The service this evening went great. How good it was to see a young man come back to the Lord who has a bad drink problem. Please remember him in your prayers. The praise was good, the prayer was good and the Bible study went very well. PTL!
Philip is on the second leg of his 3 flights home from India - flying from Paris to São Paulo at the moment. He is utterly exhausted.
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Tragedy in Patos (2)
The little girl who fell down the lift shaft in Patos (see previous article) was in fact 6 years of age and has tragically died in the Patos Children's Hospital this evening. Everyone in our neighbourhood is terribly sad and shocked beyond measure. Please pray for the parents who I understand were both Veterinary doctors.
Tragedy in Patos
We are very sad because a terrible accident has just happened in the lift shaft in Lynn's apartment building in front of the English school which our girls run. A little girl of about 7 had a lesson this afternoon and then left the school and went to the apartment block to play with her friends. Somehow she fell down the lift shaft from 6 or 7 floors up. Presumably the lift had opened the door at the wrong level and the little girl apparently did not notice. She has just been rushed to hospital in an ambulance literally between life and death. Please pray.
Preparation
I am an avid preparer of sermons. I can't stand listening to waffle and on the spot ramblings. Hence I am at present preparing a sermon in the book of Isaiah for this coming Sunday in Patos. Such preparation always takes me many hours and even days.
Sadly the rainy season has come to little at Green Pastures. I was there yesterday to check things over and we have now had 359mm of rain this year (15 inches). We would need at least double this for a reasonable year. Yes - we have prayed and are praying. There is hope of some rain as we go into May, but the main potential rainy season in our region is the first third of the year. Just like in the UK you don't get snow in July so we don't get rain in the second half of the year and little in the last two-thirds. This situation reflects on everything - life, nature, churches (people move away to survive) etc. We continue to pray and ask you to continue to pray with us as the thing is that 15 inches just doesn't fill the reservoirs for later in the year.
It is encouraging the way university professors are increasingly warming to our Green Pastures endeavours. This is both helpful and I learn a lot from them.
I have been handling the usual stream of matters concerning the work with people turning up here in the office to talk to me, discuss things, ask questions + constant emails and phone calls. Liz is equally on the go continually. At times I don't know how she copes. I also went to the dentist's yesterday and I'm still breathing!
Sadly the rainy season has come to little at Green Pastures. I was there yesterday to check things over and we have now had 359mm of rain this year (15 inches). We would need at least double this for a reasonable year. Yes - we have prayed and are praying. There is hope of some rain as we go into May, but the main potential rainy season in our region is the first third of the year. Just like in the UK you don't get snow in July so we don't get rain in the second half of the year and little in the last two-thirds. This situation reflects on everything - life, nature, churches (people move away to survive) etc. We continue to pray and ask you to continue to pray with us as the thing is that 15 inches just doesn't fill the reservoirs for later in the year.
It is encouraging the way university professors are increasingly warming to our Green Pastures endeavours. This is both helpful and I learn a lot from them.
I have been handling the usual stream of matters concerning the work with people turning up here in the office to talk to me, discuss things, ask questions + constant emails and phone calls. Liz is equally on the go continually. At times I don't know how she copes. I also went to the dentist's yesterday and I'm still breathing!
Monday, 27 April 2015
Service good
The Sunday night celebration service in the Patos church went off well with a full church as usual. The P&W group did very well. We had one of our pastors in as a visiting speaker and it could have been better.
Lynn is due to have her baby daughter in about a month's time so please remember her in prayer. That will be grandchild number 8 for us. Now surprise news for us is that Philip & Gylmara are to have a third child so that will be number 9!
QPR managed to miss scoring from a penalty against West Ham so ended up drawing a match at home they really had to win. Relegation looms larger and larger with 4 games to go, but I continue out in front in the QPR Prediction League by 18 points.
Lynn is due to have her baby daughter in about a month's time so please remember her in prayer. That will be grandchild number 8 for us. Now surprise news for us is that Philip & Gylmara are to have a third child so that will be number 9!
QPR managed to miss scoring from a penalty against West Ham so ended up drawing a match at home they really had to win. Relegation looms larger and larger with 4 games to go, but I continue out in front in the QPR Prediction League by 18 points.
Sunday, 26 April 2015
Princesa Isabel branch church
Liz and I travelled to Princesa Isabel's branch church yesterday in the borough of Maia where I preached at the 9th anniversary service and the P&W group from Patos also ministered beautifully. Liz and I visited 2 rural areas where this branch church is also already reaching out to. We made these visits in the afternoon prior to the service.
It was a very good trip and really blessed of the Lord. It is good to see this work slowly and steadily growing. PTL!
Now we're back in Patos and will soon be off to lead the evening service. Thanks for all your prayers and support.
It was a very good trip and really blessed of the Lord. It is good to see this work slowly and steadily growing. PTL!
Now we're back in Patos and will soon be off to lead the evening service. Thanks for all your prayers and support.
Friday, 24 April 2015
A good long day
Our leadership team meeting lasted 7 hours. It was exhausting but very united and positive. We have now entirely prepared the agenda for next month's Field Conference (we hope) and amply discussed a very wide number of topics. There will be one ordination at the Conference + I will lead the closing celebration and Pastor Wostenes will preach. I will lead the 4 general assemblies too.
We decided to focus on the topic of unity next year and the annual theme will be "Together we are Stronger" and we will use John 17:21 as our core verse. The ACEV year runs from Field Conference to Field Conference. We also discussed the possible formation of the leadership team as from next year when the team will be elected for the following 4 years (2016 - 2020).
We also defined the programme of the Leadership Conference for November which will be postponed from the usual September date owing to our UK trip. The next 10-day outreach is planned for the State of Ceará.
We also had a discussion on the dangers being faced in the new project which combats domestic violence, drug abuse etc. in a very violent borough in Patos. Much prayer is needed for our team.
We decided to focus on the topic of unity next year and the annual theme will be "Together we are Stronger" and we will use John 17:21 as our core verse. The ACEV year runs from Field Conference to Field Conference. We also discussed the possible formation of the leadership team as from next year when the team will be elected for the following 4 years (2016 - 2020).
We also defined the programme of the Leadership Conference for November which will be postponed from the usual September date owing to our UK trip. The next 10-day outreach is planned for the State of Ceará.
We also had a discussion on the dangers being faced in the new project which combats domestic violence, drug abuse etc. in a very violent borough in Patos. Much prayer is needed for our team.
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