Arthur

Our 22-year-old grandson Arthur is an amazing young man. This week he will be setting out on his 4th international trip. He first went to Chile and then he made 2 trips to Europe including England, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Now he is going to Europe again to England, Spain (to a music festival), Iceland (to see an erupting volcano!) and Italy. He will also be going to Africa to Marocco to sleep for a night in a tent in the desert! He will be taking no cases (to economize!) and just have his onboard bag with a few items of spare clothing. Please pray for Arthur's trip between May 15th and June 10th. All Arthur's flights are cheap flights which he obtains via the internet. He entirely funds his own trips with no help from his parents or anyone else.

I have taken part in a 2-hour meeting of the deaf run by our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos and with the participation of Chief of Police Esau (deacon in our Patos church) and 2 other traffic police. 40 deaf people were present in the meeting about 'Traffic and Citizenship'. Lots of excellent advice was given such as how to cope when you are stopped by the police but you can't hear or speak. The meeting revealed that there are 30 deaf people in Patos that have motorbikes but who do not have driving licenses because they can't pass their driving test owing to their deafness. We have decided to fight the deafs' cause on this matter.

On Saturday I took another service at Green Pastures and Fred, Paulo Silas, Dodora, Nega and Manoel took part. On Sunday (Mother's Day in Brazil and most places in the world) I preached on the Magnificat from Lucas 1:46-55. It was a lovely service with the children taking a special part for their mums.

Nature Walk

I have been to Green Pastures to be the guide for another coach load of school students teaching them to care for creation. I took them on a 3 km walk along a variety of trails and all went off very well.

I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study. The praise was led by Erika with Rogerio on keyboard and Vasti also sang a solo. Marcio, Romildo, Adriana and Carol brought verses of scripture and Pastor Rafael brought the study from Amos 3. It was a good participative meeting.

Liz is doing a lot of work with our senior sister Socorro Help who is far from well. Liz is on call, from her grandddaughter who looks after her, 24x7. Liz never switches off her phone. Liz is at her house now trying to calm her down and Sacha has gone there to sing her some hymns. Please pray for Socorro Help. 

I brought back 11 ripe custard apples from Green Pastures. I also saw 3 White-bellied Nothura, a Burrowing Owl, lots of Red-cowled Cardinals, a number of Guira Cuckoos and a Smooth-billed Ani.

Roast Beef

I love God's word and God's work like the British like roast beef and roast potatoes with yorkshire pudding! 😃

On Tuesday night I travelled with the Patos men's fellowship to take a service in the town of Sao Mamede which was very good. It was a street service in front of the house of Jose and Marico. Marcio, Claudivan, Fabio & Paulo Silas took part in a service led by the chief of police Esau. Pastor Rafael preached the Gospel.

The death toll in the floods in south Brazil has risen to 95 and there are still more than 130 people missing. There is water everywhere but drinking water is in very short supply as 5 of the 6 water pumping systems have been knocked out of action in the flooded main city of Porto Alegre. Please pray.

An 85 year old elder called Walter, at our 3rd Joao Pessoa church in the borough of Boa Esperança, has had a nasty fall which caused an exposed fracture of his wrist. He has been operated on twice. Please pray for Walter. 

Baptism

On Sunday morning 5 were baptized at our Sao Vicente do Serido church which is led by our sister Nenem Guimaraes. She is doing an excellent job.

The leader of our little church at Umburana is sister Leonarda and we have just received word that she is pregnant. Please remember these women leaders in your prayers.

Our Sunday services in Patos went well. Liz says the Sunday school in the morning was down in numbers but was blessed. I led the main service of the week at night which was our monthly communion service. The church was packed out to capacity. Of special note was the solo sang by Fabio which was beautiful.

The floods in the south of Brazil have brought utter chaos with thousands of houses having water up to their roofs and many lives lost. Sadly some people are exploiting the tragedy, as we have been told by a friend who managed to escape, that people with boats are charging R$500 (83 pounds) to rescue people from their roof tops!

Floods

Floods in south Brazil have killed over 70 with over 100 people reported missing. A dam has burst and others look that they might burst. It is a terrible climatic tragedy in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Please pray.

I have had a good meeting with Pastor Wostenes about the Action Child schools.

Yesterday was the last match of the season in the English Football Championship and QPR won again, this time beating Coventry 2 x 1 away. This means we ended up in 18th position on 56 points, which was 4 places and 6 points clear of the drop. Well done QPR! I don't expect to say much about QPR for the next 3 months, unless they decide to sign me up, in which case I would let you know! 😉

Last night I led the weekly service of the Green Pastures church and Rayla preached from John 17. Rayla is a young lawyer and Bible college student. Fred, Nega, Manoel, Joao Filho and Lucas Conserva also took part. This week it was the monthly communion service.

Amanda

Amanda is one of our 9 grandchildren. She is the daughter of Lynn and her husband Hutan. Amanda was 9 years old yesterday. Hence at night we all had a pizza party to celebrate and lots of Amanda's friends from church and school came along. It was a lovely evening.

I went to the gym yesterday as I do every Tuesday and Thursday morning. I enjoy going and it does me good of course.

The rainy season continues here and we had 796 mm (33 inches) between December and April. Now in May the rains normally start to dwindle, but on the 1st of May we had 20 mm at Green Pastures. Thank you for praying.

Dengue Fever

Dengue fever has passed 4 million cases in Brazil this year with about 2 thousand deaths. Dengue fever gives heavy flu-like symptoms, a rash, and the killer version gives haemorrhaging.

In the first quarter of this year the police in the city of Sao Paulo killed 179 people! This is a rise of 138% from the previous quarter when they only killed 75!

Yesterday Liz and I did some difficult counselling with another couple. We also had an important meeting with some Action School leaders mainly about the Patos school. Whilst we were in the meeting a man from our church left us a bag of custard apples. It was a very nice and tasty surprise at the end of the meeting!

A couple called Diego and Talyta have asked to join our church so this is nice. Please pray for them.

I am reading a book called 'Seven things I wished Christians knew about the Bible' by Michael F. Bird.

Last night I took the Bible study in the men's fellowship meeting. It was a lovely time around God's Word in Matthew 7:13-14.

Today was a bank holiday and so the married couples fellowship organized a wonderful day outing at Green Pastures to which 23 couples went. Everything went off excellently. Some couples went there to sleep on Tuesday night too. There was a lovely spirit about the whole day. The husbands did a barbecue to which each couple contributed 5 pounds and took food. The event started at 7:30 am and ended at night. In the afternoon I gave a meditation on 1 Corinthians 13 which went very well.