Saturday night

This Saturday night was busy. I went to Green Pastures to hold the weekly service there and I took Fabio (for the singing) and Murilo (preaching) with me. The service was good with a good number present and happy participations from Fred, Paulo Silas, Nega, Dodora and Julio. Parallel to this service another was held at our school in Patos where our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos preached the Gospel with Geralda interpreting.

Meanwhile in England the Cadnam Methodist Church held their annual concert in support of EAB for which they sold 75 tickets and the event went off very well.

Last night in Patos I led the main service of the week in the evening and our youngest daughter Sacha preached on repentance from Revelation 2:1-5. She was excellent. Sacha preached on Saturday evening too at our Itaporanga church which is an hour and 20 minutes' drive west of Patos.

This morning I took a group of students from a Patos school on a 3 km nature trail at Green Pastures. Then after this Liz and I went to the doctor's for our bi-annual check-up which we passed with flying colours. PTL!

Greater Ani

I went to Green Pastures and saw a nest of the Greater Ani which is a dark blue bird with white eyes which measures 46 cms. I saw the parents and 3 young in the nest who are quite large already and should soon be flying. This species comes to us every year in the rainy season. I also heard the Scaled Dove cooing and saw a number of small flocks of Red-cowled Cardinals.

Yesterday afternoon I received the visit in my office of the leader of an evangelical mission in Joao Pessoa called Juvep. The leader's name is Sergio Ribeiro. He was coming through Patos and so contacted me asking to set up a meeting. We had a very good discussion about the work of the Lord in northeast Brazil which was most worthwhile.

Yesterday QPR beat Leeds 4 x 0 at home and therefore guaranteed their permanence in the Championship with one game still to play. I watched the second half on TV as I had been in a meeting so missed the first half. It was an outstanding performance against a top side.

Hospital visit

Liz and I went to the Patos General Hospital to visit our worker Fabio who was injured in a motorbike accident. His hand/arm is broken and in plaster and his knee is heavily bandaged having been ripped open in the accident. The 2 girls that were also on the bike were fortunate to be unscathed as they didn't even have crash helmets on!

We have received news from Peter & Marion Miles of the death of Pastor Ray Westbook, aged 88 years, who was the pastor at our old church Peniel Chapel for many years. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of our dear brother.

On Tuesday night I travelled with the Patos Men's Fellowship to the town of Sao Mamede where I preached the Gospel from 1 Peter 1:1-9 in a street service which gathered between 40 and 50 people. It was a good service.

On Wednesday afternoon Liz and I had an excellent meeting with our social worker Marah Danielle about the Action Schools project and the 'young at heart' encounters. It was a really productive meeting in which we defined problems and sought solutions.

Liz went to the Wednesday evening women's fellowship meeting and it went well with 10 present. Liz also had a difficult counselling session with a woman but I can't give her name.

Motorbike accident

Fabio is one of our young leaders who leads the Travessia and Fonseca little churches. When he was a child he was one of the EAB sponsored children. Well, he has been injured in a motorbike accident when he was taking his sister and her friend on his bike! The excesses of youth! 3 on a motorbike is a bit much! Fabio was sent to the general hospital in Patos where he is being treat for a fractured hand and badly damaged knee. Please pray for Fabio.

On Sunday night I led the service in Patos and Rafael preached on Mark 9. It was a good service.

Liz and I have renewed our Brazilian drivers licenses this week.

I so enjoy my friendships with the little children in church. Last night little Samuel (his Dad is our keyboard player) came up to me after the service and gave me one of his sweets! Samuel "helps" me in the Bible studies by writing on the flip chart to give me a hand! Little Moses (whose Dad drills wells) came up to me after church last night (as he always does) and extended his hand to me greeting me with the grace and peace of the Lord! The lovely little girl identical twins (whose Dad is a policeman) both gave me enormous hugs after church last night! And so it goes on... "of such is the kingdom of heaven".

Liz has just been visiting an 80-year-old lady called Graça with Deaconess Deborah Maria. The lady was very lonely and thoroughly enjoyed the visit which was really blessed.

Green Pastures

I went for a walk at Green Pastures and saw and heard a variety of birds: Many Picui Ground Doves, Caatinga Cacholotes, Burrowing Owl, Red-cowled Cardinals, Striped Cuckoos, Chalk-browed Mockingbirds, Smooth-billed Anis.

I have proof read EAB's InTouch magazine #101 and it looks very good. Our thanks to Dave Flowers and Marian Rashleigh for all their good work. In this edition topics include: 60+ Movement, Pink & Blue, Tavares Outreach, Baptismal, Carnival Camp, Bathroom project, Ministry to the Deaf, Donkeys and Sheep. You should receive this magazine in early May. Please read it and then pass it on to someone who might enjoy it.

Our pastor Gerse at our first Princesa Isabel church has had the blow of his car catching fire. Please pray for him. The car is a mess, probably a write-off and it wasn't insured.

I have just driven back a little over two and a half hours after having preached at our Princesa Isabel church in the borough of Baixa last night. This is our second church in that town which celebrated its 19th anniversary. I preached on the faithfulness of God from Psalm 89. It was a lovely service. We slept the night at Princesa Isabel in a "hotel" which was pretty basic to put it mildly!

QPR beat Preston 1 x 0 at home yesterday which was excellent! However we are still not guaranteed survival in the Championship. 

Women

Liz has been at the Women's Fellowship meeting which she says went well. Deborah Maria led and Rebeca spoke. They also had a good time of prayer together.

Liz and I have been involved in a good counselling session with a couple who I will not name. 

I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study last night and the praise was led by Marina and Rogerio on keyboard. Rafael brought the study from Amos 2. It was a good service.

Counselling

Liz has been involved in some counselling of a young person with relationship issues. I can't mention the name or go into details.

I have been doing sermon preparation for the annual general pastors' conference next month. Your prayers are valued.

Liz and I had our bi-annual blood tests today so I've been walking round all day with an empty arm! We get our results online and everything that has come through to date is fine. 😊

I went to the Men's Fellowship meeting last night which was led by school teacher Claudivan with Rafael coordinating the reflection in God's Word. Only 7 went but it was a nice time of fellowship around God's Word.

Toilets

The difficult selection process for three more toilet/shower units to be built at Barra de Oitis has been completed and the building materials have been delivered this week. 81-year-old Maria de Lourdes is finally going to get her very first bathroom and she is thrilled! There are no less than 21 people living in her 4-room house, including children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, so the loo will be well used! The second toilet/shower unit will be shared by the 3 families of Maria Jose, Camila and Francisco benefitting a total of 17 people. The third will go to Maria Luciene and family benefitting 6 more people.

Saturday was a youth day at Green Pastures with a time of sport and leisure for our youth. They stayed for the evening service there at which one of them, Ray, was the speaker.

The young at heart group enjoyed their morning on Friday of ocupational therapy and fellowship. We have received various messages of thanks from them.

QPR lost at Hull 3 x 0 on Saturday and are now 3 points and 3 places above the delegation zone with 3 matches to go to the end of the season.

Liz has just made me an avocado pear smoothy. Absolutely delicious!

Liz and I have been to a tragic wake of a young man aged 35 who was murdered last night by a policeman. The deceased's mother Salete is a member of our church. The murder took place as part of a dispute over a girlfriend. The wake was very emotion charged. Please pray for Salete.

I led last night's service and Bible College graduate Murilo preached on 'being holy' from 1 Peter 1. He was excellent

Marathon

Jose Joel and Rafael with their 2 little sons were thrilled to receive a sheep last week as part of EAB's 4-Legs project. They live in the Sitio Genipapo in Santana de Mangueira County. As well as being a farm labourer Jose is a marathon runner like EAB chairman Roy Dyer. Perhaps we could set up a race between ACEV's Jose and EAB's Roy?! 😉

The time is fast approaching for the annual Cadnam Methodist Church Concert in the New Forest in aid of EAB. It will be held on the last Saturday of the month (April 27th) at 7 pm. Tickets cost 10 pounds. Phone 01794 323279 for reservations and details. The concert will have a fine musical programme with some very good musicians. Our son Philip will be taking part. Our thanks go to Howard & Hillary Babey for all their work put into organizing this event.

On Thursday Liz and I held an excellent two and a half hour meeting with Pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice. Pastor Wostenes is the deputy chair of ACEV. We had a wide ranging discussion in preparation for next month's general conference of all our pastors and leaders. I will be preaching at the Conference. Please pray.

Annual General Conference

I am very busy preparing the agenda and details for our annual general conference which is always held at one of our churches in the month of May. This year it will be held on the coast in Joao Pessoa on the 24th and 25th of May and will gather together all our pastors and leaders for 4 general assemblies of sharing, planning, debating, praying and envisioning together. The Conference will end on the Saturday night with the Conference' Commissioning service at which one sister will be given probationary missionary status and 2 pastors and one woman missionary will be ordained. We greatly value your prayers for our general conference.

QPR drew 1 x 1 away to Plymouth on Tuesday. 4 matches are left in the season and we are 4 points clear of the drop. This is nail biting time!

On Tuesday night the Patos Men's Fellowship travelled to the town of Sao Mamede to hold the fortnightly street service. Numbers were down owing to rain, but the service went well. It rained 15 mm at Green Pastures.

Baptisms

Pastor Maesio up in the mountains at Teixeira baptized 3 at the weekend in a joyful and blessed service. The church there is ticking over nicely.

Liz and I didn't go to church yesterday owing to the flu but we are feeling steadily brighter. The main service of the week on Sunday night was led by our co-pastor Rafael and he preached too. We watched the whole service live on YouTube. It was a lovely service.

Our granddaughter Alice is staying with us at the moment for a few days which is very nice.

I had paw-paw and a banana for breakfast as usual. Occasionally I eat custard apple with banana.

Called to the Bar

On Friday our grandson Arthur and his girlfriend Bianca were both called to the bar and are now fully fledged barristers. They have done very well. The president of the Brazilian Lawyers Association (OAB) invited me to say a prayer of blessing upon the 15 new lawyers at the ceremony.

One of our pastors and his wife have left ACEV/EAB this week. They were in a temporary co-pastors role. I understand that the couple have serious personal problems which triggered their decision. 

I went to Green Pastures and saw 2 wild cavies scuffling off into the bush.

Both Liz and I have the flu. Liz had it first and 3 days later it was me. We both have nasty coughs.

QPR sadly lost at home to Sheffield Wednesday yesterday 2 x 0. We are still 4 points clear of the relegation places with 5 games left to play, so we're not safe yet.

Matureia School

Up in the mountains in the town of Matureia (highest point in our state of Paraiba) EAB/ACEV has a church which is going well under the leadership of Pastor Renilson. It also has an excellent school there under the leadership of Renilson's wife Getiane which has 260 children in it. This week a young teenage boy made a lovely commitment to the Lord and he is the 8th pupil from our school there to do so. PTL!

I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study last night. Sister Espedita sang a solo and Marina and Rogerio led the praise. Rafael brought the study from Amos 2:6-7.

Last night it rained 53 mm at Green Pastures (just over 2 inches) so this was very good. The dam in the river which flows through the Reserve is overflowing. PTL!

Feedback

It is always encouraging when one receives positive feedback on a sermon and this I'm getting from my sermon on Easter Sunday which was an exposition of 1 Corinthians 15 about the ressurection of Jesus, the ressurection of Christians and the ressurection body and what it will be like. One young father who came back to the Lord at the Carnival Camp is bubbling about it and has contacted me various times on WhatsApp. How good it is to see people being touched by the Word of God!

QPR won away to Swansea 1 x 0 on Easter Monday which puts us 6 points and 6 places above the relegation zone. Things are looking much better! 😀 There are 6 matches to go in the season.

Last week we distributed 9 more hair sheep as part of the EAB/ACEV 4-Legs project to help the rural poor. Everyone was overjoyed to receive the sheep. We distributed 6 sheep at the Sitio Boa Vista in Tavares County, 1 sheep at Sitio Genipapo in the County of Santana de Mangueira and 2 sheep at Assentamento Mata Verde in Diamante County. Sadly I have to report that one of the sheep in Tavares County was killed in the night by feral dogs and I have received photos of it.

On Monday night 6 gathered for our youth prayer meeting. I am always encouraged when I see the youth praying.

4 new converts were baptized at the weekend at our Caroá church by local pastor Valdemy. PTL! 

Last night I led the Bible study with the men's fellowship based on Revelation chapter 1. It was a good meeting.

Easter Sunday

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) was a wonderful day in church. Everything started with our annual church fellowship breakfast together at 8 am. This was followed by a half-hour time of resurrection worship with hymns like "Up from the grave he arose" with us sat down for the verses and stood up for the choruses. We also had a reflection on the resurrection text from John 20.

At night I preached on 1 Corinthians 15 and it went very well. We also had a special resurrection short drama from our drama group and deaf fellowship which was very good.

I have read a book called 'Can women be pastors?' written by a Brazilian called Vik Zalewski Baracy. It is a good book. I am now reading 'God in the Dock - Essays on Theology and Ethics' by C.S. Lewis.