Pizza

On Friday night our adolescents' fellowship had a lovely time together eating pizza at a restaurant as their end of year celebration. Everyone chipped in to pay the bill with 2 pounds 50 pence each. There were 26 of them present and it was a lovely evening of fellowship. The adolescents' fellowship has been very positive and blessed throughout this year, led by Adriana and Segundo. 

I went for a walk at Green Pastures on Friday afternoon and saw and heard a White-naped Jay and saw a wild Guinea Pig.

On Friday QPR drew 0 x 0 at Ipswich which was a good result as Ipswich are near the top of the table and we are near the bottom. 

Last night I conducted the wedding of my co-pastor Rafael (aged 33) to youth leader Rayla (aged 30). All went off very nicely with a reception after the ceremony.

Last night a service was also held in the town of Passagem 30 km east of Patos and one person made a commitment to Christ. This is a good way to end the year!

Dear dear dear!

This week a deer was observed again at Green Pastures. The species of deer we get here (it is very rare) is a bambi type deer whose scientific name is a Mazama Gouazoubira. It gives us great pleasure to see these deer at Green Pastures as it shows that our preservation of God's creation is paying dividends.

I have been busy preparing for this week's wedding that I will be conducting. My co-pastor Rafael will be marrying Rayla who is one of our youth leaders.

Last night I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study and co-pastor Rafael brought the study from Joel 3. Espedita sang a solo and Dede and Deborah Maria brought Bible verses. The praise was led by Marina and Davi. 

Preaching on Boxing Day

Last night, Boxing Day, I travelled with the Patos Men's Fellowship to preach the Gospel in the town of Sao Mamede. I went in a truck driven by chief of the police Esau, which also had in it my assistant pastor Rafael, Flavio and Marcio. Other men who went were Caetano, Claudivan and Dede. Esau led the service, Dede led the praise and I preached from Luke 2. Over 50 people gathered for the service which was held in the street in front of Brother Jose and sister Marico's house. After the service a snack was served to all by Marico.

The temperatures today are a low of 24 degrees and a high of 38 degrees. Please pray for rain.

Sadly QPR lost 2 x 0 at Millwall yesterday. 😞

Christmas Hampers

Liz and I have been busy distributing Christmas hampers to the very poor. One particularly needy village we went to was that of 'Serrote Liso' where the hampers were received with much joy and gratitude. Most of the houses there are made of mud and sticks.

Liz and I went to visit sister Maria Jose of our Patos church who has undergone surgery to remove an eye cataract. She is recovering well.

QPR sadly lost at home to Southampton 1 x 0 on Saturday. 😒

On Saturday night I preached at our Patos school's Christmas service at which over 200 people attended. The service was held in the street in front of our school and all the different age groups presented different Christmas items. It was a lovely service.

We have received a donation of 2,000 NIV Bibles from the International Bible Society which is wonderful. All they cost us was the freight from Sao Paulo. The Bibles will now be distributed to our 24 main regional churches which will distribute them via their local congregations and branch churches. EAB/ACEV has a total of over 80 churches.

In Brazilian culture it's the eve of any special day that is more important than the day itself. Hence yesterday's Christmas Eve was celebrated first in church and then by a family Christmas Eve supper, as opposed to a special Christmas day lunch in British culture. As we are of both cultures we do both! 😋

The Christmas play which I wrote was fantastic last night in church! The 40-strong cast did exceptionally well. It was both emotional and really blessed. Happy Christmas to everyone!

Rain

 On Thursday we had another 8 mm of rain at Green Pastures. It's not a lot but it is most welcome after over 5 months of parched scorching drought.

On Thursday evening our 3 daughters Deborah, Lynn and Sacha asked us to go and support their end of year event at their English language school which is called 'Cultura Inglesa'. Please pray for this school which is the means of income of our girls and is a shining example of quality language teaching. It was a joy to meet many pupils who are already fluent in English thanks to this school.

I have prepared a Christmas message for the children and parents of our Pastor Frank Dyer School in Patos for tonight. I look forward to sharing with them the true Biblical Gospel story of Jesus' birth and what it means for us.

Yesterday afternoon I went for a nice walk at Green Pastures and saw 2 wild Guinea Pigs, many Wattled Jacanas and a Striated Heron. I also heard the beautiful song of a Rufous-browed Peppershrike.

Last night was the final rehearsal for our main Christmas play which will be performed on Christmas Eve and is called 'The Christmas Star'. I wrote the play earlier this year and it tells the Christmas story from the angle of the stars. It has a clear Christian message.

Graduation

On Tuesday evening Liz and I went to our grandson Arthur's graduation ceremony at the university. His girlfriend Bianca also graduated in the same class of 50 students, who completed five years of studying law. Bianca was top of the class and Arthur was third, so they have done very well. There seems to be quite a bit of healthy competition between the two of them in their studies. Both of them have also passed the first stage of their Bar exams and they sit the final stage on January 21st. Please pray for them.

I didn't go to the men's fellowship meeting this week as I always do, because I was at Arthur's graduation ceremony. Just 7 went to the meeting, but they had a good time of fellowship around God's Word.

We had 5 mm of fine rain on Wednesday morning. It was very little, but after more than 5 months without a drop it was greatly appreciated. 

We have completed the drilling and equipping of two new wells at Caroa community in Manaira county. The people there are thrilled. They have water for Christmas!

Liz and I have been out distributing Christmas Hampers to an extremely poor community called Campo Comprido which is 8 km along an earth road south of Patos. The people were very happy and grateful for their Christmas surprizes.   

Choir

 I led the service on Sunday night in Patos and pastor Rafael preached. The highlight of the night was the choir from our Campina Grande Catole church which travelled to Patos in a coach. The choir is called 'Coral Adoração' (worship choir) and they presented a special Christmas programme called 'Hallelujah'. They sang the Hallelujah Chorus as the last item of their presentation. The whole presentation, led by their leader and conductor Gideao (Gideon), was a beautiful selection of hymns and carols including the 'Hymn of Joy' from Beethoven's 9th symphony and 'Oh Holy Night'. It was a wonderfully blessed evening.

Parallel to this 18 people were baptized at our Campina Grande church. Praise God for a very happy Christmas for these new converts!

9 new members were received into fellowship at our Princesa Isabel church at the weekend.

Covid

There is an upsurge in Covid cases in Brazil, though its effects are not as devastating as during the pandemic. Our granddaughter Louisa has tested positive and is feeling awful. This will affect the Christmas play production on the 24th unless she recovers quickly, as she has an important roll in a depleted cast already affected by Jacira's death.

I have had important talks with Pastor Maesio of our Teixeira church up in the mountains. It was good to learn of growth in the church there. The growth is small, but it is growth. Teixeira has traditionally been a difficult place for the Gospel. 

81-year-old Paul McCartney is in the south of Brazil on his ' Got back' tour. He fills football stadiums to capacity to hear him and he is getting a very good press. What Paul does for pop music I certainly will endeavour to do for the Gospel!

QPR sadly lost at Sheffield Wednesday yesterday 2 x 1 despite having been 1 x 0 up with five minutes to go! We remain in the relegation zone. 😟

Last night's service at Green Pastures was cancelled at the last minute when I was all ready to lead and preach. We have a group on WhatsApp with all the members and one after the other said they weren't going to the service owing to the flu, so we ended up cancelling the service.

Funeral

Yesterday I conducted the funeral of 52-year-old church member Jacira who died of a heart attack on Wednesday. Both the wake and the funeral service were held in our church and all went off smoothly. The church was full for the service. Both Jacira's husband Joao and daughter Joyce are gutted. Please pray for them.

At both the wake and funeral service one good thing that came of it was the meeting up with my nephew Ben and his wife Mayara whom I hadn't seen for years despite living in the same town. I hope and pray that we will see more of them from now on.

The mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study was cancelled last night in the light of Jacira's death.

QPR drew at home to Plymouth on Wednesday 0 x 0 which was a disappointment, especially because Plymouth were down to 10 men for most of the game.

Yesterday was our second daughter Lynn's birthday and Liz cooked sweet and sour chicken with rice for her. 😋

John Wesley

I have started some extra study, for my personal pleasure, on the theology of John Wesley. I am doing a course online with the ISBL Bible College in Londrina in the south of Brazil.

A brother who is 30 called Guilherme Santos from our Campina Grande Catole church feels the call of God to work among the indigenous indians in the Amazon area of Brazil. Next year he will be going to Manaus in that region on a training course run by the New Tribes Mission. This will be an interesting aspect of EAB/ACEV ministry if it works out. He will be graduating from our Bible College next year. Please pray.

On Monday it was our granddaughter Louisa's 24th birthday and we had a cake and sang happy birthday to her in the afternoon. Louisa has been married to Tiago for a little over a year.

I travelled with our Men's Fellowship last night to the town of Sao Mamede and we held a street meeting at which I spoke and led prayer. Parallel to this Liz went to the Women's Fellowship meeting in Patos.

We were woken up with a shock early this morning with the news that 52 year old Jacira Macena was found dead in her house at dawn by her husband Joao Moreno. Jacira was an active positive member of our Patos church, she sang as part of a group in church on Sunday and was in good health, and was due to play the part of an angel in the Christmas play on Christmas Eve. I will be conducting her funeral tomorrow morning.

Luis

Yesterday our grandson Luis (Philip & Gylmara's son in England) had his 8th birthday. He is a lovely boy and is doing well at school. He just needs to eat more as his diet is extremely restricted owing to autism. 

Saturday night's service at Green Pastures went well. I led, Bible College graduate Murilo preached on Psalm 139, and Fabio, Flavio, Nega, Manoel, Fred, Dodora, Paulo Silas and Josue all took part. Parallel to this services were held in the towns of Ipueira and Passagem. The deaf fellowship also had an excellent meeting with 16 present led by our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos who is doing a great job.

QPR won again on Saturday 2 x 0 at home to Hull. This is the third game on the run that we have won! 😄We're still in the relegation zone, but if we keep this up we will soon be out of it.

I led last night's service in Patos and I preached on spiritual renewal from Psalm 119:25-32. It was very encouraging to receive a message from one of the deaf fellowship this morning telling me how blessed he had been by my sermon. As part of our Christmas celebrations we had a lovely ballet presentation in the service too, plus a singing group singing Christmas songs. It was a lovely service.

We have just had a pair of bright yellow Great Kiskadees (the size of a Blackbird) singing perched on our TV aerial. 

Drought

It is 5 months since we last saw a drop of rain at Green Pastures. This with the intense heat means that everything is parched, scorched and bone dry. Please pray for rain!

I have had a long meeting in person with Pastor Oseias of our Itaporanga church discussing some problems in the church there. I can't go into details here. We had a very good and honest talk about the situation which was most worthwhile. We also discussed regional issues as Oseias is the regional leader as well. We talked about the Curral Velho, Vazante, Barra de Oitis, Mata de Oitis and Conceicao churches. Please pray for the Itaporanga church.

I led the prayer meeting and Bible study on Thursday evening in Patos and it was a lovely service, though numbers were down. Davi and Joao Filho led the worship, there was good participation in prayer and the sharing of Bible texts, Espedita and Vasti sang solos and Rafael brought the study from Joel chapter 2.

Yesterday afternoon Liz and I visited 79 year old sister Socorro Help and it was good to find her much better in health and much more positive. We had a nice long chat to her and heard all her stories. Then we read the Bible with her and had a time of prayer. She promises to be back in church on Sunday together with her son Bruno. 

Men's Fellowship

The men's fellowship meeting on Tuesday night was really blessed. It was good to see a non-Christian visitor there. Bible college student Ray was who led the inductive Bible study which went well.

On Tuesday afternoon I went for a good walk at Green Pastures, but how so terribly dry and burnt up by the 38 degree sun everything is. We desperately need rain. Please pray!

I have had some important discussions with pastor Wostenes already preparing for next year's (May) general conference which will be held in Joao Pessoa. One issue is a question of pastoral mandates which will need altering in our statutes, and the other is concerning bank accounts for our churches.

Following the syringing of my ears last week the doctor sent me for a hearing test which I felt was unnecessary but did it. I can hear perfectly well and the test showed my hearing to be above average, so praise God for that. 

More baptisms

This weekend Pastor Nezinho Abílio baptized 9 new converts at Vazante. 3 were from our Vazante church and 6 were from our new church at Mata de Oitis. We were recently in the area and it is so encouraging to see how the work is growing there. There is a fervent spirit in the region with great enthusiasm and zeal for the work of the Lord. There is the possibility of a new church plant in the headquarters town of that area called Diamante (Diamond) in 2024. Please pray.

Sunday night's service in the Patos church went very well with a lovely spirit of praise and worship. I led the service and law student and theology graduate Murilo preached. The highlight of the service was a 15-minute musical nativity play done by the children and adolescents. It was really beautiful. Every Sunday in December we will have a Christmas related item in the service.  

We have completed the construction of another toilet/shower unit at Barra de Oitis at the house of Severino, Jailma and family. They are over the moon!

SETEBRAE

SETEBRAE is the name of our Bible College in Campina Grande and on Friday Liz and I travelled there for the graduation service of 12 students - 9 men and 3 women. We left Patos just after 3 pm and arrived there at 6:45 pm having stopped for a snack at Soledade on the way. The service started at 7:30 pm and about 300 people gathered for it. The service went very well and I was one of the speakers. The service ended at 9:45 pm and was followed by lots of photographs being taken.

When all had finished Pastor Wostenes asked us out for a meal together with his family which was very nice. This ended not far short of midnight and we got to bed about 1 am at the pastor's house. After a good night's sleep we had a nice time of fellowship together with the pastor and his wife over breakfast. We had a good discussion about different aspects of the work. After this we drove back to Patos, leaving about 10 am, and getting home around 1 pm. We were tired but rejoicing.

The main road between Patos and Campina Grande is being upgraded to a dual carriageway. The work is just beginning. It will obviously improve travel when it's finished in a few years' time. This work has already been done between Campina Grande and Joao Pessoa on the coast.

QPR travelled to Preston on Friday and won 2 x 0! 😂

Ear Ear!

I have been to the doctor's to have my ears syringed so that was good.

We have had another visit at Green Pastures from the IBAMA which is the Brazilian environmental body. They went there to release lots of wild birds which they had confiscated from people illegally keeping them in cages. They also released a lot of wild tortoises. They also collected a parrot which an elderly lady has asked us to give to the authorities for her.

I had a good walk at Green Pastures and saw 15 Picui Ground Doves. Please pray for rain which we badly need. We haven't had any for months and our lake has completely dried up.

Last night's prayer meeting and Bible study was lovely. We were down in numbers, but there was a lovely spirit of prayer, excellent participations with people sharing verses of scripture, and a good study.

Later today I will be travelling about 3 hours to Campina Grande to speak at our Bible College's graduation ceremony and service.