Lovely service

Last night's service at Green Pastures was really lovely. A good number of local farming folk gathered there and one of the farmer's daughters did the Bible reading. Our daughter Sacha brought an excellent message on worship encouraging everyone to really worship God in the services.

Liz and I did our usual Green Pastures walk on Friday afternoon and saw and heard birds such as a pair of Caatinga Cacholotes, Southern Lapwings, Great Egrets and five White-naped Jays.

This week all the plastering of the new EAB/ACEV church at Travessia was finished both inside and outside. The windows and doors were also cemented into position and all the doorways and window frames just need finishing off this coming week. Then the floor inside the church and the outside pathways need to be cemented. The toilet needs to be installed and all the electric lighting needs to be installed. Then finally the whole church needs painting inside and out. I think we will have the new church finished in about a fortnight. The sight of the new church is really impacting the village. The weekly open-air service (open-air until the church is finished) was really enthusiastic and blessed this week with a good number of people taking part. The young local leader Fábio Furtado (who many moons ago was an EAB sponsored child) is doing a great job there and really getting to know the people. This week Fábio was supported by the Manaíra regional pastor Francinaldo.

I have sent a recorded message to our third João Pessoa church in the borough of Boa Esperança. I have a very good relationship with the pastor there Manoel Oliveira Filho and his wife Alexandra.

I have finished reading the excellent book 'The God I don't understand' by Chris Wright. The book covered the topics of the origin and causes of evil and suffering; the Joshua "genocide"; the cross; and eschatology. My next book (I like reading a lot!) is of a completely different type. I will be trying to help Detective Inspector John Jago solve the Canning Town murder! This is the second book in a series I am reading written by Mike Hollow. You will be pleased to know that Inspector Jago, who is the 1940 blitz detective, did manage to catch the murderer in the first book against all odds!