Independence Day

Today is the 199th Brazilian Independence Day and it is very tense. This is because the populist extreme right wing President Bolsonaro has whipped up his supporters into a frenzy calling for the closure of the Congress and of the Supreme Court which would amount to a Coup d'état. This he is doing because the writing is on the wall for him to loose the 2022 election. Tear gas is already being fired in Brasília this morning to control the crowd. Please pray for Brazilian democracy and justice in these dark and difficult days. Our Patos church is having a day of prayer today.

To show the sort of chaotic situation Brazil is in at the moment the Brazil x Argentina World Cup preliminary match on Sunday was a classic example when public health officials stopped the match after 4 minutes alleging that 3 Argentinian players had not quarantined for Covid. It was a fiasco with the game cancelled. 

Our Sunday night service went well. I conducted communion and preached from Luke 10:25-37.

Last night we had a long meeting with our youth leadership team of Ray, Rayla and Louisa together with our assistant pastor Rafael. It was a good meeting planning for the remainder of the year and discussing one or two problems.

I have finished reading the book 'Planetwise' written by Dave Bookless who is the theology director of the Christian ecology organization 'A Rocha International'. The book presents a good Biblical argument in favour of Christian ecological action and lifestyle. I have long been in favour of this and seek to live it out caring for creation and reducing our carbon footprint. I like Dave's "one step at a time" approach as he challenges people about day to day options such as reduced meat and electricity consumption etc. It's good to realize that we can all take steps in the right direction which all add up to make important differences to God's earth.