Soursop

I have just had a delicious Soursop smoothie. Soursop (Annona muricata) is a large tropical fruit with white flesh and green skin covered with sharp points.

Please pray for Jakeline who is a 46-year-old sister from our Patos church who is very ill in hospital with pancreatitis. She is in a lot of pain and very swollen.

Please pray too for Pastor João George who is the assistant pastor at our Imaculada church. He has been operated on for intestinal cancer and is recovering in hospital in João Pessoa.

A good number of beds are to be repaired at Green Pastures in time for our Pastors' Family Conference (EDL) which will start on August 8th. Our odd-jobs man Catingueira will come in and do the work.

Please pray for us in the run in for our trip to Europe as our take-off approaches for Portugal, England, Scotland and Switzerland on August 20th. 

Today is our granddaughter Alice's 18th birthday! Happy birthday Alice!

2 Samuel 22 (résumé): David's Song of Praise

This song of praise is also found in Psalm 18. In this song David praises God for his power and protection. God is his rock, fortress, deliverer, refuge, shield and the strength of his salvation. David praises God for delivering him from the jaws of death and poetically describes God's power like the thunder and lightning of nature. He says that God delivered him and brought him into a spacious place. He says God is his lamp which turns his darkness into light, and with God he can run through a barricade or even scale a wall! He says God makes his feet like the feet of a deer and he praises God for all his victories. He says the Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, my Rock, my Saviour!

2 Samuel 21 (résumé): The Gibeonites avenged

David asked God what the cause was of a 3-year famine in Israel and God said it was because of Saul's killing of the Gibeonites which had betrayed Israel's oath to spare them. So David asked the Gibeonites what could be done to make amends for the wrong done to them. They requested 7 male descendants of Saul to be killed by them and to be exposed by them on a hill at Gibeah, and this David gave to them, whilst saving Jonathan's son Mephibosheth because of David's oath to Jonathan. Rizpah, mother of the dead men, held a vigil over the dead men's abandoned bodies defending them from scavengers. Upon hearing of this David was provoked to give them a decent burial together with the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the tomb of Saul's father Kish. Thus the atonement having been made God ended the famine.

The end of this chapter relates further battles between Israel and the Philistines. In the first David became exhausted and had to be rescued by Abishai. The next battles were at Gob where apparently the brother of Goliath was killed. Then came a further battle at Gath where a huge man was killed who had 6 fingers and 6 toes!

Exhaustion

I am utterly exhausted this morning as I have made 2 cups of tea and I made the bed! 😩

I led the main service of the week on Sunday night with a full church, and assistant pastor Rafael preached on the danger of unbelief from Hebrews 3:7-13. It was a good service.

I am busy preparing for all our speaking engagements in the UK as we will be leaving on August 20th. I am also busy preparing for our pastors and leaders family conference at Green Pastures from the 8th to 10th August. We value your prayers.

Our grandson John David, who is a doctor, is now a GP at the Ana Maria Isodoro Surgery (UBS) in São Mamede, which is the municipality where Green Pastures is situated. I am particularly pleased about this as we have been in this municipality for 47 years and I was made an honorary citizen of São Mamede in 2012.

Yesterday afternoon we had an excellent online meeting with co-leaders of the work here Pastor Wostenes in Campina Grande and his wife Gleydice. We discussed various aspects of the work in the states of Bahia, Paraiba and Rio Grande do Norte.

Maroon Shorts

I work in my office in the daytime wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Naturally one gets attached to one's shorts over the years! So you can imagine how devastated I am as Liz has just binned my favourite maroon shorts saying she didn't have the nerve to put them in the church jumble sale! 😒Women can be very ruthless at times! 😓

At Green Pastures I saw a Southern Lapwing and a number of Red-cowled Cardinals. I also took photos of our pet Cockatiels and our newly acquired 6-months-old donkey called Merrylegs II.

Last night our weekly service at the Green Pastures church, which I was to lead and preach at, was cancelled as Paulo's, who is the brother who sets up the sound equipment, old banger conked out on him leaving him stranded.

Police Station

I was asked to go to the police station to answer questions regarding our car crash 9 months ago in Teixeira. Grandson and lawyer Arthur went with me and I hope that is the end of the matter.

I have had an important meeting with Pastor Wostenes and Pastor Renilson about our action school project. We praise God for fine men of God as these who stand firm in the work of the Lord and care for the poor. What a wonderful work our action schools carry out to over 850 needy children!

We have started a 'Donkey Haven' at Green Pastures in the light of 94% of Brazil's donkeys having been slaughtered and their extinction in Brazil expected over the next 5 years. We have acquired a young female donkey and are now looking for a husband for her! 😊

Egrets

On the trip to João Pessoa I saw dozens of Cattle Egrets and one Great Egret. On the trip to Caroá I saw a hawk, but I was unable to see which species of hawk it was.

Yesterday we left Patos a little after 8 am and travelled to Cedro in the municipality of Princesa Isabel in a journey which took 2-and-three-quarter-hours. The mountain climb was very congested by heavy lorries. I have just heard that today a lorry went over the mountain precipice and killed the driver. When we got to Cedro we visited 21-year-old Jezrel who is recovering from a serious motorbike accident in January and is a member of our church there. It was nice to talk to him and all his family members there. After this we had lunch at the Paladar restaurant in Princesa Isabel.

After lunch were were pleased to see that at long last the authorities have asphalted the road on the Manaira side of the town as we proceeded to Caroá. There we made thanksgiving visits to the new wells at Chico de Nenem and Caroá. I then led a special thanksgiving service for these wells at which brother Robert from São Paulo preached the Word. It was a lovely service with a full church. The service was animated by blessed singing and dancing. At the end the Deputy Mayor spoke beautifully.

This morning we drove back to Patos from Caroá stopping at Manaira to visit an 85-year-old couple from our church there called José Paulino and Luiza. They still run their little convenience shop which they started about 35 years ago as a result of an EAB loan. Then we were back to Patos for egg and chips!