Categoria: News

I am just off to an EAB/ACEV Projects Coordinators Meeting prior to the complete start of the Leadership Conference. Hectic days! Please pray. This meeting will last all morning and then it’s off to Green Pastures for the Conference.

Last night’s Bible Study service went well with lots of prayer and praise and participation as you can see below. PTL!

I completed my sermon preparation for Sunday last night so that was good. I have prepared today for the Bible study tonight and am looking forward to that. 


The EAB English language page on facebook has passed the 1,800 ‘likes’ or followers so that is great. https://www.facebook.com/eabrazil/


I went to Green Pastures this morning and had a good walk and look over things in preparation for the start tomorrow of the EAB/ACEV Leadership Conference. All is prepared and under control. Your prayers are valued. Photos taken this morning below. Lovely shots despite the drought.

Please pray for my dear 91 year old Mum there in England who is ill with an intestinal infection.

EAB’s English language facebook page has today passed the 1,500 ‘likes’ mark. For the uninitiated in social media what this means is that 1,500 people from a variety of countries, most of whom had not previously even heard of EAB, have seen our page and clicked on the like button to say they like the work we do. The hope is that such people will, now that they are linked to us in this way, become more interested in the Mission and pray for us and support us.


I produced and published an advert for the Leadership Conference which starts this Friday and I will post it below, even though of course it is in Portuguese, just to give you a feel of it. Please pray for this Conference which we believe will be a real blessing for all our leaders. You can see this advert on facebook complete with background music!

Yesterday saw me visiting the poor in the ex-landless government farm project a few miles from Green Pastures where EAB has a church. Some situations are heartbreaking, like that of Miro who has no less than 11 kids and has been left by his wife! They live in this little government given house in the middle of total drought under baking heat. There is not one seat of any description in the house. The situation is unbelievable! We will definitely be giving the family a Christmas hamper. You can see some of them in the photo I took yesterday below. Watch this space!

Last night’s service in Patos was another terrific time of blessing. Some people made decisions for Christ and the atmosphere was electric. PTL! I am exhausted today. Such days are spiritually draining. The battle is hot!

Amidst all the turmoil of this world the Christmas message is so
relevant & we traditionally give gifts at Christmas to symbolize
God’s gift of Jesus to us. However, as so many don’t know what to give
because people have what they need, EAB presents this Gift List – you
buy a gift for the poor & EAB sends you a card for you to give to
your loved ones wishing them a Happy Christmas and telling them where
their gift has gone. Join in & give more than one person a very
Happy Christmas! Contact Marian to order at missionmr@ntlworld.com

Wow! What a service tonight in thanksgiving to God for the graduation from Senior High School of our grandson John David (Lynn’s son) and all his fellow students. The church was packed out to capacity with some standing and the service flowed in the Spirit in a wonderful way. The P&W band was mightily used of God and my sermon flowed well too. It was fantastic to see the church packed out with some 200 non-committed Christians! What an opportunity. God so moved that at the end people of the upper sections of Patos society who were there were coming and thanking, hugging us, and saying how amazed they were by the service. It really was outstanding. Thank you for praying. You can see the graduation boy in the centre of the photo.

I spent yesterday morning with students from a school in Patos showing them round the Green Pastures Nature Reserve and explaining things to them. It was a great opportunity. It went really well. You can see more photos on EAB’s facebook page https://www.facebook.com/eabrazil/ but here is one:

All the rest of yesterday and all this morning was taken up preparing the sermon for tonight’s thanksgiving service for our grandson John David graduating from senior high school together with all his class mates. I also had a long counselling session to fit in too.

Last night’s service in Patos was really good. Philip & I led it between us and I preached on Mark 9:33-37. The P&W group sang the new song for us in church “Still”. This was wonderful. How good it was to see so many poor kids in church from the drug-ridden ‘Rua do Meio’ where people get killed like flies. I love these kids and it thrills me every time they come to church. Here’s a photo of Philip leading the service last night.

Going back to Saturday night’s church plant launch at Picotes, how good it was to see the wise use of the Green Pastures facilities there. For Tarcísio took stacks of the plastic chairs from Green Pastures and he took them on our 3-wheel motorbike with a big baggage area at the back. These chairs are used for the camps, events and regular church at Green Pastures, but are used for all open-air services round and about too. Great to see!

We had at least 70 present for the launch of the new church plant at Picotes last night and the service was really good. Please pray for this new initiative.

The radio interview Liz and I did today actually lasted a full hour and really went well. The interviewer is the lady next to us and the other lady is a psychologist who is a regular part of the programme which always discusses relationship issues and things like this. 


I am just off to the church plant launch at Picotes now. Please pray!

Thursday night’s Bible Study service went very well with a lovely participation from one of our young men, Mailson, who brought a lovely word.

Yesterday was a morning for visiting the sick from our Green Pastures church where a young widow, whom I baptized last year, is recovering from a motorbike accident. She admitted to me that she was going too fast on the off-road rural track and hit sand lossing control. She broke her leg and so instead of arriving in a hurry where she wanted to get to, she is now stuck in bed for 3 months recovering from surgery.

I also visited the São Mamede rubbish dump yesterday, took photos, and am increasing my campaign to have it removed from near Green Pastures. So this is another battle we have taken on in the Name of Jesus! Please pray! I am already getting a bit of flack from the authorities but God is greater!


Yesterday afternoon I did a TV interview about Christmas so that was a good opportunity to share the Gospel. I also had another a meeting with someone who hasn’t been to church for a long time and then a Patos Bible College meeting to discuss some curriculum issues. 


Now this morning Liz and I are going to do a live interview on FM radio about being married 46 years! This should be fun and a good opportunity to share basic Christian family values. Please pray. It starts at 2pm UK time, if you read this in time, and should last about 45 minutes.

This is the title of my sermon prepared for Sunday. I worked on this all day Tuesday. The text is Mark 9:33-37 and will be the 10th sermon folowing through a series in Mark’s Gospel. I was very happy to get this prepared yesterday early in the week as it’s now back into to the regular preaching routine in Patos as opposed to doing presentations about EAB during 10 weeks. We look to God for a great service.


I am pleased that a new church plant is to start on Saturday in São Mamede County in the tiny and very beautiful village of Picotes. We have been working on this for a long time and finally things are coming together. PTL!


I had a nice meeting with the new Presbyterian pastor in Patos this afternoon. On Saturday Liz and I will be interviewed on FM radio. Tomorrow is Bible study night.


At Green Pastures this morning we are having to put in protection for our vegetable plot because mainly the wild guinea-pigs, but also the birds, are wrecking havock as they find it to be the only green option around in the middle of the horrific drought. We have sort of become the victims of our own ecological success! However that is no problem and we will from now on have all sections of the plantation netted in for protection. You can see one of the dozens of wild guinea pigs which I photographed ‘red-handed’ this morning!

Liz and I thank the Lord for our 46th wedding anniversary today together with our 4 kids and 8 grandchildren (with another soon to arrive!). God has been good to us over the years since this date in 1969 when Pastor Winston Shearing married us assisted by pastors Albert Mundy, Reuben Gunter and Jack Dyer. Other pastors present were Liz’s Dad Frank and Colin Whittaker whose wife Hazel sang at the service.

Here’s our granddaughter Amanda Ivy at 6 months and doing absolutely great after her premature birth and bumpy ride in the first months of life. How good is this? God is very good! She has just presented her first tooth as well so we are all thanking the Lord. Amidst all the so sad news from Paris and the tragedy of burst dams in Minas Gerais in Brazil – it is lovely to have smiles like these to cheer us along life’s way!

Amidst all the turmoil of this world the Christmas message is so
relevant & we traditionally give gifts at Christmas to symbolize
God’s gift of Jesus to us. However, as so many don’t know what to give
because people have what they need, EAB presents this Gift List – you
buy a gift for the poor & EAB sends you a card for you to give to
your loved ones wishing them a Happy Christmas and telling them where
their gift has gone. Join in & give more than one person a very
Happy Christmas! (Contact Marian Rashleigh – EAB – at missionmr@ntlworld.com)

The Patos Senior Leadership Team met for two and a half hours last night in the first meeting since our return. There was unanimity that the overall results of the ten weeks we were away in Europe were very positive and Philip was congratulated for his leadership, dedication and clear direction from the Lord. His name was given full backing for ministerial status consideration in 2016.


A number of issues needing attention were discussed and these will be dealt with over the coming weeks. We value your prayers but are unable to give details.


The drought continues here with catastrophic effect. Water rationing is increasing everywhere. We need to pray for rain in abundance in the rainy season in the New Year, against all the forecasts from the gloomy experts. Below is what’s left of the lake at Green Pastures which is expected to dry up completely by the end of the month. The temperatures touch 40ºC (well into the 100sºF) which is only accelerating the evaporation from the already crippled reservoirs.

Saturday night’s service at Caroá was really mightily blessed as Philip preached with tremendous annointing. PTL! The P&W group went from Patos to minister too and they all slept there the night to be back in Patos for our welcome back service on the Sunday evening.

The church was full to capacity for our welcome back service and was really blessed of the Lord. Liz brought a word and I followed after the kids had done some of their dancing in praise to the Lord. It was lovely!

Tonight we’re having a senior leadership meeting to hear all the details of the 10 weeks we were in Europe and take any decisions together that need taking. Your prayers are valued.

More welcome back gifts were received yesterday! This
was a basket of chocolates given by the ‘Young at Heart’ group in the
Patos church! The ‘Welcome Back’ service will be this Sunday at 6.30pm.

Please pray for Philip who will be preaching at the Caroá anniversary service this Saturday evening and leading the church band there which includes Sacha and granddaughter Louisa. Philip has had a very stressful week with his work so it won’t be easy for him. They will all be back for our ‘Welcome Back’ service tomorrow.

Please pray for rain in Brazil’s north-eastern interior! Please donate
to EAB’s ‘drought fund’ to help us help people in this catastrophic
situation. This is “Green Pastures Farm” this morning at 37ºC in the
shade. Total and utter drought!

Today our eldest son Felipe reached the ripe old age of 18 so we have had the usual family get together this afternoon to eat cake, drink coke and sing happy birthday!

We have also just received a beautiful basket of sugar-free foods for our evening meal as a welcome back gift from the church’s singles and divorcees fellowship. This was so nice of them!

We got back to Patos this afternoon all safe and sound. Tired but happy. Thankful to God for all His goodness. Some of the family were around to greet us!

On Saturday we had a lovely time at Liz’s nephew’s house in Calne, Wilts together with his family (Andrew, Holly, Poppy and Jacob) and his father David and his wife Tania. It is a very beautiful area that they live in. Andrew has a fascinating hobby of keeping a massive salt water aquarium which is absolutely beautiful.

Yesterday was our final Sunday of the tour and the service at Cefn Cribwr in Wales was great. Lovely praise and worship, the presentation went great and the warm welcome was lovely. This was followed by a beautiful lunch with Gail, Esther and David from the church who visited us in Brazil a couple of years back. 

Following this we headed for the Lawrence Weston Community Church in Bristol where the Lord blessed too. However the fog came down on the way and we almost arrived late. Then after the service the fog was even worse as we headed back to Basingstoke… but we made it.


Now today is a very very busy day prior to leaving for the airport at 4.15am tomorrow. Please pray that neither the fog or the NATO exercises over Portugal will hamper our flights. I have already returned our hired car which was a great car. I am now catching up with my communications, then going to see Mum for the last time, then meeting up with Mike Hollow (ex-Tearfund) and then meeting up with Ben & Miriam and David and Linda plus a lot more prior to hitting the hay by 9pm or there will be no point in going to bed as we will have to be up at 3am.


So thanks to the Lord and to everyone who contributed to this being the best tour of churches ever as far as we’re concerned. PTL!

I visited my dear Mother this morning again and she was in a very good mode with smiles, chat and singing! It was a lovely session with one to go on Monday prior to our return to Brazil. God is good.

Liz has packed our second case and we took it to Boots to weigh it and all is well and within limits. We bumped in to Phillip Dyer whilst in the shopping mall so that was nice.


I posted some photo’s of Jon & Eunice’s Christmas Cactus today on facebook and people are telling me they have this cactus in Patos! I now discover that its origins are south-east Brazil! There are a number of varieties of species of this cactus.

The Christmas cactus is well in keeping with the family meal Jean has organized for this evening which is a Christmas dinner!

Today we drove to Woking, on the way to Basingstoke from London, and spent a lovely time with the ex-chairman of the EAB Board Bob Dalton and his wife Jo. That is 2 ex-chairmans we’ve met in 5 days as on Sunday we shared fellowship with Ken White and his wife Pat at Danbury. We had a lovely chat about the work of EAB with Bob & Jo and they took us out for a wonderful lunch. We even managed this selfie! 

Once we arrived in Basingstoke we headed to see my Mum who was in a somewhat sleepy mode, but we managed a bit of conversation. I asked her if she remembered Bob Dalton and she replied straight away: “Of course”!


We had stayed longer in London than planned owing to my niece’s little girl’s funeral in north London which was yesterday afternoon. Our church in Patos has been praying for little Tilly and family over the past 3 years so it was significant how we were here in England at this sad moment. We continue to pray for the family.


This evening Ken & Marian Rashleigh have called in for a chat and kindly given us a suitcase to help our return to Brazil on Tuesday for which we are very grateful.

Yesterday we had a lovely day at the Danbury Mission in Essex. It was a really blessed day with services morning and evening and a church family lunch all together in between plus some nice fellowship with a fellow bird enthusiast and member of the DM Missionary Committee John Thompson. The church was knocked down and rebuilt since we were there last and it’s beautiful, seating 380 normally (was nearly full yesterday) and expandable for 500.

It was lovely to see EAB ex-chairman of the Board Ken White there and his wife Pat, sister Margaret, daughter Sarah & her family in the morning. In the evening ex-EAB Board member Peter White was there together with his wife Corrine.

We got back to London about an hour and a half ago after spending some lovely days in Rutland with Marian Rashleigh. The highlight for Liz was going to Sandringham yesterday where she had the joy of sitting in the exact seat that the Queen always sits in there in the church on the 8,000 hectares estate. Liz really loved it.

We also had great times in the beautiful little villages of the area, travelling on a Steam Train from Wansford to Peterborough and visiting the Snettisham Nature Reserve in the Wash. It was all wonderful!


Now we are down to polishing up our preparations for our penultimate Sunday in the UK on this visit at Danbury Mission in Essex (CM3 4QL) with services at 10am & 6.30pm. 


Sadly on the following Wednesday we will be going to the funeral of my niece Abigail and her husband Chris’s little 3 year old child Tilly at Cockfosters in north London. Please pray for this family who have been through an awful lot and now need your prayers even more so. Owing to this funeral we have cancelled the meeting at the Basingstoke Anglican Christ Church.


News from Brazil is good from the churches, but bad concerning the heat and the drought which are increasingly worse. We value your prayers for this and us returning to the intense November heat and drought on November 3rd.

We’re having a nice few days break in the tiny rural County of Rutland in the east midlands of England together with Marian Rashleigh. Today we walked 9 km round the Rutland Water Nature Reserve and saw some lovely villages too.

Philip led the service again this Sunday in Patos and the band played for the special singer and speaker from Rio de Janeiro. We are receiving rave reports of a fantastic service with tremendous blessing from God on all present. 

Liz and I are having a few days break this week walking in the County of Rutland with Marian Rashleigh. We are staying in a beautiful wooden lodge or chalet. This coming Sunday we will be ministering at Danbury Mission in Essex all day.

Today saw us in Verwood (am) and Winterslow (pm) in good services with lunch in between (with Liz’s Aunt Rosemary, brother David and his wife Tania) + tea (with Nat & Heidi Parsons and family). Photos below: 

The Lord really blessed this weekend with a lovely 77th EAB Celebration on the Saturday with a good crowd gathered in a wonderful spirit. See photos below:

We had a good time at the Dibden Methodist church on Wednesday. Then Thursday we went to London and had a great time covering the theatre, a meal out, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Picadilly Circus, The Thames and London Eye. It was lovely.

Today we have been working on our presentations for EAB’s 77th Celebration tomorrow and those for Verwood on Sunday morning and Winterslow on Sunday evening. All are completely different. On Monday we head for a 5-day break in the County of Rutland.

With great joy today, and much gratitude to God, we have celebrated my dear Mum’s 91st birthday. We had a little cake and candles and my sisters joined Liz and I in a lovely time with Mum. Mum was full of zest today, wide awake, smiling and talkative. It was wonderful. PTL!

From left to right: James, Luke, José and Steve Valentine, me, Liz, Angela, Mark and Emma Chafe

Our 7th Sunday in the UK was blessed and full (to put it mildly!). We left Basingstoke at 8.50am and headed for the Millbrook Christian Centre where we ministered in the 10am service.

We then headed for Hythe where we had a lovely family meal with Liz’s cousins Jose and Angela and families.

From Hythe we headed for West Wellow where we had tea at Gillian Parsons’ house prior to ministering at the West Wellow Canada Road Gospel Hall. As well as the folk from West Wellow others were present from Alderholt and some ex-MCC members. It was quite a gathering of the clans! We followed this service with more food at Neil and Naomi Parsons and then finally headed for Basingstoke praising God for a good full day!