Happy New Year!

Our watchnight service starts in a bit less than 2 hours time and I'm all ready to preach again and conduct communion. Philip will baptize 3.

Last night's third Christmas service was great. The Lord really blessed and some decisions were made for Christ at the end. The dance group was excellent and the Patos church band brought a fantastic song of challenge. All was a real blessing.

So a very happy New Year to one and all. Please pray for EAB's funding which is very tight indeed as we go into 2019. We look to the Lord and ask for special prayer please. Thanks very much to all who supported and prayed for the work throughout 2018.

Sunday sermon ready

I added up how much I have walked this month and it comes to 55.42 km thus far. Thus keeping an average of about 2 km a day which is not bad.

I have prepared my sermon for Sunday - the last Sunday of the year of course - and now have to prepare for Monday night's watchnight service. This Sunday we will have a choreography + a special very challenging song to be brought, with video backing, by the praise & worship band.

I visited the Patos river recuperation project on Thursday, walked along the route covered so far, and then published my report with photos. 

The Butterfly university research team is at Green Pastures again from Thursday to Monday. I saw them there yesterday. Over 90 species registered to date. 

Help!

Please pray for me urgently as Liz is threatening to beat me up as she is busy cooking the Christmas dinner when someone phones me who has somehow rescued an Armadilo and so I say to him - "bring it here now and when I go to Green Pastures tomorrow I will release it there"! Liz says it will stink the place out (no feelings for poor wild creatures these women!) and she has a carving knife ready for the turkey! Urgent prayer for me and the Armadilo!

Christmas Eve Supper & Party Games

We had a lovely Christmas Eve meal together as a family this evening in true Brazilian tradition. This was followed by a few old party games and tricks which are passed on from generation to generation and in this day and age keep everyone away from their mobile phones!

I started with "my wand is resting on who"? demonstrating by amazing magician's skills together with my son Philip! My paternal grandfather used to do this with my Dad and then it was my Dad with me. The magic astounded everyone!

Then we went on to the famous "Squeak Piggy Squeak"! - followed by "Tippet" which the men won 10 x 3!

It was a lovely relaxing evening. Happy Christmas indeed!

Christmas Eve

Last night's service was really great in the Patos church with the place packed out beyond capacity to see my play "Eternal Bethlehem" which tells the Christmas story and applies it to life today. At the end all the children who go to church, either to the morning Sunday School or evening kids service, received their presents. It was a blessed night indeed.

Another blessing last night was half an inch of rain which of course we are thrilled about as the start of ending the annual drought. The forecast for our region this rainy season is not good as the 'El Nino' phenomenon is back.

Tonight the family will gather at our house for the traditional Brazilian Christmas Eve supper and tomorrow we will be British with the traditional Christmas dinner!

Christmas Hamper Distribution Week

Today we completed the distribution of over 500 Christmas Hampers for the poor with loads of toys for the children. Liz had travelled round some outlying communities in the week doing distribution too. All went off extremely well and was completed this afternoon with a pediatrician attending very poor children at the Care Centre.

Yesterday we held our Christmas service at our Patos School and tomorrow we have our second nativity play in the Patos church which will be presented by the youth and adult drama group. The play I wrote about 30 years ago and is called "Eternal Bethlehem". It has been brought up to date for this performance as it compares the "no room in the inn" theme to modern day things that block out space for Jesus in our lives.

Happy Christmas!

First Nativity Play

We dedicate two Sundays to Christmas and yesterday (16th) was the first with the children and young teenagers presenting a beautiful Nativity Play with great creativity and quality. They had a 'present day' group talking about Christmas (stage right) and the '2,000 years ago' group (stage left) with the traditional nativity scene with kids as sheep, cows and donkeys and Mary and Joseph and Jesus in the manger and the shepherds and the wisemen. A 'human' star even shone from the balcony! The group to the right discussed the true meaning of Christmas as the group to the left demonstrated its original form. Then came the punch line with the present day group deciding to imagine how wonderful the first Christmas must have been - at which point ballet took over in a spectacular example of the glory of the Lord present in Bethlehem. It brought tears to many eyes. 

This Monday Liz is distributing Christmas Hampers to the poor at 2 ex-slave communities at Barra de Oitis and Fonseca together with our social worker Marah Danielle. They won't get back till late tonight. Meanwhile I have been inaugurating a new massive river clean up project in Patos, alongside the Mayor, which I've been campaigning about for years and tonight I'll be with the 'drug free' project team in another night's meeting. Your prayers are valued for all of these things.

Saturday we have the big Christmas Hampers distribution in Patos and on Sunday we have our second Christmas service - this time with the older drama group. Happy Christmas!

Drugs Free Project

On Monday we invited a specialist in the field of drug addiction prevention to speak to our team in the 'Drugs Free Project'. It was very good, I enjoyed it and felt it very worthwhile.

Yesterday morning I worked with another group of children at Green Pastures in the morning and in the evening we held our end of year senior church leadership meeting in preparation for our church general assembly at the weekend. It was quite long, but it was necessary to take time thinking through some tricky issues and I felt the Lord helped us.

It is lovely to see the Care Centre going well with so many activities like with the deaf, the food bank, the dentist etc. It is a joy to make God's love tangible to the poor.

It is lovely to see our daughters working with such enthusiasm to collect toys for poor kids for Christmas and I was so thrilled to see my 17-year-old grandson Arthur buy two dresses for two very old and extremely poor ladies in an old people's home in Patos this week after he had heard these were their dreams as presents for Christmas. That is beautiful. May God help us to help others to have a happy Christmas as well as ourselves.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Behold the Lamb of God!

Yesterday's sermon was not the sort of sermon I would normally preach at one of our church's anniversary services, but I felt distinctly led of God all week to preach on John 1:29 - "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" - so that's what I preached. All I will say is that it went fantastically well and at the end, most unusually, the whole church burst out in spontaneous applause to the Lamb of God!

We got back to Patos after midnight exhausted but rejoicing.

Prior to all this I took the top class from our Patos EAB Action School around Green Pastures and that went extremely well too. So in all a great day.

Now it's Bible Day and the work goes on back in Patos.

Children's Outing + Anniversary Service

Thursday's exausting but excellent day went well, visiting 2 new church plants at Belém and Jurema plus inaugurating another well at Serrão which was all made extra interesting as in that region, and not ours, they had two inches of rain the night before. This meant negotiating a long muddy road where the Jeep was in its element!

At Belém the church plant is quite well established with 7 committed Christians about to be baptized and another 8 regularly going to church. We have our own little church building there already too which helps stabilize things further. Please remember this place in your prayers.

At Jurema things are tougher at the end of the first year with just a teenage lad professing faith in Christ to date but another 5 come regularly to church. There has been much Catholic hostility to us at Jurema. The lady who rented us a house for our team was kicked out of her roles that she had in the Catholic church is just one example. Please pray.

At Serrão we then inaugurated another well in this very poor community which was so grateful. A good crowd gathered for the service and after I had spoken I had a surprising experience. For a man came up to me and asked me if I used to have a Gospel radio programme in the 80s? When I said yes he told me that as I started to speak he recognized my voice as he used to listen to my preaching every day! I was amazed and very encouraged. Please pray for him and all this community.

In the morning I will be taking children from the EAB Pastor Frank Dyer School in Patos to Green Pastures for an outing and then in the afternoon will be travelling to Princesa Isabel to speak at their anniversary service in the evening. We value your prayers.

Visits & Ministry

Please pray for us as we leave shortly to visit two new church plants in Tavares County - one newer than the other. First to the older one at Belém and them on to Jurema. Then we will drive on in the jeep on a very rough road to the distant Serrão Community in Princesa Isabel to inaugurate another well. We will travel back to Patos very late tonight.

On Saturday we will be preaching at the Princesa Isabel Church`s anniversary service (sermon ready) in the evening after having taken children from our Patos Pastor Frank Dyer School on an outing to Green Pastures.

Sunday is Bible Day and I will be leading and Pastor Lucena preaching.

Well well well

Our travels and ministry over the past days have gone off safely and blessed. The trip to Miguel Community on Thursday was pretty precarious on a terrible road - but we made it - and were the people thrilled! An extremely poor and needy place right out in the middle of nowhere. How wonderful to have found them water and set the whole system working for them with pump, pipes and tank. To see a 63 year old father of 9 brought to tears having water piped to his house for the first time in his life was priceless!

The next day we moved on to the ex-slave quilombola community of Domingos Ferreira where another well now takes water to 140 families. Fantastic! Beautiful thanksgiving services were held in both inaugurations and the Gospel was preached. These two days were joyous but exhausting, travelling long distances on awful roads.

We got to Caroá to sleep on the Friday night ready to preach on Saturday night so had a good lazy rest day at Caroá on the Saturday. The service in the evening drew a large crowd, including the local Mayor, and Philip and band joined us in great style and blessing. We all headed back to Patos - Kombi + Jeep - on Sunday morning, ready for the Sunday evening service in Patos where the band was ready again for action as was I ready to preach again. Many hands were raised asking for prayer at the end of the last communion service of the year.

It was also wonderful to see Sitonio and his wife at Caroá who are the leaders at the Mandacaru church. You may remember praying for Sitonio about five and a half months ago when he nearly died with severe haemorrhages involving 14 blood transfusions. He is now much better and came to the service on his motorbike, but he still needs to build up his strength. Please remember him still in your prayers.

New Wells

The weekend was very full but very blessed. All the ministry went off well. Thanks for praying.

I have been so busy since then preparing for more ministry between today (Thursday) and Sunday. As all preachers know it's not just the time you spend speaking in the pulpit but the time preparing which is far greater. John Stott told us here in Brazil in the 80s that he spent 2 hours preparing for every 5 minutes preaching. 

So today we will be inaugurating a well at Miguel Community in Curral Velho County and I will be giving my normal 30 minute message to encourage the community to care for creation and then will be taking part in the thanksgiving service around the well.

Tomorrow (Friday) we go to Domingos Ferreira Community in Tavares County for another well inauguration with the same programme as above. We will travel on at night from there to sleep at Caroá.

On Saturday I will be preaching at the Caroá church's 35th anniversary service and travelling back to Patos on Sunday morning in time to preach in the communion service on Sunday night. Your prayers are valued for all this as is your financial support.

Full Weekend

Yesterday I had a good 4.2 km walk at Green Pastures which is good for the body and good for the soul. 

I have worked a lot this week preparing for ministry this weekend as well as coordinating various church and project initiatives. In fact for us church and projects always go together.

This afternoon I will be speaking at a seminar which is part of the worldwide "Renew Our World" inter-church Christian environmental initiative. I have been asked to speak on enviromental justice in the semi-arid northeast of Brazil. I hope your church is linked to the https://renewourworld.net/ and realizes that God's first words to mankind involved our responsabilities in this field. Many Christians sadly consider this to be an optional extra but God put it first! Many Christians consider these things to be almost hindrances to the preaching of the Gospel but God put them first. If you think I'm wrong then perhaps you would like to read Genesis 1:27-28 where God created humanity and then gave them His very first instructions!

After the seminar I will travel to Soledade (one and a half hours east of Patos) and hold a meeting with local church leaders discussing the issues related to church growth in the region and leadership issues which arise. 

Then I will go into the third meeting of the day preaching the Gospel at the Soledade 25th anniversary service on Acts 13/14.

Then tomorrow, Sunday, I will be preaching in Patos on Psalm 23. God has spoken to me a lot from this Psalm recently so I am going to preach from this beautiful 'full of the Lord' poem as something fresh and alive for me.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We cannot over emphasize how important both are. The attacks and threats of the evil one are a constant and we can't always give details here. Please pray for us!

Annual Leadership Conference was excellent!

EAB/ACEV's annual leadership conference at Green Pastures was superb from the 16th to 18th. Normally this is held in September when it's a bit cooler but this year it had to be in November as we were in Europe for over two months. Everything went off very smoothly, blessed and in unity. PTL! Liz did brilliantly with all the logistics and I led the spiritual programme.

Philip spoke very well on how the Christian leader should and should not use social media and what areas of danger we should all be aware of and coping with. We also had open discussions about how to prepare better for services and sermons and issues in this field. We also discussed the need for ethics and transparency in church finances and in the personal finances of the Christian leader. We again discussed the need to keep party politics out of the pulpit and other church communications as well as the need to avoid unnecessary theological controversies. 

We also had some administrative sessions and the senior leadership team had a long meeting whilst everyone else had a time of leisure, swimming, walking and chatting. We praise God for the fine body of leaders He is raising up in EAB/ACEV. 

In Touch 90

EAB's magazine 'In Touch' edition 90 is now on our website as is the Christmas Card Gift List form. All are available for download at: http://eabrazil.org/

Forty-nine Years

Liz and I are celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary today praising God for all His goodness to us.

This week is very hectic preparing for the EAB/ACEV Leadership Conference which starts tomorrow and runs till Sunday at Green Pastures.

I have also been busy preparing my lecture for a seminar on 'Environmental Justice in Brazil's semiarid northeast' organized by us, Tearfund and the worldwide Christian campaign called 'Renew our World' a week on Saturday. 

I have also been involved in some very serious sessions of counselling with different people which I can't elaborate on here but just ask for prayer and wisdom.

Wow! Quite a Saturday night!

Saturday night was a great night at Juazeirinho (half way between Patos and Campina Grande) when I preached the Word at the inauguration of the new EAB/ACEV church there plus its rural branch church at Antonio Ferreira Community bringing our total of churches up to 86. Please pray for this new area of work and for local pastor Angelo. It was a jubilant night of praise and preaching the Gospel! PTL!

It was a typical street service for NE Brazil with a street blocked off and a great crowd gathered to hear the Gospel with loud sound equipment enough to blast you to glory! There were one or two cats mingling with the crowd and a few beggars asking for money at the end. All was in a lovely relaxed and joyful atmosphere with just enough of an evening breeze to cool things nicely.

First Week Back

We are gradually re-adapting to the heat and everything else here in north-east Brazil after over 2 months away.

On Sunday (4th) I preached at the main service in Patos and it was a lovely service. The 'welcome back' section of the service was done very well by the church with the 3rd worship song amounting to an explosion of praise in song and dance involving children, adolescents and youth. It was fantastic!

On the Tuesday evening we received at our home a surprise welcome back visit from the youth which really was lovely too. 

Then on Thursday we ministered at the ex-landless settlement in São Mamede County where there were just 13 present plus a cat! It was a lovely service anyway.

On Friday Liz and I did a lot of work at Green Pastures getting ready for the Leadership Conference there which starts next Friday (16th).

Today, Saturday, we are travelling to Juazeirinho to inaugurate another EAB/ACEV church taking us up to 85. Juazeirinho is exactly half way between Patos and Campina Grande. 

How good it is to have a haircut!

We're re-adapting to the heat in NE Brazil with temperatures from 23ºC to 38ºC every day. Getting ready to preach in Patos church this Sunday.

Small details strike you after 2 months away like it's nice to be back to Brazilian liquid deodrant but it hits you how the shampoo here looks the same but is in fact much less concentrated than that in the UK. I had a haircut yesterday as you can see. That feels better!

Back in Brazil

We are very tired so I won't be long here today. Our 36 hour trip back to NE Brazil was very tiring but it's good to be back. Frustrating was a 3 hour delay sat in the plane about to bring us from Lisbon to Recife meaning we were later than expected arriving to sleep the night in Recife. They said the delay was owing to bad weather which was hard to believe. Anyway we finally made it and have been happily meeting up with all the family later this Thursday afternoon after over two months away. Thanks for all your prayers.

EAB's Christmas Gift & Card List for 2018 launched!

Do take part in EAB's Christmas Card and Gift List as the 2018 version has just been launched. For each gift that you make on the list you will receive an appropriate card from EAB to send to friends and family for Christmas. In taking part you will make somebody's Christmas very happy in Brazil.

Final Days in London

Yesterday's service at Devizes was the last one on this Eurotour 2018 and was really lovely. It was the first time we had been to the Rock Community Church and it sure took some finding with us nearly freezing to death in the process! However we were saved by a local lady who kindly led us there on foot from where we had parked the car, and the warm reception we received at the Rock soon thawed us out! The lovely ride from Hampshire was great as were the food and fellowship after church at Pastor David Fiddy's house.

From there we headed for London in the usual heavy traffic and we now prepare for takeoff on Wednesday early at Heathrow. This morning we went round Wembley Stadium which was fascinating. The development of the whole area around the stadium is quite impressive as is the Stadium itself.

EAB's InTouch magazine Nº 90 will be going into the post to all those on EAB's new GDPR approved mailing list by the end of the week. It should be online soon too together with the EAB 2018 Christmas Gift List / Card scheme. 

A week and a day till our return to Brazil

All continues to go well on what we feel is the best itinerary we have ever had in Europe over the past 46 years and the busiest too. Since I last wrote here on my blog we have done the following:

Tuesday (16th): Had a lovely meeting with ex-Latin Link missionaries to Brazil who worked in Recife - Glen & Joyce Every-Clayton.

Wednesday (17th): Met our niece Lisa and her husband Steve's baby girl Isla Sarah Oakley for the fist time after her birth on the 2nd. We travelled to Streatham for this and it was lovely.

Thursday (18th): We had an excellent 2 hour meeting and lunch at Tearfund's headquarters at Teddington with Rosa Camargo who is their Latin America Coordinator.

Friday (19th): We visited our baby Johnny's grave at Gunnersbury. He died in 1975. Then we drove round my childhood places (home in Kensington, Primary School, Peniel Chapel which was my church, Portobello Road, etc. Also went to Grenfell Tower near where I was born and brought up, where tragically nearly 80 lost their lives in a fire last year. Outrageous!

Saturday (20th): Liz's brother David came to Harrow and spent a lovely day with us.

Sunday (21st): Drove early through the fog to Danbury in Essex where we arrived an hour early. We enjoyed a lovely service there and had lunch with one of the missionary committee members and other church members including Pat White who is an ex-EAB treasurer and Board member.

Monday (22nd): Went to Bournemouth to visit ex-EAB Board member and retired solicitor Deryck Scard who is 91 - does all his own shopping and cooking, living a health and blessed long life. PTL! We then went on to a lovely meal with Liz's cousin Jose and her husband Steve and sons.

Tuesday (23rd): Are about to leave for Southampton to speak at Millbrook Christian Centre's Luncheon Club and then will go on for a final short meeting with EAB's chairman of the Board Roy Dyer at Eastleigh.

This Sunday we will be ministering at Rock Community Church, Devizes in Wiltshire (SN10 1DY) for our final Sunday engagement at 10:30 am. Then a week tomorrow - Wednesday (31st) - we will be up at 3:15 am and then fly out from Heathrow with arrival late at night. We will sleep in Recife and drive 6/7 hours to Patos the next day. We value your prayers.

Youth Conference

News from Brazil is that the annual EAB/ACEV Youth Conference went well this weekend in João Pessoa but I don't have much detail yet and at present am piecing together news seen by one of the other commenting on social media. Philip must have got back to Patos last night just in time to lead the evening service.

Please pray for the very tense and dangerous political situation in Brazil with the 2nd and final round of the general elections for president on the 28th. It certainly looks likely that the far right (akin to the French National Front of Marie Le Pen) will win. The majority of the evangelical Christians are fanatically supporting this candidate because he says he is against abortion. It's good to be against abortion, but the problem is all the other things he is in favour of which are far from aligned to Christian principles like torture, military rule if necessary, guns for all etc. May the Lord have mercy on Brazil!

8 down and 2 to go!

We had a great day this Sunday (14th) at Thamesmead, London, speaking at the Emmanuel Baptist Church (8th out of 10 Sundays in the UK on this tour) where Vic and Lona Lambert were the pastors and who visited the work of EAB in Brazil in 2006. We travelled there from Harrow going through central London and arrived an hour early as usual!

It was so sad to see the Grenfell Tower, near where I was born and brought up, on the way and way back, which was destroyed by fire last year killing nearly 80 people. 

On the way we went through Blackwall Tunnel under the Thames and on the way back we managed to go through it again plus 2 other tunnels later! Not quite sure how we managed it but we did! We ended up as planned going passed the Tower of London, Parliament, Westminster Abbey etc. so it was nice.

Liz bought beards, oustaches and paints for our Patos church drama group last week and we also sent 3 old 200 foot 8 mm films, passed on to us by Neil Parsons which were filmed by Albert Mundy, to be digitilized. We took a chance as there could be interesting film from the early days of EAB or it could be useless, but if we don't try we will never know. Hopefully we will get them back, on DVD, just in time for our return to Brazil. Watch this space!

This week we having some sort of engagement every day and next Sunday we will be at Danbury Mission in Essex (CM3 4QL). The following week is our final full week here as we leave on Wednesday, 31st. That week is almost completely full with engagements too and with our last Sunday (28th) at the Rock Community Church in Devizes (SN10 1FE).

Where we will be speaking before we return to Brazil

We will fly out of Heathrow on October 31st and arrive back in Brazil late that night. We will sleep in Recife and travel to Patos by road the next day. We will be preaching in Patos on the Sunday (Nov. 4th). Our ministry engagements for the rest of October in the UK are:

14th: Emmanuel Baptist Church , Thamesmead, Kent, DA18 4DR at 11am

16th: Meeting with Latin Link friends in Harrow

18th: Meeting at Tearfund Headquarters

21st: Danbury Mission, Essex, CM3 4QL at 10am

23rd: Millbrook Christian Centre Connect Luncheon Club (SO16 4QF) at 1pm

28th: Rock Community Church, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 1FE at 10:30am

We value your prayers for all this and more and hope to see you at one or all of these places!

Great Weekend north of the border!

Liz and I got back from Scotland to her sister's house in London at 7:30pm this Monday evening, having left on the Saturday morning at 8:50am. The journey by bus and train was fine both ways with the bus and 3 trains all on time! The snacks on the train were good and the toilet even talked to you! Amazing!

We were met at Larbert Station near Falkirk by Pastor Michael Rollo of Found Church and him and his wife took us out for a meal. Then Sunday was a very full and worthwhile day speaking at the morning service at 11:15am, then having lunch with part of the pastor's family (wife, 2 daughters, 1 son + wife and 3 children + a son-in-law). Then we spoke at the evening service at 6:15pm and at the after service youth gathering too. Yesterday (Monday) we had breakfast with Pastor Michael Rollo from where he dropped us at the station for 3 more trains + a bus back south.

The weekend was a blessing. The church is going very well and there were 220 there in the morning. The band is great leading lovely worship. The church is fast moving and alive just like we like it! Our Patos church is already working on copying 2 ideas from Found church: a count down 4 minute video showed imediately before the start of the services + the way they do the announcements via video. Loved it all!

Today we have had a walk and been catching up on different aspects of the work that we needed to do. We are busy preparing for our next ministry in Kent.

Scotland in the morning!

We travel to Scotland this Saturday morning. We will leave at 9am and get a bus to a tube station and then it's train all the way to Larbert near Falkirk arriving there at 5:19pm. 

We will be ministering all day on Sunday at Found Church in Larbert so if you live in the area do join us. 

We will head back to London on Monday travelling for most of the day and should be in Harrow by 8pm. We value your prayers.

Please pray too for the Brazilian General Elections this Sunday with a very divided and tense country.

That was a great weekend!

We are exhausted but very happy with the lovely weekend.

All started with the EAB Board meeting in Basingstoke on the Friday evening which was excellent. Good decisions were taken in an excellent spirit, and it was lovely to have a new young couple present too who surely will become Board members before long. Amen!

Saturday we headed for lunch with David, Liz's brother, plus his sons and their children, at the Westquay Shopping Centre in Southampton. That was all lovely.

From there we went to Lepe to scatter the ashes of Liz's late Aunt Gwen.

Then at 5:30 the tea and auction started at Hardley and what a great crowd showed up for this and the Celebration! The tea was lovely but the auction dragged a bit. No more auctions I feel. That idea had given what it had to give. It raised £423.50 but next time round I reckon EAB should receive donations of items (as they did kindly for the auction) and these should be sold on E-bay or sent to a professional auction to raise funds for the Mission and then EAB should publish the results. 

The Celebration flowed beautifully in the Spirit with 110 present. The praise and worship was great. In fact everything was. We even had a lovely iced 80 years cake at the end for everyone to enjoy! The whole Celebration was conducted according to schedule in 95 minutes. Thanks very much to one and all who supported the event.

On Sunday morning we were off to Cadnam Methodist Church and the lovely service was followed by lunch with Howard and Hillary from that church who organize an annual fundraising concert for EAB. From there we went to Winterslow near Salisbury and had tea with the church leaders, Nat & Heidi, before taking the second service of the day in their church which also was excellent.

We are now back in London ready to head north to Scotland at the weekend. Thanks for all your prayers and support. The work presses on! Oh yes it does!

EAB Board Meeting today

Today, Friday September 28th, at 7pm the EAB Board of Trustees will be meeting at Jean's house in Basingstoke. Liz and I will also be present of course, together with special guests Jamie and Josie-Ellen James. Please pray for us that all will be decided in unity and the will of God for His glory.

My spectacles broke or desintegrated of their own wear and tear accord last night. Just as well I brought a spare pair from Brazil! These sort of things always seem to happen at key moments and at the beginning of a key weekend like this without glasses would not have been fun!

Attention all going to EAB's Annual celebration

Please note that the M27 will be closed this weekend from junctions 3 to 4 so allow extra time to get round this. I suggest 2 alternatives for those coming from the London direction:

Leave the M3 at junction 11 and head for Romsey, via Stanmore down the A3090. When you get to Romsey then either go south down the A3057 following the signs to the M27 but going on to the M271 which will not be closed and switch your sat-nav back on for Hardley - SO45 3NZ. The alternative from Romsey is to take the A3090 and cross the M27 at junction 2 switching the sat-nav back on if you don't know the area - SO45 3NZ.

Action starts at 5:30pm with auction + refreshments and the Celebration will start at 7pm. May God richly bless us all!

Return from the North-east

Sundays services at Great Lumley & Bishop Auckland went well as did Tuesday's in Horden. Yesterday (Wednesday) we returned to the south meeting a second-cousin for the first time ever in Leeds on the way. Paul is grandson of my late maternal Uncle Andy.

Now we are preparing for the EAB Board meeting this Friday and then the big EAB 80th Celebration on Saturday followed by services on Sunday at Cadnam and Winterslow.  It's going to be a hectic weekend but we believe it will be really blessed.

North-east England

We arrived here at our mini-castle at Hawthorne, Co. Durham on Wednesday evening high above the cliffs amidst a powerful gale! It was quite a job to unload the car and get into our beautiful accomodation without getting blown away! We have done plenty of walking here and climbing down cliffs to beaches and then back up again. I've taken lots of photos.

On Thurdsday we spoke at Hilton Castle Mission in Sunderland and it was a lovely service.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we will be ministering at Great Lumley in the morning and Bishop Auckland in the evening. 

This is what the final part of September looks like for us

19 am Travel to the north-east of England

20 pm Hylton Castle Mission, Sunderland

23 am Great Lumley Evangelical Church / pm Weir Valley Christian Centre, Bishop Auckland

25 pm Victory Church, Horden, Peterlee

26 Travel back south

28 pm EAB Board Meeting at Basingstoke

29 pm EAB 80^th Annual Celebration at Lighthouse Community Church SO45 3NZ

30 am Cadnam Methodist Church / pm Winterslow Gospel Lifeboat Mission

From Wales to north-east England

Our weekend of meetings and ministry in Wales went very well. We met up with Pastor Mike Holmes and his wife Cathy who were in Brazil with us in 2006. We also had a good meeting with folk interested in church planting tips. 

Ministry at the Bethlehem Church Life Centre at Cefn Cribbwr near Bridgend went well and it also went well at the Bridge Church in Neath. 

Yesterday we helped my sister Jean clean out and re-organize her large garden shed which involved 3 car loads being taken to the re-cycling rubbish tip and 3 other trips to the charity shop! Quite a bit of stuff! The work took us all day!

Tomorrow Marian Rashleigh is kindly driving us to the north-east of England where we will spend a week ministering at the Hylton Castle Mission at Sunderland on Thursday at 7m (SR5 3LQ). Then on Sunday morning we'll be speaking at the Great Lumley Evangelical Church at 10.30 am (DH3 4JH) and at the Weir Valley Christian Centre in Bishop Auckland (where my Mum was born) at 6 pm (DL14 7JX). On Tuesday, Sep. 25, we'll be speaking at the Victory Church, Horden, Peterlee (SR8 4PH) at 7.30 pm.My cousin Philip is a member of this church.

Your prayers are valued for all our travels and ministry and if you're in the region please do join us. 

Wales here we come!

This Sunday we will be ministering in Wales. At 10:30am we will be at the BCLC at Cefn Cribbwr (CF32 0AA). Then we will be at the Bridge Church in Neath (SA11 1RP) at 5pm. Please be there if you live in these areas. 

Don't forget the 80th Annual EAB Celebration on Saturday, September 29th to be held at the Lighthouse Community Church near Southampton (SO45 3NZ). 90 people have already said they will be there so we are praying to pass the 100 barrier. Please come! We will have an auction with refreshments kicking off punctually at 5:30pm. The auction and refreshments will run parallel so as to make the most of the time. I will be the auctioneer and even have been given an official gavel to bash for the 80th! Wow! I can't wait! There are some amazing items for auction. There will also be a bring and buy sale and all the proceeds from everything will go to the work of the Lord.

The Celebration service will start at 7pm and I will be leading it. Both Liz and I will speak and show a video of the work in Brazil made specially for the occasion. Let us come together to praise God for all his goodness and let us come together to be challenged for the coming years as we head for EAB 100 years if Jesus tarries. 

Youth arise and get on board with EAB in its 80th year! We need young people to catch the vision and catch fire for Mission!

Our EAB Euro Tour so far

Having had two good fruitful EAB meetings in Switzerland we were back in the UK for Sunday (Sep.9th) at Verwood in Dorset where the Lord blessed. Then the following day I conducted Elizabeth's Aunt Rosemary's funeral at the same place and this also went off fine. It certainly wasn't part of our schedule for this Euro Trip but it was an honour to serve in this way. I have conducted inumerous funerals during 46 years of ministry but this was only the second in English, with the first having been my Dad's in 2002. I buried my own father-in-law and mother-in-law but they were both services in Portuguese. 

This week I have worked on a lot of things from London - dealing with various issues in Brazil via WhatsApp with different leaders and leadership teams. Then too I have contacted all the churches we are yet to visit in the UK sending them the videos we are going to show in their churches ahead of time so that they can put it in their church's system ahead of our arrival and thus avoid possible technical hitches. Our son Philip who is a professional in the IT field, with a Master's Degree in Computer Science, always says that anything new you introduce into any computer system should be tested ahead of it being used, no matter how simple it seems! Very good advice!

Verwood in Dorset here we come

This Sunday, September 9th, we will be ministering at the Bethel Chapel, Verwood, Dorset, BH31 7AH at 11am. Please be there with us if you live in the area.

On Monday morning, September 10th, I will be back there to conduct the Thanksgiving service for the life of Elizabeth's aunt Rosemary Tivey who was the pastor of the Chapel. The service will start at 11:30am followed by the burial at the local cemetery. 

The following Sunday (16th) we will be in Wales - speaking at the BCLC in Cefn Cribbwr (CF32 0AA) at 10:30am and at the Bridge Church in Neath (SA11 1RP) at 5pm. We look forward to seeing as many Welsh people as possible!

Second report on our Europe Trip

Our second Sunday of ministry went very well at Bristol - at the Ivy Church in the morning and at the PHC in the evening. Both services were really blessed. We got back to London about 10pm.

On the following morning we got up at 5:15am  and headed for Heathrow at 6:45am in good time for our flight to Zurich. Liz's brother and his wife met us at the airport in Switzerland, and from there we headed for the Alps having a picnic on the side of a beautiful lake on the way. We arrived at Tschiertschen late afternoon at an altitude of 1,528 metres. A place of absolute beauty, silence, cleanliness, nature and peace.

In Switzerland we have walked quite a lot in the mountains. We also met with a man who contributes each year to EAB's Christmas hampers project and were able to show him some videos of the work in Brazil.

Yesterday we travelled by bus down from the Alps to Chur in the valley below where we caught the Bernina Express train which, in a 4 hour journey, goes up (to over 2,200 metres in altitude) and down through the Alps, and ends at Tirano in Italy where we had lunch. We later made the same journey back to Liz's brother's mountain home at Tschiertchen at around 8pm. It was a long day (we were up at 5am) but one of stunningly beautiful scenery beyond imagination!

Today we have done some more walking and relaxing at Tschiertchen and tomorrow we travel to Winterthur near Zurich where Sam (Liz's brother) has another house. There we will have a meeting with other people who annually support the EAB Christmas Hamper project and show them a video of the work. On Saturday, Liz's birthday, we spend half the day in Switzerland and then head back to the UK where we will be ministering at Bethel Chapel, Verwood on Sunday morning.

We are very grateful to Liz's brother and sister-in-law Sam & Gerti Dyer for providing this lovely week's break for us in Switzerland without any cost for us, and also to Liz's sister Eunice and brother-in-law Jon for renting us a car in the UK also at no cost for us. May God richly bless them.

First few days in the UK

Our flights on Wednesday and Thursday were excellent and we arrived at Heathrow on time. We spent the rest of Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning in London. There we received out rented car kindly paid for as a gift and we got our Sim Cards so as to have mobile phones whilst in the UK.

Mine is 07733 645268

Liz's is 07554 824468

On Saturday afternoon we travelled to Basingstoke and on the Sunday we spoke at the Lighthouse Community Church in the morning and at the Canada Road Gospel Hall in the evening. Both services were excellent.

Today we had a nice walk at a Nature Reserve in the Basingstoke area. On Wednesday we are going to have a meal with Ben & Miriam Price and on Friday we will travel to Weston Super Mare to spend part of Friday and all day Saturday with my cousins Peter & Vanessa.

On Sunday (Sep. 2nd) we'll be speaking at Bristol Ivy Church in the morning and at Bristol Pentecostal Holiness Church in the evening. On the following morning we fly to Switzerland to spend the week with Liz's brother Sam & his wife Gerti.

We value your prayers at all times.

Cases Packed

Our cases are packed and weights checked. TAP has now reduced the the checked-in cases' weight by 9 kilos each. We leave in about 2 hours for Recife airport which is a 6 hour drive. Out flight to Lisbon leaves tonight. It has been pretty hectic. I hope Liz and I don't snore too loud on the overnight flight!

God TV News

I was asked to write an article for Don Botham's "God TV online News" covering subjects such as my and Liz's calling to work with EAB in NE Brazil, EAB's ministries, challenges faced and the outlook for the future. I wrote the article, it has been accepted and I will give everyone the link to the article when it is out. I have also been approached as to the possibility of me being interviewed on Revelation TV whilst in the UK.

We leave Brazil tomorrow and arrive at Heathrow on Thursday afternoon. We're terribly busy getting everything ready for the trip and value your prayers.

We learnt that six decisions were made for Christ at the Deaf Conference on Saturday and not five as I had thought. PTL! It really was a wonderful Conference. The Sunday services went very well too and yesterday I had important meetings with some of our church leaders.

Yesterday I also saw the official markings showing the high tension electricity cables' route which praise God has been given a detour to avoid Green Pastures. I was very happy to actually see and visit the markings and follow its track round and outside the northern side of Green Pastures. God answers and certainly answered prayer so that Green Pastures has been saved from destruction! Thank you Lord.

Great Weekend

At the Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre from yesterday (Friday) to Sunday a Women's Christian Leadership Conference is happening and going very well. There are just over 100 women there I believe. 

In Patos today we have had another Deaf Conference and there have been five decisions for Christ. The service led by deaf pastor Luis Carlos tonight was fantastic. Luis Carlos is the only deaf pastor in the whole of our State of Paraiba. Tonight 5 new sign language interpreters graduated from their one and a half year basic course. It was a very moving service which brought me and many to tears at times.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I have a special dedication service to do at 10 am and then the final service in Patos until November.

Oh dear!!!!!

QPR lost 7 x 1 to West Brom! Unbelievable! Rock bottow of the Championship! Dear me! My correct prediction ratio is now devastated at 33.3% correct. Oh dear! This is going to quite a season! 

Prediction: QPR to draw at West Brom

My prediction for the mighty QPR playing at West Brom today is a draw. I was tempted to say a win, as QPR's track record against WBA is good, but I will err on the side of caution and stick to a draw. So far QPR are at the bottom of the Championship having lost their first 2 matches. My correct prediction ratio is at 50% to date.

Five

The countdown is on and there are five days to go to flying out to the UK. So far we have 66 saying they plan to be at EAB's annual 80th charity auction (with refreshments at 5:30pm) + celebration (at 7pm) on September 29th at Hardley, Southampton. The plan is to get to at least 80 present for the 80th!

All 13 videos to show round the churches are ready in HD format so that is great. All was finished yesterday. Of course we won't show all the videos at each church but we will have plenty of options. Liz and I plan to speak at each church and intermingle this with videos. 

An addition to our itinerary has arisen for which we are happy. This will be in Wales. On Sunday morning, September 16th we will be at BCLC, Cefn Cribwr near Bridgend and now at 5pm we will be at the Bridge Church, Neath, SA11 1RP. 

Liz and I have prepared what we are going to speak on for our first Sunday in the UK (26/08) at Hardley in the morning and West Wellow in the evening and the videos have been chosen. 

QPR

My prediction for Saturday's game of QPR at home was wrong and we lost rather than win as I had predicted. That puts us at the bottom of the league after two games! Not good. However the League Cup match today was better with QPR winning 2 x 0 against Peterborough from a division below. If they hadn't beaten them it would have been serious.

Father's Day Service

Our Father's Day Service went very well. It was a good day in God's house.

We press on with all our preparation for our flights to the UK a week tomorrow. We have two important events here this weekend with a women's Christian Conference at Green Pastures and a Conference of the Deaf all day Saturday in the Patos church.

All 12 short videos for our tour of churches have been completed and just need to be put on memory sticks in HD format. The one final 13 minute video for the annual celebration is nearly ready too. I just need to record the narration tomorrow and then that will be finalized too.

My campaign to get a good number to the EAB 80th Annual Celebration is going well with 55 signed up to date and many yet to answer. We've got to have at least 80 on the 80th anniversary or more!

Liz's Aunt Rosemary is with the Lord

On Sunday (12th) Liz's dear Aunt Rosemary passed into the presence of the Lord aged 89. She was the last in a line of 8 brothers and sisters part of which was Liz's Dad Frank Dyer. All were children of Tom & Louisa Dyer. We praise God for Rosemary's wonderful Christian life and testimony. According to the doctors she should have died years ago but she lived to a ripe old age in the service of God leading Bethel Chapel at Verwood in Dorset.

I will have the honour of conducting the funeral on Monday, September 10th at 11:30 am (subject to confirmation).

QPR Forecast to Win!

I hereby notify to all and sunder that I predict that today QPR will win at home against Sheffield United. In the first match of the season I predicted correctly that we would lose. We will see what happens.

We are flat out here preparing for our trip to Europe a week on Wednesday. As you can see on this blog I am doing all I can to get maximum numbers present so please help us! I have also sent lots of invitations and confirmation requests via Facebook on EAB's page and on my own. I have done the same via email to many. I am glad that answers are coming in but await more.

The 12 short videos are completely ready now for showing round the churches. Just the longerish one to do now for the Celebration. 

I will be preaching tomorrow in Patos on Father's Day. The sermon is prepared and ready to roll.

Did some counselling too yesterday. It went well. 

EAB's 80th Annual Celebration

I am trying to make sure we have a good number present at EAB’s 80th annual celebration next month. Please could you help? Please tell me if you plan to be there and if you know anyone else who can go and support the event in praise to God. Both golden oldies and young boppers are welcome!

Date: Saturday, September 29th

Auction Time: The auction starts at 5:30 pm, led by an international auctioneer especially imported for the occasion – and you make your bids whilst you drink coffee and eat delicious New Forest Food!

Celebration Service: starts at 7 pm with Liz and I speaking and showing an exclusive video of the work of EAB specially produced for the occasion plus much praise and thanks to the Lord!

Bring & Buy Stall: will also be in action for EAB so please bring and please buy!

Address: Lighthouse Community Church – Hardley, Southampton, SO45 3NZ

Please reply sending me a message on Messenger or email me at eabrazil@gmail.com adding your name/s to the list of participants!

2 weeks today!

Two weeks today to lift-off! UK here we come with 11 short videos now completely ready (1 to go + 1 "best moments" bumper edition for the annual celebration to go). A keepsake bookmark is in production too for all around the churches. Here is our schedule which you can't miss!! (we hope)

August: 23 Arrival at Heathrow / 26 Hardley Southampton am + West Wellow pm

September: 1 Weston Super Mare (must see the new pier!) / 2 Bristol Ivy am + Bristol PHC pm / 3-8 Swiss Alps (what a hard life these missionaries have! - Liz's birthday on 8th will be celebrated in 2 countries - Switzerland am and UK pm) / 9 Verwood, Dorset am / 16 Welsh Wales am / 20 Hylton Castle, Sunderland pm / 23 Great Lumley am + WVCC, Bishop Auckland pm / 25 Horden, Peterlee pm / 28 EAB Board Meeting pm / 29 EAB's 80th Annual Celebration preceeded by auction for EAB conducted by world's greatest auctioneer + refreshments!) pm / 30 Cadnam am + Winterslow pm

October: 7 Bonnie Scotland / 14 Thamesmead am / 21 Danbury, Essex / 28 Devizes am / 31 Return flights to Brazil.

Time for bed

Oh boy! What I've got done today is nobody's business! Masses of work on the sanitation project, 4 legs project plus loads of other work preparing for euro-trip 2018 which lifts off 2 weeks this Wednesday.

We now how 9 short videos completely ready with English commentaries - the lot! Done are: Wells, Market Gardens, 4 Legs, Evangelism & Church Planting, Community Sanitation, Food Bank & Soup Runs, Caring for Creation, Deaf Ministry and Action Child projects.

To finish we have Leadership Training, Desert Flower and Young at Heart projects plus a longer special video for the EAB annual celebration on September 29th.

Good Weekend

The weekend went fine and now it's flat out preparing for the August 22nd lift-off for Europe!

Saturday at Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) all went very well. We had a nice fellowship meal at the leaders' (Tica & Ramos) house prior to the service and discussed a lot of issues which was good and helped them. Then the service went great. We got home at 11:30 pm so it wasn't too bad. I was just sad because I killed 2 young foxes on the trip home in different incidents. I did everything I could to avoid the young foxes but it was impossible other than by turning the car over which wouldn't have been good!

Philip preached at the Portelo church on Saturday night too and took the band from Patos. They got back at 3 am! Ugh!

The Communion service in Patos was lovely on Sunday night. A good service with a good crowd.

Sermon ready for the Cow Pen Church tonight!

I have just rounded off my sermon preparation for tonight's 28th anniversary service at Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) and am ready to roll. We will travel there this afternoon and have a fellowship meal with the couple who lead the church, Tica and Ramos, before going to the service. I am looking forward to it.

Curral Velho is a small town or village. The entire County only has a population of 2,500 which includes all the farming communities in the 180,500 square kilometers of the county. It is hot, dry and poor. The United Nations's HDI (Human Development Index) which reports on life expectancy, schooling and living standards has Curral Velho as low (0.595). 

The trip to get there takes about 2 hours. We'll be travelling back late tonight and value your prayers.

QPR start another glorious football season!

I am a bit late in making my first prediction of the season as the match started 20 minutes ago, but my prediction for today is that QPR will lose. The match is still 0 x 0 as I post this.

Less than 3 weeks from arrival in the UK

I have worked for hours today on video productions for our UK / Switzerland tour of EAB supporters and supporting churches. We now have 9 short videos almost completed of an average of around 3 minutes in length each. The ones nearly completed are on the following EAB projects: Wells, Market Gardens, 4 Legs, Evangelism & Church planting, Community Sanitation, Food bank and Soups runs, Caring for creation, Deaf Ministry and Action Child. 

Still needing more work are 3 more on: Leadership Training, Desert Flower and Young at Heart projects. There will also be a 10 minutish video with the highlights of everything for the annual celebration including some exclusive extras.

The 9 videos virtually ready have the visual part all finalized plus musical soundtracks, and today we recorded the commentary sound tracks in English with Liz and I, plus daughter Sacha and grandchildren Felipe and Alice all helping. Quite a team effort. The other 3 short videos plus the bigger highlights video still need visuals definitions plus muiscal and commentary sound tracks.

We are not exactly sure how this is going to be done as we've never worked with videos around churches before, but Liz and I feel we will speak to each church interspersing our messages with different videos as we feel led. At the 80th celebration we will both also speak and show the larger longer video too. This is what we think may happen but we will see how things work out as the Lord leads.

The 80th EAB annual celebration will be near Southampton on Saturday, September 29th. We will have a fellowship get together with refreshments starting at 5.30 pm, which will include an auction of Brazil related items, and with me as the auctioneer as usual! The Celebration service will start at 7.00 pm. 

We value your prayers as we continue the busy preparations for our trip. Larger organizations have staff to do all these things but we have to do the lot! This is on top of regular ministry here preaching at Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) on Saturday and back for the communion service in Patos on Sunday plus a school visit to Green Pastures this Friday morning and a Patos Bible College meeting in the afternoon.

The Postal EAB Update was sent in the post yesterday.

Organizing preachers

Last night's service went very well. It's funny but I didn't feel I'd communicated as well as I might have done in the sermon but I had more positive feedback from people afterwards than usual! So praise God anyway!

It's been a hectic Monday morning. One church member's father has died in João Pessoa so I've been in contact with him. I have also been sending out the schedule to everyone involved in preaching in Patos in my absence. I have also been in discussions with Adriana who is coordinating the new EAB 'Jobs 'r Us' project helping people get jobs or improving what they already do or helping them getting an idea they have into action. I checked out a new song for the praise and worship group too and so it goes on!

EAB's church at Conceição reaches 69 years

Yesterday involved Liz and I in a two hour journey west of Patos to Conceição where the EAB/ACEV church had its 69th anniversary service and at which I preached. We arrived early in time for a chat, fellowship and a meal with the local pastor Maésio and his wife Fia and all went off beautifully.

The service was excellent and I preached with great freedom. The church was full. One thing which is lovely at this church is that they have a band which plays worship songs in our regional musical style, which I love, as they were a non-Christian band prior to the entire group coming to Christ. That was a highlight. We had the long drive back late at night afterwards but all was well. Just a bit tired today.

It was nice to see at Conceição Josias Price, Ben & Miriam Price's son, who is in Brazil for a short visit. He sure has grown!

We will be off to the Patos church shortly where I will be preaching on Colossians 3. 

Hot or Cold

As always happens at this time of year, though this time round the difference is extreme, here in northeast Brazil temperatures are cooler in the low 30s at the moment and in many parts of Europe they are in the high 30s. What is more - our bodies are adjusted to heat, and houses are built for it. In the northern hemisphere it is the opposite. Plenty of cold or very cool showers are vital folks!

On Tuesday our Action School/Child teachers training day went very well. We are in the middle of the school year break with the second semester starting next week.

Yesterday Liz and I had a very good long meeting with Pastor Wostenes (vice-chairman of the leadership Board here) and his wife Gleydice and that was excellent. We discussed a wide range of issues affecting the work here including possible planned expansion of EAB/ACEV to Natal in Rio Grande do Norte State as well as to Recife. Also the church plant at Pocinhos was discussed, plus other outreach and project team matters.

I have agreed to preach at Pastor Wostenes' EAB/ACEV Campina Grande church's 50th anniversary service on November 11th just after returning from the UK.

It is lovely that the Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre also serves as a pastors and their family's refuge. This week Pastor Wostenes and his family are spending the week there having a totally relaxing break. It was them that asked us to go for the 3 hour meeting yesterday and not us invading their break. It was lovely fellowship anyway.

Now I must get on with sermon preparation for the weekend at Conceição and Patos and this afternoon I have meetings lined up with our projects coordinator Lindon Carlos, the Christians in Action group leader Dedé and a lawyer helping me to help a couple in the Patos church adopt a baby. So it goes on! Your prayers and support are valued for everything.

By their fruit you will know them!

I preached at this ex-landless community on Saturday and today Paulo sent me this photo of fresh bananas from one of their EAB Organic Market Garden trees. Paulo is now a servant of the Lord and God is blessing his life in more ways than one!

The run in to our Europe Trip

With just under a month to our trip to Europe life is increasingly more hectic than it always is. As well as umpteen pastoral issues in the local church, overseeing another 82 churches of all shapes, sizes and locations, overseeing countless projects, keeping the Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre ticking over (a Baptist Church Sunday School was there at the weekend + university professors doing research + an ACEV/EAB Christian Conference for 100 women on our last weekend before we fly out to Europe), preaching at anniversary services at Conceição (this coming weekend) and at Curral Velho (the weekend after) etc. Help!

I am working flat out with our communications man putting the videos together for our tour of churches in the UK. So far done, apart from the English language sound track, are videos about Wells, Organic Market Gardens, 4 Legs, Evangelism & Church Planting and Community Sanitation Projects. 

The Desert Flower service on Sunday night was incredible! It was a great victory in which Sacha was mightily used of God in ministery in worship as we were in the middle of a massive spiritual battle with every gadget in church imagineable going wrong - but we made it and impact on many lives was wonderful. 5 women from the project turned up in the end plus 2 of their children. It was really positive.

We value your prayers for everything prior to our flight to Lisbon and then Heathrow leaving August 22 and arriving August 23. 

Jenny Shearing ties the knot!

Congratulations to Jenny Shearing getting married in the Cotswolds I believe today. Her father conducted Liz and I's wedding nearly 49 years ago! Jenny gets married today for the first time in her seventies. Quite a story! Very happy for you Jenny and your lucky husband!

We've had a hectic and blessed week in the work here. I've prepared sermons galore. Tonight I'm preaching on a farm not far from Green Pastures and tomorrow in Patos. Tomorrow is the second service linked to the women of the Desert Flower project but this time few are saying they will go as their spiritist links kick back at us! It is a real spiritual battle this project and the spiritists have organized deliberately a special 'possession session' to coincide with our service. We are pressing ahead anyway and value your prayers.

I had a good meeting with Action Child leaders. Praise God our EAB Action Child Schools are going great again after the reorganization. 

I've also had masses of meetings and discussions with umpteen leaders during the week. Every day brings new challenges and issues to be sorted. Church issues, project issues... so much... but the Lord is with us in it all. Thanks for your prayers and backing.

Excellent Weekend of Ministry

I preached on Friday night at the Outreach weekend in São Mamede County and it was a beautiful meeting. Over the weekend 5 decisions were made for Christ. PTL!

Then on Saturday we travelled to preach at João Pessoa and that went particularly well. A real blessing and good meetings with all the pastors from that region too.

We are now back in Patos, a bit tired, but off to church shortly for the evening service. Thanks for all your prayers and support.

The best team lost!

I predicted France would win the FIFA World Cup final and I was right but... in my view the best team lost. It is a pity. This World Cup has been very good but was spoiled by referee errors in the final match of all times! As so many commentators worldwide are saying France's first goal came from a wrongly given free kick and their penalty was a ridiculous decision as the Croatian player's hand was hit by the ball and in no way was a deliberate hand ball. Hence the score was in fact Croatia 2 x France 2 x Referee 2. Such is football that these things happen, like Maradona's blasphemous hand of God goal and the England goal against Germany years ago which was 3 miles over the line but the referee didn't see it. Sorry France but you were second best on the day, but you are World Champions anyway!

At the end of this World Cup my predictions record is pretty good with a 73.33% correct prediction percentage!

Sermons ready to roll!

My sermons are prepared (just finished) - first for this Friday evening at the ex-slave community a few miles from Green Pastures where we will have a team of 30 in the area evangelizing Friday to Sunday. This sermon will be rigorously evangelistic.

Then the second sermon is for the 24th anniversary of the mother church at João Pessoa. EAB now has 7 churches in the area with just over 300 Christian participants. 

Liz is at Green Pastures at the moment having taken food supplies there for the team which moves in there tomorrow for the evangelistic weekend. 

50%

My predictions for the semi-finals of the World Cup were half right with France in the final but not with England. England missed good chances in the first half and then lost their way with Croatia deserved winners in the end. My prediction for the final is that France will become World Champions on Sunday. In the third place play-off on Saturday I wobble... but I'll predict Belgium for 3rd place.

Please pray for the 3 special outreaches this weekend at Barra de Oitis (ex-slave) + Belém + the Green Pastures area. I will be preaching at the latter on Friday night and at João Pessoa on the coast this Saturday. 

Please also pray for a change we are going to have to make in the Projects leadership team that the Lord might help us to do it right and without causing unnecessary hurt. It's going to have to be done because someone can't cope but it's never easy to handle these matters.

Renew Our World

This Tuesday I was asked by a media team from the Renew Our World Campaign, which is a worldwide campaign amongst churches of all denominations striving for the caring for God's creation, asked me if I would do a filmed interview for them to show our Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre as an example of what can be done in the semi-arid north-east of Brazil with no rubbish, no chopping down of trees (to the contrary lots of planting), no hunting and no insecticides. It went very well and they loved it. All glory be to God!

I went to our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos's third graduation ceremony yesterday! The guy is a genius and now a graduate in LIBRAS (Brazilian sign language), Theology and Physical Education. He has now gone on to do post-graduate studies in LIBRAS!

Just a few minutes to go to England's World Cup semi-final. I was right about France winning yesterday so I hope I will be right again today and that it will be an England x France final!

Great service yesterday up in the mountains

This Saturday evening's service at Matureia up in the mountains, near the highest point in the State of Paraíba, was right up there in clouds of blessing. The service was electric! I preached and the Patos band led the praise. The church was packed out with standing room only for many. Afterwards Liz and I stayed till late chatting to local leaders, giving some advice and discussing the work of the Lord. It was sweet fellowship.

Tonight I will be preaching again but this time back down at a lower altitude in Patos. I will be preaching on John 15 where Jesus said, "I am the true vine" - with initial emphasis on the "I am" going on to a second stage regarding the "true vine" to whom Christians must be linked, get pruned, produce grapes (not sour ones!) or else be disposed of.

This Tuesday I am expecting the visit of a Tearfund team at Green Pastures and then I'll be speaking at the ex-landless community not far from there on the Friday and at João Pessoa on the Saturday. May the Lord be glorified in everything and bless you wherever you are this week.

I maintained my 75% Predictions ratio

In the second round of the FIFA World Cup I predicted 6 out of 8 winners correctly (75%) and I kept up the same percentage of correct predictions in the quarter-finals with 3 out of 4 right. I just got Brazil wrong but it was a totally deserved victory by Belgium.

My prediction for the finalists a week today is that the final will be between France and England.

Philip 40

Our son Philip had his 40th birthday yesterday and we had a nice family meal together in the evening to celebrate.

I also sorted out a number of issues at Green Pastures yesterday and had a very long walk which was good.

I had discussions with the ACEV leadership team yesterday on a number of matters. I also had discussions regarding the special outreach in the Green Pastures region to be held from the 13th to 15th this month. I will preach in the first evangelistic service on the Friday, before travelling to preach in João Pessoa on the coast the next day. I will be preaching this Saturday (7th) at Matureia up in the mountains and back in Patos on the Sunday.

I had discussions with the Action Child coordination team yesterday and we will have a training refresher day for all the teachers on July 24th.

I had meetings with the "Drug Free" team yesterday and all is ready for the meeting tonight.

I had meetings with two university professors yesterday - one about trees and the other about butterflies. The latter is jubilant at some rare species being found at Green Pastures. How amazing the results are from God's creation if you just care for it and leave it alone! The tree expert and I discussed aspects of further research to be done. 

75% Approval Ratings!

In the World Cup yesterday my prediction of England's win was right but of Switzerland's win was wrong. So I ended up with 75% correct predictions in the second round. I got 6 right out of 8.

The England match yesterday was absolutely disgusting owing to the cynical behaviour of the Columbian team who very nearly got away with it. As I see it the person who was more guilty of the whole fiasco was the referee who allowed himself to be intimidated by the Columbians. The referee was clearly not briefed as to what South American antics can be like and he got lost. Fortunately England survived but only just.

I predict in the quarter finals that France, Brazil, Croatia and England will win.

More World Cup predictions

My World Cup predictions for today were both correct, taking my percentage of correct predictions up to 83%. I predict for this Tuesday wins for Switzerland and England. 

Weekend of Blessing

The weekend was a blessing with Saturday seeing the youth from Patos join the Christians in Action group at the Ipueira church plant and the service went wonderfully well. PTL!

The weekend was also a retreat weekend for all the people of the Green Pastures area and that was really blessed too. The scientists were out in the nature reserve part at the same time as one thing doesn't interfere with the other. The researchers are ecstatic with the discovery of new species of butterflies for the caatinga region.

In Patos Sunday went beautifully and the communion service was a real blessing.

In the World Cup my prediction success rate has dropped to 75% correct with Russia knocking out Spain - but I was right (even down to my wobble) about Croatia winning.

My predictions for today are that Brazil and Belgium will win. Brazil will stop today till after the match. Banks etc. will only open after the final whistle!

Ten out of ten

So far my predictions for the second round matches of the World Cup got full marks. As predicted this morning France sent Argentina home and Uruguay did the same to Portugal. 

For tomorrow I predict Spain will beat Russia (Putin will cry and receive a consolation phone call from Trump) and Croatia will beat Denmark (although I feel slightly wobbly on this one - but I will stick to the Croats).

Green Pastures had a police helicopter flying over it three times at 4 am today with big strong light beams looking for the bandits who attacked the armoured bank vehicles yesterday at nearby Ipueira. We have no news of them being captured.

Tonight a youth team from Patos is going to help in the service at Ipueira. Please pray for the people there as they get over the shock of such a shoot out in their little town/village and for God to be with the team there tonight.

My forecast for the World Cup today

My forecast for this Saturday's World Cup 2nd round matches are that France will knock out Argentina (don't cry for me Argentina) and that Uruguay will knock out Portugal (on your bike Ronaldo!).

Don't forget that I won the international QPR result forecasters competition a couple of years ago! Not to be sneezed at!

I had my hernia surgery one year ago today so I sent my surgeon a WhatsApp message of thanks telling him that Jesus healed 10 lepers but only one returned to say thank you. I said: "I am the thankful leper today"! He was really touched. 

I posted criticism on Facebook of the situation of the poor kids separated from their parents on the US border and have been called everything under the sun, including being labelled a communist, by some. Others agree with my view. Sadly evangelicals are too easy to manipulate. As long as you say you are against abortion and gays you can do what you like! Then they always quote Romans 13:1 in defence as the military regime used to in Brazil in the 70s. May the Lord help us to read the other verses in the Bible too!