Leaders

I am having discussions with Pastor Hamilton (Campina Grande) and a variety of other leaders at the moment including Nenem at São Vicente do Seridó, Pastor Robério at Tavares and Pastor Esequias at Juru.

Liz is at this time buying all the food for the camp which starts on Thursday.

The State Governor has now made the wearing of masks optional. This means some wear them and some don't in the services.

Yesterday Liz, myself and assistant pastor Rafael had a meeting with the new and aggressive gay teenager who is coming to the Patos church. We heard what he had to say and then made clear the position of the church. Please pray for this young man who is 17-years-old and who is totally committed to a worldly way of lgbt+ life whilst insisting that "everything is alright with God". After the meeting he even sent a message to Rafael asking us "not to pray for him because he is fine the way he is"! He hopes to be baptized, but this will not be possible if he maintains his current stance.  

Seniors

Our 'young at heart' seniors group had their first in-person gathering on Friday much to the joy of all. The theme of the meeting was 'gratitude'. The group had been functioning for two years online. 

Gay rights are a complicated part of life in Brazil nowadays. We have a teenager who has started coming to our Patos church who is apparently gay and goes out of his way to confront people with "his rights". We ask you to pray for us as we speak to him this week to make quite clear to him the Biblical position of the church on the matter. We don't want him stirring up trouble at the camp. 

Saturday night's service at Green Pastures was very good with our granddaughter and young lawyer Louisa preaching very well indeed for 22 minutes. My assistant pastor Rafael led the service and I was just there in a support role. Liz and I took the opportunity to take a lot of supplies out to Green Pastures ready for the camp which starts on Thursday. Parallel to this service a meeting was held at Ipueira and the deaf and youth had their own fellowship group meetings. Saturday is a busy night for the Patos church.

I led the Sunday night service and assistant pastor Rafael preached. It was a very blessed service.

My sister Jean continues in hospital after fracturing her hip, but she is improving.

Please pray for Andrea who is a member of our Patos church. Andrea was involved in a fatal road accident at 6 am today near Teixeira. Andrea is alright, but a mother and son on a motorbike were killed. Andrea admits the accident was her fault caused by her overtaking. 

Wild Cats

I have been contacted by Vitor Emanoel and Dr. Tadeu Gomes de Oliveira from the Maranhão State University with a view to researching wild cats at Green Pastures Nature Reserve. We have set up a meeting for May 2nd or 3rd when they will be travelling to Green Pastures and staying there for a night or two. They will be setting up automatic cameras at Green Pastures and collecting the memory cards every 3 months. All their findings will be shared with us. We are very happy about this as it is a great way for us to learn and to support scientific research.

With our Easter Camp fast approaching (starts on 14th) we are very busy holding meetings and preparing the details of the camp. There will be services in the mornings at 9 am and at night at 7.30 pm. On Good Friday afternoon there will be a games afternoon and on the Saturday there will be an "opportunity knocks" type of afternoon when budding singers and musicians will have a chance to shine. We are working on details of discipline and order for the camp as we will have one or two trouble makers there who will need to be controlled. It's not all plain sailing!

My sister Jean remains in hospital recovering from a fractured hip. She still has excruciating pain. Please continue to pray for her.

On Thursday night we stayed on in church after the Bible study so as to hold another meeting about the camp. The meeting was with the assistant pastor Rafael and the leaders of the youth.    

Well

This week our projects team has been to the Santo Agostinho community in Teixeira County with a view to possibly drill a well there as requested. A meeting was held with local EAB/ACEV pastor Maésio and his wife Fia, the president of the local rural landowners association and the local health worker. Please pray for God's guidance for us on this matter. Teixeira is a needy area for water and the track record is poor for hitting water when drilling.

Francisco (who looks after the day-to-day things at Green Pastures) reports seeing a deer once again and this time he saw both mother and baby deer. This is a really rare sighting as Deer are so hotly hunted here. Whilst they are at Green Pastures they are safe, but our concern is when they step outside of the Reserve.

Liz has just bought celery in Patos! This is the first time ever that we have found celery in this country! I have just tasted it to make sure it is what we thought it was, and it is! Delicious! 😋

My sister Jean has been transferred to a fracture ward in a High Wycombe hospital where she is recovering from surgery for a fractured hip. Sadly yesterday she had to have another X-ray because the staff managed to drop Jean when they were transferring her from a chair to her bed!😒 I don't know the result of the X-ray yet.    

Wheelchairs

Our wheelchairs bank continues to function very well as they are loaned to people that need them. This morning we received word that Judite's husband no longer needed his as he has recovered from his accident. Before the wheelchair could get back to the church it already has been picked up by Brother Dedé, who leads the Christians in Action group at Ipueira, as there is someone in need of a wheelchair there. Our wheelchair bank is a simple project but so practical.

Sunday's services went well. The Sunday School (for all ages) went well in the morning and the main service of the week at night was really blessed of God. School teacher Dilma preached a superb sermon on 'Constructing a Close Relationship with God'.

We are busy preparing for the Easter Camp which is substituting the Carnival Camp. Everything will start on the 14th with an evening meal followed by the opening service. There will then be 2 services a day on Good Friday, Saturday and Sunday with plenty of swimming, sport and walking in between.

My sister Jean had her surgery for her fractured hip on Sunday. However something went wrong during the surgery which meant she spent the night in intensive care. Gratefully she is now back in a recovery ward. Please do continue to pray for Jean.

Hip

My sister Jean, who is a music teacher, was tripped by a child in a store in High Wycombe yesterday causing her to fall and fracture her hip. She is being operated on now as I type. Please pray for Jean.

Our granddaughter Louisa has had two wisdom teeth extracted. She is doing fine.

Yesterday morning at 8 am I did a guided nature trail for just over two hours with a group of about 40 youth from the Patos church at Green Pastures. All went off very well. The youth spent the whole day at Green Pastures staying for the service with the local church at night when they sang a song.

The service last night at Green Pastures was excellent with deaf Pastor Luiz Carlos preaching the message with Daysa interpreting for all of us that don't know sign language. Two of our sign language interpreters have degrees in sign language. They are Daysa and Geralda. It was nice that a group of young teens from our Patos school were with us for the day including the service.  

Youth Day

Tomorrow will be a Youth Day at Green Pastures and I will be giving them a guided tour of many trails with the aim of increasing their appreciation of nature whilst stimulating them to care for God's creation.

Last night's Bible study went well with over 40 present. We studied 1 John 2:18-19. Parallel to the Bible study work was done with children in a side hall.

I am working on my book with the history of EAB/ACEV in Portuguese. Lynn is doing the final corrections and then we must see how we can publish it. The book covers the 80 years up to 2018.

It rained 17 mm on the last night of March taking the total rainfall for the excellent month to 446 mm. This was quite extraordinary! Add this to December (96 mm), January (182 mm) and February (75 mm) we have a total rainfall to date in the current rainy season of 799 mm which is just over 33 inches of rain. A high volume of rainfall is needed here as in the dry second half of the year the evaporation of the lake is fast with the high temperatures.