Monkey business

At Green Pastures there is a Marmoset monkey that has been rejected by the main group. This monkey always hangs around the kitchen to get food and we have named him Chico. This week a pack of 18 monkeys came after Chico and attacked him violently but Chico was saved by a flock of White-naped Jays who squawked loudly and pecked, driving the monkeys away. Chico was left limping for a day but is now fine again. 

I went on three walks at Green Pastures with Philip this week. Two were of 3 km and one was of 5 km. Philip photographed White-naped Jays, Pileated Finches, Scaled Doves, Iguanas etc. We also observed three species of snakes: Leptodeira annulata, Philodryas nattereri and Oxyrhopus trigeminus. 6 snakes in all were observed. I gave the scientific names in case anyone would like to look them up on Google.

Last night I conducted the wedding of Gerlânia (the head teacher at our Patos school) and Sérgio. All went off very nicely. May the Lord bless them.

On Wednesday the weekly service at the Patos school had a good number of both adults and children present and went very well. On Thursday the Bible study went well too. At Imaculada the youth camp went off very well and a number of young people present made decisions of commitment to Christ. At our Água Grande church they held a special service on 'Farm workers' day and had over 10 non-Christian farm workers there to hear the Gospel. Our Flores church has been doing some more work with youth this week revolving around the Bible and Ball. They are doing excellent work.

São Mamede Service

Last night I travelled with my son Philip (who is here for 6 weeks from the UK) to the town of São Mamede, 25 km north-east of Patos, to hold a street service with the Patos Men's Fellowship. I led the service, Philip led the praise and worship with a guitar and he preached the Gospel from Mark 1. Paulo Silas, Dodora, Flávio, Rafael, Chico e Dedé also took part in the beautiful service. 42 people attended. 

Our eldest daughter Deborah has just been on another of her long distance bike rides travelling 168 km from Campina Grande to Patos in 7 hours 48 minutes. She left with her friends in the cool of the evening and got home in Patos at 3 am.

Our church up beyond the mountains at Imaculada has just held a camp for their youth which was really blessed of God.

I led the service in Patos on Sunday night and Philip and family were warmly received by the church receiving two gifts in the process. Our 7-year-old grandson Luis sang a lovely solo and Philip preached on the 'Mission of God' from Matthew 28:16-20. It was a great service.

Adolescent night

Last Friday night was adolescent night with two activities for them which went very well. First of all there were about 30 adolescents at a meeting of our church kids at which I was asked to speak. Then there was a separate gathering of 36 adolescents linked to our Patos school who went out with headteacher Gerlânia, Pastor Rafael and his fiancée Rayla to have fun and eat pizza. We praise God for all the work being done with this age group.

Yesterday I conducted the wedding of João Paulo and Juliana from our Patos church. The wedding was scheduled for 4:30 pm but started at 5:15 pm with a 20-minute series of entry processions by the witnesses, bridegroom, bridesmaids and the bride. I finally started on the ceremony itself at 5:35 pm and all went off smoothly. The ceremony took 40 minutes.

After the wedding Liz and I finally got to see Philip, Gylmara, Lucas and Luis. It's lovely to have them here with us for about 6 weeks. I will be leading the service shortly and Philip will be preaching.

Friends Day

The Patos Women's Fellowship meeting on Wednesday night held a special meeting for "friends day" and some non-Christians were present. In all there were about 30 women present and our daughter Sacha gave the Biblical reflection. There were snacks for all at the end of the meeting. Liz says that all went off beautifully.

I have prepared another sermon on Psalm 119. This time it is on the second block of 8 verses from verse 9 to verse 16 which focuses on "how can a young man keep his way pure".

I have today sorted out some documentation for Pastor Sílvio at our Portelo church and had my signature officially authenticated by a public notary. These sort of activities are always part of my job as chairman.

I have received a very good extensive reply from Grahame Morris MP, of the Easington constituency in County Durham, where Horden is a run-down village. I had written to the MP to complain about Horden's apparently abandoned state since the pit there was closed. My cousin Philip lives at Horden.

Our son Philip, his wife Gylmara and their sons Lucas and Luis flew from Gatwick to Recife via Lisbon yesterday and landed in Brazil about 9 pm. They are staying in João Pessoa with Gylmara's family till Saturday when they will all come to Green Pastures. 

The Bible study went off nicely last night. There were about 25 present.

Workshops

This semester in our Patos school we will be holding two workshops for adolescents. These are youngsters who have finished our normal year 5 but have remained connected to the school, and we pray for them to commit their lives to Christ. We will be holding two three-month long workshops, with one in mathematics, to help them with their more advanced maths at their regular schools. The other workshop will be to teach them judo at a judo centre near to our school. Please pray for these new ventures.

Last night's Men's Fellowship meeting went well and there were nine of us present. Claudivan led the meeting, Rafael brought the Biblical reflection from Matthew 23 and Ricardo led our prayers.

Deaf Conference

The 4th Deaf Conference went very well indeed at the weekend. The closing service was led by deaf pastor Luiz Carlos who also preached. It always is very moving when he leads the service in sign language and it is translated to us hearers through an interpreter. There were around 100 people present for the service including about 30 deaf people of which some made commitments to Christ. As he reminded us in the service Luiz Carlos has been coming to our Patos church since he was a little boy. What a change now to see him as the deaf pastor! There were also 2 small choirs which presented signed songs in the service: the pupils of the current sign language course and the interpreters. Our drama group presented the "light of the world" pantomime at the deaf folks' request as it is a totally visual presentation. At the end of the service Pastor Luiz Carlos presented Liz and I with a gift in thanks for all our support of the deaf ministry over the years.

On Saturday afternoon we held a jumble sale at our school to raise money for our building work. At night Murilo led the service at Green Pastures and Eduardo led the service at Passagem.

Last night I led the main service of the week in Patos and I preached too. I did an exposition of Psalm 119:1-8. Many people came to me afterwards saying they had been blessed by the word. It was a lovely service.

10 songs

In the Patos church all the songs we sing in the church worship are first checked and approved by me as regards music and theology. This week I received 10 songs in one go to be checked and I approved 8 of them.

On Thursday afternoon Liz and I had a lovely meeting with Adriana and Segundo who are the leaders of the adolescents ministry in our church. They gave us a lot of very important and useful feedback about the adolescents which I can't go into here. We noted down that which needs attention and prayed about it together.

On Thursday evening the mid-week Bible study went well with about 30 people present.

Last night's adolescents fellowship group went so well that the leaders asked the parents to only come and pick them up at 10 pm. This gave them half an hour of extra time. We praise God for how well the work is going with this younger section of our youth.