastor Betinho reports that Samara is much brighter and positive. The other piece of good news is that our dear Pastor Umbirajara in hospital with Covid in João Pessoa is improving, and there is the possibility of him leaving the hospital by the end of the week as long as he keeps improving the way he has been recently. His viral pneumonia has improved so he needs less oxygen, and his appetite has now returned to normal. Thank you for praying.

We heard some startling news yesterday which got Liz investigating to see what exactly had happened. We heard that Sister Judite who is a senior lady in the Patos church, who takes part in our 'young at heart' project, "had lost an eye"! Judite is a quaint woman who used to keep a piglet indoors like anyone else would keep a dog or a cat so we wondered if she had had an accident or did she mean she had lost the sight in an eye with a bad cataract? When we discovered the truth we were horrified. For Judite has had an eye removed by surgery owing to some sort of abscess that had formed in her eye. It sounds outrageously extreme to have surgery to remove the eye but we will never know if it was really necessary. Judite now has an artificial eye and she is very low and depressed with this. Please pray for her.

Hybrid again

Our State Governor has decreed that as from Monday, April 5th churches in Paraíba can go back to holding hybrid services as long as masks are worn and social distancing is observed. I wonder if our Governor will live to regret this decision as we are at the height of the Covid storm and deaths are occurring thick and fast. Brazil has now passed the 330,000 deaths mark. The problem is that many churches do not obey the rules of distancing and masks and this is where most of the trouble comes from. I personally would prefer that our church stayed exclusively online for the time being but my hunch is that such a position would not be acceptable to the majority of our members so I will follow the Governor. We value your prayers for a very difficult and trying situation.

Good news is that our son-in-law's Aunt is out of hospital and fine after Covid. His uncle had already gone home and is fine too. Hutan asked us to thank everyone for their prayers. Please continue to pray for Pastor Umbirajara in João Pessoa who continues in hospital with Covid. He is a real cause for concern.   

Umbirajara

We are very concerned about Pastor Umbirajara who has Covid and who was admitted to hospital last night in João Pessoa. Pastor Umbirajara is the fourth of our pastors who has had Covid after Wostenes, Jânio and José Vieira (all recovered) but Umbirajara is the first to be admitted to hospital. Umbirajara is EAB/ACEV's senior pastor in João Pessoa and the first secretary of our senior national leadership team. His wife Conceição also has Covid but she has no symptoms. Their daughter Sara is a young doctor so her father has not lacked medical attention. Please pray for Umbirajara.

Please continue to pray too for the piano accordion player Antonio from our Conceição church, who has been transferred to the bigger and better hospital at Piancó. Pastor Betinho tells me that he is more comfortable at Piancó. 

We are looking forward to our Easter Sunday service tomorrow night at 6:30 pm (10:30 pm UK time) which I will be leading. I will also be preaching. It will be nice to also have taking part the poetess Zenilda Lua with a poem about the resurrection. 

Accordion player

Please pray for Antonio from our Conceição church who plays the piano accordion there. Antonio is in hospital there with Covid-19 and is going to be transferred to a bigger hospital in another town, when a space for him becomes available, because he is pretty ill. The big problem in Brazil at the moment is to be able to get a place in a hospital if you need it, as the public health system is simply overwhelmed by Covid. Despite this horrific situation, with over 60,000 Covid deaths in March alone, President Bolsonaro still verbally attacks all restrictive measures taken by the State Governors.

I have been talking to our leaders of our second church in the borough of Maia in Princesa Isabel. They are called Jair and Silvânia. Sadly Silvânia's aunt, who lived next door to them but was not part of our church, has committed suicide. Jair and Silvânia are naturally feeling very sad and are low. Please pray for them.

I have had a meeting with one of our projects team leaders, Pastor Lindon Carlos, and we discussed possible Chicken Run and Market Garden projects to be started at the Belém (Bethlehem) village in Tavares County where we have a flourishing little church plant. He is getting over the flu, which he feared could have been Covid, but he had the test and gratefully it was negative.