Andressa

Andressa is a 16-year-old unmarried girl from the Fonseca slave-descendent quilombo community in Manaíra County, which is a 3-hour drive south-west of Patos. We have a small church there plus many projects such as well, goats, chickens and market garden. Andressa is 32 weeks pregnant and seriously ill with pre-eclampsia which includes very high blood pressure. She is in the Patos maternity hospital and our social worker Marah Danielle is monitoring her case. She has been in intensive care twice but is in a high-risk pre-natal ward at the moment. Please continue to pray for her. I have just spoken to our social worker who has spoken to Andressa's mother this morning who is with Andressa in the hospital. She says that the doctors are aiming to control things so as to have the birth as late as possible. This afternoon we will be sending items of personal hygiene (shampoo etc.) to support the very poor Mum.

Please continue to pray for the 4 drug addicts we have at a rehabilitation centre near João Pessoa on the coast. Kicking drug addiction is no easy thing and needs much prayer. The man who is now at the centre from Patos is doing well thus far. Yesterday his mother was visited and she is so grateful that her son is being helped. She says he really does want to get free. She told us her son has attempted suicide is desperation more than once.

I am reading a book by Timothy Keller called "Ministries of mercy: the call of the Jericho road". It is a good book which encourages churches to get involved with their communities with an integral mission approach as we have. The disadvantage is that I am reading the book translated into Portuguese and translations are never as good as the original language - but it's what I've got so I shall press on. For my relaxation I have read another book by Mike Hollow called 'The Custom House Murder' set in East London in the 1940 blitz. His description of air-raid shelters (we used to have one in our back garden in North Kensington), bomb sites (I used to play war games in them as a child) and zinc bath tubs for a once a week Friday night bath (Ah yes, I remember it well!) are just some aspects of Mike's excellent writing. My congratulations to Detective Inspector John Jago on another crime solved!