I preached at Saturday night’s street service in front of our school in the borough of Jatobá – southern Patos. It was a lovely service with a crowd of about 150 there. It could never happen in the UK! The street taken over for a service and 150 turn up! It was great!
There are 2 types of EAB Updates. The first, which most people receive, is a brief monthly resumé of EAB’s work with photos which we call the EAB Nutshell Update. Get it? Brazil – where all the nuts come from! We put the news in a nutshell! The second usually doesn’t have photos and is a transcript of this blog. This now is also monthly and we call it the EAB Diary Update.
I have nearly gone crazy (no rude comments please!) sending out emails one by one to all on our mailing list. I sent each one individually and noted down the names so that I can tick those who reply positively. It took me one and a half days! I am glad it is done. People are replying. I will wait a few days and then write a new EAB Nutshell Update which I will send to all who reply as I cannot send to those who don’t reply.
I will also need help getting permission from the remnant of snailmail update folk who receive a monthly postal update. These are folk advanced in years and the list steadily is shrinking as some do join the internet brigade and others join the celestial brigade! Some of these faithful prayer warriors and supporters are approaching three figures in age!
I’d love to organize a small group of young folk to visit the work here next year to see if we could start an EAB teens and twenties group to shake UK interest up a bit. Contact me if you are interested at eabrazil@gmail.com
The tankers strike goes on and on and on – but of course it is not a tankers strike at all anymore but is a manipulated attempt to bring about a Coup D’état. We are now encircled by lawless gangs in Patos that block the roads and cut off the population from food supplies etc. The BBC is waking up more to the matter and is a bit more energetic in today’s report talking about the death of 70 million chickens, for example, which died of hunger as their feed was not allowed to them! The country has gone mad! The situation is very dangerous. Please pray.
See http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44285238
The country is in uproar! The government gives in to the strikers in everything but the strike doesn’t end! Supplies of everything you can imagine are running out including food, medication etc. Travel is virtually impossible as you can’t get petrol. The strike is now in its second week. Please pray.
See what the BBC says today which is a very timid report but better than nothing. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44275782
For me a Coup D’état is clearly the aim of mainy involved in this uprising. Please pray!
After church last night I heard President Temer announce on TV that he had agreed to all the demands of the petrol tanker drivers who have been on strike for a week and paralysed the country. Even funerals were being stopped! Absolute chaos and anarchy. Now it remains to be seen if in practice the strike is over as announced.
Continue ReadingYou can read edition 89 of EAB’s magazine “In Touch” on our website at http://eabrazil.org/2018/05/26/intouch-89/
Continue ReadingWow! What a week! The EAB Field Conference was great but it only happened by the skin of its teeth! This is because of the Petrol tankers’ drivers’ strike now a week old and continuing! Some how our folk managed to get to the Conference at Green Pastures and it was greatly blessed. PTL! The whole event was wonderful!
However the strike carries on and it is holding the country to ranson. Food starts to run out in shops, doctors and nurses can’t get to hospitals, schools will be shut down this week and so it goes on. It is an horrific situation. Please pray.
The service tonight in Patos was very good.
Liz continues to be a lot better in health. PTL!
The ridiculous outrageous road blockades, caused by the petrol tanker strikers and associates, continue despite temporary agreement reached with the government last night. It is what’s known as anarchy! Nevertheless a lot of our leaders have already got through the blockades and are already at Green Pastures for the Conference start. Your prayers are valued. We look to God for a great conference.
Continue ReadingPetrol tankers’ drivers’ strike latest: The press is right now announcing that the national government and strikers have reached an agreement to resume petrol supplies and unblock roads for a fortnight whilst a longer term agreement is reached. If this is confirmed in practice at morning light this Friday it will mean EAB/ACEV’s annual conference has been saved by the bell! Thank you for praying.
Continue ReadingI sent out emails last night to all on our EAB Diary Update address list asking for consent to be able to continue sending updates. So far 25% have already replied positively.
As soon as I can I will send out emails with a similar request to all on the EAB Nutshell Update list.
The 80th annual EAB/ACEV Field Conference should be starting this Friday but is in severe doubt owing to a strike of petrol tanker drivers nationwide which is bringing the country to a standstill. We are very worried about the whole situation. It will be awful if the event doesn’t go ahead after all the organization and logistics. How does everyone get to Green Pastures without petrol? There are no rail transport options in our region so food, health care etc. is all in danger of supply chain collapse. It is chaos!
Our Pentecost Sunday was good. The sermon went very well. On this Monday we had the special event in honour of EAB/ACEV’s 80th anniversary in the Patos Town Council chambers. It was a fantastic event. Our praise group sang and I told the story, with the help of PowerPoint, of the 80 years of the work. The impact was great! PTL!
Yesterday I took another school round Green Pastures teaching them to care for creation. I got back to Patos in time for a meeting with the State vice-Governoress who had requested a meeting with me. God opens up doors we could never have imagined.
The title of my sermon tonight is exactly this: “The Day of Pentecost” – in which I will be speaking on Acts 2:1-21.
Yesterday was grandson Lucas’s 11th birthday (Philip & Gylmara’s son) so we had a nice time with family and friends.
On Wednesday I spoke to 150 university students and teachers, by invitation, for two hours! I offered to speak for an hour and a half but they insisted they wanted more so can’t have been bad! What an opportunity!
I had a great meeting with our social worker Marah Danielle this week. We discussed a variety of projects. She’s a great lass!
Liz continues in better health. PTL! It really is good to see her relatively pain free and fully mobile again. We had even wondered if our UK trip would be possible with Liz so ill, but now the tide has turned and we are getting into gear for Blighty!
I spent a lot of time sorting out different problems this week. Anyone involved in Church leadership knows what it’s like. You plan your day and then bang! This or the other happens and you have to drop everything and help. One person made a stupid mistake in the financial field and it took me a lot of time to get a lawyer onto her case and calm her down. Then there was a couple of young Christians disgruntled with some simple things and talking a lot of rubbish and causing trouble. May the Lord help us!
Saturday’s leadership team meeting lasted 9 hours but it was very good. Exhausting but in a great spirit amongst the 10 leaders and very productive. All was in preparation for the annual Field Conference to be held at Green Pastures and Patos from the 25th-27th May.
Key points decided were that 2 new ministers will be given probationary ministerial status at the Conference and 2 others will be ordained. Two smaller churches are to be given full church status rather than remaining church plants of other churches. Many other planning issues were discussed and the financial difficulties the churches face with the economic crisis in Brazil affecting things was discussed and prayed about.
On Sunday we had a good day in Church on what was mother’s Day here. Today I gave a two hour lecture at a university by invitation which went extremely well to well over a hundred students.
Next Monday the Patos Town Council will be holding a special session of the Council in honour of EAB/ACEV’s 80 years! It should be quite something and certainly an historic mark for God’s glory!
This week we have had the visit of Tearfund’s Brazil representative Serguem Silva, together with their new worker Alberto Lins. They visited lots of EAB/ACEV projects and I had a good meeting with them and our projects director Lindon Carlos this afternoon.
In our 80th year EAB’s first church at Princesa Isabel, which itself is 75 years old, has been demolished and is in the process of being rebuilt. This weekend more work was carried out. EAB has contributed substantial funds to this project. The church is being expanded to cope with growth which is always a good problem to have.
In Patos the monthly communion service was really blessed this Sunday. I preached on ‘Communion’ based on 1 John 1:1-7.
Twin kids have been born to an EAB 4 Legs Project Mother Goat at the landless community a few miles from Green Pastures. This also happened on Sunday in time for the service! Mother and twins are doing great.
We are flat out preparing for our annual Field Conference later this month and have a leadership meeting in preparation for this on Saturday. Leaders will come to the Patos headquarters from João Pessoa, Campina Grande, Itaporanga, Imaculada and Manaíra. Please pray.
The Deaf Fellowship had great meetings over the weekend. It was also good to see a new Soup Run Team set up and running at Juru up in the mountains.
I have had a long counselling session this morning with someone delivered from drugs for nearly two years but who is under all sorts of pressure. I talked to him for ages, heard all his difficulties, counselled him and prayed with him. Please pray for this man I will call MAV so as to maintain anonimity. He is seeking to follow the Lord.
Please aso pray for the woman from the Desert Flower Project on drugs who has made a commitment to Christ but who is struggling. Code name SAR.
I did a night Green Pastures two hour treck with Tarcísio yesterday alongside the lake and river looking for frogs, toads, snakes and spiders. It is quite complicated in the dark but interesting. I could hear different species of frogs but often not easy to locate.
Liz continues to be in considerably better health, though not out of the woods yet.
The Married Couples Fellowship had a good day at Green Pastures today. Tonight I had a meeting of the ‘Drug Free’ Group evaluating our work to date and planning for the coming months. It was very good.
Liz has been counselling all evening too so she is certainly a lot better in her health than she was. PTL!
This Saturday I will be taking part in one of the tri-annual EAB Board meetings, via Skype, which will be held at WestWellow, near Romsey, UK. I look forward to seeing everyone’s smiling faces! We will need to sort out the GDPR business as D-Day looms!
Liz’s health has improved a lot. PTL! She is in much less pain and is far more mobile. Please keep praying.
Last night’s service in Patos was great finishing off a greatly blessed weekend. Philip preached very well from Romans 12.
Tomorrow is a public holiday and the married couple’s fellowship will be spending the day at Green Pastures. At night I will be chairing a meeting of the “Drug Free” group to discuss about how to improve our work.
Next Sunday is communion Sunday so I need to prepare for that.
I’ve just got in from preaching at a street service run by the youth under Philip’s leadership in the Jatobá borough in south Patos where EAB’s school is. A good crowd gathered and at the end at least 7 raised their hands in commitment to Christ. I preached on Romans 1:16.
On Thursday we received the visit at Green Pastures on the chief of the federal environmental organization from João Pessoa who came to visit Green Pastures. He loved it!
I have been doing work on EAB’s magazine “In Touch” edition 89 and have sent off everything to co-editor Marian Rashleigh.
Tomorrow I will be leading the main service in Patos and Philip will be preaching. On Tuesday the married couples fellowship from the Patos church will be having a fellowship day at Green Pastures. Last weekend a similar fellowship from the Princesa Isabel church spent the entire weekend at Green Pastures. This weekend we have a host of scientists there working on bats, frogs and butterflies! Never a dull moment!
We had a great day of services on Sunday around the theme of Earth Day, which of course was this Sunday. After all “The earth is the Lord’s and everything that’s in it”! The festive spirit was enhanced by the news that Green Pastures has been saved from the electricity pylons and we started with a great dance. The children presented a little play, we had an appropriate poem and I preached on Genesis 1:28 and Revelation 21:1-4. It is sad that God’s first mandate (Genesis 1:28) given to man is so forgotten these days with all its long term implications.
Liz’s health remains unchanged and she returns to see specialists in João Pessoa again tomorrow. Please keep praying especially for dear Liz.
Pastor Lindon Carlos and I got back to Patos a bit before midnight this Saturday after 2 days of ministry in a Baptist church in João Pessoa. We had been invited to speak about the integral mission of the church and tell about how EAB/ACEV works because this church wants to scratch more where it’s itching as concerns so many in need in that big city.
I am on my way now to the State capital João Pessoa to preach today and tomorrow. Back to preach in Patos for Sunday. Pastor Lindon Carlos and his wife going with me.
Liz got back to Patos from João Pessoa this afternoon where she did umpteen tests and scans regarding her ill health. She has to return next week for more tests. Her health remains unchanged and we continue to value your prayers.
Lots of the children from our Pastor Frank Dyer School in Patos received dental care this week and the families really appreciate this care is given on top of school and food.
The rain has stopped here.
We have been fighting a plan to run high tension cables and pylons through the middle of Green Pastures and thus ruining the place. We had made appeals for help from environmental agencies and the university professors united in speaking out on our behalf as did the press. Much prayer has been made too. So praise God we received an email from the electricity company telling us they had decided to attend our appeal to do a detour so as to miss Green Pastures as I had requested. We are rejoicing about this victory and thank all those who prayed with us on this matter.
Continue ReadingPlease note that EAB’s new website address is http://www.eabrazil.org
Continue ReadingLiz is spending the week in João Pessoa, where there are more advanced medical facilities, having a whole battery of tests and scans done, to try to discover the root cause of her ill health which has now dragged on for seven and a half months. We value your continued prayers.
Sunday was a blessing in church in Patos. PTL! I will be preaching in João Pessoa on Friday and Saturday and in Patos on Sunday. Hence lots of preparation has been done. 3 down and one to go!
The Patos Band was fantastically blessed at Tavares on Saturday. The anniversary service there was great.
EAB’s 2nd church in Campina Grande had a wonderful full outreach day on Saturday in the area of the city where they are busy planting a new church. It is great to see a church so mobilized for God and the community!
The Charity Concert held once again this year by Cadnam Methodist Church in aid of the work of EAB was a great success with a full church and great concert with wonderful musicians. Our thanks again to all those involved. We were especially pleased to hear that Brazilian music was part of the program!
Cadnam Methodist Church will be holding its annual charity concert for EAB this Saturday, 14th April, at 7 pm and tickets are £10. As well as the Concert you still get tea/coffee and cake! This must be the place to go this Saturday if you live in the Southampton/New Forest region. The church is behind the White Hart Pub (please don’t muddle things – the concert is in the church!) and the postal code is SO40 2NP.
We thank Hillary Babey for once again organizing this concert and for all who will take part and support it.
EAB’s website has changed address to www.eabrazil.org
We had 37 mm of rain today at Green Pastures but many other places in the area had more. This meant that my planned trip to the church plant at Belem had to be cancelled as it was impossible to reach the place for most people going, owing to the condition of the earth road. My 4-wheel drive jeep would have made it but it wouldn’t be too helpful preaching to empty seats! Rain stopped pray!
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Prayer changes things, and your support for EAB in prayer is absolutely vital both at an individual and group/church level. You can see points for prayer always appearing on EAB’s facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/eabrazil or on the Director’s blog at https://johnmedcraft.blogspot.com .
EAB values your financial support too, as without both prayer and finance of course we would not be able to advance in the work of God. If you would like to support us financially please click on the “make a donation” button below or contact EAB’s UK treasurer at eabfinance@gmail.com . Via the treasurer you can designate your donations to specific projects or causes or give to the general fund. EAB thanks you very much for your interest in the work and for your donations, large or small, for the glory of God.
Mrs. Beryl Gough (Hon. Treasurer) 6 The Glade, Langley, Southampton,
SO45 1ZP Tel: 02380 891021
Email: eabfinance@gmail.com
EAB Banking details:
Lloyds Bank – Sort Code: 30-91-85 – Account Nº 02385564
Online giving at
https://www.justgiving.com/evangelicalactionbrazil/donate
Donate with Just Giving
This is obviously a sensitive subject but legacies can provide a significant capital sum which enables EAB to initiate a large-scale project such as happened with the Katriona M Graham Christian Care Centre in the past.
Please write to the EAB Treasurer (address in contacts section) or telephone on 02380 891021. Your call will be treated in the strictest confidence.
You can email the EAB treasurer at eabfinance@gmail.com
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EAB has maintained radio ministry for the past 35 years and it remains a great means of reaching the masses with the Gospel as well as maintaining contact with Christians in places with difficult road access. Today we are on air from 8 radio stations spread all over Paraíba and Pernambuco States.
EAB churches are mobilized churches with a wide variety of ministries so that the body of Christ can be entirely involved in spreading the Gospel. Thus there are ministries for all age groups, men’s, women’s and youth fellowship groups, married couples ministry plus music & drama and ministry to children. EAB churches are not one-man bands – they are orchestras!
EAB has increasingly focused on church and project leadership training over the past 30 plus years. This is our Campina Grande Bible College, but we also have distance learning courses as well as our regular leadership and youth conferences. All is aimed at equipping leaders for sound Biblical preaching, teaching and balanced leadership across north-east Brazil. Strong capable leaders are a key factor in EAB church sustainability strategy.
Green Pastures is a Christian Conference Centre & Nature Reserve developing leadership training in an environment which cares for God’s creation as an example to our region. It is home for youth & children’s camps, church fellowship days, regular church, school for local farm workers’ children, church leaders seminars, scientific research, plus environmental and organic education.
EAB’s work is situated in a tropical semi-arid region facing annual severe droughts, so we run various projects to help people in the interior cope and to help churches survive: Wells (see photo), 4 Legs (goats), Market Gardens, Trees, 2 Wings (laying hens), Biogas (produced from cattle dung), Bees, Environmental care, Rain harvesters, Underground dams etc. We thus aim to help rural people stay on the land with decent life quality.
The deaf understand the Gospel and come to Christ as a result of this growing project over more than 20 years. Our services are interpreted by our own qualified sign-language experts and many deaf people are now church members. The project leader is our own deaf pastor Luiz Carlos. The project has the added spin-off of giving jobs in schools to our sign-language experts who have gone on to do degrees in the field after learning the basics with EAB.
EAB has recently had some fruitful years of evangelism and church planting, especially in needy rural areas such as here at Barra de Oitis. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is being faithfully preached by mobilized churches, which are ablaze for God’s Kingdom, pressing into off track places in deep dry valleys and on rocky mountains. Evangelistic teams share the Gospel all around our region. God’s truth is marching on!
EAB’s Christian Care Centre continues to work hard and flourish. The Centre runs dental care, senior citizens care and a food bank. The Centre’s work with the deaf is well known in the region and also trains people in Brazilian sign language.
This EAB project helps poor children become literate and successful in their primary education, giving them teaching with love, plus nourishing food, whilst seeking to bring them to a knowledge of Jesus Christ as Saviour. The programme runs from nursery to year 5. It is funded by school/child sponsors who fund the children’s education. It is being a blessing in incredibly desperate situations.
“The Cost of True Worship” was the title of my sermon on Sunday night based on John 12:1-11 where Lazarus’s sister Mary poured expensive ointment on Jesus’s feet in a beautiful act of humble personally involved worship which filled the house with the aroma. She didn’t pour ointment on His head but on His feet and she didn’t dry them with a towel but with her own hair. The message I believe was a blessing to many. In fact the whole service was blessed with a lovely spirit of praise and worship.
This week I have been preparing ministry for a seminar I will be preaching at in João Pessoa and further ministry at Belém Village in Tavares County on Friday. I will also be visiting a new church plant endeavour ar Jurema Village in that area.
The battle goes on to protect Green Pastures from invasion by a powerline. We have had a group of 50 adults visiting for a good 4 mile walk through the trails which is all part of our educational work and next week we will have a school visiting.
I spent my entire morning with the state-wide TV Paraíba team filming Green Pastures and interviewing me as a result of the widespread public interest and support for us defending the place from the invasion of a high tension power cable system. The report will be broadcast on Monday I am told.
We received just over an inch of rain last night for which we are grateful. Rains were poor in March and we hope they will be better this month. The general situation of the reservoirs in the region here remains critical.
Brazil is tense tonight with ex-president Lula refusing thus far to go to jail, despite a 12 year sentence, and surrounded by thousands of supporters in São Paulo. The whole situation is extremely delicate and explosive.
I feel profoundly sad with the news just in of the imprisonment of ex-President Lula planned for tomorrow. I do not think he is an angel or agree with all his policies, but much less do I think his opponents are angels or agree with their policies. I am not convinced he is guilty, yet he is getting 12 years in jail. I am not convinced about the independence of the judiciary nor do I like the implied threats and undertones of the military.
From tomorrow onwards anything can happen in this country. It is split between right and left and I can’t see this ending very peacefully. I think we are all in for a very rough ride. Ex-president Lula was on track to be re-elected president in October. Hence obviously his support base is very large. He was a very good president for the poor and for black people.
Please pray for safety, justice and peace in Brazil.
I have just completed my preparations of my sermon for this Sunday in Patos on John 12:1-11 and entitled “The Cost of True Worship” about the story of Lazarus’s sister Mary annointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume and drying his feet with her hair.
Liz’s health continues to be a concern. She is up and down with one day more pain and the next somewhat easier. The antibiotics have not had the desired effect as yet and on Monday Liz will face more drastic treatment for which we ask your prayers. We hope and pray that this new biological treament will have the desired major effect and improve her health big time.
The work presses forward and good news from the Travessia village is of further decisions for Christ there. PTL! This is an absolutely pioneer place where there was no previous Gospel witness. In the town of Manaíra 8 were baptized at Easter. A new work in the city of Recife seems to be developing which has been a long-time strategic goal of EAB/ACEV so as to move more heavily into that State of Pernambuco. The regular Patos church services broadcast weekly has had a direct input into this development.
We still need much prayer in defense of Green Pastures against a planned invasion by high tension electricity pylons and cables. We have hopes that the Federal Environmental Agency will help us and we ask prayer for this.
As we do every year we went to Green Pastures for our Easter break with all the family from Wednesday night to Saturday night, being back in Patos for Easter Sunday. It was a lovely family time despite all the stress we are under about Green Pastures and the would-be invading company. However we now believe that the environmental authorities are going to defend us and not permit this destruction of God’s nature and we ask all to pray that this promised defense will indeed be put into practice.
The break was a lovely relaxed family time. Just a pity to see Liz so unwell. She has certainly not improved as yet with the antibiotics and she is going back to the specialist today. Please pray. Liz managed to organize as usual the Easter Saturday egg hunt with my help as she can’t get around so well. That was good fun, especially for the kids as it always is. Here is the family photo just before prayers folowed by the egg hunt.
Then yesterday (Easter Sunday) we had a great day in church with the fellowship breakfast for the whole church at 8 am together with worship and a short Biblical reflection from me on Colossions 2:13-15 + 2 Timothy 1:9-10. All ended with 4 people winning Easter eggs as their names were drawn out of a hat.
In the evening we had the big Resurrection Celebration with the church packed and the service really blessed. The highlight was a special presentation of the Easter story, all done in 7 minutes, which was very impactive, bringing the story to today’s context. It was very strong and emotional. Quite wonderful! The presentation involved the drama groups, the dance group with ballet (including granddaughter Alice who is quite brilliant at ballet), the deaf group signing everything and the praise and worship band. All were on stage at once and it was tremendously blessed. We also heard a sermon from Pastor Lucena (ex-Congregational pastor and now with us) and then we closed breaking bread together which I led. All this, with lots of praise and worship too in between, in one hour and forty minutes!
