Categoria: News

 Thursday night’s Bible Study went well. We managed to cover the whole of Acts chapter 15 which was good. The praise at the beginning was led by Tiago as Philip and family are now in the UK. Philip and Louisa took part in the service from Basingstoke. The pastor and an elder from one of our João Pessoa churches also took part from there so the Bible study was far reaching!

We have been busy organizing this Sunday night’s service as it will be our first in person service in months. It will also be broadcast live for those who can’t be there. Seating has been arranged according to the rules keeping everyone 1.5 meters apart. Everyone must wear masks. People over 60 are recommended to stay home and take part online. We expect to have about 60 people present as of course the distancing rules reduces our capacity a lot. We value your prayers for our services under very challenging circumstances. 

Our team has been to Barra de Oitis this week working with the community, especially with the participants of the market gardens project. We did a distribution of seeds and our agricultural specialist was there to further teach and train the people and to answer all their questions. A new garden/allotment was also set up this week. It is so good to see the success of this project which restores poor people’s dignity as they have the joy of producing fruit and vegetables which enhances their income. People are also more open to the Gospel as they see and feel God’s love for them in such practical ways.

I walked another nearly 3 miles yesterday at Green Pastures. I try to do this three times a week like I did this week and last.

 I finished reading a book on the Trinity by Roger Forster today. I quite enjoyed it. It’s a challenging subject to put it mildly! The emphasis on the dynamic nature of the trinity was very helpful as was the emphasis on worship.

I have prepared this week’s Bible Study on Acts 15. The focus of the chapter is on the Council held in Jerusalem which sought to lay to rest the constant efforts by the Judaizers’ efforts to impose Jewish law on gentile converts to Christianity. Gentile Christians were growing greatly in number all over the place.

 Our main Sunday service will start shortly. It will be strange without Philip, but Sacha will be now leading the band. I will be preaching on Philippians 3:1-11 and value your prayers.

Philip and family are safely installed in their Basingstoke house after a long grueling journey. They are exhausted but fine. Our tremendous thanks go to Ben & Miriam Price for all they have done in support for Philip and Gylmara. We now pray for a incident free two weeks of quarantine. 

 I set my alarm this morning for 04.45 am. Philip slept at our house so we could call him. The large car taking him to João Pessoa airport with 11 cases (2 per person and 1 extra) arrived an hour later and they left at 06:04 am. His wife Gylmara and the 3 children had been in João Pessoa with her family since Thursday. 

All met up at the airport for the 13:30 flight to São Paulo. They have to wait now for the London flight which is due to leave just before midnight. They should be at Heathrow at 15:05 on Sunday afternoon and then need to get to Basingstoke. They then of course will have 2 weeks of quarantine at their house. Fortunately for them they have great friends in Ben and Miriam Price who live at Basingstoke and who will sort their shopping etc. So we value your prayers for Philip & family at this time.

 This week is a sad one for us as our son Philip and family move back to the UK. We will be calling in at their house in a while to say goodbye to his wife Gylmara and their 3 children Louisa, Lucas and Luis as they will leaving for João Pessoa in the morning where Gylmara’s family live. Philip will go straight to the João Pessoa airport on Saturday morning where the rest of the family will join him. Philip will be taking all the cases. The logistics of a family of 5 is quite a challenge! They will fly out of João Pessoa this Saturday at 13:30 and go to São Paulo. There they will get the overnight flight to Heathrow where they will arrive on Sunday afternoon. Please pray for Philip and his family as they go into two weeks quarantine in Basingstoke where they have rented a house. Their period of adaptation promises to be quite a challenge.  

The bush fires on the western edge of Patos have been brought under control. It would seem that the largest threat to houses, lives and animals in and around Patos has been solved although the fires still burn in the neighbouring County of Santa Teresinha which is further west. There are reported to be some extra smaller fires which have started thought to be arson. There are always arsonists around it is sad to say. So thanks to all for their prayers.

Sadly Sunday night’s online service did not take place owing to the failure of the internet. It was a frustrating night as everyone battled to get things working but it was impossible.

As from October 4th our services will be a mixture of online and in person as we will then have a young assistant pastor called Rafael with us who is not in a Covid high risk group. Rafael will be replacing Philip who together with his family are going to England this Saturday. Philip will be greatly missed and we are sad he is going, but such is life. We pray that God will bless them in the UK.

Yesterday afternoon we noticed the sunshine was a strange colour and it was only when we drove out to Green Pastures that we saw why through our mirrors. We could see huge columns of smoke west of Patos. We have now learnt that the fire started on Sunday in Santa Teresinha County and has been raging and spreading ever since. It has spread into the rural area of Patos too and has already killed lots of animals. The Fire Fighters have called up help from all over the State. It is a very dangerous and tragic situation. It hasn’t rained here at all for months so the bush catching fire easily happens. Added to this it is quite windy and we have temperatures of 37 degrees every afternoon. Please pray!

 Sometimes things happen in the work which are very disheartening. Yesterday Tarcísio, who used to take care of Green Pastures and lead the church there, abruptly left following the death of his wife on Sunday. I feel very disappointed and sad about this. I counselled him against this knee-jerk reaction, wanting to be away from all that reminds him of Maria, but he would not listen. He was adamant. I know these are difficult days for Tarcísio but the fact is that he has gone and it’s hard to come to terms with things after 30 years with him taking care of things and leading the local EAB/ACEV church at Green Pastures.

I do ask you for special prayer at this time for Tarcísio and family. I also ask for prayer for us as we look for the way forward in the light of what has happened.

Last night’s Bible Study went well and we covered Acts 14:1-18. My head was in a bit of tizwaz with all the happenings, but we made it and the Lord blessed.

 Tarcísio’s wife Maria passed away this Sunday morning in the Patos General Hospital. This leaves us all feeling sad but our prayers are with Tarcísio and his family at this difficult time. Please join us in prayer. Maria had battled against a brain tumour for a number of years. Tarcísio is the leader of our Green Pastures Church.

This evening’s online service is going to be a bit subdued as a result of Maria’s death. We value your prayers for the service. 

 Maria is the wife of Tarcísio who both leads the church at Green Pastures and who oversees the place in general. Maria was operated on for a brain tumor a few years ago and recovered well for a while, but has got slowly worse again since then. Now today she has taken a severely worse turn and is in intensive care in the Patos General Hospital where there is little more they can do for her. We ask everyone to please pray for Maria and the whole family at this time.

 I walked 2.7 miles this morning which was exactly the same distance I walked on Wednesday too. I try to walk three times a week. I walked 3.3 miles on Monday. Keeping fit is an important aspect of living.

Last night’s Bible study went well. Pastor Lucena, who is a retired Congegational pastor and an old friend of mine, gave the study on the life of Peter and I led the service. Philip led the praise and worship with his guitar.

 Liz and I had a very good meeting this afternoon with the assistant chairman of ACEV pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice. Gleydice is also a member of our senior leadership team. This couple are two of our close friends in the work here. They are a lovely couple.

First of all we discussed the matter of a replacement for the leadership role at the Juazeirinho Church as the current pastor will be moving to Patos to be my assistant pastor as from next month. The couple we feel should take on Juazeirinho are Leonardo and his wife Arine from the Soledade church. There will be a meeting of the Juazeirinho church about this on Saturday.

We then went on to discuss one of our pastors who is ill and we had a good chat about his situation. 

Sunday’s service went very well. I preached on Psalm 40. 

Yesterday I put together the EAB Nutshell Update and today I sent it out. Thanks to you who responded to it which is encouraging.

 As from the month of October I will have a new assistant pastor by the name of Rafael. This is because Philip, who has been my co-pastor for a long time now, is moving back to England with his family. Philip will be sorely missed. He has done an excellent job.

Last night we had a meeting with Rafael discussing various aspects of the work in Patos. It was a lovely and encouraging meeting. Rafael has rented a flat in the same street as the church a five minute walk away. Rafael is 30 and single but has just started going out with a lovely Christian girl from the Patos church so that has worked out well too. 

We value your prayers for Rafael and this new phase in the Patos church. We will be going back to holding services in church when he comes as he is young and not in a risk category. People will need to be under 60, wear masks and keep 1.5 metres apart, so of course it will be strange but better than nothing. The services will continue to be online too for those who can’t go to church or who don’t feel comfortable about going. 

 This week our team have been constructing more chicken runs at Barra de Oitis ex-slave community. The runs or pens are fenced in with wire netting and are partially covered with roofing in the part where there are boxes for the hens to lay their eggs. The system works very well and the beneficiaries are very pleased.

I have been ministering as usual. Last night’s Bible Study finished off Acts chapter 13 and went particularly well. Praise God! It’s so nice when people take part like last night. I think this is especially important with services on line. One of our pastors at João Pessoa takes part every week and last night his participation was excellent. I preached last Sunday too on Psalm 46 and this Sunday it will be Psalm 40. 

I have just received photos and a video from the EAB Action School at Juru where food hampers were distributed this week. To see the Action Children overjoyed and proud of receiving the hamper for the family is very moving. One little boy attacked the hamper with hunger and grabbed a pre-cooked cold sausage and started dipping it in dried milk and eating it with utter delight! The local pastor Ezequias filmed the scene with his mobile phone and captured the little lad’s delight. Thank you for supporting this work. 

 I am receiving reports and photos of our Action Child food distribution and it’s lovely to see so many happy children and their families. One family at Imaculada was very emotional when our team arrived as they had nothing at all to eat! All the children’s families are very grateful so thank you for supporting this important project. Lessons continue online and/or through weekly distribution of lessons. Circumstances are not easy but the work goes on for God’s glory. 

Last night’s Bible Study went well and we finished Acts 13:31 in our journey through this book. Yesterday we looked at the incident with a Jewish sorcerer at Pafos on the island of Cyprus. We then went through two thirds of Paul’s sermon in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch. 

We are in the process of finishing another toilet / shower unit for the desperately poor at Barra de Oitis ex-slave community. The recipients are a couple who live in terrible need. José Alexandre is the husband’s name and Flávia is his wife. She is blind and has epilepsy. They live off  a government benefit of 11 pounds a month! Their food is kept in two sacks which are tied to the low roof (the house has no ceiling) so as to help keep it from the rats. It is one of the most pitiful examples of extreme poverty and need you can imagine. This couple has just received one of our food parcels from our food bank but they are even more overjoyed with the new toilet/shower. José Alexandre is 60 but has never lived in a house with a toilet all his life! We have built this unit with a ramp and a wider door than usual as Flávia may be reduced to a wheelchair at some point. We hope not but the local leadership felt this would be wise in this case. José Alexandre and Flávia have dedicated their lives to Christ. 

I am prepared for tonight’s Bible Study which I will be starting in a few hours time and for which I value your prayers. We will carry on tonight in Acts 13 concerning Paul’s first missionary journey.

We have been involved in a number of sessions of online and telephone counselling today. First of all there was a senior lady who was feeling low. Then there was a couple who have had serious marriage problems. It was encouraging to feel our input was helpful. The presence of the Lord was really felt during the longish chat.

Then there was sister Iris who is moving to join her husband at Natal where he has got a job in the police force. They have two young sons. Iris is a dynamic worker with children so will be greatly missed and we hope her plans to be back by Christmas work out. 

 Despite the pandemic the work carries on here in northeast Brazil. The annual drought is also with us as we haven’t seen a drop of rain for months. This is expected to continue till the end of the year as normal. So the undergrowth everywhere is now very dry.

Another well has been finished at Olho D’águinha Community in Tavares County. At Barra de Oitis Community in Diamante County another toilet/show is being built and at Fonseca Community in Manaira County more chicken runs are being built for the 2 Wings project with laying hens.

I have finished the history of the work here for 1938 to 1998. My aim is to write the first 80 years up to 2018 so it means I’ve completed 75% of the book which is good. This book will be so important for the churches here and if I don’t write it who will? I would rather have less time to write this book and be out visiting the flock, but as I can’t then I am making good use of the time of the pandemic. 

I also walked a little over two miles early this morning. This is very important too.

I have just listened to a lovely message of thanks from a man who is not a Christian at Barra de Oitis ex-slave community. He is expressing his gratitude for our food bank supplies to the community in these dark days. It is very moving to hear him talk. He sent the message entirely as his own initiative. Very encouraging. Thank you Lord! I pass on his thanks to all who support the work of EAB.

 I went for a nice two and a half mile walk with my son Philip yesterday at Green Pastures. I have a couple of little benches under trees at two locations where I can stop for a rest in the shade and Philip and I stopped at one of these on the northern side and had a nice time of prayer together. It was really blessed and good. 

I have been having discussions with Pastor Gersé who leads the first EAB/ACEV church at Princesa Isabel which is our oldest church. I say first church because we now have two in the town. They lost a good church elder there to Covid-19 but an older sister there has recovered. They have a child in treatment in Recife at the moment suspected of having the virus. Gersé tells me that the faith of a number of the church members is really being tried at this time. 

All is set for the main service of the week (Sunday night). I will lead the service and Pastor Lucena will preach. Lucena is a retired Congregational church pastor who joined us after retiring. We worked together for many years at the Patos Bible College and we have always got on well together. He is a good help in the church. 

Jenilda dos Santos takes part in the women’s Desert Flower Project at the Fonseca ex-slave community. She has shared her gratitude for the cookery and bakery lessons the group has been receiving. She says how happy she is, together with the other participants, for having been taught how to make bread. I will quote her own words: “We learnt to make home made bread having been taught by Pastor João George. We loved how patient and polite he was with us and how he encouraged us to try… and it worked. Nobody had ever taught us how to make bread or cakes or savory tasty treats. It is so good!” Such community teaching restores dignity, improves diets and provides income for those who make food for sale. God’s love can be demonstrated in different ways which is what happened teaching these women how to make home made bread!

Last night’s Bible Study went well and covered Acts 12:19 to 13:3. An unexpected discussion developed on prayer and fasting which was excellent. This discussion was generated by Acts 13:2-3.

 We praise God for the fine body of quality leaders that He has enabled us to build up over the past 30 years. In this we have a team of 11 which form our senior leadership team with 3 from Patos, 3 from Campina Grande, 2 from João Pessoa, 1 from Imaculada, 1 from Itaporanga and 1 from Manaíra. This gives widespread representativity.

Paul said to Timothy what we have long sought to do: “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others”. (2 Timothy 2:2) 

The work of ACEV/EAB here is also divided up into 5 regions and each region has a coordinator. Then all the churches have pastors who come together for ongoing teaching and training at our annual leadership conference. 

One of our main aims over many years has been the training of quality leadership for the glory of God and we thank God that we can look over the churches and see His hand of blessing. We praise Him for all the fruit of our labours which it’s very good to see. 

Our son Philip is moving back to England with his family shortly so we will be bringing in a new young assistant pastor in Patos to replace him.

We value your prayers for the ongoing continuity of the work of ACEV/EAB. The work moves forward for the glory of God and integrated anointed and united leaders are a key factor in this.

 Monday evenings are the only ones we have no church activities on so last night was free. However this evening we have two activities with the ‘knees to the ground’ (as it’s called) prayer meeting at 7 pm and the Men’s Fellowship meeting at 7.30 pm. On Wednesday’s is the Women’s Fellowship meeting.

Yesterday I walked for a couple of miles. I try to keep up such 2 to 3 mile walks two or three times a week. I usually manage twice in the week but quite often three times.

We’re in the process of organizing the further distribution of food to our Action Child kids. They receive online and/or home distributed lessons according to which is more appropriate and viable. However food has to be home distributed and it has to be for the whole family. 

I preached last night on “Shining like Stars” (Philippians 2:15 but covering the text from verses 12-16). All went very well. It was a good service. I touched on the essentialness of obedience (v12) so as to shine, that God seeks to help us live in victory (v13) so we can shine, the necessity to live without complaining or arguing (v14) so we can shine and the vitalness of sanctification (v15) so as to shine. May the Lord help us to “shine like stars” and reflect God’s glory.

In the last few days I have been having discussions with a variety of our church leaders to talk about the way forward amidst the current pandemic whilst also following the government guidelines. In Brazil churches are now allowed to hold services with physical presence as long as participants are under 60, are 1.5 meters apart from each other, wear masks and disinfect their hands upon arrival and leaving. The maximum number of permitted participants is 30% of members. Our churches are free to decide what they feel they should do as long as they remain within the guidelines. Hence up in the mountains the Teixeira church has decided to hold presential services on Sundays and Thursdays, but the Matureia church has decided against for the time being and remains online only. I have had good chats with their pastors Maesio and Renilson. I have had similar discussions with Imaculada, São Mamede, Passagem, Juazeirinho, both churches at Campina Grande, two of three churches at João Pessoa and São Vicente do Seridó. We value your prayers for wisdom in these unusual days.

 We are in the process of building more toilet/shower constructions at Barra de Oitis and one was completed this week. The recipients are overjoyed at what they call “a dream come true”. It is very sad that desperately poor people have to have dreams like having a toilet! This toilet/shower now serves a little group of 8 families and houses previously completely without. Thank you for your prayers and support. 

 We felt we should try and cheer up our senior folk as all this lockdown can be pretty wearying and gets people down. We have the weekly online sessions with them on Friday mornings, but we felt we needed to do something special and extra. So yesterday we distributed to all our seniors who normally take part on Fridays a small basket of fruit with a yogurt and biscuits. They all loved it and said they felt more cheerful as a result! Sometimes small gestures can mean a lot. 

I am now ready to give the weekly Bible Study shortly when we will be covering Acts 12 in our series reading and commenting the Book of Acts. I value your prayers.

I walked 2.7 miles this morning at Green Pastures to keep myself fit. I also oversaw work to repair a leaking water tank whilst there.

 Sunday, the second in August, was Father’s Day in Brazil so I preached an appropriate sermon using some Biblical texts and applying them to Fathers. For example I focused on the father in the prodigal son’s parable. All went well. PTL! 

Yesterday I had another good walk of about 2 and a half miles. I then scheduled some of the photos I took, like that of the Red-cowled Cardinal, and posted them on the Green Pastures Nature page on Facebook.

EAB’s annual celebration will be online this year on October 3rd. I am working on our annual report for this. I also am working on the Mission’s history in Portuguese and have now completed 1938 to 1996. It is a massive job but I am sticking at it. The challenge now is that with all the growth in the Mission over the last 30 years there is much more detail to find and fit in. I have 3 sources of information: 1) The ACEV minutes from all the leadership meetings each year and all the general assemblies. 2) The EAB In Touch magazines. 3) The individual churches submissions of their own histories. I value your prayers.

The Bible Study completed Acts chapter 10 on Thursday and flowed beautifully. Sunday’s sermon on “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:5-11) went great too. Thanks for praying for us.


I had a good walk at Green Pastures this afternoon covering 2.8 miles. 


I continue with my history writing in Portuguese and have now done the history of the work here from the 1938 start up to 1995 so I am steadily progressing. 


I have prepared a Father’s Day message for this Sunday as that’s what it will be here. I have also prepared (more or less) another sermon on Philippians 2:12-18. I need to work on this week’s Bible Study now on Acts 11 and maybe 12. I also like to prepare too much as add lib studies are difficult to predict for time. 

I took part last night in the Men’s Fellowship meeting online via Google Meet. Philip brought the message of the night from Romans 6 – “Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” It was a good clear well argued message combating “cheap grace” ideas that some may have. There was a parallel prayer meeting last night for the ladies. 

Last night’s service in Patos saw us use new software for the transmission so as to improve the sound quality. This was because as from the 19th the church band was back in action which demanded better sound quality. Hence this week we switched to the new system which was a bit complicated at first but worked out alright in the end… I think.


I have prepared my sermon for next Sunday on Philippians 2:5-11 called Jesus Christ is Lord. I have also prepared for Thursday’s Bible Study on the latter part of Acts 10 plus chapters 11 and 12 are ready. I always prefer preparing more than enough because I do the studies informally, reading and commenting, so it is not a set half hour sermon so to speak. I usually speak for about 45 minutes each Thursday night so it is impossible to know how much I will manage to cover.


Today is my sister Jean’s birthday so I made an earlyish video link call to her to wish her well. 

I am continuing to write the history of the Mission in Portuguese and have now covered 1938 to 1991. I am now working on 1992. It is a very big job. I have information to draw on from the minutes of leadership meetings here plus EAB Newsletters + individual churches extra detailed local information. I value your prayers. 


I am today going back over Acts 10 and 11 for tonight’s Bible Study online. This will be followed tonight by the regular Serenade of old hymns by Philip.


We have been sorting out one or two pastoral problems this week which I can’t go into here. People get into difficulties or cause difficulties whether online or not! Things crop up and have to be handled and the lack of face to face meetings is missed for these sorts of things. Please pray. 


On Tuesday night the men had their fellowship meeting which went well, as did the prayer meeting. Last night was the women’s fellowship meeting with 10 taking part.


QPR have finished the 2019/2020 season in 14th place in the Championship which at least is an improvement on 19th last season. They won and drew their last two games. In a few weeks time the new 2020/2021 season begins. 

Thursday’s Bible Study went well and we completed Acts 9. This was followed, as usual, by Philip’s increasingly popular serenade of old hymns.


Yesterday I spoke in Devizes in the morning and in Brazil at night! I was invited to speak in the Rock Community Church’s service in the morning which is in Devizes, Wiltshire, UK. I spoke at night as usual in the Patos service.


I studied this morning an excellent essay by Tim Dieppe on women’s ministries. I also started preparing the Bible study for this Thursday in Acts 10. This afternoon I stretched my legs for a couple of miles at Green Pastures. 

I prepared my sermon for Sunday today. I will speak on being ‘in Christ’ as reflected by Philippians 2:1-5 and what effect this has on our lives as Christians. It’s not such an easy passage to preach so it demanded a lot of prayerful thought. I find Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the text good. 

I got up at 5.40 am today and went for a good two and a half mile walk at Green Pastures which was nice. I picked up the Bushnell automatic camera memory cards when there and was happy to see we picked up good 30 second videos of a Crane Hawk, an Opossum, a pair of ground doves and a beautiful family of 12 wild ducklings. The rains are finished so the stream is fast drying up with rich food supplies for wild ducks in the shallow waters. These videos all will be posted on the Green Pastures Nature Reserve’s Facebook page which seeks to encourage people to value creation and help preserve nature. 


Last night’s service went very well. I led the service, Philip and Louisa led the worship and Louisa and her fellow law student Rayla brought a two part message which was excellent. I asked them to do this so as to vary things a bit and because I knew I would be very busy last week with the London School of Theology Conference. I have already started preparing my sermon for this coming Sunday and then it’s on to preparing the Bible study for Thursday. We value your prayers and support always.

The Deaf Fellowship in the pandemic goes ahead well. I have discussed things with deaf pastor Luiz Carlos who tells me that on Mondays they meet online for prayer and Bible meditations. On Tuesdays they meet to have a general chat ending up with something from the Bible. On Wednesdays and Saturdays their meetings are open to the interpreters too as well as non-Christian deaf people. On Thursday Pastor Luiz Carlos does a Bible Study and on Sunday morning there’s the deafs’ Sunday School. Then they watch the main evening service which I lead and which is signed for the deaf. So as you can see the deaf fellowship is very active and being blessed of God. Thank you for your prayers and support.


We have now defined which families are going to get toilet/shower units built at the ex-slave community of Barra de Oitis. These are game changing moments for very poor people’s lives as these units are built and equipped with flush toilets, showers, hand basins, clothes washing sinks, water tanks above and cess pits beneath. 

I started the Bible Study last night with a discussion of ‘soul sleep’ from the last word of Acts 7 linked to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. From this I went into Acts 8 covering the section about the church being persecuted and scattered + Philip in Samaria + Simon the sorcerer. In verses 14-17 we covered the difficult section of the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the Samarians. It all went well and was a blessing for the 33 people taking part via Google Meet. 


This was followed by Philip and his serenade of old hymns which is very popular and which went very well again. It is interesting to observe how many backslidden Christians are attracted by this and request certain hymns to be sung. It’s good Philip has an amazing memory! We pray God will touch these people far from God through this means. We certainly will miss Philip when he returns to England with his family as he plans to.

I finished the 4-day Summer Conference today with the London School of Theology. It was a tiring time as I had to set my alarm for 4:30 each day, grab a wake-me-up shower and then be online for a 5 am kick off. It then went through to 11:15 am each day (3:15 pm) in the UK. 

The first speaker each day was John Goldingay on Jeremiah. It was a challenging good review of the structure of the book and its theology. To quote John today on Jeremiah’s theology “God is in control of His memory. He can forget things.” And “God is immutable but He is flexible and can change His mind.”


The current principal of LST is Mark Cartledge and he chaired the whole conference. He also spoke on the first day and showed himself to be an Anglican who is very open to the Holy Spirit moving in Scripture and in today’s church. He was very good.


Another speaker was a lady called Dr. Kimberley Alexander from North Carolina who spoke on ‘Women and Scripture’. Instead of a justification of women’s ministry she just showed from her research how women are powerful expositors of the Scripture. She was excellent.


A further speaker was Brad Emry who brought some extremely challenging thoughts on ‘Scripture and violence’ especially working through the difficult texts of Judges 11 (Jephthah and the sacrifice of his daughter) and Judges 19 (The Levite and his concubine). Such scriptures stretch anyone to the limit! 


Joan Cartledge also spoke on ‘Disability, Scripture, Inclusion and the Church’. This was good and what we already believe and practice. 


So this Conference was something good that came out as a result of the current pandemic. 

I am writing EAB/ACEV history in Portuguese and today reached our 50th anniversary in 1988. I wrote and published EAB’s first 40 years back in 2012 in English. The Portuguese version is different as it goes into details interesting to Brazilians and irrelevant to overseas folk. So too many UK details are of no interest to people here. 1988 was the year we took major steps to reorganize the work in Brazil. We are today 82 years old as a Mission so I’ve got 32 years to go! 

I have just finished my third of 4 days at the London School of Theology’s Summer Conference online and on top of more on Jeremiah and Daniel we had some particularly difficult Biblical passages involving violence such as Judges 11 and 19! Certainly forced me to think but I don’t have any answers yet. Yesterday the woman speaker from the USA, Kimberley Alexander, was particularly interesting on Women & Scriptures. The message was the result of her own research and was excellent. 


The Men’s Fellowship Group met last night on line and that went very well as did the prayer ‘knees to the ground’ meeting as it is called.


I walked for two miles yesterday afternoon at Green Pastures. It’s important to keep fit in these difficult days. 

I preached on Philippians 1:12-26 last night and it went very well. It was the communion service with Philip & Louisa leading the worship and Philip conducted communion. 


The youth concluded their online Conference on Saturday night ending their 5 night event which was a real blessing with 90 to a 100 taking part each night.


I was up at 4:30 am today to take part in the first day of the 4-day London School of Theology Summer Conference. John Goldingay spoke on Jeremiah: the man and the scroll. Then Mark Cartledge spoke on Scripture, the Church and the Holy Spirit. It was a very interesting and blessed time. I found it very encouraging. It was good to be back at LST! 


I am now preparing for Thursday’s Bible study working on Acts 8.

Last night’s Bible study went very well as we covered Acts 6 and 7. This was followed by another session of the singing of older hymns and songs by Philip which went very well too. 


Today is Philip’s 42nd birthday. We went out together for a nice walk together at Green Pastures to celebrate. We walked 4,5 km.


The Youth online conference is in its 4th night tonight and continues in real blessing. They are having about 90 taking part every night. At the other end of the age scale the seniors had another online session this morning which they love. 


I am glad to report that our pastor Nemias at Flores is better from the Covid virus as are his wife and son. His mother Nevinha is improving too. PTL! Thanks for all your prayers and support. 


I have read all John Goldingay’s preparatory notes for his 4 lectures on Jeremiah next week in LST’s Summer Conference and I have read all 52 chapters of Jeremiah. I will be attending the online Conference every morning next week from Monday to Thursday starting at 5 am each day. 

The first night of the 5-night EAB/ACEV Youth Conference had 90 taking part on Tuesday Evening and was a great blessing to all. The message by a psychologist was on the dangers of pornography in times of lockdown. Tonight will be dealing with the topic of domestic violence and male chauvinism. 


Last night the Patos Men’s Fellowship also met online with 17 men taking part. Their Bible meditation brought by one of the men was in Acts 1. There was also an online ‘knees to the ground’ prayer meeting. 


I walked another two and a half miles this morning at Green Pastures. I enrolled in the London School of Theology’s ‘Summer School’ when I got back. It will run from Monday to Thursday next week and is free online. John Goldingay will be the main speaker on Jeremiah. It will start at 9 am UK time so will be 5 am for me!

Our Patos church has fully adapted to the new pandemic reality and in fact we are doing more now and reaching more people that even before. 


To start with – every day we have the EAB/ACEV 5 minute slot posted at Midday and remaining on ACEV Patos’s Facebook page for 24 hours. This is done by church members who record 5 minute Bible reflections or testimonies and send them to me for checking. I then pass them onto our internet man who posts them. It is a lovely way to involve the church at large. So far 15 are taking part and it’s being a blessing.


Tonight being Tuesday we have two online groups in action. First we have the “knees to the ground” prayer meeting from 7 pm onwards. Then we have the Men’s Fellowship which kicks off at 7.30 pm. Both these meetings use Google Meet and overlap time wise.


Then the Patos youth start a Conference tonight at 7.30 pm going through each evening to Saturday and open to the youth from all our churches. They will have different speakers and singers every evening. 


I have prepared my sermon for Sunday and I have now been working on the Bible study for this Thursday on Acts 6 and 7. I do my Bible studies in relaxed read and chat along style. i.e. I read a bit and then chat about it. Hence my diagnosis is that chapter 6 will be good but chapter 7 will be stodgy. I value your prayers. 

I walked two and a half miles at Green Pastures this morning. I also completed my sermon preparation for next Sunday’s communion service. I will preach on Philippians 1:12-26. 


A fireman from the church released an Armadillo at Green Pastures this afternoon. Apparently a workmate had captured it to eat but our brother talked him out of it. 


It was nice to receive photos today from a man at the ex-slave community of Fonseca whose market garden is going well producing lettuce, caliandra and cabbage. 

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Last night’s service was excellent. I preached on Philippians 1:8-11 and remarked how interesting and edifying it is to read and study Paul’s and Jesus’ prayers. I challenged the churches to try writing their prayers sometimes as Paul did. We can pray silently, speaking or writing. They are all ways of communicating with God. 


It is fascinating how this pandemic has many of our churches tuning in to our main Sunday service. Our churches at Imaculada, São Mamede, Juru, Flores, Princesa Isabel, Teixeira and Caroá were all tuned in last night as well as Patos of course. Philip and Louisa do the praise and worship and I lead and preach. We use StreamYard online.

Otávio Oliveira was an elder in our first church at Princesa Isabel (we have two churches in the town) and he went down ill with Covid 19 a few weeks ago. He went to be with the Lord yesterday and is being buried this morning. Please pray for the family and church. Otávio was the father of two of our pastors: Robério and Betinho. 

I am taking the opportunity which lockdown gives me to write the history of ACEV/EAB in Portuguese for the first time. I have covered 1938 to 1983 to date. It is a massive job but so important now and for future generations. The challenge is that the work has grown a lot so in the more recent decades there are more churches to write about. 


Yesterday, as always on Friday, we had an online meeting for the seniors which went very well. Tonight the youth have their meeting. Next week the youth will have a special online conference with invited speakers from Rio de Janeiro and Campina Grande. It truly is wonderful. 

I have just given the Bible study via Google Meet. We covered the last part of Acts 4 and all of Acts 5. It went well despite it not being the easiest of passages to do. 


Philip is now singing all the old hymns for the church folk. He did one two and half hour session last week and it was very popular so he’s doing another one tonight. 

I walked for about 3 miles on Saturday and again yesterday. It’s good to keep fit! I have prepared my sermon for next Sunday on Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1 and prepared for the next Bible Study. 


Sunday’s service went well as did the Men’s Fellowship last night. Tonight is the Women’s Fellowship and tomorrow I give the Bible Study on Acts 5 as we travel through the book of Acts. This will be followed by a ‘Virtual Serenade’ when Philip attends requests for all the old hymns. We have totally adapted to the ‘new normal’ and find the church even more alive and active than in the ‘old normal’!


The Covid virus situation here is increasingly bad with over 50,000 deaths and numbers rising. The problem is when you have a president who refuses to take it seriously, and just like in the USA gives a terrible example. The country has no leadership. It’s not surprising that the USA and Brazil are in first and second place in the Covid statistics with Brazil apparently striving to take first ‘worse’ place! May God have mercy on us and help us!  Whereas in the UK you are easing lockdown as numbers fall, here they are easing restrictions whilst numbers rise. This has got to be wrong! Please pray.


Please pray for us and all our family. Please pray too for some from our churches that have got the virus.