Categoria: News

The youth camp at Green Pastures ended on Sunday night and it all was a real blessing. Our daughter Sacha preached on Sunday morning at the camp. It is great to see Green Pastures being so widely used in the work of the Lord.

In Patos Liz taught the adults’ class at our Sunday school as the regular teacher Margareth couldn’t be there. On Sunday night the service went very well despite all the youth being away at their camp. I led the service and preached on “The Presence of the Lord’ from Psalm 34:7. Sacha and Rogaciano led the worship very nicely. 

A young man from our Patos church called Elysson was held up at gun point yesterday. The thief robbed his motorbike, mobile phone and credit card and proceeded to buy goods until his credit card ran out of money. We feel very sorry for Elysson as he is such a hard working young man and very faithful in church. Please pray for him. We have just heard that the police have recovered his motorbike so that is good.

I have just eaten 2 mandioc root pancakes filled with scrambled egg. Delicious! 😋

The month of June is traditionally the month of eating lots of maize/corn on the cob dishes, as it is the time of harvest of this, as well as beans, in north-east Brazil. We are eating lots of Canjica (made from the juice from fresh maize plus milk and cinnamon), Pamonha (made from the roughage of maize plus milk), Quarenta (ground maize, shredded coconut and cinnamon) and maize cakes. It is all very tasty! 😋

Tomorrow we are restarting our building work on the Care Centre and ask you to please pray for this. The Care Centre is situated at the rear of the Patos church and will now have “Mum’s Kitchen” as part of it. “Mum’s Kitchen” (in honour of late missionary Ivy Dyer and funded by her son Sam and his wife Gerti) will be a modern kitchen to prepare food for our soup runs and to support evangelistic outreach via a coffee bar. The Care Centre will continue to house our dental surgery, food bank, deaf ministry and seniors’ young at heart ministry. All support for this building project please send to our EAB treasurer. 

Last night I preached at the Youth Camp at Green Pastures. I preached on “guarding the heart (Proverbs 4:23) in times of temptation”. It was a good service.

Liz and I spent Wednesday morning at the workshop for the EAB Action School teachers, which ended with a fellowship lunch. It was truly wonderful to hear all the verbal reports from our different schools. Everyone was asked to speak about what is going well and what needs to improve. It was an excellent time of sharing together and it all underlined how important this ministry to very poor children is. The teacher for our new school at Vazante was at the workshop and now returns home to start EAB’s latest school next month. The teacher to be at Juazeirinho (next in the queue for a school) also took part in the workshop and is praying very hard for support to become available so that a new school can start there. We need 100 pounds a month to make this new school possible, which will be 5 school sponsors @ 20 pounds a month. Please pray.

Tuesday night’s fancy dress “Bible Characters” went great amongst our youth. They really went to town with their costumes and our grandson Arthur and his girlfriend Bianca won the prize for best fancy dress with their versions of Joseph and Mary (pregnant). On Wednesday night the youth had a games night at the church and on Thursday night they took the mid-week service at church. It was lovely to see and hear many youngsters taking part in the service. There were between 70 and 80 people at the service which is pretty good for mid-week.

Liz popped out to Green Pastures on Monday afternoon to bring in 30 mattresses for the EAB Action Schools’ teachers workshop being held at our Pastor Frank Dyer School in Patos from Monday to Wednesday this week. This is the first such workshop we’ve run for our teachers since the pandemic. The mattresses are for the teachers to sleep on the floor at the school and they will need to be back at Green Pastures for the weekend’s youth camp.

Yesterday Liz and I took part in the teachers’ workshop from 8am to 2 pm, enjoying lunch with everyone too. The Action Schools’ coordination team, who are running the workshop, are Sacha, Gerlânia, João George and Jacilene. The whole morning yesterday was made up of excellent teaching to refresh everyone in the work they are doing. The teaching carried on in the afternoon and evening. Please pray for the superb work being done by all our teachers.

This week our Patos church youth are running a special youth week with extra activities every day from Monday through to next Sunday. On Monday night they all went to the cinema together and last night they held a sort of fancy dress “Bible Characters” party. Tonight they will have a night of games and tomorrow they will take the entire mid-week service. Then from Friday to Sunday they will be holding a camp at Green Pastures.

On Saturday nights our Patos church goes in different directions to serve the Lord. This Saturday Pastor Luiz Carlos led the deaf group at the church and I took a group to Green Pastures where I led the weekly service, Louisa and Tiago led the worship and recently graduated Bible College student Murilo preached the Gospel from Philippians 4:4-7. A group of the youth went to Passagem and took a service there, and the middle-aged group ‘Christians in Action’ went to the neighboring state of Rio Grande do Norte where they took the weekly service at Ipueira. A lot gets done on a Saturday night here.

Pastor Nemias at Flores in the State of Pernambuco is building a community hand-wash launderette after seeing how the local women were washing the clothes out in the boiling sun. They now will have a nicely shaded area with large sinks linked to a well.

Yesterday’s services went well. Sunday school, for all ages, in the morning had a reasonable number present and it is wonderful to see our children’s department doing such a great work. I led the service at night and Rafael preached on John 3:1-15. The service was really blessed.

Yesterday we held a day outing to Green Pastures for our seniors’ ‘Young at Heart’ group. They absolutely loved it! Liz spent the day with the group and said that all the seniors were profusely grateful for their day at our nature reserve. Sisters from the Patos church went too to cook them their lunch. It was a lovely day.

Last night we held a couples (married, engaged and courting) evening at the Patos church in commemoration of the ‘Dia dos Namorados’ (courting couples’ day) which here is Saint Anthony’s Day (our equivalent of St Valentine’s Day). I was the evening’s speaker and I spoke about marriage being forever. Everyone then had a meal together. There were 27 couples present and it was a very good evening.

Murilo César has now graduated from Bible College having obtained his degree. It is wonderful to see new young leaders being well trained for the work of the Lord. At Princesa Isabel we have 5 new leaders being trained: Jair, Rafael, Sebastião, Diorgenes and Amanda. Please pray for them.

Please pray too for our church at Juazeirinho (an hour and a quarter’s drive east of Patos) which is crying out for an EAB Action School to be started there amongst the very poor children of the borough where our church is located. Please pray that God will raise up 5 school sponsors @ 20 pounds a month so as to enable us to start this new school. We share Martin Luther’s vision that “beside every church there should be a school”.

 On Tuesday evening I travelled to the town of São Mamede (25 minutes by car north-east of Patos) to lead a street service together with the Patos men’s fellowship. We go there every fortnight and a small group of new converts is forming there. As I took my seat I noticed a snake under the chair! It was a Bothrops erytromelas which is a very venomous snake. We removed the snake and started the service. About 40 people gathered and it went very well. Chico, Segundo, Tiago, Paulo Silas, Rose, Flávio, Dodora and Dedé all took part and Rafael preached from Luke 7. One man came and spoke to me after the service and told me he had been very impacted by the Gospel.

Liz and I had a good long walk at Green Pastures and saw very close up a pair of Pigmy Nightjars. We also saw a flock of Crested Caracaras, which are a type of falcon, as well as a Striated Heron. We brought back two buckets of lemons.

Liz and I had a meeting with a couple whom I will be marrying next month called João Paulo and Juliana. They are a mature couple that have both come from previous marriages in which they had children. We discussed all the details of the wedding set for July 22nd.

Yesterday I had an intense day working with various pastors as is part of my work here. I had important discussions with pastors Lindon Carlos (Imaculada), Oseias (Itaporanga) and Naldinho (Belém). Please pray for these pastors.

Sunday’s services went well. There was a good number at the Sunday School in the morning and at night Sacha preached a brilliant sermon based on Deuteronomy 33:12. Many people were really touched by the message, after which both myself and Rafael prayed for people who requested prayer.

I have had discussions with Pastor Nezinho Abílio about Bible College students Malu, Dane and Clessinho in his area. It is good to see how these students are developing well. Please pray for them.

On Friday night 30 of our adolescents enjoyed an evening of healthy exercise at a Patos sports centre. It was lovely to see them enjoying themselves together and praying together too.

Last night I led the weekly service at Green Pastures and there was a good number present. Various people took part with prayers, songs and words: Rafael, Fred, Paulo Silas, Dodora, the women’s group, Isaque and Manoel. Marina and Lucas led the praise and Bible College student Rayla preached the Gospel. It was a lovely service.

Other services were held last night at Ipueira and Passagem and the youth and the deaf held their meetings too. Evidently at Ipueira sister Madá gave a very good word.

The month of June is usually the coolest month of the year in the interior of northeast Brazil. Today our lowest temperature in the middle of the night was 22 degrees centigrade and the highest temperature in the afternoon was 34 degrees. The rainy season has now ended. We might get an occasional shower in June. This year’s rainy season gave us just above average rainfall of 776 mm (just over 32 inches). The average annual rainfall in São Mamede County, where Green Pastures is, is 702 mm. 

I have just prepared a message for the married, engaged and courting couples evening meal event to be held at the Patos church next week.

Yesterday’s church outing to Green Pastures went well. Liz spent most of the day there with the folks whilst I got on with other things in Patos.

Last night’s Bible study went well with a good number present.

Preparations are under way for another youth camp to be held at Green Pastures between 23rd and 25th June which will have as its theme “Guarding the heart” (Proverbs 4:23). I will be speaking at the camp and Sacha will be speaking too. Please pray for this camp.

Please pray for a young man from the Patos church called Elysson who has had 3 of his aunts die in a week! Elysson is a sound controller in church. Please also pray for Gisane, who is the wife of our chief of the police Esaú, whose father died this week. Liz and I went to the wake.

I have decided to study some physics and have bought ‘The Physics Book’ to read. It is like going back to grammar school and learning all I didn’t learn then!

Tomorrow is a public holiday here and some folk from the church will be going to Green Pastures for the day. 

On the 16th of June our church will be holding a special couples’ evening meal to celebrate the equivalent of St. Valentine’s Day. I will be giving a devotional word to those present. The evening will be for married, engaged and courting couples.

I have just drawn up the up-to-date ACEV/EAB ministers’ list according to the assemblies of our General Conference. We now have 35 pastors, 18 ‘missionaries’ (women ministers. This is the way here that they sort of dodge the women’s ministers issue by not calling women pastors!) and 15 non-ordained church leaders. Please pray for our team total of 68 ministers of the Gospel.

On Saturday night the Patos church had no less than 5 activities. I led the service at Green Pastures and granddaughter Louisa preached the Gospel. It was good to see the folk there from the village of Picotes. It was a good service. Another service was led by Eduardo at Passagem and another at Ipueira was led by Dedé. There was also a fellowship group meeting of the deaf and a fellowship group meeting of the youth.

Please pray for our daughter Sacha as she studies theology at the ISBL Bible College. She will be preaching in Patos this coming Sunday. Sacha also leads the praise and worship group. She is also a teacher at the Cultura Inglesa English School.

Yesterday morning the children’s Sunday School had a very creative lesson about the parable of the Sower linked to environment day which is today. The children enjoyed sewing seeds and watering them which I am sure they will not forget. The entire ludic process of the lesson brought home to them the spiritual meaning of the parable.

I took the communion service in Patos last night. Louisa, Tiago, Marina and Fábio led the praise and worship and Rafael preached the Word of God. It was a good service.

It was a joy to see father and son making commitments to Christ this week at our Matureia church and school up in the mountains. Hitalo Gustavo is a pupil at our school and him and his father Joelson came to the Lord. Please pray for Hitalo Gustavo and Joelson that they will grow in God and become strong Christians.

Yesterday I went for a good walk at Green Pastures and saw a Neotropic Cormorant diving for fish on our lake. It soon flew off, splashing a lot, once it saw me. I brought 2 buckets of lemons back to Patos with me.

My sister Jean has kindly sent me a new book to read. It is ‘The Camden Murder’ by Mike Hollow, which will be the 7th book I have read in the ‘Blitz Detective’ series, that I am enjoying very much. I look forward to getting down to reading this book and helping Detective Inspector John Jago to bring the murderer to justice.

I was talking to our fireman Romildo after the midweek Bible study and he told me about the abundance of snakes in Patos at the moment. Romildo said that on every shift he does he gets 2 or 3 phone calls to go and remove snakes from people’s houses. Snakes are plentiful here out in the woods and bush, but they are not usually found indoors.

We have just brought home nearly 4 litres of honey from 2 wild swarms of bees at Green Pastures. This is enough honey to keep us going for ages! Our worker Francisco also had his share of the honey. 😋

Another drug addict is going to the rehab centre near João Pessoa this week. The man is from Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen). The previous man who went to rehab from this town is already impacting the place by the positive messages he is sending on social media. He is thrilled to be sober and feeling well and is telling everyone he wants to live at the rehab centre for ever!

I have written the annual resumé of the General Conference’s decisions and sent it to all our pastors and leaders.

EAB’s church at Juru is doing a great work with teenagers via football. Their under 15s team is in the Paraíba State Cup and have drawn a game with Princesa Isabel and won a game against Tavares 3 x 0. If they win their final match in the group stage they will qualify for the semi-final knock-out stage. Please pray that many young lads will come to know the Lord through this project.

This week’s Men’s Fellowship meeting went well despite only 7 of us being present. Chief of Police Esau led the meeting and assistant pastor Rafael brought the Biblical reflection from Psalm 88.

Liz has a heavy cold. Please pray for her.

Liz and I got up at 5:30 am on Friday and left home at 6:30 am headed for the EAB/ACEV General Conference at our Catolé church in Campina Grande. We took Gerlânia (Patos school’s headteacher) and Dedé (leader of our Ipueira church in Rio Grande do Norte State) with us in our car.

At 10 am we started the first of 3 meetings of the senior leaders committee and at 12 noon all our pastors and leaders had arrived for the opening fellowship lunch. After lunch we held our second senior leaders meeting followed by the first general assembly at 2:30 pm. At 6:30 pm we had our evening meal together and at 7:30 pm we started our second general assembly. Liz and I stayed at someone from the church’s house where we had breakfast on Saturday morning. The 3rd general assembly started at 8:30 am on Saturday and finished about 1 pm. We had lunch together and then the senior leaders had our 3rd and final meeting together. On Saturday night at 7:30 pm we held our Conference Celebration service. It was a night of electric praise and worship and Pastor Lindon Carlos (from our Imaculada church) brought a brilliant sermon entitled ‘It is time to take care of the church’. Then my book on the history of ACEV/EAB between 1938 and 2018 was officially launched. All the pastors and leaders were given a signed copy and after the service copies of the book were sold with me signing them.

In the general assemblies a wide variety of issues were discussed and debated. 3 new leaders were given probationary ministerial status: Matheus and Hortência (who now lead our Soledade church) and Naldinho (who leads our Belém village church in the County of Tavares). 2 further leaders were defined as candidates for probationary ministerial status next year: Vera (co-leader of the Belém church) and Fábio (who leads the Travessia and Fonseca churches). It was defined that Pastor Betinho will take on the leadership of our Conceição church as from July 1st, and that new leadership will be sought for the Ibiara church where Betinho had been pastor. Brother Ramos will now be the leader at our Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) church. A new church has come into being at Mata de Oitis which is 7 km from our Barra de Oitis church. At Mata de Oitis we already have 12 adult members. A youth leadership team has been elected with Pastor Matheus (from João Pessoa) the chairman. The leaders fellowship conference will be held in September at Green Pastures. Next year’s General Conference will be held in João Pessoa and next year’s 10-day special evangelistic outreach will be held in the town and villages of Tavares. It was said at the conference that it seems quite possible that we will soon be able to open a new school at Vazante. Also our Juazeirinho church requested the opening of a school to meet the need of extremely poor children there. …

We got back from the General Conference in Campina Grande at about midday yesterday. We managed to get in a bit of rest in the afternoon before going to the 6:30 pm Day of Pentecost Service which I led. The preacher was our Bible College student Murilo and his sermon on Pentecost was superb! He is in the final year of his 3 year course and it is so encouraging to see how well he is developing in God. Murilo is just 20 years old and a great help in the present and a great promise for the future. Please pray for Murilo.

During yesterday afternoon the husband of our sister Veronica died after a long illness with Alzheimer’s and other complications. The husband, Nelson, was not a member of our church. Then after the evening service our 88-year-old sister Maria Prata went to be with the Lord after a long period of dementia and other illnesses. These 2 deaths on the same day left us with 2 funerals to do today at the same time. So my assistant pastor Rafael did Nelson’s funeral and I did Maria Prata’s funeral. First of all Liz and I went to both wakes this morning. Maria Prata’s wake was at our church and Nelson’s was at his home. Maria Prata’s funeral service at the church went very well. Our daughter Sacha worked very hard overnight to prepare everything and lead the worship. Our son Philip brought a tribute to our sister via zoom from the UK. Liz also gave a tribute. Maria Prata’s children sang 2 songs in the service and her son gave a tribute.

Whilst we were away at the conference our grandson Arthur flew to Rio de Janeiro to attend a musical conference. Arthur never ceases to amaze us as he plans and carries out his travelling adventures. He has been round Europe twice. He saves up his wages and buys flight tickets when they are on special offer cheap.

Last night I travelled to the neighbouring town of São Mamede which is a 25 minute drive north-east of Patos. I went with the Men’s Fellowship and the service was led by the Chief of Police Esau. Those that also travelled were Caetano, Rebeca, Moises, Chico, Rafael, Tiago, Márcio and Fábio. The service was held in front of brother José and sister Maricó’s house. I sang a solo (If that isn’t love) and preached the parable of the Sower from Matthew 13. It was a lovely service.

We had a very good meeting with the new leaders of the adolescents Adriana and Segundo. They will now hold meetings on a Friday night and we pray that God will mightily bless them and use them. For a long time I have been concerned about the spiritual welfare of this age group as it is a critical period in a person’s life. Please pray for these meetings.

Liz has been to visit 88 year old Maria Prata in hospital in intensive care. Our sister in Christ has long been bed-ridden and is fed by a tube. She has now been intubated and we pray for the family at this difficult time.

I will not publish anything on this blog this Friday as we will be at our General Conference at Campina Grande. I will write again on Sunday or Monday. Please pray for the Conference.

On Saturday afternoon Liz went to another hen party! This time it was Marina’s party. She sings in the church worship group. It was organized as a surprise for Marina and all went off very well. Liz says there was a lovely spirit in the party and everyone had a lot of fun.

On Saturday night I led the weekly service at Green Pastures and I even led the praise and worship, playing the guitar too, as there was nobody else to do it. I hadn’t played the guitar for ages! The service was lovely with various people taking part like Fred, Paulo Silas, Dodora, Júlio and Rebeca. Bible College student Murilo brought the message from Romans 5.

I have had my hair cut in time for the general conference. I hope you like it! 👦

Sunday went off very well. The Sunday school in the morning was fairly well attended and the service in the evening saw the church full. The worship, led by our daughter Sacha, was especially blessed. You can always watch our Sunday night services on Facebook or YouTube starting at 10:30 pm (BST).

This Saturday morning our Patos school children, together with various members of our church including Liz, marched through the streets of the borough of Jatobá where the school is situated. The march was in accordance with the national day to combat abuse and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. Posters were placed in the shops of the borough giving a number to ring for people who knew of such abuse.

Thursday’s Bible study went off well with about 25 people present. We continued in the book of Hosea.

I have been signing all the books of EAB/ACEV history which will be given to all our pastors at the general conference to be held next week in Campina Grande. The official launch of the book will be at the end of the conference service on Saturday night (27th).

This week’s men’s fellowship meeting only had 7 of us present but it was a good time together around God’s Word. I led the gathering and Dedé led the Bible reflection in Psalm 130.

I have finished reading another book called ‘Bulldozing with the Bible in Brazil’ by A. Tipple. This is an old Latin Link book from 1965 telling about missionary experiences in south and central Brazil.

Yesterday Liz and I went to visit Sister Socorro Help from the Patos church, who is recovering from a severe attack of asthma. We sang some hymns for her, read the Bible and prayed with her. Please pray for her. Her name is ‘Socorro Help’. Socorro means help, and over 20 years ago I started calling her name in both English and Portuguese and it stuck, with everyone here following my lead!

This week I went to the Doctor’s for a check up and all is fine with a complete all clear. Praise the Lord!

Liz went to the women’s fellowship meeting last night. There were 14 women present.

After the women’s meeting Liz and I went to a wake at 10 pm in the borough of Frango in north Patos. The mother of brother Paulo from the ex-landless settlement had died aged 98. She had 21 children with her first when 13 years old. She had never been to a doctor in her life. The family couldn’t tell us how many grandchildren and great grandchildren she had as they had lost count. They said she had at least 79 grandchildren!

On Sunday the father of our pastor up in the mountains at Teixeira, Pastor Maésio, died aged 80 having had a stroke. His father lived on the northern side of Patos and yesterday Liz and I went to the wake. It was interesting to see how many old students of the Patos Bible College were there. Maésio’s father was a strong Christian and is surely with the Lord.

I led Sunday night’s service in Patos which was a special Mother’s Day service, with the church full to capacity. The children took part with a special slot for their mums and Dilma and Alice (granddaughter) brought a beautiful poem. I preached the Word of God.

Our annual General Conference will be held next week (26th & 27th) in Campina Grande. Three ministers are due to be given probationary ministerial status. The senior leadership team will meet first at 10 am on Friday, 26th. Then there will be 4 general assemblies on the afternoon and evening of the 26th, and on the morning and afternoon of the 27th, with 80 pastors and delegates present. On the Saturday evening the conference celebration service will be held which I will lead and at which Pastor Lindon Carlos will preach. At the end of this service the official launch of my book about the history of the work will take place. Please pray for the conference.

Today is Mother’s Day in Brazil and we will have special tributes to mothers in our service this evening which I will be both leading and preaching.

Yesterday we held a special thanksgiving service and meal for the mothers of our Patos school to which 79 mothers went. What an opportunity for the Gospel! Our daughter Sacha led the praise and Claudia brought the message. Liz was involved with the giving of gifts to the mums. The meal served to all present was strogonoff and rice. 

Parallel to this I was to have taken the weekly service at Green Pastures but this ended up as a case of ‘rain stopped pray’. It rained 50 mm (just over two inches) last night which was wonderful.

On Friday afternoon (evening in the UK) I took part online in the EAB Board of Trustees meeting held at West Wellow. It was an excellent meeting.

I have just eaten a guava. Delicious! 😋

On Wednesday evening we held an excellent meeting of coordinators of our EAB Action schools to discuss plans, especially for the Patos School. We decided to develop new activities to cater for a group of 42 older students, between the ages of 9 and 14, who remain linked to our school. Some of this group show real interest in the Gospel. We have decided to promote such activities as football, mathematics workshops (to help them with their on-going school work), judo, ballet, chess and music. Some of these activities are planned to be started as from the second half of this year. Please pray that the adolescents involved in this initiative might come to know the Lord as their saviour. 

I have had discussions with Pastor Hamilton (Campina Grande) and Pastor Matheus (João Pessoa).

There were only about 25 of us in the mid-week Bible study last night in the book of Hosea, but it was good to spend time together around the Word of God.  

On Monday Liz and I had a good meeting with our youth leaders Ray, Rayla and Rafael. The main topic in the meeting was to define details of next month’s special youth programme which will coincide with the St John’s festival in Patos from June 19 to 25. The first days will be held in the church and the latter days will be held at Green Pastures.

Later on Monday Liz had a difficult trouble shooting meeting with two people from our church. I can’t give names or details as it entailed a very delicate issue. Liz arrived home quite exhausted.

I played and beat Felipe (grandson) and Tiago (granddaughter Louisa’s husband) at Chess. I am so far unbeaten in all the family games.

QPR lost their last game of the season at home to Bristol City 2 x 0. This left us in 20th place in the Championship which was 6 points and 2 places above the relegation zone. I hope the new manager can now build a new and better team for next season. 

Last night our Men’s Fellowship took a street service in the neighbouring town of São Mamede. Chief of the Police Esau led the service, Rafael preached the Gospel and Segundo and Tiago led the praise. Maricó and José were received into fellowship as church members. It was a good service.

On Saturday night Liz and I went to a meal held by Gideons International for the pastors of Patos. It was a lovely evening with good fellowship. The Gideons distribute New Testaments and Bibles in hotels, hospitals etc. Especially nice at the meal was to have lovely fellowship with Davi Amaral who is part of the Gideons. Davi was our bank manager some years ago in Patos, but now he is retired in João Pessoa and we had never more seen him. We have long been good friends.

Prior to this we watched the Coronation on BBC World TV in the morning and we watched the Coronation Prom in the afternoon direct from the Albert Hall. The All Souls orchestra and choir were quite outstanding as was the whole programme. 

Last night I preached in Patos. I did an exposition of Psalm 84. It was a lovely service. It was great to see a young couple there called Rogério and Samana with their little son. This couple made a commitment to Christ just a couple of weeks ago. They were clearly enthused in the praise and worship last night. Please pray for this couple.

Liz and I have had an excellent meeting with our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos and the sign language interpreter Geralda. The main topic of the meeting was the 4th EAB/ACEV Deaf Conference to be held on the 14th and 15th of July. These annual conferences were halted by the Covid pandemic but now return. On the Friday night (14th) there will be a debate and exchange of ideas for the deaf and sign language interpreters. On the Saturday (15th) morning there will be a workshop for the deaf and interpreters. At night the deaf will lead the service and preach the Gospel with all of us present. It is always a very moving evening. Please pray for Luiz Carlos and the deaf fellowship. 

Please also pray for our sign language interpreters course which is on every Friday evening. At the moment we have 22 people doing the course, including 7 children.

This week’s Young at Heart morning went very well indeed. So did the mid-week Bible study in which we went into chapter 9 of the book of Hosea. There were about 30 of us there.

We switched on the BBC World Service on the TV at 6 am this morning and have been watching the Coronation festivities ever since.

Another young man, dependent on drugs, has been taken to the rehab centre in Santa Rita near João Pessoa this week. The man is from Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen). Please pray for this man.

This week’s Men’s Fellowship meeting had 12 present and was good. We meditated together on Psalm 88 and had a nice time of prayer.

Liz and I have had a good meeting with assistant pastor Rafael about different people who are wanting to become members of our Patos church. It was a good positive meeting. 

I have also had fruitful discussions with our social worker Marah Danielle about EAB’s Action Child schools. We are planning to have a further training course for our teachers to keep their work up to scratch.

It rained 37 mm (just over one and a half inches) last night at Green Pastures. This was a good rain for the month of May!

Sunday School here takes place at 9:30 am on Sunday mornings and is for all ages from 1 to 101. There are classes for children, a discipleship class for those preparing for baptism, a youth class and an adult class. This Sunday it went off very well.

I led the service on Sunday night and assistant pastor Rafael preached from John 21. Last week was Rafael’s 33rd birthday so the church gave him a gift during the service.

I have been having discussions with Pastor Sílvio at Portelo and it has been decided that Pastor Davi and his wife Auzenir will now work alongside Sílvio. Davi and Auzenir had previously been attempting to establish a new work at Poçinhos, but that didn’t work out.

This Saturday the All Souls orchestra and choir will be presenting the Coronation Prom – King of Kings at the Royal Albert Hall at 7 pm UK time. The event is a sell out which will have 5,000 people present, but it will be available on YouTube live and free. We will be watching it and we hope you will too.  allsoulsmusic.org We know that the event will be strongly evangelistic. All Souls was John Stott’s church, which maintains a fantastic Gospel witness constantly, in the centre of London.

Today is our granddaughter Amanda’s 8th birthday.

Please pray for our son Philip, his wife Gylmara and their son Lucas. Gylmara and Lucas have tested positive for Covid today and Philip has identical symptoms and will probably test positive tomorrow.

 On Friday afternoon Liz and I went for a nice walk at Green Pastures for about 3 km. We came back with a bucket full of Barbadan cherries (high in vitamin C and very good for making fruit juice), half a bucket of lemons (more vitamin C and fruit juice), half a bucket of Cajarana (a yellow cherry-like fruit), a few custard apples, a tub of curd and 2 litres of fresh milk from a neighbour’s cow.

Yesterday our Patos youth spent the day at Green Pastures where they had a day of fun and fellowship with volleyball, table tennis, swimming etc. They ended the day in the weekly Green Pastures service which went very well, although Liz and I thought the youngsters looked pretty tired after a day in the hot sun. Local folk Nega, Manoel and Rose took part in the service. It was especially good to hear Manoel’s testimony once again, of how he was converted as a result of me giving him a lift when he was drunk out on a country track many years ago. I took him home and the love of God shown to him greatly impacted his life. Who preached in the service was Rayla, who is a young lawyer who is now doing a course in theology.

This week our daughters asked me to present the Cambridge University certificates at their English school. 40 of their students passed the Cambridge external exams. It was a pleasure to support our 3 girls, Deborah, Lynn and Sacha. The school is our daughters’ source of income.

Yesterday QPR did it again! 😀 They beat Stoke at Stoke 1 x 0 and in doing so they guaranteed that they will not be relegated from the Championship. Phew!

Last night we held our weekly little service at our Patos school. 4 parents and a few children come along regularly. We are slowly and steadily sowing the seed of God’s Word and look to the Lord for much fruit. Please pray.

I have read a small book on Chess by Craig Medina via Kindle and have played and won two more matches of chess.

Last night it was our granddaughter Amanda’s 8th birthday party which we went to. Amanda is Lynn and Hutan’s daughter. Her birthday is actually on May 2nd but her best friend Sofia is going away before then so Amanda insisted on having her party with Sofia present!

After the birthday party I went to church for the Bible study which Rafael was giving. All went very well. There was a good number present.

At the weekend the chairman of the EAB Board of Trustees, Roy Dyer, ran the London marathon in 3 hours, 56 minutes and 36 seconds amidst a lot of heavy rain. Well done Roy! Just to remind you: a marathon is 26.2 miles! This I believe means Roy averaged about 9 minutes for each mile.

I am in the middle of trying to sort out a leadership problem at our Ibiara and Conceição churches where Pastor Betinho is the pastor. Both churches are small so for the last 3 years Betinho has pastored both churches as they are only 15 minutes apart by car. However we now learn that neither church is happy with the arrangement. I am now in the process of discussing this with our senior leadership team. Please pray.

The EAB magazine InTouch#99 is now available online on the EAB website at www.eabrazil.org. The hard paper copy should reach you by post next week if you are on our mailing list. If you do not receive a copy and would like one then please do let us know. We can also supply extra copies if needed.

There were nine of us in the Men’s Fellowship meeting last night. Chief of the Police Esaú brought the meditation about the struggle between flesh and Spirit in the life of the Christian. Ricardo led the meeting.

On Saturday QPR went to Burnley to play the league leaders. QPR are in danger of relegation so the game was viewed with much trepidation. In the match Burnley had 84% of control of the ball. They hit the QPR bar, had a ball headed off the QPR goal line and another ball was ruled not to be their goal by goal line technology. Despite all this pressure QPR miraculously won the game 2 x 1. I am very happy! 😀

On Saturday night I went to Green Pastures to lead what was an excellent service. A good little crowd gathered and Liz led the prayer. Local farming people Fred, Dodora, Sabrina and Manoel took part with songs and words of testimony. Louisa led the worship with her husband Tiago on guitar. Then it was most encouraging to hear a wonderful sermon by Bible College student Murilo. It was great! He preached on Colossians 3:1-4 and I have asked him to repeat the sermon the next time he preaches in Patos. Parallel to the sermon Rebeca taught the children which was very good.

On Saturday night, in the UK, Cadnam Methodist church held their annual musical concert to raise support for EAB. I hear that it went very well with a full church, and raised over 1,500 pounds. I was especially pleased to know that our grandson Luis, aged 6, sang beautifully and that our son Philip did some guitar solos. Our sincerest thanks go to all at the church, especially to Howard & Hillary Babey who are the main organizers of the concert.

I have had a visit in my office from Pastor Cesário Júnior from João Pessoa, who came to get a copy of my book about the history of EAB/ACEV. Cesário is 59 today and I baptized him when he was 15. It is always a joy to see the fruit of our labours.

I led the service in Patos last night and Pastor Ângelo from Soledade preached the Word on thanksgiving. It was a good service with a full church.  

This week I had a very important meeting with Professor Dr. Mário Leitão who is an experienced meteorologist from the university in Petrolina in Pernambuco State. He visited Green Pastures and loved it and he is to donate us a quality rain measuring gauge to replace the one we have. He also will later on set up a professional online weather monitoring centre at Green Pastures to monitor temperature, humidity, and rainfall. This will mean you will be able to follow our weather situation always via the internet.

Liz says there were nine ladies at the Women’s Fellowship this week. Liz enjoyed the meeting. The group is led by Ana Paula.

I have read a further small book called ‘New Frontiersmen of Brazil’ by Harry Bacon, of the Evangelical Union of South America which I think is today called Latin Link. The book, published in 1964, tells of his experiences in and linked to Bible Colleges in south and central Brazil. 

I have played and won four more games of chess. I played Felipe twice, which takes us up to 14 x 0 in our series. I also played his partner Vivi for the first time and won both games.

We have taken a further drug addict to the rehabilitation centre in João Pessoa this week. Please pray. He is from the town of Soledade. 

I have had discussions with Sister Sandra Nogueira who leads our Água Grande church in the County of Santana de Mangueira. 

I have finished reading the book called ‘The Browns in Brazil’ by Stuart E. McNair. It is fiction written in 1942 describing central Brazil around 1912. This was another book I inherited from Liz’s late father Pastor Frank Dyer. I have discovered via Google that Stuart E. McNair was part of the Plymouth Brethren and was born in Brighton in 1867 and died in Brazil in 1959.

There were only nine of us in the Men’s Fellowship this week, but it went well. We reflected together on the Parable of the Net in Matthew 13:47-52. The initial meditation was led by Chico.

I have had an excellent meeting in my office with Pastor Oseias and his wife Lucia from our Itaporanga church, and with Ramos and Tica who lead our Curral Velho church. We were encouraged by their report of a flourishing new church plant in their region at Mata de Oitis. We also received the request for a new Action Child School at Vazante. The problem is that we would need another 4 sponsors, @ 20 pounds a month, to make this possible, as we are stretched to the limit at the moment. 

Over the last few days we have had a further 59 mm (about 2 and a half inches) of rain, but we still need a lot more rain this month to get to a good total for the rainy season.

I have just proof read edition number 99 of the EAB magazine ‘InTouch’, which is nearly ready to go to the printers, and which everyone will receive by post in early May. We are grateful to Marian Rashleigh for all the work she does editing and posting, and to Dave Flowers for the layout work. I think it is quite amazing how EAB manages to publish two editions of InTouch a year with a great variety of topics. In this edition there are 15 topics and we don’t spend money on journalists and professional photographers like big organizations like Tearfund do.

You can see on mine and EAB’s Facebook pages a short video with the highlights of the Men’s Retreat held at Green Pastures at the weekend. It was a great blessing and three men committed their lives to Christ!

I led Sunday night’s service in Patos when we had a visit from the Gideons International who distribute New Testaments in hotels, hospitals etc.

I was at Green Pastures yesterday attending our Campina Grande – Catolé’s men’s retreat for which 115 men have gathered. We have 91 beds so the rest sleep in hammocks or mattresses on the floor. Some travelled to Green Pastures in cars whilst others went in a coach which the church rented for the weekend. It rained 12 mm (half an inch) whilst I was there. In the service in progress whilst I was there Brother Fabrício was the speaker and it was good. I also had a good meeting whilst there with the leader Pastor Wostenes. He is the vice-chairman of ACEV.

Last night we went to the special youth service held in the Patos church which was very good. There was poetry, choreography, drama, singing and preaching. The church was full. The theme of the service was: ‘Jesus is the light of the World’.

This week our projects team were at the Batinga dos Feitosa Community in Tavares County distributing hair sheep as part of EAB’s 4-Legs Project. The community preferred to have sheep rather than goats. 7 females and 1 male were distributed to extremely poor people. Thank you for supporting this project.

Liz is out at the moment distributing Feijoada (stewed black beans and pork). Our Patos church folk managed to sell all 300 portions and this goes towards our building project.

Liz is very busy this week coordinating the cooking of ‘Feijoada’ at the weekend for 300 people! ‘Feijoada’ is a traditional Brazilian dish of stewed black beans and pork. The ‘Feijoada’ will be cooked by the ladies of the Patos church and will raise funds for the revamp of our Care Centre. Each portion, sufficient for one person, will cost one pound sixty-six pence. The ingredients for the ‘Feijoada’ were funded by an EAB supporter so all the income will go to our building project.

Our projects team leaders Lindon Carlos and Marah Danielle have been at Barra de Oitis this week monitoring the building of two toilet/shower units for very poor families. They found one toilet/shower unit completed and in use and the other half-way constructed. Marilene, who is the mother at the house where the unit is already in use, is especially happy as with the unit comes a large external sink for hand washing clothes. She is especially happy as she earns extra cash by washing people’s clothes.

On Wednesday night another Gospel service was held at our Patos school and the Women’s Fellowship had a good meeting in the church.

I have finished reading a book by Maya Angelou called ‘I know why the caged bird sings’. This very good autobiography tells of her origins in Stamps, Arkansas, USA as a poor, black girl, up to the birth of her son in California as a teenager. I read this book on Kindle.

Last night’s Bible study was in Hosea chapter 8. There were about 25 of us there, which was lower in number than usual as many of our people are down with a virus. Nevertheless it was a blessed service.  

The Cadnam Methodist Church will be holding another concert, in aid of EAB, on Saturday, April 22nd at 7 pm. Tickets cost 10 pounds. If you live in Southampton or the New Forest area then please do support the event. The address is Cadnam Methodist Church, Old Romsey Road, Cadnam, Southampton. SO40 2NP. Phone 01794 323279 to book your tickets or write to jane.pelletier@gmail.com 

Easter Sunday started at 8 am with a fellowship breakfast in our Patos church to which a good crowd came. We all ate breakfast together and after this we sang some resurrection hymns followed by a short Bible reflection by assistant pastor Rafael. It was a lovely morning.

At night I led the resurrection celebration and I preached on ‘Jesus destroyed death’ (2 Timothy 1:10). There also was special singing by a  group together with a choreography.

Over the Easter weekend our Soledade and Campina Grande – Presidente Médici churches joined together for a blessed retreat around the theme of the ‘Redeemed Family’. Our João Pessoa – Cidade Verde church also held an Easter retreat.

I forgot to mention that on Saturday morning, on our Easter break at Green Pastures, Liz organized a ‘hunt the Easter eggs’ trail. She got up at 5:30 am and hid the eggs all over the place. Everyone had great fun hunting and eating when they got up!

For many years we have held a family break over the Easter period at Green Pastures. We went out there on Wednesday evening and have just come back to Patos on Saturday evening. We were joined by our children and their families (apart from Philip and family who are in England) plus Liz’s sister Esther, her children Sabrina (and family) and Frank Bradley. We had a lovely relaxing time together.

I had plenty of time to read. I read ‘Brazilian Adventures’ published in 1949 by the Central Brazil Mission of the Presbyterian Church of the USA. It contains 12 articles written by their missionaries. This small book used to belong to my late father-in-law Frank Dyer. It was interesting to see how they saw things in Brazil back in the 1940s.

Then I went on to read ‘Digging Ditches’ by Helen Roseveare who was a missionary for many years in the Republic of Congo. The book was recommended to me by Pastor Michael Rollo (Larbert, Scotland). The book tells about the author’s international ministry after she left the Republic of Congo. The book is both challenging and a blessing. I read the book via Kindle.

I also played some chess over the past days. I played 3 matches with my 25-year-old grandson Felipe and am now 12 x 0 up in our series. I also played and won two matches with my grandson John David who is studying to be a medical doctor at university in João Pessoa.

I went for two nice long walks whilst at Green Pastures. I saw/heard and photographed a wide variety of wildlife. I saw Foxes, Iguanas, White Tipped Dove, Picui Ground-Dove, Guira Cuckoo, Greater Ani, Smooth-billed Ani, Dark-billed Cuckoo, Pigmy Nightjar, Tropical Screech Owl, Burrowing Owl, Gray-necked Wood-rail, Common Gallinule, Roadside Hawk, Pigmy Owl, Ringed Kingfisher, Spot-backed Puffbird, Green-barred Woodpecker, Red-legged Seriema, Yellow-breasted Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee, Southern Wren, Rufous-bellied Thrush, Chopi Blackbird, Blue-black Grassquit, White-throated Seedeater, Red-cowled Cardinal, and a Chalk-browed Mocking Bird.  

I have received a very encouraging email from a 50 year old man I do now know. He tells me that he committed his life to Christ as a result of hearing me speak when he was 7. He is now in the process of changing jobs and will be doing a degree in theology to become a school teacher.

I have had important discussions with pastors Hamilton, Betinho and Davi. Please pray for all our pastors.

QPR go from bad to worse losing all their games! We are now in grave danger of being relegated to division one which is in fact the third division. Oh dear! 😕

I have just read a small book called ‘The Bible in Brazil’ by C. H. Morris. It was published in 1954 by the British and Foreign Bible Society. It cost one shilling and sixpence! The book gives a good resumé of the origins of the Bible in Portuguese and in Brazil. It tells too of the founding of the Brazilian Bible Society in 1948.

The week’s Men’s Fellowship meeting only had 7 present as it rained, which kept a lot away. Nevertheless we reflected on Psalm 137.

Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world and is 65 times the size of England. It has a coastline of 3,700 miles on the southern Atlantic and is nearly 2,500 miles wide at its widest point. It has a land mass of over three million two hundred thousand square miles.

I both led the service and preached in the main service of Palm Sunday. It was an extremely blessed service.

I have had a blood test to check my sodium and potassium levels (which were very low when I was ill) and praise God they are both perfect.

Please keep praying for rain for us. In March we had 278 mm (eleven and a half inches) which takes us up to a total of 519 mm (twenty one and a half inches) for the year. As our target is 40 inches we still need a lot of rain this month as April is the final main rain month here. Some places have had a lot more rain than us. The Matureia Mayor told me on Saturday that their town doesn’t have a drop of water. They are shipping water into the town from Água Branca by water tanker about an hour away by road.

Our family will have our usual Easter break this week at Green Pastures. We will sleep there from Wednesday night and will come back to Patos on Saturday night. We will have the usual Easter egg hunt on the Saturday. On Sunday we will have the resurrection Sunday church fellowship breakfast at 8 am and the main service will be at night when I will both lead and preach. 

Late yesterday afternoon Liz and I drove up the Teixeira mountain to Matureia which takes just over an hour by car. Matureia is the highest town in the State of Paraiba. We had to avoid rocks which had fallen on the road on the way, as well as a broken down lorry.

We went to the EAB/ACEV church there for the 17th anniversary service of the Action Child School which is going superbly well. We arrived 20 minutes early for the 6 pm service and found the church already packed out with crowds ready for the service on the outside as well because there was not enough room inside. We were received by Pastor Renilson and his wife Getiane who are doing a wonderful job in the church and school. Our school there has grown from nothing in 2006 to 270 children now. The Mayor and various town councilors were there for the service. Our school is having a great impact on the town.

The service was electric. The children with their mums sang with great gusto. I spoke to them too. Getiane led the service as she is the school’s head teacher. Everyone was served hot dogs after the service. Thank you for your support for EAB’s Action Child Schools. You have no idea what an impact they have on so many children’s and families’ lives. For just 20 pounds a month you can support our 18 Action Child Schools.

On Friday night Liz and I went to the Married Couples’ Fellowship meeting to which 14 couples gathered. It was very good and dealt with the topic of how to deal with pride in relationships. After the meeting there was a lovely time of fellowship around a table full of food as everyone had taken something.

After the meeting we went to the wake of Mid-wife Neves who died aged 87. She was the midwife for our children Lynn, Sacha and Philip.

Today is Palm Sunday and I will be preaching at tonight’s service in Patos.   

This week’s Men’s Fellowship meeting saw 13 of us gather for a lovely time of fellowship around the word of God. Teacher Claudivan led the meeting, Tiago and Fábio led the singing and Colonel Esaú brought an excellent well-prepared message on not yielding to temptation.

Our aged sister Maria Prata (in her 80s) has been in hospital to replace her feeding tube which became blocked. She is faithfully looked after at home by her daughter Vasti. Maria is very frail and bedridden.  Please pray for Maria and Vasti. 

I have finished reading another book called ‘Through Brazilian Junglelands with the Book’ by F. C. Glass. This is a very old book. The date it was published is not given but from the book’s content I think it was published at around the time of World War II. It tells the story of work which the author did with the Bible Society. Of special interest to us is the pioneer work between 1929 and 1931 which he did selling Bibles, New Testaments and John’s Gospels in three towns where EAB now has churches: Tavares, Princesa Isabel and Flores. This means that Frederick Glass was about 10 years ahead of EAB founder Albert Mundy. It is quite amazing how God prepares the way with his word. The book was a blessing to me.

Liz and I have been to the village of Campo Comprido which is 8 km outside of Patos on an earth road. We went there to visit a sister from our Patos church called Vanessa. She prepared a cake and Cashew  juice for us as she was so happy we went there. We had a nice chat with her as well as a nice time of prayer. 

16 people were baptized at the weekend at our second church in Campina Grande in the borough of Presidente Médici. Pastor Hamilton is the leader there and is doing a great job. 4 people who had come to watch the baptism ended up committing their lives to Christ! One person was also received into fellowship in the service.

I have been in contact with all the EAB/ACEV pastors and leaders in preparation for our General Conference in two months’ time at Campina Grande.

I have had good talks with pastors Manoel Oliveira Filho (João Pessoa), Jânio and Araújo (Campina Grande), and Betinho (Ibiara & Conceição) as well as the leader of our Água Grande church, Sandra Nogueira. 

I have played three more games of chess with my grandson Felipe and won all three. This puts me 9 x 0 up in our series.

We have had a meeting with a man called Belsan and his wife Cristina who are about to join our Patos church. They left another church because the pastor was kicking out people who refused to vote for ex-president Bolsonaro in last October’s election! They left before they would have been expelled and because they rightly feel it is wrong for churches to take sides in party politics.

 On Saturday Liz and I drove to Campina Grande for the wedding of Thyago and Letícia from our first church in that city. Letícia is the youngest daughter of Pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice. The wedding was to be at 3 pm but in fact started at 3:48 pm. We had an early lunch in Patos and arrived there at 2:10 pm before virtually anybody else! The journey only took 2 and a half hours whereas it can take 3 hours or more when there is traffic.

Our pet turkey at Green Pastures has been killed by a wild animal. This was probably caused by a wild Jaguarundi cat or a fox. Liz and I went for a walk at Green Pastures where we saw a Guira Cuckoo which flew alongside us, a Burrowing Owl and a Rufous-bellied Thrush nesting in the same place it nested last year.

I led the main service of the week last night in the Patos church. The church was again full to capacity. Pastor Rafael preached and Sacha led the praise and worship. At the end a young couple who are to get married in July, called João Paulo and Juliana, expressed their desire to be baptized. It was a lovely service.

I continue to do regular physical exercises which do me a lot of good. It develops one’s muscles and balance. We also walk twice a week at Green Pastures. I am much better in my health and thank all who pray for us. It is so good to be back to normal in health and strength.

A serious problem that we have in Patos is that of stray dogs – hundreds of stray dogs! Unfortunately the authorities do nothing about them. Last night a young man from our church was injured on his motorbike when swerving to miss dogs. He broke his wrist and has 2 deep cuts in his arm and foot which were stitched up. Please pray for Jeziel who is a young father of two boys and is married to Novinha.

Another prayer request is for little 7-year-old Anabelly from our Passagem church who has had surgery for an appendicitis in Patos. The operation was left late and the appendix had burst so there is a considerable risk of infection.

I took part in an important meeting yesterday with our projects’ team of pastors Lindon Carlos, Wostenes, Robério and Gersé plus Marah Danielle and Eduardo. It was very good.

I have played more chess with my 25 year old grandson Felipe and I am 6 x 0 up in our series. There’s life in the old dog yet!

We have had another 104 mm (4.3 inches) of rain so that is good. Thank you for praying. We need much more between this month and next. 

Today is our eldest daughter Deborah’s birthday.

For over a week now violence, shootings, murders, bus and car torchings, public building burnings etc. have overshadowed the next State north of us called Rio Grande do Norte. We have one church in that state in the town of Ipueira. The riots and violence are being ordered by organized crime syndicates inside the jails. The prisoners are protesting about their bad prison conditions. Please pray.

I have been to the wake of 92 year old Maria Barbosa who died on Monday. She was our granddaughters’ Alice and Bia’s paternal great grandmother.

I led Sunday’s main service and our third-year Bible College student, Murilo Cézar, preached the Gospel from John 1:1-14. He was excellent.

I have prepared a new sermon on Psalm 84.

Some of you have informed me that a final single party of a bride-to-be is called in English a hen party! Thank you for completing my education. I understand that in the case of the groom-to-be it would be a stag party, but I have never heard of them here.

I enjoyed the Men’s Fellowship meeting last night. There were 14 present including the Chief of Patos Police Esaú who is the leader. We reflected together on Psalm 13.

President Lula is going to Santa Luzia today which is 42 km east of Patos. He is going to inaugurate the electricity generating wind farm which has been constructed in the mountains there.

I have had meetings with Pastor Oseias from Itaporanga.  

We have just selected two further families to take part in EAB’s Market Garden project. This project seeks to help simple poor rural folk with their attempt to make a living from planting and growing lettuce, coriander, tomatoes, beetroot, carrots, fruit trees etc. We seek out families who need technical help to improve their work and who need equipment (wheel barrow, shovel, hoe, watering cans, water tank etc.) to improve their income. The project helps people help themselves and shows the love of God for them in the process. The project is always church based through contacts with our churches and pastors. The following two families have been selected:

1. Rones Lúcio da Silva and his wife Amanda Raiane Barbosa Cordeiro. This young couple are 22 years old. They do not have children yet. They live at Macambira dos Lúcios Community in Tavares County in the State of Paraíba. This is where we dug and equipped a well last year. This couple live off a government benefit of 100 pounds a month.

2. Elder Mariano da Silva (35 years old), his wife Maria Aparecida Ferreira de Lima (28 years old) and their two boys Wendel (aged 6) and Wallace (aged 18 months). They live at Maxixeiro Community in Santana de Mangueira County in the State of Paraíba. This family also lives off a government benefit of 100 pounds a month.

The EAB/ACEV church at Soledade has just celebrated its 30th anniversary and is in a good spiritual state. The new leader there, Matheus, is doing a great job and will be a candidate for probationary ministry status at the ACEV General Conference in May. His wife, Hortência, will be a candidate as a missionária. Both Matheus and Hortência have degrees in theology. Matheus also has a Master’s degree in physics. The church was full to capacity for their anniversary service.

Thank you very much if you prayed for us for rain. I am glad to tell you that last night we had the best rainfall so far this rainy season with 62 mm (just over two and a half inches). We also had another 36 mm during last week so this means that last week we had a total of 98 mm (four inches). Please do not stop praying as we still need a lot more rain!

Last night the usual Saturday service at Green Pastures was cancelled owing to the rain and resultant mud. I was all ready to go and take the service when down came the rain.

There were 35 in the Bible study this week. I had a good meeting with Dedé at the end of the service. Dedé is the leader of our “Christian in Action” group which mainly involves middle-aged people in the work of the Gospel.

We have taken a young man from Imaculada to the drugs/drink rehabilitation centre in João Pessoa. Please pray for this man who has been addicted to booze for a long time and now has sought help to break free. In this process let us pray that he might commit his life to God.

Termites have attacked our house devouring wooden furniture. We have had to rip out draws and shelves from the room that used to be Liz’s Mum’s room.

Water supply has been restored to our house in Patos. Thank you for praying.

Please pray for QPR! We lost 6 x 1 at Blackpool midweek and we lost 1 x 0 at home to Birmingham yesterday. We are now in serious danger of being relegated to the third division (League One).