My infected throat meant I wasn't able to travel today to minister at Ibiara. I am speaking as little as possible and taking antibiotics.
Yesterday evening it rained half an inch in Patos (not at Green Pastures unfortunately) and a temporary cold front came in with it. Liz and I were freezing at 21ºC when we went to bed!
Please pray for the EAB/ACEV Youth Conference to be held this week in Ceará. Philip will be getting back from New York on Saturday and flying straight to the event. Your prayers are valued.
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Monday, 6 October 2014
The day after...
The day after the Brazilian elections has left me a lot to think about. The race for governor of Paraíba is finely balanced - neck and neck! What concerns me are reports filtering though to me about rampant corruption and vote buying in this process. If such reports are confirmed it will sadden me greatly as we have worked so hard to combat this and it also makes a mockery of democracy.
In the presidential race the current left-wing president starts the second round with a big advantage over the centre-right candidate. However that is far from decided either as people are happy with the left's help to the poor but unhappy with their party's corruption. On the other hand the centre-right candidate has a pretty dodgy track record too. People are starting to ask me who to vote for and I am saying I'm praying and thinking!
Today I have written and sent to the EAB UK Board of Trustees the annual report and appraisal document for the AGM on October 18th. Please do be there for the Celebration with the 5.30pm eats + 7pm service. Liz and I will be speaking via Skype from Brazil.
People are asking me what happened regarding my Islamic article which made me take it off the secular news site here and keep it only on my blog in Portuguese? What happened is that I was receiving lots of racist hate comments on an awful scale! My article, as you can see if you translate it on my Portuguese language blog, was mild and more a challenge to the evangelical church to wake up than anything else. However there are people here that hold the Brits as responsible for Crusades in the middle ages and for anything colonial done by us. The USA and others get put in the same basket. There were many here who cheered at 9/11. Brazil's current president Dilma said last month at the United Nations that Brazil is against the 50 or so country alliance of nations fighting ISIS and that we should be holding a dialogue with them! In other words when we talk about Islamic radicalism many here say that we are the cause of it!
We need to pray and wake up about Islamism! God has woken me up through the BBC and I am not intending on going back to sleep!
In the presidential race the current left-wing president starts the second round with a big advantage over the centre-right candidate. However that is far from decided either as people are happy with the left's help to the poor but unhappy with their party's corruption. On the other hand the centre-right candidate has a pretty dodgy track record too. People are starting to ask me who to vote for and I am saying I'm praying and thinking!
Today I have written and sent to the EAB UK Board of Trustees the annual report and appraisal document for the AGM on October 18th. Please do be there for the Celebration with the 5.30pm eats + 7pm service. Liz and I will be speaking via Skype from Brazil.
People are asking me what happened regarding my Islamic article which made me take it off the secular news site here and keep it only on my blog in Portuguese? What happened is that I was receiving lots of racist hate comments on an awful scale! My article, as you can see if you translate it on my Portuguese language blog, was mild and more a challenge to the evangelical church to wake up than anything else. However there are people here that hold the Brits as responsible for Crusades in the middle ages and for anything colonial done by us. The USA and others get put in the same basket. There were many here who cheered at 9/11. Brazil's current president Dilma said last month at the United Nations that Brazil is against the 50 or so country alliance of nations fighting ISIS and that we should be holding a dialogue with them! In other words when we talk about Islamic radicalism many here say that we are the cause of it!
We need to pray and wake up about Islamism! God has woken me up through the BBC and I am not intending on going back to sleep!
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Run-offs
With the Brazilian election results now almost all in we know that we will have second round run-off elections for President and State Governor here in Paraíba on October 26th - 3 weeks today. The system works so that when no candidate has a a clear majority then the top two in round one go into a run-off.
President Dilma has thus far received 41.45% of the votes and Aécio Neves came second with 33,71%. Our Christian candidate sadly only came third with 21.28%. (98.59% of the votes have now been counted)
Here in Paraíba State it is much tighter with the present excellent governor receiving 46.05% of the votes and his opponent Cássio (previously removed from office when a governor on another occasion owing to his corruption!) received 47.44%. (99.95% of the votes have been counted)
My impression is that Dilma will be returned to power as president, but the battle for the State of Paraíba is too close to call. I will certainly vote for the present governor Ricardo again, but who I will vote for for president will need a lot of thought.
So it's been a tough day and adding to everything else QPR lost again and are firmly cemented at the bottom of the Premiership again and heading full steam ahead for the Championship in 2015. Calls amongst supporters for the manager to go are growing. Sooner, rather than later, would be best in my opinion, before we lose all touch with the pack.
President Dilma has thus far received 41.45% of the votes and Aécio Neves came second with 33,71%. Our Christian candidate sadly only came third with 21.28%. (98.59% of the votes have now been counted)
Here in Paraíba State it is much tighter with the present excellent governor receiving 46.05% of the votes and his opponent Cássio (previously removed from office when a governor on another occasion owing to his corruption!) received 47.44%. (99.95% of the votes have been counted)
My impression is that Dilma will be returned to power as president, but the battle for the State of Paraíba is too close to call. I will certainly vote for the present governor Ricardo again, but who I will vote for for president will need a lot of thought.
So it's been a tough day and adding to everything else QPR lost again and are firmly cemented at the bottom of the Premiership again and heading full steam ahead for the Championship in 2015. Calls amongst supporters for the manager to go are growing. Sooner, rather than later, would be best in my opinion, before we lose all touch with the pack.
Election results start to emerge
Everything is very tense here as the election results begin to emerge. Tension in Paraíba is especially high because there was chaos in João Pessoa during the voting as many voting machines did not work. Thus many voters gave up waiting for the machines to be fixed and did not vote. This is especially serious as it is the main source of votes for the present governor. Many are openly accusing the opposition of sabotage and thus fraud. May the Lord help us.
Up to this moment 54.1% of the ballot boxes have been counted and the opposition candidate leads with 47.8% of the votes as opposed to the present governor who has 45,51% of the votes. We watch and pray.
No partial results for president have been released as yet.
Up to this moment 54.1% of the ballot boxes have been counted and the opposition candidate leads with 47.8% of the votes as opposed to the present governor who has 45,51% of the votes. We watch and pray.
No partial results for president have been released as yet.
General Election (round 1)
I have already been to church and conducted the communion service at 8am. It went off beautifully. Prior to this I watched the BBC documentary "My Brother the Terrorist" at just after 6am which I had already watched yesterday at midday. I have only just realized that my tweet about the documentary last week was re-tweeted by the film's director!
Today 142 million Brazilians are eligible to vote for the president for the next 4 years and about 3 million are eligible to vote for the governor of Paraíba. I voted on the way home from church. The results should be available this evening. It is a very fast electronic system, although I am hearing reports of lots of breakdowns in the equipment in João Pessoa which is alarming.
QPR will be playing at West Ham a bit later and my forecast is for a win for the Rangers 2 x 1. It is just a hunch I have that the Rrrrs will win and certainly not a scientific calculation!
Today 142 million Brazilians are eligible to vote for the president for the next 4 years and about 3 million are eligible to vote for the governor of Paraíba. I voted on the way home from church. The results should be available this evening. It is a very fast electronic system, although I am hearing reports of lots of breakdowns in the equipment in João Pessoa which is alarming.
QPR will be playing at West Ham a bit later and my forecast is for a win for the Rangers 2 x 1. It is just a hunch I have that the Rrrrs will win and certainly not a scientific calculation!
Saturday, 4 October 2014
Election fever
Patos is very noisy today, on the eve of the general election, with candidates and their teams going round in vehicles with loads of huge loudspeakers blasting everyone with their candidates' songs and calling people to vote for them. When it get's to this point you feel you'll be glad when it's all over! However if the elections for president and governor go to a run-off on the 26th then we will have 3 further weeks to endure!
I have been preparing a word for tomorrow morning's 8am communion service, but I am not quite sure how this is going to work out as my throat is no better.
I watched the second BBC documentary on Islamism today - 'My Brother the Terrorist' (broadcast in the UK on BBC 3 - April 2014). It was very good and enlightening, but not as good as the previous 'My Brother the Isamist' (broadcast on BBC 3 in April 2011). To start with today's 50 minute documentary has no participation from the islamist brother Richard Dart from Weymouth because he is in jail on terrorist related charges and would not receive his step-brother when in prison. Today's sequel also lacked the surprise elements about conversion to Islam etc. that were present in the previous film. Nevertheless there were still good insights into possible factors which aid the islamic recruitment process plus two face-to-face encounters with so called "hate preacher" Anjem Choudary. These documentaries are very important and I hope to be able to obtain a copy of both on DVD or the likes.
I have been preparing a word for tomorrow morning's 8am communion service, but I am not quite sure how this is going to work out as my throat is no better.
I watched the second BBC documentary on Islamism today - 'My Brother the Terrorist' (broadcast in the UK on BBC 3 - April 2014). It was very good and enlightening, but not as good as the previous 'My Brother the Isamist' (broadcast on BBC 3 in April 2011). To start with today's 50 minute documentary has no participation from the islamist brother Richard Dart from Weymouth because he is in jail on terrorist related charges and would not receive his step-brother when in prison. Today's sequel also lacked the surprise elements about conversion to Islam etc. that were present in the previous film. Nevertheless there were still good insights into possible factors which aid the islamic recruitment process plus two face-to-face encounters with so called "hate preacher" Anjem Choudary. These documentaries are very important and I hope to be able to obtain a copy of both on DVD or the likes.
Friday, 3 October 2014
BBC reply
I am happy to have just received the following reply from Sarah Baines of the BBC World News audience relations team:
"Dear Mr Medcraft
Thank you for your email and your praise
for the documentary, 'My Brother, the Islamist.'
Thank you also for your comments on our
coverage of events in Syria and Iraq which, I'd like to reassure you remains a
priority for the BBC News team. I will none-the-less pass on your comments to
our editors.
Kind regards
Laura
Audience Relations
BBC World News
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)