Police Academy Service

Last night I had the pleasure of conducting a thanksgiving service for the latest batch of graduates from the Police Academy. It was a terrific opportunity for preaching the Gospel and making plain the Biblical principles of honesty and justice. It was an excellent service. I based my message on Matthew 6:33 and Micah 6:8

Present at the service was the Commanding Chief of Police Douglas (the bald man below) and the Deputy Commander Esaú, who is a member of the Patos church.

Please pray for the precious seed sown last night. 23 new police officers going into their new work challenged by the Word of God!

EAB's Leadership Conference was lovely

We are exhausted after an intense leadership conference which gathered all our leaders from far and wide at Green Pastures Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There was a packed program of activities, especially for the senior leadership team who didn't have the Saturday morning free like the rest, but there was a wonderful spirit at the event with harmony and the presence of the Lord very real.

Friday started with a fellowship welcome meal and then we got into our first meeting with different leaders sharing very positive news from Campina Grande, Curral Velho etc. We were off to a good start. On Saturday morning the leadership discussed a harmonious series of changes to our projects coordination team with Pastor Lindon Carlos taking up the main leadership role, Flávia, who was in that role, going back to being the assistant leader at her own request. Who had been the assistant leader had to leave her post owing to work commitments, but we introduced a new additional position for social worker Marah Danielle to take up in a further support role in the coordination team. Hence instead of it being 2 people it is now 3 - Lindon Carlos leading, Flávia writing projects and supporting aand marah supporting both. Our financial coordination Eduardo continues unchanged. These changed were very well received by everyone in the afternoon general assembly.

At night we had a Christian psychologist as speaker on depression and other related psychological problems so prevalent these days. She spoke brilliantly. After the meeting we held a special inauguration event of the new ACEV Digital software developed by Philip for the work. This is an amazing tool online for all our churches to record their members' details, church activities and results etc. It will be a great tool for us to monitor all EAB/ACEV churches, projects etc. with precision details almost as they happen.

On Sunday morning the Christian psycholgist spoke on the whole gender issue which so bombards Christian position and beliefs these days. She spoke very well indeed about this as she did the previous day. We took the traditional group photo in this final session and then had a closing fellowship lunch before all heading back to our respective churches for our evening services. Our evening service in Patos was wonderfully blessed. PTL!

In Touch 88 in the Pipeline

I worked on In Touch 88 this week, which is produced by myself and Marian Rashleigh. Now it has gone to the graphics man Dave Flowers for the layout, before going to the printers. It's due out in October. I also did some report material for a church which they requested.

I have prepared my sermon for Sunday, and done the order of service, as we have the leadership conference starting on Friday, so all has to be prepared in advance. I have also prepared the program for the Conference and the schedule for the leaders' board meeting to be held there. 

I have also done a lot of work on Action Child here this week sorting out some important matters with the leaders. Action Child is going well again now. PTL!

I have had lots of issues to deal with this week with the leading pastors. It has been an exhausting week.

Tomorrow I take a group of 6 year old children to Green Pastures and on Friday there will be a group of 9 year olds - both groups in the mornings. The Conference starts late afternoon. We value your prayers.

That was the week that was!

Wow! What a week! Liz and I went full steam ahead non-stop all last week. Very productive and very busy. I had to prepare 2 sermons to start with, both for Saturday in Campina Grande and Sunday back in Patos. Then there were meetings galore with pastors, preparations for Leadership Conference which starts this Friday, and stacks of issues dealt with via WhatsApp! In fact this social network tool is so useful that I wonder how we managed without it previously. But it does stretch you because you are able to do much more but it's tiring because leaders and workers and everyone under the sun are in constant contact. Phew!

The inauguration of the new church in Campina Grande went great on Saturday. This is the 2nd EAB/ACEV church in the city - a daughter church of the 1st which was planted in 2000. God is really blessing. The pastor Hamilton and his wife Ana Paula are lovely and greatly blessed of God. You can see them below with me at Saturday's opening. Liz took the photo.

The service in Patos last night was greatly blessed too. Now it's action stations for the Leadership Conference at the weekend from Friday to Sunday at Green Pastures with over a hundred coming. We value your prayers. 

EAB needs a new generation of supporters!

This 22 year old from the Patos church, Ray Santana, is a 3rd year journalism university student and has now taken on our Brazilian side of communications coordination about the Mission's work on social media + website. Please pray for him.

Pray too for God to raise up 22 years olds in the UK to help in similar ways with EAB! How we look to God for a new generation of mission enthusiasts for the glory of God!

Lovely Weekend

Saturday saw Picotes village evangelized once again by a few of the Christians in Action group from Patos plus the whole Green Pastures church. It was a great meeting. The Deaf Fellowship also travelled up the mountains to Imaculada where God also blessed as our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos preached.

On Sunday the Communion service was greatly blessed with something like half the church flooding forward for prayer spontaneously at one point when the Holy Spirit swept across the church in power as Sacha sang. I later preached on the feeding of the five thousand. 

Today I had a long meeting with our new communications coordinator Ray Santana. It really was good. He is nearing the end of reading journalism at university and is an expert. He has ACEV on Instagram already and is getting Facebook and the website up to speed. Please pray for him.

Liz and I have been doing some church issues trouble shooting as well today. We value your prayers.

Today is Liz's birthday

I took Liz out for lunch to celebrate her birthday and then we had the usual birthday cake and singing of happy birthday with all the family. It's been a nice day for Liz and us all.

I've worked a lot on writing ACEV history this week - the history of the work here in Portuguese. I also prepared my sermon for Sunday. We had a soup run as well this week. 

We're doing a lot of work preparing for the leadership conference which starts two weeks today and I've been doing some work linked to the drama team preparing for Christmas. We are to use a revamped edition of a play I wrote yonks ago and which few in the church today ever saw. The application of the Christmans story to problems in Brazil is just as relevant today, and with the same problems, as when I wrote it 30 years ago!

A fantastic service!

Last night's service commemorating EAB/ACEV's 79th anniversary was absolutely out of this world. The play was the main message of the night and had so many people weeping (including some of the actors) that we almost had to mop the floor at the end! It is an amazing true story from our history and in a nutshell goes like this:

Zé Paulino was EAB/ACEV's first evangelist in the 1940s. Prior to his conversion he had an affair with a married woman called Rosa dos Gatos. They eventually planned and executed her husband's murder but got converted and transformed by God's grace through the ministry of Bert Mundy in the Princesa Isabel jail. When they had served their sentence they became members of the EAB/ACEV church doing a great job spreading the Gospel. 

Frank Dyer, Ivy and Liz took on the leadership of the church with their help in 1950, but later Evangelist Zé Paulino became ill and died. However on his death bed he even won a man for Christ with his last words. The play ends with his death and then entrance into God's eternal presence. "Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds"!

From last night's play from the left: Frank & Ivy Dyer with Liz in her arms; Evangelist Zé Paulino & Rosa dos Gatos; Daisy & Bert Mundy with Graham. (Note that men in those days always wore white suits)

Big Mission Day

Liz and I went to the final rehearsal of the mission play, which will last an hour, last night. It is all well organized and ready to go. It will be performed as the main message in the service this evening with me bringing a very short epilogue afterwards.

On Saturday morning we went and took part in the Patos Action School expansion launch on Saturdays and it was great. 87 children enrolled and one was so keen that she got there at 5.40 am! Amazing!

Anti-drug Group advances

I have just got in from the first meeting of the Patos anti-drug support group after the training last Saturday. All seven of them are really fired up. PTL! Regular meetings start next Wednesday and will be weekly Wednesday meetings at the Projects/Care Centre. Please pray for this greatly needed project. 

Liz took the Bible Study again last night and it went very well. 

I walked my farthest yet after surgery today at Green Pastures involving a little over 2 kilometers and all well. Yesterday we were working there with non-stinging native bees. Absolutely fascinating!