Sermon

I have been preparing a sermon for our New Year's Eve service which this year will be between 7:30 pm and about 9 pm. Last year we didn't hold such a service owing to the pandemic. Normally we would have held the Watchnight service from 10 pm till just after midnight, but the church council suggested an earlier time this year. I will be preaching on 1 Samuel 7:12.

Our 2 baby turkeys at Green Pastures have died. They got wet in the heavy rain we had and were dead the next day. Baby turkeys are very sensitive.

I ate fish for lunch yesterday which I like very much. Unfortunately Liz is severely allergic to fish so cannot even just taste it or else she will become very ill. 

We have just received a Christmas card from "David". The problem is we know a lot of Davids! Please could the David who sent us a lovely card, with 2 Robins and a postbox on the front, let us know so that we can thank him.

Brazil's public health's statistics were "hacked" about three weeks ago and have never been restored. Hence we don't know where we are with the pandemic! Some say that this "hack" was in fact sabotage by President Bolsonaro and his team. I consider this to be highly likely. 

The death toll from the floods in our northeastern state of Bahia has now risen to 25. 151 towns are in a state of emergency, 517 people have been injured, 643,000 people have been impacted by the tragedy and 37,000 of these have completely lost their homes. Meanwhile President Bolsonaro ignores this and remains on holiday riding his jet ski!

It rained 17 mm (over half an inch) last night at Green Pastures taking the month's total to 96 mm (4 inches). Things are greening up nicely.