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.