Monkeypox

As soon as Liz saw a photo of monkeypox on the BBC she said: "That's smallpox"! Liz nearly died with smallpox here when she was 11-years-old. As it happens monkeypox and smallpox are closely related viruses. As far as I know we have not had an outbreak of it here in Brazil yet, but many countries have them.

Sadly 46-year-old Isaque Macena died in his sleep last week. He was a young man who had problems with drink and drugs and we had helped him go to the drug rehab centre a few months ago but he soon left.

The EAB magazine "InTouch" edition number 97 will soon be with everyone by post. It is already available on the EAB website at www.eabrazil.org. 

By faith we are to launch another new little EAB Action school at the very needy village of Água Grande in Santana de Mangueira County. The leader there is Sandra Nogueira. Please pray for this new venture. 

The folk at our Conference laid on a surprise tribute for me for my 50 years as an EAB/ACEV pastor. Even Philip took part by internet from England. It was lovely. 

My book on the first 80 years of EAB/ACEV history in Portuguese will soon be published as a result of our Conference. For there was a brother there who works at a suitable printers in Campina Grande who is to help me with this. 

Sadly flash flooding and landslides have caused 91 deaths in Recife owing to the extraordinary high rainfall there all in one go.  

I preached on Sunday night in Patos. I preached on "Being like Jesus" from Philippians 2. On the Saturday night I led the closing conference service and conducted the ordination ceremony.

Excellent Conference

I have just got home from our general conference held at Green Pastures and it was very good. We did and discussed the following matters:

We ordained three new young pastors - Fabrício Junior, Leandro and Roberto. We discussed the possible probationary status as pastors of Cleyton and Naldinho. We removed two people (Renildo and Tania) from our ministers list. It was decided that Mateus and Hortência will take on the leadership of our Soledade church as from July. Much praise went up for news of the Vazante and Barra de Oitis churches which are growing very well in their respective villages. It was decided that all EAB/ACEV ministers will be issued with identity cards to give them access for hospital chaplaincy work.

It was decided that the Soledade, São Vicente do Seridó and Juazeirinho churches will now be part of the Campina Grande administrative region. Excellent news was shared about EAB's Action Child schools with well over 700 pupils now being blessed by this project being given extra help with their education.

Our national missions' Sunday this year will be on the 4th September which is the nearest Sunday to September 2nd when our founders first set foot in Brazil. It was decided that our Youth Conference will be from 28 to 30 October in Campina Grande. It was decided that our leaders' conference this year will be as usual at Green Pastures from the 25th to 27th of November after we have returned from Europe. It was decided that next year's general conference will be held at Campina Grande - Catolé, in 2024 it will be held in João Pessoa and in 2025 it will be held in Itaporanga. 

The coordination team for our 10-day evangelism project was elected (Robério, Gersé, Ray and Rafael) and it was decided that in 2023 it will be held at Juazeirinho, in 2024 at Tavares and in 2025 at Teixeira.

The report from our Campina Grande Bible College showed that it has 29 students this year. We have about 20 students studying also at the online colleges of FTSA and ISBL. We received reports from the radio programmes at Imaculada and Flores.

An addition to our statutes was approved unanimously which prohibits same sex marriages in our churches or to be conducted by our ministers.

Our projects team gave a general report on projects in the pandemic and on those in hand this year.

It was reaffirmed that in this year's Brazilian general election it is totally prohibited to bring party politics into our churches or discuss party politics in our social media groups. 

Maternity hospital

Jaciara had a premature baby on Sunday weighing 1.9 kg at Princesa Isabel. Her and her husband are members of our second church there. Jaciara was immediately transferred to the more advanced Patos maternity hospital and the church leaders asked us to support them. Our daughter Sacha is taking care of the family beautifully and has just been out to buy nappies! Please pray for Jaciara who has a post-natal infection and for the tiny baby boy called Quezede.

Liz is at Green Pastures at the moment setting everything up for our EAB/ACEV general conference. Deaconess Josinete is with Liz. Earlier they went to the supermarket to buy the food so the Kombi was loaded up with food and drinking water. The conference will run from Friday to Sunday but the leaders will start a day early on the Thursday. At the conference we will be ordaining 3 young new pastors: Fabrício Júnior, Leandro and Roberto. Please pray for them.

Please pray about the Dengue Fever epidemic which is the worst outbreak for 10 years here. Many people are down with it in Patos and many are in hospital. It is spread by mosquitoes. 

EAB's bi-annual magazine "In Touch" edition 97 has now been produced and has gone to the printers. Everyone will receive it in early June. 

Difficult journey

Liz and Lynn returned from João Pessoa on Friday night in driving torrential rain around Juazeirinho. To drive in such conditions was dangerous and meant they could only do about 20 kph. At Green Pastures it rained 27 mm (just over an inch) which helped water our plants and trees.

Saturday night saw the Patos church divided in four directions. The deaf had their main weekly meeting at the church; the Christians in Action group went to Ipueira in Rio Grande do Norte State; another group held the monthly celebration service at the Pastor Frank Dyer School; and I went to Green Pastures to take the weekly service with Segundo leading the singing and Murilo (Bible College student) preaching the Gospel on Acts 4:1-12. Both did very well. I lead the service which also enjoyed Nega singing a solo and Leca doing a Bible reading. I am glad to report that all services went off well.

I have started reading a new book called - "A Better Story - God, sex and human flourishing" by Christian psychiatrist Glynn Harrison. I have read the first three chapters and I am thoroughly enjoying it. It is most enlightening.  

Green Pastures is busy

Green Pastures is being used a lot by our churches and church groups which is lovely to see. Green Pastures is the only place of its kind in the whole region. Our Teixeira church had a fellowship day there on the 14th May. Then there will be the EAB/ACEV general conference there from the 26th to 29th May. This will be followed by the Campina Grande men's conference from the 3rd to 5th June and then a youth camp involving the churches from Patos, Itaporanga, Juazeirinho and Teixeira from the 24th to 26th June. We value your prayers for all these events.

I am very busy organizing everything for our general conference at the moment. There are adjustments to the agenda which have to be agreed with the leadership and I am now preparing for the final service when 2 young pastors, Fabrício and Leandro, will be ordained. Pastor Wostenes will preach and I will lead the service and the ordination ceremony.

Liz went to João Pessoa yesterday for a doctor's appointment. In Patos the seniors had their weekly meeting which went well. Deaf pastor Luis Carlos also conducted another sign language lesson. 

Market Gardens

Our Market Gardens project presses ahead helping poor people to help themselves giving them income with dignity. We are at the moment looking into 2 communities at Ibiara and Santana de Mangueira counties with the possibility of establishing market gardens there. We are also working on the 4-Legs goat rearing project in a variety of communities and on another toilet/shower unit at Barra de Oitis.

This week's youth and adult prayer meetings joined together with 12 there. It went well. The Men's Fellowship (Tuesday) and the Women's Fellowship (Wednesday) also were blessed times of fellowship.

I have been preparing a sermon on being like Jesus based on Philippians 2:1-11. 

The rains have apparently ended. We usually get some rain in May but we only had an 8 mm shower on the 2nd and that's it. We can't complain as it's been a very good rainy season. Thanks for praying.

John Stott Birding Day

I took part in the John Stott Birding Day yesterday morning which is organized by the A Rocha Christian environmental agency to which we are linked. I went to Green Pastures and noted down all the species of birds that I saw and heard. I observed 37 species between hawks, water birds, owls, parakeets etc. I am now supposed to enter my list onto eBird.com but I don't understand how to do this and I haven't got time to find out how. Anyway it was a nice relaxing time.

The Sunday services went off well. I led the main service in the evening and assistant pastor Rafael preached from Lamentations 3:39-45. It could have been better.

Our projects team is in action to define the locations for the 3 wells we will be digging/drilling this year. It is an arduous and challenging process including meetings with local communities as well as technical work etc. We value your prayers for this. Recently visited were Santo Agostinho community up in the mountains in Teixeira County and Trincheiras community in Princesa Isabel County.

I have spent many hours in discussions with the senior leadership as our general conference fast approaches, starting on the 27th. The senior leadership will need to arrive a day early to complete in-person preparations for the conference.

Get me to the church on time!

Our granddaughter who lives with us, Louisa, will be marrying her fiancé Tiago on August 20th. This will coincide with her parents' and brothers' holiday here from England. Tiago is the lead guitarist in the Patos church band. Louisa and Tiago have been going out together for 6 years. They don't have a chair to sit on or a bed to lie on but they have decided that now is the time to get married! May the Lord help them!

As well as the monthly meeting in the street in front of the Patos school we hold a weekly service in the school, and this week that went very well with our largest classroom filled to capacity. We are finally seeing signs of a church being planted at our school.

I went to our Deacon Esau Lucena's induction ceremony as Patos Chief of Police on Friday. The military band played and the Paraíba chief swore him into office. The ceremony started 37 minutes late (not bad for Brazil!) and lasted an hour. In his acceptance speech Esau exalted the Lord in a very wise and beautiful way. 

I led the Green Pastures service last night and young lawyer Rayla preached from Matthew 7:15-23. It was a lovely service with local farm workers Júlio and Manoel singing songs. Prior to this at Green Pastures our Teixeira church spent the day there in a lovely fellowship day which went off beautifully.

Chief of the Police

The leader of the Patos men's fellowship is a deacon in our church. He is Lieutenant Coronel Esau Lucena. He is a lovely brother in Christ. He has just been promoted to Chief of the Patos Police. We knew this was on the cards as Esau had secretly shared this with us for prayer. Now it has been officially confirmed. Please pray for Esau. The responsibility of being chief of police in a town of 120,000 population is great, especially with all the drug related gang warfare and killings.

On Wednesday afternoon (evening in England) I took part in an excellent EAB Board of Trustees meeting online. The meeting was held at Hardley, Southampton. It was lovely to see our son Philip there as a guest.

Please continue to pray for our trip to Switzerland and the UK in the autumn. The main focus of our trip will be rest, family and friends, but we will be ministering at some churches as invited. We would appreciate any contributions to help us pay our air fares. Please kindly contact the EAB treasurer.  

Vaccination

On Tuesday Liz and I had our 4th vaccination against Covid. Our first 2 vaccinations were Coronavac (China). These are low efficiency vaccinations of around 50%. We took them as better than nothing as this was all that was available. Our 3rd and 4th vaccinations have been Pfizer which are much more efficient. This means we are now all vaccinated for our trip to Switzerland and the UK in September/October for which we value your prayers.

The overall Covid situation in Brazil is much better. PTL! In Patos we have zero cases at the moment. It is so nice to be back in church without a mask!

Please also pray for our granddaughter Louisa (who lives with us) who is a fully registered and graduated lawyer, but who now needs work experience as an assistant lawyer. May God open a door for her.

Monday night's prayer meetings went well both the general one and the youth one. However the youth meeting was very low in number. On Tuesday the Men's fellowship was very lively with a nice word by Gilmarco on prayer.

Cadnam

Cadnam Methodist Church, in the New Forest area of England, held its annual musical concert in aid of EAB on Saturday. The event, organized by Howard and Hillary Babey, raised 1,110 pounds for the work of EAB. We are very grateful to all those involved in the event. Our son Philip and his family were there and thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Philip was able to give a brief word about the work in Brazil.

Parallel to the Cadnam concert, here in Brazil the deaf held their biggest meeting of the week, the Christians in Action group held another service at Ipueira and a service was held at Green Pastures supported by some of the Patos youth.

Last night I led the special Mother's Day service in Patos and I preached too on "Mothers who fear the Lord". The church was absolutely full to capacity. It was a lovely service.

Passagem

Passagem is a village about 30 km south-east of Patos where we have a little church which struggles on over the years but is a faithful light for the Gospel. To give you an idea I dedicated the second child in my ministry there 49 years ago. On Thursday I held a meeting with Eduardo, who is the leader there, so as to receive his up-to-date report on the work and to encourage him to press on. Please pray for Passagem.

The mid-week Bible study went well on 1 John 3:1-3. Following this we had an excellent meeting with the three Patos youth leaders Rayla, Louisa and Ray. We had good discussions with them about a youth camp they are planning to hold next month at Green Pastures. We gave them lots of tips and plenty of advice. 

Tomorrow will be Mother's Day in Brazil so I have been preparing a sermon for the Mums in the commemorative festive service we will hold at night, which every year gives us a very full church.

Yesterday's encounter of our Young at Heart seniors went very well and was very much appreciated by 10 of our senior sisters. Our daughter Deborah picks them up and takes them to church. Then last night Pastor Luiz Carlos taught another session of Brazilian sign language for the deaf and that went well too. 

You might be interested to know that I ate for breakfast this morning a custard apple, a slice of paw-paw, a slice of water melon and a banana. 😋

Wostenes & Gleydice

Yesterday Liz and I travelled two and a half hours east of Patos to Campina Grande where we had a three and a half hour in person meeting with Pastor Wostenes (Deputy chairman of ACEV) and his wife Gleydice. We got up at 5 am and left just over an hour later. First of all Liz went to a clinic where she had some scans and exams done. We then had our first chinese meal in three years at Chinatown in the Campina Grande Shopping Centre. It was a very nice lunch together.

We then went to Wostenes' office at his church which is in the borough of Catolé. We had an excellent meeting discussing a wide range of matters in preparation for our General Conference which will be held from May 27th to 29th. We discussed the two ministers to be ordained and another two whose ministerial statuses need to be defined. We then discussed the situations in a number of churches. We also discussed a variety of dates that need to be defined at the conference and discussed our Campina Grande Bible College as well as the online distance learning options for theological training. 

We also discussed an important proposed alteration in ACEV's registered statutes which will prohibit same sex marriage so as to give our ministers legal support if necessary.

We praise God for this lovely spiritual couple who are great friends of ours and wonderful co-workers in the Gospel.

Cat among the pigeons!

As I arrived at Green Pastures on Friday afternoon there was a terrific commotion in the chicken run and the Peacocks were very vocal too. Francisco went to see what the problem was and saw a beautiful wild Jaguarundi rust coloured cat. It was very fat, had a shinning beautiful coat and was about twice the size of a large domestic cat. The cat was prowling round the chicken pen to see if he could get in, but he soon ran off when we arrived on the scene. 

Whilst walking at Green Pastures I saw two foxes and whilst driving home in the dark I saw four burrowing owls. Upon arriving home Liz and I ate delicious bowls of Curd which was given to us by Miriam who is a member of the Green Pastures church.

I led the main service of the week in Patos on Sunday and it went very well. The church was really full.

On Monday we received the visit at Green Pastures of 4 researchers of Wild Cats from the State University of Maranhão led by Professor Dr. Tadeu Gomes de Oliveira. They set up 8 camera traps. This research will doubtless bring us a lot of information about the wild cats found at Green Pastures.   

Care Centre

Our Patos Care Centre runs a dental clinic for the poor, a food bank and works with the deaf and seniors. At the moment the Care Centre is undergoing a rebuilding modernization. The Care Centre is being reshaped and left with adequate pillars so as to in the future have an upper floor. The walls and pillars have been built and this coming week the new roof and ceiling are to be put in place which will eventually be the floor of the future upper floor. The revamped Care Centre will have a modern kitchen to prepare food for the soup runs and a coffee bar to enhance church fellowship and evangelism. The multipurpose Care Centre will also be used for children's work. 

This Care Centre modernization project is being made possible thanks to a generous designated donation from Liz's brother Sam and his wife Gerti in Switzerland in the honour of Sam and Liz's mother Ivy Dyer. Hence the Care Centre will now be in memory of Katriona M. Graham (the original purchase) and EAB late Missionary Ivy A. Dyer. Tributes to these two women will be on the walls of the revamped Care Centre. 

On Friday night we held a little service at the farmstead of Sérgio and Aparecida. There were 18 people present. On Saturday night I led the service at Green Pastures and Bible College student Murilo preached from Galatians 6:11-18. We had a swarm of flying beetles in the meeting hall and a large fat toad came into the hall to gobble them up. I felt a bit sorry for the speaker as it was a bit distracting with the toad jumping all over the place and consuming beetles with the help of his long tongue!

There was also a service last night outside our school in Patos and at Ipueira. At the end of the school service there were 7 decisions for Christ of which one was of the sponsored child Heloisa. PTL! We will now be holding a weekly service every Wednesday at the school.