Saturday night

Saturday night was a night full of activities with the Patos church. First of all there was, as always, the deaf fellowship's meeting in the Care Centre. Then the Christians in Action group held their regular service at Ipueira in Rio Grande do Norte State. I also led the normal Green Pastures service and I preached too on John 8:12. Granddaughter Louisa and her boyfriend Tiago (guitar) went with me to take care of the praise and worship. What was particularly encouraging at this service was how a young local farm worker called Francisco came forward and asked to read a verse of Scripture from Isaiah. He had made a reconsecration of his life to God in the previous meeting and this was his way of saying he meant it! He can hardly read and slowly read one syllable at a time, but he made it. The good number at the service burst out in applause when he finished. 

On top of these three Saturday night activities we also held a special night of child evangelism in the borough of Jatobá on the south side of the River Espinharas in Patos. This event was in the open-air outside our school and it attracted a large number of children together with a good number of their parents. We have been trying for years to plant a church in this borough. Saturday night's service was the return to regular monthly services in this place now that the pandemic has calmed down somewhat.

Yesterday we had the Sunday School for all ages at 9:30 am and the main service of the week at 6:30 pm. I led the service and assistant pastor Rafael preached on Jonah 1. Tonight I will be leading and preaching in a service for teenage students whilst parallel to this two prayer meetings will be held in the Care Centre. Prior to this I will be having an online meeting with Pastor Wostenes (Campina Grande).

Nationwide Meeting

I took part in a 4-hour meeting of RENAS today online, which is a network of Brazilian evangelical Christian organizations that practice social community action. Whilst I was in this meeting our daughter Lynn got back to Patos after her surgery.

Yesterday I went for a good walk at Green Pastures. I heard the Red-legged Seriema which are large birds between 70 and 90 cm tall. I also heard the Stripe-backed Antbird and the Long-billed Wren. I also noticed that the two Turkey chicks that have hatched had been put into a different pen separate from the guinea pigs because the chicks were killing the guinea pigs with their sharp beaks. We keep some animals like this especially for the children.

Last night there was the usual Friday night sign language lesson training new interpreters for work with the deaf. This work is led by our deaf pastor Luis Carlos. The deaf and interpreters are also preparing a presentation for our special Christmas Eve service. The drama group is also preparing a short play with reduced numbers owing to the pandemic.

I have also been doing a lot of ACEV church administrative work. On Thursday night was the usual Bible study going through the book of James.   

Wheelchair Bank

EAB's wheelchair bank is going flat out. We have a fleet of wheelchairs which we lend out to poor people when they need them. We lent out another chair today plus a pair of crutches. It is a simple way to minister God's love to the needy.

Yesterday our region (150 counties) in the State of Paraíba was declared in a state of emergency with the horrific drought we are facing. The leaves are off the trees like in the UK, only here it's because of the drought and not the cold. 

Walking at Green Pastures on Tuesday afternoon I saw and heard (a fine whistle call) the tiny Tawny Piculet 4" woodpecker. I also saw many Chalk-browed Mocking birds which imitate the calls of a variety of other birds.

Our daughter Lynn left hospital yesterday afternoon after her surgery. She is now staying for the time being in João Pessoa at her son's flat. John David is studying at university there to be a doctor. Our two youth leaders who had Covid are now better. Thanks for your prayers. The Covid situation in Brazil continues to improve with the average daily death rate at 217 and the average daily new infections at 9,528. When comparing this with UK statistics you need to remember that Brazil has more than three times the population than the UK.

Pastor Williton Farias is a new pastor to Patos from the Betel denomination. He has asked for a meeting with me next week to see what he can learn. I have also been invited to take part this Saturday in a nationwide network of evangelical churches and organizations that care about integral mission and social action. It should be interesting.

Drug addict

A new drug addict is now on his way to the rehabilitation centre near João Pessoa and our assistant pastor Rafael is going with him. He is a young man whose life has been threatened. Please pray that God will set him free and bring him to faith in Jesus. Next week we will be taking another man to the centre. He only didn't go today because he hadn't been vaccinated against Covid and the rehab centre only accepts vaccinated people. We are going to get the second man vaccinated this week.

Thank you for praying for our daughter Lynn who had her surgery for endometriosis yesterday. It was a very tense day for us. Thankfully the surgery turned out to be less complicated than was expected. It only took 3 and a half hours instead of the 7 or 8 hours that was expected it could take. Lynn is now recovering in hospital but hopes to be sent home today. 

Sunday night's service went very well. I preached the whole of Mark's first chapter in just over 30 minutes and it worked very well. Many have contacted me to thank me. I am now preparing a sermon for the Fera School thanksgiving service a week today. Our granddaughter Alice (14) is part of the group graduating from junior high school. These sort of services are a great opportunity and challenge as one has a church full of virtually all non-evangelical Christians with some quite hostile to the Gospel.

Our Covid cases in the Patos church are recovering well. Ray is already out of quarantine and Rayla comes out tomorrow. 

Lynn's surgery

Please pray for our daughter Lynn who will have surgery tomorrow to remove endometriosis including a hysterectomy. She is in João Pessoa on the coast (4 hour drive) with her husband Hutan. We are looking after Amanda who is their 6-year-old daughter. This means we now have 2 grandchildren in our home. We have Louisa (Philip's daughter) on a more permanent basis. We love this. 😁

Louisa will be going to England for Christmas and she will stay for 2 months with her family. Louisa will sit the second part of her Bar Exams on December 12th, graduate from University on the 16th and fly out on the 18th! She will be very happy to see her Mum, Dad and brothers again. Louisa finishes the first semester of Bible College too this month. All her marks have been 90% plus thus far! She will have December off from Bible College and will start her second semester in January. When she returns to Brazil in February she will also do post-graduate studies in law. 

I had a good long walk at Green Pastures on Friday afternoon and nearly trod on a White-bellied Nothura. This is a grouse-type bird about the size of a small chicken. It hunches down in the undergrowth when approached and I only saw it when it flew out suddenly. I also saw a pair of Pileated Finches and I found the remains of a giant Lizard Salvator Merianae which had clearly been eaten by a wild cat or fox.

Last night the Christians in Action group held the weekly service at Ipueira and our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos was the speaker. This attracted a lot of attention and the service was really blessed. At the same time I was leading the weekly service at the Green Pastures church and assistant pastor Rafael was the speaker. Numbers were down at this service owing to ill health and owing to the breakdown of an old banger of a car which normally brings one family.

Liz put our Christmas tree up yesterday! Covid cases are down further in Brazil. Average daily deaths are down to 211 and average daily new cases are down to 8,631. However in the interior of our State cases are up. This has meant the inauguration of the Travessia church, which was planned for December, has been postponed.

Christmas Pudding

We are very happy to have received, in good time for Christmas, 2 Christmas puddings, 2 jars of Marmite and one tin of Birds Custard! This was sent to us by our son Philip and his wife Gylmara, via Miriam Price who lives in Basingstoke, but is from Brazil and is here visiting her family at Princesa Isabel. Many thanks to all.

We attended our granddaughter Louisa's presentation of her graduating law dissertation at university yesterday. The three examining professors were unanimous in their praise for both her 17,000 word written dissertation and her oral presentation and defense of it. She was outstanding and got full marks of 100%. Louisa's parents were able to watch her presentation via internet.

I have been in discussions with Valdeir at Barra de Oitis via Messenger. It was nice to be able to encourage this young man who is doing a theology course online through distance learning. We are in the process of fixing him up with a secondhand computer so that he can press on with his studies as the one he had has bit the dust.

Driving at night we saw another White-eared Opossum. We are seeing a lot of them lately.

We were waiting for funds for 2 new market garden projects with one for the County of Ibiara and the other for the County of Santana de Mangueira. We have just received enough money for one of these which will nearly be enough for the second one once EAB gets the gift aid back on the donation. At the present exchange rate a market garden can be set up, with fencing, water tank, hose pipes, wheel barrow, spades, trowels and shading netting plus many packets of seeds and dozens of fruit tree seedlings, for 1,100 pounds. This project is a life changing project for the glory of God.

The difference in costs between the Brazilian and British passports is mind boggling! I am renewing both my passports at the moment. The British passport cost me 135 pounds and the Brazilian passport cost me 37 pounds! I know the British one involves postage both ways, but nevertheless the UK price is over the top! 😕

Bethlehem

Yesterday Liz and I travelled to Belém (Bethlehem), in the County of Tavares, to officially inaugurate the new EAB/ACEV market garden, and hold a thanksgiving service. The journey took us 2 and a half hours to get there and 3 hours to get home. The last half hour of the journey to Belém was hair raising as the authorities are in the process of making the earth road into a tarmac one. The road was extremely dangerous, but we made it! Coming back on the dangerous section was unbelievably complicated.

The new market garden has only been set up for 3 months, but it is already producing vegetables for sale and Fernando and Sandra (owners) are so grateful. They have already planted 90 fruit trees as well as vegetables. These market gardens are real oases in the desert. 

The thanksgiving service was held outdoors near Fernando and Sandra's house. Some of the youth were there from our Tavares' church with keyboard and acoustic guitar. The praise and worship was lovely. Liz did the Bible reading from Luke 2 and I preached the Gospel. Please pray for Fernando and Sandra to be converted. They are attending our services at the Belém church. After I preached we distributed Bibles to those who didn't have one. After the service Sandra served us all with Munguzá which is typical local dish based on maize. It was lovely. 

Whilst we were away at Belém our Patos men's fellowship led a special thanksgiving service for this year's army recruits. The service was led by our deacon Lieutenant Colonel Esaú and our Bible College student Murilo preached the Gospel. I am told it was a lovely service and that Murilo spoke especially well. It is very encouraging seeing a lot of young Bible College students getting increasingly involved in Christian service.

I today have had an online meeting with Pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice (Campina Grande). They held a church business meeting last night at our Soledade church to discuss the way forward once their pastor Ângelo leaves. It was unanimously agreed that pastor Angelo will leave a month earlier than planned on November 30th. The church will then be under a temporary leadership period to revitalize the church led by Wostenes, Gleydice, Liz and I, with support from pastors Umbirajara and Hamilton. After some months, with the church in a better state, the induction of a new pastor will take place. Please pray.

Married Couples Day

On Saturday we held a married couples fellowship day at Green Pastures. It was a long hot day, but it was fruitful. It was the sort of day when you can chat lots and build on relationships with people. Of special blessing was for Liz and I to get closer to Andreia who leads the Patos women's fellowship. We also had long chats to a new couple to the Patos church called Alberto and Dany when we shared the Gospel with them. In the evening I led the local Green Pastures church service and Pastor Lucena preached. The day had started at 5.30 am and ended about 11.30 pm. It was tiring, but very productive.

Whilst at Green Pastures I both saw and heard a Common Tody-Flycatcher, which is bright yellow with a black cap and back. It makes the sound of an old fashioned watch being wound up. This is why its popular name in Portuguese is a "watch mender". It is about the size of a UK Blue Tit.

Please pray for two sick children at our Matureia Action School. Maria Isabelly (aged 4) has cancer in a kidney. She is having chemotherapy and will then have surgery. Lázaro (aged 6) is an autistic boy who is in hospital with appendicitis. 

In Sunday's main service of the week our youngest daughter Sacha preached the Gospel wonderfully well. She is an excellent school teacher and she maintains her teacher-like aplomb in the pulpit. I am seeking to give women more space in church ministry. Evangelical churches, in my view, are wrong in maintaining culture bound limitations to women's ministry. Also in the service yesterday I dedicated 4 months old baby Arthur who is the first child of José Waldir and Denise. I also was asked to invoke God's blessing on their marriage which we did in word and song (Sacha).

Rayla, who is one of our youth leaders, has gone down with Covid. She has joined fellow youth leader Ray with the same illness. We have suspended all our youth activities at church for the time being. Covid in Brazil continues at a low level with average daily deaths at 262 and average daily infections at 11,320.

Our dear friend and faithful sister in Christ, Doreen Griffiths, has gone to be with the Lord aged 105. She was lucid to the end and we praise God for her long blessed life. Doreen came from the same London and Notting Hill church roots as me.

We have another grandchild living with us at the moment. We already had Louisa (21) finishing her law degree, and we now have Felipe (24) finishing his architecture degree. It is nice that our grandchildren feel they can move in with us when they need to.

Tomorrow I will be preaching the Gospel at Belém (Bethlehem) Village and value your prayers.

Barra de Oitis

On Thursday Liz and I travelled to Patuscada and Barra de Oitis communities, in Diamante County, for the official inauguration and thanksgiving service of toilet/shower units, market gardens, chicken runs and 4-legs goat projects. It took us 3 hours to get there with the last part on earth road which was terribly bumpy. Upon arriving we met up with our projects team and went for a 2-hour tour of the projects. As always, people were profusely grateful for the toilets and showers and for all the projects. What joy folk had in "having eggs to eat" from the chicken pens! How proud was Tico to show us his splendid market garden which has grown to a garden of Eden in just 16 months, amidst a bad drought. The paw-paw and banana trees (lots of them) were laden with fruit.

Having done a tour of the projects in the hot sun, with the temperature at 38 degrees, we headed for the Barra de Oitis church for a 5 pm thanksgiving service. The church was a buzz and filled with people despite it being an early start for a normal 7.30 pm start. The local church band kicked off with a song of thanks to God. The bass guitar player was very limited, but nobody cared. Our projects team leader Lindon Carlos then explained what had been achieved in recent months in that region and this was followed by a band from our Conceição church. This typical regional music band was composed of a piano accordionist, one enormous drum, one triangle and pastor Betinho on vocals. This band set the place alight! Then came Liz's turn and the pastor Manoel Abílio asked her to say something to the church as well as reading part of Mark 1. Then came my turn to preach the Gospel of Mark chapter 1. I preached the whole chapter in 15 minutes covering John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus, Jesus' baptism and confirmation from heaven, Jesus' temptations, the calling of the first disciples, the casting out of demons and the healing of the sick. "This is Jesus Christ that the Gospel presents", I said. "With power over demons and sickness. Give your life to Christ tonight. Amen." A non-Christian man immediately took me at my word and asked for prayer because his son was trying to kill him. He said he needed the power of Jesus to keep him from demon power. We immediately prayed for the man.

The regional drum, triangle and accordion band did 2 more songs, the local women's choreography group danced a hymn, and then I closed in prayer. This was followed by a piece of cake and a cup of Guaraná (Brazil's answer to Coca Cola!) being distributed to everyone. After chatting to everyone we headed home by a different route than which we came by, as the locals told us it was safer from bandits. We took our social worker Marah Danielle with us in the jeep, ate sandwiches and chatted for the 3 hour journey home. We got to bed, at about midnight, exhausted, but happy in Jesus.

This Saturday we have a married couples fellowship day at Green Pastures, with a local church service at night. On Sunday I will lead the service in Patos and next Tuesday we will be back on the road again to inaugurate a new market garden at Belém in Tavares County. We value your prayers and support always.

Ray Santana

Ray Santana, aged 26, is one of our Patos youth leaders and he is a journalist. Yesterday he tested positive for Covid. Rayla, who is another of the 3 person youth leadership team, also has the symptoms. We have therefore cancelled youth meetings in Patos for the coming days and value your prayers.

The UK has now acknowledged the Chinese Coronavac vaccine that Liz and I had for Covid as valid. This is good news for us as it opens the way for future travel. 

Liz checked our British and Brazilian passports and discovered that both our British passports expired last year as did my Brazilian one. Now it is much simpler to renew British passports online so I did these yesterday. The cost is high but the efficiency is good.

Inflation in Brazil is steadily rising and is now at 10.67% p.a.

A Patos ambulance had a sad accident this week when taking a woman to hospital for a check-up following cancer surgery. The driver lost control on a bend, turned the ambulance over and killed the patient. The driver has a broken arm.

Liz and I will be leaving for Patuscada and Barra de Oitis communities in just over 2 hours time. Liz will be doing the Bible reading and I will be preaching the Gospel at the official inauguration and thanksgiving service for recent 4-legs, toilet/shower unit, chicken runs and market garden projects. I will be preaching Mark chapter 1. Please pray for us as we travel for about two and a half hours to get there with the first part on tarmac and the second on a bumpy earth road ideal for our jeep. 

Pastor Wostenes

Liz and I had an excellent Google Meet online meeting for 1 hour and 20 minutes yesterday with Pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice. They are our best friends in Brazil. Wostenes is vice-chairman of ACEV. We had a long discussion about the way forward concerning the EAB/ACEV Soledade church, and as a result of this Wostenes will hold a meeting with the church members a week today. It is so encouraging to feel the love that this couple has for the work of God, and they will be key in moving forward at Soledade in the coming months. We also discussed some issues linked to another pastor called Davi.

Sunday night's service went well although the young assistant pastor, who preached on Psalm 90, was very depressing as he told everyone so many times that they are going to die! I will talk to him and give him some guidance. It was good to see a new bass player called Ricardinho taking part with the praise and worship. Ricardinho is having lessons and is developing well. This coming Sunday our daughter Sacha will be both leading the worship and preaching.

I will be preaching the Gospel this Thursday, and Liz will be doing the Bible reading, at the inauguration and thanksgiving service at Barra de Oitis village. We will be officially inaugurating market gardens, chicken runs and toilet/shower units in this desperately poor community.

Please pray for our daughter Lynn who will be operated on in João Pessoa on November 22nd. She has endometriosis and will be having a hysterectomy plus any other surgery necessary. We pray that it will just be a straight forward hysterectomy. We will be looking after Lynn's 6-year-old Amanda whilst her Mum is in hospital.

Our automatic Bushnell trail camera at Green Pastures (we have 2, but 1 is not working) is registering a lot of Sharp-shinned Hawks. These are a species not normally seen a lot in our area. 

EAB Christmas Gift List

 * Click on the order form to read it better.

InTouch#96

EAB publishes a little magazine twice a year called EAB InTouch. Each edition shows photos and news of a cross section of our activities over the previous 6 months. I am pleased to announce that EAB InTouch#96 is now in the post to everyone on our mailing list, and that you should receive it in the coming week. This edition reports on our baking pastor, an online wedding, evangelism in Flores, the 4-Legs goat project etc.

Together with EAB InTouch#96 goes our Christmas Gift List. You can obtain EAB Christmas cards and gifts with a difference and bless the poor and needy this Christmas in the interior of northeast Brazil. Our thanks go to Marian Rashleigh for all her work in compiling another edition of EAB InTouch and to Dave Flowers for his layout and artwork.

I led the service last night at Green Pastures. It was lovely to see local farmers Fred and Manoel volunteer to sing solos in the service. Manoel committed his life to Christ many years ago because I picked him up in my car when he was drunk and took him home. The speaker last night was Rayla who has just graduated in law at university. I saw a Squirrel Cuckoo at Green Pastures which is a light-brown bird about the size of a UK Magpie. 

We had a surprise visit from our Deaconess Josinete at our house. It was a surprise because it was the first time she felt secure enough to visit us since the pandemic began. Prior to the pandemic she visited our house most days. Thankfully in Brazil the average daily death rate continues to drop and is at 236 (as opposed to 4,000 at the peak earlier this year) and new daily infections are down to about 10,000.  

Well

Liz and I travelled to the County of Princesa Isabel yesterday to take part in the official inauguration of the new EAB/ACEV well in the Saco dos Pintos Community. We left home at 1.30 pm and got to the community at about 4.20 pm, which is in an area with beautiful rock formations with some rocks unbelievably precariously balanced on top of others. Having chatted to the local folk, and our projects team, we walked to the well's water tower where I was asked to offer a prayer of praise to God for the well with lots of local folk all around. Everyone burst out in applause at the end of the prayer.

We then all walked back to the centre of the community where all the folk gathered round in a large circle for the start of the thanksgiving service. Pastor Gersé, who leads the first EAB/ACEV church in Princesa Isabel, started by leading us all in a couple of hymns which he accompanied on his guitar. Then Liz was asked to do the Bible reading and this was followed by me preaching the Gospel. 

I preached on "the earth is the Lord's and everything in it". (Psalm 24:1). I linked this to Genesis 1:28 (the cultural mandate) and Genesis 2:15 "caring for the earth". I then jumped to Matthew 13 and the Parable of the Sower, discussing which type of "earth" or "soil" we are, as far as receiving the seed of God's Word is concerned. The 40 or so people present sat with great attention hearing the Gospel. Once I had finished our social worker Marah Danielle asked who didn't have Bibles and Bibles were presented to them. I noticed that one young woman had been touched by the word and received a Bible with great joy. We pray that she, and many others there, might become a Christian.

Once the service was over we left after a final chat. The earth road at the start was very bumpy but we bumped along in our jeep full of the joy of the Lord. Once we got on the asphalt road we took it steady, at about 50 mph, as you never know what animals you are going to face. It was nice to get home and have a good shower before curling up in bed. Thanks for all your prayers on behalf of our travels carrying the Gospel of Jesus. 

Widow

Yesterday Liz and I visited the recently widowed deaconess Beatriz whose husband Pedro died last Thursday. We hadn't seen 86-year-old Beatriz since Pedro's death as Beatriz didn't go to the funeral. It wasn't an easy visit as naturally Beatriz was very low and tearful, but she was very grateful for the funeral service which she watched online. We talked as best we could with Beatriz, read the Bible and prayed with her. Please do pray for her. Beatriz has survived Covid twice.

Cases of Covid in Brazil continue to fall. The average daily death rate is now 261 and the average daily infection rate is down to 10,073.

Pastor José Renildo and his wife Tânia have been to Soledade for the baptism of 3 new converts. Thus they met up with all the members and got on well. This couple is potentially who will take on the leadership of our Soledade church next year as pastor Ângelo is resigning amicably at the end of this year.

I have been having discussions with pastor Maésio from our Teixeira church. He is facing one or two difficulties. 

23 Graduates

Our 2nd church at Campina Grande started a 2-year basic theology course for its members 2 years ago and 23 brothers and sisters have just finished the course. This really is excellent. 

Covid deaths in Brazil have now reached the lowest level since April 2020. In the last 24 hours 296 deaths occurred and 11,077 new infections were registered which is a great deal lower than in the UK.

I preached on Sunday night on the 'Messianic Secret' and it was greatly appreciated by many people who spoke to me after the service and sent me messages via WhatsApp. I have also sent video messages to our Princesa Isabel church, for their 81st anniversary, and to our Caroá church, for a memorial service for our late brother Silvino there.

One of our drug addicts, who we had sent to rehab, came home to get his Covid jab and promptly got drunk. He has repented of his ways and will be going back to rehab. We are also sending a new person to rehab who I know well but I can't say his name here. Please pray for these men seeking a new life, free from drugs and drunkeness. May they find new life in Christ.

Please pray for a woman whom Liz has been counselling. She is facing a serious family problem which I can't mention. May God help this dear woman at this very difficult time.

Our Flores church has been doing child evangelism. They evangelized 160 children in 3 boroughs and 3 rural areas distributing sweets and ice lollies. May the Lord bless the good seed sewn in these young hearts and lives.

Cactus Parakeets are making a lot of noise at Green Pastures as they feed off the Prosopis Juliflora trees laden with seed pods at this time of year.