Categoria: News

I have had a very intense day which started with the first meeting starting at 7:45 am at the project centre. The meeting was to discuss a possible public health project which if it works out could be fantastic. I will not say more about it yet as it is by no means sure. That’s how things are here in the work. People ask to talk to us and sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t. If is comes to fruition the project will probably be established on land donated to ACEV by the Patos Council in 2006 which has never  been used for lack of funds. Please pray for this possibility which would be a massive long-term help for the health of thousands of extremely poor people.


After this I initiated the training course for those who are going to work in the new anti-drug project. I introduced the speaker/trainer and generally introduced the entire project idea. 22 came from 8 EAB/ACEVchurches. I stayed for the first part of the course before moving into another meeting. This Friday I will hold a meeting with those from Patos who were trained today to define where we go from here. Watch this space!


I then went into a two hour meeting with our projects coordinator Flávia discussing a very wide rage of projects and issues. It was well worthwhile.


Tomorrow I will be leading the main service of the week in Patos and Philip will be preaching. Your prayers are valued.

My EAB Nutshell Update was dispatched late on Wednesday night, just before midnight, so everyone around the world should have awoken to it in their inbox at breakfast today! If you want to receive a copy please let me know.


Yesterday we had the sad news that Jéssica, our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos’s wife, who is also deaf, lost her unborn baby at 36 weeks weeks of pregancy. When she went to the hospital there was no heartbeat and they estimate there had been no growth of the baby for the past 6 weeks. This is the second baby they have lost. The first was much earlier in pregnancy. So they will now try to discover the cause. Our church support team has been fantastic in all this and the Married Couples Ministry has been amazingly helpful. Thank God for Christians! Please pray for the couple.


On Tuesday I had an excellent meeting with the ‘Native non-stinging Bee’ professor from the university and next Thursday she will be going to our Green Pastures Reserve with me to commence her research. She told me that she found 2 nests of ‘Melipona interrupta’ bees there in tree hollows on her first brief visit which is a good sign of preservation. 


Liz will be giving the Bible study again this evening. 

I am very happy to have recently managed to film the Red-nosed Field Mouse (Wiedomys pyrrhorhinos) twice, with the infra-red camera at night, at Green Pastures. This might not seem important to many, but for me it’s fantastic. An environmental expert helped me identify the species. If you’re interested you can see both little 30 second films on my Flickr site https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmedcraft/ . One film was posted today (21st) and the other on the 15th of August. 

Please pray for Pastor José Vieira and family in João Pessoa. His brother was a taxi driver and took a young woman to the Cristo borough of João Pessoa not knowing that she was an ex-convict and involved with drugs. Upon reaching the requested destination an ambush awaited her with various men opening fire to kill her, and in the process killed the taxi driver as well!


Pastor José Vieira is the pastor of the second of three EAB/ACEV main churches in João Pessoa in a borough called Cidade Verde. The wake is being conducted right now. Violence in Brazil is at unbelievable levels everywhere. 

On Monday evening our meeting with Dedé, who is the leader of the Christians in Action group at the Patos church, was long but very good. It was basically a review of all the different little works the group ministers at, as well as the fellowship group in Patos. Dedé is a quietly spoken unassuming father of two who is incredibly sincere and committed to the Lord and his work. Please remember him and the ministry of this group in your prayers.


On Tuesday morning Liz drove me out to Green Pastures where I had a nice walk of 1.2 km. I was pleased to see how beautifully in flower the Licania Rigida tree is along the banks of the now dry stream. I have not seen it flower so well for years so we hope for many seeds to transform into seedlings to plant along the banks where many have died during the droughts of the last 10 years.


On Tuesday afternoon we had a meeting with 2 single Mums who are to take on the leadership of the church’s singles fellowship. It was nice talking, praying & and planning with them for the future. Then in the evening we chatted to a young Mum who is a Vet and who, together with her husband, will join the other couple already leading the married couples Fellowship to try and shake it up a bit.


Today I’m working on my sermon for Sunday amongst many other administrative matters. 

Yesterday was Father’s Day in Brazil, the 2nd Sunday in August. The second in May is for Mums. I managed to lead and preach and all went well. A packed church, lovely P&W, a good slot for the Dads and then I preached the Word. 


Please pray for Tarcísio at Green Pastures whose elderly parents are ill. His Dad (87) had his leg amputated last week and now his Mum (77) has been taken ill. We took more food for the hungry to folk from the Green Pastures area as things are tough for everyone, especially for the poor.


We’ve a lot of meetings this week. Tonight is with the leader of the Christians in Action group. Tomorrow we have meetings with the married couple’s potential new leaders and later with the singles potential new leaders. I have a meeting with a Baptist pastor friend on Thursday and on Friday with our deaf pastor. Sunday is the Patos church members meeting.


Today, 15 years ago, my dear Dad died whilst on a visit to us. We have many happy memories of dear Dad and praise God for his blessed life.

The funeral service of a very faithful EAB supporter, Peter House, will be held on Monday, August 21, at 1pm at Emmanuel Church, Shirley Road, Southampton. We praise God for Peter’s 90 years lived for God and for his faithful encouragement and support for the work of EAB. Our prayers are with Margaret and the family.

We had a great communion service in Patos last night. The praise and worship was really blessed. The church was full as usual. There was a nice moment of thanksgiving in the service for the promotion of our previously Captain in the Military Police Esaú who has just been promoted to Major. Philip led the service very well.


It was so nice when my time came to preach and the Lord really blessed and strengthened me and I preached without any feeling of weakness or the likes. PTL! The sermon flowed really well and by the feedback I had from many people afterwards I feel many were blessed. God is good.


After the service I had some meetings with different leaders and I got home tired but not half as tired as a week earlier when I had done nothing and felt exhausted. 


My surgical wound is now completely healed. PTL! No more dressings and stuff. So good! Steadily stronger. 


Tomorrow we have a meeting of the Patos church senior leadership in preparation for a general church business meeting on August 20th in the morning.

Last night I returned to church having last been there on the last Sunday in June. So I missed 4 Sundays in July and was back for the last Sunday of the month of July. It was good to be back. PTL! I just opened the service with a few words and prayer. Philip led the service and Elaine from the Patos Bible College spoke. It all went well. I found it quite tiring, but first time back is always like this after health problems. I hope to be strong enough to preach next Sunday.


I was asked to write an article for the principal nationwide evangelical magazine in Brazil called ‘Ultimato’ and I managed to do this over the last few days. My deadline was today. I have already received good feedback from the magazine so that is nice. 


I have a meeting tonight in my office with leaders of the Action Child programme. I’m slowly getting back to normal! Most of the surgical wound is now healed – just one section still open. Patience! We’re getting there! PTL!

Thanks for your prayers. I went back to see the surgeon in João Pessoa and he was very pleased with my progress to recovery. PTL! I ended the antibiotics on Tuesday thankfully and now it’s a matter of continually changing the dressings of the wound which he says will still take some time to totally heal. He removed the last 6 stitches. I can’t drive for another month. The surgery was 4 weeks ago this Friday.


Please pray for a serious problem we have just learnt of at Soledade. I can’t say anything about it at this stage. Just please pray. We are lining up another pastor to go there and support and counsel. 


This Saturday the Patos church children will be spending the day at Green Pastures as the final event in their holiday activities which have been excellent this year. The following two days after this a team of researchers will move in to Green Pastures for 2 days of further research into lizards.


This Sunday’s main service will be evangelistic. Please pray.

The weekend services in Patos went off great. Philip did a great job and preached very well last night.

I have been feeling somewhat brighter today. Thanks for your prayers.


Philip will be leading church this Sunday in Patos so please pray for him too.

All was going well after my surgery, but then I developed a post-op infection which complicated everything. I have taken and am taking loads of expensive antibiotics and was quite rough. I now feel a bit better but it’s going to be a slower recovery now. I value your prayers.

I have this week completed the writing of a new drama for church. I have done this before writing Christmas plays but this is the first play about mission. I wrote it in conjunction with Liz and church drama leader Dilma. It is an entirely true story from our history and I believe will be most impactive and moving. I will say no more about it now so as to maintain the surprise. You can see it’s first performance live in the special mission service on September 3rd, marking the 79th anniversary of our founders arrival in Brazil in 1938.


Liz will be driving me now to João Pessoa to get my surgery checked over with the surgeon.

I left the hospital on Sunday morning and we stayed till the Monday in João Pessoa before heading back to Patos. It was a very tiring journey straight after surgery but Liz did very well driving very fast to get me home as quickly as possible. On the Sunday night we watched the entire service in Patos via the Internet and that went very well. PTL!


We got back to Patos at 3.35 pm yesterday (Monday) and I was particularly exhausted. Today I feel a bit brighter. It’s a matter of taking things steady now and resting plenty so that everything heals nicely.

Late in the afternoon this Friday I went down to sugery in a João Pessoa hospital to finally get my inguinal hérnia fixed. The operation took longer than had been expected because the hernia turned out be larger than originally thought. Nevertheless all went well and I hope to be discharged on Sunday morning. We plan to go to Patos on Monday. I had a shower this morning and had the dressing changed . I am back to normal food today which is helpful. Thanks for your prayers. Philip will be leading the service in Patos.

Liz and I arrived in João Pessoa around 10.30 am today to sort out one final burocratic detail linked to the hospital and my surgery here tomorrow. That done and dusted we have spent the rest of the day resting.


I can only eat till 9 am tomorrow as my hernia surgery is now set for 5 pm (9 pm UK) so it’s going to be interesting how it works out as diabetics not eating is a bit complicated. I expect to be released from the hospital after about 24 hours and we will stay in a hotel until Monday when we plan to head back to Patos. We value your prayers.

I will be going into hospital this Friday afternoon and my hernia surgery will be done early in the evening. I value your prayers. I have had an iguinal hernia for years, but it has steadily got worse, so I will be glad to get it fixed and be able to walk more freely again. I will of course need a lot of post-op rest to avoid reoccurrence but I have lots to do like writing the history of the work here, reading, family history research etc. – so I have plenty to do! I of course will keep in contact with everyone here on my 13 year old blog, on Facebook and via WhatsApp and Messenger.


I would expect to be released from the hospital on Saturday or early Sunday. We then plan to stay in João Pessoa and head back home to Patos on Monday.

I ask for prayer for a family which is young in the faith and with whom we’re working in counselling these days (no names no pack drill) who have grown somewhat cold in the faith owing to roots of bitterness which have become established in their lives. Sadly over the years we have observed how often just small issues can become major if we don’t dig them out. Please pray.


Linked to ‘roots of bitterness’, but now in the physical sense, let me mention the battle we are now having with the Neem Tree and ask for prayer for this too. In a nutshell I discovered the Neem tree at a Christian Missionary workers conference someone kindly paid for me to go to years ago in the USA. My objective there was to learn more about the Moringa tree (which I did) but I learnt about Neem also. The advantages of Neem are: produces good quality wood / fast growing / gives good shade / always green / natural insecticide produced by leaves. The disadvantages are that the tree kills native bees / is uncontrolably invasive spreading like wild fire and suffocating native trees especially with a good rainy season like we’ve had this year.


We learn by our mistakes and from taking wrong advice. Please pray as we now battle to erradicate the Neem tree from Green Pastures which is no easy task. Green Pastures is divided into 3 main areas: the higher area up the top beyond the lake which doesn’t have Neem fortunately / the main nature reserve area near the river which is badly invaded / the area when you arrived at Green Pastures where the school is, church is and camps are held. This has masses of Neem trees too but dealing with this area can be left till later. The big battle now is the main central reserve area.


The problem with Neem is that even when you chop them down and make fence posts from the wood – the roots (of bitterness) remain and the Neem keeps ressurging! The challenge is to erradicate them completely and definitively. 

I only now am getting to writing up the annual Field Conference report to send to all the leaders here. I just haven’t had the time previously.


Yesterday morning I met the surgeon in João Pessoa who is going to fix my hernia and the surgery is set for either July 1st or 15th. He will confirm in a few days which of these dates but I hope its the 1st so as to get it over with. I value your prayers. 


I am all set to go at church tomorrow. I am looking forward to preaching on “Jesus overcoming myth and legalism” (John 5:1-18). It’s a much more challenging text than initially meets the eye.


The youth are at Green Pastures today having a fun and fellowship day. Philip and Gylmara run this.

I worked hard the rest of Monday and on Tuesday preparing my sermon for this Sunday. This is quite a complicated text to handle as verses 3b and 4 are not in the good original texts. Nevertheless it all worked out in the end and by Tuesday night I was ready to roll. It was just as well as on Wednesday morning we received two items of shock news which were to change our week.


First of all came the news than an old Patos church member had died in João Pessoa and Liz and I would have to set off later for the funeral. The other was the horrific news of the Grenfell Tower 24-storey block of flats in North Kensington just a mile from where I was born and brought up – the whole area of which we know like the back of our hand. When it is somewhere close to home like this it really knocks you for six! I am very sad at the news and very angry. It is unbelievable that 24 storeys of flats can be burnt out so quickly! Outrageous! I am glad the Prime Minister has ordered an independent enquiry as heads must roll and lessons be learned. To spend millions on coating the outside of such a block of flats with inflammable plastic demands more than jail – it demands a lunatic assylum!


On Wednesday afternoon Liz and I left for the wake of Sister Euda in João Pessoa and arrived there in the evening to find it wasn’t a normal wake but rather a service with the body laying there in the middle in an open coffin as one after another spoke for hours! I finally got to bed after midnight!


This morning the funeral service was equally long and participative. It was marked for 8.30 am and Liz and I finally had lunch at 2 pm pretty exhausted. I was asked to speak in the funeral service which I did. The whole event went off fine. It was just very long.


Tomorrow morning (Friday – 16th) I have an appointment here in João Pessoa with the surgeon who is to fix my hernia to set the date for the surgery. Then we plan to head back to Patos via Green Pastures. The Married Couples Fellowship from the Patos church spent a nice bank holdiday at Green Pastures today with Philip coordinating the event. On Saturday the youth go there. The place is in non-stop use. Tomorrow we have a group of scientists moving in for 3 days reasearch again with butterflies.

I am fired up and ready to preach my 18th sermon in the series in John’s Gospel in a few hour’s time. I value your prayers. The sermon covers the last block of chapter 4. The service tonight will be transmitted live as usual.


Last night we went to the united churches annual outreach and our team did very well. It’s always a good time to let the town know we’re all around and a chance to meet up with evangelical Christians of all varieties.


I nearly forgot to mention the fact that I have worked flat out this week, where I could fit it in, writing more of the history of the work here for publication in Brazil. My very steep target is to publish the 80 year history of the work in 2018!

Brother Ken White, who was chairman of the EAB Board and longtime EAB supporter, went to his heavenly reward yesterday (Friday – June 9th) I have just heard from his wife Pat. We praise God for Ken’s life of service and dedication to God and missions and our prayers are with Pat and their children Peter and Sarah and the rest of the family.


I will inform on funeral arrangements as soon as I have them.

I have received news from Pat White, Ken White’s wife, of dear Ken’s turn for the worse this past Sunday and of the fact that he has been in hospital seriously ill ever since. Our thoughts and prayers and with Ken, Pat and the family.


Ken White and Pat (Essex) have been faithful EAB supporters for decades. Liz and I spoke at his church at Harold Hill on our first itinerary prior to coming to Brazil in 1972, and they always have faithfully supported us and the work. Their son Peter came to Brazil to visit the work too a long time back and Ken and Peter were Board members for years with Peter editing our In Touch magazine for a long time. Ken also became Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Having spent the two weeks in the UK, followed immediately by the Field Conference in João Pessoa, this has meant we have a lot of catching up to do with a vast variety of aspects of the work. EAB’s work is very dynamic so on top of catching up there are always new things to deal with. 


Last Thursday Liz and I travelled to Imaculada to spend time with our Pastor Lindon Carlos who lost his Mother on the opening day of the Field Conference. We spent 3 hours with him, his father, his brother and sisters and many other family members who were all gathered for our visit. It was a rich time of fellowship.


I also spent time preparing to preach on the Sunday which went very well. It was a lovely Pentecost Sunday service including Communion.


I also have been completing my half-yearly medical check-ups which I had got half way through when I had to take off for England. Liz has been doing her check-ups too. I have also done preparatory exams for my hernia operation the date for which should be set next week by the surgeon. We went to João Pessoa to meet my anaesthetist yesterday prior to the surgery but we were back in Patos for lunch today.


I haven’t managed to complete my annual Field Conference report yet but must get that out to all the leaders this week.

We have learnt today of the homecall or our dear sister Pauline Pennels who, despite her battle against cancer for some years, never gave up her work on EAB’s Action Child Team to the end. The very poor children of NE Brazil will always be grateful. We thank God for her life of service and pray for her husband Adrian and children Ben & Hannah.

I had a meeting with our lawyer today to discuss legal action against Portuguese Airlines TAP with reference to our delay in Lisbon when on the way to England between May 9th and 11th. We were delayed 16.5 hours overnight without accomodation or food. The lawyer believes we have a very strong case for compensation although things will not be so generous on our behalf as if we were in Europe. We shall see what evolves. We have given the lawyer all the documents proving what happened and links to press articles, photos and videos of the chaos.


I went to Green Pastures for the first time in 3 weeks yesterday and all is well. With less that an inch of rain in May things are starting to dry up, but things still look pretty good. We are approaching 37 inches of rain this rainy season which is fantastic.


Liz and I have been doing lots of catching up work from our period away.

We are home in Patos – exhausted but happy. We got into Patos at 3.40 pm on Sunday afternoon in time to shower and have a cup of tea before leaving for church in Patos at 6pm. The Lord really helped us all with the service which was really good. I don’t know where my energy came from!

The Field Conference in João Pessoa was superb. The business meetings were very good on Friday and Saturday and the final celebration on Saturday night was glorious. PTL! Here are the main decisions and information from the Conference:


The work is now divided into 5 administrative areas and no longer 4 / New works have been started this year at Pocinhos, Campina Grande – Novo Horizonte, Mata Redonda, Tavares – Belém, Princesa Isabel – Lagoa de São João / Works were closed at São Paulo and Nova Olinda / Next month Philip will launch ACEV Digital online to improve constant monitoring of our 81 works collectively and individually / This years Youth Conference in November will be held at Princesa Isabel / This year’s Leaders Conference in September will be held as usual at Green Pastures and will deal with the following topics: The leader and social networks, depression and the question of gender / Next year’s Field Conference (80th) will be held in Patos / This years special 10-day Outreach yielded 5 genuine conversions + another 3 people coming back to God / 4 new Ministers were ordained: Philip (Patos), Matheus (João Pessoa), Rafael (Teixeira) and Lucia (Itaporanga) / A plan for expansion of the work was presented in its initial form and will be further developed over the coming months and years / Weekend special Outreaches will be carried out periodically in addition to the annual 10-day Outreach every January / A Women’s Conference will be held in 2018 / A noted improvement in the Action Child Project was reported / The tremendous challenges from drugs and violence were reported in the Desert Flower (Battered wives) Project and much prayer went up / I gave a special message on unity and another on always striving for higher quality in all we do for God / A well drilled in 2017 will be equipped with solar energy as a pilot experiment / Our annual audit was applauded for ethics and transparency. This is so important in corrupt Brazil because if the salt loses its flavor it would be useless.


Thank you for praying for us over the past weeks and especially for the Field Conference.

Pastor Lindon Carlos was on his way to João Pessoa for the Field Conference this morning when he received a call on his mobile telling him his mother had died suddenly back at Imaculada. He had to turn round and go home of course. Sister Naide was a fine woman from our Imaculada church who pioneered our Action Child programme decades ago. She was 77. 


Please pray as this will bring a touch of sadness to the Conference on top of my Mum’s death and that of Pastor Wostenes brother – all in the same month or so. 

It had to be beans and rice for lunch today in João Pessoa after 2 weeks in the UK! The flights were as smooth as velvet skies yesterday – not a moment of turbulence – and we even arrived at Recife airport half an hour early! Someone met us at the airport and drove us to João Pessoa where we are staying for the annual Field Conference which starts tomorrow. We aim to be in the Sunday night service in Patos.


Please pray for the Conference which is of great importance for the work. Liz has gone down with a heavy cold unfortunately which won’t help her with the Conference. 

Liz and I are already in London about half hour from Heathrow from where we will fly early tomorrow. We have a long stop over in Lisbon of 6 hours and should arrive late Wednesday night at our hotel in João Pessoa ready for the annual Field Conference which starts at midday on Friday. We have already checked-in for both flights online and will spend tonight with Liz’s sister Eunice and her husband Jon in Harrow.


At the weekend we enjoyed the EAB Board meeting at West Wellow and then travelled to High Wycombe to spend time with my sister Joy and her husband Laurence. Then on Sunday morning we enjoyed a lovely service at Millbrook Christian Centre in Southampton where I preached on ‘Christian Compassion’. This was followed by a nice lunch and afternoon with Liz’s brother David and family.


Back in Brazil we will have 4 meetings of the leadership on Friday afternoon and evening and on Saturday morning and afternoon. Then on Saturday night we will ordain 5 new ministers, including our son Philip, and give probationary ministerial status to one other. I will preach the key note message also that night. We will only travel home to Patos on Sunday morning after the Conference. 

On Saturday we met up with Ben & Miriam Price and had a nice walk and chat with them. On Sunday we visited our child’s grave at Gunnersbury cemetery, spent the day after that in Harrow with Jon & Eunice (Liz’s sister) and watched the service in the Patos church in Brazil via Facebook. This was very good indeed with an excellently clear transmission.


On Monday we did some shopping back in Basingstoke. Yesterday, Tuesday, we went to a Nature Reserve near Fleet. Tomorrow we will visit Liz’s Aunty Rosemary in Dorset, on Saturday we will go to the EAB Board meeting at West Wellow and on Sunday I will be speaking at MCC in Southampton. We go to Harrow next Tuesday ready for an early flight out of nearby Heathrow on Wednesday morning to Recife via Lisbon.


We should get to João Pessoa to sleep late Wednesday night and rest up on Thursday there prior to the start of the Field Conference on Friday (26th). This will end on Saturday night and we will hopefully be home in Patos on Sunday in time for the evening service, We value your prayers.

We left Patos on Tuesday, May 9th, and caught a flight to Lisbon from Recife Airport which was 2 hours late. It was a sign of things to come!


We flew overnight to Lisbon and arrived on Wednesday (10th) about midday for a 3 pm flight to Heathrow. However our flight was cancelled owing to a fuel pumping problem at the airport and we are told another 62 flights were cancelled. Lisbon airport was utter chaos. The main problem was that TAP airlines gave us no information or help whatsoever. It was a disgrace. No hotel or food was provided even though we had to wait overnight!


We eventually discovered that we had been re-booked for a flight on the Thursday morning so settled down on airport seats for a long unusual night. Our only means of communication was via a coin operated phone box as not even the internet worked!


Gratefully our flight only left half an hour late on the Thursday and we arrived in London late morning (11th) and drove to Basingstoke. Liz and I visited dear Mum’s body in the afternoon as Brazilian culture demands, prior to her funeral on the Friday (12th May).


The funeral was at 1pm and we were pleased to see 63 people gather. Thank you very much to all who made the effort to give Mum a good official send off. The service was beautiful. A number of tributes were given, including mine, the hymns were lovely and the minister Ian did great.


After the burial we all gathered back at the church hall for the tradional British refreshments and fellowship, with many we hadn’t seen for yonks!All went off very well and we were grateful to God and relieved. Thanks for supporting and praying. Thanks for making it possible for Liz and I to be at my Mum’s funeral.

Oh my word! It has been so ultra hectic today getting everything ready to fly to the UK tomorrow. The thing is that we have to get everything ready for the Field Conference in João Pessoa to which we go before even returning to Patos. The plans are: to travel to airport and fly to UK on 9th – arrive in UK on 10th. Mum’s funeral on 12th. Preach at Millbrook Church in Southampton on 21st. Return to Brazil 24th. Field Conference 26-27th. Back to Patos 28th. Easy life!


So I prepared my dear Mum’s tribute early this morning. Had my hair cut. Prepared my sermon for the Field Conference and finalized the agenda for it. I also prepared the ordination ceremony for the Conference at which 5 new ministers will be ordained including Philip.


Please pray for Philip leading the Patos church in our absence. Please pray for a smooth trip for us and a good couple of weeks in Blighty.


The Communion service in Patos on Sunday night was great. PTL!