Hold-ups

There have been 9 hold-ups of shops and petrol stations in the last 2 days in Patos! One man resisted a hold-up and got shot in the face. On top of this 3 motorbikes were stolen. All this violence coincides with the police's work to rule over a pay dispute with the State Governor. We just hope and pray that an agreement can soon be reached so that this dangerous anarchy can end.

Our 14-year-old granddaughter Alice has contracted Covid. Please pray for her. So far it is mild and we pray that it will stay this way. Alice is the daughter of our youngest daughter Sacha, who leads the praise and worship in church. This will mean Sacha is in quarantine and will be out of action for the time being.

Who called in to see us yesterday was Ben Price, who used to be a missionary here with us for nearly 10 years. He has come over from England for a visit for a few weeks. It was very nice to see him and have a chat. He brought me a W. H. Smith 2022 diary which I was needing as you can't get decent diaries here. Ben also gave me a book called 'The rise and fall of movements' by Steve Addison. Ben will be staying at Ibiara where he used to live and work. 

The weekly service at Green Pastures was cancelled last night owing to the ill health of so many of the people there. Many have the Covid symptoms but haven't been tested. I was going to lead the service and Rafael was going to preach, but we'll try again next week.

In the last 24 hours 202,466 new cases of Covid were registered in Brazil with 332 Covid deaths. Ômicron is by far the driving force in this, representing 97% of the cases.