The birds have flown

The birds have flown (or are flying) is a reference to the youth group from Patos which left a little after 6.30pm for the State of Ceará for the annual EAB/ACEV Youth Conference. The group is travelling under the leadership of Philip's wife Gylmara. They should arrive at their destination sometime around midnight. Liz went to see the mini-bus load off and asked the driver if he had the directions. He replied that he knew he had to drive them to Nova Olinda in Ceará State, but it soon became apparent that nobody knew the address! A frantic phone call to the local pastor soon sorted that out!

Philip is also flying to the same destination from New York via Miami, Recife & Juazeiro do Norte - so a slightly different and longer route, but he should join all at the Conference by tomorrow afternoon as long as all the connections work out as planned. At least his first flight out of New York was on schedule.

I went to Green Pastures early today and then got back to Patos to finalize some document details for the environmental people. Next week we are expecting more birds to be set free at Green Pastures by the Government body responsible for this.

We have now received two of the three missing Action Schools report packages so this means Sacha can get stuck into translating it all next week. Just one School has not come into line as yet.

I've been contacted by the biggest "Globo" Brazilian TV network wanting to interview me next month.

My throat is still not completely better, but I am preparing to preach on Sunday by faith. I feel a bit rough still.

I looked over the church refurbishment project in Patos this afternoon as on Monday the ceiling team moves in to put it up in a week together with acoustic panels we are going to install on some walls. The whole church has now been rewired, the sound equipment re-cabled and renewed and a new burglar alarm system set up. All this mass of wires (well organized) is now in place and will be above the ceiling. We certainly are on target for a return to our beloved church by Christmas as planned and thank everyone who is praying and who has donated to this cause or is still going to. Things are extremely tight, but we are nearly there. Liz is being fantastic with this project. The iron lady or the rock of Gibraltar might be appropriate terms to use to describe her.