Donkeys & Carts

Yesterday afternoon our school took part in the St. John's Donkey Cart parade in the Patos high street. All the Patos schools have been doing these annual parades for 20 years every month of June as part of the St. John's Festival. The donkeys and carts are colourfully decorated for the parade and ours looked very good.  Please 

The Cultura Inglesa TEFL School run by our daughters and grandchildren held its certificate presentation evening yesterday and Liz and I went along in support. All went off very well.

Today the annual June youth camp starts at Green Pastures and will end of Sunday night. Please pray for the camp.

Victory

I watched England beat Croatia 4 x 2 in the World Cup last night. I thought England played very well indeed in the second half. It was a very promising start to the tournament for England.

Street Meeting

Last night I preached the Gospel at a street meeting in the town of São Mamede preaching on Jesus' raising of Jairus' 12-year-old daughter and the healing of the woman subject to bleeding for 12 years. It was an excellent service.

This morning I took 36 year 4 children on a nature trail at Green Pastures teaching them to care for creation. The children were from the Fera School in Patos and all went off very well. I enjoy doing these nature trails.

Prayer Meeting

Liz went to the ladies prayer meeting last night. Meanwhile a small group led by schoolteacher Claudivan went and held a service at Fred and Marileide's farm near Green Pastures. Also last night our dentist attended more needy people at the Care Centre. There are activities at our church every night. I was preparing my message to preach tonight at São Mamede.  

Youth take service

Last night I let the young people take the service in Patos and Rayla led, Bianca brought a lovely short word, the drama did a short excellent play and Pastor Murilo preached a good solid sermon. The service was a blessing. The church was nearly full. The children sang a song for us pastors as the second Sunday in June in Brazil is Pastors' Day, and we all were given a water bottle as a gift.

World Cup

I watched the 1 x 1 draw between Brazil and Morocco last night in the World Cup. Brazil's performance was disappointing and they will feel happy with a draw.

I also watched Scotland's excellent 1 x 0 victory over Haiti leaving them top of their group. Scotland and Haiti played very well although I would have preferred the Scotland manager to have brought on the renowned Stenhousemuir chaplain Michael Rollo. At least he did bring on Lyndon Dykes which was wonderful!

Rio Grande do Norte

Yesterday Liz and I travelled 40 km to the neighbouring state of Rio Grande do Norte to inspect the church building project in the town of Ipueira. We went there with Deacon Dedé who is the leader there. The foundations have been built and now the walls are being erected with the wall on the south side the most advanced. We were very pleased to see how the work is going.

On the way back we called into Green Pastures and heard pairs of Caatinga Cacholotes singing beautiful duets as they do. 

I will be watching Brazil play Morocco in their first game in the World Cup tonight. Next comes Haiti against Scotland and then on Wednesday England against Croatia. Brazil, Scotland and England will be the 3 teams I'll be following in this World Cup.