Genesis 11 (résumé): The Tower of Babel

The story of the Tower of Babel fits the linguistic situation immediately after the flood when there was one language, as opposed to the multi-lingual situation which was described in chapter 10. God was not pleased when he saw man building a city with a high tower to make a name for himself. God saw such an endeavour as an embodiment of an arrogant ungodly spirit and he deliberately confused their language so as to put a stop to it. It was called the Tower of Babel (Babylon) as it sounds like the Hebrew for confused. In the second part of this chapter the genealogical tree is traced from Noah's son Shem down to Abram, Sarai his wife and Lot. They set out from Ur of the Chaldeans with Abram's father Haran to go to Canaan, but they settled on the way at Haran.

Genesis 10 (résumé): The Table of Nations

This chapter lays out the 3 nations formed by the descendants of Noah's sons Japheth (the Japhethites), Ham (the Hamites) and Shem (the Semites). The Japhethites' territories had maritime links and they spoke a number of languages. In the Hamites' territories they also spoke different languages and of note was their hunting capacity with Nimrod called a mighty hunter. The roots of Nineveh are in this nation as are the Philistines, the Canaanites and Sodom and Gomorrah. The Semites also had their own territories and languages, and from this nation came Abraham and Sarah. 

Literacy campaign

I spent Friday morning at a meeting organized by the Municipal Secretary of Education who invited me to the meeting. The objective of the meeting was to mobilize everyone in a campaign to have children reading and writing by the age of 7, in year 2 of their school. Just over 50% of children in Patos at present have reached this goal which is about twice as good as 2 years ago. Our Pastor Frank Dyer School is a shining example in this campaign being the top school in Patos. I sat in the meeting alongside Gerlania who is our school's headteacher.

At Green Pastures I saw 4 wild Guinea Pigs (they are the same colour as wild rabbits in the UK), Pale-Baywings, Caatinga Cacholotes, Shiny Cowbirds and Picui Ground Doves. Our Cockatiels are nesting so we should have some babies soon! One of our 4 Geese seems broody so we hope for some young geese soon. They are excellent guards! I brought back from Green Pastures a bucket full of Cashew fruits and nuts. We make juice from the fruit and then roast the nuts. I brought back a sack of Tamarind pods too.

Our Juazeirinho church, one and a quarter hour's drive north-east of Patos, was broken into by thieves in the night. They stole sound related equipment.

Sadly QPR lost away to Blackburn 2 x 0 yesterday playing with 10 men for all the second half. It was 0 x 0 when our man was sent off.

Last night I led the weekly service at Green Pastures, Sacha led the praise with Rogerio on keyboard and journalist Ray spoke on Psalm 106:1-3. Pastor Sal (salt) was there with others from the village of Picotes. It was a nice meeting. 

Genesis 9 (résumé): After the Flood

After the flood God blessed Noah and his sons, told them to be fruitful and multiply, and encouraged hunting and fishing as means of supplying their sustenance. God clearly emphasized the sanctity of human life and Noah lived to 950 years of age. God established a covenant with Noah, his descendants and all wildlife, promising never again to flood the earth, and God gave the rainbow as the sign of this everlasting covenant. Noah planted a vineyard, got drunk on the wine and ended up laying naked in his tent. His son Ham (the father of Canaan) saw him and went and told his brothers Shem and Japheth. They got a garment to cover their father and walked in backwards so as not to see their father in the nude. When Noah awoke and discovered all that had gone on he was furious with Ham and cursed his son Canaan into slavery. On the other hand Noah was pleased with Shem and Japheth and blessed the Lord for them.

Genesis 8 (résumé): The Flood 2

The flood water began to recede and the ark came to rest on the Ararat mountains as the mountain tops reappeared from the flood. Noah decided to send out birds to do reconnaissance work on the outside situation and when a dove brought back a leaf in its beak he knew that the waters had receded a lot. 7 days later he released the dove again and when it didn't return he knew that the flood was completely over. God told Noah's family together with all the animals and birds that they could now leave the ark. Noah built an altar to the Lord on which he offered burnt sacrifices and God vowed never to repeat his cursing of the earth or to destroy animal life.

Genesis 7 (résumé): The Flood 1

Noah, at 600 years of age, his wife, his sons and their wives entered the ark under God's instructions 7 days before the start of the rain. Pairs of all animals and birds also entered the ark. When the heavy rain started it lasted for 40 days and the resultant flood lasted for 5 months with even the mountains being submerged under 20 feet of water. All human beings, animals, birds and living creatures were exterminated by this flood except those in the floating ark.

Genesis 6 (résumé): God tells Noah to build an ark

With the growth of the earth's population came corruption, sin and violence which saddened God's heart. God's initial reaction was to reduce mankind's life expectancy to 120 years. However things only got worse making God increasingly angry. God was so sorry that he had ever made mankind, animals and birds that he decided to wipe them out. However Noah walked with God and found favour in his eyes. So the Lord decided to flood the earth but save Noah's family plus animal life. God instructed Noah to build an ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high with a roof on top, which was to be Noah's family's means of escape together with breeding pairs of all animals. Noah obeyed God.

Women's Fellowship

Liz went to the women's fellowship on Wednesday evening which supported the service at our Pastor Frank Dyer School on the south side of Patos. The service went well despite there only being five local people present.

Last night I went to an event at the Patos Special Needs School to commemorate the National Day of the Deaf. There were between 80 and 100 there with about 40 deaf people and many interpreters and those learning Brazilian sign language called libras. The event was led by our Pastor Luiz Carlos and another teacher from the school.

Genesis 5 (résumé): Adam's family tree

Chapter 5 contains genealogical details of Adam's offspring. Everyone lived long lives then. Adam lived 930 years, his son Seth lived 912 years, Adam's grandson Enosh lived 905 years, Adam's great-grandson Kenan lived 910 years, Adam's great-great-grandson Mahalalel lived 895 years, Adam's great-great-great-grandson Jared lived 962 years, and Adam's great-great-great-great-grandson Enoch did not die but was bodily translated into heaven as a result of his walk with God. Enoch's son Methuselah was the record holder in longevity living 969 years, his son Lamech lived 777 years and he was the father of Noah about whom we will hear a lot in the following chapters. Noah had become the father of 3 sons by the time he was 500 years old which is not bad going! 😀

Genesis 4 (résumé): Cain & Abel

Adam and Eve's first children were born and they were called Cain and Abel. These sons made offerings to the Lord but Cain's offering was not pleasing to God. (Why the preference is not explained) Cain eventually murdered Abel as a consequence and was severely punished by God. Over time more children and grandchildren of Adam and Eve were born. (One granddaughter was Zillah whom I highlight because I had a very special maternal Aunt of this name)

Genesis 3 (résumé): The Fall

Poetically personified as a snake, the forces of evil seduced Eve, and then Adam, to disobey God's command not to eat of the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. Such a fall into disobedience had catastrophic consequences on humanity and they were banished from the garden.   

Admin work

Yesterday I spent a whole long day doing mission administration work. This is part of our routine work which must be done. Everything we do we do for the glory of God.

Last night I travelled with the Patos men's fellowship to Sao Mamede where I preached on Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:11)... Lord over nature... Lord over sickness... Lord over death! It was a good service led by Rafael and with Dede leading the praise. Before the service Jose and Marico asked me to go into their house and say a prayer of blessing.

Liz and I visited 85-year-old Judite who is heading south with her daughter to live in the State of Espirito Santo so that she can be looked after. We bid her farewell after reading the Bible and praying with her. She will be greatly missed by our young at heart group.

Genesis 2 (résumé): Creation 2

 God, who had created man, Adam, from the dust of the earth and woman, Eve, from the man's rib, gave them the job of caring for the Garden of Eden which he had created. God told them they could eat what they liked except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which would cause their death. The couple initially lived happily together as man and wife.

Genesis 1 (résumé): Creation 1

At the beginning of all things that we know the eternal God created everything and created the mechanisms for creation to develop and maintain itself. God created sun, moon, planets, stars, mountains, dry land, seas, flora and fauna. God created man and woman as his representatives and administrators of the earth.

A résumé of the Bible

I have this dream to write a résumé of the Bible chapter by chapter, and I have decided to start today. I am not sure how far I will get. I am not sure if I will be able to stick at it bit by bit, or whether I will find the time to do it on top of everything else that I have on my plate. But I am going to try. It will be good for my own personal edification and I hope it might be helpful to people. Perhaps it will get people who don't read the Bible to start reading it to see if my résumé is OK!

Of course writing résumés involves some Bible interpretation and I hope people will be kind to me and bear with me. My résumés will not please everyone, but I hope it will get people to think about God's Word even if their interpretation is different to mine. So in my next post I will start in the book of Genesis.

There are 1,189 chapters in the Protestant Bible so if I was able to cover a chapter every two days it would take me around 7 years!

Walk

A nice walk at Green Pastures revealed Guira Cuckoos, Cactus Parakeets, Chalk-browed Mocking Birds and White-naped Jays. Over the weekend a film crew are making a film at Green Pastures.

QPR drew at home to Millwall 1 x 1 on Saturday and dropped to 14th place in the 24 team Championship. 

Bia (our 14-year-old granddaughter Beatriz) has been playing table-tennis in Recife over the weekend in the national schools championship (over 5,400 teenagers taking part), having been Paraiba State runner up earlier in the year.

On Saturday night Rafael and I took the service at Green Pastures. Nega led the praise very well and there were participations in the service from Marileide, Fabrícia, Fred, Julio and Manoel. It was a lovely service. We saw a Burrowing Owl along the way. 

Last night we had a visiting speaker in Patos. He was Pastor Renilson from our Matureia church and he spoke very well on Ephesians 6:10-20. I led the service.

Mid-week service

I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study. Numbers were down by half as probably people were at the fair ground. Vasti returned to singing a solo after her gall bladder surgery and Espedita sang too. Marina led the praise backed by Davi on acoustic guitar. Deborah Maria, Mada, Cleide, Dede, João Moreno and Maria read "my Bible verses" and Pastor Rafael brought the study from Amos 9.

X (formerly Twitter) is back off the air again as the battle between Brazil's supreme court and Elon Musk continues. X is now threatened with a fine of R$5 million a day (about 720,000 pounds) for every day it is illegally functioning in Brazil.

Brazil is considering introducing 'Brazilian summer time' to economize electricity, but it would not start until after the elections for mayors and councillors on October 6th because it would be an unpopular move. The last time they tried it it was chaos and they soon abandoned it. It would mean that Brazil would only be 2 hours behind the UK in the winter. At the moment we are 4 hours behind BST.

The whole of Brazil is in the midst of severe drought with many accompanying massive forest fires. The usually very wet Amazon rain forest region unbelievably has drought and the forest burns in large areas. Please pray.

X is back

X (formerly Twitter) is back in Brazil having been banned since August 31st by the Supreme Court. Elon Musk has found a technical way round it being blocked, although it does not seem to be working properly. It seems like a technological battle is under way. 

I have been preparing my sermon for Imaculada's 40th anniversary service on the 29th. They have asked me to preach on 'The mission carries on' based on Mark 16:15-20. 

QPR have sadly been knocked out in the 3rd round of the League Cup. They lost at home 2 x 1 to premiership side Crystal Palace. The winning goal was ironically scored by England player Eze who QPR sold to Crystal Palace in 2020.

Yesterday was our son Philip and Gylmara's 25th wedding anniversary. Many congratulations to them!

Today is our grandson John David's 23rd birthday. He will graduate from university next May as a medical doctor.

Sunday Service

Sunday night's main service of the week went well. I led and pastor Rafael preached from Luke 5. Sacha, Fabio and Marina led the praise and worship backed by Rogerio (keyboard), Rogaciano (guitar) and Ricardinho (bass). We were tired from the pastors' conference, but it was a good meeting.

We are in the middle of the Patos September festival which runs from the 14th to the 24th. The 24th is the day of the town's patron saint of "our lady of guidance" and is a municipal public holiday. The festival is a show of strength by the Catholic church which blocks off the entire centre of town filling it with a fund raising fair ground.

Liz and I have been for our bi-annual doctor's check-ups and came out of them very well. My sodium and potassium levels (the problem I had a year and a half ago) are perfect as are cholesterol, glucose, vitamins B12 & D etc. Just Liz has started a course of antibiotics for an upper respiratory tract infection. 

Pastors' Conference

Our annual Pastors and Leaders Conference has just ended at Green Pastures and all went off very well, praise the Lord! On Friday we kicked off with a fellowship lunch and at 3 pm we held a general assembly of pastors and leaders. This was followed by a general assembly of our projects NGO. At night we had a period of prayer together followed by the first teaching session given by Pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice based on the book of Nehemiah. 

On Saturday, after a fellowship breakfast, some members of our senior leadership team met with a pastor who is in difficulty and we had a good discussion and gave advice. This was followed by a meeting of our projects team especially concentrating on the wells and market garden projects. After lunch we had further meetings of the senior leadership team. At night we had our second teaching session continuing our reflections based on the book of Nehemiah. We then had a late night extra meeting discussing a very challenging situation I can't mention and we only got to bed half an hour after midnight. The Conference ended with a fellowship breakfast this morning after which everyone left for their respective churches to be in place for their evening services. We thank the Lord for all his blessing at the conference and thank all those who remembered us in prayer.

Yesterday QPR drew at Sheffield Wednesday 1 x 1 keeping us in 12th place in the Championship table.

Christmas Play

Having finished the writing of a new Christmas play, last night Liz and I officially handed it over to our drama leader Dilma. I went right through the play giving my thoughts on how different parts should be done. It was a very good time of sharing together. Now it's over to Dilma and the drama team. It will be performed on Christmas Eve.

Our annual pastors and leaders conference starts today at Green Pastures. Please pray for this conference. 120 people are expected at the event.

Wake

Liz, Lynn and I have been to the wake of our good friend Ramalhinho who died of a heart attack in the night. It came as a great shock to us. He was the man who undertook all our building work and was an excellent person. He was who did the Care Centre building and more recently our garden back wall.

I have had some important meetings with some of our pastors this week sorting out problems and giving advice. We are also flat out preparing for the pastors and leaders conference which starts on Friday at Green Pastures.

Last night I travelled with the Patos men's fellowship to take another street service in the town of Sao Mamede. The service was excellent with about 50 people attending. It has now become a custom there for people to give me slips of paper with prayer requests, so last night we prayed for a woman's daughter who is on drugs and for another woman's daughter who is in deep depression because her husband is having an affair. It is lovely to see people bringing their requests with faith looking to God.

Liz's birthday

Yesterday was the day in the year when Liz catches me up in age as she is 7 months younger than me. She had a nice day with a family lunch together. Last night in church a special tribute was made to Liz and a birthday gift and card with church members' well wishes was given to her.

I led the service in church last night and I preached on the battle between the flesh and the spirit from Romans 7. It was a very good service with a full church and a lovely spirit of praise.

On Saturday Liz and I travelled to preach at the opening service of our new church plant at Diamante (Diamond). A large crowd gathered with folk from our Vazante, Barra de Oitis, Mata de Oitis, Conceicao, Ibiara and Curral Velho churches present. The church plant has started with 12 members. Please pray for Diamante.

Suicide

The father of 2 boys who go to our Matureia school, Igor and Italo, committed suicide last night. Please pray for the boys at this sad time. This tragedy was apparently provoked by the separation of their parents.

I led the Thursday night mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study which 30 people attended. Erika and Rogerio led the praise, Linda & Espedita sang solos, Dede, Deborah Maria and Marcio brought 'my Bible verses' and Pastor Rafael brought the Word from Amos 8. It was a nice service. 

I have just been to the doctors to have by ears syringed. I can now almost hear you talking in the UK! Praise the Lord that both Liz and I both have excellent hearing.

We are a week away from our annual pastors and leaders conference at Green Pastures and we are very busy with all the preparations. Please pray.

Wild Cat

I have just been to Green Pastures where a wild cat (Puma yagouaroundi) killed a peacock. It ripped the head off of the peacock and carried the rest of the bird off into the bush. It also killed 2 chickens.

On Saturday Liz and I will be travelling to preach at the opening service of our new church plant at the town of Diamante, which is about a two and a half hour drive west of Patos. Please pray for us and the church plant. The population of Diamante is of 6,431 people. 

On Tuesday night I took part in an important online meeting with pastors Wostenes and Renilson about our schools ministry. Getiane and Gerlania also took part.

Yesterday we took part in another senior leadership meeting online. It was a good productive meeting which lasted an hour.

Missions Sunday

The first Sunday in September is always Missions Sunday in all our churches, as it was on September 2nd that Albert and Daisy Mundy first landed in Brazil back in 1938. In Patos our drama group presented a 30-minute play about missions to commemorate the 86th anniversary of this date. I wrote the play. Then Pastor Rafael brought an excellent message on 1 Corinthians 15:58 challenging the church to stand firm in missions always "giving ourselves fully to the work of the Lord."

Yesterday we received the visit of Fia who is the wife of Pastor Maesio up in the mountains at Teixeira. She had a nice long chat with Liz.

We have had an excellent meeting with senior pastor Oseias and his wife Lucia, followed by a nice lunch together. Oseias is pastor of our Itaporanga church, but he is also interim pastor of our central Princesa Isabel church which is without a pastor at the moment.

QPR

On Friday night (afternoon here) QPR completed a very successful week by beating Luton away 2 x 1 in the league, having beaten them at home in the league cup on Tuesday. Well done QPR! 😃

I saw a small flock of House Sparrows on Friday at Green Pastures. It was nice to see them as their numbers are in decline around the world. House Sparrows are found on every continent except Antarctica. 

X (Twitter) has been banned in Brazil for refusing to obey Brazil's Supreme Court. Elon Musk thinks his fortune places him above the law as has also been seen in his recent stand-offs with the EU and with UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.

I have received the visit of Pastor Saulo from the southern state of Paraná and we had a good chat about the work of the Lord in north-east Brazil. He was most generous in his kind words about the good work done by EAB/ACEV. 

On Saturday morning Liz led a jumble sale outside our Patos church which raised 130 pounds for the Care Centre.

This weekend the 5th Deaf Conference was held and led by our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos. Last night he led the service in sign language and preached on John 16:33. There were about 40 deaf people there. It was a wonderful opportunity for the Gospel.