Market Garden Project

 The EAB/ACEV projects team visited our growing Market Garden Project at Barra de Oitis Community this week and was particularly impressed with the progress of Dona Benedita and Senhor Francisco known by the nick name of Tico. Benedita expressed her joy at earning 36 pounds in a month. You might not think that's much for a month but if you realize that person didn't have any income before, you will see why she is happy. Francisco impresses with his plantation of beans, maize, lettuce, guava, mango, bananas, water melon and coconut. This project really helps people to help themselves, demonstrating God's love and care in tangible ways. 

New Year's Eve

New Year is bigger in Brazil than Christmas! It is strange that this is so in the light of a majority Roman Catholic population (at least nominally) and a large evangelical population (although many are hard to recognize as genuine evangelicals). I have had many more messages from Christians today wishing me a Happy New Year than I received wishing me a Happy Christmas.

As usual we will have a service at church this New Year's Eve. The only difference is that it will be from 7.30 pm to 9 pm instead of the usual 10 pm to 12.15 am. As the service will be a hybrid in-person and online one, and in the light of the second wave of the pandemic, we felt it would be better earlier.

Philip will be speaking tonight from England and Liz and I will be speaking from the office at home. We look to God for His blessing and pray His blessing on all our family, friends, prayer warriors and supporters throughout  2021. May it be a better year than this one! 

Christmas

I preached on the Birth of Jesus on Christmas Eve in Patos. I preached from my office at home so it was shown to the church on a big screen. Our services are hybrid in person and online. All went very well. The praise and worship team sang carols including a beautiful Brazilian one written by a converted young man who was on drugs back in the seventies. The gist of this song is: "At Christmas we always thank God for Jesus having been born at Bethlehem. But what we don't always remember is that He can be born in us too". After the service Liz and I had a Brazilian traditional Christmas Eve supper. This is normally with all the family but this year of course this wasn't possible owing to the pandemic.

On Christmas Day we follow the British tradition of Christmas lunch as far as is possible. We had no Christmas pudding as you can't buy them in Brazil.

Last night our young assistant pastor Rafael preached in the final Sunday service of 2020.

Christmas Eve

 It never quite seems like Christmas in the heat! Anyway I am already to preach in our Christmas Eve service.

Yesterday afternoon Liz and I visited 2 deaconesses from our church. Both were doorstep visits with us sat in the jeep. It was nice to chat to Josinete and then to Marcia. 

Today I have had reports and photos from our church leaders who have been distributing Christmas Hampers. Francinaldo from Manaira and Travessia was very happy as was Betinho at Ibiara and Conceição. Then came Isabela from Tavares, Lindon Carlos at Imaculada, Esequias at Juru and Nenem at São Vicente do Seridó. All express much gratitude. It has been good this year to spread the Christmas Hampers far and wide. They have blessed hundreds of people. Happy Christmas! 

Christmas Presents

 Liz and I visited our Action School in Patos on Monday afternoon where a team was distributing Christmas presents to the children. We called by to encourage the team for all their dedicated work throughout a difficult year.

Please pray for this school as the headteacher Gerlânia has decided to move on to different work after 17 excellent years in our Pastor Frank Dyer School. She will not be easily replaced so please pray for God to guide us in this. We are having a lot of discussions about this with different leaders.

Yesterday Liz and I organized the purchase of small gifts for all our seniors in our Young at Heart group. Márcia and Lila went out and bought them all in the morning and then visited each senior in the afternoon distributing the gifts. As with the children the day before this resulted in many smiling faces! We do try to take special care of our seniors at church at this time because they are especially under pressure with the pandemic's restrictions.

This morning we have organized another small team to go to the Green Pastures area distributing gifts for the poor children and Christmas Hampers for their families.

Last night I gave a short video message to the final Men's Fellowship meeting of the year. Philip also took part from the UK online via Google Meet.

Sister Lena is with the Lord

 Our Sister Lena from our Imaculada church died yesterday from Covid - 19. Imaculada is a one hour drive from Patos. Lena is the second person from EAB/ACEV churches that we have lost to the pandemic. Lena's sister Malu is in a Campina Grande hospital with the same disease. Please pray for this family.

Please also pray for another sister at our Flores church and for a man at our Barra de Oitis church who are both ill with Covid.

Last night's Sunday service went well with our young assistant pastor Rafael ministering the Word. I will be preaching this Thursday (Christmas Eve) at our special Christmas service. The praise and worship team will be singing Christmas carols.

Liz and I keep up our walking at Green Pastures at least twice a week walking a few miles each time. 

Another Well inaugurated

Another well has been inaugurated. This time at Macambira dos Dionísio Community in Princesa Isabel County. Much joy was expressed by the population in the thanksgiving service.  

Prayer requests

 Please do continue to pray regarding the Covid 19 situation here in Brazil. Please especially pray for 2 sisters that have gone down ill with the virus. One is Nininha at our Flores church in Pernambuco State. The other is Lena from our Imaculada church. She has been admitted to Patos General Hospital after waiting 24 hours for a bed to be available. All hospitals here are full. The situation is serious. 

Unimaginable

The Guardian this week has called the Covid crisis in Latin America "unimaginable - lurching from bad to worse". That about sums the situation up here! Brazil is the second worse country in the world in the number of Covid deaths. We greatly value your prayers. 

I had good discussions yesterday with Pastor Renilson high up in the mountains at Matureia. I also talked to Pastor Nemias (Neemiah) at Flores in the State of Pernambuco. He was asking prayer for a sister in our church there who has gone down with Covid 19. He also told me they have cancelled their mid-week in-person service to reduce the risks of Covid in the light of the seriousness of the present situation. 

The Patos General Hospital is 95% full to capacity as regards the Covid beds. The situation is the same all over Brazil.

This week Liz and I had 2 good 2 mile walks at Green Pastures.

Tribute to Ivy Dyer

 Last night a lovely special tribute was made to Sister Ivy Dyer who went to be with the Lord almost 8 years ago in January 2013. The tribute was made by a Bible College (JUVEP) on the coast in João Pessoa. Last week they contacted me asking for information, which I gave, as they had decided to speak about Ivy's long years (over 60 years) of service in the interior and make a tribute to her in their graduation service. Pastor Matheus from our first church in João Pessoa went to the service to represent ACEV/EAB. I have watched the tribute on YouTube this morning and it is really lovely. Praise God for Ivy's dedicated life to the Lord. She received her home call just 4 months short of reaching 90 years of age.

Pastors meeting

 Last night Liz and I held a very good meeting with our assistant pastor Rafael. We were all duly masked and socially distanced in our back garden in the open air. We first of all discussed the Green Pastures church which we are in the process of reorganizing after the previous leader Tarcísio left and moved to the town. We are now holding a service there every Saturday evening which is led by Rafael.

We also had discussions on the Patos church as well as the Teixeira and Juazeirinho churches where Rafael had worked previously. 

New Well inaugurated

 On Friday a lovely open-air thanksgiving service was held for a new well drilled at Olho D'água Seco Community in Tavares County. This well produces 2,800 litres of water per hour which is more than enough for the more than 40 families immediately benefitted by the well. This well will be great for irrigation for these farming folk too. We always hold a thanksgiving service at our project inaugurations and it was good to see a good crowd which gathered from the community who heard the Gospel loud and clear. 

Desert Flower Project

 Last week we held a 2-day training course for the women of the Desert Flower Project at Fonseca slave descendants community. They learnt how to plan, how to sell, how to control their money and how to unite so as to improve. The course went very well indeed. The ladies have learnt to make bread, cakes, savories and handicraft and now need to sell what they make so as to improve their income. 

4 Legs Project

 Our 4-Legs Project attends extremely poor rural dwellers with good quality goats and this week 11 families were benefitted by the project in Custódia and Manaíra Counties and they were very grateful. We thank all who support EAB and make such projects possible.

I have been talking to Jair and Silvânia who lead EAB/ACEV's second church in Princesa Isabel. They told me about the high levels of anxiety in the church owing to the pandemic. The church is meeting twice a week following all the distancing/mask rules. Please pray for this couple and for their church in the borough of Maia on the south side of Princesa Isabel. Please pray specially for their son who has severe depression problems. He is at university in João Pessoa on the coast. 

Action Child School

 I have been talking to Pastor João George who is doing a great job with the Action Child School at Imaculada despite all the restrictions and limitations of the pandemic. Schools continue closed so our team produces work and exercise sheets and delivers them to the children's homes every two weeks. They have given all the children masks as well. The children receive food hampers periodically which helps all the family. 

I also am talking to Betinho and Maciene who lead both the Ibiara and Conceição churches. Ibiara, where they live, is doing well. Conceição is a 15 minute drive away and is not doing so well for two reasons. First of all because they had a number of cases of Covid so they suspended the church in-person services for a time whilst everyone recovered. Secondly because the church wants and needs a pastor who lives there and can focus attention specifically on Conceição. That person we don't have at the moment, so please pray with us on this.

Another person I've been talking to is Maria José who leads the rural church of Cedro in Princesa Isabel County. Please pray for Maria José as she seems to be discouraged by the difficult days in which we live. The little EAB/ACEV church there can only fit 15 people owing to the necessary distancing, but they often don't even get 10 there. Maria José was used to 30 or 40 in the services and one can understand her feelings.

More pastors

 Pastor Hamilton leads the 2nd EAB/ACEV church in Campina Grande and we have been discussing the work there. They are doing hybrid in-person and online services on Sundays and Wednesdays and all is being blessed. Their house groups are mainly online.

Another young pastor I've been working with is Iremar. He is responsible for two small churches at Juá, where he goes every fortnight. The other is a church plant in the João Pessoa borough of 'Funcionários 2' where he lives with his family. This church plant has been on hold owing to the pandemic but we hope and pray for improvement in the situation there so as to get things moving again. 

I have also been discussing things with Pastor Robério too at Tavares. They are doing things just the same as Campina Grande above. 

I've also had meetings with Sister Nenem Guimarães who leads the São Vicente do Seridó church. They are just holding the Sunday service there for the time being but all is well.

Covid 19 deaths cause concern

I have been discussing the situation at Flores in Pernambuco State with our leader there called Nemias (Nehemiah). They certainly seem to be facing a second wave of the Coronavirus and a number of people have recently died there. Nemias thinks they may soon not be able to hold church services. Please pray for Flores.

Pastor Gersé at Princesa Isabel tells me that all is well in the church and that their services on Sundays and Wednesdays are attended by about half the normal number. He asked us all to pray for them. This is the church where an elder Otávio has already died with the virus. So please pray for Gersé who seems a bit discouraged. 

I have also been talking to Pastor Oseias at our Itaporanga church where they are conducting hybrid services in-person and online on Sundays. He says that they plan to hold other weeknight services in church as from January, but we shall have to see how things go.

Pastor Nezinho Abílio pastors both the Vazante and Barra de Oitis churches and he has asked my to see what can be done to help Brother Damião who has fractured a leg and has been waiting for surgery in Patos for 10 days. I have contacted our Nurse Gisane asking her to see what can be done to speed things up. 

Pastor Esequias has gone down with a heavy cold so he tells me that he got others to lead the service yesterday so as to be on the safe side. Please pray for him. 

A different wedding present

Edson and Aparecida are a young couple who came to Christ at our church at Barra de Oitis in Diamante County. This community of slave descendents is extremely poor. The couple fell in love and wanted to do things properly and get married, but the big question was where could they live? So it was that some family and friends got together with them to make them a tiny house using mud and sticks for the walls and clay tiles for the roof, but like most houses in the village it had no toilet or shower.

EAB therefore decided to put them on its list for its toilet/shower project and when funds became available we have just built them behind their house a lovely toilet/shower unit and the newlyweds are over the moon! The circular construction is 2.5 meters wide, has a water tank above and dual cess pits beneath. Inside it has a flush toilet, shower and hand basin and outside has a large sink for washing clothes.

Edson and Aparecida join us in thanking EAB supporters for this wonderful wedding present. May God richly bless you. 

Caroá leader Valdemy

 The election for Mayors and town councilors occurred last Sunday (15th) and our pastor Valdemy just missed being elected as a councilor. He is naturally disappointed as he feels it is an open door to serve his community, but on the other hand too much politics could be detrimental to his pastoral work.

The church at Caroá carries on in blessing anyway as do the other churches in the region at Mandacaru, Água Grande, Pinheiro and Umburana. I had a good chat with both Valdemy and his brother Valdemar to discuss all this.

I have also been talking to Pastor Lindon Carlos at Imaculada where the church is going well despite low numbers owing to all the Coronavirus issues. Pastor Maésio at Teixeira reports all well as does Pastor Renilson at Matureia. The Action Schools are going on too at Matureia and Imaculada and being real blessings.

Last night Liz and I had a very good meeting with Pastor Rafael to discuss a few issues that have cropped up in Patos. 

Covid recoveries in João Pessoa

I have been talking to Pastor Umbirajara from our 1st Church (of 3) in João Pessoa. He tells me that they have had cases of Covid 19 in the church, but all have recovered. PTL! The Sunday service there is hybrid in-person and online.

Pastor Francinaldo at Manaira reports no cases of the virus in the church. Their in-person Sunday services are going well. Numbers are down as older folk can't go but God is blessing anyway. They recently held an open-air service at Travessia which saw a big group of people come to and hear the Gospel. We have plans to build a little church at this place when possible. We have bought the land for the building. Services are being held at Fonseca as well. All necessary safety precaution are taken by our churches.

There's a time for everything

 Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there is a time for everything and certainly in this time of pandemic it is being a time for me to keep in contact with all our leaders online so as to support them and encourage them. Our prayer always is that many years of experience may be helpful to all, especially to the younger pastors. 

I've been having good discussions with Gleydice and Wostenes who lead our first Campina Grande church. They hold hybrid in-person and online services on Sundays and Wednesdays and these are going well despite the masks and all the other rules and regulations. 

I've had chats with pastor Ângelo at Soledade and with Tica and Ramos who lead the Curral Velho church. Everyone is doing all they can under the circumstances. We all seek to make the most of these difficult days. The Lord is faithful and is blessing. We greatly value your prayers for us and for all our church leaders.

Barra de Oitis

 Our Projects Team continue to do a great job. The team is now setting up some new types of work in the Barra de Oitis slave descendants community as follows, similar to what we already do at the Fonseca community.

Training 10 women in cookery and handicraft making.

Training 8 young men in the basics of caring for and fixing motorbikes.

Training 12 people as basic community health workers and also training them to care for the environment. 

Everyone involved in these projects receives hygiene kits to combat and protect from the Covid 19 virus.

Please pray for these projects that they might make real life changing differences in many lives and that they might make commitments to Jesus Christ too. 

Wedding Anniversary

 Today is our 51st wedding anniversary by the grace and goodness of God.

Today is also election day here for Mayors and Town Councilors. We pray for honest competent leadership to be chosen as we sure need it.

Please pray for a sister from our Patos church who had gone down with Covid 19. Her name is Linda. She is the church cleaner.

The service held at Green Pastures last night was excellent. Sacha led the praise and worship. The new format of services at Green Pastures is working out very well. 

In Patos there will not be a service owing to the election. There is always lots of noise at the time of the service so we always cancell. 

Deer at Green Pastures

 Our Green Pastures Christian Conference Centre and Nature Reserve sees the Conference Centre on hold owing to the pandemic. Last month, for example, would have normally seen our annual leaders conference there but this had to be cancelled and essential business was dealt with an online Google Meet Conference. However of course the Nature Reserve side of things carries on unaffected caring for creation and seeking to be a Christian example. Thus we had the thrill this week to register with a Bushnell automatic wildlife camera a deer for the very first time, which are extremely rare in our region. 

Tonight the local church there will be meeting in-person with all the necessary precautions and we pray that God will bless. A team from Patos will be taking the service.

I have been doing a lot more work on the history of the churches and projects here for the benefit of our churches. The idea is to cover the first 80 years and I've now just completed 66 years. It's a lot of work wading through the minutes of meetings plus church and project reports and newsletters but I believe the end result will be worthwhile. I value your prayers.

International Men's Fellowship

 Last night's Men's Fellowship was both in-person and online and turned out to be quite an international night with our son Philip taking part in England. Gilmarco also took part from the extreme south of Brazil. The meeting was led by Major Esaú and assistant pastor Rafael brought a short Biblical reflection on the subject of repentence based on Psalm 51. The meeting was really blessed of God and one man called Flávio, who has been away from God for years, came for the second time and made a public unsolicited recommittal of his life to God. Praise the Lord!

Monday night's prayer meeting went well too. This morning I walked for over 3 miles at Green Pastures which is good physical, spiritual and mental exercise in the middle of God's creation. It is just a pity that it's getting so hot early, rising to 38 degrees in the shade most days. By 8 am it was really hot and rain we haven't seen for months so air humidity levels are dangerously low and the vegetation is utterly parched. 

"I needed clothes and you clothed me" (Matthew 25:36)

This week our team distributed over 500 items of new and second-hand clothes in good condition to the slave descendent communities of Barra de Oitis and Fonseca. Shoes and hygiene kits were also distributed. These simple expressions of God's love made many people very happy. 

Last night a team from Patos went and held the first in-person service at Green Pastures for months observing social distancing, the wearing of masks etc. Thank you for your prayers. The service was a real blessing with a good number from the region present. 

Drive through visit

 Liz and I did another of our drive-through visits this afternoon. We visited our deaconess Josinete and her husband Zaqueo. They were very happy with the visit. We pulled up in front of their house in our jeep and talked to them whilst they stood a few metres away. We all were wearing masks. It was nice to chat to them and catch up with some of their family news. They reminded us of their daughter's wedding scheduled for April. She has been going out with the boy for 19 years! That is what I call patience! Both Gisliany and Perlânio are members of the Patos church. She works at the Care Centre and he is an interpreter for the deaf fellowship.

Bathroom dream comes true

 Cícera Virgulino da Silva is a 37-year-old mother of 5 who is married to João Paulo. Her family has lived at Barra de Oitis slave descendent community for many generations. She cannot read or write. Cícera has only ever known poverty and used to walk for 2 hours to find water to wash the family clothes when she was just 9. By 11 she had to work in the plantations in the rainy season. This she still does today as a mother of 5.

Cícera says: “I always dreamed of having a bathroom and toilet which is something we never ever had. We just had a hut for the women to wash down in but no toilet. This was especially difficult and even dangerous for the women. Now we are overjoyed by the toilet/shower unit that EAB/ACEV have built for us. It is wonderful and will serve our house and 7 other houses near ours!”

These folk are also receiving help setting up market gardens and chicken runs so as to enhance their income and improve their diet. This community is hearing the Gospel too and seeing God’s love in action. We thank everyone who prays for and supports the work of EAB.

Wells

 EAB/ACEV has been digging and drilling wells for nearly 30 years and their impact on communities is quite extraordinary. When I look back I see how God has blessed us in and through this ministry and project as we had to learn everything from scratch. 

As I am writing EAB/ACEV history I asked our team to tell me just how many wells we drilled and equipped during the first 12 years of this project from 1992 to 2004. The answer is that we drilled or dug 54 wells which is an average of over 4 a year. These 54 wells benefitted very poor and needy people in a wide range of communities blessing at least 22,400 people!

Most of our wells are deep-bore which drill 50 meters deep. The well then has to be tested for the water quality and quantity and equipped with an appropriate pump. A water storage tank is built so that the water can be distributed from there my gravity to the whole community. We always also provide an animal drinking trough near the water tank. 

So thanks very much for all your prayers and support for the wide range of EAB Projects. Thank you for praying too that the living water of Jesus Christ also reaches into these communities for the glory of God. 

Twelve at Prayer

 I had a good 3 mile walk at Green Pastures this morning which was refreshing but very hot. One has to be ending a walk before 9 am owing to the increasing heat at this time of year rising daily to 38 degrees. It's very hot and very dry.

There were 12 in the Monday night "knees to the ground" prayer meeting with 10 in-person and 2 online. Tonight is the Men's Fellowship night and the women's night will be tomorrow. 

Your prayers are valued for Liz's arthritic knees. Her left knee is particularly swollen and painful and she will be going to the doctor's tomorrow to remove the fluid and apply medication.

Fire in the mountains

 Last night's service in Patos was good as was the service up in the mountains at Teixeira. The local pastor Maesio sent me photos from there which I have posted on the EAB Facebook page. It seems odd everyone yards apart and wearing masks but this is the new normal.

It wasn't long after my chat with the Teixeira pastor that I learnt of a forest fire in that region. The fire fighters are on the job but it is quite a challenge in difficult terrain. At this time of year we have seen no rain for months so fire outbreaks easily occur, sometimes deliberately. Please pray for this situation. The fire is on the northwest side of the Jabre Peak.  

Children's Morning

Liz and I enjoyed our Sunday morning today when we joined our Children's Ministry Team distributing sweets and lollipops to children from our Patos church in commemoration of Children's Day which was on Monday. The shady side of the church was beautifully decorated by balloons and all the families needed to do was call by the church to receive their bags of sweets! It was a simple way to show God's love and care for our children. The team called the morning - Drive Thru Kids! There were many smiles behind the masks. The whole event only cost us 50 pounds and everything was done safely as the pandemic demands. 

Now it's time to get ready for the main evening service which again will be in-person and online. We value your prayers and support always for every aspect of the work here. These are difficult frustrating days but we are doing all we can to cope with the challenges and overcome the difficulties. Please DO pray for us as we DO pray for you. Not a day goes by without we pray for all our supporters and partners in mission for the glory of God. 

How the other half survive!

 We often use that expression - how the other half lives - when we are surprised by the desperate needs of others. A case came to light recently which exemplifies this. Tatiana is a 12 year old adolescent at the Fonseca ex-slave community who takes part in our Desert Flower Project which seeks to help women help themselves. For example, the women learn how to make bread and to bake cakes which they can sell. Tatiana never misses our project's meetings or lessons but on one particular day recently she didn't turn up. Our social worker enquired as to if she was unwell but discovered that Tatiana had missed our session because the one blouse which she has which is not torn or has holes in was in the wash!

The sad plight of Tatiana is not limited to her alone of course but this story made us want to do something to help her and many others like her. So we have a campaign going around EAB/ACEV churches and our people are giving used but decent clothes for distribution by our project team to the very poor and needy. As October 12th was Children's Day we are concentrating on second hand but good clothes for children and we are encouraged by the results. Many people have dug out excellent clothes their children grew out of and during this month our team will distribute them at Fonseca Community. 

As Jesus said in Matthew 25:36 - "I needed clothes and you clothed me". All we do we do for Jesus. Thank you for all your prayers and support.  

Pastoral Meeting

 Last night Liz and I held a very good meeting in our back garden, with our assistant pastor Rafael, to discuss different topics relevant to the progress of the church. We also invited pastor Lucena (ex-Congregational) who I used to work with at the Patos Bible College and who now is with us in the Patos church. The main topic was how we will now run the São Mamede church after the ex-leader left. We decided to run regular Saturday night services there. We also discussed some problem individuals in the Patos church whom I can't name here and we agreed ways to deal with them. We value your prayers for both these matters.

Children's Day

 This Sunday's service went off very well and today, October 12th, is a bank holiday for the patron saint of Brazil - Our Lady of Aparecida. Today is also Children's Day. Later in the week we will be holding a special 'drive through' sweets distribution for the children in commemoration of their day. Cars and motor bikes will be able to pull over by the church for the children to receive their sweets and lollipops. I thought it was a pretty good creative idea which the kids will love!

Projects Leadership Meeting

 We have just held an excellent online leaders meeting, which I chaired, to discuss our wide range of projects. There were about 40 leaders from all over the State of Paraíba in northeast Brazil taking part in a lovely spirit. We would normally hold this meeting at Green Pastures but the pandemic made this impossible. We chose the projects leadership team for the next 2 years and heard reports on our projects. We look to the Lord for His blessing as we press on with our projects in these difficult times. We value your prayers always. 

Where there's a will there's a way

 We badly wanted to visit Maria José following the death of her 90 year old mother. However the quarantine restrictions made it impossible until we had the idea of a drive-through visit! Liz and I drove to her little house and Maria stood in front of it whilst we spoke to her from inside our jeep with the windows open. It worked very well and she was very grateful. We were all in masks and far apart but able to talk to Maria and pray with her. Where there's a will there's a way!

We took part in the Bible Study last night which was another hybrid in-person and online edition. All went well with a total of about 40 taking part with 21 in-person. 

Pastor Maésio leads the EAB/ACEV church up the mountains at Teixeira and we had a good chat today. He is positive and encouraged by the services going quite well there despite of the pandemic. The sister who leads the São Vicente do Seridó church tells me she is feeling better after a severe period of anxiety. Please continue to pray for Nenem as she is called. 

Please pray for Conceição & Caroá

 I have just had a good talk with Betinho who leads both the Ibiara & Conceição EAB/ACEV churches which are fifteen minutes apart. Both churches are holding services again with people wearing masks and observing social distancing. Betinho asks for prayer for a couple to take on the leadership of the Conceição Church as he finds it difficult to cope with both. Betinho lives at Ibiara and that was his lone responsibility, but he had to take on Conceição too when their pastor moved away. 

Please pray too for the Caroá church where we dug our first well many years ago. The issue at Caroá is that their pastor Valdemy is standing for election as a town councillor. The election will be held on November 15th. Valdemy was elected in 2012 but not in 2016. A mandate here is 4 years. Now he is trying again. I am not opposed to Valdemy being a councillor as long as he can conciliate politics and the church. He has done many things to benefit Caroá and neighboring communities which is important and good. However we don't want to see him growing cold spiritually and there has to be the balance. Valdemy is a lovely brother and we want him to stay that way. It is excellent how he has served and is serving his region. This brings glory to God as long as it's done with honesty and balance. My experience just makes me feel cautious and wary. May God richly bless Pastor Valdemy and the Caroá church. 

Oversight & coordination

 A lot of my daily work is taken up with the oversight and coordination in conjunction with all our leaders. In recent days I have had discussions with members of our senior leadership team involving a wide range of matters. Pastor Wostenes, who is my vice-chairman, is excellent. He pastors the first EAB/ACEV church at Campina Grande. He and his wife Gleydice are Liz and I's closest colleagues and friends. 

I have had discussion on money matters with our ACEV treasurer pastor Hamilton and with the projects treasurer Eduardo. I am in constant contact with Pastor Lindon Carlos at Imaculada who is our projects team leader. I often need to chat things over with his assistant leader and social worker Marah Danielle too. We are now about to drill a further well at Macambira Community in Princesa Isabel County and we are praying of course that we will hit water. Drilling 150 feet underground is always a challenge as you never know for sure if you will hit a vein of water. The location is defined by an expert but that doesn't make the endeavor a certainty by any means.

I am constantly in contact with Gerlânia who is our head-teacher at our Action School here in Patos. This the Pastor Frank Dyer School has once again just received top prize as the best school in its category in Patos. Gerlânia is a very capable and dedicated administrator who helps oversee all our Action Child Schools as well.

I am also busy working with my new assistant pastor Rafael in Patos who is doing very well, not forgetting in Patos our men's fellowship leader Esau. Esau is a lovely brother and a Major in the Patos Military Police.

Finally I must also mention my discussions with pastors Umbirajara and Manoel Oliveira Filho in João Pessoa. Despite the fact that they are 200 miles from me on the coast, modern technology allows us to share rich fellowship in Christ on a regular basis.

Ex-landless Community

 The ex-landless community at NS Aparecida II was happy to receive the visit last night of the Patos Men's Fellowship. The community is a few miles north of Green Pastures. The men conducted an open-air service there in front of Brother Paulo's house and his wife Dora who are proud participants of our market gardens project which is being a great blessing in their lives. The couple both made commitments to Christ some time back as an indirect result of the well and market garden project. They also are beneficiaries of the 4 Legs Goat Project. Please pray for this couple and community that many more there will come to the Lord.

Prayer requests

 Our first in person service in months was held yesterday and it was a real blessing. Our new young assistant pastor led and preached and he did very well. He admitted to me that he was a bit tense but that it is only natural. The service was broadcast live as well for all who couldn't be there. Please pray for Rafael - our new assistant pastor.

Please pray for Liz's very painful arthritic knees. Also pray for EAB finances which are very low. Please pray for this Saturday's meeting online of all our church leaders. We will be discussing all our projects and how we are coping in the pandemic. We will also be choosing the projects leadership team for the next 2 years. 

We need a new caretaker worker for Green Pastures so please pray for this and for a service to be held near there tomorrow night. Please pray for a serious electricity supply problem at the Patos church.   

Bible Study went well

 Thursday night's Bible Study went well. We managed to cover the whole of Acts chapter 15 which was good. The praise at the beginning was led by Tiago as Philip and family are now in the UK. Philip and Louisa took part in the service from Basingstoke. The pastor and an elder from one of our João Pessoa churches also took part from there so the Bible study was far reaching!

We have been busy organizing this Sunday night's service as it will be our first in person service in months. It will also be broadcast live for those who can't be there. Seating has been arranged according to the rules keeping everyone 1.5 meters apart. Everyone must wear masks. People over 60 are recommended to stay home and take part online. We expect to have about 60 people present as of course the distancing rules reduces our capacity a lot. We value your prayers for our services under very challenging circumstances. 

Our team has been to Barra de Oitis this week working with the community, especially with the participants of the market gardens project. We did a distribution of seeds and our agricultural specialist was there to further teach and train the people and to answer all their questions. A new garden/allotment was also set up this week. It is so good to see the success of this project which restores poor people's dignity as they have the joy of producing fruit and vegetables which enhances their income. People are also more open to the Gospel as they see and feel God's love for them in such practical ways.

I walked another nearly 3 miles yesterday at Green Pastures. I try to do this three times a week like I did this week and last.

Trinity

 I finished reading a book on the Trinity by Roger Forster today. I quite enjoyed it. It's a challenging subject to put it mildly! The emphasis on the dynamic nature of the trinity was very helpful as was the emphasis on worship.

I have prepared this week's Bible Study on Acts 15. The focus of the chapter is on the Council held in Jerusalem which sought to lay to rest the constant efforts by the Judaizers' efforts to impose Jewish law on gentile converts to Christianity. Gentile Christians were growing greatly in number all over the place.

Sunday service

 Our main Sunday service will start shortly. It will be strange without Philip, but Sacha will be now leading the band. I will be preaching on Philippians 3:1-11 and value your prayers.

Philip and family are safely installed in their Basingstoke house after a long grueling journey. They are exhausted but fine. Our tremendous thanks go to Ben & Miriam Price for all they have done in support for Philip and Gylmara. We now pray for a incident free two weeks of quarantine. 

On their way

 I set my alarm this morning for 04.45 am. Philip slept at our house so we could call him. The large car taking him to João Pessoa airport with 11 cases (2 per person and 1 extra) arrived an hour later and they left at 06:04 am. His wife Gylmara and the 3 children had been in João Pessoa with her family since Thursday. 

All met up at the airport for the 13:30 flight to São Paulo. They have to wait now for the London flight which is due to leave just before midnight. They should be at Heathrow at 15:05 on Sunday afternoon and then need to get to Basingstoke. They then of course will have 2 weeks of quarantine at their house. Fortunately for them they have great friends in Ben and Miriam Price who live at Basingstoke and who will sort their shopping etc. So we value your prayers for Philip & family at this time.

Philip flies out this Saturday

 This week is a sad one for us as our son Philip and family move back to the UK. We will be calling in at their house in a while to say goodbye to his wife Gylmara and their 3 children Louisa, Lucas and Luis as they will leaving for João Pessoa in the morning where Gylmara's family live. Philip will go straight to the João Pessoa airport on Saturday morning where the rest of the family will join him. Philip will be taking all the cases. The logistics of a family of 5 is quite a challenge! They will fly out of João Pessoa this Saturday at 13:30 and go to São Paulo. There they will get the overnight flight to Heathrow where they will arrive on Sunday afternoon. Please pray for Philip and his family as they go into two weeks quarantine in Basingstoke where they have rented a house. Their period of adaptation promises to be quite a challenge.  

Fires under control

The bush fires on the western edge of Patos have been brought under control. It would seem that the largest threat to houses, lives and animals in and around Patos has been solved although the fires still burn in the neighbouring County of Santa Teresinha which is further west. There are reported to be some extra smaller fires which have started thought to be arson. There are always arsonists around it is sad to say. So thanks to all for their prayers.

Sadly Sunday night's online service did not take place owing to the failure of the internet. It was a frustrating night as everyone battled to get things working but it was impossible.

As from October 4th our services will be a mixture of online and in person as we will then have a young assistant pastor called Rafael with us who is not in a Covid high risk group. Rafael will be replacing Philip who together with his family are going to England this Saturday. Philip will be greatly missed and we are sad he is going, but such is life. We pray that God will bless them in the UK.

Major Fire

Yesterday afternoon we noticed the sunshine was a strange colour and it was only when we drove out to Green Pastures that we saw why through our mirrors. We could see huge columns of smoke west of Patos. We have now learnt that the fire started on Sunday in Santa Teresinha County and has been raging and spreading ever since. It has spread into the rural area of Patos too and has already killed lots of animals. The Fire Fighters have called up help from all over the State. It is a very dangerous and tragic situation. It hasn't rained here at all for months so the bush catching fire easily happens. Added to this it is quite windy and we have temperatures of 37 degrees every afternoon. Please pray!

Difficult times

 Sometimes things happen in the work which are very disheartening. Yesterday Tarcísio, who used to take care of Green Pastures and lead the church there, abruptly left following the death of his wife on Sunday. I feel very disappointed and sad about this. I counselled him against this knee-jerk reaction, wanting to be away from all that reminds him of Maria, but he would not listen. He was adamant. I know these are difficult days for Tarcísio but the fact is that he has gone and it's hard to come to terms with things after 30 years with him taking care of things and leading the local EAB/ACEV church at Green Pastures.

I do ask you for special prayer at this time for Tarcísio and family. I also ask for prayer for us as we look for the way forward in the light of what has happened.

Last night's Bible Study went well and we covered Acts 14:1-18. My head was in a bit of tizwaz with all the happenings, but we made it and the Lord blessed.

Maria is with the Lord

 Tarcísio's wife Maria passed away this Sunday morning in the Patos General Hospital. This leaves us all feeling sad but our prayers are with Tarcísio and his family at this difficult time. Please join us in prayer. Maria had battled against a brain tumour for a number of years. Tarcísio is the leader of our Green Pastures Church.

This evening's online service is going to be a bit subdued as a result of Maria's death. We value your prayers for the service. 

Maria gravely ill

 Maria is the wife of Tarcísio who both leads the church at Green Pastures and who oversees the place in general. Maria was operated on for a brain tumor a few years ago and recovered well for a while, but has got slowly worse again since then. Now today she has taken a severely worse turn and is in intensive care in the Patos General Hospital where there is little more they can do for her. We ask everyone to please pray for Maria and the whole family at this time.

Walking

 I walked 2.7 miles this morning which was exactly the same distance I walked on Wednesday too. I try to walk three times a week. I walked 3.3 miles on Monday. Keeping fit is an important aspect of living.

Last night's Bible study went well. Pastor Lucena, who is a retired Congegational pastor and an old friend of mine, gave the study on the life of Peter and I led the service. Philip led the praise and worship with his guitar.

Meeting with the Assistant Chairman

 Liz and I had a very good meeting this afternoon with the assistant chairman of ACEV pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice. Gleydice is also a member of our senior leadership team. This couple are two of our close friends in the work here. They are a lovely couple.

First of all we discussed the matter of a replacement for the leadership role at the Juazeirinho Church as the current pastor will be moving to Patos to be my assistant pastor as from next month. The couple we feel should take on Juazeirinho are Leonardo and his wife Arine from the Soledade church. There will be a meeting of the Juazeirinho church about this on Saturday.

We then went on to discuss one of our pastors who is ill and we had a good chat about his situation. 

Sunday's service went very well. I preached on Psalm 40. 

Yesterday I put together the EAB Nutshell Update and today I sent it out. Thanks to you who responded to it which is encouraging.

New Assistant Pastor

 As from the month of October I will have a new assistant pastor by the name of Rafael. This is because Philip, who has been my co-pastor for a long time now, is moving back to England with his family. Philip will be sorely missed. He has done an excellent job.

Last night we had a meeting with Rafael discussing various aspects of the work in Patos. It was a lovely and encouraging meeting. Rafael has rented a flat in the same street as the church a five minute walk away. Rafael is 30 and single but has just started going out with a lovely Christian girl from the Patos church so that has worked out well too. 

We value your prayers for Rafael and this new phase in the Patos church. We will be going back to holding services in church when he comes as he is young and not in a risk category. People will need to be under 60, wear masks and keep 1.5 metres apart, so of course it will be strange but better than nothing. The services will continue to be online too for those who can't go to church or who don't feel comfortable about going. 

Chicken Runs

 This week our team have been constructing more chicken runs at Barra de Oitis ex-slave community. The runs or pens are fenced in with wire netting and are partially covered with roofing in the part where there are boxes for the hens to lay their eggs. The system works very well and the beneficiaries are very pleased.

I have been ministering as usual. Last night's Bible Study finished off Acts chapter 13 and went particularly well. Praise God! It's so nice when people take part like last night. I think this is especially important with services on line. One of our pastors at João Pessoa takes part every week and last night his participation was excellent. I preached last Sunday too on Psalm 46 and this Sunday it will be Psalm 40. 

Sausage and milk!

I have just received photos and a video from the EAB Action School at Juru where food hampers were distributed this week. To see the Action Children overjoyed and proud of receiving the hamper for the family is very moving. One little boy attacked the hamper with hunger and grabbed a pre-cooked cold sausage and started dipping it in dried milk and eating it with utter delight! The local pastor Ezequias filmed the scene with his mobile phone and captured the little lad's delight. Thank you for supporting this work. 

Food Hampers

 I am receiving reports and photos of our Action Child food distribution and it's lovely to see so many happy children and their families. One family at Imaculada was very emotional when our team arrived as they had nothing at all to eat! All the children's families are very grateful so thank you for supporting this important project. Lessons continue online and/or through weekly distribution of lessons. Circumstances are not easy but the work goes on for God's glory. 

Last night's Bible Study went well and we finished Acts 13:31 in our journey through this book. Yesterday we looked at the incident with a Jewish sorcerer at Pafos on the island of Cyprus. We then went through two thirds of Paul's sermon in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch. 

Another Toilet/Shower Unit

We are in the process of finishing another toilet / shower unit for the desperately poor at Barra de Oitis ex-slave community. The recipients are a couple who live in terrible need. José Alexandre is the husband's name and Flávia is his wife. She is blind and has epilepsy. They live off  a government benefit of 11 pounds a month! Their food is kept in two sacks which are tied to the low roof (the house has no ceiling) so as to help keep it from the rats. It is one of the most pitiful examples of extreme poverty and need you can imagine. This couple has just received one of our food parcels from our food bank but they are even more overjoyed with the new toilet/shower. José Alexandre is 60 but has never lived in a house with a toilet all his life! We have built this unit with a ramp and a wider door than usual as Flávia may be reduced to a wheelchair at some point. We hope not but the local leadership felt this would be wise in this case. José Alexandre and Flávia have dedicated their lives to Christ. 

I am prepared for tonight's Bible Study which I will be starting in a few hours time and for which I value your prayers. We will carry on tonight in Acts 13 concerning Paul's first missionary journey.

Counselling

We have been involved in a number of sessions of online and telephone counselling today. First of all there was a senior lady who was feeling low. Then there was a couple who have had serious marriage problems. It was encouraging to feel our input was helpful. The presence of the Lord was really felt during the longish chat.

Then there was sister Iris who is moving to join her husband at Natal where he has got a job in the police force. They have two young sons. Iris is a dynamic worker with children so will be greatly missed and we hope her plans to be back by Christmas work out. 

EAB carries on

 Despite the pandemic the work carries on here in northeast Brazil. The annual drought is also with us as we haven't seen a drop of rain for months. This is expected to continue till the end of the year as normal. So the undergrowth everywhere is now very dry.

Another well has been finished at Olho D'águinha Community in Tavares County. At Barra de Oitis Community in Diamante County another toilet/show is being built and at Fonseca Community in Manaira County more chicken runs are being built for the 2 Wings project with laying hens.

75% done

I have finished the history of the work here for 1938 to 1998. My aim is to write the first 80 years up to 2018 so it means I've completed 75% of the book which is good. This book will be so important for the churches here and if I don't write it who will? I would rather have less time to write this book and be out visiting the flock, but as I can't then I am making good use of the time of the pandemic. 

I also walked a little over two miles early this morning. This is very important too.

I have just listened to a lovely message of thanks from a man who is not a Christian at Barra de Oitis ex-slave community. He is expressing his gratitude for our food bank supplies to the community in these dark days. It is very moving to hear him talk. He sent the message entirely as his own initiative. Very encouraging. Thank you Lord! I pass on his thanks to all who support the work of EAB.

Prayer under the trees

 I went for a nice two and a half mile walk with my son Philip yesterday at Green Pastures. I have a couple of little benches under trees at two locations where I can stop for a rest in the shade and Philip and I stopped at one of these on the northern side and had a nice time of prayer together. It was really blessed and good. 

I have been having discussions with Pastor Gersé who leads the first EAB/ACEV church at Princesa Isabel which is our oldest church. I say first church because we now have two in the town. They lost a good church elder there to Covid-19 but an older sister there has recovered. They have a child in treatment in Recife at the moment suspected of having the virus. Gersé tells me that the faith of a number of the church members is really being tried at this time. 

All is set for the main service of the week (Sunday night). I will lead the service and Pastor Lucena will preach. Lucena is a retired Congregational church pastor who joined us after retiring. We worked together for many years at the Patos Bible College and we have always got on well together. He is a good help in the church. 

Home made Bread

Jenilda dos Santos takes part in the women's Desert Flower Project at the Fonseca ex-slave community. She has shared her gratitude for the cookery and bakery lessons the group has been receiving. She says how happy she is, together with the other participants, for having been taught how to make bread. I will quote her own words: "We learnt to make home made bread having been taught by Pastor João George. We loved how patient and polite he was with us and how he encouraged us to try... and it worked. Nobody had ever taught us how to make bread or cakes or savory tasty treats. It is so good!" Such community teaching restores dignity, improves diets and provides income for those who make food for sale. God's love can be demonstrated in different ways which is what happened teaching these women how to make home made bread!

Last night's Bible Study went well and covered Acts 12:19 to 13:3. An unexpected discussion developed on prayer and fasting which was excellent. This discussion was generated by Acts 13:2-3.

Structured Leadership in the work

 We praise God for the fine body of quality leaders that He has enabled us to build up over the past 30 years. In this we have a team of 11 which form our senior leadership team with 3 from Patos, 3 from Campina Grande, 2 from João Pessoa, 1 from Imaculada, 1 from Itaporanga and 1 from Manaíra. This gives widespread representativity.

Paul said to Timothy what we have long sought to do: "The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others". (2 Timothy 2:2) 

The work of ACEV/EAB here is also divided up into 5 regions and each region has a coordinator. Then all the churches have pastors who come together for ongoing teaching and training at our annual leadership conference. 

One of our main aims over many years has been the training of quality leadership for the glory of God and we thank God that we can look over the churches and see His hand of blessing. We praise Him for all the fruit of our labours which it's very good to see. 

Our son Philip is moving back to England with his family shortly so we will be bringing in a new young assistant pastor in Patos to replace him.

We value your prayers for the ongoing continuity of the work of ACEV/EAB. The work moves forward for the glory of God and integrated anointed and united leaders are a key factor in this.

Monday night off

 Monday evenings are the only ones we have no church activities on so last night was free. However this evening we have two activities with the 'knees to the ground' (as it's called) prayer meeting at 7 pm and the Men's Fellowship meeting at 7.30 pm. On Wednesday's is the Women's Fellowship meeting.

Yesterday I walked for a couple of miles. I try to keep up such 2 to 3 mile walks two or three times a week. I usually manage twice in the week but quite often three times.

We're in the process of organizing the further distribution of food to our Action Child kids. They receive online and/or home distributed lessons according to which is more appropriate and viable. However food has to be home distributed and it has to be for the whole family. 

Shining like Stars

I preached last night on "Shining like Stars" (Philippians 2:15 but covering the text from verses 12-16). All went very well. It was a good service. I touched on the essentialness of obedience (v12) so as to shine, that God seeks to help us live in victory (v13) so we can shine, the necessity to live without complaining or arguing (v14) so we can shine and the vitalness of sanctification (v15) so as to shine. May the Lord help us to "shine like stars" and reflect God's glory.

In the last few days I have been having discussions with a variety of our church leaders to talk about the way forward amidst the current pandemic whilst also following the government guidelines. In Brazil churches are now allowed to hold services with physical presence as long as participants are under 60, are 1.5 meters apart from each other, wear masks and disinfect their hands upon arrival and leaving. The maximum number of permitted participants is 30% of members. Our churches are free to decide what they feel they should do as long as they remain within the guidelines. Hence up in the mountains the Teixeira church has decided to hold presential services on Sundays and Thursdays, but the Matureia church has decided against for the time being and remains online only. I have had good chats with their pastors Maesio and Renilson. I have had similar discussions with Imaculada, São Mamede, Passagem, Juazeirinho, both churches at Campina Grande, two of three churches at João Pessoa and São Vicente do Seridó. We value your prayers for wisdom in these unusual days.

Toilet/Shower constructions

 We are in the process of building more toilet/shower constructions at Barra de Oitis and one was completed this week. The recipients are overjoyed at what they call "a dream come true". It is very sad that desperately poor people have to have dreams like having a toilet! This toilet/shower now serves a little group of 8 families and houses previously completely without. Thank you for your prayers and support. 

Young at Heart

 We felt we should try and cheer up our senior folk as all this lockdown can be pretty wearying and gets people down. We have the weekly online sessions with them on Friday mornings, but we felt we needed to do something special and extra. So yesterday we distributed to all our seniors who normally take part on Fridays a small basket of fruit with a yogurt and biscuits. They all loved it and said they felt more cheerful as a result! Sometimes small gestures can mean a lot. 

I am now ready to give the weekly Bible Study shortly when we will be covering Acts 12 in our series reading and commenting the Book of Acts. I value your prayers.

I walked 2.7 miles this morning at Green Pastures to keep myself fit. I also oversaw work to repair a leaking water tank whilst there.

Father's Day

 Sunday, the second in August, was Father's Day in Brazil so I preached an appropriate sermon using some Biblical texts and applying them to Fathers. For example I focused on the father in the prodigal son's parable. All went well. PTL! 

Yesterday I had another good walk of about 2 and a half miles. I then scheduled some of the photos I took, like that of the Red-cowled Cardinal, and posted them on the Green Pastures Nature page on Facebook.

EAB's annual celebration will be online this year on October 3rd. I am working on our annual report for this. I also am working on the Mission's history in Portuguese and have now completed 1938 to 1996. It is a massive job but I am sticking at it. The challenge now is that with all the growth in the Mission over the last 30 years there is much more detail to find and fit in. I have 3 sources of information: 1) The ACEV minutes from all the leadership meetings each year and all the general assemblies. 2) The EAB In Touch magazines. 3) The individual churches submissions of their own histories. I value your prayers.

Preaching the Gospel

The Bible Study completed Acts chapter 10 on Thursday and flowed beautifully. Sunday's sermon on "Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:5-11) went great too. Thanks for praying for us.

I had a good walk at Green Pastures this afternoon covering 2.8 miles. 

I continue with my history writing in Portuguese and have now done the history of the work here from the 1938 start up to 1995 so I am steadily progressing. 

I have prepared a Father's Day message for this Sunday as that's what it will be here. I have also prepared (more or less) another sermon on Philippians 2:12-18. I need to work on this week's Bible Study now on Acts 11 and maybe 12. I also like to prepare too much as add lib studies are difficult to predict for time. 

Men's Fellowship

I took part last night in the Men's Fellowship meeting online via Google Meet. Philip brought the message of the night from Romans 6 - "Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" It was a good clear well argued message combating "cheap grace" ideas that some may have. There was a parallel prayer meeting last night for the ladies. 

Good service

Last night's service in Patos saw us use new software for the transmission so as to improve the sound quality. This was because as from the 19th the church band was back in action which demanded better sound quality. Hence this week we switched to the new system which was a bit complicated at first but worked out alright in the end... I think.

I have prepared my sermon for next Sunday on Philippians 2:5-11 called Jesus Christ is Lord. I have also prepared for Thursday's Bible Study on the latter part of Acts 10 plus chapters 11 and 12 are ready. I always prefer preparing more than enough because I do the studies informally, reading and commenting, so it is not a set half hour sermon so to speak. I usually speak for about 45 minutes each Thursday night so it is impossible to know how much I will manage to cover.

Today is my sister Jean's birthday so I made an earlyish video link call to her to wish her well. 

1992

I am continuing to write the history of the Mission in Portuguese and have now covered 1938 to 1991. I am now working on 1992. It is a very big job. I have information to draw on from the minutes of leadership meetings here plus EAB Newsletters + individual churches extra detailed local information. I value your prayers. 

I am today going back over Acts 10 and 11 for tonight's Bible Study online. This will be followed tonight by the regular Serenade of old hymns by Philip.

We have been sorting out one or two pastoral problems this week which I can't go into here. People get into difficulties or cause difficulties whether online or not! Things crop up and have to be handled and the lack of face to face meetings is missed for these sorts of things. Please pray. 

On Tuesday night the men had their fellowship meeting which went well, as did the prayer meeting. Last night was the women's fellowship meeting with 10 taking part.

QPR have finished the 2019/2020 season in 14th place in the Championship which at least is an improvement on 19th last season. They won and drew their last two games. In a few weeks time the new 2020/2021 season begins. 

Blessed services

Thursday's Bible Study went well and we completed Acts 9. This was followed, as usual, by Philip's increasingly popular serenade of old hymns.

Yesterday I spoke in Devizes in the morning and in Brazil at night! I was invited to speak in the Rock Community Church's service in the morning which is in Devizes, Wiltshire, UK. I spoke at night as usual in the Patos service.

I studied this morning an excellent essay by Tim Dieppe on women's ministries. I also started preparing the Bible study for this Thursday in Acts 10. This afternoon I stretched my legs for a couple of miles at Green Pastures. 

In Christ

I prepared my sermon for Sunday today. I will speak on being 'in Christ' as reflected by Philippians 2:1-5 and what effect this has on our lives as Christians. It's not such an easy passage to preach so it demanded a lot of prayerful thought. I find Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the text good. 

Good Service

I got up at 5.40 am today and went for a good two and a half mile walk at Green Pastures which was nice. I picked up the Bushnell automatic camera memory cards when there and was happy to see we picked up good 30 second videos of a Crane Hawk, an Opossum, a pair of ground doves and a beautiful family of 12 wild ducklings. The rains are finished so the stream is fast drying up with rich food supplies for wild ducks in the shallow waters. These videos all will be posted on the Green Pastures Nature Reserve's Facebook page which seeks to encourage people to value creation and help preserve nature. 

Last night's service went very well. I led the service, Philip and Louisa led the worship and Louisa and her fellow law student Rayla brought a two part message which was excellent. I asked them to do this so as to vary things a bit and because I knew I would be very busy last week with the London School of Theology Conference. I have already started preparing my sermon for this coming Sunday and then it's on to preparing the Bible study for Thursday. We value your prayers and support always.

The Deaf Fellowship

The Deaf Fellowship in the pandemic goes ahead well. I have discussed things with deaf pastor Luiz Carlos who tells me that on Mondays they meet online for prayer and Bible meditations. On Tuesdays they meet to have a general chat ending up with something from the Bible. On Wednesdays and Saturdays their meetings are open to the interpreters too as well as non-Christian deaf people. On Thursday Pastor Luiz Carlos does a Bible Study and on Sunday morning there's the deafs' Sunday School. Then they watch the main evening service which I lead and which is signed for the deaf. So as you can see the deaf fellowship is very active and being blessed of God. Thank you for your prayers and support.

We have now defined which families are going to get toilet/shower units built at the ex-slave community of Barra de Oitis. These are game changing moments for very poor people's lives as these units are built and equipped with flush toilets, showers, hand basins, clothes washing sinks, water tanks above and cess pits beneath. 

Bible Study

I started the Bible Study last night with a discussion of 'soul sleep' from the last word of Acts 7 linked to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. From this I went into Acts 8 covering the section about the church being persecuted and scattered + Philip in Samaria + Simon the sorcerer. In verses 14-17 we covered the difficult section of the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the Samarians. It all went well and was a blessing for the 33 people taking part via Google Meet. 

This was followed by Philip and his serenade of old hymns which is very popular and which went very well again. It is interesting to observe how many backslidden Christians are attracted by this and request certain hymns to be sung. It's good Philip has an amazing memory! We pray God will touch these people far from God through this means. We certainly will miss Philip when he returns to England with his family as he plans to.

Summer Conference

I finished the 4-day Summer Conference today with the London School of Theology. It was a tiring time as I had to set my alarm for 4:30 each day, grab a wake-me-up shower and then be online for a 5 am kick off. It then went through to 11:15 am each day (3:15 pm) in the UK. 

The first speaker each day was John Goldingay on Jeremiah. It was a challenging good review of the structure of the book and its theology. To quote John today on Jeremiah's theology "God is in control of His memory. He can forget things." And "God is immutable but He is flexible and can change His mind."

The current principal of LST is Mark Cartledge and he chaired the whole conference. He also spoke on the first day and showed himself to be an Anglican who is very open to the Holy Spirit moving in Scripture and in today's church. He was very good.

Another speaker was a lady called Dr. Kimberley Alexander from North Carolina who spoke on 'Women and Scripture'. Instead of a justification of women's ministry she just showed from her research how women are powerful expositors of the Scripture. She was excellent.

A further speaker was Brad Emry who brought some extremely challenging thoughts on 'Scripture and violence' especially working through the difficult texts of Judges 11 (Jephthah and the sacrifice of his daughter) and Judges 19 (The Levite and his concubine). Such scriptures stretch anyone to the limit! 

Joan Cartledge also spoke on 'Disability, Scripture, Inclusion and the Church'. This was good and what we already believe and practice. 

So this Conference was something good that came out as a result of the current pandemic. 

50 years

I am writing EAB/ACEV history in Portuguese and today reached our 50th anniversary in 1988. I wrote and published EAB's first 40 years back in 2012 in English. The Portuguese version is different as it goes into details interesting to Brazilians and irrelevant to overseas folk. So too many UK details are of no interest to people here. 1988 was the year we took major steps to reorganize the work in Brazil. We are today 82 years old as a Mission so I've got 32 years to go! 

Violence

I have just finished my third of 4 days at the London School of Theology's Summer Conference online and on top of more on Jeremiah and Daniel we had some particularly difficult Biblical passages involving violence such as Judges 11 and 19! Certainly forced me to think but I don't have any answers yet. Yesterday the woman speaker from the USA, Kimberley Alexander, was particularly interesting on Women & Scriptures. The message was the result of her own research and was excellent. 

The Men's Fellowship Group met last night on line and that went very well as did the prayer 'knees to the ground' meeting as it is called.

I walked for two miles yesterday afternoon at Green Pastures. It's important to keep fit in these difficult days. 

For to live is Christ and to die is gain

I preached on Philippians 1:12-26 last night and it went very well. It was the communion service with Philip & Louisa leading the worship and Philip conducted communion. 

The youth concluded their online Conference on Saturday night ending their 5 night event which was a real blessing with 90 to a 100 taking part each night.

I was up at 4:30 am today to take part in the first day of the 4-day London School of Theology Summer Conference. John Goldingay spoke on Jeremiah: the man and the scroll. Then Mark Cartledge spoke on Scripture, the Church and the Holy Spirit. It was a very interesting and blessed time. I found it very encouraging. It was good to be back at LST! 

I am now preparing for Thursday's Bible study working on Acts 8.

Acts 6 + 7

Last night's Bible study went very well as we covered Acts 6 and 7. This was followed by another session of the singing of older hymns and songs by Philip which went very well too. 

Today is Philip's 42nd birthday. We went out together for a nice walk together at Green Pastures to celebrate. We walked 4,5 km.

The Youth online conference is in its 4th night tonight and continues in real blessing. They are having about 90 taking part every night. At the other end of the age scale the seniors had another online session this morning which they love. 

I am glad to report that our pastor Nemias at Flores is better from the Covid virus as are his wife and son. His mother Nevinha is improving too. PTL! Thanks for all your prayers and support. 

I have read all John Goldingay's preparatory notes for his 4 lectures on Jeremiah next week in LST's Summer Conference and I have read all 52 chapters of Jeremiah. I will be attending the online Conference every morning next week from Monday to Thursday starting at 5 am each day. 

90 at Youth Conference

The first night of the 5-night EAB/ACEV Youth Conference had 90 taking part on Tuesday Evening and was a great blessing to all. The message by a psychologist was on the dangers of pornography in times of lockdown. Tonight will be dealing with the topic of domestic violence and male chauvinism. 

Last night the Patos Men's Fellowship also met online with 17 men taking part. Their Bible meditation brought by one of the men was in Acts 1. There was also an online 'knees to the ground' prayer meeting. 

I walked another two and a half miles this morning at Green Pastures. I enrolled in the London School of Theology's 'Summer School' when I got back. It will run from Monday to Thursday next week and is free online. John Goldingay will be the main speaker on Jeremiah. It will start at 9 am UK time so will be 5 am for me!

New Reality

Our Patos church has fully adapted to the new pandemic reality and in fact we are doing more now and reaching more people that even before. 

To start with - every day we have the EAB/ACEV 5 minute slot posted at Midday and remaining on ACEV Patos's Facebook page for 24 hours. This is done by church members who record 5 minute Bible reflections or testimonies and send them to me for checking. I then pass them onto our internet man who posts them. It is a lovely way to involve the church at large. So far 15 are taking part and it's being a blessing.

Tonight being Tuesday we have two online groups in action. First we have the "knees to the ground" prayer meeting from 7 pm onwards. Then we have the Men's Fellowship which kicks off at 7.30 pm. Both these meetings use Google Meet and overlap time wise.

Then the Patos youth start a Conference tonight at 7.30 pm going through each evening to Saturday and open to the youth from all our churches. They will have different speakers and singers every evening. 

I have prepared my sermon for Sunday and I have now been working on the Bible study for this Thursday on Acts 6 and 7. I do my Bible studies in relaxed read and chat along style. i.e. I read a bit and then chat about it. Hence my diagnosis is that chapter 6 will be good but chapter 7 will be stodgy. I value your prayers. 

Two and a half miles

I walked two and a half miles at Green Pastures this morning. I also completed my sermon preparation for next Sunday's communion service. I will preach on Philippians 1:12-26. 

A fireman from the church released an Armadillo at Green Pastures this afternoon. Apparently a workmate had captured it to eat but our brother talked him out of it. 

It was nice to receive photos today from a man at the ex-slave community of Fonseca whose market garden is going well producing lettuce, caliandra and cabbage. 

Good service

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Last night's service was excellent. I preached on Philippians 1:8-11 and remarked how interesting and edifying it is to read and study Paul's and Jesus' prayers. I challenged the churches to try writing their prayers sometimes as Paul did. We can pray silently, speaking or writing. They are all ways of communicating with God. 

It is fascinating how this pandemic has many of our churches tuning in to our main Sunday service. Our churches at Imaculada, São Mamede, Juru, Flores, Princesa Isabel, Teixeira and Caroá were all tuned in last night as well as Patos of course. Philip and Louisa do the praise and worship and I lead and preach. We use StreamYard online.

Elder Dies

Otávio Oliveira was an elder in our first church at Princesa Isabel (we have two churches in the town) and he went down ill with Covid 19 a few weeks ago. He went to be with the Lord yesterday and is being buried this morning. Please pray for the family and church. Otávio was the father of two of our pastors: Robério and Betinho. 

History

I am taking the opportunity which lockdown gives me to write the history of ACEV/EAB in Portuguese for the first time. I have covered 1938 to 1983 to date. It is a massive job but so important now and for future generations. The challenge is that the work has grown a lot so in the more recent decades there are more churches to write about. 

Yesterday, as always on Friday, we had an online meeting for the seniors which went very well. Tonight the youth have their meeting. Next week the youth will have a special online conference with invited speakers from Rio de Janeiro and Campina Grande. It truly is wonderful. 

Bible Study

I have just given the Bible study via Google Meet. We covered the last part of Acts 4 and all of Acts 5. It went well despite it not being the easiest of passages to do. 

Philip is now singing all the old hymns for the church folk. He did one two and half hour session last week and it was very popular so he's doing another one tonight. 

3 Miles

I walked for about 3 miles on Saturday and again yesterday. It's good to keep fit! I have prepared my sermon for next Sunday on Paul's prayer in Philippians 1 and prepared for the next Bible Study. 

Sunday's service went well as did the Men's Fellowship last night. Tonight is the Women's Fellowship and tomorrow I give the Bible Study on Acts 5 as we travel through the book of Acts. This will be followed by a 'Virtual Serenade' when Philip attends requests for all the old hymns. We have totally adapted to the 'new normal' and find the church even more alive and active than in the 'old normal'!

The Covid virus situation here is increasingly bad with over 50,000 deaths and numbers rising. The problem is when you have a president who refuses to take it seriously, and just like in the USA gives a terrible example. The country has no leadership. It's not surprising that the USA and Brazil are in first and second place in the Covid statistics with Brazil apparently striving to take first 'worse' place! May God have mercy on us and help us!  Whereas in the UK you are easing lockdown as numbers fall, here they are easing restrictions whilst numbers rise. This has got to be wrong! Please pray.

Please pray for us and all our family. Please pray too for some from our churches that have got the virus. 

Bible Study

I conducted the mid-week Bible Study last night online via Google Meet and 28 took part. It went very well covering Acts 3 and most of chapter 4. 

I am working on the history of the churches and projects here in Portuguese for a Brazilian audience. I am approaching the place I already wrote about and published in English. I have now covered from 1938 to 1975 but it is not simply a case of translating from English to Portuguese what I had previously written  because Brazilian readers will be interested in different details and will not be interested in many details already published in the English version. I plan to press on in Portuguese beyond the first 40 years. 

Pressing on

Sunday's service went great and now includes a sign-language interpreter much to the joy of the deaf fellowship folk. It was the second week we used StreamYard which is excellent and means we broadcast live both on Facebook and YouTube. 

I walked yesterday at Green Pastures and have been preparing for the Bible study this Thursday. I am prepared to cover Acts 3 and 4, but I am not sure how much I will cover as when it is in ad lib style it is difficult to predict. People may ask questions etc. There's a lot of good stuff to discuss in these two chapters.

Our elder at the Princesa Isabel church remains seriously ill in ICU with Covid-19. Our leader at São Vicente do Seridó remains in need of prayer for extreme anxiety. Please pray. 

Bible Study

Last night's Bible study was very good with 28 taking part via Google Meet. We covered Acts 2:14-47. The study flowed really nicely for over an hour. 

We continue to value your prayers for our church elder at Princesa Isabel Otávio who is in intensive care with the new Coronavirus. We also ask you to pray for Nenem who leads the São Vicente do Seridó church as she has severe anxiety. 

I have prepared my message for this Sunday and will preach on 1 John 2:1-10 with the title: "Walk as Jesus Walked!" I have been working this afternoon on some project guidelines we are drawing up which cover child safety in our projects + environment guidelines etc. The work has involved project leaders and the senior leadership team of 11 people - 9 men and 2 women. 

Yesterday I walked 5,7 km at Green Pastures. It's wonderful that we have this secluded spot to exercise in amidst these difficult times. The highlight of the walk was to see for a long time a large middle aged Iguana. It's a prehistoric looking Lizard about 70 cm long. 

EAB Prayer Warriors Group

EAB has a new group which unites in prayer, as many evenings as possible, for half and hour, to pray for us and EAB in general. The group's coordinator is Joy Levermore at levermorejoy@gmail.com

If you would like to join the group please email Joy. We would love this. We have a prayer warriors group on Messenger with up to date prayer requests.

Before I came to Brazil I used to go to such a meeting at the Tuckers house in Southampton. Then there was another group led by Mary Dyer. So it's great to have another EAB prayer group organized. Please link up with it if you can. 

Men's Fellowship

There were 18 in our Men's Fellowship meeting tonight and I gave a short Bible study for the group on 2 Timothy 2:15. It was held online via Google Meet. It was a really blessed meeting. PTL!

Sunday even better

This Sunday's service was even better than previous weeks because we stitched to using a software called StreamYard  which worked great. Whereas previously I did my part and then Philip did his, with StreamYard Philip and I were able to broadcast simultaneously. The service was wonderful! It was a real blessing to everyone including us. 

We conducted communion on line and we we focused on the theme of caring for creation in the overall service. It was a real blessing. 

Tonight the men's fellowship will be online as well, joining the long list of internet activities the church already carries out. 

We value your prayers for us and the ongoing work here. 

On line work gathering speed!

Our Patos church is getting more and more into the online gear. We now have 4 slots on a Sunday, 1 on a Tuesday, another on a Thursday and another on a Saturday. We have one daily slot too at midday. Tuesday night's online prayer meeting saw 20 taking part for 2 hours! Last night's online Bible study, via Google Meet, saw me give the study for 41 people including pastors from our João Pessoa - Boa Esperança, Matureia, Teixeira and Juazeirinho churches as well as Patos foll. The Sunday main service has lots of the members from our Imaculada church and Curral Velho church joining us. PTL!

I have done 2 good Green Pastures walks this week. On Monday I walked for 4.3 km and yesterday I walked 3 km. These walks are both good for me physically as well as refreshing me spiritually and psychologically. There is nothing like walking in the "garden" of God's creation and nature. It blesses me inside and out!

Next week is International Environment Week, as the International Day for the Environment will be on Friday, June 5th. I will be taking part in two nationwide events organized by renewourworld.net which is an international Christian Movement to mobilize Christians environmentally and increase awareness of the need for action by the church. I will be taking part live in online events on Monday (1st) and Saturday (6th). Please pray!

Good service

I hope you can get to have a look at last night's church broadcast which even has a bit of English in it for the non-Portuguese speakers! https://www.facebook.com/acevpatos/videos/3859744854096533/

The service was lovely and thousands of people tuned in and were blessed. PTL!

Today's broadcast

I am happy to announce that today I will be back on our live transmission together with Liz, Philip & Louisa. I will be speaking on 1 Peter 2:4-5 and then on John 21:1-6 a bit later. Please pray for us. The transmission is from our Patos church Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/acevpatos/

The transmission starts at 6:30 pm our time (10:30 pm BST) but you can always watch the recording tomorrow if you fall asleep!

Prayer Update

EAB SPECIFIC PRAYER TOPICS FOR ALL STANDING WITH US IN PRAYER

May – 2020 (NEW ITEMS IN RED)

1.        We pray against Covid 19. Brazil is now where the virus is spreading fastest in the world!

2.        We pray for a change in attitude from the government so as to take the virus seriously following scientific

            guidelines in national unity.

3.        We pray for the poor who EAB ministers to and who stand in great need at this time.

4.        We pray for those of ACEV who have Covid 19: Elizionaldo up in the mountains at Matureia and El. at Campina

            Grande. Marah Danielle (Patos) and family  awaiting test confirmation. 82 year

            old father of church leader Tica (Curral Velho) confirmed positive.

5.        We pray for John and Liz under tremendous stress at this time and for all the EAB teams of workers.

6.        We pray for a true spiritual revival as a result of this pandemic.

7.        We pray for atheists and agnostics now being forced to think about the meaning of life – that we might reach

            them with and for Jesus.

8.        We pray for EAB folk and friends on the front line of battle against Covid 19 as professional health workers.

            Protect and strengthen them and fill them with supernatural strength and compassion.

9.        Help the authorities to develop a vaccine quickly and discover adequate treatment.

10.      We pray for all suffering mental stress in these exceptional times.

11.      We especially pray for the poor in the area of EAB’s work. We pray for the poor who today face inadequate

           health facilities owing to long term corruption which had syphoned of funds for personal things.

12.      We pray for sufficient funding at this time of crisis for EAB as we seek to feed the hungry and poor, broadcast

            and counsel via internet etc etc.

13.      Please pray for situations of extreme domestic violence which have erupted in one or two churches under the

            stress of lockdown.

14.      We pray for the protection and feeding of EAB’s very poor action children at our schools.

15.      We pray for God’s help to help the landless and homeless.

16.      Please help John, Liz and EAB to take hope to the hopeless without God.

17.      Bless and keep all our pastors and leaders – together with all our church members.

18.      We pray for our youth who struggle to understand this new world we are in and we pray for the seniors and

            lonely.

19.       We pray for our ex-son-in-law Cleytson who has Covid 19. Two of his sons are our grandsons Felipe and

             Arthur.

20.       Please pray for an atheist I am evangelizing in the middle of all this.

With love,

John & Liz

PS – Please do join our daily John & Liz / EAB prayer times from 9.30 pm UK time if you can.