Visitation

On Wednesday afternoon Liz and I went to visit sister Raquel on her 77th birthday. Raquel is bed-ridden owing to knee and hip problems. She is very grateful to the EAB wheelchair bank which has loaned her a wheelchair for a year now. If Raquel was in the UK she would have had hip & knee replacements.

Another person who is being benefitted by the EAB wheelchair bank is Edmilson in the town of Ipueira in the State of Rio Grande do Norte. He has had one of our chairs for about a year and a half now as he broke his leg, but the bone has never healed. Please pray for him.

As the floods receed in the south of Brazil there are still 48,000 people in temporary shelter in schools and gymnasiums. 630,000 people are out of their homes and 114,000 are without electricity. The problems there are gigantic.

I led the mid-week Prayer Meeting and Bible study and Marina & Davi led the praise. Espedita sang a solo, Rafael brought the word from Amos 4 and Marcio, Mada and Deborah Maria read verses of Scripture. It was a nice meeting.

Happy birthday to actor Clint Eastwood who is still acting at 94 years of age, enjoying a 70 year career thus far!

Thrift travel

Our grandson Arthur has now travelled from Heathrow to Barcelona where he is at the Primavera Sound Music Festival. He is travelling without baggage (just a rucksack on his back) and he flies dressed in 2 pairs of trousers and 5 shirts to avoid baggage! 😂 I asked him the other day if he was going from London to Basingstoke by train and he answered: "No way! It costs 20 pounds! I am going by coach which only costs 5.70 pounds!" 😀He is staying in Barcelona in a youth hostel sleeping on a top bunk with 7 other young men in the room.

Last night I led the Bible study about the integral mission of God and it went very well. There were 10 of us men there in the lovely men's fellowship meeting.

Rest Day

Yesterday we had a rest day in Joao Pessoa where we still are after the Pastors & Leaders Conference. We will be travelling back to Patos later today. The service was led back in Patos by our associate pastor Rafael and our Bible College graduate Murilo preached the Word.

Our globe trotting grandson Arthur is still in Basingstoke with Philip, Gylmara and family. Tomorrow he flies to Barcelona for a music festival. Today they have gone to Brighton for the day.

Liz has gone to the beach now with Lynn, Amanda and Hutan. I don't like the beach so I have stayed typing this! 😎

In the floods in the extreme south of Brazil the death toll has risen to 169 with 56 people still missing. 581,000 are still homeless though the situation is improving, but the recovery is a massive task.

Joao Pessoa

Liz and I are in Joao Pessoa since Friday. We got up at 5 am on Friday and arrived at our church in Joao Pessoa at 11 am ready for the opening Pastors' Conference fellowship lunch at 12 noon. Straight after lunch we held a senior leaders' meeting and interviewed a candidate for probationary ministerial status and after this the first general assembly started at 2 pm.

The Pastors' Conference went off extremely well and we got through a great deal of business in a harmonious productive spirit with rich participation from the pastors and other leaders. We gave ministerial status to Vera who leads the Ibiara church together with her husband Naldinho. We also ordained Naldinho, Matheus and Hortencia. The 11-person senior leadership team was elected for 2024 to 2028 with me chairman, Pastor Wostenes deputy chairman. The Leaders' Conference in September at Green Pastures it was decided will have the theme of "the challenges for church growth" and will be coordinated by Gleydice. 

At the conference we learnt of new small churches having been started at the Sitio California where there are 5 believers, and at Lagoa da Ricarda where there are 2 believers. We heard the report from our Bible College in Campina Grande and from the radio programmes at Flores and Imaculada. We learnt too that our Matureia church is going to expand the church building to cope with its growing numbers. Our Flores church has grown and was given the recognition of the status as a large church. Now we have 25 larger churches, 27 medium size churches and 29 small churches making a total of 81 churches. We have a new market garden project at Large da Onca. 

The Pastors' Conference ended with a lively and blessed celebration with 3 ordinations and I preached on church unity from Psalm 133. It was a lovely close to a lovely conference. Thank you for your prayers.

Conference

This week we will be travelling to Joao Pessoa early on Friday morning for our annual pastors and leaders general conference which I will be leading, and I will be preaching at the celebration service on Saturday night when 3 new ministers will be ordained. We value your prayers as we prepare for this important event.

Our granddaughter Beatriz (known as Bia pronounced Beeah) became the female table tennis champion of all the schools in our region this week, winning the final in straight sets. Well done Bia! Bia will now play in the State championship in Joao Pessoa.

Our grandson John David's book called 'Magic Crystals' is in the build-up for its official launch in July and people can now pre-order the book. As a good grandfather I have ordered my copy though I hardly think the book will be my cup of tea! 😉

I have had discussions with the Patos Education Secretary as we need the Council to clean up the piece of land we have rented next to our Patos school which will be used as a play and sports area. The Council has been dragging its feet about doing this work but after my intervention it would seem the work will be done ths week.

The floods in the south of Brazil are finally receeding with the death toll at 161, 806 injured and 85 still missing.

EAB's little magazine InTouch #101 is now available online on the EAB website at http://eabrazil.org/2024/05/21/intouch-101/

Baptism

On Pentecost Sunday at 8 am I baptized 10 new converts from our Patos church at Green Pastures, followed by a church fellowship breakfast. It was a wonderful morning!

Our globetrotting grandson Arther flew from London to Iceland on Sunday where he will be until tomorrow. He hoped to see the erupting volcano there, but I think it is out of bounds this week owing to its dangerous state.

I am getting positive feedback on EAB's magazine #InTouch 101 which should have reached you by now via snailmail. 

In the month of May we always especially focus on the combatting of child abuse in our schools and this time a case of attempted abuse has been uncovered. Please pray as we handle this very delicate situation. I can give no more details than this.

On Sunday I led the main service of the week at night and my associate pastor Rafael preached from Luke 24. We received 13 people into fellowship. It was a lovely service.

The death toll in the floods in the south of Brazil has risen to 157 and there are still 88 people unaccounted for. Over 600,000 people have been displaced by the floods. Please pray. 

Passagem

On Friday night Liz and I travelled to a town called Passagem which is 37 km east of Patos. I preached the Gospel at our little church there which is lead by Eduardo and Cleide, helped by their son Davi who plays the guitar well. It was a lovely service.

On Friday we received a surprise visit from sister Felismina. She is a dentist who used to be a member of our church in Patos and now lives with her husband Pedro in Portugal. Pedro is Portuguese. She told us how badly they missed our church after their move abroad.

The 'young at heart' group of seniors met at sister Socorro Help's house this week instead of their usual venue of the care centre. The meeting was really blessed as they encouraged Socorro Help who is far from well.

The 2022 census shows that there are 11.4 million illiterate people of 15-years-old and over in Brazil. EAB's action schools are but a drop in the ocean, but we are contributing towards the solution of this problem as we make sure that over 800 children learn to read and write well.

Last night I took the service at Green Pastures which was good despite low numbers. Yesterday at our Flores church Pastor Nemias (Nehemiah) baptized 3 new converts. PTL!