Leaders Meeting

On Monday night we held an excellent meeting of the senior leadership team of the Patos church together with the leaders of the various ministries. In all there were 17 present. This was a preparational meeting for our time away as from this Friday. We had rich discussions within a lovely spirit of unity. As from this Friday, when we fly to Switzerland, the overall leadership will be in the hands of assistant pastor Rafael supported by everyone in this group. We value your prayers.

Last night the Men's Fellowship took a lovely service on the farm which belongs to Fred and Marileide which is not far from Green Pastures. At the end of the service a man called Francisco came to the front to rededicate his life to God. Praise the Lord!

Saturday night

The Saturday night weekly service at Green Pastures went off very well. I led the service and Bible College student Murilo preached the Gospel from 1 John 1:5-7. Murilo will graduate at the end of the year and he is already giving a very good word. Philip led the worship. How we will miss him after he returns to England today. People who also took part with solos were Dodora, Júlio, Nega, Paulo Silas and his younger brother Josué. Micaelle did the Bible reading. All this was neatly packed in to 1 hour and 5 minutes of service.

Last night's main service of the week went very well. I led it, Philip brought a word of farewell to the church and Rafael preached from John 4:43-54. The church was full. We received 13 new members into fellowship. 9 were those recently baptized and 4 were transfers from other places. 

Serenade

On Thursday night Philip did an online serenade of old time hymns. He has an amazingly good memory. It was done on Facebook and YouTube. Philip did these live serenades during the height of the pandemic, but this time he decided to repeat the format. It was warmly received by people from all over Brazil. The serenade lasted for two and three quarter hours with many people placing requests for their favourite hymns. 

This week's men's fellowship meeting took a nice little service at the ex-landless community of Nossa Senhora de Aparecida II in São Mamede County which is 6 km north of Green Pastures. 

Engagement

My assistant pastor Rafael has become engaged to a young lawyer from our church called Rayla Rodrigues. Rayla is part of the youth leadership. Rafael and Rayla have asked me to conduct a little ceremony this Friday night to officially celebrate their engagement so I have been preparing for this. I have never done an engagement ceremony before. I have conducted countless weddings, but never an engagement. The ceremony on Friday will be followed by a party.

Petrol stations in Brazil put the petrol in your car for you. I called in to one to fill up my jeep with petrol and the silly attendant put 12 litres of diesel in before he realized his mistake. My jeep is now at a garage to drain the petrol tank. What a pain!

I have just done a reference for a young woman called Anna Beatriz from the Patos church who is applying to work as a volunteer next year at Ashburnham Place which is a Christian Conference Centre in East Sussex, England. Please pray for her. 

Baptism

On Sunday morning we baptized 9 new converts from the Patos church including our granddaughter Beatriz and our grandson Lucas. The service was held at the Green Pastures pool because there everyone can see the baptisms well. After the beautiful service we had a lovely fellowship breakfast for the large crowd from the church present.

On Sunday night a special thanksgiving service was held for our 50 years ministry here in Brazil. The church was packed out. Pastor Lindon Carlos came from Imaculada. Philip led the service and spoke. There were video messages from Pastors Kleber Lucas (Rio de Janeiro), Carlos Queiroz (Fortaleza), Antonio Carlos Costa (Rio de Janeiro) and various ACEV/EAB pastors. There were also international video messages from Roy Dyer, Marian Rashleigh and my 2 sisters Jean and Joy. The service was a lot longer than usual as all the ministries' leaders spoke too. At the end there were savouries, cake and pop drink for all. It was a lovely evening.    

Family

Liz's sister Esther, her daughter Sabrina and her husband Daniel plus their children Lorenzo and Sofia have come from João Pessoa for Louisa and Tiago's wedding.

Friday morning's encounter of our seniors went very well. They all were quite boisterous and sent me a little video with a loud "Good morning"!

Friday night's wedding went off absolutely beautifully. I conducted the wedding and Philip brought an excellent word from the sermon on the mount. The ceremony only started half an hour late which by Brazilian standards was pretty good.

Saturday was our youngest daughter Sacha's 36th birthday and we all had lunch together in a restaurant. At night I led the weekly service at Green Pastures which went off very well. 

Prayer

It is always so encouraging to see the youth praying on a Monday evening here. Each week their number varies between 9 and 11 and usually has more participants than the parallel adult prayer group. On Tuesday the Men's fellowship met and Pastor Lucena was present which was nice. He is the retired Congregational pastor who is now a member of our Patos church. However he has now moved away to Recife. He is here this week for Louisa and Tiago's wedding. On Wednesday the Women's fellowship had 11 participants and there was also a good number at the midweek service at our Patos school. Then last night 40 gathered to the Bible study. 

Wedding

This Friday night I will be conducting the wedding of our granddaughter Louisa to Tiago. I have been preparing the ceremony today. The wedding will take place at the Patos Water Play on the eastern outskirts of Patos. The ceremony will be authorized by the judge to be both legally binding as well as Christian.

Liz is to counsel two women later today. Both are new in the faith and need help. Please pray. Liz ended up counselling one of the women for two hours. The other will be on another day.

Mateus and Hortencia are the couple in their twenties that have taken on the leadership of our Soledade church. Both are graduates in theology and Mateus is also a physics teacher. Please pray for this couple.  

Pastor

We have just received the visit of one of our pastors (I can't give his name) who came to thank us for the changed situation in his ministry and church. He came to us some months back when he was very discouraged and low. We counselled him and prayed with him and today he came to give us the good news of a change for the better. His wife, who was lower in spirit than him, has a new lease of life too. Thank you for your prayers.

Yesterday was Father's Day in Brazil and it was exactly 20 years ago that my dear Father went to be with the Lord. In Patos we held a special Father's Day service in which both Philip and myself preached. I led the service.

On Saturday night I both led and preached the Gospel in the weekly Green Pastures service. I preached on "I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11). Philip led the worship.

Europe

Liz and I will be flying to Zurich via Lisbon on September 2nd and 3rd. We will stay in Switzerland until September 11th when we will fly to England. Whilst in the UK we will speak at the following churches: Sep. 18th - Cadnam Methodist at 10:30 am + West Wellow Chapel at 18:00; Sep. 25th - Millbrook Christian Centre (Southampton) at 10:15 am; Oct. 2nd - Danbury Mission at 10:30 am; Oct. 9th - Rock Community Church, Devizes at 10 am; Oct. 16th - Bristol PHC at 17:00; Oct. 21st - EAB Board Meeting in Basingstoke at 19:30; Oct. 22nd - EAB annual celebration in Lighthouse Community Church at Hardley near Southampton at 18:00; Oct. 23rd - Christ Church Chineham, Basingstoke at 10 am; Oct. 30th - Emmanuel Baptist Church in Thamesmead at 10:30 am. Our return flights to Brazil are on November 2nd. We value your prayers.

Our wheelchairs bank for the poor has a very fast turnover. Yesterday we received one back from Socorro Help's sister and today it has already been loaned out again to a neighbour of our Patos school suffering with a broken leg.

Applause

Today the Patos Town Council voted unanimously in favor of a special "motion of applause" for my 50 years as a pastor in Patos. The motion was proposed by Councilor José Gonçalves. I am honored and give all the glory to God.

Our church at Ibiara held a baptismal service when 3 young people were baptized by local pastor Betinho. Praise God with us for this. 

On Tuesday night our Patos Men's Fellowship led a beautiful service at Nega's farmstead not far from Green Pastures. A good little crowd of 40 people gathered to hear the gospel. We were pleasantly surprised to see Tarcísio and his new lady friend there as since Tarcísio's wife died about 2 years ago he has grown cold spiritually. Tarcísio used to be the leader of the church at Green Pastures.

Sunday

The main service of the week starts at 6:30 pm and it went very well. I led the overall service and Sacha led the praise and worship. Philip was on bass guitar as the regular player was away. Rogaciano was on guitar and Netinho on drums. Marina, Sacha and Philip were on vocals. Rafael preached the Gospel from John 2:1-11.

Last week it rained 26 mm (just over an inch) which is quite unusual for the month of August. We are very grateful to God for a well above average amount of rainfall this year at Green Pastures. This year at Green Pastures it has rained 1,097 mm whereas the average rainfall is 702 mm. Add to this 96 mm in December means that this rainy season we have had no less than 1,193 mm of rain!

I have been working on the final stages of my book in Portuguese about the first 80 years of history of the work here between 1938 and 2018. The layout is now all done and the book will be published this year (DV). We're just clearing up the final little details.

Green Pastures

Last night I led the weekly service at Green Pastures and young lawyer Rayla preached the Gospel. Philip led the praise and worship and Josa, Linda and Rafael served the communion. Luis, Fred, Paulo Silas and Dora also took part with solos. Luis  (our six-year-old grandson) sang a song about Jesus from Galilee and brought the house down at the end when he bowed because everyone clapped him! It was a lovely service. Earlier in the day Philip photographed a beautiful Coral venomous snake. 

Pimlico

I have finished reading the book 'The Murder at Pimlico' by Mike Hollow. It is a very good relaxing read. It is the sixth book in the Blitz Detective series which I highly recommend. I got to know the author many moons ago through Tearfund. One word of warning however. The author is a West Ham supporter! But of course nobody is perfect. 

It doesn't rain in August

 I can never remember seeing rain in our region in the month of August and I've been here a long time. However yesterday it rained 9 mm and today it has rained 10 mm so far! We are amazed. I went out to Green Pastures for a walk but it was a case of rain stopped walk. I fed the chickens with our home food left overs, picked up the eggs and some delicious curd. The latter we had for our evening meal.

Fifty

On the 3rd of August 1972 I set my foot in Brazil for the first time. I have much to thank God for over these 50 years of service. In 1972 I landed at Recife airport with Liz and 4 month old baby Deborah. We were met by Frank and Ivy Dyer who drove us to Patos. Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Nelsinha

Sister Nelsinha went to be with the Lord today at Lymington, UK. Nelsinha was 97 years old and Brazilian who was led to the Lord by the late EAB missionary Frank Dyer at Hardley back in the 1960's. We praise God for Nelsinha's life and pray for her family at this time.

I have had discussions with Sister Nenem who leads our church at São Vicente do Seridó. The church will now go back to holding their main Sunday service in the evening. It has been held in the afternoon these last months owing to a wave of violence in the town, but the situation has now improved.

Sermons

I have prepared two sermons. One is for Father's Day which is on the second Sunday in August in Brazil. This will mean it is on the 14th which will be the 20th anniversary of my dear Father's death. The other sermon is for a normal Sunday.  

Liz

Liz is recovering well from her hysterectomy surgery. The surgeon was a lovely Christian woman and the anesthetist was excellent too. Both were both competent in the surgery and gentle and kind in the pre-surgery and post-surgery periods.

Last night Philip preached in the Patos church. He preached a clear Gospel message. I led the service, the children sang a song and the drama group did a short evangelistic sketch. We called yesterday's service "The Friends' Service" and everyone was challenged to invite a friend. We had 41 visitors as a result! We sold hot dogs at the end and raised 100 pounds for the building work being done at the Care Centre.