The kitchen team has been in place and working since Friday afternoon and they are now preparing lunch for early arrivals. I will be moving out to Green Pastures in the next hour. We look to God for mighty blessing throughout the Camp and value your prayers. The opening service is this Saturday night.
Continue ReadingCarnival Camp, so called because we have been running it every year since 1979 throughout the Brazilian Carnival period from Saturday to Ash Wednesday, when people rush to the mass to get an ash charcoal cross put on their forehead to represent forgiveness for all the drugs, booze and promiscuity practiced over the previous 4 days. It just doesn’t fit with Christian principles so we get our youth out of it and make great healthy use of the days at Green Pastures which is a luscious green this year a result of the rain we’ve had.
This years theme is developing a Christian character. I will be preaching in the opening and closing services with other leaders speaking at the 5 others in between. I had said yesterday that my sermons were ready, but I didn’t feel right with the second one and have worked more on it today and now feel good. It’s now a bit longer and clearer I believe.
I feel 90% better as I was a bit queezy yesterday. I had a good walk at Green Pastures this morning and helped with a few final touches for the Camp. Liz has been there again this afternoon. Now the band is back out there practicing. They are a dedicated bunch. PTL!
Please pray for us over the coming days from Saturday (Feb. 6th) to Wednesday (Feb. 10th). I will get what information I can to you via this blog and/or facebook depending on what internet signal I can get at Green Pastures.
The Carnival Camp has been running at Green Pastures since 1979 and from this Saturday through to the following Wednesday it will all stations go once again. My 2 sermons are now prepared as is the entire programme and the quiet time questions are ready for early each morning.. The Patos Church Band spent 4 hours practicing till late last night and tonight they move all their gear to Green Pastures and practice again there on Friday ready for the Saturday start. We value your prayers.
I felt a bit unwell this morning but am gratefully a bit better this afternoon with my nausea less. There’s a virus going round so I hope and pray it doesn’t get me down for the Camp. Please pray.
Liz has just returned from another trip to Green Pastures taking more supplies.
The ‘Battered Wives’ project got underway again today after the January holiday month. Loads of very poor women were there to learn to make handicraft to sell to give them income. It is a beautiful project. See photo.
I spent most of Tuesday morning at the Patos General Hospital helping my friend and Baptist pastor Fred. First of all the problem was to find him as I went where he ought to have been according to my information received. But he wasn’t there! Fortunately being well known and a pastor I have a free run of the hospital at any time, and nurses and a doctor soon came to my aid to track down my friend who I eventually found still on a stretcher in the admittance section of emergency care where he had spent the night. He looked pretty pale and quite ghastly but thankfully he started brightening up as I chatted and supported him. Fortunately he had not got an exposed leg fracture as thought, but an exposed dislocated knee and quite a few other gashes needing stitches on his legs. Eventually he was put in a plaster, given a whole load of injections (one of which I was asked to help with!) and so I brought him home to rest for a few hours prior to a vehicle, which came from Conceição where he lives, arrived to take him home. He is going to sell his motorbike which could have cost him his life together with his wife and daughter who were all on it!
After this I started work on preparing my sermon for the opening night of the Camp on Saturday. I start and finish the Camp with sermons and I have now finished the opening sermon and now started on the closing one. I have also had a lot on with a number of church issues.
Liz went to Green Pastures with more supplies today. She never stops either. We had a good rain in Patos last night but none at Green Pastures unfortunately.
The 2016 Carnival Camp starts this Saturday and runs till Wednesday morning. Less people are going this year owing to Brazil’s financial crisis, but we look to God for much blessing nevertheless. It certainly is going to be a green camp as we have now had nearly 12″ of rain. PTL! We still need a lot more, but we certainly have had a good start to the rainy season.
Last night’s service went very well in Patos. The sermon went well and it was lovely to dedicate our 9th grandchild, Luis Philip, on my birthday.
This morning I went to Green Pastures and checked over different things for the Camp. Liz went this afternoon taking supplies. It is a hectic time.
I have just had news that my Baptist pastor friend at Conceição who sometimes goes bird watching with me has had an accident on his motorbike today and broken his leg badly. He is in the Patos General Hospital so I have already contacted the director, with whom I have a good relationship, asking her to get on to his case as soon as possible. Please pray for Pastor Fred.
I took part in a good EAB Board meeting this morning at 7am via Skype. We discussed in some depth some important matters and there was a good participation from everyone. The meeting was positive, productive and helpful. I can now see a way ahead on some important Mission issues now.
The service in which a couple are going to get engaged has been delayed by an hour so I am getting on with other things in the meantime, like working further on tomorrow night’s sermon.
Just in from a good Bible study night with 50 present, which isn’t bad is it for mid-week? PTL! We went through Matthew 15:10-20 as we press on, in chronological order, through the Gospels. Really good!
Off to Green Pastures early in the morning as lots to prepare for the Carnival Camp just 10 days away. Please pray!
EAB Board meeting on Saturday morning and I have a young couple’s engagement service at night.
Continue ReadingThe good is that our service on Sunday night was really good despite numbers being down owing to the rain. We have now had about 10 and one third inches but none yesterday and no signs today, so perhaps we will have a break from the rain for a bit.
I took lots of lovely green photos at Green Pastures yesterday morning. We are busy preparing for the Carnival Camp which starts a week on Saturday (Feb. 6th).
A very complex incident happened in the Patos 1st Baptist Church at the funeral of a mother I guess in her 40s who had a stroke. She was a Catholic but her husband an evangelical. He decided to hold the wake and the funeral service in his church and all was well until the funeral service when her priest requested to do some sort of committal proceeding during the service and was turned down by the pastor. Catholics on social media exagerated the incident and started spreading that the priest had been kicked out of the Baptist church and lots of very un-Christian comments were made about the pastor and evangelical Christians in general. The whole incident and subsequent comments on social media created an extremely volatile and unpleasant climate in Patos so we pray that things will calm down now that the priest is said to have said in a mass that the story of him being kicked out is not true.
I am now preparing for this week’s Bible Study, a little service for a couple getting engaged on Saturday, and my Sunday sermon too.
Now you can see the TV report on Green Pastures in an edited report cutting out all the other news and adverts which was broadcast with the original report. Now it’s much simpler to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Ur52uOcwQ&feature=youtu.be
Continue ReadingWell I’ll go to sea in a rowing boat! The bride actually turned up 5 minutes early last night! Can you believe it! Amazing! Hence we kicked off bang on time and all went off beautifully. First came up the nicely decorated aisle 6 couples as witnesses, followed by the groom with his Mum and then the bride with her Dad accompanied by little bridesmaids and pageboys.
My part – the ceremony itself – was timed at 43 minutes 20 seconds from the first words: “We are gathered here today…” to the final blessing! This is my average time. Hence having started at 8pm sharp we were leaving the church a for the reception at 9.30pm. I finally got to bed half an hour after midnight!
I have just dispatched the latest EAB Nutshell Update via email to all on our mailing list. Do let us know if you would like to receive this by email.
Tonight is going to be a late one as I am to conduct a wedding at 8pm, but what time will the bride actually turn up? She says she’ll be on time but so do they all! I am not long-winded with my wedding cermonies, but I can’t see us getting away from the church before 10pm allowing for bride’s delay, about an hour’s ceremony and then photos afterwards. Then we still have to go to the reception for a meal. Help!
My sermon is ready for tomorrow night on Acts 14 and the second part of Paul’s 1st Missionary journey focusing on courage in preaching the Gospel, giving all glory to God and establishing local leadership. If you read Acts 14 you will see why these points will be stressed (I hope!).
QPR drew this afternoon 1 x 1. I forecast we would win 2 x 1 so wasn’t far off. I forecast the scorer correctly. This season I am in 6th place in the prediction league. They changed the rules this time round and you get most points if you guess exactly the correct score which is a bit crazy and like doing the lottery!
The rainy season continues well here and hopefully we will get more rain at Green Pastures tonight. We are just half a millimetre short of a total of 200mm this rainy season. May it long continue!
Our weather forecasters sure got it wrong for our part of Brazil when they predicted that the serious drought would get just worse and worse in 2016. As it happens rain arrived early on December 18th and today we have reached a total of 198.5 mm (a little over 8 inches) with some water accumulated in the Green Pastures lake this week! Of course we have a long way to go to reaching the needed 40 inches to replenish all the lakes and reservoirs of the region, but the fact that things have got off to an early and good start is very encouraging. We are grateful to God and thank you for praying, but please don’t stop! The rainy season normally can run to May and a little even in June – so we are on the right track!
I slept at Green Pastures last night and got some great photos this morning of two species of toads reproducing. The specialist university professor here of this field is really thrilled with what I have registered. I went out to Green Pastures after the Bible study in Patos last night which went particularly well and was really blessed. PTL!
I am conducting a wedding in Patos tomorrow and my sermon for Sunday is virtually ready. I have been doing a lot of work on the EAB Action Child programme and also sorting things out for the Carnival Camp early next month.
It was nice to have latest grandchild Luis Philip at home today. He is doing very well. PTL!
27.5mm of rain has just fallen tonight at Green Pastures, taking the total up this month to 95mm and the total in this rainy season, since December 18th, to 152mm (6.3 inches). PTL! We estimate that we need around 40 inches during this rainy season to replenish the reservoirs in the region, so we have had a good start and pray that it will keep raining plenty between now and May!
Thanks to one and all for a whole load of Christmas cards which have now arrived! Thank you to:
Joyce & Alec (Verwood), Neil & Naomi (West Wellow), Liz’s Aunt Rosemary (Verwood), Dewi (South Wales), Gill (West Wellow), Deryk Scard (Poole), My cousin Faith (Ledbury), Ada & Willem (Danbury), Ledbury Baptist Church, my sister Jean (Basingstoke), Sam & Gerti (Switzerland) and a couple of others whose signatures we can’t decifer.
My trip to the Ceará Outreach went well. I left on Saturday at 4am and got there at 9am. I immediately launched into meetings with the leaders of the event to understand how things were going. I am glad to say thing went very well and there were a number of decisions for Christ during the 10 days.
I visited the team after my meeting with the leaders and saw them in action in a community. They were helping a very poor community in all sorts of practical ways with a doctor attending the sick and ladies doing manicures and haircuts and others playing with crowds of kids. Wonderful!
Following this I went to visit some folk in a neighbouring County who have interest in joining EAB/ACEV but we didn’t feel right about this (as this stage anyway). I had lunch there and then went to see a new seedlings production project we are due to start up shortly to spread native trees to reforest destructed areas. Then we went on to another County to visit another new group who are now part of EAB/ACEV. This was really good.
At night I preached in the closing service in the open-air and all went very well. We slept in Ceará and headed back to Patos on Sunday morning in good time for the Patos church service.
Late yesterday afternoon I was here in my office preparing for the evening service when I heard lots of police and ambulance sirens. Sadly this if often what I hear on Sundays owing to drivers worse for a day of drinking. I do not know if this was the cause of yesterday’s tragedy but it usually is. A fine rain was also falling which complicates things as drivers aren’t used to rain here.
When I got to church a policeman from our church phoned Liz to ask for prayer as he was on duty and at the horrific scene of the accident involving 2 cars on the road which goes in the direction of Green Pastures. Of the 8 people in the vehicles 7 were killed including 2 children. 1 young man (not a driver) will survive. One family was from Sousa and the other from Natal. So very sad.
I drove past the location of the accident this morning on the way to Green Pastures. The vehicles have been removed but there is still a lot of debris and mess there.
Oh boy! It’s all happening! We got back from João Pessoa yesterday evening and Alice went down ill vomitting. The poor kid is really knocked out and missed her sister Bia’s birthday as a consequence.
We had a little lunch for Bia’s 6th birthday for her friends and when her Dad came from work he complained of pain when chewing. He has already been diagnosed with Mumps this afternoon! Then her Mum Sacha went down with a virus so only the birthday girl out of 4 is well. It never rains but it pours!
This messed up our planned leaving for the Ceará Outreach straight after lunch and now Liz is staying to look after the sick whilst a man is going to travel with me leaving Patos at 4am tomorrow. I hopefully will only arrive a bit later than originally planned and should be able to do all my visits prior to preaching at night in the Outreach. Your prayers are valued for the sick and for my journey.
Liz and I are in João Pessoa with Sacha and her daughters. I had my medical check up and all was well. PTL! The ladies have got a bit of beach in and I have done some walking and had a good meeting with a chief environmental government man. We also saw Liz’s niece Natasha who is in Brazil at the moment. We hadn’t seen her since 2008.
Tomorrow we head back to Patos and on Friday we go to Ceará to minister at the Outreach. The Outreach is going well and two have come to Christ thus far. PTL!
God has blessed us this weekend. The Patos church band led by Philip and with Sacha, Louisa and Sacha’s husband Biba in it – travelled to Ceará and back safely and the service went off great despite it having to be held indoors owing to the rain!
Tonight’s service went well too and the sermon on Paul’s 1st Missionary journey part 1 flowed beautifully.
At Green Pastures this week we’ve had 24.5mm of rain (an inch) so that is good – though we still need so much more – but we have started and things are green again for Carnival Camp less than 4 weeks away.
This week I’ll be going for a routine check-up at the doctor’s in João Pessoa and after that I’ll be going to preach at the Outreach in Ceará State.
I went to Green Pastures yesterday morning and had a good walk, especially looking over the “Woman’s Rock” area where we have planted hundreds of cactus plants this week. We will be adding more next week and this cacti area of the Reserve is really taking shape nicely. here are some photos I took yesterday.
We had another 11mm of rain on Thursday night, none last night but hope for more over the weekend according to forecasts. This takes us up to 77mm since rain started on December 18th which is about 3 inches. We need about 40 inches between now and May to replenish the dry reservoirs, so please keep praying.
Once back from Green Pastures I started on preparing my sermon for this Sunday night in Patos. I am going to continue the theme of challenging the church to accelerate evangelism in 2016 from last week’s sermon. This week I’m going to preach on Paul’s 1st Missionary journey.
Philip, Louisa, Sacha and Biba (her husband) are travelling the long journey to Ceará State today to sing and play with the Patos church band at the big opening of the annual January team outreach there. Liz and I will be going there next Friday and Saturday. Your prayers are valued. The team arrived there yesterday and had a welcome meeting last night.
It is raining hard right now at 11pm. PTL! This is in Patos. We will know about Green Pastures in the morning.
Had a good Bible study tonight. 40 there. We had a bit of a problem to solve after the meeting. Such is the life of a pastor!
Last night we had 9mm of rain (1/3rd of an inch) at Green Pastures. Things are starting to improve a bit.
I woke up late on New Year’s morning to discover that a very good Catholic journalist friend of 35 years standing had suddenly died of a heart attack during the night. Liz broke the news to me gently, as only she can, over breakfast. It was a terrible shock. That evening we were at the wake which was held in the Town Hall as he had been a Town Councillor many years back. The following morning (Saturday, 2nd) we were back at the Town Hall for the funeral where the family had asked me to speak. It was very moving and a tremendous opportunity. José Augusto’s death left me reeling a bit. It takes a bit of coming to terms with.
The rest of Saturday I spent preparing my sermon for the Sunday night service. I made it, but it wasn’t easy with a somewhat fuzzy head. However praise God He blessed mightily in the service last night. We received another 3 into fellowship.
Early on Sunday morning I had a walk alone at Green Pastures which is where I always go to cool my mind down when things are tough. My camera had a bit of a glitch so I sat under a tree to sort it and whilst there heard an unual bird call. It was the White Woodpecker (Melanerpes candidus) which I had never seen there before, having only picked it up once on the automatic camera. So an unusual species for Green Pastures. Great stuff.
Today I have done a lot of work on the Carnival Camp preparations. I have also done some more work on our environmental campaign to save Jabre Peak. If you haven’t signed our petition and care about God’s creation then please do so at http://chn.ge/1Hto8n4 All you have to do is put your name and email address. Every signature helps!
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Last night’s watchnight service to see in the New Year in the EAB/ACEV
Patos church was greatly blessed of God with 11 baptized, another
received into church membership, much praise, preaching, testimonies and
communion! The service lasted 2 hours 20 minutes & just flew by. It
was great! A blessed 2016 to all EAB friends & supporters!
EAB/ACEV churches are preparing for their late night service to see the New Year in. In Patos I’ll be preaching and baptizing 11 + receiving another 2 new members into fellowship. God is good. It’s been a good year. Thanks for all your prayers and support. Now it’s marching on time into a New Year for God. A Happy New Year to everyone wherever you are!
This morning we received some old Christian friends at Green Pastures we hadn’t seen for many years. It was a good hot longish walk round Green Pastures to show them round and chat over many things as we went. With the couple of inches of rain we’ve had in December things have greened up quite nicely – but of course no rain in the reservoirs yet.
I have worked hard preparing my sermon for tonight this week and there’s another one to prepare for Sunday after what will be a very late night tonight. All the family will be round our place after church.
This morning I managed to buy petrol! Things are getting so chaotic in this country and the whole of the State of Paraíba ran out of petrol! Inflation is spiralling upwards dangerously again and on top of the economic instability there is much political turmoil too.
I received a diploma of recognition from the hands of
the Patos regional traffic police chief today for my work in combatting
drinking & driving. I imported from Wales the first breathalyzer
for Patos many years ago and donated it to the police. I maintain a
friendly support & advisory role with the police to this today. We believe this
is practical Christianity and is important. It’s a way of preserving life and showing God’s concern for the community through His people who care and put their heads on the line.
We had 32 mm of rain last night at Green Pastures. PTL! This takes us up to a total of 57 mm this month after months without a drop.
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After the last Sunday service of 2015 yesterday our EAB/ACEV Patos youth
went out for a pizza together to celebrate. Nothing unusual about that.
But what was beautiful was the way
they unashamedly held hands in a circle in the middle of the restaurant
area to thank God for His blessing this year. That is encouraging! That is beautiful! May God bless out youth more and more in 2016!
The service was great and we are getting so many visitors in! PTL! Now to get ready for the big baptism and communion Watchnight service on Thursday. A Happy New Year to everyone!
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We had a lovely family Christmas Dinner today and actually managed to get a photo of all 4 children and their spouses + 9 grandchildren + nephew & spouse + a few more. It was a lovely time!
Last night’s Christmas service went off beautifully. The musical presented was brilliant and wonderfully conveyed the Christmas message. I followed this with a short sermon which also went well and then Liz coordinated the giving of all the presents and sweets to our Sunday School children as we do every year.
After the service we had a family supper as we also always do. This was great as well. We took a family click of Liz and I and our 4 children with (from left) Sacha, Lynn, Philip and Deborah.
Now this Christmas day we will have a family Christmas dinner together in a while.
Continue ReadingAs I always remind people, in Brazilian culture it’s the eve of the day that counts more than the day itself. Wish someone a happy Christmas on Christmas day and they look at you odd!
So we’re just off to church for the big Christmas service with a musical to be presented by the youth and children and I will bring a short message after the musical. I prepared my message during today.
Then we all come home for a family supper together.
It has drizzled a bit with 5mm of rain at Green Pastures today so hope for a wet Christmas tomorrow. Happy Christmas!
Monday evening saw me involved in a two and a half hour meeting of the Patos Bible College leadership. In my advisory role these days I was called in by the leadership and it was quite a tough meeting as things aren’t quite what they could be. I had a further meeting on the Tuesday morning with one of the leaders who couldn’t be there the night before. Your prayers are valued. I have suggested the leadership should meet more regularly and have offered my office as the venue with me lending my experience. We shall see if they do this. I hope so.
Tuesday, at 8am, saw the start of the official giving of the Christmas Hampers to the poor at the Patos church. I say official as we have been distributing at different places during the month prior to this. It has been a major endeavor of logistics getting the hampers out to where most needed. The final big push yesterday morning went great and attracted a lot of press interest. Many many people have been helped and blessed by the food EAB has distributed this month in the middle of the catastrophic drought. Thanks to those who gave to make all this possible. Below are some photos of yesterday’s hamper distribution.
We are seeing a tremendous wave of Christmas praise and action all round EAB’s 85 churches spread far and wide. We praise, as did the shepherds and wise men, and we carry gifts too. Christmas Hampers are coming right at a critical time to feed the hungry amidst the horrific drought and great Gospel services are being held to proclaim the Good News of Jesus!
Yesterday our church was packed out as I preached on “The Light is Jesus”! Our Christmas Eve service will have a musical production. God is really blessing.
Add to all this the action round the region distributing gifts of hampers and food to the hungry. This must be what Christmas is supposed to be all about! Here are one or two photos:
With the terrible drought situation the Christmas Hamper season has sure come at the right time as so many people need help it’s unbelievable! We are spreading out the Christmas Hampers to a number of other needy places as well as Patos. Quite a job but well worth it. Please pray and thanks to all who have donated to this.
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I have worked flat out today – first of all producing the new style EAB Nutshell Update and dispatching it. I hope everyone liked it? Certainly it is smarter as far as I am concerned.
I then prepared my sermon for tomorrow in Patos: “The Light is Jesus” – a Christmas message whose title rhymes better in Portuguese!
I now am preparing a wedding blessing for the service too. This is for a couple who this week did their civil marriage separately before the judge and now want a blessing in church. Normally I do weddings in church with the civil legal part built in as allowed by Brazilian law. I was the first pastor to fight for this right in Patos about 40 years ago!
Tonight Philip, Gylmara, Lucas and new baby Luis have arrived in Patos so that is nice. The baby is gorgeous and has lots of dark hair. Louisa, who has been staying with us, is of course particularly happy.
I am not quite sure what I do with it, but I have won a badge from Trip Advisor because my comments on the Lavender Farm near WestWellow and a Brazilian Ibis Hotel have received 350 reads!
Continue ReadingFinally, after 5 months without a drop of rain, we received 19 mm
(nearly an inch) of rain late this Friday afternoon. We are overjoyed! It is a
sign of hope! Thank you for praying! Please don’t stop! The last time we had rain was on July 8th when we had 8 mm.
Having had a whole batch of routine blood tests this morning I am at the moment rather unbalanced with one arm distinctly empty.
Last night’s Bible study went well. Normally prior to the Bible study up to 3 people give should words and it was particularly nice to have my nephew Ben (my sister Joy’s son who married a Patos girl) in one of these slots. It went very well and I interpreted for him. Ben’s wife will be baptized on New Year’s Eve and then both will be received into fellowship in the Patos church.
Last night we had Brother Romildo singing again. I like to give simple folk like him a chance to sing in the mid-week meeting (about 50 there last night) but the problem is that he insists on singing with a playback which is scratched and old and often the track he wants gets muddled. It’s quite an ordeal. Last week it took us 10 minutes to sort out the dear brother and when he started the same antics this week I asked him to go and sit down whilst he sorted out his track with the sound man and then I’d call him back. Eventually we sorted him and he was smiling, bless his heart.
Yesterday afternoon we had the exploited women’s group (the batterred wives) Christmas party and made a cake for them with soft drinks and the present of Christmas hampers (see photo) for each one. Wow did they love it! It was really moving to see how they all turned up, like Cinderela at the Ball, with borrowed clothes from friends and relatives, made up and hair all fixed. It clearly was a very proud moment for them and we loved to see it.
Sunday night’s service went really well. The sermon was particularly blessed and appreciated I think. At Campina Grande they baptized 15 and 4 who came to watch got converted!
Yesterday I did a lot of administrative work and celebrated daughter Lynn’s birthday. Today I have walked at Green Pastures and been to the doctor’s for a post-UK check-up and was relieved to discover I am only 900 grams heavier than when I left!
I also have been trouble shooting with Liz on a particularly difficult church issue and I believe the Lord really helped us.
QPR drew tonight as I predicted. I saw the first half on TV and was pleased with the way we played.
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I took an urgent Christmas hamper this morning to a family in desperate need as are so many in this tragic drought. With little water available building sites are grinding to a halt causing unemployment to soar further. This dear family depended on Dad Jucieldo’s work as a bricklayer’s labourer and their world collapsed when he was layed off from his work. With no money to pay the rent they were evicted. No room in the inn. Someone allowed them to erect this sort of shed from scrap wood on land a few miles from Green Pastures so as to have somewhere to live and I got to hear about them from folk in the area.
I soon discovered that they had little food to eat via Mum Francisca so headed there with an EAB Christmas hamper and found them under a tree cooking with a wood scraps fire and on the fire was just beans and nothing else at all! To say they were overjoyed just doesn’t transmit what I experienced. We were leaving but forgot something and Tarcísio went back into the shack and they had already ripped open the sack and were devouring the biscuits and readily eatable things!
Another very happy moment was when I presented bags of sweets to the children. It was like they’d just received the latest IPhone or the likes!
EAB ministers to people for whom there is no room at the inn. If you feel you should and can help EAB do this more please donate now online at http://www.eabrazil.com/ or send direct to the EAB UK office. A Happy Christmas to everyone!
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Thursday night’s Bible study was certainly different
with Philip & Gylmara’s baby son being born about half an hour
before the service started! The church was joyful with the news and I
kept my mobile phone on through the service for updates for everyone.
The service was a real blessing and Fábio gave a great testimony one
year into his new life in Christ. PTL!
Yesterday
I went to Green Pastures in the morning and spent the rest of the day
preparing my sermon for Sunday. In the evening there was a little party
for granddaughter Louisa’s 16th birthday at out house.
Luis Philip has just been born and all is well. We have no further details as yet. Praise the Lord and congratulations to Philip & Gylmara!
Continue ReadingOur daughter-in-law Gylmara is in the maternity hospital in João Pessoa and Philip is rushing in that direction so as to be there in time (hopefully!) for the birth of Luis Philip expected in the next few hours. Please pray and don’t panic! I am totally calm… just don’t panic!
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Yesterday saw me up at 5.10am and off for a two and a half hour walk at Green Pastures where the drought is utterly horrific and the lake has now completely dried up with all fish dead. The photo shows Tarcísio looking on forlornly.
We went to the English School’s Christmas dinner when I got back. The School is run by our 3 daughters and is their means of income. It all went off very nicely. Here’s a photo of Liz and I with the girls at the event.
Apart from all this I worked a lot on EAB & ACEV communications yesterday and dispatched the latest EAB Diary Update. There are not enough hours in the day for all there is to do, but it’s good being busy for God!
Here are more details of our fantastic Leadership Conference which ran for three days over last weekend.
Everything started for me with the projects team at 9am on Friday morning (Dec. 4th) and the meeting ran on unexpectedly into the afternoon. We did an excellent review and evaluation of all our projects and sorted out lots of things which certainly needed sorting. The main focus was of course on the critical drought and the need for more wells and other emergency water and food supply mechanisms. We have the bit between our teeth.
Well having worked all day on this I got to the Leadership Conference in time for the opening evening fellowship meal prior to the initial meeting. There were the usual Brazilian hugs all round as everyone arrived. Wonderful! Different ones wanted to tell me this that and the other – just as well I am a walking computer!
Then came the opening service in which the visiting speaker from Fortaleza knocked everyone for six! It was greatly blessed. Fantastic! What ministry about servant leaders! Just what the doctor ordered! Brilliant! In the other two meetings which followed, on the Saturday night and Sunday morning, the messages were equally good. In fact it just got better and better. PTL!
I got to bed the first night at gone 11pm and Liz even later. We were both up before 6am on the Saturday and the marathon (a joyous one) continued. After breakfast I chaired an excellent meeting of the Projects Board of Leaders (see photo below) and this was later followed by another very good meeting of the Churches’ Board of Leaders. We just managed to finish in time for lunch and after that we launched into 2 general assemblies – one of all the church leaders and the other of all the Projects people in general. We just managed to squeeze all that in prior to the evening meal!
After eating it was meeting number 2 with great praise and worship, lots more hugs and interaction between the 90 leaders (a total of 130 were there including kids and support team) and then the visiting speaker was off again and this time hit the ball out of the ground! After the service we had a long wonderful meeting with Pastor Wostenes (vice-chairman of the work here) and his wife Gleydice and I got to bed half an hour after midnight with Liz arriving, amidst my snores, two hours later as she had to counsel another leader unexpectedly.
So came Sunday morning and the final great service with more great preaching from my friend Carlos Queiroz which was like winning the World Cup! Absolutely glorious. We all ended up having our final fellowship lunch together and then everyone, after loads more hugs, headed back to their respective churches for the evening service. I managed to post some photos of the event on facebook in the afternoon and made it to the Communion service in Patos in the evening which …
The annual EAB/ACEV Leadership Conference has just ended at Green
Pastures after 3 days of fantastic meetings. It was definitely the best
of such events ever. Thanks for praying and supporting. The blessing of God was intense throughout the event and the visiting speaker from Fortaleza, who is an old friend of mine from decades ago when I was involved with ministry to students in the Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship, was tremendously used of God being challenge and inspiration. PTL! The photo below of the leaders was taken this morning.
EAB’s Projects Leadership Team has met all day today to discuss how to raise more funds and where to drill more wells, take food and water to the needy and extremely poor in this incredible drought in NE Brazil. Thank God for such a dedicated team which works tirelessly to take God’s love in practical ways to who needs it most. Please support EAB in this vital ministry.
I am now off to the Leadership Conference proper which in fact started for me at 9am with these extra emergency meetings. It’s been a very good worthwhile day, but very tiring. Please pray.
