Autor: eabrazil

Yesterday was my 68th birthday and we all got together at lunchtime for a nice meal together. The family has grown quite a bit since we came out here with just baby Deborah in 1972! In the evening the Couple’s Church Fellowship Group came and did a surprise serenade so that was nice. This group is below.

Yesterday I was somewhat stressed by my sister Joy’s health as she had to have emergency surgery for a perfurated bowel. Bless her heart! She is now back on the ward but apparently with plenty of pain. Please pray for her.


This morning we had a very good meeting with leaders of the child sponsorship organization ‘Compassion’, which we believe will lead to the expansion of our work with children, from their funding for ACEV for special work with children on Saturdays at our Patos, Matureia and Imaculada schools. This will be run by a separate ACEV Saturday team, distinct from our regular team, and will reach a separate group of children to those already being blessed by the Action Child EAB/ACEV programme. There is such a massive need that the more that we can impact dear poor children’s lives the better! Please pray.

Continue Reading

Liz and I travelled to Itaporanga this Saturday to conduct the wedding of Tica who leads our Old Cow Pen church. She married Ramos from one of our João Pessoa churches. They met a year ago at the special 10-day Outreach. They are a mature couple in their 40s. Philip arrived about the same time as Liz and I, around 6.30 pm, for a 7pm kick off. They will now lead the work together at Old Cow Pen.

When we arrived there was nobody there! The service eventually started over an hour late! They had organised an enormous number of witnesses – 20 for the bride and 20 for the groom! All these cerimonally walked up the aisle, at the begining of the ceremony, ahead of the bride. When the bride was reaching the door I had this strange intuition that I had been given the incorrect name for the groom! I dived over to the table where the legal documents from the judge were for the registry and I was right! So I had to quickly correct my script on the side whilst the bride meandered up to the front and I managed to slip into place by the skin of my teeth with a smile and nobody was any the wiser!


Philip had prepared 3 songs for different moments in the service which with me normally lasts 45 minutes. However… when the third song time came, as the register was being signed, there was me, the couple and 40 witnesses to sign! A total of 43! This must be a world record! Of course this dragged on for yonks and I whispered to Philip to just keep singing! Bless his heart he even lost count of how many songs he sang!


At the end I declared them husband and wife and had to get them to repeat the kiss, as the first one was more like a peck (I don’t admit pecks in a wedding ceremony!), and then I prayed the final blessing and we were done, dusted, sweaty but smiling!

Finally there was the photographs session with a family member yelling into a mike the different ones she wanted to line up with the couple. But everyone was happy like that so who cares? Then they called everyone to eat so Liz and I slipped out, leaving them a gift with their regional pastor, and we got home pretty exhausted and to bed at 12.30 am.


My day had started with a Skype meeting at 7am, for which I was up at 5.30 am, with the EAB Board of Trustees. It was a very good meeting. It was however a long day! Now I’m ready to preach tonight in the Patos church. Your prayers are always valued.

Continue Reading

I preached at the 10-day Outreach final public service on Saturday, as I do every year, and all went very well. This is the 17th year we’ve done this consecutively and it was my idea in the first place – so it’s a great joy to see things going well with the team up by a third in size and folk were talking about getting up to a 100 in the team next year from this year’s 80. PTL! The team was united and blessed. The RC church is in general terms no longer the challenge at these event but rather the “evangelical” lunatic fringe which is actually more than a fringe in Brazil! A great concern for all serious evangelical leaders. Anyway the Outreach bore fruit and I await final statistics which I will pass on, but I know some did make real commitments to Christ.

We got back very late of course on Saturday night but were in church in Patos as normal. The sermon this Sunday was especially blessed: “Water into Wine”! The 6th sermon in the John’s Gospel series.


This Saturday I’ll be conducting another wedding – this time at Itaporanga. The leader of our Old Cow Pen church – Tica – is marrying Ramos from João Pessoa. A mature wedding! Then of course we’ll be back in Patos again on Sunday.


The authorities have at last started to sort things out at Jabre Peak and did a major clean up of both domestic and industrial rubbish there. PTL! I was interviewed about it on TV and radio today.

Continue Reading

Last week Liz and I managed to fit in a 3-day break at Green Pastures which was very nice. I did lots of walking and Liz did lots of reading. It was really nice. No internet. In the daytime the birds nearly deafened you with their song and at night the silence, with a full moon, was deafening! I met up with this fox face to face. He growled at me a lot and it was quite a stand off, but he blinked eventually, turned and ran off into the bush. A lovely moment.

The 10-day Outreach at Flores in Pernambuco State has started well with an 85 strong team. On Saturday Philip took the Patos church band to lead the P&W in the opening service which was really blessed. I will be going there to preach this Saturday and our Care Centre team will be going there too. I will be back in Patos to preach on the Sunday. Last night’s Sunday service went well. I continued my series in John’s Gospel – sermon 5 – and finished chapter 1. Numbers were down owing to it being holiday month. 


It rained 16 mm at Green Pastures last night. PTL! Every little bit helps. The big rain Patos got on the 9th did not make it to Green Pastures unfortunately.

Continue Reading

Saturday night’s watchnight service started at 10pm in the Patos church and ended about 12.30am. What a wonderful service it was with 3 baptized by Philip, a great choreography, a fantastically moving song by Sacha and I preached. The whole service was broadcast live and the video is available on the church’s facebook page.

Érika is the young woman with Sacha (above). She was converted early in 2016 and the following week was diagnosed with breast cancer. On the night she was to go to João Pessoa to start her treatment Sacha phoned Érika and sang to her Psalm 40: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry…” Sacha then prayed with her and said that she would sing the same song in church for her when she is cleared of cancer. Last week she was given an initial all clear and Sacha kept her promise. There were few eyes dry in the church! God is good! PTL!


On the Sunday night we had our normal weekly main service with numbers reduced owing to so many being tired from the New Year’s celebrations. Nevertheless it was a good blessed service. A Happy New Year to everyone!

Continue Reading

Last week was as hectic as ever with a lot of EAB correspondence to deal with on top of everything else. During the week we distributed Christmas Hampers in various places, but the main distribution was on the Friday in the Patos Project Centre, next to the church, with toys as well for the kids. It went great with a total of 244 full hampers + 36 smaller hampers from food we managed to get together at the last minute to help yet further people + 150 toys.

Saturday night was the typical Brazilian Christmas Eve supper at Philip & Gylmara’s house, with all the family gathered for the occasion. On Christmas Day Sunday Liz cooked the typical British lunch and again got all the family together for this, followed by some gifts round the tree. 

At night we had a fantastic Christmas service in the Patos church which was so utterly packed out that we had to use every extra chair we had! The play was very impactive and blessed being a modern mixture of the old Christmas story from the angle of the “Heaven’s Angels” (as opposed to Hell’s Angels) Canteen getting the news that they had to get on their motorbikes and take the news of Jesus’s birth to a group of “landless” shepherds. The half hour play ended with a switch to Jesus’ second coming and a challenge to the church. I brought a short message after this followed by the church children receiving sweets and presents round the tree. It was all lovely and really blessed.

Continue Reading

Saturday saw us up in the mountains at Imaculada to inaugurate a playground for poor kids in Glória Community, Imaculada. It was a beautiful time of celebration!

Then Sunday was the children’s nativity play in the Patos church which was packed out beyond belief. A beautiful evening of the proclamation of the old Gospel story that Jesus came. PTL!

On Monday was the church couple’s Christmas party which was also a lovely and blessed evening of fun and fellowship.

During this week we are distributing Christmas Hampers too and our big Christmas service will be on Christmas Day broadcast live worldwide with a full Christmas play. Happy Christmas!

Continue Reading

Life is as hectic as ever as we work towards Christmas day. Christmas has got to be about thinking about others and not just oneself and the family. Christians can’t solve all the problems in the world, but they can solve some. People say to us in the UK that it’s different for us as we live and work in such a poor area. Whilst it’s true that it’s different it doesn’t mean there aren’t needs all around you where you are in the more afluent places of the world. It’s a question of attitude, commitment and understanding what Christianity and Christmas really involves.


Thursday saw our Pastor Frank Dyer School here in Patos present the Christmas story for civil servants in the centre of Patos for the 6th year in succession. Just the trip from the outskirts of town to the centre is a major adventure for these poor kids! They did very well and one of the boys who has been very ill asked if he could give his testimony at the end of the play! We said sure, and off he went telling the adults there straight that he was there thanks to the prayers of God’s people and that God had healed him. All off his own back from the heart! Beautiful and powerful! PTL!

Yesterday Sacha took her daughters’ pediatrician to a poor borough of Patos to give all the children medical check-ups, medication, personal hygiene kits, shoes and toys. Boy what emotion there was there!

I have prepared my sermon for this Sunday in Patos and now we’re off up the mountains to inaugurate a playground for very poor rural kids in the Glória community in Imaculada County. Happy Christmas!

Continue Reading

We had a good weekend – starting with Bia’s “graduation” from ABC School – she now goes into year 1. There was a lovely party for the kids held by the school which of course all the family went to.


On Saturday it was Luis’s 1st birthday so it was over to Philip’s house for a little party. On Sunday was his sister Louisa’s 17th birthday. The service at night went very well with a packed church as always these days. It was “Bible Day” so I preached about the Bible and its importance.


On Monday Liz and I travelled to the coast to João Pessoa to be there bright and early for 2 routine doctor’s check-up appointments. Infuriatingly both doctors made no-shows so we drove all the way back to Patos yesterday afternoon/evening having driven for hours each way for nothing!


Today I went to Green Pastures in the morning and this afternoon with had a little party for Lynn’s 40th birthday (see photo below). Philip will give the Bible Study tomorrow and I am preparing for Sunday. I will be going to inaugurate a new playground facility at our rural “Glória” church in Imaculada County. On top of all these activities I have a list a mile long of issues I have to deal with linked to EAB/ACEV churches and projects as well as EAB itself. It is a busy life.

 

Continue Reading

We had senior leadership meetings all day this Tuesday starting at 10am and going non-stop till 9.30pm! Talk about exhausting! We had lunch and evening food brought in and eaten on the job! The day started with a meeting with 2 pastors who used to be part of ACEV/EAB discussing a dispute over mission property in Mauá – São Paulo going back to the year 2000! At least they ended up asking forgiveness which was nice. There will be further meetings to resolve the problem.


We then discussed Ribeirão Pires – São Paulo where it looks like the church is going to close. Not all things work out as we hoped!


We then went on to discuss project issues and a new plantation/horticulture project to be started for the landless community not far from Green Pastures. This promises! We also had a good meeting with a leader of an online distance theological College regognized and fully legal with the Ministry of Education. This is also promising! And so it went on… a long but united and fruitful day.

Continue Reading

We travelled to the rural church of Portelo this Saturday night and the Patos Band went too. Their ministry was great. I preached the Gospel. We got to bed at 1am driving back home after the service.

Now we’re off to the Communion Service in Patos where I will again be preaching.


This week is going to be very hectic with a massive day this Tuesday with major leadership meetings morning, afternoon and night – followed by a graduation thanksgiving service on the Wednesday. We sure do value your prayers.

Continue Reading

It is always so lovely to see the very poor children in EAB’s Action Schools being taught with God’s love and respect. It is wonderful to see their lives being helped and changed. Please support EAB Action Schools and make a difference to very needy kids in the northeastern Brazilian hinterland. For further information please contact out UK Action Child School coordinator Marian Rashleigh at: missionmr@ntlworld.com

Continue Reading

Our church Soup Run Team was out late last night again distributing 110 litres of soup + 160 loaves of bread to the hungry around the slum areas of Patos. The dear old Kombi was the transporter as usual. We praise God for this excellent team which cooks the soup which is thick and full of vegetables and meat. They also distribute the Word with the soup!

 

Continue Reading

Continue Reading

I love preaching the Gospel and I love practising the Gospel. I’m not perfect at either, but I’m working on both! This morning was one of those lovely mornings where I was able to serve a bit in practical ways in a community where I’ve preached a lot.


Last year EAB received funds from Larbert Pentecostal Church’s Sunday School with which we supplied a goat to a very poor family. The goat’s milk helped Francisco and Mirele feed their little boy Paulo Silas until one day the goat became sick. The Vet’s endeavours were to no avail and eventually the goat died. Now the family has grown and they also have another little boy called Josué – but no goat milk! Hence EAB stepped in and donated a new goat with two female kids. Granddad Paulo is in the photo helping out as his son was at work. The family was overjoyed to receive another goat.

I then went on to give a food hamper to an unbelievably needy family of 11 kids where Dad cares for all as Mum has switched husbands. Dad wasn’t in but I left the hamper with the children who were.

Whilst in the community I checked over the well EAB/ACEV has drilled there. It supplies piped water to 22 homes, regularly supplies water to another 5 homes and supplies another 10 homes when the droughts are at their peaks like now. Hence this well provides water for 37 homes and about 260 people. Thanks for your prayers and support.

Continue Reading

This year’s Leadership Conference went very well although it was exceptionally tiring. This was because the senior leadership team had to meet not-stop prior to and during the event to deal with a number of problems and issues which had accumulated. Hence the event started on the Friday at Green Pastures at 6pm but the senior leadership team went flat out all day prior to this – morning and afternoon. The free fellowship time on Saturday morning was also non-stop for the Board of leaders and so it went on.


One or two problems we faced have still not been solved regarding Ceará State and Barra de Oitis. We value your prayers.


The ministry of the Word by visiting speaker Carlos Queiroz was very good. He was the speaker last year too. The spirit of the gathering was beautiful with much unity. Thanks for your prayers.


I am now working very intensely with so many issues to do with the work after the Conference. It is hard to keep one’s head above water so to speak! Here is the good crowd of leaders at the Conference. (Click on photo to see it larger)

Continue Reading

 Please go and support this fundraising event for EAB! If you can’t go why not get in the Christmas spirit and buy a ticket for a fiver to support the event anyway. Please contact medcraftnorth@sky.com or eabfinance@gmail.com . You can also donate online at
https://www.facebook.com/eabrazil

Continue Reading

The Bible study last Thursday was a real blessing as was the visit to preach at Princesa Isabel on Saturday. We also had excellent services yesterday in Patos and the Teixeira church in the mountains had a great anniversary weekend. PTL!


Today our churches start a 40 day read of the New Testament. Perhaps you would like to join us following the schedule below?

Continue Reading

On Saturday night I spent time out in the Green Pastures wilds, with my friend Pastor Fred from the Conceição Baptist church, with cameras and torches in the pitch black of night! It was great and I took some good photos of frogs like this on the edge of the lake:

I also nearly trod on this Coral snake:

There were lots of Tarantula spiders on the move and this one just got down its hole to escape from us before I could get a better photo:

Prior to this the Bible study went great on the Friday and last night’s service was great too with my friend Pastor Fred preaching a superb sermon. PTL! Now it’s down to a lot of administrative work for the Mission and preparing to preach at Princesa Isabel on Saturday and in Patos on Sunday.

Continue Reading

My dear Mum is 92 today! I have sent her an e-card and a video message. Mum just keeps on hanging on in there and we praise God for her long life in service to the Lord. (photo taken a year ago)

Continue Reading

I prepared my sermon (most of it) for the Sunday night in Patos on Saturday and at night Liz and I headed for a farm not far beyond Green Pastures where Liz spoke and I preached. It was a good meeting with between 50 and 60 present.


Following the service we called in at Green Pastures to pick up stacks of plates for the ‘Bean Feast’ (traditional Brazilian Feijoada dish) which the youth were doing for Sunday lunch in order to raise funds for their members to go to the Youth Conference next month in Campina Grande. Liz had insisted previously with the cook (Linda) to bring in more giant cooking pots for the event but was told it wasn’t necessary. However as we were entering Patos about 10pm Liz’s mobile rang… and yes it was the cook saying she needed the pots! So we dropped the plates off at the church and then had to turn round and drive back out to Green Pastures to get the cooking pots and drop them at the Patos church too! We got to bed at well gone midnight as a consequence.


Early on Sunday morning we had a phone call to say that one of our church members’ father had died aged 97 – and could I conduct the funeral at 4pm to which of course I agreed. So here I was tired out, had to finish off the preparation of my sermon for the evening service, needed to at least show my face and eat at the ‘Bean Feast’, then conduct a funeral prior to getting to church for the evening celebration at 6.30pm.


The funeral went off fine with a good crowd suporting. I led it from inside a tiny front room in the house alongside the open coffin, with a microfone linked to a vehicle with loudspeakers outside the house. It was extremely hot – especially for me in my full funeral suit and tie.


We just had time to get home after this for a quick cuppa and then charge to church where the service with live broadcast was held and was really blessed. I preached on ‘The Bible and Children’ as this coming Wednesday is Children’s Day in Brazil and in the service last night some of the kids did a lovely dance in which grandddaughters Alice and Bia took part. This Wednesday we will have a special event for children at the church in the afternoon.


Liz and I got home exhausted, but still managed to watch the USA presidential debate as we usually do.


This morning we awoke to church problems to solve and have zapped them (I hope) so we press on. Thanks for all your prayers and support – especially with the Brexit sterling crisis going from bad to worth. Difficult days for missions. Anyway here are the girls dancing before the Lord last night in church.

Continue Reading

The EAB InTouch magazine edition 86 is now back from the printers and going into the post this week. It gives a nice overview of the work in NE Brazil during the last few months so do read it and then pass it on to someone who might find it interesting. There are plenty of photos and short stories and reports – so it’s very readable. Thanks to Marian Rashleigh for all her input into this and to Dave Flowers for the layout and production work.


I went up to Jabre Peak with a policeman from the church yesterday to see the situation after the forest fire. I walked a lot and clambered over rocks like never before! I’m at least pleased that the firefighters managed to contain the fire more than I had thought they had – but the mess is still very sad.

I am now preparing for tonight’s Bible study.

Continue Reading

The disastrous forest fire at Jabre Peak finally seems to have been extinguished today, having started last Friday, but we will have to still be wary tomorrow before we can say anything definite. It does now sadly seem that some of the fires, if not all, were arson. Unbelievable!


Last Sunday’s baptism was great with Philip baptizing 7 and 2 others were received into fellowship. I preached on baptism too. It was a lovely service.

I interviewed a couple getting married last night. The wedding is this Friday and I have prepared the ceremony today.


I was asked to go and speak to a College about the environment today and that went well. In the morning I will have a coach load of 6 year olds (including granddaughter Bia) at Green Pastures to visit the Nature Reserve. At night I’ll be leading the Bible study.


On Saturday I’ll be preaching at Ibiara on Saturday and then preaching back in Patos on the Sunday.


On Monday it was grandson John David’s (photo below) 15th birthday so we had the traditional cake and pop drink late afternoon. Philip is down with the flu, his son Lucas has broken his arm and his other son Luis has Chicken-pox so it’s all happening! Your prayers are valued.

Continue Reading

A terrible bush fire developed yesterday afternoon in the special preservation area we have been fighting to save at the Jabre Peak – the highest point in our State. It was probably caused by poachers. The fire burnt all night and the firefighters are up there trying to extinguish remaining fires on the south side of the Peak with the north side almost completely burnt to the ground. It is very sad. I have been heavily involved in coordinating the bringing in of firefighters and police. I had discussions with the State Governor to ask for his support sending reinforcements and this has happened. Please pray for this tragic situation.

Philip’s 9 year old son Lucas has broken his arm and has gone to João Pessoa to get it put in plaster as it needs a special procedure to get the bone back in place under sedation. His baby brother Luis is covered in an as yet undiagnosed rash.

My virus just doesn’t go away. I keep going but do not feel right. I am now taking a 10-day course of antibiotics. So we value your prayers for one and all here. Tomorrow is the big baptism service!

Continue Reading

Our Pastor Frank Dyer School in Patos has just received a digital whiteboard (replaces old blackboards) from the Ministry of Education in recognition of our school’s exceptional performance once again this year! We praise God for this recognition. To God be the glory!

Continue Reading