Marathon

Jose Joel and Rafael with their 2 little sons were thrilled to receive a sheep last week as part of EAB's 4-Legs project. They live in the Sitio Genipapo in Santana de Mangueira County. As well as being a farm labourer Jose is a marathon runner like EAB chairman Roy Dyer. Perhaps we could set up a race between ACEV's Jose and EAB's Roy?! 😉

The time is fast approaching for the annual Cadnam Methodist Church Concert in the New Forest in aid of EAB. It will be held on the last Saturday of the month (April 27th) at 7 pm. Tickets cost 10 pounds. Phone 01794 323279 for reservations and details. The concert will have a fine musical programme with some very good musicians. Our son Philip will be taking part. Our thanks go to Howard & Hillary Babey for all their work put into organizing this event.

On Thursday Liz and I held an excellent two and a half hour meeting with Pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice. Pastor Wostenes is the deputy chair of ACEV. We had a wide ranging discussion in preparation for next month's general conference of all our pastors and leaders. I will be preaching at the Conference. Please pray.

Annual General Conference

I am very busy preparing the agenda and details for our annual general conference which is always held at one of our churches in the month of May. This year it will be held on the coast in Joao Pessoa on the 24th and 25th of May and will gather together all our pastors and leaders for 4 general assemblies of sharing, planning, debating, praying and envisioning together. The Conference will end on the Saturday night with the Conference' Commissioning service at which one sister will be given probationary missionary status and 2 pastors and one woman missionary will be ordained. We greatly value your prayers for our general conference.

QPR drew 1 x 1 away to Plymouth on Tuesday. 4 matches are left in the season and we are 4 points clear of the drop. This is nail biting time!

On Tuesday night the Patos Men's Fellowship travelled to the town of Sao Mamede to hold the fortnightly street service. Numbers were down owing to rain, but the service went well. It rained 15 mm at Green Pastures.

Baptisms

Pastor Maesio up in the mountains at Teixeira baptized 3 at the weekend in a joyful and blessed service. The church there is ticking over nicely.

Liz and I didn't go to church yesterday owing to the flu but we are feeling steadily brighter. The main service of the week on Sunday night was led by our co-pastor Rafael and he preached too. We watched the whole service live on YouTube. It was a lovely service.

Our granddaughter Alice is staying with us at the moment for a few days which is very nice.

I had paw-paw and a banana for breakfast as usual. Occasionally I eat custard apple with banana.

Called to the Bar

On Friday our grandson Arthur and his girlfriend Bianca were both called to the bar and are now fully fledged barristers. They have done very well. The president of the Brazilian Lawyers Association (OAB) invited me to say a prayer of blessing upon the 15 new lawyers at the ceremony.

One of our pastors and his wife have left ACEV/EAB this week. They were in a temporary co-pastors role. I understand that the couple have serious personal problems which triggered their decision. 

I went to Green Pastures and saw 2 wild cavies scuffling off into the bush.

Both Liz and I have the flu. Liz had it first and 3 days later it was me. We both have nasty coughs.

QPR sadly lost at home to Sheffield Wednesday yesterday 2 x 0. We are still 4 points clear of the relegation places with 5 games left to play, so we're not safe yet.

Matureia School

Up in the mountains in the town of Matureia (highest point in our state of Paraiba) EAB/ACEV has a church which is going well under the leadership of Pastor Renilson. It also has an excellent school there under the leadership of Renilson's wife Getiane which has 260 children in it. This week a young teenage boy made a lovely commitment to the Lord and he is the 8th pupil from our school there to do so. PTL!

I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study last night. Sister Espedita sang a solo and Marina and Rogerio led the praise. Rafael brought the study from Amos 2:6-7.

Last night it rained 53 mm at Green Pastures (just over 2 inches) so this was very good. The dam in the river which flows through the Reserve is overflowing. PTL!

Feedback

It is always encouraging when one receives positive feedback on a sermon and this I'm getting from my sermon on Easter Sunday which was an exposition of 1 Corinthians 15 about the ressurection of Jesus, the ressurection of Christians and the ressurection body and what it will be like. One young father who came back to the Lord at the Carnival Camp is bubbling about it and has contacted me various times on WhatsApp. How good it is to see people being touched by the Word of God!

QPR won away to Swansea 1 x 0 on Easter Monday which puts us 6 points and 6 places above the relegation zone. Things are looking much better! 😀 There are 6 matches to go in the season.

Last week we distributed 9 more hair sheep as part of the EAB/ACEV 4-Legs project to help the rural poor. Everyone was overjoyed to receive the sheep. We distributed 6 sheep at the Sitio Boa Vista in Tavares County, 1 sheep at Sitio Genipapo in the County of Santana de Mangueira and 2 sheep at Assentamento Mata Verde in Diamante County. Sadly I have to report that one of the sheep in Tavares County was killed in the night by feral dogs and I have received photos of it.

On Monday night 6 gathered for our youth prayer meeting. I am always encouraged when I see the youth praying.

4 new converts were baptized at the weekend at our Caroá church by local pastor Valdemy. PTL! 

Last night I led the Bible study with the men's fellowship based on Revelation chapter 1. It was a good meeting.

Easter Sunday

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) was a wonderful day in church. Everything started with our annual church fellowship breakfast together at 8 am. This was followed by a half-hour time of resurrection worship with hymns like "Up from the grave he arose" with us sat down for the verses and stood up for the choruses. We also had a reflection on the resurrection text from John 20.

At night I preached on 1 Corinthians 15 and it went very well. We also had a special resurrection short drama from our drama group and deaf fellowship which was very good.

I have read a book called 'Can women be pastors?' written by a Brazilian called Vik Zalewski Baracy. It is a good book. I am now reading 'God in the Dock - Essays on Theology and Ethics' by C.S. Lewis.