He is risen

I am preparing a new sermon for Easter Sunday on the resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15 covering: 1. The resurrection of Jesus (v1-11). 2. The resurrection of Christians (v12-34). 3. The nature of our resurrection body (v35-58).

Last night the men's fellowship held a nice service in the town of Sao Mamede in the street outside Jose and Marico's house. Not many gathered this time as there was rain about, but those that were there heard the Gospel.

We have had two more spots of rain at Green Pastures. First there was a shower of 4 mm and then one of 11mm. We value your prayers for more rain.

3 very hectic days

We were having our usual Sunday lunch of egg, chips and peas when the sad news came to us that our great friend for 52 years, Pastor Cesario in Joao Pessoa, had minutes before passed into the presence of the Lord aged 96. We knew he was at the end but it still hits you. He remained lucid and active to the end still preaching the Gospel. He sang hymns loudly on his death bed, recited Psalm 126 and prayed for God to save those who were caring for him in his last days. Pastor Cesario was a great man of God and a founder member of the EAB/ACEV Patos church back in 1948.

Liz and I went to our Sunday evening service as normal, I led and had special prayer for the bereaved family, and our Bible College graduate Murilo preached very well indeed. By this time we already knew that the funeral service would be the following afternoon on the coast in Joao Pessoa at 1 pm. So we got up yesterday morning at 5:30 am, left Patos on a 5 hour journey at 6:30 am and arrived bang on time for the funeral service. I spoke at the funeral service as did a numbers of other pastors and family members. The open coffin was before us during the whole service as is the custom here. The burial itself took place around 5 pm at a cemetery quite a few miles away from the church where the service was held. We praise God for Pastor Cesario's life and fruitful ministry. His wife died 6 years ago and they had 10 children.

After the funeral last night we went for a lovely meal at Liz's sister Esther's apartment up on the 14th floor of a 53 storey apartment block not far from the beach. Today the return journey from Joao Pessoa to Patos took us 6 hours with a break for lunch in Campina Grande. We are tired but all was most worthwhile.

Census

The 2022 Brazilian census shows that out of Brazil's population of 215 million, 49 million are without adequate drains and 4.8 million are without piped water. EAB's well drilling carries on!

Next to our Pastor Frank Dyer school in south Patos is a quite large area of land. We have long wanted to do an exchange with the owner of the land with a piece of land we have in east Patos, but the owner refuses to do the deal. However he has now agreed to rent the land to us for 85 pounds a month with a hope (he says) of doing the exchange deal in a couple of years' time. This land will be a wonderful help to our school as it will finally give the children a playground and will give us space for our football workshops for teenagers. It will also give us space for our evangelistic services that we hold there. Please pray for the exchange deal to work out.

The mighty QPR beat Rotheram at home 2 x 1 yesterday! It means that this is the first time we have got out of the relegation zone since September! 😁

Last night I led the weekly service of our Green Pastures church. It was very good with a good number present. Services were also held at our Patos school and at Ipueira. Saturday is a night on which the Patos church spreads out in a variety of directions. The deaf have there big weekly get-together too.

Women's Fellowship

Liz has been at this week's women's fellowship meeting which was held in conjunction with Ana Karla's birthday celebrations. It was very good because about 10 of Ana Karla's non-evangelical Christian work colleagues went to the meeting and heard the Gospel loud and clear. It was an excellent meeting with a good number present.

I have just eaten some nice fruit: a custard apple and some red mombins. 😋

On Wednesday night it rained another 40 mm. Praise God! 👍

Last night I led the weekly prayer meeting and Bible study. There were 25 present and it was a blessed time together. Dede, Mada and Marcio shared verses of Scripture and Fabio led the praise using a playback as the guitar player couldn't make it.

Great Meeting

On Monday night we held a great meeting of our Patos church ministries' leaders. We had a wide ranging discussion of the fellowship groups and discussed different church members in need of special attention.

Donkeys have greatly disappeared from northeast Brazil as a result of their trade to China where their skins are greatly valued. Whereas there would often be accidents involving donkeys at night on our roads (I have had 3 such accidents) these are now rare.

I had discussions yesterday with Professor Flavia Moura of the Federal University. She is going to commence research at Green Pastures into mound-forming termites.

Last night I both led and spoke at the Men's Fellowship meeting which went very well. There were nine of us present.

It rained another 4 mm last night at Green Pastures.

Mud glorious mud!

Mud glorious mud! Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood! We had 40 mm of rain on Saturday at Green Pastures and this caused the cancellation of our weekly service there because the mud on the roads made getting there impossible. 

On Saturday morning I was asked to help at the English school by my daughters with a conversation class with about 15 students. It went very well and I really enjoyed it.

QPR travelled to Bristol and beat Bristol City 1 x 0 which was an excellent result. This result leaves us only 1 point adrift in the relegation zone. 😄

I have seen and heard a lot of Caatinga Cachalotes at Green Pastures lately. I even heard some in Patos this morning.

I led our main service of the week yesterday in the Patos church and Pastor Rafael preached from Mark 2. It was a good service with 2 decisions for Christ at the end. It rained another 14 mm after the service.

Pizza

After the mid-week prayer and Bible study meeting we went out and ate a pizza together to celebrate our grandson Arthur's passing in his Bar exams, together with his girlfriend Bianca. It was a nice time together.

I led the service, Joao Filho and Lucas Conserva led the praise, Dede and Deborah Maria brought verses of scripture and words of testimony about the carnival camp, and Rafael started a new series of studies in the book of Amos.

On Thursday it rained 15 mm at Green Pastures.

People were surprised when I reported that Tearfund has pulled out of Brazil. I received an official report yesterday from them and was told that they have in fact pulled out of the whole of Latin America! I am told that Tearfund's focus will now be on countries in conflict and war which is a total change.

The total number of people who took part in our carnival camp was 166.

Rains

We had 14 mm of rain this week at Green Pastures but the rains are very localized and low in intensity. Yesterday it rained for an hour and a half in Patos but nothing fell at Green Pastures, which is only a 20 minute drive northwest of Patos. Please pray for rain!

The weekly service at our Pastor Frank Dyer School in the borough of Jatoba in south Patos went ahead last night despite the rain. A nice little group gathered to hear the word of God.

QPR travelled to Stoke yesterday and lost 1 x 0. We remain 4 points adrift in the relegation zone with 12 matches to go to the end of the season. Things are looking bleak! 😕

Our lawyer grandson Arthur and his girlfriend Bianca have both passed their Bar exams and are now fully fledged lawyers! The results came out today and we are thrilled.

Scorpions

This carnival camp at Green Pastures saw an abundance of scorpions and last night, the final night of the camp, unfortunately saw Bianca (our grandson Arthur's girlfriend) bitten by one. The pain is excrutiating! She was taken to hospital to be checked out, but is now fine. We have just got home from the camp. Thanks to all who prayed for the camp.

The camp went very well indeed and was a real blessing. On Sunday night Murilo preached on 'Sound teaching' (2 Timothy 1:13-18). On Monday morning I preached for the second time on 'Be strong in the grace of Christ' (2 Timothy 2:1-7). On Monday night our daughter Sacha preached on 'God's word is not chained' (2 Timothy 2:8-13). On Tuesday Pastor Lindon Carlos preached both morning and night. In the morning the topic was 'A workman approved by God' (2 Timothy 2:8-13) and at night the topic was 'Instruments for noble purposes' (2 Timothy 2:20-26). The whole camp was richly blessed with excellent teaching ministry and lovely praise and worship.

On the leisure side of the camp there were very good volleyball matches every afternoon, there were fun competitions in the meeting hall, swimming, and games of table tennis, dominos, uno etc. Lights out at night was 11 pm and everyone behaved very well this year.

Carnival Camp in progress

Our 2024 Carnival Camp (the first one was in 1979) is in progress at Green Pastures and there are 100 plus present (I don't have precise statistics yet). I both led and preached in the opening service last night. I preached on a 'Clear Conscience' from 2 Timothy 1:1-7. The service went very well.

This morning was our second service (out of 7 in the camp) and I led and pastor Rafael preached on 'Do not be ashamed to Testify' from 2 Timothy 1:8-12. It was another blessed service. Sacha and Marina led the praise and worship backed by Rogerio, Davi, Netinho and Ricardinho. We had a good time of prayer during the service too. 

QPR drew at home to Norwich yesterday 2 x 2 and remain in the relegation zone. That's 4 matches in a row unbeaten so that gives us some hope.

We have had two showers of rain at Green Pastures. One was 7 mm and the other was 4 mm. It is better than nothing.

People are asking me about our son Philip's health. I am glad to say that he is now recovered from his pneumonia and is back to work. Thank you for your prayers.

Carnival Camp

Everything is full steam ahead with the organization of the carnival camp which starts at Green Pastures tomorrow and will run through to pancake Tuesday and to ash Wednesday. Liz is going like the clappers! Please pray for the camp. This blog may be irregular or non-existent over the coming days of the camp because internet is very weak at Green Pastures plus the fact that we have an extremely tight schedule.

I have had serious computer problems this week but they have now been fixed.

I had never more looked at my blog statistics, but I now see that last month this blog was visited 4,222 times from people in a variety of countries. My blog has its 20th anniversary this year! When I started it in August 2004 many people asked me what a blog was that I was talking about!

Last night I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study. Rogerio and Marina led the worship and Dede, Deborah Maria, Romildo and Marina brought verses of Scripture and Pastor Rafael gave the study on the final verses of Joel. Next week we will start in the book of Amos.

Trouble shooting

Liz and I have held 2 lengthy trouble shooting meetings with people from the Patos church whose names I can't mention because many people from the church read this blog. I would just ask you to pray with us on this, especially for one of these people who is in serious spiritual need.

There were 12 in the youth prayer meeting on Monday night. I think that is wonderful!

Last night's men's fellowship meeting went very well and this had 12 men in it too. It was a good meeting with warm fellowship.

I have held considerable discussions with our projects team as we get going in 2024. Our team had January off as usually happens.

The rains have disappeared and we are quite concerned about this. The long-term forecast is not good. Please pray for abundant rain for our region as either we get it now or we will have to wait till 2025!

Communion service

I conducted the communion service on Saturday night with our Green Pastures church and our grandson Arthur went with me. Bible College graduate Murilo preached the Gospel from 1 John 5:1-5. Fred and Nega with the sisters sang songs and Marina and Joao Filho led the worship accompanied on keyboard by Rogerio. It was a good meeting.

QPR did well on Saturday winning away to Blackburn 2 x 1. I hope this is the start of a winning run of matches! 😀

Last night's communion service in Patos was wonderful with our youngest daughter preaching about the Holy Spirit from John 14. She preached very well indeed. She is becoming quite a preacher! As it had been my birthday in the week the church did a special video with messages from some of our pastors and presented me with a new belt and some sugar-free Brazilian maltesers! It was all very nice and very much appreciated. 

Prayer

 I led the prayer meeting and Bible study on Thursday evening and there were 30 present. Davi and Joao Filho led the praise and Vasti and Espedita sang solos. Dede, Mariana, Marcio and Rayla shared verses of scripture with us. Rafael brought the study from Joel 3. We also had a lovely time of prayer together. It was a good meeting.

I have had a good meeting with our schools' coordinators at the beginning of the 2024 school year. It was a positive meeting.

I went out to Green Pastures and had a chat with Francisco. I heard a Striped Cuckoo, a Guira Cuckoo and a Rufous-browed Peppershrike. We badly need a lot more rain at Green Pastures. 

We keep some non-wild Guinea Pigs at Green Pastures for the enjoyment of the children who go there for camps etc. The Guinea Pigs have been dying so we decided to do a major clean up of the area they are kept in to see if we could find the cause. We found it! A deadly poisonous Caatinga Lancehead snake (Bothrops Erythromelas) was hiding inside their caged area. No wonder the guinea pigs were dying!

Birthday

I enjoyed my 75th birthday yesterday and received hundreds of messages from friends and family far and wide via Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp & e-cards. I was born on January 31st 1949 in London and have lived and worked for God in Brazil for 52 years. While I have health and strength I endeavour to carry on in the work God called me to and which I love. If Clint Eastman can still make films at 93 and David Attenborough can still fight for the environment at 97 - I certainly can preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I am enjoying excellent health by the grace of God at this time. It was especially good to receive messages yesterday from men I baptized and taught over 40 years ago.

I had a good walk at Green Pastures showing some men around, and heard the beautiful song of the Rufous-browed Peppershrike.