Walk

 On Friday afternoon Liz and I went for a nice walk at Green Pastures for about 3 km. We came back with a bucket full of Barbadan cherries (high in vitamin C and very good for making fruit juice), half a bucket of lemons (more vitamin C and fruit juice), half a bucket of Cajarana (a yellow cherry-like fruit), a few custard apples, a tub of curd and 2 litres of fresh milk from a neighbour's cow.

Yesterday our Patos youth spent the day at Green Pastures where they had a day of fun and fellowship with volleyball, table tennis, swimming etc. They ended the day in the weekly Green Pastures service which went very well, although Liz and I thought the youngsters looked pretty tired after a day in the hot sun. Local folk Nega, Manoel and Rose took part in the service. It was especially good to hear Manoel's testimony once again, of how he was converted as a result of me giving him a lift when he was drunk out on a country track many years ago. I took him home and the love of God shown to him greatly impacted his life. Who preached in the service was Rayla, who is a young lawyer who is now doing a course in theology.

This week our daughters asked me to present the Cambridge University certificates at their English school. 40 of their students passed the Cambridge external exams. It was a pleasure to support our 3 girls, Deborah, Lynn and Sacha. The school is our daughters' source of income.

Yesterday QPR did it again! 😀 They beat Stoke at Stoke 1 x 0 and in doing so they guaranteed that they will not be relegated from the Championship. Phew!

School Service

Last night we held our weekly little service at our Patos school. 4 parents and a few children come along regularly. We are slowly and steadily sowing the seed of God's Word and look to the Lord for much fruit. Please pray.

I have read a small book on Chess by Craig Medina via Kindle and have played and won two more matches of chess.

Last night it was our granddaughter Amanda's 8th birthday party which we went to. Amanda is Lynn and Hutan's daughter. Her birthday is actually on May 2nd but her best friend Sofia is going away before then so Amanda insisted on having her party with Sofia present!

After the birthday party I went to church for the Bible study which Rafael was giving. All went very well. There was a good number present.

Marathon

At the weekend the chairman of the EAB Board of Trustees, Roy Dyer, ran the London marathon in 3 hours, 56 minutes and 36 seconds amidst a lot of heavy rain. Well done Roy! Just to remind you: a marathon is 26.2 miles! This I believe means Roy averaged about 9 minutes for each mile.

I am in the middle of trying to sort out a leadership problem at our Ibiara and Conceição churches where Pastor Betinho is the pastor. Both churches are small so for the last 3 years Betinho has pastored both churches as they are only 15 minutes apart by car. However we now learn that neither church is happy with the arrangement. I am now in the process of discussing this with our senior leadership team. Please pray.

The EAB magazine InTouch#99 is now available online on the EAB website at www.eabrazil.org. The hard paper copy should reach you by post next week if you are on our mailing list. If you do not receive a copy and would like one then please do let us know. We can also supply extra copies if needed.

There were nine of us in the Men's Fellowship meeting last night. Chief of the Police Esaú brought the meditation about the struggle between flesh and Spirit in the life of the Christian. Ricardo led the meeting.

QPR

On Saturday QPR went to Burnley to play the league leaders. QPR are in danger of relegation so the game was viewed with much trepidation. In the match Burnley had 84% of control of the ball. They hit the QPR bar, had a ball headed off the QPR goal line and another ball was ruled not to be their goal by goal line technology. Despite all this pressure QPR miraculously won the game 2 x 1. I am very happy! 😀

On Saturday night I went to Green Pastures to lead what was an excellent service. A good little crowd gathered and Liz led the prayer. Local farming people Fred, Dodora, Sabrina and Manoel took part with songs and words of testimony. Louisa led the worship with her husband Tiago on guitar. Then it was most encouraging to hear a wonderful sermon by Bible College student Murilo. It was great! He preached on Colossians 3:1-4 and I have asked him to repeat the sermon the next time he preaches in Patos. Parallel to the sermon Rebeca taught the children which was very good.

On Saturday night, in the UK, Cadnam Methodist church held their annual musical concert to raise support for EAB. I hear that it went very well with a full church, and raised over 1,500 pounds. I was especially pleased to know that our grandson Luis, aged 6, sang beautifully and that our son Philip did some guitar solos. Our sincerest thanks go to all at the church, especially to Howard & Hillary Babey who are the main organizers of the concert.

I have had a visit in my office from Pastor Cesário Júnior from João Pessoa, who came to get a copy of my book about the history of EAB/ACEV. Cesário is 59 today and I baptized him when he was 15. It is always a joy to see the fruit of our labours.

I led the service in Patos last night and Pastor Ângelo from Soledade preached the Word on thanksgiving. It was a good service with a full church.  

Weather Forecaster

This week I had a very important meeting with Professor Dr. Mário Leitão who is an experienced meteorologist from the university in Petrolina in Pernambuco State. He visited Green Pastures and loved it and he is to donate us a quality rain measuring gauge to replace the one we have. He also will later on set up a professional online weather monitoring centre at Green Pastures to monitor temperature, humidity, and rainfall. This will mean you will be able to follow our weather situation always via the internet.

Liz says there were nine ladies at the Women's Fellowship this week. Liz enjoyed the meeting. The group is led by Ana Paula.

I have read a further small book called 'New Frontiersmen of Brazil' by Harry Bacon, of the Evangelical Union of South America which I think is today called Latin Link. The book, published in 1964, tells of his experiences in and linked to Bible Colleges in south and central Brazil. 

I have played and won four more games of chess. I played Felipe twice, which takes us up to 14 x 0 in our series. I also played his partner Vivi for the first time and won both games.

Rehabilitation

We have taken a further drug addict to the rehabilitation centre in João Pessoa this week. Please pray. He is from the town of Soledade. 

I have had discussions with Sister Sandra Nogueira who leads our Água Grande church in the County of Santana de Mangueira. 

I have finished reading the book called 'The Browns in Brazil' by Stuart E. McNair. It is fiction written in 1942 describing central Brazil around 1912. This was another book I inherited from Liz's late father Pastor Frank Dyer. I have discovered via Google that Stuart E. McNair was part of the Plymouth Brethren and was born in Brighton in 1867 and died in Brazil in 1959.

There were only nine of us in the Men's Fellowship this week, but it went well. We reflected together on the Parable of the Net in Matthew 13:47-52. The initial meditation was led by Chico.

I have had an excellent meeting in my office with Pastor Oseias and his wife Lucia from our Itaporanga church, and with Ramos and Tica who lead our Curral Velho church. We were encouraged by their report of a flourishing new church plant in their region at Mata de Oitis. We also received the request for a new Action Child School at Vazante. The problem is that we would need another 4 sponsors, @ 20 pounds a month, to make this possible, as we are stretched to the limit at the moment. 

Over the last few days we have had a further 59 mm (about 2 and a half inches) of rain, but we still need a lot more rain this month to get to a good total for the rainy season.

InTouch99

I have just proof read edition number 99 of the EAB magazine 'InTouch', which is nearly ready to go to the printers, and which everyone will receive by post in early May. We are grateful to Marian Rashleigh for all the work she does editing and posting, and to Dave Flowers for the layout work. I think it is quite amazing how EAB manages to publish two editions of InTouch a year with a great variety of topics. In this edition there are 15 topics and we don't spend money on journalists and professional photographers like big organizations like Tearfund do.

You can see on mine and EAB's Facebook pages a short video with the highlights of the Men's Retreat held at Green Pastures at the weekend. It was a great blessing and three men committed their lives to Christ!

I led Sunday night's service in Patos when we had a visit from the Gideons International who distribute New Testaments in hotels, hospitals etc.

Men's Retreat

I was at Green Pastures yesterday attending our Campina Grande - Catolé's men's retreat for which 115 men have gathered. We have 91 beds so the rest sleep in hammocks or mattresses on the floor. Some travelled to Green Pastures in cars whilst others went in a coach which the church rented for the weekend. It rained 12 mm (half an inch) whilst I was there. In the service in progress whilst I was there Brother Fabrício was the speaker and it was good. I also had a good meeting whilst there with the leader Pastor Wostenes. He is the vice-chairman of ACEV.

Last night we went to the special youth service held in the Patos church which was very good. There was poetry, choreography, drama, singing and preaching. The church was full. The theme of the service was: 'Jesus is the light of the World'.

This week our projects team were at the Batinga dos Feitosa Community in Tavares County distributing hair sheep as part of EAB's 4-Legs Project. The community preferred to have sheep rather than goats. 7 females and 1 male were distributed to extremely poor people. Thank you for supporting this project.

Liz is out at the moment distributing Feijoada (stewed black beans and pork). Our Patos church folk managed to sell all 300 portions and this goes towards our building project.

Feijoada

Liz is very busy this week coordinating the cooking of 'Feijoada' at the weekend for 300 people! 'Feijoada' is a traditional Brazilian dish of stewed black beans and pork. The 'Feijoada' will be cooked by the ladies of the Patos church and will raise funds for the revamp of our Care Centre. Each portion, sufficient for one person, will cost one pound sixty-six pence. The ingredients for the 'Feijoada' were funded by an EAB supporter so all the income will go to our building project.

Our projects team leaders Lindon Carlos and Marah Danielle have been at Barra de Oitis this week monitoring the building of two toilet/shower units for very poor families. They found one toilet/shower unit completed and in use and the other half-way constructed. Marilene, who is the mother at the house where the unit is already in use, is especially happy as with the unit comes a large external sink for hand washing clothes. She is especially happy as she earns extra cash by washing people's clothes.

On Wednesday night another Gospel service was held at our Patos school and the Women's Fellowship had a good meeting in the church.

I have finished reading a book by Maya Angelou called 'I know why the caged bird sings'. This very good autobiography tells of her origins in Stamps, Arkansas, USA as a poor, black girl, up to the birth of her son in California as a teenager. I read this book on Kindle.

Last night's Bible study was in Hosea chapter 8. There were about 25 of us there, which was lower in number than usual as many of our people are down with a virus. Nevertheless it was a blessed service.  

Cadnam Concert

The Cadnam Methodist Church will be holding another concert, in aid of EAB, on Saturday, April 22nd at 7 pm. Tickets cost 10 pounds. If you live in Southampton or the New Forest area then please do support the event. The address is Cadnam Methodist Church, Old Romsey Road, Cadnam, Southampton. SO40 2NP. Phone 01794 323279 to book your tickets or write to jane.pelletier@gmail.com 

Liz and I have been to Green Pastures to prepare for the upcoming event this weekend. The Men's Fellowship from our Campina Grande - Catolé church will be holding their annual retreat there from Friday to Sunday. So far 132 men have booked to go which is double the number from last year! Please pray for this event.

The Patos Men's Fellowship led a service last night in the town of São Mamede which is 25 minutes by car north-east of Patos. A good little crowd gathered to hear the Gospel in a street meeting. We now have 5 Christians in this town. This may be the start of a new church. Please pray. We hold a monthly meeting in this town.

I have just eaten a delicious custard apple plus a mandioc root pancake filled with scrambled egg plus a small slice of local fresh cheese. 😋

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday started at 8 am with a fellowship breakfast in our Patos church to which a good crowd came. We all ate breakfast together and after this we sang some resurrection hymns followed by a short Bible reflection by assistant pastor Rafael. It was a lovely morning.

At night I led the resurrection celebration and I preached on 'Jesus destroyed death' (2 Timothy 1:10). There also was special singing by a  group together with a choreography.

Over the Easter weekend our Soledade and Campina Grande - Presidente Médici churches joined together for a blessed retreat around the theme of the 'Redeemed Family'. Our João Pessoa - Cidade Verde church also held an Easter retreat.

I forgot to mention that on Saturday morning, on our Easter break at Green Pastures, Liz organized a 'hunt the Easter eggs' trail. She got up at 5:30 am and hid the eggs all over the place. Everyone had great fun hunting and eating when they got up!

Easter break

For many years we have held a family break over the Easter period at Green Pastures. We went out there on Wednesday evening and have just come back to Patos on Saturday evening. We were joined by our children and their families (apart from Philip and family who are in England) plus Liz's sister Esther, her children Sabrina (and family) and Frank Bradley. We had a lovely relaxing time together.

I had plenty of time to read. I read 'Brazilian Adventures' published in 1949 by the Central Brazil Mission of the Presbyterian Church of the USA. It contains 12 articles written by their missionaries. This small book used to belong to my late father-in-law Frank Dyer. It was interesting to see how they saw things in Brazil back in the 1940s.

Then I went on to read 'Digging Ditches' by Helen Roseveare who was a missionary for many years in the Republic of Congo. The book was recommended to me by Pastor Michael Rollo (Larbert, Scotland). The book tells about the author's international ministry after she left the Republic of Congo. The book is both challenging and a blessing. I read the book via Kindle.

I also played some chess over the past days. I played 3 matches with my 25-year-old grandson Felipe and am now 12 x 0 up in our series. I also played and won two matches with my grandson John David who is studying to be a medical doctor at university in João Pessoa.

I went for two nice long walks whilst at Green Pastures. I saw/heard and photographed a wide variety of wildlife. I saw Foxes, Iguanas, White Tipped Dove, Picui Ground-Dove, Guira Cuckoo, Greater Ani, Smooth-billed Ani, Dark-billed Cuckoo, Pigmy Nightjar, Tropical Screech Owl, Burrowing Owl, Gray-necked Wood-rail, Common Gallinule, Roadside Hawk, Pigmy Owl, Ringed Kingfisher, Spot-backed Puffbird, Green-barred Woodpecker, Red-legged Seriema, Yellow-breasted Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee, Southern Wren, Rufous-bellied Thrush, Chopi Blackbird, Blue-black Grassquit, White-throated Seedeater, Red-cowled Cardinal, and a Chalk-browed Mocking Bird.  

Email

I have received a very encouraging email from a 50 year old man I do now know. He tells me that he committed his life to Christ as a result of hearing me speak when he was 7. He is now in the process of changing jobs and will be doing a degree in theology to become a school teacher.

I have had important discussions with pastors Hamilton, Betinho and Davi. Please pray for all our pastors.

QPR go from bad to worse losing all their games! We are now in grave danger of being relegated to division one which is in fact the third division. Oh dear! 😕

I have just read a small book called 'The Bible in Brazil' by C. H. Morris. It was published in 1954 by the British and Foreign Bible Society. It cost one shilling and sixpence! The book gives a good resumé of the origins of the Bible in Portuguese and in Brazil. It tells too of the founding of the Brazilian Bible Society in 1948.

The week's Men's Fellowship meeting only had 7 present as it rained, which kept a lot away. Nevertheless we reflected on Psalm 137.

Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world and is 65 times the size of England. It has a coastline of 3,700 miles on the southern Atlantic and is nearly 2,500 miles wide at its widest point. It has a land mass of over three million two hundred thousand square miles.

Palm Sunday

I both led the service and preached in the main service of Palm Sunday. It was an extremely blessed service.

I have had a blood test to check my sodium and potassium levels (which were very low when I was ill) and praise God they are both perfect.

Please keep praying for rain for us. In March we had 278 mm (eleven and a half inches) which takes us up to a total of 519 mm (twenty one and a half inches) for the year. As our target is 40 inches we still need a lot of rain this month as April is the final main rain month here. Some places have had a lot more rain than us. The Matureia Mayor told me on Saturday that their town doesn't have a drop of water. They are shipping water into the town from Água Branca by water tanker about an hour away by road.

Our family will have our usual Easter break this week at Green Pastures. We will sleep there from Wednesday night and will come back to Patos on Saturday night. We will have the usual Easter egg hunt on the Saturday. On Sunday we will have the resurrection Sunday church fellowship breakfast at 8 am and the main service will be at night when I will both lead and preach. 

Matureia

Late yesterday afternoon Liz and I drove up the Teixeira mountain to Matureia which takes just over an hour by car. Matureia is the highest town in the State of Paraiba. We had to avoid rocks which had fallen on the road on the way, as well as a broken down lorry.

We went to the EAB/ACEV church there for the 17th anniversary service of the Action Child School which is going superbly well. We arrived 20 minutes early for the 6 pm service and found the church already packed out with crowds ready for the service on the outside as well because there was not enough room inside. We were received by Pastor Renilson and his wife Getiane who are doing a wonderful job in the church and school. Our school there has grown from nothing in 2006 to 270 children now. The Mayor and various town councilors were there for the service. Our school is having a great impact on the town.

The service was electric. The children with their mums sang with great gusto. I spoke to them too. Getiane led the service as she is the school's head teacher. Everyone was served hot dogs after the service. Thank you for your support for EAB's Action Child Schools. You have no idea what an impact they have on so many children's and families' lives. For just 20 pounds a month you can support our 18 Action Child Schools.

On Friday night Liz and I went to the Married Couples' Fellowship meeting to which 14 couples gathered. It was very good and dealt with the topic of how to deal with pride in relationships. After the meeting there was a lovely time of fellowship around a table full of food as everyone had taken something.

After the meeting we went to the wake of Mid-wife Neves who died aged 87. She was the midwife for our children Lynn, Sacha and Philip.

Today is Palm Sunday and I will be preaching at tonight's service in Patos.