Wife

Please pray for Pastor José Vieira's wife who now has also gone down with Covid-19. Raimunda has joined her husband with this disease and needs your prayers. They are the leaders of the João Pessoa - Cidade Verde EAB/ACEV church on the coast.

Last night we had more rain in Patos and at Green Pastures. At Green Pastures it rained 1.75 inches (42 mm) which takes us up to 7.6 inches (184 mm) this year.

I will be leading tonight's service in Patos. The Sunday night service here is the main service of the week. Our assistant pastor Rafael will preach and our daughter Sacha will lead the praise and worship. The service will be only online via Facebook and YouTube. All services are only allowed online at the moment in obedience to a law brought in by the State government to try and relieve the intense pressure on the public health system where hospitals are full in our State. The horrific thing is that whilst the State government tries to help like this the national federal government does the opposite and threatens and opposes the State governments' endeavours. Our current President Bolsonaro is worse than awful. He is the worst president I have ever seen in all my years in Brazil. The sad thing is that the majority of evangelical Christians love Bolsonaro. I am part of a minority who oppose him. 

Counselling

Last night Liz and I had a counselling session for an hour with a young man from our church in Patos which went very well indeed. We held it on our front veranda as our usual place in our back garden wasn't possible as a fine rain was falling.

We had another half an inch (12 mm) of rain yesterday at Green Pastures so that takes us almost up to 6 inches (142 mm) from the 40 inches (960 mm) needed between now and May to get us through to 2022. Please pray.

Liz and I went to Green Pastures yesterday, as we do at least twice a week to check things over and have a good walk. We are working on making the entrance to Green Pastures cleaner and prettier and this is going very well with worker Francisco who is much better than the old worker Tarcísio who left a few months back. Francisco is very willing and most capable and his wife Leca does whatever cleaning we ask her to so the change has worked out very well indeed. However towards the end of our walk yesterday the ground was a bit slippery with the rains and Liz slipped in the mud, twisted her foot where she broke her ankle a few years back, and fell banging her face on the ground. Liz had the first nose bleed of her life as a result and is limping today. She is alright but would value your prayers.

We have another pastor down with Covid-19. This time it is Pastor José Vieira who leads our 2nd church in João Pessoa in the borough of Cidade Verde. He is in the early stages of it as yet (day 6) so we shall see how it develops. José Vieira is about 50 years of age. Please do pray for him together with a man of about 40 also in João Pessoa called Manassés who has Covid-19 very bad. He used to be a part of the Patos church some years ago. Manassés is in intensive care and has been intubated to be on a ventilator.

This week our projects team marked the location for our next toilet/shower unit and the circular two and a half meter diameter foundations have been dug. The building materials will be arriving there next week. We also had discussions with our projects team on where the next goats will be going to in the 4-Legs Project. A goat now costs us 86 pounds but within this cost is including de-worming medicine, a sack of mineral salt and a can of protective medicinal spray for any wound that the animal may get as it goes into the bush.     

More rain

 We had some more rain at Green Pastures last night. Just over an inch (27 mm) fell there, whereas in Patos very little fell. We have now received 5.4 inches of rain this rainy season so we've started, but there's a long way to go. On the coast at João Pessoa they had very heavy rain today causing flash flooding in many central streets and roads. I have seen photographs of cars submerged and people going down some principal roads in canoes. At Green Pastures our lake and stream remain completely dried up. Please pray.

Last night's Bible study went well. Now we are back to doing it on Google Meet, which for those who don't know this is similar to Zoom.

Good news

Today I start with some good news. Gideão (Gideon) who was pretty ill in hospital at Campina Grande with Covid-19 has recovered and been sent home. Thank you for praying. Please pray that he will now have no after effects from the illness. The pastor of his church, Wostenes, who also had the virus has fully recovered. I have been talking to him yesterday and today.

The curfew here from 10 pm to 5 am started yesterday. In person church services have also been halted so it's back to services exclusively online. A lot of evangelical pastors are up in arms about this calling the order unconstitutional. I had to intervene in the WhatsApp group of our pastors yesterday as some were becoming bitter and extreme. I had to put the flames out and remind them that in EAB/ACEV we do not discuss party politics, as that was what it was becoming. Gratefully they have calmed down but I monitor the group attently. I think the pastors are right in complaining about the bars not being closed as opposed to the churches, but then they get carried away and go too far.

The family of Francisco de Assis Bezerra, aged 28, has been selected to receive an EAB/ACEV Toilet/Shower unit built at their house. They are over the moon as they are one of 80 families that do not have toilets at the village of Barra de Oitis. Francisco's wife is partially blind. They have two children. Please pray for the team who will be building, digging the cess pits, and plumbing the unit in the coming weeks.   

Pastoral meeting

Last night we had another lovely meeting with our assistant pastor Rafael to discuss a variety of day to day issues in the running of the Patos church. We had nice times of prayer together too. We meet in the open-air in our back garden duly masked and socially distanced. The meeting lasted an hour.

The epidemic situation in our State of Paraíba is so serious that the State government (the federal government does nothing - just jokes about it!) has imposed a night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am so as to inhibit late night bars and parties. Another Patos doctor has died from Covid-19. Please pray.

I had discussions with Betinho who leads the Ibiara and Conceição churches yesterday. He tells me that both churches are doing well despite the pandemic. I was also thrilled to learn that at Barra de Oitis village one adolescent has come to Christ through our 'Sport in Action' project which involves children and teenagers in playing football. The football is preceded by a prayer and a little word and when they have competitions the winners receive an award presented at church with all the families invited.

Some people have asked me how much it costs EAB to drill and set up a well which we have been doing for 30 years now. I should explain how the process works. Initially our team travels to different rural communities to select possible places in need of water. They return to those on the selection short list and have community meetings to make sure that they are prepared to care for the well if it is drilled. Once a suitable community is selected a specialist is taken there to locate a spot most likely to hit water. A drilling rig company is then contracted to drill 50 metres (150 feet) deep down through solid granite rock which we hit in this region once we get through the soil. If we hit water another machine comes to measure the amount of water the well produces per hour so that we can calculate the type and size of pump needed. The water is also tested for its quality and purity. Having done all this another team moves in to build an elevated base and puts on top of it a 5,000 litre water tank. Then a submersible electric pump is purchased and put in the well and all the pipes and valves are purchased and plumbed so that the water is pumped from the well up into the elevated tank whose height creates pressure for water distribution in the community by gravity. We also build a water trough near the tank for animals and a standpipe with large taps for community water distribution. Once all is finished we hold a community thanksgiving service and preach the Gospel and we do a six-month follow up to make sure everything with the system is working correctly and understood by the community. We do all this for a cost of 5,000 pounds. As you can see there is a lot more to building a well than just drilling a deep hole in the ground! I should just mention that if any person or church would like to raise funds for a well then we would be happy to put the name of the church or of a loved one who has gone to be with the Lord on the well's water tank if so desired. Tearfund have been our partners for 30 years and will fund one well this year but of course we need many more. We have had years when we have built 15 wells. Please pray.     

Baptisms

Over the weekend two of our churches held baptismal services. At the town of Flores in the neighboring state of Pernambuco Pastor Nemias (Nehemiah) baptized three new converts. At the Caroá community in the County of Manaíra in Paraíba state Pastor Valdemy baptized five. Rejoice with us. Thank you for your prayers.

Last night my sermon went well and all the technology worked well to make it possible. It was lovely to receive a message first thing this morning from our church leader at São Vicente do Seridó 85 miles east of Patos telling me how blessed and challenged she was by the message. All glory be to God!

The Covid-19 situation here is increasingly dire. It is one big mess because the national government continues to be inept and leaves everything up to local governments to sort out. There is a total lack of national leadership and example as deaths pass the 246,000 mark. We are awaiting local government decisions this week as we may have to suspend our hybrid church services. Our church at Mata Redonda between João Pessoa and Recife has already suspended their hybrid services owing to the grave reality there. Please pray.

We have defined with our projects team that we will construct another toilet/shower unit at the little house of Francisco de Assis Bezerra whose wife is partially blind. They have two children. They live at the Barra de Oitis slave descendents community in Diamante County. The family is overjoyed that they have been selected. 

The 4-Legs goat rearing project is to distribute another five goats to desperately poor people at a new pioneer village of Mata de Oitis. There is now one family that has come to Christ through our preaching the Gospel in this village.

Preaching

I'll be preaching tomorrow (Sunday) which is something I've been doing by the grace of God for many years and which I love to do. Of course in these extraordinary days of pandemic it is not quite the same preaching from my office but I am glad I can do this. I will be preaching a basic Gospel sermon on what it means and what is involved in being a Christian. I value your prayers.

I have been talking to Pastor Wostenes in Campina Grande who tells me he is thrilled to be back preaching tomorrow as well after his recovery from Covid-19. He also gave me the good news that Gideão (Gideon), from his church's praise and worship team, has improved from Covid and has come off oxygen. Gideão is still in hospital but could be out next week if his recovery continues as well as it is now. Please continue to pray for him.