Sermon

I have been preparing a sermon for our New Year's Eve service which this year will be between 7:30 pm and about 9 pm. Last year we didn't hold such a service owing to the pandemic. Normally we would have held the Watchnight service from 10 pm till just after midnight, but the church council suggested an earlier time this year. I will be preaching on 1 Samuel 7:12.

Our 2 baby turkeys at Green Pastures have died. They got wet in the heavy rain we had and were dead the next day. Baby turkeys are very sensitive.

I ate fish for lunch yesterday which I like very much. Unfortunately Liz is severely allergic to fish so cannot even just taste it or else she will become very ill. 

We have just received a Christmas card from "David". The problem is we know a lot of Davids! Please could the David who sent us a lovely card, with 2 Robins and a postbox on the front, let us know so that we can thank him.

Brazil's public health's statistics were "hacked" about three weeks ago and have never been restored. Hence we don't know where we are with the pandemic! Some say that this "hack" was in fact sabotage by President Bolsonaro and his team. I consider this to be highly likely. 

The death toll from the floods in our northeastern state of Bahia has now risen to 25. 151 towns are in a state of emergency, 517 people have been injured, 643,000 people have been impacted by the tragedy and 37,000 of these have completely lost their homes. Meanwhile President Bolsonaro ignores this and remains on holiday riding his jet ski!

It rained 17 mm (over half an inch) last night at Green Pastures taking the month's total to 96 mm (4 inches). Things are greening up nicely.

Floods

The northeast of Brazil is made up of 9 states. To the extreme south of the northeastern region is Bahia State and to the extreme north is Maranhão State. The state where we live and where the headquarters of EAB/ACEV are is Paraíba State which in the centre of the region. In Bahia the rains have hit abnormally hard and 2 dams have burst flooding a wide area around the town of Itabuna. 21 people have been killed and over 475,000 people are affected with many left homeless and sleeping in schools. Our church in Bahia in the town of São Sebastião do Passé has not been flooded. Please pray for this very traumatic situation.

On Monday I rested after a very good, but tiring, Christmas weekend with 2 church services plus the baptismal service at Green Pastures of 15 people. I watched a film called 'Don't look up' and generally chilled out.

One of the young men baptized on Sunday was Lucas, aged 14. He came to Christ some years ago through the Sunday School. Then he won his father Orlando for the Lord. Later he won his mother Nazareth for Jesus. His Dad had already been baptized, but on Sunday his Mum was baptized on the same day as he was. Liz and I call him Lucas the evangelist! 

Liz and I went for a walk at Green Pastures yesterday afternoon to see the work that Francisco is doing there reinforcing the outer fence. We heard a Striped Cuckoo whilst there. This bird we often hear but rarely see.

If Covid wasn't enough we are now facing a sharp increase in the dangerous version of Dengue Fever. Two friends (Eraldo and Terezinha) are in intensive care with the hemorrhaging version of Dengue Fever which can kill people. Dengue Fever is transmitted by mosquitos. Please pray. 

15 baptized

We had a wonderful baptism morning yesterday at Green Pastures with at least 80 present for the joyful occasion. We decided to baptize at Green Pastures as the pool there is spacious and in the open air. People are now saying we should always have our baptismal services there even after the pandemic. We arrived there around 8 am and some folk had already arrived. Soon the place was teaming with Christians! We held a short service with some nice worship songs and I brought a message about baptism. We then took some photographs of the group of 15 people to be baptized.

Following this we started baptizing the 6 women and 9 men. The first woman called Nazareth we baptized by aspersion, as she has serious nervous problems which left her scared of the pool, and then we baptized the rest by immersion as we normally do. The women were Alice (our granddaughter), Milena, Monyque, Maryana, Nazareth and Fernanda. The men were Danrlei, Michael, Caetano, Jair, Kecinho, Toinho Adjuto, Leo, Domini e Lucas. Please pray for them. 

Whilst at Green Pastures yesterday I saw a beautiful pair of Narrow-billed Woodcreepers. They climb tree trunks using their tail and legs. They are fascinating to watch. On Christmas Day it rained 6 mm (a quarter of an inch) so we ended up getting at least a damp Christmas!

Last week I finished reading another book in the Blitz Detective series by Mike Hollow. This time it was the Dockland Murder which Detective Inspector John Jago sorted out nicely. These books are very well written and are really relaxing.

Yesterday's Boxing Day main service was blessed. I led the service and dedicated yet another baby called Luna. Assistant Pastor Rafael preached the Word from Lamentations 3. However numbers were down as a result of the good rain we had yesterday.

Yesterday was a true day of Boxing Day blessing with 65 mm of glorious rain at Green Pastures which is nearly 3 inches of rain. We sure do praise God for this!

Christmas Eve

In Brazilian culture celebrations are always on the eve of the day. Hence Christmas Eve is the main celebration of Christmas. For us this was our church Christmas service from 7:30 pm to just gone 9:00 pm followed by the traditional Christmas supper. Our Christmas service was comprised of entirely carols for the praise and worship, the dedication of a little baby girl called Liz, and three special moments. The first was "Hark the Herald Angels sing" sung by a quartet and which was expressed by ballet by our granddaughter Alice, aged 14, and Milena. It was beautiful.

The second special participation was very moving. This was a Brazilian carol sung by Philip (recorded) which was signed by the deaf and sign language interpreters. This included the new interpreters who have learnt Brazilian sign language during the pandemic from our deaf pastor Luis Carlos. I always find the plunge into the deaf people's silent world to be very touching.

Then the final special moment was a 15 minute one-act Nativity Play which was very well acted. The theme was to emphasize the true Biblical origin of the manger scene as opposed to some modern women who thought that was all religious fanaticism. After this I preached a short Gospel message. 

The service ended up with the giving of gifts and sweets to all the church children who come along regularly to Sunday School. It was a lovely service.

After church the family came to our house for the Christmas Eve supper. We relaxed together and talked and laughed a lot. I ended up getting to bed at 1.30 am.

I have just seen a Glittering-bellied Emerald Humming Bird in our front garden. We were dreaming of a wet Christmas, but unfortunately the drought continues.

Decisions at Bethlehem

 I have been talking to Pastor Naldinho, who leads the Belém (Bethlehem) church. He was thrilled to tell me that a couple in the village called Douglas and Roberta have committed their lives to Christ. They have been going to the services for a long time and have finally come to faith, but they are suffering considerable persecution as a consequence. Please pray for Douglas and Roberta.

Walking at Green Pastures yesterday I heard the beautiful call of the Rufous-browed Peppershrike. This bird intrigued me years ago as I could hear it singing, but didn't know it's name, and nor did anyone else. Since then I have learnt a lot.

Our grandson Felipe graduated as an architect on Tuesday. This means we have 2 grandchildren graduated from university and another 2 who are undergraduates. John David is studying to be a medical doctor and Arthur is studying law. Arthur is also a linguist. He speaks Portuguese, French and English well and he is now learning Spanish.

Yesterday I had a good detailed meeting with our project coordinators Lindon Carlos and Marah Danielle. We went through all we have achieved in 2021 despite the pandemic having been awful in Brazil. We evaluated where we had done well and where we could improve. We also did initial planning for 2022 once our team gets back from their holidays in January. As we end this year we have one new well nearly finished at Macambira dos Lúcios. We are just waiting for the electricity board to link us up to power for the well's pump, and for piping to be delivered to link the water to people's houses. We also have a new toilet/shower unit which is under construction this Christmas week.

Yesterday I received my new Brazilian passport which is valid for the next 10 years. This morning we received our new British passports which are also valid for 10 years.

Jesus is Light

I led the service on Sunday night, dedicated a 2-year-old lovely little boy called Arthur, and preached on 'Jesus is Light' based on Isaiah 9:2-7 etc. Whilst the sermon was Christmas based it also confronted superstition, which is widespread here, and condemned racism which is also sadly prevalent. The service was good and the sermon was well received. The church was as full as is possible under the pandemic limitations which by law limit us to 70% capacity.

We have been defining things for our baptismal service. The service will take place this coming Sunday morning, Boxing Day, at 8.30 am at Green Pastures. There are 14 on the list to be baptized and we already have 5 people on a waiting list for mid-2022. Assistant Pastor Rafael and I will be baptizing together.

Our Christmas Eve service will start at 7:30 pm (10.30 pm UK time) and it will be transmitted on Facebook and YouTube. The service will feature a quartet singing a carol, accompanied by ballet dancers Alice and Millena. Then there will be a presentation of another carol by the Deaf Fellowship and sign language interpreters. Then there will be the presentation of a one act Nativity Play by our Drama group (we're keeping numbers of participants to a low number owing to the pandemic). Gifts will be given to the children at the end.

At the weekend 3 women came to the Lord and made commitments to Christ at our São Vicente do Seridó church. 3 further women gave their lives to Jesus at our Soledade church. Please pray for these women that they might put down spiritual roots in God. 

My right arm is empty this morning as I have had blood taken for my routine tests. The laboratory nurse arrived at our house at 6:30 am, but my arm should fill up soon! 😉  

Dear Deer!

I went for a walk at Green Pastures this afternoon with Francisco, who takes care of the place on a day to day basis, and we saw a Deer! It was probably an Ozotoreros bezoarticus but it could have been a Mazama gouazoubira. We saw it very clearly for about a minute as it gently ran through the bush near our dried up lake. The Deer was clearly quite fat despite the drought. Perhaps it is a pregnant female? This is only the second time I have seen a Deer in Brazil, just to show you how rare it is. I will not mention this on Facebook so as not to attract hunters.

I have been notified (email & text message) by the UK Passport Office in Durham that Liz's and my passport renewal applications were all correct and new passports are on their way to us. I also have discovered online that my new Brazilian passport is ready to be picked up.

I have been writing this blog for over 17 years. It started in August 2004. At first many people asked me what a blog was! I usually post what I've been doing and been involved with every other day, and then I post it out as the EAB Diary Update on the 8th and 22nd monthly.

I am reading 'Issues facing Christians Today' by John Stott. It is a very good book. I had been reading 'Surprised by Scripture' by N. T. Wright. Each chapter is a lecture he gave in different places in the USA. I don't know if the translation to Portuguese is bad or what it is, but I found the book heavy.

I led the service last night at Green Pastures and Bible College student Murilo preached the Word. He did very well. After the service we had a good talk to 2 couples who want to be baptized in the middle of 2022. It was a lovely chat we had with them. Parallel to this service the Christmas service for our Patos school was held and 2 adults plus 10 older children made commitments to Christ. Another service was blessed last night at Ipueira and the Deaf fellowship also had their meeting.

Granddaughter Louisa left yesterday for England. She was driven to the Recife airport by Netinho and her boyfriend Tiago. When she got to Lisbon they wouldn't let her board the flight for Heathrow as her Brazilian test result was not in English, so she had to do another quick test in Lisbon. Fortunately Liz had given Louisa the few Euros we had, just as she left Patos, so that she could pay for the test.

Spider-Man

Our granddaughter Louisa, aged 22, told us she was going to see the new Spider-Man film at the cinema, with her longtime boyfriend Tiago, on Wednesday night in the late night showing. What we didn't know was that they were going to get engaged there with Tiago on his knees in front of a packed cinema! (Tiago plays the guitar in the church band.) They have been going out together, on and off, for five and a half years.

Liz and I have been working on the Christmas Hamper distribution via 16 EAB/ACEV churches and schools. It's a lot of hard work, but it brings much happiness and food to hundreds of very poor families. The building materials have been delivered this week for the latest (26th) toilet/shower unit which we are building for Aldenora, Luciano and family at Barra de Oitis. The foundations and cesspits are being dug and we just might be able to finish this work for this needy family in time for Christmas. It will be quite a Christmas present as they have never had a toilet before, let alone a shower!

Our Campina Grande - Catolé church (this is one of the two churches we have in this city) held a glorious and joyful baptismal service on Sunday when 18 people were baptized. I have been busy preparing a Christmas sermon for this coming Sunday. Average Covid daily deaths are down here to 150. We have not felt the impact of the Omicron variant as yet and we hope and pray it will not affect us.

Last night we went to Louisa's graduation ceremony in Law. Liz and I were first to arrive half an hour early, but the ceremony started three quarters of an hour late! All went off fine in the end. Louisa has passed the first part of her bar exams and has sat the final part for which she is awaiting the result on January 12th. 

Mango

I have just eaten three lovely large slices of Mango, which I hope makes your mouth water. We were given 10 large mangos by a member of our Patos church who is a fireman. He had been given a lot of Mangos by a successful farmer in Pernambuco State and kindly passed some on to us. We are keeping the seeds to plant at Green Pastures.

33 young people took part in their Christmas pizza party last night in the church's side hall. They ate pizza and played games of bingo with different little prizes for the winners! It went on pretty late as Louisa didn't get in till after midnight. Our 22-year-old granddaughter Louisa will be flying to Heathrow, via Lisbon, this Saturday. She will be staying in the UK with her parents and brothers for 2 months, but plans to be back in Brazil in time for the carnival camp at Green Pastures.

We were due to officially inaugurate a new well at Macambira dos Lúcios this coming Friday, but this has been postponed until the new year because the team will not be able to get it finished this week. I thought when they combined with me to preach at the thanksgiving service that it would be pushing it for the 17th, but now they have realized it will be impossible. It's better to finish the job properly taking the necessary time.

Yesterday evening I went on a routine visit to my Doctor Felícia. She remarked how my diabetes has been in remittance for years without any medication. I have a lot to be thankful for. My blood pressure was perfect at 120/80. Now I do a battery of routine blood tests to complete my check-up. 

On Monday evening the Women's fellowship held a goodbye meeting for sister Magaly who is moving today to Recife with her husband Pastor Lucena. Yesterday evening it was the Men's fellowship's turn to say goodbye to Pastor Lucena and 22 men turned up for the emotional meeting. 

Saturday night

Every Saturday night we take part in the Green Pastures Church service which is a 20 to 25 minute drive from where we live. Saturday was the postponed communion service from last week and all went very well. Sacha led the praise and worship, assistant Pastor Rafael led the service and Pastor Lucena preached from John 15.

Yesterday morning we held our annual church business meeting in Patos and it went off very well. We brought the members list up to date and votes of approval were made for our assistant pastor Rafael, deacon Ricardo and deaconesses Josinete, Deborah Maria and Marcia. Then some adjustments were made to the leadership of our different church ministries. This was followed by the decision to try and return to holding our annual carnival camp at Green Pastures from February 26th to March 2nd. This will go ahead as long as the pandemic situation does not get worse here between now and then. To attend the 4 day camp people will have to pay 30 pounds. If anyone would like to contribute to this camp it would be appreciated as it will enable poorer people to go to the camp who would not be able to otherwise. After this we had a good discussion on the modernization of the Care Centre which was applauded by all present.

Our church has set the date for our next baptismal service in Patos so that it will be a Boxing Day Baptism! It will be held at 8.30 am and over 10 people will be baptized. I cannot give the exact number as yet as we are still sorting this out in the light of the backlog we have owing to the pandemic. It was decided that the baptism will take place in the pool at Green Pastures.

Last night's main Sunday service of the week was blessed. I dedicated 2-year-old Marina and assistant pastor Rafael preached. At the end we bid farewell to pastor Lucena and his wife Magaly. He clearly doesn't want to move to Recife and wept. His wife clearly does want to move there where her family live. I will say no more. I hope and pray that the move goes well for them.

Youth Meeting

Yesterday afternoon Liz and I had a good meeting with the Patos church youth leaders who are Ray, Rayla and Louisa. They are supported by assistant pastor Rafael who also was in the meeting. We discussed how we can work better with the adolescent and pre-adolescent age groups and we decided that Pastor Rafael and Rayla (they have been going out together for just over a year) will focus their attention on this age group in 2022, whilst Ray and Louisa will focus on the older youth. When does a child become an adolescent in this day and age? 10 or 11? It's a critical age group for churches to work with.

Yesterday evening we had a meeting with the architect drawing up the plans for the refurbishment and modernization of the Care Centre. We hope to start the work early next year.

We are busy working on preparations for the church annual business meeting this coming Sunday morning. We are also planning for baptismal services. This Sunday in Campina Grande 17 will be baptized. In Patos we will be baptizing about 14 shortly. We are just in a quandary as to where to conduct the baptism in the light of the pandemic. The church baptistery is tight for space and stuffy so perhaps we will do it in an outdoor pool.   

Bible Colleges

Our Campina Grande Bible College currently has 27 students. This number is down owing to the pandemic as normally we would have a number somewhere in the 40s. We hope that next year the number of students will increase. We also have 17 students doing online theology courses with ISBL (15) and FTSA (2) which are of a very high standard. These online students are very encouraging because some of them are in very off the track places and are thus preparing future leadership for difficult locations. 

EAB/ACEV has 68 registered pastors and leaders. We have 50 fully fledged churches plus 39 church plants, giving us a total of 89. One of my jobs is to maintain contact with all our leaders, coordinate things with them, and sort out problems when they arise. I have this week been liaising things with pastors Maesio (Teixeira), Renilson (Matureia), Wostenes (Campina Grande and Soledade) and Lindon Carlos (Imaculada). 

We were disappointed this week because one young man who was taken to the drug and drink rehabilitation centre last week has already given up after just 9 days! This is very sad. Please pray for a young mother in the Patos church called Aline who has suspected Lupus. Please also pray for Madiel (husband of our excellent deaconess Deborah Maria) who had blood pressure 220/150 yesterday but is now improved. The Men's Fellowship took the service last night at the ex-landless community where we regularly preach the Gospel. A nice little group of farm workers gathered for the service.

Yesterday Liz & I went for a walk at Green Pastures and a Fox (Cerdocyon thous) ran and jumped right in front of us. We also saw a Spot-backed Puffbird.  

BBC

I keep myself informed about world affairs watching the BBC World News on TV every lunch time and following the BBC News online. I am part of the BBC 'Global Minds' followers panel. I sometimes watch a bit of CNN at night. I subscribe to the Brazilian national newspaper online 'Folha de São Paulo' to keep myself in touch with Brazilian politics and affairs. I read this first thing every morning.

The Sunday service in Patos, which I led and preached at, was very good. I preached Mark 2 entitled 'This is Jesus!' - part 2. At our Soledade church, which is in transition to a new leader, our renewal team from Campina Grande was in action with Pastor Jânio preaching God's Word. We value your prayers for this church.

We have received photos from Antonio Rufino & Maria de Fátima at the Tamanduá Community showing their new Chicken Pen. They are very content with this help to their income. The new well at Macambira dos Lúcios is working out very well and will be officially inaugurated on the 17th, when we will hold a community thanksgiving service and preach the Gospel. The wide-mouth well has hit a good amount of water for which we praise God. This well will be known as 'Sylvia's Well' as the funds were donated in memory of Sister Sylvia Pusey.

My latest book in the Blitz Detective series has just arrived. I was starting to suffer with withdrawal symptoms as 'The Dockland Murder' by Mike Hollow took a long time in coming via the Brazilian section of Amazon. I see from the book's cover that the murder victim is a member of the Home Guard this time. I only hope it's not Captain Mannering or Corporal Jones!

Last night we had our Pastor Lucena with us crying his eyes out because him and his wife will be moving away from Patos to Recife around the end of the year. Lucena is a retired Congregationalist pastor who has settled in very nicely with us over the past 5 years in our Patos church. Lucena worked with me a lot in the Patos Bible College and has been a great friend for many years. We will miss them a lot.

Our daughter Lynn is now recovering well from her surgery and is getting over a post-op infection. Thanks for your prayers.

Rain stopped pray!

Last night's service at Green Pastures was cancelled owing to a most welcomed heavy shower of 8 mm (one third of an inch) of rain. When I left Patos all was dry, but on the main road, about half way to the Reserve, the rain hit us with lots of wind. I knew then that the service would be cancelled as the local farming folk can't make it in the mud. It wasn't a lot of rain last night, but for us that have not seen a drop for 4 months, it was most welcome. All the trees will be budding green within 5 days.

I have 3 babies to dedicate in the coming month and at least 8 people to baptize, including our 14-year-old granddaughter Alice. The church youth are having their Christmas pizza party on the 13th and the Men's Fellowship are having their Christmas get-together on the 21st. We will be inaugurating another well - this time at Macambira dos Lúcios in Tavares County - on the 17th. 

Please pray for our daughter Lynn who has a post-op infection. Please also pray for 4-year-old Maria Isabelly (Matureia Action School) who will have her cancerous kidney removed next Thursday (9th). Please also pray for the bereaved family of our sister Salete whose brother Messias died yesterday in his 40s. He died as a result of an untreated gall stone which got stuck in a duct and caused sepsis. If only he had gone to the doctor earlier, but he refused. 

Brazilian Passport

I had to go to the Federal Police's office in Patos yesterday afternoon to renew my Brazilian passport. The policeman who attended me asked me if I was Sacha's father. He then told me that the electronic checking of my fingerprints would be unlikely to work (which it didn't) as "beyond 60 years of age fingerprints wear out!" I now have to go and pick my new passport up in 10 days time. I am still waiting for news about the renewal of Liz and I's British passports, but I have renewed my British driving licence on line.

I have been preparing my sermon for this Sunday on Mark 2 - called "This is Jesus - 2". Doing a chapter at a time, in a 30 minute sermon, the idea is to get people to think back to what it must have been like reading the Gospel of Mark for the first time some 1,965 years back and reading "This is Jesus!" (Mark was probably the first Gospel written) On Sunday I will cover Jesus' authority to forgive sin & heal; Jesus' calling of Levi (Matthew) & the controversial meal at his home; Fasting and the fact that Jesus is Lord of the sabbath.

The end of year services are now organized. A week on Sunday (12th) we will have our annual church business meeting in the morning. This day is Bible Day in Brazil. On Christmas Eve we will have our main Christmas service at 7:30 pm. On New Year's Eve we will hold our watchnight service also at 7:30 pm. Sunday services will be as normal at 6:30 pm.

Last night I had a nice time of fellowship with a young pastor from another denomination. His name is Williton. It was nice to share about our respective ministries. I hope and pray I was an encouragement to the young man.

Wostenes

Wostenes is the name of the pastor of EAB/ACEV's largest church at Campina Grande in the borough of Catolé. He is also the deputy chairman of the work here and I am the chairman. The 11-person leadership team is elected by all our church leaders every 4 years with the next election in 2024. Wostenes is a lovely sound and balanced brother and a real personal friend. On Monday we had one of our regular online meetings discussing the transition at our Soledade church from where the current pastor Ângelo has resigned. Wostenes is now responsible for this church for a few months because the church is at a low ebb. Our aim is for Wostenes and team to inject new life into the Soledade church before a new pastor is brought in. Please pray for the Soledade church and for Wostenes.

We have taken a further man to drug and drink rehabilitation this week. We pray that this man, whom we know well, will be set free.

On Monday night we had a terrific service with the church packed out with teenage students, teachers and family from the Fera School. It was a thanksgiving service for the students having finished junior high school. I led the service and preached a lively crisp Gospel message for the glory of God. Just think that on one night we had the opportunity to preach the Gospel to over 100 non-evangelical Christians! Amongst the students was our granddaughter Alice.

Yesterday I went to Green Pastures to take cleaning supplies and to go for a walk. I heard a Green-barred Woodpecker whilst there and I saw a Great Kiskadee in it's bright yellow colouring. We have just had the 3 bird tables repaired and they are looking great. We have also repaired and rebuilt 5 benches.