Pastoral meeting

Last night we had another lovely meeting with our assistant pastor Rafael to discuss a variety of day to day issues in the running of the Patos church. We had nice times of prayer together too. We meet in the open-air in our back garden duly masked and socially distanced. The meeting lasted an hour.

The epidemic situation in our State of Paraíba is so serious that the State government (the federal government does nothing - just jokes about it!) has imposed a night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am so as to inhibit late night bars and parties. Another Patos doctor has died from Covid-19. Please pray.

I had discussions with Betinho who leads the Ibiara and Conceição churches yesterday. He tells me that both churches are doing well despite the pandemic. I was also thrilled to learn that at Barra de Oitis village one adolescent has come to Christ through our 'Sport in Action' project which involves children and teenagers in playing football. The football is preceded by a prayer and a little word and when they have competitions the winners receive an award presented at church with all the families invited.

Some people have asked me how much it costs EAB to drill and set up a well which we have been doing for 30 years now. I should explain how the process works. Initially our team travels to different rural communities to select possible places in need of water. They return to those on the selection short list and have community meetings to make sure that they are prepared to care for the well if it is drilled. Once a suitable community is selected a specialist is taken there to locate a spot most likely to hit water. A drilling rig company is then contracted to drill 50 metres (150 feet) deep down through solid granite rock which we hit in this region once we get through the soil. If we hit water another machine comes to measure the amount of water the well produces per hour so that we can calculate the type and size of pump needed. The water is also tested for its quality and purity. Having done all this another team moves in to build an elevated base and puts on top of it a 5,000 litre water tank. Then a submersible electric pump is purchased and put in the well and all the pipes and valves are purchased and plumbed so that the water is pumped from the well up into the elevated tank whose height creates pressure for water distribution in the community by gravity. We also build a water trough near the tank for animals and a standpipe with large taps for community water distribution. Once all is finished we hold a community thanksgiving service and preach the Gospel and we do a six-month follow up to make sure everything with the system is working correctly and understood by the community. We do all this for a cost of 5,000 pounds. As you can see there is a lot more to building a well than just drilling a deep hole in the ground! I should just mention that if any person or church would like to raise funds for a well then we would be happy to put the name of the church or of a loved one who has gone to be with the Lord on the well's water tank if so desired. Tearfund have been our partners for 30 years and will fund one well this year but of course we need many more. We have had years when we have built 15 wells. Please pray.