Back in Patos!

To recap on our travels we got up at 5:30 am on Friday morning, had a shower and breakfast (my last Weetabix for 3 years!) and Philip took us to Heathrow seeing us safely checked in. The first flight to Lisbon was fine, and more or less on time, giving us 1 and three-quarter hours to get our second flight to Recife. I watched 4 films on this flight to help cope with the boredom, and we arrived on time in Brazil at 10 pm (1 am UK time). Our baggage all turned up and a taxi paid by the hotel took us there. The culture shock with the taxi driver was instant as he drove us as if he was in today's Brazilian grand prix! After a good night's sleep, thanks to air-conditioning, Clayton arrived in his car to bring us to Patos. We left Recife around 11 am and got home at 6 pm (9 pm UK time). Hence the total travelling time from start to finish was 39 hours with 2 road trips and 2 flights with a sleep in between.

We got back to Patos with our girls and grandchildren awaiting us and had a lovely time chatting about everything. The church had kindly made a 'welcome back' banner for us and the church 'welcome team' gave us a present of Brazilian sweets. It is lovely to be back and later today I will be leading the Sunday service, and young lawyer and theologian Murilo will preach the word. We ended up last night eating pizza with the family in a joyful time of reunion. 

One lovely surprise for us when we got home was that our children had had the front of the house painted for us whilst we were away! It was a wonderful surprise!

The Pope's firm stance for Jesus this week is causing quite a stir here. The 'Folha de São Paulo' newspaper (which I read every day) had the following headline yesterday: "Jesus, and not the Virgin Mary, saved the world, says the Vatican". This is what EAB/ACEV has been preaching here for 87 years!

6 people have been killed in southern Brazil and 750 injured by a tornado in southern Brazil in the town of Rio Bonito do Iguaçu. The tornado destroyed many houses and vehicles. 

We have just received a beautiful breakfast basket from the church with every fruit, bread, yogurt etc. imaginable! Thank you very much brothers and sisters! It is 33 degrees rising to 36. 😎