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.