Cidade Verde

Our second church on the coast in Joao Pessoa is in the borough of Cidade Verde and it has just celebrated its 19th anniversary under the leadership of Pastor Jose Vieira. A festive and blessed special service was held to commemorate the occasion. 

You will be thrilled to know that having lost at Norwich on Saturday, QPR actually managed to win a game last night at home to Stoke 4 x 2!! You will also have noticed that I had my hair cut yesterday. I hope you like it. 👨

Last night I preached on prayer in the town of Sao Mamede. It was a lovely service and my sermon went very well.

Yesterday afternoon I went for a nice walk at Green Pastures and saw a Chalk-browed Mocking bird and 3 White-naped Jays.

This Friday we will be travelling the 178 km east to Campina Grande where I will be speaking at the graduation service of our Bible College there. We will sleep there the night at Pastor Wostenes' house and travel back to Patos the following morning.

40th Anniversary Service

We drove to Caroa on Saturday afternoon leaving Patos at 1 pm and arriving at Caroa at 4:20 pm. The last 11 km of the journey is the worst although the earth track (road!) has been improved a lot over the last 40 years that we have been going there to minister. The anniversary service started 15 minutes late at 7:15 pm and was held in front of the church under a star-lit sky and a full moon. There was a constant gentle breeze blowing which was much appreciated so as to cool things down. An excellent crowd gathered from Caroa, plus pastor Francinaldo from our Manaira church, Fabio who leads the Fonseca and Travessia churches, Leonarda who leads the Umburana church, pastor Gerse (Princesa Isabel), pastor Roberio (Tavares), pastor Nemias (Flores), Deacon Sitonio (Mandacau), and others from Umbuzeiro, Olho D'aguinha Seco and Belem. I preached on 'Nothing will separate us from God' (Romans 8:31-39) The mayor was at the service and at the end I presented him with a copy of my book about the history of the work here.

After the service everyone was served with a hot dog and coke and we stayed talking to all the people. After this we stayed chatting to the local pastor Valdemy till gone 11 pm. We stayed at his house for the night and we left for Patos about 8 am the following morning. On the way home we went to visit brother Jose Paulinho and his wife Louisa at Manaira as Louisa doesn't enjoy good health and they were unable to go to the anniversary service. They are the parents of 17 children! We got back to Patos about 12:30 pm, ate egg and chips, had a siesta, and then got ready for the evening main service of the week in the Patos church.

I led the service in the Patos church and pastor Rafael preached. Sacha, Louisa and Marina led the worship. After the service the children's ministry sold a Munguza snack to raise money for the building work. Munguza is a regional maize based snack which was very nice.

Caroa

Later today Elizabeth, me and deaconess Josinete will drive to Caroa and tonight I will be preaching at their 40th anniversary service. We value your prayers.

Thursday night's prayer meeting and Bible study went well. There were about 25 there.

I have been doing a lot of administrative work. I have also had a nice walk at Green Pastures and had a good chat to Francisco. I heard the call of the Scarlet-throated Tanager whilst there.

Yesterday morning I inspected the construction work at the Care Centre. The brick layer was finishing off the wheelchair ramp and it is good to see the end of the work insight. Hopefully we will go into the new year with the Care Centre back in use and totally revamped. 

Christmas is coming!

Christmas approaches and the Patos church is already decorated appropriately. Every Sunday in December we will have a special Christmas feature in the service as follows. On the 3rd we will have a children's nativity play; on the 10th a Christmas ballet performance; on the 17th a special musical item; and on the 24th we will have our main Christmas play which I wrote.

On Tuesday evening I led the men's fellowship inductive Bible study called 'Jesus the great liberator' based on John 8:31-32. It was a lovely meeting with 12 present and which was very participative.

Our 22-year-old grandson Arthur presented his end of course dissertation for his law course at university and received the top mark. His dissertation, which was highly praised by his examiners, discussed the legal implications of Brexit. 

I have been in discussions with Gleydice in Campina Grande about our Bible College there. The college is struggling owing to the low numbers of students with only 22 this year. Please pray.

Liz went to the women's fellowship meeting last night which was held at Ana Karla's house. They had a good number there. (22)

Juazeirinho

At the weekend our Pastor Leandro at Juazeirinho baptized 4 new converts for which we praise the Lord. Juazeirinho is half-way between Patos and Campina Grande and our church there has 59 participants.

Sunday night's service was excellent in Patos. I led and Sacha preached on 'There is power in the name of Jesus'. She preached very well indeed. After church the worship group sold slices of cake plus savouries to raise money for the building work at the Care Centre. 

On Sunday both our grandson Arthur and his girlfriend Bianca sat their first stage of the Bar examination and they passed. They now sit the second and final stage of the Bar exam on January 21st. They both graduate from university as lawyers next month. They are both fine Christians.

Last night the youth prayer meeting had 12 in it which is up from 10 last week.

I went for a refreshing walk at Green Pastures yesterday afternoon.

Liz is down with the flu.

Well travelled week

This past week saw us doing 15 hours of driving as we travelled far and wide to preach the Word of God. First we went to Joao Pessoa on the coast and took with us one of our pastors (Lindon Carlos) and our social worker Marah Danielle. We had hours to talk and share about the work together. We took part in the 60+ Conference which is an interdenominational movement to make churches aware that Brazil has an ageing population and need to cater for the over 60s and not just the youth. The movement also seeks to make over 60s aware of the great use they can be in the work of God. I was one of the speakers at the conference. One thing which became clear was that our work with the over 60s was the oldest work of its kind amongst all the churches represented at the conference. We have been doing this work for 17 years.

Having returned from the 3-day conference in Joao Pessoa which was full of long very full meetings we just had time to get our breath back so as to leave for our Barra de Oitis church the following afternoon. This was to take part and speak at the special thanksgiving service there for another 7 toilet-shower units that we have built there. The service was jubilant and full of praise to God. The church band did well with a blind guitarist, a bass guitar, drums and keyboard led by 4 singers. We were served a nicely iced cake (the cook learnt from our pastor-cook Joao George!) after the service and drove back to Patos deep into the night getting to bed at nearly 1 am. We now prepare for the evening Sunday service in Patos.

Meeting with pastors

I have had an excellent meeting with pastors Lindon Carlos, Gerse and Roberio in my office in Patos. They came to see me on their way back from visiting our church in Ceara at Filipe. We had a good discussion about the work in Ceara. It is good to know that it is going well.

Paulino and Betania are a young couple from our Tavares church who this year took on the leadership of our church at Belem. They travel to Belem from Tavares for each service. However they are now planning to move to the area so as to be more on hand for the churches at Belem and Jurema which are only a few miles apart. How encouraging it is to see young couples like this taking on responsibilities in the work of God.

The youth prayer meeting on Monday night had 10 in it which is very good. All report blessing from the meeting.

Yesterday was our 54th wedding anniversary and we spent the day on the 5 hour journey to Joao Pessoa followed by a 5 hour meeting in a conference for the over 60s. Today I spoke to the conference.

American Barn Owl

 On Saturday night I went to Green Pastures to take the service with the local church there as I usually do. I arrived early and soon heard a lot of commotion from the roosting birds in the trees around the meeting hall. It was an American Barn Owl having its evening meal! The American Barn Owl is much larger than the Barn Owl you get in the UK. It is 50% heavier.

The Green Pastures service went well. I led and Bible College student Ray preached from Psalm 126. The ladies group sang led by Nega, Manoel sang too and his wife Miriam read the Bible. She said that she did this to show everyone that her eyesight is better after eye surgery. 

QPR managed not to lose again on Saturday! We drew 0 x 0 at home to Bristol City.

Last night's main service of the week in Patos went well with me leading, Rafael preaching from Luke 5, and Sacha, Louisa and Marina leading the praise and worship. One of our nurses, Liliane, gave a 5-minute talk encouraging the men to have regular checks for prostate cancer and many in church dressed in blue in accordance with the November blue campaign. A little boy called Miguel recited John 3:16.

Scaled Doves

I saw a Scaled Dove's nest at Green Pastures this afternoon. They have nested on the veranda of the main house and it is not the rainy season when they usually nest. Let's hope and pray that it's a sign that rain is near. They are called Scaled Doves because their feathers are like beautiful fish's scales. I also saw 3 Cactus Parakeets.

Thursday night's midweek Bible study has now been altered to be a prayer meeting and Bible study. It was a wonderful service with everyone fervently praying after I had put a list of prayer requests up on a flip chart. This was followed by a study of Joel 2:1-11.

Parallel to this a service was held at the ex-landless settlement in Sao Mamede which was led by sister Dodora. 2 people made decisions to follow Christ at the end of the service. 

Liz has had a rough week with having to have roots removed, from where a tooth had been, at the Dentist's. Thankfully she is now recovered.

Last night we held a special married couples' fellowship evening which 9 couples attended and it was very good. Claudia, who is one of the fellowship leaders, brought a nice word after some ice breaking exercises led by Marah Danielle. The night was rounded up with a snack for everyone.

Zacchaeus

 On Tuesday night our men's fellowship held its meeting at Zaqueu's (Zacchaeus) house. I led the meeting and Rafael led the inductive Bible study about why Jesus came. Zaqueu is a man in his 60s who doesn't enjoy good health so it was nice to have fellowship with him and his wife Josinete. Everyone was served with ice cream at the end of the meeting. The couple clearly were blessed by the meeting and asked for us to return there for another meeting as soon as possible.

On Tuesday afternoon I went for a nice walk at Green Pastures. I saw many Picui Ground Doves, 4 Black Vultures, a Crested Caracara, a Great Egret and a White-bellied Nothura. It was good exercise and very relaxing. 

Tavares

Tavares is a town about a two hour drive south west of Patos and is led by Pastor Roberio who is a strapping big man with a big smile and lovely sense of humour. At the weekend the Tavares church celebrated its 16th anniversary and held a baptismal service when 4 new converts were baptized. The Tavares church has 3 branch churches in the villages of Jurema, Belem and Olho Daguinha Seco.

On Sunday night I both led the main service of the week in Patos and I preached on 'The Goodness of God' which was essentially an exposition of Psalm 119:17-24. The sermon combatted suicide as well. Brazil has 11,000 suicides a year. The praise and worship was led by Sacha and Fabio backed up by Tiago, Ricardinho, Netinho and Rogerio. It was a good service which included our monthly celebration of communion.

Wedding Bells

Last night I conducted the wedding of Isaac and Marina. Isaac is one of our new interpreters for the deaf and Marina is part of our praise and worship group. She has a lovely contralto voice. The ceremony started about half an hour late which is not bad by general standards here. All went off beautifully with Sacha doing the singing accompanied by Tiago on guitar. This is the fourth wedding I have done this year with one more to go next month.

Unbelievably QPR played yesterday and actually managed not to lose! We drew 1 x 1 at Rotheram. QPR has a new Spanish manager called Marti Cifuentes. We actually played attacking football and had 60% of the possession which is double what we were averaging.

On Friday afternoon I went for a nice walk at Green Pastures. I find such walks very relaxing and I enjoy talking to Francisco who works there. I saw a wild guinea pig which ran right in front of me. I saw an armadillo too.

Liz

Liz took part in the service at our school which bears her Father's name in the borough of Jatoba in Patos on Wednesday evening. It was a nice little service with about 20 present.

I have just eaten boiled cassava roots with fried egg finished off with Heinz tomato ketchup which you can now purchase in Brazil.

Yesterday was All Souls' Day which here in Brazil is popularly known as the 'Day of the Dead'. People flock to the cemeteries to visit their family tombs and masses galore are held.

Last night I led the Bible study service and Rafael brought the word from Joel 1 completing the chapter. Our daughter Sacha led the praise with Rogaciano on guitar. There were about 20 present. 

Computer

I have been without my laptop for 2 days as it had to go to be fixed as the sound would not work. Windows 11 had to be uninstalled and then re-installed. Hopefully it is now cured.

The men's fellowship went well last night. Our meeting of 10 men was held at brother Tiago Medeiros's house. We had a good time of fellowship, a nice time of sharing around God's Word and a delicious snack was served to all at the end. 😋

Yesterday afternoon I had a nice walk at Green Pastures and saw many birds whilst there which included 15 Picui Ground Doves, 2 White-tipped Doves, 4 Caatinga Cacholotes, 1 Burrowing Owl, 1 White-naped Jay and 2 Pileated Finches. I also saw a medium sized Iguana. I also had a look at Francisco's work planting giant cactuses which can be sold as cattle feed in a year's time. This income will help to pay Francisco's wage as Francisco takes care of Green Pastures on a day to day basis.

On Monday night a group from Patos (Rafael, Chico, Josinete, Iara & Marcia) went and held a service at Netinho and Nega's farmstead to which 51 people gathered. PTL!