Chicken Pen

A new chicken pen has been built at Barra de Oitis Village as part of our 2-wings project. The family benefitted by the project is that of Cícero Mariano de Silva and his wife Francisca Nicolau da Silva. They have 3 children and the family is part of the EAB/ACEV church in the village. The chicken pen comes complete with 7 lovely laying hens so as to guarantee a good supply of fresh eggs for the family.

I took part yesterday in an online meeting about renewable energy in our State of Paraíba. The meeting was organized by the Roman Catholic church who invited me to take part in the light of my commitment to caring for God's creation. The Bishop Dom Eraldo also took part as well as 3 other priests. All of those of us in the meeting are in favour of renewable energy sources via solar energy and wind turbines. However what is being questioned is the way these technologies are being implemented in our State. For instead of subsidizing solar energy panels on houses and buildings all around the State what is proposed are massive solar energy farms which will destroy thousands of acres of forest and vegetation in the process. One such solar energy farm is being proposed for São Mamede and Santa Luzia Counties which would destroy 5,000 acres of caatinga forest. We hope and pray that some sort of agreement can be reached with the big-money companies planning to build the solar energy farms which also have government support.

Please pray for Ana Paula who is Pastor Hamilton's wife in Campina Grande. Ana Paula has Covid and has taken a turn for the worse and been admitted to hospital. Pastor Hamilton and their daughters are getting over it but just Ana Paula has a stronger version of the virus. It's strange how this virus works because 4 people in the same family got the virus together and just one needs hospital treatment.

We are very encouraged this week with the news that an EAB supporter is to fund the drilling and equipping of 2 wells in this semi-arid region of northeast Brazil. Each well, completely installed with water tanks, submersible pumps, piping, water troughs etc., costs 5,000 pounds. We are especially encouraged, first of all because we are in a poor year for rain where the need is greater that usual, and secondly because Tearfund is only funding one well this year with none next year. We have a queue of villages and communities crying out for help, and we were praying about what to do, so we're very pleased with this answer to prayer. The wells will bear the name (on a plaque) of the donor's late wife, which is rather nice.

We praise God too for donations that have come in for another toilet/shower unit and another chicken pen. We thank everyone for support for the work here and for all your prayers.

On a lighter note let me tell you that I watched England beat Czechoslovakia in the Euro football. They played better than against Scotland but it wasn't exactly inspiring stuff. They're going to need to improve if they are going to stay in the tournament.