General Conference

Liz and I got up at 5:30 am on Friday and left home at 6:30 am headed for the EAB/ACEV General Conference at our Catolé church in Campina Grande. We took Gerlânia (Patos school's headteacher) and Dedé (leader of our Ipueira church in Rio Grande do Norte State) with us in our car.

At 10 am we started the first of 3 meetings of the senior leaders committee and at 12 noon all our pastors and leaders had arrived for the opening fellowship lunch. After lunch we held our second senior leaders meeting followed by the first general assembly at 2:30 pm. At 6:30 pm we had our evening meal together and at 7:30 pm we started our second general assembly. Liz and I stayed at someone from the church's house where we had breakfast on Saturday morning. The 3rd general assembly started at 8:30 am on Saturday and finished about 1 pm. We had lunch together and then the senior leaders had our 3rd and final meeting together. On Saturday night at 7:30 pm we held our Conference Celebration service. It was a night of electric praise and worship and Pastor Lindon Carlos (from our Imaculada church) brought a brilliant sermon entitled 'It is time to take care of the church'. Then my book on the history of ACEV/EAB between 1938 and 2018 was officially launched. All the pastors and leaders were given a signed copy and after the service copies of the book were sold with me signing them.

In the general assemblies a wide variety of issues were discussed and debated. 3 new leaders were given probationary ministerial status: Matheus and Hortência (who now lead our Soledade church) and Naldinho (who leads our Belém village church in the County of Tavares). 2 further leaders were defined as candidates for probationary ministerial status next year: Vera (co-leader of the Belém church) and Fábio (who leads the Travessia and Fonseca churches). It was defined that Pastor Betinho will take on the leadership of our Conceição church as from July 1st, and that new leadership will be sought for the Ibiara church where Betinho had been pastor. Brother Ramos will now be the leader at our Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) church. A new church has come into being at Mata de Oitis which is 7 km from our Barra de Oitis church. At Mata de Oitis we already have 12 adult members. A youth leadership team has been elected with Pastor Matheus (from João Pessoa) the chairman. The leaders fellowship conference will be held in September at Green Pastures. Next year's General Conference will be held in João Pessoa and next year's 10-day special evangelistic outreach will be held in the town and villages of Tavares. It was said at the conference that it seems quite possible that we will soon be able to open a new school at Vazante. Also our Juazeirinho church requested the opening of a school to meet the need of extremely poor children there. We need 5 or 6 new school sponsors @ 20 pounds a month to meet this need. Linked to our schools programme the following churches are evangelizing children and adolescents through sport at: Flores, Juru, Barra de Oitis and Campina Grande - Catolé. Patos will be using sport to evangelize in the second half of this year. We have radio programmes at Imaculada, Flores and Campina Grande - Presidente Médici. 

Thank you very much for praying for our general conference. It was a great time of blessing and progress. 

2 Funerals

We got back from the General Conference in Campina Grande at about midday yesterday. We managed to get in a bit of rest in the afternoon before going to the 6:30 pm Day of Pentecost Service which I led. The preacher was our Bible College student Murilo and his sermon on Pentecost was superb! He is in the final year of his 3 year course and it is so encouraging to see how well he is developing in God. Murilo is just 20 years old and a great help in the present and a great promise for the future. Please pray for Murilo.

During yesterday afternoon the husband of our sister Veronica died after a long illness with Alzheimer's and other complications. The husband, Nelson, was not a member of our church. Then after the evening service our 88-year-old sister Maria Prata went to be with the Lord after a long period of dementia and other illnesses. These 2 deaths on the same day left us with 2 funerals to do today at the same time. So my assistant pastor Rafael did Nelson's funeral and I did Maria Prata's funeral. First of all Liz and I went to both wakes this morning. Maria Prata's wake was at our church and Nelson's was at his home. Maria Prata's funeral service at the church went very well. Our daughter Sacha worked very hard overnight to prepare everything and lead the worship. Our son Philip brought a tribute to our sister via zoom from the UK. Liz also gave a tribute. Maria Prata's children sang 2 songs in the service and her son gave a tribute.

Whilst we were away at the conference our grandson Arthur flew to Rio de Janeiro to attend a musical conference. Arthur never ceases to amaze us as he plans and carries out his travelling adventures. He has been round Europe twice. He saves up his wages and buys flight tickets when they are on special offer cheap.

São Mamede

Last night I travelled to the neighbouring town of São Mamede which is a 25 minute drive north-east of Patos. I went with the Men's Fellowship and the service was led by the Chief of Police Esau. Those that also travelled were Caetano, Rebeca, Moises, Chico, Rafael, Tiago, Márcio and Fábio. The service was held in front of brother José and sister Maricó's house. I sang a solo (If that isn't love) and preached the parable of the Sower from Matthew 13. It was a lovely service.

We had a very good meeting with the new leaders of the adolescents Adriana and Segundo. They will now hold meetings on a Friday night and we pray that God will mightily bless them and use them. For a long time I have been concerned about the spiritual welfare of this age group as it is a critical period in a person's life. Please pray for these meetings.

Liz has been to visit 88 year old Maria Prata in hospital in intensive care. Our sister in Christ has long been bed-ridden and is fed by a tube. She has now been intubated and we pray for the family at this difficult time.

I will not publish anything on this blog this Friday as we will be at our General Conference at Campina Grande. I will write again on Sunday or Monday. Please pray for the Conference.

Hens

On Saturday afternoon Liz went to another hen party! This time it was Marina's party. She sings in the church worship group. It was organized as a surprise for Marina and all went off very well. Liz says there was a lovely spirit in the party and everyone had a lot of fun.

On Saturday night I led the weekly service at Green Pastures and I even led the praise and worship, playing the guitar too, as there was nobody else to do it. I hadn't played the guitar for ages! The service was lovely with various people taking part like Fred, Paulo Silas, Dodora, Júlio and Rebeca. Bible College student Murilo brought the message from Romans 5.

I have had my hair cut in time for the general conference. I hope you like it! 👦

Sunday went off very well. The Sunday school in the morning was fairly well attended and the service in the evening saw the church full. The worship, led by our daughter Sacha, was especially blessed. You can always watch our Sunday night services on Facebook or YouTube starting at 10:30 pm (BST).

March

This Saturday morning our Patos school children, together with various members of our church including Liz, marched through the streets of the borough of Jatobá where the school is situated. The march was in accordance with the national day to combat abuse and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. Posters were placed in the shops of the borough giving a number to ring for people who knew of such abuse.

Thursday's Bible study went off well with about 25 people present. We continued in the book of Hosea.

I have been signing all the books of EAB/ACEV history which will be given to all our pastors at the general conference to be held next week in Campina Grande. The official launch of the book will be at the end of the conference service on Saturday night (27th).

Men's Fellowship

This week's men's fellowship meeting only had 7 of us present but it was a good time together around God's Word. I led the gathering and Dedé led the Bible reflection in Psalm 130.

I have finished reading another book called 'Bulldozing with the Bible in Brazil' by A. Tipple. This is an old Latin Link book from 1965 telling about missionary experiences in south and central Brazil.

Yesterday Liz and I went to visit Sister Socorro Help from the Patos church, who is recovering from a severe attack of asthma. We sang some hymns for her, read the Bible and prayed with her. Please pray for her. Her name is 'Socorro Help'. Socorro means help, and over 20 years ago I started calling her name in both English and Portuguese and it stuck, with everyone here following my lead!

This week I went to the Doctor's for a check up and all is fine with a complete all clear. Praise the Lord!

Liz went to the women's fellowship meeting last night. There were 14 women present.

After the women's meeting Liz and I went to a wake at 10 pm in the borough of Frango in north Patos. The mother of brother Paulo from the ex-landless settlement had died aged 98. She had 21 children with her first when 13 years old. She had never been to a doctor in her life. The family couldn't tell us how many grandchildren and great grandchildren she had as they had lost count. They said she had at least 79 grandchildren!

Wake

On Sunday the father of our pastor up in the mountains at Teixeira, Pastor Maésio, died aged 80 having had a stroke. His father lived on the northern side of Patos and yesterday Liz and I went to the wake. It was interesting to see how many old students of the Patos Bible College were there. Maésio's father was a strong Christian and is surely with the Lord.

I led Sunday night's service in Patos which was a special Mother's Day service, with the church full to capacity. The children took part with a special slot for their mums and Dilma and Alice (granddaughter) brought a beautiful poem. I preached the Word of God.

Our annual General Conference will be held next week (26th & 27th) in Campina Grande. Three ministers are due to be given probationary ministerial status. The senior leadership team will meet first at 10 am on Friday, 26th. Then there will be 4 general assemblies on the afternoon and evening of the 26th, and on the morning and afternoon of the 27th, with 80 pastors and delegates present. On the Saturday evening the conference celebration service will be held which I will lead and at which Pastor Lindon Carlos will preach. At the end of this service the official launch of my book about the history of the work will take place. Please pray for the conference.