Yesterday was my sister Jean's birthday, today is Philip's wife Gylmara's birthday and on Friday granddaughter Alice will be 8! Never a dull moment.
I popped out to Green Pastures this morning to check on different aspects of the work there. I discussed things with Tarcísio bearing in mind that a month today we leave for a bit over 2 months in Europe. I also met up with our Pastor Wostenes and his family (below), from our Campina Grande church, spending a few days there. Pastor Davi and his wife were also there from our São Paulo church.
I have been doing a lot of work on the Action Child programme and on preparation for our Europe trip. This includes lining up preachers for the Sundays I'm away. Philip will lead the services and conduct the Bible studies on the Thursdays. We value your prayers.
Well... sort of! What I mean is we had Pastor Luciano Vergara (below) who is a Methodist pastor from Rio de Janeiro preaching in our church last night and his wife singing. It was a great service. They stayed the weekend at Green Pastures as part of a visit to north-east Brazil. We've known them since he came to preach at the EAB/ACEV special 60th anniversary celebration in 1998 and we have never lost contact. They stayed the weekend at Green Pastures.
Happy birthday to my sister Jean who is one year older than she was last year!
Thurday night's service was a tremendous blessing with nearly 60 present and a wonderful sense of God's presence. One young man spontaneously gave his testimony about returning to God after spending time in jail and the praise and worship was wonderful. A Veterinary Doctor also gave a word and I gave the Bible study at the end. It was a wonderful night. PTL!
This was Liz and I being met at Recife Airport 43 years
ago by Frank & Ivy Dyer. We will be arriving back in the
UK for a 10 Sundays visit 5 weeks today (DV). We hope to see you at
one of the churches if you live in that part of the world!
EAB will be holding a 'Welcome Back' Cream Tea in lovely surroundings in the New Forest at Ipley on Saturday, August 29th in the afternoon. It will be lovely to see you and chat informally at this event if you can make it. For more information and directions please email dyers.ipley@gmail.com
I wrote and dispatched the latest EAB Nutshell Update to everyone on my mailing list today. I also went up to Jabre Peak invited by the State Environmental authorities.
Last night's service was great. Packed house, excellent worship and the sermon went well. PTL!
Tonight the teenagers of the church had their own prayer meeting! How wonderful! PTL!
I have just completed my sermon for tomorrow - the 8th in the series in the Gospel of Mark - covering the last block of chapter 2 and the first block of chapter 3, which essentially deals with the issue of the Sabbath. It's a good section to warn of the dangers of pharasaic legalism and the error of focusing on judaistic law as opposed to Christ and His complete work.
I've worked on such a variety of things this week. Unbelievable! Radio people just turn up at the office as they know I'll always give all sorts of subjects a go. We had a great Bible, Prayer and Praise meeting last night with over 50 present midweek. PTL! Great participation in a lovely spirit. It's so good to see people developing in the Lord.
I'm now in the process of preparing to preach on Sunday continuing my Mark's Gospel series which brings me to the last section of chapter 2 on the Sabbath. Once again not an ideal Sunday night topic but that's Mark's fault and not mine! My job is to preach the Word!
We have another meeting in the needy Jatobá area of Patos tomorrow as we persist in church plant efforts there. As well as the new core team the P&W and Youth ministries will be in support. Christians in Action Ministry will be off to Ipueira to continue work planting the church there.
I have done a lot of work on Action Child matters this week. This has taken up a lot of my time in this transition year for the program. We are moving forward. I am encouraged. PTL!
