Pizza

On Friday night our adolescents' fellowship had a lovely time together eating pizza at a restaurant as their end of year celebration. Everyone chipped in to pay the bill with 2 pounds 50 pence each. There were 26 of them present and it was a lovely evening of fellowship. The adolescents' fellowship has been very positive and blessed throughout this year, led by Adriana and Segundo. 

I went for a walk at Green Pastures on Friday afternoon and saw and heard a White-naped Jay and saw a wild Guinea Pig.

On Friday QPR drew 0 x 0 at Ipswich which was a good result as Ipswich are near the top of the table and we are near the bottom. 

Last night I conducted the wedding of my co-pastor Rafael (aged 33) to youth leader Rayla (aged 30). All went off very nicely with a reception after the ceremony.

Last night a service was also held in the town of Passagem 30 km east of Patos and one person made a commitment to Christ. This is a good way to end the year!

Dear dear dear!

This week a deer was observed again at Green Pastures. The species of deer we get here (it is very rare) is a bambi type deer whose scientific name is a Mazama Gouazoubira. It gives us great pleasure to see these deer at Green Pastures as it shows that our preservation of God's creation is paying dividends.

I have been busy preparing for this week's wedding that I will be conducting. My co-pastor Rafael will be marrying Rayla who is one of our youth leaders.

Last night I led the mid-week prayer meeting and Bible study and co-pastor Rafael brought the study from Joel 3. Espedita sang a solo and Dede and Deborah Maria brought Bible verses. The praise was led by Marina and Davi. 

Preaching on Boxing Day

Last night, Boxing Day, I travelled with the Patos Men's Fellowship to preach the Gospel in the town of Sao Mamede. I went in a truck driven by chief of the police Esau, which also had in it my assistant pastor Rafael, Flavio and Marcio. Other men who went were Caetano, Claudivan and Dede. Esau led the service, Dede led the praise and I preached from Luke 2. Over 50 people gathered for the service which was held in the street in front of Brother Jose and sister Marico's house. After the service a snack was served to all by Marico.

The temperatures today are a low of 24 degrees and a high of 38 degrees. Please pray for rain.

Sadly QPR lost 2 x 0 at Millwall yesterday. 😞

Christmas Hampers

Liz and I have been busy distributing Christmas hampers to the very poor. One particularly needy village we went to was that of 'Serrote Liso' where the hampers were received with much joy and gratitude. Most of the houses there are made of mud and sticks.

Liz and I went to visit sister Maria Jose of our Patos church who has undergone surgery to remove an eye cataract. She is recovering well.

QPR sadly lost at home to Southampton 1 x 0 on Saturday. 😒

On Saturday night I preached at our Patos school's Christmas service at which over 200 people attended. The service was held in the street in front of our school and all the different age groups presented different Christmas items. It was a lovely service.

We have received a donation of 2,000 NIV Bibles from the International Bible Society which is wonderful. All they cost us was the freight from Sao Paulo. The Bibles will now be distributed to our 24 main regional churches which will distribute them via their local congregations and branch churches. EAB/ACEV has a total of over 80 churches.

In Brazilian culture it's the eve of any special day that is more important than the day itself. Hence yesterday's Christmas Eve was celebrated first in church and then by a family Christmas Eve supper, as opposed to a special Christmas day lunch in British culture. As we are of both cultures we do both! 😋

The Christmas play which I wrote was fantastic last night in church! The 40-strong cast did exceptionally well. It was both emotional and really blessed. Happy Christmas to everyone!

Rain

 On Thursday we had another 8 mm of rain at Green Pastures. It's not a lot but it is most welcome after over 5 months of parched scorching drought.

On Thursday evening our 3 daughters Deborah, Lynn and Sacha asked us to go and support their end of year event at their English language school which is called 'Cultura Inglesa'. Please pray for this school which is the means of income of our girls and is a shining example of quality language teaching. It was a joy to meet many pupils who are already fluent in English thanks to this school.

I have prepared a Christmas message for the children and parents of our Pastor Frank Dyer School in Patos for tonight. I look forward to sharing with them the true Biblical Gospel story of Jesus' birth and what it means for us.

Yesterday afternoon I went for a nice walk at Green Pastures and saw 2 wild Guinea Pigs, many Wattled Jacanas and a Striated Heron. I also heard the beautiful song of a Rufous-browed Peppershrike.

Last night was the final rehearsal for our main Christmas play which will be performed on Christmas Eve and is called 'The Christmas Star'. I wrote the play earlier this year and it tells the Christmas story from the angle of the stars. It has a clear Christian message.

Graduation

On Tuesday evening Liz and I went to our grandson Arthur's graduation ceremony at the university. His girlfriend Bianca also graduated in the same class of 50 students, who completed five years of studying law. Bianca was top of the class and Arthur was third, so they have done very well. There seems to be quite a bit of healthy competition between the two of them in their studies. Both of them have also passed the first stage of their Bar exams and they sit the final stage on January 21st. Please pray for them.

I didn't go to the men's fellowship meeting this week as I always do, because I was at Arthur's graduation ceremony. Just 7 went to the meeting, but they had a good time of fellowship around God's Word.

We had 5 mm of fine rain on Wednesday morning. It was very little, but after more than 5 months without a drop it was greatly appreciated. 

We have completed the drilling and equipping of two new wells at Caroa community in Manaira county. The people there are thrilled. They have water for Christmas!

Liz and I have been out distributing Christmas Hampers to an extremely poor community called Campo Comprido which is 8 km along an earth road south of Patos. The people were very happy and grateful for their Christmas surprizes.   

Choir

 I led the service on Sunday night in Patos and pastor Rafael preached. The highlight of the night was the choir from our Campina Grande Catole church which travelled to Patos in a coach. The choir is called 'Coral Adoração' (worship choir) and they presented a special Christmas programme called 'Hallelujah'. They sang the Hallelujah Chorus as the last item of their presentation. The whole presentation, led by their leader and conductor Gideao (Gideon), was a beautiful selection of hymns and carols including the 'Hymn of Joy' from Beethoven's 9th symphony and 'Oh Holy Night'. It was a wonderfully blessed evening.

Parallel to this 18 people were baptized at our Campina Grande church. Praise God for a very happy Christmas for these new converts!

9 new members were received into fellowship at our Princesa Isabel church at the weekend.