Categoria: News

I conducted the mid-week Bible Study last night online via Google Meet and 28 took part. It went very well covering Acts 3 and most of chapter 4. 


I am working on the history of the churches and projects here in Portuguese for a Brazilian audience. I am approaching the place I already wrote about and published in English. I have now covered from 1938 to 1975 but it is not simply a case of translating from English to Portuguese what I had previously written  because Brazilian readers will be interested in different details and will not be interested in many details already published in the English version. I plan to press on in Portuguese beyond the first 40 years. 

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Sunday’s service went great and now includes a sign-language interpreter much to the joy of the deaf fellowship folk. It was the second week we used StreamYard which is excellent and means we broadcast live both on Facebook and YouTube. 


I walked yesterday at Green Pastures and have been preparing for the Bible study this Thursday. I am prepared to cover Acts 3 and 4, but I am not sure how much I will cover as when it is in ad lib style it is difficult to predict. People may ask questions etc. There’s a lot of good stuff to discuss in these two chapters.


Our elder at the Princesa Isabel church remains seriously ill in ICU with Covid-19. Our leader at São Vicente do Seridó remains in need of prayer for extreme anxiety. Please pray. 

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Last night’s Bible study was very good with 28 taking part via Google Meet. We covered Acts 2:14-47. The study flowed really nicely for over an hour. 


We continue to value your prayers for our church elder at Princesa Isabel Otávio who is in intensive care with the new Coronavirus. We also ask you to pray for Nenem who leads the São Vicente do Seridó church as she has severe anxiety. 


I have prepared my message for this Sunday and will preach on 1 John 2:1-10 with the title: “Walk as Jesus Walked!” I have been working this afternoon on some project guidelines we are drawing up which cover child safety in our projects + environment guidelines etc. The work has involved project leaders and the senior leadership team of 11 people – 9 men and 2 women. 


Yesterday I walked 5,7 km at Green Pastures. It’s wonderful that we have this secluded spot to exercise in amidst these difficult times. The highlight of the walk was to see for a long time a large middle aged Iguana. It’s a prehistoric looking Lizard about 70 cm long. 

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EAB has a new group which unites in prayer, as many evenings as possible, for half and hour, to pray for us and EAB in general. The group’s coordinator is Joy Levermore at levermorejoy@gmail.com

If you would like to join the group please email Joy. We would love this. We have a prayer warriors group on Messenger with up to date prayer requests.


Before I came to Brazil I used to go to such a meeting at the Tuckers house in Southampton. Then there was another group led by Mary Dyer. So it’s great to have another EAB prayer group organized. Please link up with it if you can. 

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There were 18 in our Men’s Fellowship meeting tonight and I gave a short Bible study for the group on 2 Timothy 2:15. It was held online via Google Meet. It was a really blessed meeting. PTL!

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This Sunday’s service was even better than previous weeks because we stitched to using a software called StreamYard  which worked great. Whereas previously I did my part and then Philip did his, with StreamYard Philip and I were able to broadcast simultaneously. The service was wonderful! It was a real blessing to everyone including us. 


We conducted communion on line and we we focused on the theme of caring for creation in the overall service. It was a real blessing. 


Tonight the men’s fellowship will be online as well, joining the long list of internet activities the church already carries out. 


We value your prayers for us and the ongoing work here. 

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Our Patos church is getting more and more into the online gear. We now have 4 slots on a Sunday, 1 on a Tuesday, another on a Thursday and another on a Saturday. We have one daily slot too at midday. Tuesday night’s online prayer meeting saw 20 taking part for 2 hours! Last night’s online Bible study, via Google Meet, saw me give the study for 41 people including pastors from our João Pessoa – Boa Esperança, Matureia, Teixeira and Juazeirinho churches as well as Patos foll. The Sunday main service has lots of the members from our Imaculada church and Curral Velho church joining us. PTL!


I have done 2 good Green Pastures walks this week. On Monday I walked for 4.3 km and yesterday I walked 3 km. These walks are both good for me physically as well as refreshing me spiritually and psychologically. There is nothing like walking in the “garden” of God’s creation and nature. It blesses me inside and out!


Next week is International Environment Week, as the International Day for the Environment will be on Friday, June 5th. I will be taking part in two nationwide events organized by renewourworld.net which is an international Christian Movement to mobilize Christians environmentally and increase awareness of the need for action by the church. I will be taking part live in online events on Monday (1st) and Saturday (6th). Please pray!

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I hope you can get to have a look at last night’s church broadcast which even has a bit of English in it for the non-Portuguese speakers! https://www.facebook.com/acevpatos/videos/3859744854096533/

The service was lovely and thousands of people tuned in and were blessed. PTL!

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I am happy to announce that today I will be back on our live transmission together with Liz, Philip & Louisa. I will be speaking on 1 Peter 2:4-5 and then on John 21:1-6 a bit later. Please pray for us. The transmission is from our Patos church Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/acevpatos/

The transmission starts at 6:30 pm our time (10:30 pm BST) but you can always watch the recording tomorrow if you fall asleep!

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Click here to see the latest sad news from Brazil!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1264103777268719616

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Dr Orlando Damascena delivered Sacha at birth and also delivered Sacha’s daughter Bia when she was born. Today he sadly died as yet another victim of this awful Covid 19. 


Brazil is now the third country worst affected by this virus and will soon be second. Please pray.

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Three more have joined the EAB prayer group which prays for us and EAB every evening from 9.30 pm to 10 pm. We are very encouraged and grateful. So far we have:


1. Joy Levermore
2. Laurence Levermore (High Wycombe)
3. Jean Medcraft-North
4. Dr. Liz Williams (Basingstoke)
5. Steve Oakley
6. Lisa Oakley (London)
7. Peter Court
8. Vanessa Court (Weston Super Mare)
9. Marian Rashleigh (Southampton)


If you could join the group please send me an email at eabrazil@gmail.com

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A prayer schedule has emerged from nowhere as an answer to the gigantic needs being faced by us in NE Brazil at this time. The prayer group have decided to pray for 30 minutes each evening at 9:30 pm BST for us and EAB’s work in general. The group has been started by my 2 sisters Joy Levermore and Jean Medcraft-North together with Laurence Levermore + Steve and Lisa Oakley and Dr. Liz and we would very much like to know of others willing to commit to such prayer times each evening or at least most. Please add your names to our EAB prayer warriors list via eabrazil@gmail.com.


Prayer does change things more than this world dreams of and we certainly stand in need of it at this time. The situation is grave with Brazil in 4th place in the sad world virus rankings and rising very fast indeed, surely to second place very soon. Please pray for us. 


Hospitals are over run like in so many countries but here little effort is being made to solve the problem. In fact the president himself ridicules what all the fuss is about! It is a sad situation and we badly need your prayers and support.


Please pray with us and for us and let us know if you will be joining the group. This is both a public health battle, political battle and spiritual battle and we must stand together in prayer. We look to the Lord. 


The broad guidelines for our prayers are laid out in my prayer from Patos transmitted yesterday at https://www.facebook.com/acevpatos/videos/289830242046449/. Please do join us in prayer. 

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CLICK ON:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JAAd-5Hn3x2N-IBsaRNkhj5mf4fwgsNH/view?usp=sharing

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This Saturday we value your prayers as we will be holding our annual Leader’s Conference via Google Meet as opposed to the less secure Zoom. It will be quite an experience!


All our leaders debating, discussing and electing the leadership 
team for the coming 4 years – amongst other matters. We sure do value your prayers.


We are blessed with an expert (Philip) on all this tech stuff and will be doing a trial run tonight just to make sure all is in order for Saturday. Then the minutes have to be registered at a solicitors on Monday 18th  in time for our deadline of the 20th.


I personally am vastly improved in health. Thank you for praying. Please don’t stop. Liz is the rock of Gibraltar as ever! God sure blessed me with Liz!


The whole family has helped so much as have the teams for the variety of ongoing activities. 


On Sunday the election results will be displayed here! Watch this space.


The Covid-19 virus bites harder and harder in Brazil now with a sad division amongst the politicians. The Federal Government is ridiculously flamboyant about a “load of fuss about a minor cold”, but the State Governors resist as does the Supreme Court and we fumble on. Also years of corruption siphoning off money from health care for personal things (robbery) means our healthcare system is utterly inadequate. All the talk about the heat being conducive to combatting the virus, plus plain ignorance and the ignoring of scientists – means the virus is deeply embedded all around us. We lie low and trust God!


One particular case of domestic violence has greatly upset us but the wife was gladly kept from her husband’s knife by their 20 year old daughter’s intervention. These are difficult times. Philip has been greatly used of God is astounding wisdom. God is our refuge and strength. 

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I am not posting much because with the lock down we are limited to do anything other than on Internet. Philip and the others of church leadership are doing a good job in Patos on this, as is Pastor Wostenes and leadership team of all the general churches here. Thus I am having a long needed break to build up health and strength, which is much needed, and value your prayers.


We are helping feed the hungry in a very discreet way. If it was publicized we would have multitudes asking for help non-stop and have no peace. Similarly such work is being done round the projects and churches. Much teaching is being done online for all the communities with which EAB works, both spiritual and health wise, including about how to avoid the virus. Thus contacts are maintained. Please pray for us and EAB. 

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The church youth in Patos had their meeting on Saturday via Zoom again, but included our Juazeirinho and Teixeira church young people as well together with Beatriz who is on an exchange year in Demark


We, as most of our churches, did live broadcasts on line at the normal time of our church services. Strange, difficult and stressful times for all of us. We pray for each other.

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This is an unbelievable time of adapting to a new world reality and we are certainly working hard on this. The work load is incredible coordinating all the different teams and church leaders around EAB/ACEV’s 88 churches. Let me try and give you an overview of some little bits of everything.


The senior leadership team of 10 has regular coordination meetings to discuss umpteen questions that arise. Please pray for pastor Umbirajara’s wife (one of the team) whose wife has discovered she has a malignancy and is being operated on right now. 


Then there are issues linked to funds to support this outlying pastors in small churches. How to manage this? Then there is the problem that next month is statutory time to elect a new team (this is done every 4 years), or re-elect the old one, at our annual Leader’s Conference, which almost certainly won’t happen. This has to be officially registered with a public notary which is closed. Without this registered change in the leadership board the banks won’t work for us and we wouldn’t be able to do bank transfers to pay workers, projects etc. We can organize an internet general assembly for the election under these exceptional circumstances, I think, but will we be able to get a public notary to register it so as to have legal public value before the banks and authorities? I am sharing the details of this one issue, or a long list, just for you to understand the dilemmas and challenges facing us as leaders of the Mission. Please pray and support. Thank you.

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With church services cancelled everywhere the Church of Jesus Christ adapts and reaches out with teaching and preaching the Gospel. The church buildings may be closed but the church moves on. Of course we miss the physical company of everyone, but the body of Christ continues in fellowship with Christ and His body.


I was encouraged by Brother Paulo, speaking to him on WhatsApp yesterday, from the ex-landless community not many miles from Green Pastures. He spoke to me from his little farmstead he received from a government project where EAB/ACEV drilled a well for the community and set up a community market garden project. I checked he was being duly careful even though he is in such an isolated community. He assured me they are. Then he told me that they had heeded my advice, from some time back, to hold little daily family times of prayer, praise and Bible reading, by who can read. He said these times “are being a great blessing to him, his wife and family, because they are learning to pray more and praise from the heart”! So this is one example of a cloud having a silver lining. Please continue to pray for us and support the work here in these difficult times. 

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The rainy season this year for Green Pastures is well down on the last 3 years. On the other hand the reservoirs for Patos have done much better and one is overflowing. The big reservoir at Coremas, from where Patos has its pipeline, has also taken in a massive amount of water. So things vary from area to area with the Patos area doing really well but not at Green Pastures where the lake is nearly dry and the river bed is dry. All very green, but it doesn’t get passed this as rain which comes in small quantities doesn’t accumulate in lakes and reservoirs. We pray that April will be better because its the last month in which we can get big rains.


In the work of the Lord we press on with internet being our means of communication like it is for you. We bring messages, praise and prayer through this means and use Zoom for some fellowship groups. Lots of prayer and counselling goes on via WhatsApp too. Clearly we really do need your prayers as I know you need ours. We must stand together in Christ. 


We are carrying out supplying food parcels where we can for our poor Action Child/Schools children as they are very poor. This we are being very discreet about as we can’t do it for everyone so we are saying nothing about this on Facebook to avoid possible tumults. The whole situation here is very complex and precarious. The political chaos is hindering a lot with lack of emergency healthcare preparation abominable. Please pray.


Please pray for us personally, for our family and all our leaders and church members. We are constantly under pressure. We look to God – our refuge and strength. 

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Brazil’s president has just decreed that “church services are essential services” like water or electricity supplies – thus bowing to the mass of fanatical evangelicals who elected him. It is an unbelievable decree! This means the prosperity theology lot and many others can gather their money as usual. 


Tragically Brazil’s president is not taking this virus serious. We can only cry to God to intervene. Please join us.

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With
so much in lock down it’s services on line, lots of counselling via WhatsApp or
by phone, and lots of meetings online with different teams of our leaders. I am
also seeking to maintain a positive approach doing creative and enjoyable
things such as reading (a commentary on Galatians at the moment), praying and
Bible reading, and writing stories of our experiences in the work of the Lord
over the years. I’ll post here chapter 1 today and I pray it will bless you.

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We’re all in the same boat with this pandemic so we pray for each other. We do really value your prayers and support. We minister to so many people via Internet as this is the only way. Liz and I plan to do a live transmission to the church at the time of what is our normal main Sunday service. All services were banned here, as from this week, which we are aware is the case in so many countries.


We seek to remain positive in all this and watch little news broadcasts. I am on the BBC opinion panel, as I have been for years, and I have just been asked for my opinion on its coverage of the crisis. I gave very frank answers to their questions.


We maintain our daily devotional times of course, listen to good inspirational music, read good books (reading a commentary on Galatians at the moment with one on Romans next), watch films, and in the evenings we have a fun and jokes time with the family on WhatsApp. There is a lot of guidance to be given to our different fellowship groups and major decisions being taken with the general church leadership team. We value your prayers for us that we may be kept healthy and strong in the Lord for us to be able to keep counselling and supporting the many who need it. 


I plan to write some EAB stories here on my blog and on the EAB Facebook page in the coming days. I will continue to write for the churches here’s benefit as well. We all must have a positive agenda for the glory of God whether in isolation or not. May God help us all to this end at this time.


Please especially pray for Brazil facing immense ignorance from many (disbelief in the problem!) and much inertia and irresponsibility from some authorities. Our public health structure is frighteningly inadequate. Please remember us in your prayers and help support us as we seek to continue the work and care for the flock and very poor communities in creative blessed ways. 

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We have reached another Sunday with the Sunday School for all ages held this morning and all is now set for the evening service when God’s Word will be preached and the Lord’s Name praised. These are tense days for everyone, though the full impact of the current public health crisis has not been felt yet in Brazil, though it is forecast for between now and the end of April. We all certainly need to pray for each other at this time.  


I have been working on the next edition of EAB’s magazine ‘In Touch’ (edition 93). Over the 82 years of EAB the name of its publication has changed a lot, but we have managed to stick to ‘In Touch’ for many years this time. Marian Rashleigh is my co-editor and she is key in the whole process. We are very grateful to her for her faithful service in so many ways. 


Of course we, as a local church and as a Mission here in Brazil are busy working on contingency plans at this time. We value your prayers a great deal. 

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International Women’s Day was celebrated on Sunday in Patos with all the women standing for a photograph, all the prayers and Bible reading conducted by Women as well as the sign language for the deaf. The Men’s Fellowship distributed chocolates to all the ladies and I preached on Women’s Ministry in God’s Kingdom. It was a blessed & happy evening.

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I will be off very shortly to give the Thursday evening Bible study and I’ll be attempting to cover Deuteronomy 28-31 + 34 tonight to complete our journey through the key stories of the Bible, in chronological order, having done the Pentateuch plus Job thus far. My task tonight is almost impossible but I’m going to try! 5 chapters of Deuteronomy in a night! Wow! This takes us up to the batten swap at the Jordan with Moses handing over to Joshua. 


I’ve also prepared my sermon for Sunday when I’ll be preaching on women’s ministry in the church, on International Women’s Day. 


I have had a lot of trouble shooting to do this week in the work and lots of problems to discuss and work on. It has been quite a week! One son of one of our leaders sadly attempted suicide, whilst away studying, was one of the problems. So we value your prayers always for us and the work of EAB. 

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Yesterday I conducted our third communion service of the year (being the first Sunday of the month) in the Patos church and the church was completely full with our communion cups just working out to the right number! I breathed a sigh of relief with one cup left for me after all had received, as this is so unnecessary because we have another tray of cups which a stubborn deaconess refuses to use as she doesn’t like the spare tray’s format! I have asked Liz to fix the deaconess! 


The service was lovely with Lucena back, a retired Congregational pastor who is now with us, who had been in Recife for treatment for 2 months with a liver abscess. Lindon Carlos, pastor of our Imaculada church, preached the Word from the book of Hebreus. 


We have suspended hugs and handshakes in church for the time being whilst this Coronavirus matter is not sorted out.


Please pray for the very difficult rain situation at Green Pastures. This year rainfall at Green Pastures is the lowest since 2016. We have only had 6 inches to date of the 40 inches target which we need to receive so as to keep going till the following year. As things stand the little lake at Green Pastures will soon be totally dry. Everything is more or less green with the light rains we have had, but it is what we call a “green drought”! That is, to the visitor seeing things green they will think all is well, but when they get to the lake they change their minds! The strange thing is that in Patos it is getting much more rain. It’s good for Patos but we could do with some at Green Pastures too! The rainy season here is during the first 4 months, plus dribs and drabs in May and the odd shower in June. So we are praying for rain in abundance between now and the end of April.

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I have just got home from a wonderful Carnival Camp at Green Pastures – the 41st! Tired yes… but rejoicing in the Lord.


This years theme was ‘spirituality’, focusing on the essential nature of our daily devotional times with God and the positive affects this has on our daily Christian lives. I preached in 3 of the 7 services and Wostenes and Gleydice, from Campina Grande, ministered at the others. On Monday and Tuesday they answered questions informally in the mornings with Wostenes preaching one night and Gleydice the other. Many came forward at the end of the services reconsecrating their lives to God and committing themselves to spending more time privately with God in prayer, fasting, worship and Bible meditation.


The praise and worship was greatly blessed as always. Our church band is extremely good. We just need to work more on the up and coming generations of musicians and band members and have kicked off initiatives to get a ‘kids band’ and a ‘teens band’ going for God. 


The leisure side of the Camp went beautifully too. Our sincerest thanks to those who contributed to making it possible for poorer folk/families to be there. These were very important inputs into their lives spiritually and fellowship-wise too. The youth ran a games afternoon one day and Philip ran another, what we used to call years ago – ‘opportunity knocks’, which I seem to have heard is called ‘X Factor’ today. Not that there is any element of competition in our version. It’s nice just to see up and coming talent and to show there is space for everyone. The menu was varied from little children to seniors. One group of 3 brothers – one a fireman and all fathers – ended up being nominated the ‘BeeGees’ owing to their popularity!


Then there were constant domino competitions throughout the camp, table tennis, volleyball and swimming. So praise God for a  lovely balanced and bless Camp and thanks very much for all your prayers and support. 

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hopetogether.org.uk informs that “Former football star
David Beckham’s two youngest children; showbiz celebrity Kim Kardashian West
and her youngest children; Liverpool Football Club star Roberto Firmino and the
Chelsea and Brazil winger Willian, have all been baptised recently”. I
know they are no different before God to someone I baptize deep in the interior
of NE Brazil who lives in a mud house, but it certainly is encouraging! On
Easter Sunday I’ll be baptizing another granddaughter’, Alice, and others in
EAB’s Patos Church too. PTL!

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With EAB’s Action Schools Project now totally revamped and upgraded we rejoice at the hundreds of extremely poor children we are able to minister to educationally, spiritually and socially. Being a shoe-string Mission we depend on donations from churches and individuals to be able to maintain this vital work and we hope and pray to expand it this year. To support this work and to receive more information about it please contact eabchild@gmail.com

Yesterday we held a training day gathering all teachers and church leaders from our Action Schools to go over the principles which govern the work we do, the high standards we must always maintain, improving reporting techniques to enable us to monitor better each school’s progress etc. Praise God for an excellent day as we start a new school year and for the great team we have. We seek to give poor kids a meal a day, help with their regular government very low standard school work so as for the children to genuinely learn and enjoy learning, and lead kids, up to year 5, to a living faith in Jesus Christ.


What a joy it was to hear about one of our ex-Action School kids who today is a bank manager and another who is a worship ministry leader in his church and RE teacher in his town! On the other hand, as we don’t just tell the success stories, we prayed together for another ex- EAB Action School kid who is living in promiscuity, has been involved in the drug culture and has been in jail twice. However he at least is back in church now and we pray for God in His love and mercy to change his life! The seed was sown and he is back in church! Please pray for this fantastic project.

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The Men’s Fellowship meeting on Tuesday was especially blessed and the 2 brothers who came to Christ though this ministry last year were both in the meeting.


On Wednesday I took part in a Skype meeting with the new Tearfund leader in Brazil who lives in the south at São Paulo. Unfortunately it was confirmed, as I had suspected, that Tearfund has decided to cut back on funding work in Brazil so that is a further challenge to the work here on top of all the other difficulties in the funding field. I also went for an eye test and I am going to have to wear sunglasses out and about. The doctor has been pressurizing me on this matter and I have resisted, as I like to see small aspects of nature when out walking, but I am going to have to give in.


On Thursday I took the Bible study and we had a good study progressing through chapters 5 and 6 of Deuteronomy. Then yesterday I had another meeting with deaf pastor Luis Carlos to get feedback on the ministry and discuss a few matters. There are 28 doing the latest Brazilian sign language course we always run each year. The Deaf’s annual Conference will be in July.


With 2 weeks to go to the Carnival Camp it is all stations go preparing for this. I am today working on my opening message. There is of course so much preparation to do. You have no idea! All the dormitory roofs were overhauled this year as the clay tiles are prone to leaks and the massive amount of trees shed many leaves which block up roofing channels causing leakage problems in an eventual heavy rain. One has to think of everything! We value your prayers for the camp. 

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There is always plenty of counselling ministry for Liz and I. We spent a nice time with one young Christian man in the last few days and we also visited Sandra who is a Down’s Syndrome lady. She loves it when we are with her and she loves to sing hymns with me. She beams smiling and she remembers the words of old hymns quite well. Bless her!


I celebrated my birthday eating a pizza with all the family and that was nice. The church gave me a shirt and a new wallet as my old one had been noticed to be falling apart! Honestly!


Communion service was lovely yesterday. I preached on Matthew 5:6 – “Hungering and thirsting for righteousness”. A young Bible School student of ours gave a short meditation prior to Communion in preparation for it which was nice. 


I had a long walk very early yesterday morning at Green Pastures and managed to photograph for the first time a gorgeous Striped Owl (Asio clamator) which is a fairly large and beautiful owl about 42 cm tall. This species had been registered at Green Pastures at night by our automatic cameras, but I had never seen one personally. However recently I have seen this large owl perching in one specific place near the lake, but every time I tried to get near enough to photograph it, it flew off and I couldn’t even see which species it was. I thought it might be a Barn Owl. So yesterday I very slowly approached the location from a different angle and it worked!


Tomorrow I will be speaking at the Men’s Fellowship (Book of Daniel) and the Bible Study (Deuteronomy) will be on Thursday. In between I have a meeting on Skype with Tearfund as things are complicated with them these days helping with any projects. It’s quite a headache. On Friday I have a meeting with our deaf pastor.


Please pray for us and for the soon coming Carnival Camp at Green Pastures starting on the 22nd of this month.

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The 10-day Evangelistic Outreach ended up well. I preached as always at the last main street service in front of the church and it was lovely. 8 raised their hands indicating desire to follow Jesus at the end, one man gave me a note asking to be contacted afterwards and another came to me asking for prayer. There were a total of 25 people who made decisions for Christ, and now ensues the follow-up work to see how many really are converted and committed to the Lord. Please pray.


We had a good EAB UK Board of Trustees meeting on Saturday in which I participated via video link on Messenger. One of the things I told them about was the excellent Action Child leadership meeting held in my office the previous day. We are always pressing on towards excellence and seeking to improve all we do for God, and it was wonderful to see the total dedication and commitment of the team. We will have a further meeting with all the Action Child/Schools teachers, local pastors and coordination team on February 15th. 


Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre prepares for our Carnival Camp starting on February 22nd. There is always much to do preparing for these big events. But Green Pastures always functions as a get-away place for our leaders and their families. 2 families have been there recently to relax and have a break in quietness in the middle of nature.


We value your prayers as we face different difficulties and challenges from day to day, that the Lord will give us wisdom and peace in all situations. How blessed Liz and I are by our wonderful relationship as we can support each other always. Difficulties have arisen in the work on a variety of fronts, at the same time as support income for the Mission has fallen low. Please pray for all this. One of our pastors has gone into depression for the second time now so I had to organize emergency cover for him at his church and help with his treatment. Other battles arise, but the Lord is with us. Sometimes disappointments arise, but God never disappoints us. 


Last night’s service in Patos was really blessed. I preached on “Changing Clothes” (Ephesians 4:17-24) and was encouraged by a lot of appreciation expressed after the service. 

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We have now seen the number of people who have made commitments to Jesus Christ, as a result of the annual 10-day Evangelistic outreach at Ibiara, rise to 20. This is really encouraging. Of course only time will tell, in the follow-up, as to how many people will stand firm and truly be converted, but the signs are promising. Please pray. We carefully monitor all decisions between now and May when we have our annual General Conference. People are of course visited etc. as appropriate. 


I have just finished reading “The Kingdom of Jesus” written by Forster. It’s alright, but not a book I would recommend. Other books I’ve read by him have been much better, but they were written in partnership with others. This reads like a copy of his preaching, without a partner, and you sort of have to stick at it to get through it. He has some good insights into the whole concept of the Kingdom of God/Heaven and the Son of Man.

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Our annual 10-day evangelistic outreach, this year with a team of 80, is now on day 6 at Ibiara (155 km west of Patos) and there have been 6 decisions of commitment to Christ thus far. We praise God for the good spirit and progress. 


It is not easy for the teams at these events as all take their own thin roll-up mattresses and sleep on the floor of a loaned school because January is holiday time for the schools here. The toilet and shower facilities are very poor too at these government schools. Quite disgraceful to be honest! So please pray for them!


Most mornings the routine is prayer and Bible meditation, with the exception of Monday as it was market day so the team hit the market with the Gospel early. In the afternoons door-to-door personal evangelism is done 2 by 2 so that the entire town will be reached during the outreach. 


In the evenings street services are held with praise, drama and preaching of the Gospel. My night to preach is always on the final Saturday. The street services are dynamic so as to attract and keep a crowd. 

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Liz and I praise God for the 48 years we have had, to date, serving the Lord in the interior of northeast Brazil, and for the health and strength, both physical and spiritual, that we have to continue this work with great joy and pleasure for His glory.


We are the longest serving missionaries EAB has had and it is a privilege to be at the hub of Mission activities, in churches and projects, to this day. Whilst we have health and strength our pleasure is to serve the Lord as we are doing. As we compare ourselves with three of the Democratic candidates vying to be the president of the USA this year, which is a pretty demanding job, we feel youngsters!


Thus we ask you to especially pray for us and support us in this exciting period of ministry that we are involved in for God. We are leaders and coordinators of 88 churches, (small, medium and large) & multiple community projects to express God’s love including rural community projects building underground dams, drilling wells, setting up market gardens, bee keeping for honey and goat rearing. All such projects always aim to help the poor help themselves and not be simply paternalistic hand-out people. We teach, behind all this, how such community development must be done in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, backed up by our Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre which is a living example of what we preach. (Carnival Camp there from February 22-26 would welcome help to get poor families there @ £30 per person for the 5 days)


In other fields of the work we run many small Action schools for those in extreme poverty, empower women to defend their rights, combat domestic violence and generate income by training them to make handicraft (Desert Flower Project), run a Christian Care Centre where a dentist treats the poor (principally children), the deaf are blessed and our seniors too. Our food bank is run here as well, for those in emergency need. 


We manage to do so much because we are “team people“. That is, we enjoy working in and with teams. Our work needs to be understood as a series of multiple interlinked circles (teams) which all work together for God and our neighbour. We are leaders of a central team, and each church has a pastor and team of leaders, and all projects are church based and have teams of leaders. Liz and I have the joy of being involved with all these teams and are ultimately leaders of this, working together with this army of Christian workers built up over the years, and above all else, working together with God, and with His people who pray for us and support us, which is you.


So as we have plunged into 2020 we ask you to reinforce your prayers and support for us. The support of us your missionaries is key to these widening circles of Christian outreach …

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10-day Evangelistic Outreach – Day 3 (Sunday) started with morning prayer & Bible meditations, as we do every day.

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I will be off to the Patos church is an hour’s time to preach my third sermon in my series on the Beatitudes. This time it is verse 5: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth”. Many are away as January is holiday month (like August is in the UK) but we pray God will bless. Sacha will be leading the praise as Philip is one of those away!

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Day 2 of the 10-day Evangelistic Outreach at Ibiara was dedicated to the training in evangelism of the team, by young Pastor Rafael who is an excellent evangelist, prior to the opening street service at night. Please pray

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Friday (10th) was day 1 of our annual 10-day evangelistic outreach, this year at Ibiara. Team members travelled to Ibiara during the day and had their inaugural start-up meeting under the stars in the school where the team is based, and where they all sleep on the floor, eat, and have pretty basic toilet/shower facilities. Please pray! 🙏

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We had over two and a half inches of rain at Green Pastures in the night which was our first rain of the year. This makes everyone more cheerful! Our target, as always, is to reach about 40 inches in the first 5 months of the year. 

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Just got home from our first Sunday in 2020 when we baptized 3 men: Leudo (deaf) and Murilo & Orlando (hearers). Murilo came to Christ through a teenager run Bible study group at his school run by youngsters from our church. Leudo came to the Lord through our Deaf Fellowship and Orlando is fruit of the job creation project having been helped to set up a thriving business as a gardener. His son was converted first and now Dad!

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We have just had a simple lunch together for all the family on this first day of 2020. It was just lovely all to be together and chat.

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We praise God for a really blessed Watch Night service last night which started at 10 pm and finished at 12.30 am. Numbers were down (owing to blessed rain! Two inches in Patos! and many away) but blessing was up! The watch night services can be too bubbly and euphoric but last night’s was really spiritual. 


The service had the old church band back together from 25/30 years ago which was excellent. As I said last night – if the Rolling Stones can still perform why can’t we! I preached and sang, and granddaughter Alice danced ballet to worship God, together with Milena and Rayla, to the music of What a Beautiful Name / Agnus Dei (Travis & Lily Cottrell). It was a tear jerker and greatly blessed! We ended up the service with communion just after midnight. In fact the communion service was especially nice because we held it, not by candlelight, but by mobile phone light after a power cut. ( utterly refuse to use the americanism ‘power outage’!


For the rest of the week we will hopefully rest up a bit – just will need to prepare to preach next Sunday of course when there will be a baptism too. 

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I preached again last night in our final Sunday service of the year with my sermon asking: God is in control of what? It all went well. Now we have our final watch night service starting at at 10 pm tomorrow and going to around half an hour into the New Year with communion. 


Yesterday morning we held our annual members general assembly in the Patos church which also went well.


Christmas/New Year is pretty hectic but all has been blessed of God. Thanks for all your support and prayers throughout another year. 

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The past week was very full with the Men’s Fellowship meeting for a pizza on the Tuesday night to start with. What a blessing this fellowship is! Such a joy to see two men won for Christ during 2019 there to eat pizza and testify about their joy in Jesus!


On the Wednesday was the Women’s Fellowship’s end of year get-together too and on the Thursday was the last Bible Study of 2019. How we have enjoyed following the https://www.biblegateway.com/readingplans/chronological  key Bible stories schedule and studied Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Job in 2019 with a start in Deuteronomy on the final day! Well worth doing this with your church IF they really want to study the whole Bible, because some parts of the Pentateuch are pretty heavy and stodgy! 


Then on Saturday we did the annual Christmas Hamper/Toys distribution with 462 hampers and over 200 toys. It was another moving emotional Christmas party with the poor for the glory of God!


Then yesterday on Sunday (22nd) we had the final Sunday School fellowship time together in the morning and our first Christmas Service in the evening. I preached and the Deaf Fellowship led a moving worship time to God, followed by the fantastic Children’s Cantata – Jesus: the Joy of Christmas!


Tomorrow night – Christmas Eve we will have our main Christmas play – “A Christmas Carrot” and the giving of presents and sweets to the children round the church Christmas tree. Then it will be all the family back at our house for the traditional Brazilian Christmas Eve Supper. Happy Christmas!

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Since I wrote on this blog a few days ago so much has happened that I have no time to write my blog. One morning we already had a church member in dire straights asking for help at 5.30 am and so the day went on. Monday is a relax day after a hectic weekend so here I am still in my pyjamas at 10 am but I will have a shower in a minute I promise.


On Saturday night I preached at the Patos EAB School Christmas service on ‘thankfulness for Christmas’ as requested by the head teacher. The service was fantastic with over 200 present in the street in front of the school. Last night’s service in Patos was blessed of God too and I preached on Paul’s beautiful prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 with only 20 minutes notice! The scheduled preacher went down ill and literally told me at the last minute.


Now we are preparing for the big annual Christmas Hampers distribution for the poor this Saturday, and then we have our first Christmas service in the Patos church on the Sunday night (22nd) with a second on Christmas eve. In the 1st the children’s cantata will be featured plus the Deaf Fellowship’s presentation, and I will bring a short message. In the 2nd we will have the main drama production: “A Christmas Carrot”.


May the Lord richly bless us all this Christmas!

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