Yesterday morning our dear brother in Christ, and elder in the Patos church, Pedro Guedes, went to be with the Lord. He was 89. He left his wife Deaconess Beatriz, 14 children, 22 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.
Pedro's death changed our day yesterday. We had been due to inaugurate the new market garden project at Belém Village in Tavares County but this was postponed until November 18th. Instead of this I spent much of yesterday preparing the funeral service for this morning, which I have just conducted. To get all the names of the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren was quite a job, and even in the end the family forgot 2 grandchildren! I am glad it was made clear to the father that it wasn't my fault.
The funeral service this morning started at 8.30 am and lasted an hour. I conducted the service with Pedro's open coffin in front of me. Sacha and Tiago did the 4 hymns, Philip brought a lovely short word from the UK via Zoom, Pastor Edivaldo (Pedro's son-in-law) also brought a short word. I spoke a bit on Romans 12:1-2 (Pedro's favourite Bible passage) and also on Psalm 23. I preached the Gospel clearly as a good part of Pedro's offspring are not following the Lord.
We thank God for Pedro's long blessed life. He will be greatly missed. He was converted in his teens and was kicked out of his house and family because of their anti-protestant prejudice. Pedro left his home with just a hammock to sleep in, and even that had a hole in it. But Pedro never caved into such pressure and God blessed him. At 20 he married Beatriz, and they were married for 69 years, with a quiver full of offspring. He ended up having a shop which sold hammocks in Patos, as opposed to the "holy" one he was kicked out with. He was kicked out of his family, but God replaced that with an enormous family of his own. Please pray for them as they mourn Pedro's loss. He is with the Lord.
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