Leadership Meeting

We held a very good Patos church leadership meeting last night and 8 were defined for baptism this coming Sunday plus 2 others who will be received into fellowship. Philip will be doing the baptism.

I have spent all morning today preparing the Bible study for this evening in Patos. So was the money in the fish's mouth a tongue in cheek comment or for real? You'll need to get on a plane quick to find out!

EAB Patos School receives ME prize!

Our Pastor Frank Dyer School in Patos has just received a digital whiteboard (replaces old blackboards) from the Ministry of Education in recognition of our school's exceptional performance once again this year! We praise God for this recognition. To God be the glory!

Political Earthquake in Patos

Yesterday morning Liz commented to me early that the Patos Town Hall was surrounded by the Federal Police! Slowly the news started emerging that the Patos Mayoress had been removed from her post and the Deputy Mayor has taken up office and sacked the entire previous government! The Mayoress's daughter was arrested, as was her husband, and her ex-husband, who is a State MP and candidate for Mayor again in Patos, had his candidacy banned! The reason given by the police and press is very simple: corruption.

Liz and I are off to Ibiara and Conceição this afternoon. I will be preaching in the latter place this evening. We value your prayers.

Sermons, counselling and travels

I've prepared my sermon for Saturday at Conceição and I am in the process of preparing another one for Patos on Sunday. Liz and I have also done a fair bit of counselling this week. Please pray for our travels at the weekend + the Patos church band who will also be travelling somewhere else to minister. The Kombi is constantly on the road with different groups and ministries. Liz and I have to have a careful agenda for it so as not to get double bookings. 

Tomorrow we are to receive the visit at Green Pastures of Patos's biggest and best school's headteacher + a couple of other teachers who want to take young kids there on visits. This is excellent. There is nothing like Green Pastures anywhere in the region so it is really starting to take off!

Happy Birthday Liz!

Liz is sweet 16 and never been kissed (+ a bit more) today! We've had our traditional family get together and all went off beautifully! Liz is receiving worldwide congratulations for a person much loved by us all.

Great Service in Patos

It's quite amazing how many new people are coming into the Patos church to hear the Gospel. We praise God for the constant flow of new faces. Last night was no exeption with university professors and medical doctors part of the audience. PTL! It was a joy to preach the Gospel and have communion. Such are the numbers that we have had to increase the distribution of the bread and the cup from 2 to 3 people doing it as it was taking too long with just 2. The new system worked well yesterday. The P&W was great and the sermon of a "Ban on Snoozing" (Acts 20:1-12) went lovely. This was the 17th sermon in the series on Paul's missionary journies.

This week we have Independence day on Wednesday and Liz's birthday on Thursday so it's going to be a different week. On Saturday I'm preaching at Conceição on Saturday and back in Patos on Sunday. The church band will be at São Vicente do Seridó on Saturday and also back in Patos for the Sunday.

Please pray for one of our pastors who is suffering with depression.

Important Meetings

I walked at Green Pastures yesterday morning where all is well despite not one drop of rain for three months as the annual drought bites harder and harder.

Following this Liz and I had an excellent meeting with Pastor Oseias (Itaporanga). His church is going wonderfully well. PTL! However the nearby church at Barra de Oitis continues in deep trouble and we had a long discussion and time of prayer about it. We also discussed the painting of the Ibiara manse and the Conceição and Curral Velho churches. 

Later I had a meeting with the Patos Bible College leadership in my advisory role which I now have. The College is going well but needs to improve. We had a long worthwhile discussions.

Tonight I am back to giving the Bible Study in the Patos church.