Sermon ready for Saturday

Amidst so much else today I managed to complete my preparation of my sermon for Saturday and prepared for the Bible study tonight. There was also a session of dental hygiene done with the kids at our school in Patos today carried out by the Care Centre team. I also answered a long survey from the London School of Theology as best as I could remember going back over 30 years! I've also been contacted by the State-wide Paraíba TV network today wanting to film an interview with me. Oh boy... it's non-stop!

8th grandchild comes to cousin's birthday party!

Today was granddaughter Alice's 8th birthday and who came to the little party and was especially welcomed was Amanda Ivy who at nearly 3 months old is doing well. PTL!

Thinking ahead haircut!

I've had my hair cut this morning so that I can get another haircut/trim in on the eve of travel to the UK and then hopefully last the 10 weeks in the UK without needing one!

Project vehicle attacked!

I have just received news that our project team vehicle, A small Fiat pick-up, was attacked tonight by a large rock which was thrown damaging the right hand side of the vehicle and the windscreen. None of our team was hurt. The police were called and they discovered it had been done but a mentally ill man who has got it into his head that the well we are aiming to drill for the Angola Community, about 5 miles from Green Pastures, should not be drilled. Please pray for the team and for the project.

Just for you to have an idea!

Just for you to have an idea about the pressure I am under, with less than 4 weeks to go to lift off to the UK, let me tell you this briefly:

1. I have completed the 10 pastors list to preach on the Sundays I'm away and written a longish email to them all with some basic instructions about not preaching too long etc.!

2. I am also in the middle of preparing a sermon for this Saturday at the Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) church when a deaconess from the Patos church contacts me via a facebook message to ask for help with interpreting the extermination of the Cannanites in Joshua 6:21 as she has to teach this in the Sunday School and doesn't know hope to cope - especially in the light of present day Islamic State's similar practices! Now look - that I just could not answer with 'let me get back from the UK'! I had to plunge deep into a massively  complex and difficult issue and help her! Oh Lord!

I do value your prayers!

Heathrow here we come!

4 weeks today we will be arriving at Heathrow airport at 12.45 pm (DV) for a 10 Sundays tour of UK churches, plus a few mid-week days in Switzerland. There is so much yet to prepare and we value your prayers.

Action School Fire

Early in July the Manaira Action School was given a second hand fridge, to help with the food side of the school, by a visitor from our Campina Grande church. During the School holidays it was not switched on but yesterday they switched it on preparing for the return to lessons. Unfortunately the fridge later caught fire, burnt completely out and bought down part of the ceiling, and the black smoke means the whole place is going to have to be cleaned up and repainted. Gratefully nobody was in the building at the time. An investigation is now going on about where this fridge exactly had come from and what had been done to it prior to it being given to the school. Please pray for EAB/ACEV's Manaíra School.

Birthdays galore!

Yesterday was my sister Jean's birthday, today is Philip's wife Gylmara's birthday and on Friday granddaughter Alice will be 8! Never a dull moment.

I popped out to Green Pastures this morning to check on different aspects of the work there. I discussed things with Tarcísio bearing in mind that a month today we leave for a bit over 2 months in Europe. I also met up with our Pastor Wostenes and his family (below), from our Campina Grande church, spending a few days there. Pastor Davi and his wife were also there from our São Paulo church.

I have been doing a lot of work on the Action Child programme and on preparation for our Europe trip. This includes lining up preachers for the Sundays I'm away. Philip will lead the services and conduct the Bible studies on the Thursdays. We value your prayers.

'John Wesley' visits Patos!

Well... sort of! What I mean is we had Pastor Luciano Vergara (below) who is a Methodist pastor from Rio de Janeiro preaching in our church last night and his wife singing. It was a great service. They stayed the weekend at Green Pastures as part of a visit to north-east Brazil. We've known them since he came to preach at the EAB/ACEV special 60th anniversary celebration in 1998 and we have never lost contact. They stayed the weekend at Green Pastures.

Happy birthday to my sister Jean who is one year older than she was last year!

Great mid-week service in Patos

Thurday night's service was a tremendous blessing with nearly 60 present and a wonderful sense of God's presence. One young man spontaneously gave his testimony about returning to God after spending time in jail and the praise and worship was wonderful. A Veterinary Doctor also gave a word and I gave the Bible study at the end. It was a wonderful night. PTL!

5 Weeks to go!

This was Liz and I being met at Recife Airport 43 years ago by Frank & Ivy Dyer. We will be arriving back in the UK for a 10 Sundays visit 5 weeks today (DV). We hope to see you at one of the churches if you live in that part of the world! 

EAB will be holding a 'Welcome Back' Cream Tea in lovely surroundings in the New Forest at Ipley on Saturday, August 29th in the afternoon. It will be lovely to see you and chat informally at this event if you can make it. For more information and directions please email dyers.ipley@gmail.com 

In a Nutshell

I wrote and dispatched the latest EAB Nutshell Update to everyone on my mailing list today. I also went up to Jabre Peak invited by the State Environmental authorities.

Last night's service was great. Packed house, excellent worship and the sermon went well.  PTL!

Tonight the teenagers of the church had their own prayer meeting! How wonderful! PTL!

Sermon ready to roll

I have just completed my sermon for tomorrow - the 8th in the series in the Gospel of Mark - covering the last block of chapter 2 and the first block of chapter 3, which essentially deals with the issue of the Sabbath. It's a good section to warn of the dangers of pharasaic legalism and the error of focusing on judaistic law as opposed to Christ and His complete work.

Very busy week

I've worked on such a variety of things this week. Unbelievable! Radio people just turn up at the office as they know I'll always give all sorts of subjects a go. We had a great Bible, Prayer and Praise meeting last night with over 50 present midweek. PTL! Great participation in a lovely spirit. It's so good to see people developing in the Lord.

I'm now in the process of preparing to preach on Sunday continuing my Mark's Gospel series which brings me to the last section of chapter 2 on the Sabbath. Once again not an ideal Sunday night topic but that's Mark's fault and not mine! My job is to preach the Word!

We have another meeting in the needy Jatobá area of Patos tomorrow as we persist in church plant efforts there. As well as the new core team the P&W and Youth ministries will be in support. Christians in Action Ministry will be off to Ipueira to continue work planting the church there.

I have done a lot of work on Action Child matters this week. This has taken up a lot of my time in this transition year for the program. We are moving forward. I am encouraged. PTL!

Our Trip to the UK & Switzerland is 6 weeks away

We leave Brazil 6 weeks this Tuesday (DV) and arrive at Heathrow on Wednesday, August 26th. We value your prayers as we have a lot to get done before then and there are the normal on-going demands of the work here as well. 

EAB is organizing a cream-tea welcome for us (much appreciated) at Ipley in the New Forest on Saturday, August 29th in the afternoon. Information can be obtained from Keith & Mary Dyer at dyers.ipley@gmail.com The tea is open to family and friends from Tunbridge Wells to Timbuktu! Our ministry engagements are now confirmed as follows:

Aug. 30: Hardley am

Sep. 06: Thamesmead Baptist am
Sep. 08: Liz's birthday!
Sep. 12: Ledbury (personal visit)
Sep. 13: Bristol Ivy Church am / Bristol PHC pm
Sep. 14 - 19: Switzerland
Sep. 20: Cadnam Methodist
Sep. 23: Shirley Warren Baptist
Sep. 26: Train London > Durham
Sep. 27: Great Lumley am / Bishop Auckland pm
Sep. 29: Horden

Oct. 01: Hylton Castle
Oct. 02: Train Durham > Larbert
Oct. 3-4: Larbert AOG
Oct. 5: Train Larbert > London
Oct. 11: Millbrook am / West Wellow pm
Oct. 12: My Mum's 91st birthday!
Oct. 14: Dibden Purlieu Methodist
Oct. 17: EAB AGM pm
Oct. 18: Verwood am
Oct. 19-23: Rutland Water region 
Oct. 25: Danbury

Nov. 01: Cefn Cribwr
Nov. 03: Return to Brazil

Great service with dedications, baptism and packed church

Last night's service was really good in Patos with 3 children dedicated and I was helped by my 2 elders Pedro Guedes & Philip. As dear old Paul Newbury used to say: "The important thing is to make sure the elders 'eld' and the deacons 'deac"!

I also baptized a new convert whom God has really changed, having come from a spiritist past. We received her and and her husband into fellowship at the church later in the service. He is a captain in the military police and was a backslidden Christian who has returned to the Lord.

More details on the João Pessoa incident

I now have more news on what as happened at the João Pessoa Boa Esperança (Good Hope) church. In fact it was not the pastor who was tied up and beaten, but it was his 14 year old daughter. The thief came as the pastor had gone out to buy the milk and he tied up and beat the daughter so as to extract from her the whereabouts of the church's money and the money from the pastor's wife's little shop. The thing was that the poor girl didn't know where the money was so couldn't tell the thief to save her life.

Fortunately the pastor and his older daughter's husband arrived at the house in time to cause the thief to run away out of a back door - thus avoiding blood shed or the likes. When they got inside they untied and ungagged their daughter. They called the police who were of no help. The family is naturally absolutely traumatized and need prayer big time.

I have finished preparing my sermon amongst all this for tomorrow. I will also be dedicating 3 children and baptizing one lady. Some children and teenagers will be doing a choreography in the service too tomorrow night so it should be quite a service.

The P&W group have gone to minister at the Princesa Isabel church tonight and over 30 others from the Patos church have gone to Passagem to support the little EAB church there. Praise God for an active church alive for God!

Extremely serious news from João Pessoa

I am receiving very serious and alarming news from João Pessoa about one of our EAB/ACEV pastors who was held at gun point and tied up yesterday. I do not have full details yet and do not feel I should share more than this at this point. I just ask you to pray for this pastor and his family - one of which appears to have been badly beaten up. I will give further news as I can.

Great service and very busy indeed!

Last night's Bible study was fantastic! We call it the 'Praise, Prayer and Bible' night and we sure get just that with growing mid-week numbers (always between 45 and 50 now) and lots of participation from the members with short words (Philip, Leron, Espedita and Pastor Silvio visiting from our Portelo church) + praise from different ones, including a dear older brother whose song "Please help me Lord" sounded like he was strangling a cat and that he needed help!) But in church we don't just strive for perfection but for people to do their best to praise the Lord and learn to develop ministries. Fortunately I managed to control myself when the dear brother was singing so as not to get hysterical!

I did a photo shoot with Amanda Ivy, now 2 months old, doing well, getting a little bit plumper and certainly more and more beautiful!

I am utterly rushed off my feet with all the on-going ministries (dedicate 3 on Sunday + baptise 1) plus all the community protests I am leading plus all the preparations for UK next month + Action Child work + people who need to speak to me etc. etc. Please pray and those who are waiting for replies from me please hold your horses!

Communion

The Communion service last night turned out to be quite extraordinary with the sermon having wonderful response with different ones putting things right with others as a result straight after the meeting. PTL!

On the Saturday we had the deaf fellowship reaching out to the deaf, the Christians in Action group continuing their ministry with the church plant in Rio Grande do Norte State, a lot of the youth making a new start to an effort to plant a church where we have our school in Patos, and the teenagers visiting a senior citizens' home. 45 from one of our Campina Grande churches spent the day at Green Pastures.

On the Friday the new little church at the ex-slave community of Fonseca was opened and it was also Philip's 37th birthday!

Well - Drought - Bible Study

Yesterday was a long tiring but good day travelling to Sousa to inaugurate another well - this time for the largest Gypsy community in Brazil. It was quite an experience! Intestesting. I took 2 workers from the Care Centre with me. I collapsed into bed at night and slept really well. You can see in the photo two of our pastors at the event yesterday with one of the gypsy leaders in the centre.

This morning I went to Green Pastures where we are doing yet more work to cope with water supplies with the unbelievable drought we are now facing. What a challenge! Please pray. Tomorrow night 40 from the Campina Grande church will be sleeping there at Green Pastures and spending Saturday there.

I have prepared the Bible study for tonight and am looking forward to the service. I have also had my haircut.