Paraiba Cup Final

Our under-15 boys football team of our Juru church youth project has reached the final of the Paraiba Cup! This is the third year in a row that they have reached the final, having won it in 2022 and been runners-up last year. Local pastor Esequias (Ezekiel) does a great job sharing the Gospel with the lads and keeping them off the streets with healthy sport. The final is in two legs with the first at home in Juru and the second away at Agua Branca. Watch this space!

I am reading a book by C. S. Lewis called 'God in the Dock: essays on theology and ethics.' I am reading it in Portuguese.

The Youth Camp at Green Pastures is finishing today and has been very blessed. On Saturday Betania from Campina Grande preached and yesterday our daughter Sacha preached. There were 3 decisions for Christ at the camp.

Yesterday one young man was baptized at our Itaporanga church.

This morning a very tame Cockatoo appeared in our back garden looking very thirsty. It probably was scared by last night's fireworks and somehow left its home. We are protecting it from cats whilst we try and find its owner. We also had a tree frog inside our water filter this morning. Liz has set it free and washed the filter.

I have made the bed two days running and am utterly exhausted! 😫

Last night I led the main service of the week and our daughter Sacha preached very well from Matthew 11:28-30. Numbers were down as many were away at the youth camp and others were at family gatherings celebrating St. John's Day.

100 mobile phones stolen

On the first night (of 5) of the late night (all night!) St. John's festival over 100 mobile phones were stolen by a gang amongst the enormous crowd. Our grandson John David was one of those robbed. He was surrounded by men who forced him to hand over his phone.

On Thursday night we had a special youth service with participations from Leticia, Julia, Leo, Bianca, Davi and Murilo. It was a nice service.

A youth camp started yesterday at Green Pastures and will run until Monday afternoon. I preached at it last night in the opening service on Colossians 1:15-16. There are 80 young people taking part in the camp. 17 are teenagers from our Patos school which is lovely to see. One youth there is from Ibiara, another from Teixeira and 2 others are from Campina Grande. The rest are from the Patos church. It was a lovely opening service to the camp and after the service they all played bingo!  

Coral snake

Another snake was seen at Green Pastures yesterday as well as the Rattlesnake last Friday. This time it was a non-venomous Coral snake (Oxyrhopus trigeminus). It was right alongside the meeting hall.

Liz and I have been to visit a family whose father recently came back to the Lord. He was out but his wife was at home. We had a nice chat, caught up with all the family news and read the Bible and prayed with her. We learnt that the husband is firm in the faith and going on with God.

On Tuesday night I travelled with two vehicle loads of folk from the Patos Men's Fellowship to the town of Sao Mamede where I led the street service. Many gathered to hear the Gospel and those who took part were Fabio, Rafael, Paulo Silas, Josue, Dodora, Rebeca and Dede. It was a lovely service. 

Please pray for our deacon and chief of the police Colonel Esau who has the great responsibility this week to police the St. John's Festival with an estimated participation of between 70,000 and 80,000 people. Each night the festival starts about 11 pm and goes through the night till dawn with the enormous crowd crammed into a confined area called the 'terreiro do forro'.

Sunday

Our Sunday services went well. In the morning is Sunday School for all ages and much less go to this than in the evening when we had a church full to capacity. In the UK I notice that it is the opposite with many more in the morning services than at night. I led the evening service and associate pastor Rafael preached from Acts 9. A lovely moment in the service was when all the children came to the front to sing, with 4 of them doing the song in sign language for the deaf. Then they gave us pastors (me, associate pastor Rafael and deaf pastor Luiz Carlos) a little present (a pen with our name on it) commemorating Pastors' Day.

Yesterday I spent time dealing with a number of issues with different pastors. I also prepared a new sermon with an overview of Genesis 1-3 called 'In the beginning... God'. It will cover 5 points: God created heaven and earth, God created man and woman, the Satanic deception, the fall, and pointers to hope in Genesis 3:15.

Rattlesnake

I went for a lovely walk at Green Pastures and saw and photographed for the first time a lethal Rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus)! It was a wonderful experience. It crossed the track Francisco and I were walking on and then stopped by a large rock where I managed to photograph it with my mobile phone. The 'rattle' on its tail is unmissable. I also saw large flocks of Eared Doves near the lake and a flock of Smooth-billed Anis. A group of the youth were at Green Pastures whilst I was there preparing things for the youth camp which starts on the 21st.

Our Pastor Joao George (Imaculada) is out of hospital and is much better. He thanks all those who prayed for him. 

Last night I led the weekly service at Green Pastures and our daughter Sacha preached the Gospel from Isaiah 43. She also led the worship accompanied by Rogerio on keyboard. Locals Nega and Manoel also took part. It was a good meeting. Whilst I was there Liz went out with the 6 grandchildren (who are in Brazil) for an ice cream. It's alright for some! 😁

Visit

On Wednesday afternoon Liz and I visited a 74-year-old widow from the church called Espedita who spent the day in hospital the day before until she discharged herself at night! Her son Ismael tried to get her to obey the doctors but she wouldn't listen.

Liz led and spoke at the women's fellowship on Wednesday evening. She spoke on 'sharing' from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.

I have finished reading the book called 'Seven things I wish Christians knew about the Bible' by Michael F. Bird. I found it a good, helpful and interesting book.

Last night I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study and it went off very well, with lovely participations from Dede, Romildo, Mada, Deborah Maria and Carol. 

June Festivals

The month of June in north-east Brazil is the month of great festivities, focused on St. Anthony's Day on the 13th (the equivalent of St. Valentine's Day in the UK), St. John's Day on the 24th (this is the biggest festival), and St. Peter's Day on the 29th. This is the harvest month of beans and maize and lots of maize based dishes are eaten. It is also the cooler time of the year with temperatures only reaching 33 degrees.

I have had my hair cut today. I hope you like it! I had it cut at 7 am. 👦😇

I have been preparing my sermon for our youth camp to be held at Green Pastures from June 21st to 24th. I will be preaching on 'It all starts with Jesus' from Colossians 1:15-16. Please pray for this camp.

Our grand-daughter Louisa and her husband Tiago are now safely settling in at Basingstoke and our grandson Arthur is back in Patos after his Afro-European tour.

I have been having important discussions with Pastor Manoel Severo of our Mata Redonda church, between Joao Pessoa and Recife. These have been linked to discussions with our senior leadership team too.

Last night Liz and I took part in an excellent meeting of our school teachers.

Pastor ill

Joao George is the assistant pastor of our Imaculada church up in the mountains. He was operated on recently and is now back in hospital with post-op complications. Please pray for him. I am in daily contact with his wife Jacilene about the situation. 

Our grand-daughter Louisa and her husband Tiago travelled to the UK yesterday where they will stay until the end of July. It will be the first such an experience for Tiago so that will be nice. They will of course be staying at Basingstoke with Louisa's parents and brothers.

On Saturday our grand-daughter Beatriz (Bia) won the State of Paraiba's silver medal for girls table tennis losing in the final by 3 sets to 1. Paraiba is a state nearly 3 times the size of the country of Wales so she did very well. Bia and the gold medal winner now go on to compete in the Brazilian national table tennis championship in Recife later in the year.

On Saturday night I travelled to the town of Passagem to conduct the communion service and it went very well. The local leader Eduardo brought the message from Genesis 41 and was very good.

I led the service last night in Patos and preached on the promises of God from Psalm 119:49-56, continuing my series in Psalm 119. It was a good service. I do one block of 8 verses at a time so this was the 7th sermon in the series.

Sponsored Toddle

EAB has had people doing sponsored marathons, runs and walks, but I had never even heard of a sponsored toddle! Well this is what the Great Lumley evangelical church is organizing for June 26th when the children from their 'Tiny Church' will be doing a sponsored toddle round the football pitch in the local park. Their aim is to raise funds to buy a hair sheep for a poor family through the EAB 4-Legs project. The idea was inspired by an article in the latest edition of EAB InTouch magazine. Great Lumley is a lovely village in the northeast of England.

Yesterday morning I went for another nice 3 km walk at Green Pastures and saw lots of wildlife such as a Large Teiu Lizard and a Wild Tortoise. I saw and heard the following birds: Great Antshrike, Picazuro Pigeon, Greater Ani, Sooty-fronted Spinetail, Roadside Hawk, Southern Lapwing, Common Gallinule, Chalk-browed Mockingbird & Pale Baywing. There was also on show a beautiful display of wild native flowers. Such walks are envigorating, good exercise and inspiring.

Yesterday afternoon I took part online in the EAB Board of Trustees meeting held at West Wellow in England. It was a very good and productive meeting which confirmed the next EAB AGM for Saturday, October 19th at 6 pm (fellowship tea) and 7 pm (celebration service) at Lighthouse Community Church, Hardley, Southampton.

Preaching

I enjoyed preaching the Gospel on Tuesday evening in a street meeting in the town of Sao Mamede. 35 people listened attentively with another 15 listening on the doorsteps a bit farther away. It was a lovely meeting led by school teacher Claudivan.

Yesterday was world environment day and I led fifty six 4th year school children around the nature trails of Green Pastures including grand-daughter Amanda and taught them about caring for God's creation. It was a lovely morning with plenty of good exercise. 

Yesterday we had Pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice with us for lunch. Then we had an excellent meeting of our schools coordinators with 18 present. What an important work the EAB Action Schools do seeking to lift very poor children out of poverty and pointing them to Jesus at the same time. 

Our grandson Arthur leaves Africa today flying to Rome on the final leg of his Afro-European tour. He rode a camel in Morocco, dressed as an Arab and slept (not much!) a night in the Sahara desert in a tent!

Morocco

Our globe trotting 22-year-old grandson Arthur is now in Morroco where he plans to sleep for a night in a tent in the Sahara Desert and where he aims to ride a camel! He returns to Brazil a week today.

I led Sunday night's main service of the week which was a communion service with a very full church. It was lovely to see Zaqueu there who doesn't enjoy good health but who made the effort to be there for our monthly communion service. It was also good to see Gilmarco there who had been away for a long time at Maceio in the northeastern state of Alagoas. 

Yesterday afternoon Liz went with Deaconess Deborah Maria and some other sisters to visit 88-year-old Deaconess Beatriz who was operated on for cataracts last week and is doing fine. They gave her communion whilst there. 

There were six in the youth prayer meeting last night. It blesses my socks off seeing youngsters making the effort to meet for prayer on a Monday evening!

Walk in the wild

On Friday afternoon I enjoyed a lovely walk through the wilds of Green Pastures taking special note of the many young trees that we have planted over the years. We planted over a hundred Umbu trees (Brazilian green plum) and it is wonderful to see them slowly growing. One of them is outgrowing all the others and is quite magnificent. Other trees that I observed were Angico, Aroeira, Pinhao Bravo, Juca, Jurema etc. All these trees are native trees from our region which manage to survive our annual hot droughts. There are no translations for the names of these trees.

Intense rain on the coast at Joao Pessoa on Friday caused bad flash flooding in the lower lying areas of the city disrupting traffic, inundating houses and partially submerging vehicles. 

Our Patos school needs some repairs done to its roof as it leaked a lot during the rainy season. The budgeted cost of the repairs is 566 pounds.

Last night I led the service at the Green Pastures church and a very good number came along to a lovely communion service. Marina led the worship, Bible College graduate Murilo preached from John 20 and Paulo Silas, Nega, Julio and Manoel also took part.

Our rainy season is now over as we are now in the month of June. Our rainy season this year was good with a total of 837 mm of rain. Our target for an excellent year is 1,000 mm. We will now have no rain until December or next year (apart from the odd shower), and it will get steadily hotter as the year goes on.