Autor: eabrazil

We have just had a wonderful Watchnight service. Probably the best ever. The whole service flowed from 10 pm to 12.30 am. The P&W was great, the dance group fantastic and the sermon went very well. Straight after midnight we broke bread together and then as the service ended there was a big Brazilian hugs all round session wishing each other a happy new year. It was all wonderful.


I am now off to bed after having had supper with all the family. Most of them are still chatting but my time for bed is well overdue at nearly 2 am.

The press today carries the alarming headline on the front page that Patos, a town of 107,000 population, faces total water supply collapse in February if rains do not fall in abundance between now and then. This is because of the accumulative effect of climate change and low rainfall over years. 


Patos’s reservoirs are at rock bottom with Jatobá reservoir with just 1.9% left and Farinha reservoir reduced to 2%. Patos has long been enduring water rationing and survives today thanks to the pipepline we fought for 15 years ago. The problem is that the two joint reservoirs which feed the pipeline, Coremas and Mãe Dágua, are down to 4.27% and 3.13% respectively. 


Please pray for rain – big rain – abundant rain – monsoon rain in the first month of 2018. The consequences of no rain is unthinkable. 

Our thoughts, love and prayers are with Liz’s cousin Pearl Skivington together with her son David and daughter Hazel – whose husband/father went to be with the Lord, aged 81, early today. Hazel kindly let us know early. Pearl is the eldest daughter of Liz’s Aunt Flo.


Don was a longtime EAB supporter who first invented having the Brazilian flag at EAB AGMs and always provided them. Don was the most positive person imaginable with an amazing cheerful disposition and tireless sense of humour. It is going to be strange not having Don at EAB’s 80th celebration next September but of course we praise God that he will be celebrating at a higher level!

I’ve just got home from another meeting of the Drug Free group which seeks to help folk seeking to get free and stay free from drugs and excessive alcohol and also to help their family members affected by the situation. Tonight we had a lady in whose son has been an alcoholic for years and she was pretty much at her wits end. We listened to her, spoke to her and prayed with her. Please pray for this lady who I cannot name and her son that God might do a miracle of deliverance in his life.

We have put English subtitles on the Christmas Hamper video clip because it has such a beautiful message from such an unexpected source. Below screen to the right click on the 1st box with lines in it to opt for subtitles and then click on the cog to chose subtitles in English. I have watched this dozens of times! It is very moving!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwWpes5uSCI

I know most won’t understand the Portuguese language spoken but this short TV report on the largest Brazilian Globo TV network will give you a good picture of some of the work done today.

http://g1.globo.com/pb/paraiba/jpb-1edicao/videos/t/campina-grande/v/moradores-carentes-da-cidade-de-patos-ganham-cestas-basicas/6377281/

Liz and I were roped in to joining the kids in their festivities in church this morning! It nearly killed me but it was fun! What a joy to see the church packed with so many very poor children hearing the true Christmas story and praising Jesus!

I will be speaking at EAB/ACEV’s Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) church this Saturday. I will be having a meeting with the local and regional leaders at 5pm prior to the evening service. Our communications man Ray Santana will be going with me to do the photography. I will be preaching on “Fan into Flame the Gift of God” (2 Timothy 1:6-8). Your prayers are valued.


I led another school group round Green Pastures this morning on another educational nature trail. I altered the normal route to take in more tree shade as the heat is so unbearable in December. Schools can never get there very early which complicates things. But it was good. A family of Tropical Screech Owls posed nicely for them in a tree and a Rock Cavy also posed. The last time we had a light shower of rain at Green Pastures was on July 26th!

I have just dispatched our latest EAB Nutshell Update. If you have not received it and would like to please email us at eabrazil@gmail.com

I have a meeting with the Patos Bible College leaders this afternoon in my advisory capacity which I now have with the College. Sadly the College is going through difficult days.

Today we had 38.4º C (101.1º F) with extremely low air humidity of just 12% which is dangerously low – I am told lower than the Sahara Desert. It means any walking at Green Pastures will now have to be done earlier than ever. I think the next time I go I will sleep there so as to be there ready to walk from 4 am to no later than 8 am. For in the northern hemisphere you now have short days and ours are long with it getting light at 4.

We had a great service in the Patos church tonight. The church was full as usual and there was a real blessing on the P&W and ministry of the word.

I have been to Tarcísio’s father’s wake this afternoon at a small holding not far from Green Pastures. I will be conducting the funeral service at 7 am tomorrow. It’s not everyday you get to do a funeral at that time!


In the afternoon this Saturday I will travel to Campina Grande and back, which is two and a half hours each way, to speak at the EAB/ACEV Bible College’s graduation and 15th anniversary service.

I left as planned for the well inauguration in Tavares County yesterday afternoon but on the way was hit by a drunk driver at Água Branca. Fortunately I managed to brake sufficiently to minimise damage and impact and nobody was hurt. The man was driving an old truck with no rear section on it apart from the chassis, and had no lights or indicators. He said to me afterwards that he had only had “3 beers”! He went on to insist that he had fixed an EAB/ACEV lorry the previous day which we don’t have! He certainly was the worse for drink. Anyway our Jeep received a damaged radiator with the impact so I had to get it towed back to Patos for repairs.


Now this morning Tarcísio’s father at Green Pastures has died aged 87. It has been really ill for a long time and had had both legs amputated. Please pray for Tarcísio and family. I am awaiting news from Tarcísio regarding when the funeral will be as I expect I will conduct that. I was hoping to do another well inauguration today in Princesa Isabel County but await the funeral details so as to know what I will be doing. Your prayers are valued.

The Soup Run last week went very well and reached out to desperately poor and hungry people. We always distribute Gospel tracts with the food too.


I held an exposition of some of my nature photos all week which attracted a total of 2,000 people from all walks of life ranging from judges and medical doctors to teachers and very poor children. It was a wonderful opportunity to estimulate greater care of God’s creation. There was a real impact on the population.


On Wednesday Liz and I enjoyed our 48th wedding anniversary by the grace of God.


From Friday to Sunday the EAB/ACEV Youth held their annual Youth Conference at Princesa Isabel and this was a real blessing.


The Sunday services went well in Patos. I continued my series of sermons in John’s Gospel and am nearly at the end of chapter 7.


We extended the nature photographs exhibition to Tuesday (yesterday) owing to popular demand and especially moving was to have the deaf on the Monday evening present and on the final day the Special Needs School came. The great challenge was to make the experience work for the blind! So I gave them graphic descriptions of each photo and relevant stories with special sound effects attached to them and they really loved it. It was a very moving experience.


Tonight the ‘Drug Free’ group is in action. We really need to pray for the group.


Tomorrow and Friday I will be inaugurating new wells in Tavares and Princesa Isabel Counties and holding thanksgiving services with the preaching of the Gospel at each place. Then on Saturday I will be ministering at our Campina Grande Bible College before getting back to Patos for ministry on Sunday. Your prayers are valued.

Please note that my QPR Teddy insisted on being on the video. Please give him a wave whilst you watch!

Please be at EAB’s 79th Annual Celebration this Saturday (Nov. 11th) to be held at the Lighthouse Community Church, Hardley, Southampton, SO45 3NZ. There will be a fellowship tea at 6pm and the Celebration will start at 7pm. 

Saturday night’s service at Green Pastures went very well. 42 present in a rural area on a Saturday night is not bad! We had all the people doing their bits in the service and then I preached the Gospel. It was a refreshing night blessed of the Lord.


On Sunday I took the Communion Service in Patos which also went very well. During the week we had done quite a lot of counselling with folk from the church.


On this Monday (6th) we took off for João Pessoa again. Another 4 to 4.5 hour drive. This was for Liz to have her second cataract surgery on Tuesday morning. This went off fine and we travelled back to Patos yesterday (Wednesday). 


Also during this week I wrote our annual report for the EAB Board of trustees, in time for this weekend’s Board Meeting and EAB celebration. We also made a video message for the service. We hope you can be there!

My plan for yesterday was to concentrate on preparing my message for the Green Pastures church on Saturday and for the Patos church this Sunday. However things often don’t work according to plan.


First of all a community leader asked for a meeting in my office to discuss the state of the Patos River Espinharas which is polluted and in a terrible state. I have long been campaigning about this.


Then came a series of eventually three people from the church for counselling, which took up most of the morning and afternoon. Eventually I got to working on my message for Saturday and press on today with this and my Sunday message.


However this afternoon I will drive Liz back to the coast (4 to 4.5 hours) to see her cataract surgeon first thing in the morning. Thankfully Liz is doing very well and I am sure her doctor will be thrilled with what she sees as Liz’s operated eye looks perfect – and after all I put the drop in every three hours so have monitored it closely since surgery last Thursday. I hope the surgeon will set the date to do the other eye tomorrow. It will be nice for Liz to get it all done. We hope to travel back to Patos tomorrow latish. Thanks for your prayers.

Statistics just out show that there were 61,619 murders in Brazil in 2016 maintaining a rate of 7 per hour! The worst area is Brazil’s northeast! Your prayers are always valued.

Saturday ministering at Teixeira went very well and yesterday in Patos too. Both services were excellent. Last night the Patos church was very full and especially moving was the deaf fellowship’s participation in the services together with the interpreters. The dance group also brought a very impactive presentation. I preached on the 500 years of the Reformation.


Tomorrow we go back to João Pessoa for a check-up on Liz’s eye operation. Praise God she is fine.


On Saturday I will be preaching at the Green Pastures church and will be back preaching at the Communion service in Patos on the Sunday.

Liz had a cataract removed from one eye today and an artificial lense inserted. All went well here in João Pessoa and we plan to return to Patos in the morning. Liz will have the other eye done as soon as possible. We value your prayers.


Last Sunday’s service was excellent. Preaching on “eating Christ’s flesh and drinking his blood” (John 6) was challenging, especially in the catholic context in which we work, but the Lord really blessed.


On Tuesday the drama group had a fantastic opportunity for the Gospel as they were invited to perform our missions play (that I wrote together with Liz and our drama leader Dilma) in the Patos open-air theatre as part of the town’s 114th anniversary celebrations. It went extremely well reaching a very large crowd. So well did it go that the group has been invited to perform our Christmas play (which I wrote about 30 years ago and which is being revived this year) in the same venue during Christmas week – so another great opening for the Gospel. PTL!


On Saturday I will be preaching at our Teixeira church up in the mountains and on Sunday I will be preaching on Reformation Sunday – being the nearest Sunday to 500 years on from October 31st 1517. The deaf and choreography groups will be taking part in the service. As Luther said, “Hear I stand”! And here we stand too in our belief in the supremacy of Christ, the Bible, salvation through faith in the grace of God which leads us to live exclusively for His glory! (Scripture alone – Faith alone – Grace alone – Christ alone – All glory to God alone)