Categoria: News

EAB’s 4-Legs Project distributed goats and sheep yesterday in a journey of 720 km. The animals were bought over the past few weeks at Tavares where Pastor Robério is the leader and who is a member of our projects team. Then yesterday he and pastor Lindon Carlos loaded up the pick-up vehicle with the animals and left at first light with first stop at Teixeira which is 30 minutes drive south of Patos. They had a nice time of fellowship with the local pastor there, Maésio and his wife Fia, who took them to the rural area of the County to Sítio Sabonete II where the first families of the day received their animals with much joy. One lady called Maria (nearly all women in Brazil are called Maria!) has recently come to the Lord in this community. Each family benefitted by the project also receives a Bible. 

Next stop was the town of Juazeirinho which is a one hour drive east of Patos. There they met up with our local pastor Leandro who took them to the community of Antonio Ferreira where more animals and Bibles were distributed. In this community a number of people have come to Christ and the Juazeirinho church holds a weekly meeting there. There are plans to even build a little church at this place. Once again as well as the distribution of animals and Bibles there was good fellowship here with pastor Leandro and the local Christians in these out of the way places.

On from here next came São Vicente do Seridó which was another drive of about and hour and a quarter in a north-easterly direction. Here the leader of our church is an excellent woman called Maria das Dores (Mary of the Pains!) although she is known by her nick-name of Neném (Baby – which is a common nick-name here). She took the team to the Boa Vista rural community where once again goats and Bibles were distributed. By this time the animals still on top of the truck needed to be given baths to cool them down.

Finally the team drove on again to Portelo Community in the County of Puxinanã which was about another hour and a half drive south east, and were met at late afternoon by local pastor Sílvio and his wife Silvânia. The team drove on to Campina Grande to sleep.

All our projects are church based and so a day like yesterday, distributing goats, sheep and Bibles, just highlights the wonderful way the Gospel is being spread to villages and towns in north-eastern Brazil. All the indications for people to received goats were made by our local leaders who know the people. 

We thank you for your prayers and for the practical ways you support our projects which demonstrate to the poor the love of God. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan the priest and Levite walked by on the other side of the road, but it was the Samaritan who stopped, cared …

4 people were baptized at the weekend at our Jacumã church which is just south of João Pessoa. Jacumã has a nice beach and is popular with holiday makers. Our church there is not far from the beach and can easily be reached after a gentle stroll. This is the church where José Renildo and his wife Tânia were leaders until they moved to Portugal. So it is good to see the church doing well there now under the leadership of Pastor Cleyton Carlos.

Our Sunday services went well in Patos which is 330 km west of Jacumã in the interior of Paraiba State. In the morning the deaf fellowship have their Sunday School in person and the youth have theirs online. Our main service of the week is at 6:30 pm and this I led. Our assistant pastor Rafael preached on the Parable of the Sower. One problem we had in the service was that Leudo who is part of the deaf fellowship had a bad cough and was in church against all the pandemic rules. Of course he and the other deaf brethren couldn’t hear his cough. Fortunately after a while one of the interpreters of sign language noticed and discreetly asked Leudo to leave which he did. I have since asked our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos to emphasize to the deaf fellowship that they should not come to church with symptoms which could be Covid.  

Last night I preached at the Green Pastures church service. Assistant pastor Rafael led the service and local girl Sabrina did a Bible reading. I preached on John 6:35 – “Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty”. It was noticeably hotter in the service last night.

On Friday afternoon Liz and I went to Green Pastures to check the work being done to renovate the dormitory block A and the school rooms there. The school should be back with in-person teaching for local farmers’ children in September and we will need the dormitories for church events as from October.

Whilst at Green Pastures Liz and I went for a walk and saw some Pied-billed Grebes and a Burrowing Owl. 

Pastor Nemias tells me that the drainage system at a lady’s tiny house at Flores has been duly fixed. We sent funds to do this as the situation was so serious. Nemias sent us a video showing the finished job. The lady is extremely grateful to no longer have an open drain literally right on her front door step.

Rural evangelism has been resumed in the County of Flores in Pernambuco State by Pastor Nemias (Nehemiah) and his wife Fátima. They have loudspeakers on the top of their car to allow them to conduct short open-air services in farming communities. They feel that the pandemic has improved enough so as to permit such open-air services in this way.

I had a good and long online meeting yesterday with the EAB Action School leaders of our Princesa Isabel and Patos schools. It was very good. 

Our projects team has been visiting market garden projects at Patuscada and Quebra Joelhos (break knees) Communities yesterday. The agricultural expert was with the team to give tips and advice. The team also visited Barra de Oitis to see how the building of the new toilet/shower unit there is going. They were pleased to see the work has advanced a lot since their last visit. I imagine it will be finished next week.

This week I prepared a sermon for tomorrow night’s service at Green Pastures. We value your prayers for the weekly service with the farming folk in that region at which I will be preaching.

I finished reading a short 100-page book this week on spirituality, which was written by a Brazilian friend of mine who lives at Fortaleza. In the first part of the book Carlos Queiroz does a critique of Roman Catholic, Prosperity theology and other shallow evangelical spiritualities. In the second part he emphasizes that grace, love, humility, faith and justice are the essential elements of true evangelical spirituality. 

Last night the Patos Men’s Fellowship went up the mountain to Teixeira to take part in the service there of the EAB/ACEV church led by Pastor Maésio. It was lovely to see 27 mostly men travel there on a Tuesday evening and take part in a lively fashion. 2 brought words of testimony and 1 preached. The objective of such trips is to encourage fellowship between the 2 churches.

Unfortunately the drug addict who was supposed to be taken to the rehabilitation centre yesterday backed out at the last minute. Our team was ready to take him at 6 am as agreed but he didn’t show up. Please pray for this man who can’t be named.

Yesterday President Bolsonaro paraded tanks and armoured vehicles in the heart of the capital Brasília to threaten the country with a military coup as he sees it is unlikely that he will be re-elected next year. The man is plain evil yet sadly is backed by the majority of evangelical Christians but certainly not me. Please pray for a peaceful democratic transition of power next year and that Bolsonaro will not be able to imitate his idol Trump.

We were very encouraged to see 11 in the Monday night youth prayer meeting. This week I have been catching up with a lot of administrative work. Liz and I have had a meeting with the architect responsible for the revamp of our Care Centre and it is good to see that the project is developing well. We praise God for funds now in for 2 new wells and 4 new chicken runs. These funds have been forwarded to our projects team. The team has drilled a well today at Saco dos Pintos Community in Princesa Isabel County, which hit plenty of good water I am pleased to say. This well was previously funded. The team is also in the middle of constructing a new toilet/shower unit at Barra de Oitis. 

I led the service last night in Patos and I preached as well. A brother called Dedé came up to me after the service and said I had preached a “million dollar” sermon! 😀 He didn’t give me a million dollars but he did make it clear that he’d been blessed which was great. Yesterday was Father’s Day in Brazil so we had a special fathers slot in the service too. The whole service went well.

Yesterday saw the maiden flight between Patos and Recife so it was a real historical day. Flights will be daily from now on with the company Azul (blue). This should be a big help for us on trips to and from the UK cutting out the long and grueling 6 to 7 hour road trip.

Tomorrow morning at 6 am another drug addict will be taken by our young assistant pastor Rafael to the Santa Rita, near João Pessoa, drugs recovery centre. This will be the fifth man we have at the centre at the present time. Please pray. The man who is going tomorrow wears an electronic ankle monitor owing to previous troubles with the law, and he had to get special authorization from the judge to be able to travel.

Saturday night’s service at Green Pastures was a real blessing. Liz and I went early to sweep the meeting hall from dust and leaves and put the chairs out duly spaced. Normally Francisco, who takes care of Green Pastures, puts the chairs our and his wife Leca sweeps the hall, but they were busy with Francisco’s grandfather, Sr. Heleno, who had had an emergency appendicitis operation. Praise the Lord Sr. Heleno is now home and recovering well.

Our granddaughter Louisa, who is in her final semester of Law School and has now started Bible College, said to us last night that she was going to visit the C & A store with her boyfriend which opened in Patos this week! She was shocked when I told her that I used to go to such a store in Kensington High Street when I was a child. She was also surprised to learn that C & A was founded in Germany in 1841. Anyway Louisa liked the store in Patos which is a sort of tourist attraction!

Yesterday Liz and I took 24 new fruit tree seedlings (Mango, Guava, Orange, Lemon) to plant at Green Pastures. We also checked the work being done to revamp some buildings in preparation for the re-opening of the use of our Christian Conference Centre in October (DV).

We will be holding a service again at Green Pastures this evening. I will be taking the monthly communion service.

There is an outbreak of Covid cases at the village of Barra de Oitis which is quite alarming and causing much concern. EAB/ACEV does a lot of project and church work in this village which is desperately poor. So far this week 13 people have tested positive for Covid and many others have the symptoms and await tests. Please pray.

The construction of another toilet/shower unit is carrying on in this village despite the outbreak at the house of Cláudia and Jacleildo. The work is progressing well.

At Belém Village in Tavares County over 50 tree seedlings plus all the equipment were delivered for the setting up of a new market garden project which is under way. The family of Fernando and Sandra are very grateful for everything. This project is a classic example of ‘helping people to help themselves’ producing income with dignity as a result of hard work. Participants of the market garden project receive specialist advice from an agricultural expert and take part in our online WhatsApp group to share photos, questions etc.

I have finished reading two books this week. I recommend the Blitz Detective series by Mike Hollow. I have finished the second book in the series called the Canning Town Murder. Mike is a Christian friend who used to work for the BBC and Tearfund. It was while he was working for Tearfund that he visited us here in Brazil.

The other book I finished this week was ‘The Story of the Church’ by A.N. Renwick which gives a good overview of church history through the centuries. The more I study church history the more I find the enormous amount of violence and killings involved between religious factions to be quite unbelievably outrageous.    

Yesterday I had an excellent meeting about the EAB Action School in Matureia with local pastor Renilson and his wife Getiane. Matureia is situated up in the Teixeira mountain range and has the highest peak in our State of Paraíba. Getiane is the head teacher of our school there and does a wonderful job. She reported to me on all aspects of the school and it is great to see the school going so well and really impacting this small town through the transformation of very needy children’s lives. I also discussed the local EAB church with pastor Renilson and it was good to see him upbeat and encouraged about the progress of the church. Thank you for your prayers.

The neighbouring Teixeira church has a flourishing church plant in the rural area of the County at a community called Sabonete 1. I say flourishing because many people are attending the services there but only one family has made a commitment to Christ there thus far.

Here in Patos I am glad to report that a young woman has this week committed her life to Christ and is being duly involved into the youth fellowship of our church.

We have started this week building another toilet/shower unit at the village of Barra de Oitis. The construction is taking place in the back yard of Claudia and Jacleildo’s mud and sticks house. All the family are very happy at the prospect of for the first time having a toilet/shower. Their children are particularly excited just like it was Christmas Eve! 

We had a nice break at Green Pastures on Saturday spending the whole day there with the family to celebrate our granddaughter Alice’s 14th birthday. We stayed there for the weekly service that we hold there on Saturday nights and we led that. It was lovely to hear a Tropical Screech Owl joining us in the praise and worship! Surely this was a foretaste of eternity when in the new heavens and new earth all nature will join the angelic and human choirs in praise to God. It was very encouraging to see the local farming folk from around Green Pastures really joining in the service too with enthusiasm. Most of them present have made commitments to Christ and form a nice little farming congregation. One important family was missing because their old old banger of a car, which we jokingly call a Ferrari, completely packed up and left them stranded 6 km from the service.

I led last night’s service in Patos and it was very good. The church was full to the capacity we are allowed by State law as everyone must be masked and one and a half meters apart. I say by Paraiba State law because if the president was listened to, at a federal national level, there would be no masks or social distancing!

Things have improved in Brazil as regards the pandemic and we are grateful to everyone for their prayers. Average daily deaths have dropped from 4,000 at their peak to 991. This is of course terribly high but it is a lot better than it was. Elizabeth and I remain very vigilant and careful as we are aware that the Chinese vaccine we have been given only gives us 50% cover for the Covid virus and is much less effective than the other vaccines administered in Brazil which are Astrazeneca and Pfizer. The problem is here you don’t get a choice here so we took the Chinese Coronavac as it was better than nothing. We still value your prayers.

We had an excellent online meeting with Pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice (Campina Grande) yesterday. We had an ample discussion of the work. Wostenes is the vice-chairman of ACEV.

Two of the Patos church’s young women, Daysa and Geralda, have graduated from university with degrees in Brazilian sign language. It is amazing how much our work with the deaf is producing fruit.

I saw and photographed yesterday afternoon a Common Potoo. It is an amazing bird which remains stationary all day upright on a tree. It is about 14 inches high. It is so well camouflaged that it is very hard to see.

I work in a partnership with a Christian poetess called Zenilda Lua. She writes the poetry and I supply the nature photos. These are published on a Christian site. We have just produced another ‘poetic photo’ which will be published next week. This poem is in defence of God’s creation.

Last night’s service went well at the Assentamento Village in São Mamede County. Tonight we will hold another service at Green Pastures. Today is our granddaughter Alice’s 14th birthday. 

Yesterday they had snow in the extreme south of Brazil in Rio Grande do Sul State! Meanwhile up where we are in the northeast it is hot and dry with a high today of 36 degrees. We have no water in Patos for 2 days as the pipeline, we fought for about 20 years ago, is being repaired.

Liz has been at the Care Centre again together with an architect friend to get her thoughts on the revamp there being planned.

EAB has a donation for 10 goats for the 4-Legs Project and so far 6 beneficiaries have been located. 3 will be for poor folk especially affected by pandemic at São Vicente do Seridó where we have a church. (all our projetcs are church based) 1 will be going to Teixeira up in the mountains and 2 will be going to Juazeirinho. The selection process is still on-going for the other 4. 

We received a photo from one of our senior church members in Patos called Aina. The photo was of an animal which was in the mango tree at her house. People come to me with questions about native animals and birds as they know I have acquired a lot of such knowledge over the years. The animal was a White-eared Opossum which is quite often seen at the Green Pastures Nature Reserve.  I was able to assure her that it is quite harmless apart from the very strong smell it emits if it feels in danger so my advice was to leave the animal in peace!

Liz and I walked at Green Pastures yesterday and saw a beautiful Rufescent Tiger Heron which was startled by our approach to the lake and flew majestically away. Then we also saw a pair of Brazilian Teal and 2 Southern Caracaras. 

I am reading another book alongside the ‘Canning Town Murder’ which even has the name of a character in the book whose name ‘Roy Dyers’ is very similar to our chairman of the EAB Board! The other book I am reading is ‘The Story of the Church’ by A. M. Renwick.

The Men’s Fellowship meeting (Tuesday) and the Women’s Fellowship meeting (Wednesday) both went off well in Patos. 

I am very glad to tell you that our 11-year-old granddaughter Beatriz has developed into a QPR supporter! She is more in touch with QPR news than I am.

The drug addict that recently was taken to the Christian Centre of Recovery (there must be a better name than this in English but I don’t know it) from Patos has been an addict for 20 years! Please especially pray for him as it would be wonderful to see him set free and it would be a wonderful testimony. We don’t give names to people on drugs but please pray for this man.

Sister Gilda lives at Flores in the State of Pernambuco and she is extremely poor with an open drain running past her front door and she didn’t have money to fix it. We have sent the local pastor Nemias 50 pounds to solve the problem.

We get two species of humming birds every day in our garden in Patos which are especially attracted by the Russelia equisetiformis flowers which are red and beautiful cone shaped. (I don’t know their English name) The birds are the Glittering-bellied Emerald and the Swallow-tailed Hummingbird. They are a wonderful sight hovering from one flower to another as they feed off the pollen and nectar.

Sunday’s service went very well. Pastor Lucena preached and Sacha led the worship so very well. Yesterday I spent the whole day preparing a new sermon. I also had a talk with the Caroá church pastor Valdemy where all is well praise the Lord!  

Last night’s service at Green Pastures was really lovely. A good number of local farming folk gathered there and one of the farmer’s daughters did the Bible reading. Our daughter Sacha brought an excellent message on worship encouraging everyone to really worship God in the services.

Liz and I did our usual Green Pastures walk on Friday afternoon and saw and heard birds such as a pair of Caatinga Cacholotes, Southern Lapwings, Great Egrets and five White-naped Jays.

This week all the plastering of the new EAB/ACEV church at Travessia was finished both inside and outside. The windows and doors were also cemented into position and all the doorways and window frames just need finishing off this coming week. Then the floor inside the church and the outside pathways need to be cemented. The toilet needs to be installed and all the electric lighting needs to be installed. Then finally the whole church needs painting inside and out. I think we will have the new church finished in about a fortnight. The sight of the new church is really impacting the village. The weekly open-air service (open-air until the church is finished) was really enthusiastic and blessed this week with a good number of people taking part. The young local leader Fábio Furtado (who many moons ago was an EAB sponsored child) is doing a great job there and really getting to know the people. This week Fábio was supported by the Manaíra regional pastor Francinaldo.

I have sent a recorded message to our third João Pessoa church in the borough of Boa Esperança. I have a very good relationship with the pastor there Manoel Oliveira Filho and his wife Alexandra.

I have finished reading the excellent book ‘The God I don’t understand’ by Chris Wright. The book covered the topics of the origin and causes of evil and suffering; the Joshua “genocide”; the cross; and eschatology. My next book (I like reading a lot!) is of a completely different type. I will be trying to help Detective Inspector John Jago solve the Canning Town murder! This is the second book in a series I am reading written by Mike Hollow. You will be pleased to know that Inspector Jago, who is the 1940 blitz detective, did manage to catch the murderer in the first book against all odds!

Yesterday was another of our special treat days for the 20 ladies who take part in our ‘young at heart’ weekly fellowship sessions for our seniors. They had their meeting online as usual and then our team drove round to every one of their homes distributing ‘brighten your day’ baskets of goodies. Inside the baskets we put a fruit juice, 2 packets of biscuits, 1 small cake, an apple, a tangerine, a bar of chocolate, a bread roll with cream cheese and a croissant. Needless to say they were very happy to receive the baskets. God loves people of all ages.  

Last night we held the Bible study which was continuing in the Epistle of James chapter 1 verses 13-16.

Our projects team is in Barra de Oitis village in Diamante County where it has defined where our next toilet/shower unit is to be built for poor people without even a toilet. The family chosen is that of Jacleildo Delfino da Silva and his wife Claudia Pereira da Silva. They have two children. They live off a 22 pounds per month government benefit. Their house is one made of mud and sticks.   

Liz and I have spent time at the EAB Care Centre twice this week and checked everything over. We are thinking of doing a revamp there. The roof needs renewing and the building needs a refreshing to make it nicer for those that come there for the dentist, and for the seniors ‘young at heart’ group, the deaf fellowship, the sign language lessons, the cooking for the soups runs, the food bank, the after church fellowship times and the Sunday School children. Please pray with us on this matter.

Another young man was taken to the Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Santa Rita near João Pessoa this week. That is the fourth person to be taken there in a month. Also linked to this ministry our assistant pastor Rafael spent time yesterday afternoon with the mother of one of the men recently taken there. The mother is so grateful for our love and concern for her son and she is showing to be open towards the Gospel as a result of this ministry. It seems that Bible studies might develop with her as she has asked us to return next week. Please pray for this woman who really does need the Lord.

I have been talking to Pastor Betinho who is responsible for the two churches at Conceição and Ibiara. This young pastor is doing a great job together with his wife Maciene. Both churches are going well. Also in that region are the churches at Vazante and Barra de Oitis which are both led by Pastor Nezinho Abílio. The pastor has been telling me how these place are flourishing. Both churches are encouraged as they have been able to do work on their buildings. Both churches already use their unfinished buildings so it is nice for them to get nearer finishing them. Inside the Vazante church looks really beautiful. Finally in that area is the church at Itaporanga. Pastor Oseias is encouraged there that they are back to holding hybrid services online and in-person and the “services are lively and blessed”. 

The weekend services went very well. On Saturday night we went out to Green Pastures where I led the service for all the local farming folk from that region. Sacha led the praise and it was very nice to have Bible College student Mailson Macena preaching God’s word. He spoke very well indeed. He spoke on Pharoah’s dreams from Genesis 41 and Joseph’s interpretation of them. The farming folk could readily relate to the 7 thin cows swallowing the 7 fat ones and the 7 thin heads of corn swallowing the 7 fat ones. This really caught the people’s attention. It is good to see young folk developing in Christian ministry which is one of our principle goals.

On Sunday night I again led the main service of the week in Patos and young assistant pastor Rafael preached on Luke 19 and the encounter of Jesus with Zacchaeus the tax collector. It was interesting that a member of the church, who rarely comes to church owing to ill health, and who is called Zacchaeus, came to church last night.

I have finished reading a book in Portuguese called ‘What is integral mission?’ and I am now passing the book on to the youth for their fellowship group’s study. The book has 19 short chapters which makes it ideal for one topic per week study and discussion. I have now started reading a book in English called ‘The God I don’t understand’  by C. J. H Wright which reflects on tough questions of faith like evil, suffering, the killing of the Canaanites and the Cross.

We are enjoying the fresh lemonade from the lemons we brought in from Green Pastures on Friday. There is something very special about consuming your own products. The lemonade tastes exceptionally good.

Yesterday Liz and I went for our usual Friday afternoon walk at Green Pastures. We had a nice chat to Francisco and Leca who are the couple who take care of the place for us and we checked different things there with them. Once off on our walk we came immediately across a pair of Iguana lizards mating. We could tell by their size and colour that they were young. A little bit further on we came across a large wild tortoise native to our area. There are a lot of these at Green Pastures. Amongst the birds we saw and heard were a Smooth-billed Ani, a Picui Ground Dove, a White-tipped Dove, a Ferruginous Pigmy Owl, a Green-barred Woodpecker and a Common Tody-Flycatcher. The latter species sometimes come into our front room in Patos. We brought back from Green Pastures more that 10 green coconuts to drink and about 20 lemons to make squash with. The only negative thing on our walk were the mosquitoes which are out in their millions after the surprise rain earlier this month. We are used to mosquitoes but yesterday they were ridiculous! 

We will be taking the service at Green Pastures tonight and the Patos youth group will also be going to support us in the service. Please pray that God will richly bless the local church there.

I am thrilled to say that Márcio, a man from our church in Patos, has come out of hospital having recovered from Covid. He is much better and thanks everyone for their prayers. 

Yesterday Liz and I went to visit our oldest leadership couple in the Patos church. Elder Pedro Guedes is 89 and his wife and Deaconess Beatriz is 85 (86 next week). They are a lovely couple who are in good health. Beatriz had Covid but recovered well without any after effects. We had a lovely chat to this outstanding Christian couple and had a time of prayer together as well.

Yesterday I also had my influenza vaccination so that’s that done for another year.

The Covid situation in Brazil has improved though it is still serious. Deaths per day are around 1,300 as opposed to 4,000 a day at the peak of the pandemic crisis. Slowly (too slowly) vaccinations are being done and this is helping of course.

This Friday we are organizing a field day for our market garden project participants. Starting very early, and going right through the day, we will take about 20 market garden leaders to visit our market gardens that are doing well so that everyone can learn, share and get inspired. Our technical agricultural expert will be part of the day’s leadership team to answer question and give tips. Please pray for this important and special day. 

Having finished my book on the history of the work here, in Portuguese, I have now organized all 29 chapters and I’m in the process of going through these and inserting some photos into the text. I will then write the preface and final conclusions as well as do a final check up on the whole thing. I remain on target to publish the book on the first 80 years of ACEV/EAB (1938-2018) this year.

I am sorry that England lost the Euro Football Championship to Italy in the final. I watched the first 90 minutes but couldn’t watch extra time or the penalties as I had to go to church. I only learnt the result after the service. I thought England played well in the first half but were tactically outplayed in the second half. I was disgusted to learn of the racial insults made to the players who missed the penalties.

The Sunday service went well. I led the service and I invited a young lawyer to preach. Rayla spoke from Psalm 146 and did very well.

Covid continues to bring suffering and death to our region. A young 30 year old man called Fábio Lima from our Tavares church died at the weekend which was an enormous shock to the church and of course to his family. Our Patos church has Márcio Alencar in hospital with 50% lesioned lungs and on oxygen. His 12 year old daughter Maryana also has Covid but she has it mildly so far. Please pray.

Liz and I are feeling lighter headed having had our hairs cut yesterday! 👨 👩 

Last night we returned to holding Saturday services at Green Pastures with all the local farming folk who are members of the church in that region of São Mamede County. I led the service, Sacha led the praise and worship and Pastor Rafael preached. Everyone was duly spaced out according to social distancing and everyone wore masks. Folk there were very happy to have the services back again. Last night was a real blessing.

On Friday my old mobile phone finally gave up the ghost and our grandson Arthur helped me get a new one and transfer everything from the old to the new. Arthur already spoke Portuguese and English before the pandemic, but since then he has learnt French and is now learning Spanish. Arthur, aged 19, is not only an expert with mobile phones but a very good business man. He managed to trade in my old phone for the new one! Arthur is sharper in business than my friend Pastor Michael Rollo in Scotland, and that is saying something! 😀 

Brazil lost to Argentina 1 x 0 last night in the final of the Copa America. Argentina played better that Brazil and deserved to win. I watched the match after getting back from the service at Green Pastures. It was a typical derby between these two great rivals with countless petty fouls.

I have finished reading the book on Old Testament ethics called ‘Living as the People of God’ by Chris Wright. The book is a bit dour or stodgy but it is a good book. It discusses the relevance of the principles of Old Testament law to today’s society and individuals. It certainly makes God’s concern for the poor extremely clear. I am now reading a book in Portuguese called ‘What is Integral Mission’ which we are going to use with our leaders and youth. It is divided up into 19 short chapters with each chapter ideal for a youth meeting or the likes.

Liz and I made a lovely visit yesterday afternoon to Dr. Adriana who is a Veterinary Doctor and a member of our Patos church. She is married to Klênio (I conducted their wedding) and they have 2 sons, Léo and Daniel. We visited Adriana at her pet shop and clinic because she has just moved to new expanded premises. She loved our visit and became so emotional when we arrived that she burst into tears. We were shown round the place and we prayed with her thanking God for his blessing.

Yesterday the LST Summer Conference ended and the final day was just as good as the other days. This was an outstanding conference and the good news is that the online conferences are being such a success that LST has decided to continue them online even after the pandemic. This for me is fantastic as I have access to top class ministry through this means.

The keynote speaker at the LST Conference was Dr. Dave Bookless who is the Director of Theology for A Rocha International, which is the leading evangelical Christian environmental agency. I exchanged emails with Dave during the Conference and we are to explore the possibility of our Green Pastures Nature Reserve being an associated project of A Rocha International. Watch this space!

Yesterday Brother Wilson from our Princesa Isabel church was released from hospital. He had been very ill in intensive care with Covid so we are certainly rejoicing. Also the couple from our Patos church, Márcio and Jacyara, are feeling much better after their bout of Covid. Thank you for praying.

Pastor Sérgio Freitas and his wife Luciane are both psychologists who live in the southern Brazilian State of Santa Catarina. They have been to our area helping people as psychologists around our churches and ministering the Word of God too. They love the balance we have in our churches between faith and works, or preaching and practicing the Gospel. So they have approached us regarding the possibility of starting a church in fellowship with us where they live and we are to have discussions with them regarding this. Please pray and watch this space too on this matter. The leadership team will have a meeting with them soon.    

I have just watched the semi-final match of the European Championship in which England beat Denmark 2 x 1. This was exactly the score I forecast! Now I forecast that England will beat Italy in the final 1 x 0. 

EAB/ACEV’s work against drugs continues here. Last week 2 young men from Juazeirinho (one hour east of Patos by car) were taken to a drug rehabilitation centre at Santa Rita near João Pessoa and yesterday an older man from Patos was taken to the same centre. Please pray for the deliverance of these men. They are expected to spend about 8 months at the centre where they will do occupational therapy on the land and have both spiritual and psychological support. May they all come to have a real experience with God.

Tonight is the women’s fellowship meeting and last night was the men’s. On Monday night was the prayer meeting and tomorrow afternoon is the seniors’ meeting, with the Bible study in the Epistle of James at night.

I have attended online the second day of the LST Summer Conference today which was again excellent. Dr. Margot Hodson joined yesterday’s speakers today and she was great as were they. The conference finishes tomorrow.  

Our eldest daughter Deborah fixed her hair yesterday for the first time in one year and four months! She never had it cut owing to the pandemic but now she has had the first jab of vaccine (Astrazeneca), a month ago, she felt secure enough to make this venture and she certainly looks better for it.

I have taken part in the first day of the London School of Theology’s (LST) Summer Conference today and it was superb. The theme of the conference is ‘Evangelical approaches to Ecotheology’ and the speakers were Dr. Dave Bookless (A Rocha International) and Dr. Martin Hodson (Oxford University). I was up at 5 am for the conference as the first speaker was on at 5:30 am. Just time for a quick shower and then into lectures but it was well worth it. The Conference continues tomorrow and Thursday. 

Sunday’s service went very well. I preached on ‘the Children of Abraham’ starting with Genesis 12:1-3. 

I have been talking to Pastor Maésio about the church he leads up in the mountains at Teixeira which has started a new church plant in the rural area at Sítio Sabonete. On the other hand the youth work in the church has run down a lot. Please pray for these matters.

I am glad to give you good news of answers to prayer regarding our folk with Covid. Ellyson (our Patos sound man) and Kecinho’s (PE Teacher in Patos) family (daugher, mother, brother and neice) have all recovered from the disease. Márcio and Jacyara (Patos church) are still fighting the illness and Wilson (from the Princesa Isabel church) is out of intensive care. Thank you for your prayers.  

I am reading another book by Christopher Wright called ‘Living as the People of God’ which is about the relevance of Old Testament ethics. It is good although not as well written as the previous book I read by the same author. 

We had lunch with our daughter Deborah, her sons Felipe (and his girlfriend Vivi) and Arthur on Friday at Green Pastures. We then spent the afternoon there with them and it was a lovely time together. We took them on a nice walk along some trails at the end of the afternoon.

Yesterday was our son Philip’s 43rd birthday there in England where he is with his family, apart from their eldest daughter who is here with us. I know he found the day quite difficult being far away from us all. However they did go and have a nice meal and a birthday cake with Ben & Miriam Price and family where they also watched the football. Philip preached at Hub Community Church in Basingstoke this morning.

Talking about the European football match my prediction of a 3 x 1 victory for England against Ukraine wasn’t far off the 4 x 0 win. England played well. My prediction for the semi-final is England 2 x Denmark 1. 

Yesterday our youngest daughter Sacha and her family spent the day at Green Pastures having arrived there for breakfast at 6 am.

This past week saw us sending 2 young men to a drug rehabilitation centre in João Pessoa and another man will be going this coming week. Please pray for this important ministry.

We didn’t have one drop of rain in the second half of May or throughout the month of June. The rainy season had ended. However yesterday, July 1st, we had a surprise rain of just over 3 inches (75 mm)! Usually in our part of Brazil we just might get an odd light shower of rain in July but never 75 mm. It is the best rain we have had this year and the best we have had in July since we started keeping records of rainfall at Green Pastures 20 years ago.

I am very happy that our granddaughter Louisa (aged 21), Philip and Gylmara’s daughter who lives with us, started her online Bible College course yesterday at the Faculdade Teológica Sul Americana (FTSA). It is a very good highly respected and high quality degree course. She finishes her law course this year and so has already started her degree in theology as well. She was bubbling last night about church history and we had a good discussion. The college’s system is that she does a subject a month per semester followed by a one month break. Thus she will do 5 subjects this year before having December off. She then will do 5 more subjects in the first half of next year prior to having June off – and so it will continue over 3 years. Please pray for Louisa.

I have prepared my sermon for this Sunday’s communion service which I will also be leading.

Ana Paula, Pastor Hamilton’s wife at our 2nd Campina Grande church, is much better from Covid and is expected to be sent home from hospital today. Thank you for praying.

The market garden project continues to go well and as time goes by we have an ever increasing number of people and places involved. So we have created a group on WhatsApp with all the project participants plus me, the project team and an agricultural expert so that experiences, photos and videos can be shared and questions asked. This online aspect of the project is going very well indeed. Yesterday, for example, a lady who is new to the project was helped because it was noticed by a video she posted that she was planting her lettuce too close together. Other help was given on how to protect bananas, guava and bread fruit from being ruined by insects without using insecticide. Another advantage of this online group is that those who are doing better can encourage and wake up those who are slacking. 

I went for a walk yesterday morning at Green Pastures with Francisco. I photographed the tiny Tawny Piculet Woodpeckers, a Tropical Kingbird and a pair of Great Antshrikes. Such outings are good exercise and are very enjoyable. We are very grateful to God for the way the Green Pastures Project has developed over the years from a little farmstead to a nature reserve and Christian Conference Centre. As Chris Wright says in his book I am finishing reading: “Creation Care flows from love for the Creator.” To care for God’s creation is proving to be a real testimony to folk in our part of Brazil. And this is coupled with the Christian Conference Centre side of things which is also a great blessing to so many of our leaders and church youth and members. But “holistic mission is not truly holistic if it includes only human beings and excludes the rest of creation for whose reconciliation Christ shed his blood (Colossians 1:20).”

The pandemic nightmare carries on here. President Bolsonaro’s government has been found out buying vaccinations with one dollar per dose built into the price as a kick back! This means that for every million doses Bolsonaro and his gang makes a million dollars! Meanwhile the Covid crisis goes from bad to worse here with 2,000 people dying every day which seems to be something which people have got used to. A couple in the Patos church, Márcio and Jacyara, have gone down with Covid and Marcio, who was in church on Sunday, is extremely nervous. Brother Wilson from our Princesa Isabel church is in intensive care, intubated, with Covid, having 70% lung damage. Ana Paula in Campina Grande continues in hospital with Covid but is out of intensive care. Please pray for all these people.

I watched the England x Germany match in the Euro Championship on Tuesday. My forecast of 2 x 1 to England was nearly exactly correct. I certainly got the result right and expect England to beat Ukraine on Saturday in the quarter-finals. I’ll forecast a 3 x 1 win for England. 

A baptismal service was held at Imaculada at the weekend. 5 were baptized from the Imaculada church plus 1 from the Sítio Glória church in the same county. We rejoice with the progress of the work in that region.

Yesterday I received a phone call from a man called Marrey who is a producer for the TV Globo which is the largest Brazilian TV network equivalent to the BBC in the UK. He phoned from the south of Brazil as he had heard of our Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre and is thinking of doing a programme about us. In the chat we had he kept asking “why on earth did you decide to do such a work in such a dry region?” I was able to tell him that Green Pastures is part of the much wider work of EAB/ACEV. We shall see what evolves. Watch this space!

Yesterday was Saint Peter’s Day and the fireworks were a bit louder than on Saint John’s Day, but still not as bad for fireworks as normal years.

We are sending 10 stacking plastic chairs to the Aparecida Settlement Village in São Mamede County as the little weekly outdoor services there are developing under Sister Dodora’s leadership and this week some neighbours are being invited to attend. Up till now the services have been for the extended family. Please pray for this venture.

Special prayer is requested for Ana Paula in Campina Grande. She is the wife of Pastor Hamilton who leads the second EAB/ACEV church in the borough of Presidente Médici and she has now gone into intensive care with Covid.  

In this past week we put the roof on our new church building we are constructing at Travessia village in Manaíra County. The overall building is 12 metres long by 6 metres wide. The actual church area is 9 m x 6 m with a three metre room at the back for a toilet and shower plus storage space. To put the roof on, hefty beams of wood are put first and then thinner wood is nailed to the beams so as to make a wooden mesh which can support the clay roofing tiles. All this work was done this week and the roof is complete with clay tiles. In the coming week we will do the electric wiring and then start the plastering of the walls.

Other building work done this week was at our Vazante and Barra de Oitis churches. At Barra de Oitis many lorry loads of earth were brought in to fill in the entrance area to the church, which was needed owing to the dip in the land in the location. At Vazante the entrance area to the church was finished and the church flooring tiles were started being put down. We are very pleased with all the building work progress here despite the pandemic.

We have received a prayer request from Kecinho who is a PE teacher and a member of our Patos church. His mother and his little daughter have both gone down with Covid-19. Please pray for them.

I watched part of the first half yesterday between Wales and Denmark and switched off with the score 0 x 0. I discovered later that Wales lost 4 x 0 so my forecast of a 2 x 0 defeat wasn’t too far off. Now we wait for Tuesday and the England game.

I enrolled yesterday in the London School of Theology’s (LST)  Summer Conference to be held from the 6th to the 8th of July online, from 5 am to 9 am each day, which is 9 am to 1 pm in the UK. The theme this time will be Evangelical Approaches to Ecotheology and the keynote speaker will be Dr. Dave Bookless who is Director of Theology for the Christian conservation organization A Rocha International. Also speaking at the event will be Dr. Martin and Rev. Margot Hodson. This is the third such an event at LST that I will be taking part in during the pandemic so every cloud has a silver lining. The topic this time is very close to my heart and life. These LST conferences are challenging, enriching and excellent ways to recharge one’s spiritual batteries.

Talking about recharging spiritual batteries I am reading “The Mission of God’s People” by Christopher J.H. Wright which is a wonderful book which I highly recommend. It is such readable theology and very challenging too. It is right in line with our integral mission approach. I have just passed the halfway mark in the book.

I have just received the news that our church sound control man Elysson Pergentino, who is about 20, has got Covid. Please pray for him. He is understandably scared. We paid 18 pounds for him to have the test as the government free tests have run out and we needed to know where we are with Elysson. He didn’t have the money to pay for the test.

Last night’s meeting at the Aparecida II Settlement Village was again blessed of God. It is led by Dodora and Paulo who are a lovely couple who run one of EAB’s Market Garden projects. I really feel that they are going to be greatly used of God spreading the Gospel in their region. Please pray for Dodora and Paulo.

Yesterday (24th) was Saint John’s Day which normally is a very big party time with bonfires, loud fireworks and late night or all night dancing. This day is especially culturally important in northeast Brazil. However this year the state and municipal governments banned all the festivities to try and stem the flow of Covid-19. Some people still went ahead with their fireworks but it was a lot less than normal.

Meanwhile President Bolsonaro visited the northeast of Brazil campaigning to be re-elected next year (God forbid!). He was not wearing a mask and I saw him on videos when he made two different children remove their masks when they were performing for him!

I spent yesterday preparing a sermon to preach in Patos on the Children of Abraham from Genesis 12:1-3.

This morning I have been talking to Pastor Hamilton in Campina Grande who tells me his wife Ana Paula continues in hospital with Covid but she is improving. He says that if she continues the way she is she will hopefully be sent home by Monday. Please continue to pray for Ana Paula.

I will make my forecasts for the British teams in the football European Championship. My guess is that Wales will lose to Denmark 2 x 0 and that England will beat Germany 2 x 1.

A new chicken pen has been built at Barra de Oitis Village as part of our 2-wings project. The family benefitted by the project is that of Cícero Mariano de Silva and his wife Francisca Nicolau da Silva. They have 3 children and the family is part of the EAB/ACEV church in the village. The chicken pen comes complete with 7 lovely laying hens so as to guarantee a good supply of fresh eggs for the family.

I took part yesterday in an online meeting about renewable energy in our State of Paraíba. The meeting was organized by the Roman Catholic church who invited me to take part in the light of my commitment to caring for God’s creation. The Bishop Dom Eraldo also took part as well as 3 other priests. All of those of us in the meeting are in favour of renewable energy sources via solar energy and wind turbines. However what is being questioned is the way these technologies are being implemented in our State. For instead of subsidizing solar energy panels on houses and buildings all around the State what is proposed are massive solar energy farms which will destroy thousands of acres of forest and vegetation in the process. One such solar energy farm is being proposed for São Mamede and Santa Luzia Counties which would destroy 5,000 acres of caatinga forest. We hope and pray that some sort of agreement can be reached with the big-money companies planning to build the solar energy farms which also have government support.

Please pray for Ana Paula who is Pastor Hamilton’s wife in Campina Grande. Ana Paula has Covid and has taken a turn for the worse and been admitted to hospital. Pastor Hamilton and their daughters are getting over it but just Ana Paula has a stronger version of the virus. It’s strange how this virus works because 4 people in the same family got the virus together and just one needs hospital treatment.

We are very encouraged this week with the news that an EAB supporter is to fund the drilling and equipping of 2 wells in this semi-arid region of northeast Brazil. Each well, completely installed with water tanks, submersible pumps, piping, water troughs etc., costs 5,000 pounds. We are especially encouraged, first of all because we are in a poor year for rain where the need is greater that usual, and secondly because Tearfund is only funding one well this year with none next year. We have a queue of villages and communities crying out for help, and we were praying about what to do, so we’re very pleased with this answer to prayer. The wells will bear the name (on a plaque) of the donor’s late wife, which is rather nice.

We praise God too for donations that have come in for another toilet/shower unit and another chicken pen. We thank everyone for support for the work here and for all your prayers.

On a lighter note let me tell you …

Last night’s main service of the week was back to an in-person service again after a two week break. The authorities here are at sixes and sevens with their lack of controls for Covid and just keep taking measures in dribs and drabs. It is a mess in Brazil in which we have now passed half a million deaths from the pandemic! Sadly one of the latest victims was Pastor Fátima of a Pentecostal church in João Pessoa whom we knew very well. Her and her husband were a lovely couple we have known for years. First he died with Covid a week or two ago and this weekend she died. What a tragedy! Their poor children and church don’t know what’s hit them. Please pray for this family. Half a million deaths and still the president discouraging people to get vaccinated and playing everything down. What an immoral mess!

Anyway I led the service last night, Sacha led the praise and worship and Pastor Lucena preached God’s Word. It was a blessed service. The church of course had a small number present owing to the rules on social distancing, and it’s very odd singing with masks on, but we press on! Many take part in the service via YouTube and Facebook.

I have been having further discussions this morning with our projects team regarding the new market garden project at Belém Village in Tavares County where we have a thriving little church plant. The location of the new market garden has been defined by our team together with the small holding owner. The project will be a fine sign of the kingdom in this village. Please pray.  

I watched the England x Scotland football match yesterday afternoon and I was not surprised to see it was a close game which could have gone either way. I thought QPR’s Dykes played very well for Scotland and I can’t see England getting very far in the tournament.

Last night’s training session for our online communications team went very well and lasted 3 hours!

I went to an ophthalmologist yesterday as a few days ago I woke up in the morning with a swollen left eye and every morning it has been the same. I thought it was going to be a sty or that Liz was bashing me in the night! The doctor prescribed some drops and an ointment to put in the eye at night. I awoke today with the eye much better.

I finished reading René Padilla’s book on integral mission yesterday just before the football. It was very good. I have traced another book on the same subject to a used book shop in São Paulo so am in the process of buying it. The book is from 1992. In the meantime I am going to have a look at C.J.H. Wright’s – The Mission of God’s People, which I already have.

I have just spoken to Caetano from our church in Patos who has been in hospital with Covid but is now home and improving from the after effects of the disease. I have also been talking to the daughter of Pastor Fátima of a Pentecostal church in João Pessoa who is dangerously ill in hospital with Covid. Fátima is in intensive care and doesn’t know that her husband has died with Covid whilst she fights the disease. Please pray.

This week’s work on the church building being erected for the glory of God at Travessia Village in Manaira County has gone well. We are now almost ready to start putting the roofing timber on.

I had extensive meetings with our projects team yesterday to discuss the next stages to be carried out with Chicken Runs, Market Garden, 4-Legs (goats) and Toilet/Shower units. A new Market Garden is to be set up at Belém Village in Manaíra County where EAB/ACEV has a small church. The family to be benefitted is extremely happy. Then another Toilet/Shower unit is to be built at Barra de Oitis. We discussed location options for the next phase of the 4-Legs Project at maybe Juazeirinho or São Vicente do Seridó Counties. I also expect further news on the 2-Wings Chicken Runs Project by next week. So we praise God that our projects continue to press on despite the difficulties with the pandemic.

On the Covid front I am glad to report that our pastor Fabrício Junior and his wife Gaby (Campina Grande) have been given the all clear and they have now come out of quarantine and returned to normal work. Caetano in Patos – the father of baby Moses – is starting to feel better he told me last night. However Pastor Hamilton in Campina Grande is worse and is feeling awful. Please pray for him and all his family who all have Covid.

Tonight, Thursday, is Bible Study night in Patos and it will be online.  

Caetano, you may remember, is the father of the baby Moses who I dedicated recently. Well we learnt yesterday that he is worse with Covid and that both his wife and dentist Rebeca and their 9 month old son Moses have Covid. Caetano has lost 25% of his lung capacity and is very depressed. I talked to him yesterday, prayed for him and tried to encourage him. Please pray for Caetano, Rebeca and baby Moses.

This is the time of year when it is warmest in the UK and coolest here. We hear that it is quite warm in the UK today. Here our lowest temperature in the night was 21 degrees centigrade, at the moment it is 30 degrees and our maximum today will be 33 degrees.

Yesterday Liz and I went to Green Pastures to do a general check up on the water pumping system from 2 deep bore wells to all the dormitories, toilets etc. This year the rains were very poor so we have no water in the lake or river and the wide-mouth wells are totally dry. Thus it is very important to keep the deep bore wells fully operational through submersible electric pumps, as everything depends on them until next year for both Green Pastures wild life and events, plus all our neighbouring families who depend on us for water too. We did the check up yesterday together with Francisco, who runs Green Pastures on a day to day basis for us, and his wife Leca. They are a lovely couple and are doing a much better job of caring for Green Pastures than the previous people did. Whilst there yesterday we saw that 3 bathroom doors need to be replaced to old bathrooms that weren’t previously overhauled. We will replace the old warped and shabby doors with aluminium ones. Our hope and prayer is for the pandemic to be sufficiently improved here by the time of next May so that we can hold our annual field conference at Green Pastures in person. All our leaders are praying for this to happen. 

This Friday night we will be holding a training evening at the Patos church for our technical team responsible for our online transmissions. We have contracted an expert to upgrade our team’s knowledge and capabilities. I will be taking part in this training too.

Last night’s Men’s Fellowship meeting went well. Nine men took part in the online meeting.

Brazil being traditionally a Roman Catholic country means that many public holidays and festive dates have the names of Roman Catholic saints. In June, for example, the 13th is Saint Anthony’s Day, the 24th is St. John’s Day and the 29th is St. Peter’s Day. To be culturally in tune here you also have to know that the day is always celebrated on the evening prior to the day. Hence Christmas Eve is when Christmas Day is celebrated etc. So it was that Saturday evening was St. Anthony’s Eve, which is the equivalent to the British Valentine’s Day, and our granddaughter Louisa (has no boyfriend at the moment) received a delivery of chocolates from an unidentified secret admirer! Liz and I had great fun guessing who it was with Louisa, but to no avail. Watch this space!

Another of our pastors – Hamilton in Campina Grande – has gone down with Covid together with his whole family of a wife and two grown up daughters. Please pray for this family. Whilst the pandemic carries on here, now fast approaching 500,000 deaths in Brazil, our irresponsible President is on a campaign to discourage people from wearing masks!

Last night’s main service of the week went beautifully. I led the service, Sacha led the praise and worship, and young assistant pastor Rafael preached. I have just received a phone call from Josinete, who is a deaconess, telling me how she and her family were blessed by the service.

This morning I received my new driver’s licence for the next three years. It was promised me in 2 days but it took 2 weeks as I had imagined it would.

The walls of the new EAB Travessia Village church in Manaira County have started to go up this week. The building team, led by our brother and elder from Caroá, Valdemar, have raised the front and back wall and one long side wall to a height of about 1.4 metres whilst the other long side wall is at about 80 cms high. The work will go slower next week as the team will have to use scaffolding, and this takes more time up. Valdemar is a lovely brother and an experienced builder. Please remember him in your prayers.

On Thursday our new young worker called Fábio Furtado went to hold a service at our little Fonseca Village church and it went very well. Fábio both sings well and preaches well. Fábio is now responsible for the two village churches of Fonseca and Travessia in the County of Manaíra. Both these villages are both needy spiritually and socially.

On Friday night Sister Dodora led a beautiful little open air service at the Aparecida Settlement Village in São Mamede County. This sister has real leadership qualities and is very dedicated. 

It has been confirmed that there will be daily flights from Patos to Recife as from August 8th and the plane to be used will be a Cessna 208 Caravan which has a crew of 2 and which carries 9 passengers. The plane size will be increased according to demand. The flight will take between 1.5 to 2 hours as opposed to between 6 and 7 hours by road. The cost is being advertised as 33 pounds sterling which I think must be a promotional initial price.

We are surrounded by sad news of deaths I am afraid. Yesterday a good pastor friend, Nelson, of a Pentecostal church in João Pessoa died with Covid and his wife Fátima is gravely ill in intensive care. Yesterday too our pastor Jânio in Campina Grande lost his father to a heart attack.

Last night I watched a neighbour with Covid being put into an ambulance to be taken to a hospital in João Pessoa. I prayed for her at the time. The lady called Ritinha was cared for by two nurses dressed in what looked like space suits in a science fiction movie. Please pray for Ritinha.

Whilst all this is going on on a massive scale in Brazil the President continues to play down the pandemic. An enquiry into the ministry of health shows that they have no pandemic specialists, like epidemiologists, in their team. Government ineptitude is staggering!

Building work is going on at our Barra de Oitis Church. Builders are constructing a proper entrance to the church. Here in Patos it’s the day for the midweek Bible study.

One of the most encouraging things at this time is the number of Bible College students that we have from the EAB/ACEV churches. It is so encouraging to see the large number of students that we have studying at our Bible College in Campina Grande, or at Bible Colleges on the coast in João Pessoa, or at the on-line Colleges of FTSA and ISBL. So you can imagine how extra thrilled I was when this week our granddaughter Louisa, aged 21, enrolled in the FTSA 3-year theology degree course. She is coming to the end, by December, of her degree in law, so she sat the FTSA entrance exam and scored 97%. Not bad! 😉 Louisa starts her theology degree on July 1st. Please pray for her and all the other Bible College students we have.

I have done another radio interview. This happens quite often to me. Journalists phone me and ask me to do interviews on a variety of subjects. This time I was interviewed about the church and about how we are coping being back to exclusively online services again. It was a good opportunity for the Gospel.

Our first family doctor Olavo died this week aged 90. He was a lovely man who saw me through typhoid many moons ago and who operated on Liz when she was 13. Also our ex-town councillor friend Juracy Dantas died with Covid. 

Our daughter-in-law Gylmara is in hospital in the UK with a suspected appendicitis. They have now ruled out appendicitis after tests and a scan.

We have now been nearly a month without rain so our rainy season has been and gone. With a total of 492 mm (20.5 inches) so far in 2021 it means we only received about half of what was needed for a good year. The last quarter of 2021 will be tough.  

The lovely little village of Travessia is in the County of Manaíra to the extreme west of Paraíba State. We drilled a well in the village a few years ago and that is being a really blessing to the place. Thus through the practical demonstration of God’s love people have warmed to the Gospel and some have made commitments to Christ. Our ex-Action Child Fábio is now an EAB/ACEV worker in the village holding regular services there every week. Now we are starting to build a church at Travessia on land we previously acquired. The foundations have already been dug and building materials are being taken there. Lorry loads of sand, earth and rocks are now in place so as to build the foundations. Watch this space for the building news and please pray.

Last night’s communion service went well. I preached and Rafael led. Lucas Conserva played the guitar for the worship as our regular player Tiago said he wasn’t feeling up to it! He must be feeling his age in his twenties! These musicians can be a bit of a headache at times.

You may remember that on the previous Sunday (May 30th) I dedicated little Moses. Well fortunately I decided to not hold the baby in my arms, as I normally would, owing to the pandemic. The parents Caetano and Rebeca came and sat to one side on the stage and Moisés sat on his Mum’s lap. We always give the parents a children’s Bible on the occasion and this I did giving it to Caetano the Dad. Well yesterday, a week later, we received the news that Caetano has gone down with Covid-19 so please pray for him.

Please also pray for our senior sister Eva who has had a fall and broken her wrist. She will have to have surgery to put pins in.

I am enjoying reading in Portuguese a book by C. René Padilla on Integral Mission. Brother René I knew personally before he recently went to be with the Lord. We were together in Mexico in 2003 at a Micah Network Conference of which he was founder and president. René was born in Equador but lived in Argentina.

Yesterday was a very dark day in Patos, where we have been living in the interior of northeastern Brazil for the past 49 years. The Covid pandemic is on the rampage here killing many people. Yesterday our County Council Secretary of Health, Segundo Brito, died with Covid at the age of 42. He was a man I knew well having taken part with him in community debates about public health issues in the past. His death has come as a great shock to us all, especially as he died so quickly with the disease. Then too yesterday another man I knew well died with Covid. He was the journalist Fábio Diniz, aged 44, whom I also knew well. Another young mother died yesterday with Covid, aged 35, showing how deaths in this pandemic are killing increasingly younger people. Please pray!

I will be preaching tomorrow on ‘Being like Jesus – in Love’ from 1 John 4:7-21. I value your prayers. Assistant pastor Rafael will lead the service. The Women’s Fellowship in the Patos church is spending today in prayer and fasting. They have organized it so that someone is praying during every hour for 24 hours from midnight to midnight. I feel this is a lovely initiative. 

I finished writing in Portuguese the history of 80 years of EAB/ACEV last night from 1938 to 2018. It has been a very big task which has taken me years to do amidst all the other aspects of work. I now need to do a complete review of all 29 chapters plus insert photos. I value your prayers for this book which I plan to publish yet this year which will be an important tool for future generations.

I had a discussion with Pastor Lindon Carlos (Imaculada) yesterday about our teaching and training of young people for Christian ministry. It is great to see that in the County of Diamante we have 5 young students doing the ISBL Bible College with 3 at the Vazante church and 2, eight kilometers away at the Barra de Oitis church. This is extremely encouraging to see. Our partnership with this excellent College online is so good for out of the way places. 

We also discussed the leadership of the Sitio Glória church in Imaculada County which is going very well. Sisters Rita and Marcia are the leaders and they are doing an excellent job. Rita is another person who is studying theology with the ISBL online Bible College. Rita and Marcia are very integral mission aware and are highly active at a community level with social action, taking part in various committees in their County.

Our Vet Marcelo Sá came home to Patos yesterday as he steadily gets over a very heavy bout of Covid-19. Marcelo had been at Campina Grande for weeks. The young man Douglas (Matureia) is being released from the Patos General Hospital today having also recovered from Covid. We have now just learnt that 24 year old Fabrício Junior and his wife Gaby, from our 1st Church at Campina Grande, have gone down with Covid. In fact it’s the second time that Fabrício had had the virus. He was given probationary status as a pastor last Saturday. Please pray for this couple.

It has been announced that as from August of this year three flights a week will start operating between Recife International Airport and our airstrip in Patos. We are told that a proper airport building is to be built so as to turn it into a proper airport as the runway is fine for Boeing 737s and smaller jets like that. The company to fly to Patos is Azul/Blue. This will be a great help to the likes of us when we travel to the UK as we will be able to fly from Patos to Recife and then from Recife to Heathrow via Lisbon. It should make things a lot easier cutting out the long journey by road to the airport.

As I foresaw would happen with the third wave of Covid infections on the rise, church in-person services have been suspended again by the State of Paraíba government amongst a wide range of restrictive lockdown measures to try and bring the spread of Covid more under control and save lives. Once again President Bolsonaro is against these restrictive measures so it’s just as well we have a sensible Governor. A curfew has been reintroduced from 10 pm to 5 am as well.

Our son-in-law Witagiby (Biba) has a light version of the Covid-19 virus so he should be all clear by next week. Douglas from Matureia (aged 30) is improving too in hospital from Covid. We thank you for your prayers.

Our son-in-law Witagiby, who is known as Biba, has Covid. He is married to our youngest daughter Sacha. They are the parents of our two granddaughters Alice and Bia. Please pray for Biba. So far he has a mild version of the virus.

Pleased also pray for a young man called Douglas who is a member of our Matureia church which is 45 minutes by car from Patos. Douglas also has Covid which worsened yesterday so he was brought to the Patos General Hospital yesterday where he was admitted.

I was very surprised yesterday to hear that the Copa América (bi-annual South American Nations Cup) is said to be going to be held in Brazil! It was originally supposed to be held partly in Columbia and partly in Argentina but Columbia said they couldn’t do it owing to the widespread social unrest there. Then yesterday Argentina also bowed out of the tournament owing to the serious Covid situation there. However very quickly, too quickly in my view, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said the event could be held in Brazil as if Brazil didn’t have a massive Covid problem. This is the typical populist attitude of Bolsonaro who has never taken the pandemic seriously and always tries to play it down. He clearly thinks Brazil staging the tournament at the last minute will be a vote winning strategy in the build up to next year’s elections.

I have now finished 79 years of EAB/ACEV history in Portuguese for my book. My book will cover the period from 1938 to 2018 so I have just one year to go. Once I have finished the basic text for the 80 year period I will need to check the whole thing slowly and carefully and insert photos where appropriate.

I led the service in Patos last night and the service went well. I dedicated an 8 month old little boy called Moses and received a young woman into fellowship called Erica. Our assistant pastor Rafael preached on John 14:1-3 with a message entitled: “Let not your heart be troubled.”

Our Pastor Oseias in Itaporanga is completely over Covid. Thank you to all who prayed for him. Carla Lécia, the wife of Pastor Francinaldo at Manaíra, is also completely free of her bout of Covid and thanks everyone for their prayers too.

At the weekend Pastor Maésio at the EAB/ACEV church in Teixeira conducted the wedding of the deaconess Rosângela and brother Odemar. The pastor has just sent me a whole load of photos of the wedding. Brother Odemar is from the rural area of Teixeira County on a farm called Sabonete (Toilet Soap!).

I have just had a physical check-up so as to renew my driving licence. I had to show how much strength I have in the grip of each hand on a machine. Quite what the point of this was I am not sure. I also had my eyesight checked and had to answer a number of questions about medication I take etc. Anyway all was approved and I was told I will receive my new licence in two days’ time which is quick if it happens.   

This afternoon we held a fantastic general assembly of all our leaders online. It lasted for two hours and 40 minutes and at the end nobody wanted to leave. The only pastor who didn’t take part was absent because his vehicle broke down with a load of sweet potatoes on board! The pastor in Portugal took part and the pastor in England. The first matter on the agenda was the role call.

We then formally recognized the two church plants at Barra de Oitis and Vazante as fully fledged churches led by Pastor Nezinho Abílio. We then officially recognized Fábio Furtado as an EAB/ACEV worker responsible for the church plants at Travessia and Fonseca. How wonderful to see he who once was an EAB sponsored Action Child now a Mission worker. If he does well he will be a pastor one day.

After this we recognized the three new pastors, Betinho, Léo and Fabrício Junior. Each one was given probational pastoral status and each one was prayed over separately. This was followed by Philip giving a run down on our annual statistics which show we continue to have 89 churches with 24 largish, 26 medium and 39 small church plants. The total number of Christian participants in these churches is 3,202. Philip also gave some explanations on how to use the software programme he has created to administer our churches.

Following this Pastor Lindon Carlos gave us an update on all the projects, what’s been done in the last year and what’s planned to yet be done this year. We also received some feedback from José Renildo and Tania in Portugal. We then decided that we would have a leaders’ Conference day online in September and a youth conference online in November. We also decided that we will not hold the usual 10-day evangelistic outreach in January owing to the pandemic but we will hope to hold our next general conference in-person at Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre. This is planned for a year from now from the 27th to 29th of May, God willing.

Nothing is simple in this pandemic and my renewal of my driving licence was an example of this today. I got up, had my usual breakfast of paw-paw, banana and yogurt, and had a shower. I don’t function any day without a shower. I then went to the place where you renew your driving licence and my temperature was checked to be able to get into the building. I also needed to show the receipt for the renewal. I then went to have my photo taken followed my the digital taking of my finger prints. The latter took a long time as my finger prints are always difficult to register. After this I then went to the next desk where again I showed all the paper work and was told that I can only do my eyesight test on Monday as for today the eye doctor was fully booked. I came home and had another shower.

We received the sad news yesterday that our pastor in João Pessoa José Vieira’s sister, called Chiquinha, died last night from Covid. She had been in intensive care for quite a long time. Please pray for José Vieira’s family at this sad time.  

The EAB/ACEV church up in the mountains at Matureia, which is the highest point in our State of Paraíba, has cancelled all its in-person church services owing to the new surge of Covid infections in the town. Please pray for Matureia which is about 45 minutes by car from Patos where we live. The Covid pandemic is on the increase again here with an apparently third wave being experienced. The whole region in the interior where we live is getting steadily worse again.

Our Pastor Oseias at Itaporanga has been confirmed with Covid and continues in isolation. Veterinary surgeon Marcelo Sá continues to improve from a very heavy bout of Covid. He took part on Tuesday night in the Men’s Fellowship meeting online. I was very pleased about this at it shows how much he is getting better. He tells me he is doing a lot of physiotherapy to help his breathing. Please continue to pray for Oseias and Marcelo. 

It is so good to see how well our EAB Action Schools have adapted to the reality of teaching and coping under the pandemic conditions without in-person schools here. I was in touch with our Caroá School, for example, which is helping 12 children of which 2 families have been hit by Covid. The teacher drops off the children’s lessons to each of their farmsteads and then helps them all with their lessons online via WhatsApp. Similarly she drops off food parcels to their homes for which she says their families are very grateful.