Scorpions

This carnival camp at Green Pastures saw an abundance of scorpions and last night, the final night of the camp, unfortunately saw Bianca (our grandson Arthur's girlfriend) bitten by one. The pain is excrutiating! She was taken to hospital to be checked out, but is now fine. We have just got home from the camp. Thanks to all who prayed for the camp.

The camp went very well indeed and was a real blessing. On Sunday night Murilo preached on 'Sound teaching' (2 Timothy 1:13-18). On Monday morning I preached for the second time on 'Be strong in the grace of Christ' (2 Timothy 2:1-7). On Monday night our daughter Sacha preached on 'God's word is not chained' (2 Timothy 2:8-13). On Tuesday Pastor Lindon Carlos preached both morning and night. In the morning the topic was 'A workman approved by God' (2 Timothy 2:8-13) and at night the topic was 'Instruments for noble purposes' (2 Timothy 2:20-26). The whole camp was richly blessed with excellent teaching ministry and lovely praise and worship.

On the leisure side of the camp there were very good volleyball matches every afternoon, there were fun competitions in the meeting hall, swimming, and games of table tennis, dominos, uno etc. Lights out at night was 11 pm and everyone behaved very well this year.

Carnival Camp in progress

Our 2024 Carnival Camp (the first one was in 1979) is in progress at Green Pastures and there are 100 plus present (I don't have precise statistics yet). I both led and preached in the opening service last night. I preached on a 'Clear Conscience' from 2 Timothy 1:1-7. The service went very well.

This morning was our second service (out of 7 in the camp) and I led and pastor Rafael preached on 'Do not be ashamed to Testify' from 2 Timothy 1:8-12. It was another blessed service. Sacha and Marina led the praise and worship backed by Rogerio, Davi, Netinho and Ricardinho. We had a good time of prayer during the service too. 

QPR drew at home to Norwich yesterday 2 x 2 and remain in the relegation zone. That's 4 matches in a row unbeaten so that gives us some hope.

We have had two showers of rain at Green Pastures. One was 7 mm and the other was 4 mm. It is better than nothing.

People are asking me about our son Philip's health. I am glad to say that he is now recovered from his pneumonia and is back to work. Thank you for your prayers.

Carnival Camp

Everything is full steam ahead with the organization of the carnival camp which starts at Green Pastures tomorrow and will run through to pancake Tuesday and to ash Wednesday. Liz is going like the clappers! Please pray for the camp. This blog may be irregular or non-existent over the coming days of the camp because internet is very weak at Green Pastures plus the fact that we have an extremely tight schedule.

I have had serious computer problems this week but they have now been fixed.

I had never more looked at my blog statistics, but I now see that last month this blog was visited 4,222 times from people in a variety of countries. My blog has its 20th anniversary this year! When I started it in August 2004 many people asked me what a blog was that I was talking about!

Last night I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study. Rogerio and Marina led the worship and Dede, Deborah Maria, Romildo and Marina brought verses of Scripture and Pastor Rafael gave the study on the final verses of Joel. Next week we will start in the book of Amos.

Trouble shooting

Liz and I have held 2 lengthy trouble shooting meetings with people from the Patos church whose names I can't mention because many people from the church read this blog. I would just ask you to pray with us on this, especially for one of these people who is in serious spiritual need.

There were 12 in the youth prayer meeting on Monday night. I think that is wonderful!

Last night's men's fellowship meeting went very well and this had 12 men in it too. It was a good meeting with warm fellowship.

I have held considerable discussions with our projects team as we get going in 2024. Our team had January off as usually happens.

The rains have disappeared and we are quite concerned about this. The long-term forecast is not good. Please pray for abundant rain for our region as either we get it now or we will have to wait till 2025!

Communion service

I conducted the communion service on Saturday night with our Green Pastures church and our grandson Arthur went with me. Bible College graduate Murilo preached the Gospel from 1 John 5:1-5. Fred and Nega with the sisters sang songs and Marina and Joao Filho led the worship accompanied on keyboard by Rogerio. It was a good meeting.

QPR did well on Saturday winning away to Blackburn 2 x 1. I hope this is the start of a winning run of matches! 😀

Last night's communion service in Patos was wonderful with our youngest daughter preaching about the Holy Spirit from John 14. She preached very well indeed. She is becoming quite a preacher! As it had been my birthday in the week the church did a special video with messages from some of our pastors and presented me with a new belt and some sugar-free Brazilian maltesers! It was all very nice and very much appreciated. 

Prayer

 I led the prayer meeting and Bible study on Thursday evening and there were 30 present. Davi and Joao Filho led the praise and Vasti and Espedita sang solos. Dede, Mariana, Marcio and Rayla shared verses of scripture with us. Rafael brought the study from Joel 3. We also had a lovely time of prayer together. It was a good meeting.

I have had a good meeting with our schools' coordinators at the beginning of the 2024 school year. It was a positive meeting.

I went out to Green Pastures and had a chat with Francisco. I heard a Striped Cuckoo, a Guira Cuckoo and a Rufous-browed Peppershrike. We badly need a lot more rain at Green Pastures. 

We keep some non-wild Guinea Pigs at Green Pastures for the enjoyment of the children who go there for camps etc. The Guinea Pigs have been dying so we decided to do a major clean up of the area they are kept in to see if we could find the cause. We found it! A deadly poisonous Caatinga Lancehead snake (Bothrops Erythromelas) was hiding inside their caged area. No wonder the guinea pigs were dying!

Birthday

I enjoyed my 75th birthday yesterday and received hundreds of messages from friends and family far and wide via Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp & e-cards. I was born on January 31st 1949 in London and have lived and worked for God in Brazil for 52 years. While I have health and strength I endeavour to carry on in the work God called me to and which I love. If Clint Eastman can still make films at 93 and David Attenborough can still fight for the environment at 97 - I certainly can preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I am enjoying excellent health by the grace of God at this time. It was especially good to receive messages yesterday from men I baptized and taught over 40 years ago.

I had a good walk at Green Pastures showing some men around, and heard the beautiful song of the Rufous-browed Peppershrike.