Arriving in Blighty 3 weeks today!

What a lot of pressure to get everything ready for our 10 weeks in the UK & Switzerland. So much to do! The problem is I just can’t stop everything else I have on here so have to juggle it all. I have a meeting of the church leadership tonight to prepare things for our absence. I have a meeting with a journalist any minute now. I have another meeting with the Jabre Peak Campaign committee tomorrow morning. I have a Father’s Day sermon to prepare for Sunday. I had to answer questions from different church ministries yesterday… and so it goes on. Please pray.


The teenagers’ prayer meeting, now held on a Tuesday night, was great again last night. PTL! Louisa, John David and Arthur were there from our clan, plus so many other kids – all praying and some even giving a word! Bless their hearts. Leadership is not about doing everything yourself but getting the right leaders to head up different church ministries and coordinate them.


We are back into São Mamede town as from Saturday, August 15th. PTL! The Lord has moved there.

I had my routine check with the doctor and had all my blood tests done and received top marks yesterday. PTL! Liz is fine too. PTL!

Just had news that thieves got into the Project rented building in Placas borough last night and stole 2 fans and a water cooler. Oh Lord! 


I must get on with things here…

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Exhausted!

We had an excellent Communion Service last night. A real blessing.


Yesterday my dear friend David Barlow (MBE – ex- honorary British Consul in Recife – and founder of the NE Brazilian Cultura Inglesa English Language School network of which our girls’ school is part) died in João Pessoa aged 87. He was a lovely Christian man (Presbyterian). So Liz and I went to his funeral today driving there and back, with the funeral in the middle, in 12 hours! I am utterly exhausted.


I’ll talk more tomorrow   zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Old Cow Pen

Liz and I are off to Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) shortly to preach the Gospel but back in Patos for more ministry tomorrow. We value your prayers. It will be the first time I have been to this place on a tarmacked road as it was until recently a very very bad earth road with one steep dusty climb when the vehicle slid all over the place struggling to get up without grip. All the rest of the road was bumpy with pit holes and rocks.


I dispatched the EAB Diary Update this morning.


Yesterday I went to Green Pastures and checked over things there. All is well despite the drought, which bites harder and harder.


The Christians in Action group are off to the church plant in the neighbouring State of Rio Grande do Norte at Ipueira today, supported by others from the Patos church. The Green Pastures church will be holding a service at a rich land owner’s farm. The man has wonderfully come to the Lord.

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Sermon ready for Saturday

Amidst so much else today I managed to complete my preparation of my sermon for Saturday and prepared for the Bible study tonight. There was also a session of dental hygiene done with the kids at our school in Patos today carried out by the Care Centre team. I also answered a long survey from the London School of Theology as best as I could remember going back over 30 years! I’ve also been contacted by the State-wide Paraíba TV network today wanting to film an interview with me. Oh boy… it’s non-stop!

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Project vehicle attacked!

I have just received news that our project team vehicle, A small Fiat pick-up, was attacked tonight by a large rock which was thrown damaging the right hand side of the vehicle and the windscreen. None of our team was hurt. The police were called and they discovered it had been done but a mentally ill man who has got it into his head that the well we are aiming to drill for the Angola Community, about 5 miles from Green Pastures, should not be drilled. Please pray for the team and for the project.

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Just for you to have an idea!

Just for you to have an idea about the pressure I am under, with less than 4 weeks to go to lift off to the UK, let me tell you this briefly:


1. I have completed the 10 pastors list to preach on the Sundays I’m away and written a longish email to them all with some basic instructions about not preaching too long etc.!


2. I am also in the middle of preparing a sermon for this Saturday at the Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) church when a deaconess from the Patos church contacts me via a facebook message to ask for help with interpreting the extermination of the Cannanites in Joshua 6:21 as she has to teach this in the Sunday School and doesn’t know hope to cope – especially in the light of present day Islamic State’s similar practices! Now look – that I just could not answer with ‘let me get back from the UK’! I had to plunge deep into a massively  complex and difficult issue and help her! Oh Lord!


I do value your prayers!

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Action School Fire

Early in July the Manaira Action School was given a second hand fridge, to help with the food side of the school, by a visitor from our Campina Grande church. During the School holidays it was not switched on but yesterday they switched it on preparing for the return to lessons. Unfortunately the fridge later caught fire, burnt completely out and bought down part of the ceiling, and the black smoke means the whole place is going to have to be cleaned up and repainted. Gratefully nobody was in the building at the time. An investigation is now going on about where this fridge exactly had come from and what had been done to it prior to it being given to the school. Please pray for EAB/ACEV’s Manaíra School.

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Birthdays galore!

Yesterday was my sister Jean’s birthday, today is Philip’s wife Gylmara’s birthday and on Friday granddaughter Alice will be 8! Never a dull moment.


I popped out to Green Pastures this morning to check on different aspects of the work there. I discussed things with Tarcísio bearing in mind that a month today we leave for a bit over 2 months in Europe. I also met up with our Pastor Wostenes and his family (below), from our Campina Grande church, spending a few days there. Pastor Davi and his wife were also there from our São Paulo church.

I have been doing a lot of work on the Action Child programme and on preparation for our Europe trip. This includes lining up preachers for the Sundays I’m away. Philip will lead the services and conduct the Bible studies on the Thursdays. We value your prayers.

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‘John Wesley’ visits Patos!

Well… sort of! What I mean is we had Pastor Luciano Vergara (below) who is a Methodist pastor from Rio de Janeiro preaching in our church last night and his wife singing. It was a great service. They stayed the weekend at Green Pastures as part of a visit to north-east Brazil. We’ve known them since he came to preach at the EAB/ACEV special 60th anniversary celebration in 1998 and we have never lost contact. They stayed the weekend at Green Pastures.


Happy birthday to my sister Jean who is one year older than she was last year!

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5 Weeks to go!

This was Liz and I being met at Recife Airport 43 years
ago by Frank & Ivy Dyer. We will be arriving back in the
UK for a 10 Sundays visit 5 weeks today (DV). We hope to see you at
one of the churches if you live in that part of the world! 

EAB will be holding a ‘Welcome Back’ Cream Tea in lovely surroundings in the New Forest at Ipley on Saturday, August 29th in the afternoon. It will be lovely to see you and chat informally at this event if you can make it. For more information and directions please email dyers.ipley@gmail.com 

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In a Nutshell

I wrote and dispatched the latest EAB Nutshell Update to everyone on my mailing list today. I also went up to Jabre Peak invited by the State Environmental authorities.

Last night’s service was great. Packed house, excellent worship and the sermon went well.  PTL!


Tonight the teenagers of the church had their own prayer meeting! How wonderful! PTL!

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Sermon ready to roll

I have just completed my sermon for tomorrow – the 8th in the series in the Gospel of Mark – covering the last block of chapter 2 and the first block of chapter 3, which essentially deals with the issue of the Sabbath. It’s a good section to warn of the dangers of pharasaic legalism and the error of focusing on judaistic law as opposed to Christ and His complete work.

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Very busy week

I’ve worked on such a variety of things this week. Unbelievable! Radio people just turn up at the office as they know I’ll always give all sorts of subjects a go. We had a great Bible, Prayer and Praise meeting last night with over 50 present midweek. PTL! Great participation in a lovely spirit. It’s so good to see people developing in the Lord.


I’m now in the process of preparing to preach on Sunday continuing my Mark’s Gospel series which brings me to the last section of chapter 2 on the Sabbath. Once again not an ideal Sunday night topic but that’s Mark’s fault and not mine! My job is to preach the Word!


We have another meeting in the needy Jatobá area of Patos tomorrow as we persist in church plant efforts there. As well as the new core team the P&W and Youth ministries will be in support. Christians in Action Ministry will be off to Ipueira to continue work planting the church there.


I have done a lot of work on Action Child matters this week. This has taken up a lot of my time in this transition year for the program. We are moving forward. I am encouraged. PTL!

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Our Trip to the UK & Switzerland is 6 weeks away

We leave Brazil 6 weeks this Tuesday (DV) and arrive at Heathrow on Wednesday, August 26th. We value your prayers as we have a lot to get done before then and there are the normal on-going demands of the work here as well. 


EAB is organizing a cream-tea welcome for us (much appreciated) at Ipley in the New Forest on Saturday, August 29th in the afternoon. Information can be obtained from Keith & Mary Dyer at dyers.ipley@gmail.com The tea is open to family and friends from Tunbridge Wells to Timbuktu! Our ministry engagements are now confirmed as follows:


Aug. 30: Hardley am

Sep. 06: Thamesmead Baptist am
Sep. 08: Liz’s birthday!
Sep. 12: Ledbury (personal visit)
Sep. 13: Bristol Ivy Church am / Bristol PHC pm
Sep. 14 – 19: Switzerland
Sep. 20: Cadnam Methodist
Sep. 23: Shirley Warren Baptist
Sep. 26: Train London > Durham
Sep. 27: Great Lumley am / Bishop Auckland pm
Sep. 29: Horden


Oct. 01: Hylton Castle
Oct. 02: Train Durham > Larbert
Oct. 3-4: Larbert AOG
Oct. 5: Train Larbert > London
Oct. 11: Millbrook am / West Wellow pm
Oct. 12: My Mum’s 91st birthday!
Oct. 14: Dibden Purlieu Methodist
Oct. 17: EAB AGM pm
Oct. 18: Verwood am
Oct. 19-23: Rutland Water region 
Oct. 25: Danbury

Nov. 01: Cefn Cribwr
Nov. 03: Return to Brazil

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Great service with dedications, baptism and packed church

Last night’s service was really good in Patos with 3 children dedicated and I was helped by my 2 elders Pedro Guedes & Philip. As dear old Paul Newbury used to say: “The important thing is to make sure the elders ‘eld’ and the deacons ‘deac”!


I also baptized a new convert whom God has really changed, having come from a spiritist past. We received her and and her husband into fellowship at the church later in the service. He is a captain in the military police and was a backslidden Christian who has returned to the Lord.

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More details on the João Pessoa incident

I now have more news on what as happened at the João Pessoa Boa Esperança (Good Hope) church. In fact it was not the pastor who was tied up and beaten, but it was his 14 year old daughter. The thief came as the pastor had gone out to buy the milk and he tied up and beat the daughter so as to extract from her the whereabouts of the church’s money and the money from the pastor’s wife’s little shop. The thing was that the poor girl didn’t know where the money was so couldn’t tell the thief to save her life.


Fortunately the pastor and his older daughter’s husband arrived at the house in time to cause the thief to run away out of a back door – thus avoiding blood shed or the likes. When they got inside they untied and ungagged their daughter. They called the police who were of no help. The family is naturally absolutely traumatized and need prayer big time.


I have finished preparing my sermon amongst all this for tomorrow. I will also be dedicating 3 children and baptizing one lady. Some children and teenagers will be doing a choreography in the service too tomorrow night so it should be quite a service.


The P&W group have gone to minister at the Princesa Isabel church tonight and over 30 others from the Patos church have gone to Passagem to support the little EAB church there. Praise God for an active church alive for God!

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Great service and very busy indeed!

Last night’s Bible study was fantastic! We call it the ‘Praise, Prayer and Bible’ night and we sure get just that with growing mid-week numbers (always between 45 and 50 now) and lots of participation from the members with short words (Philip, Leron, Espedita and Pastor Silvio visiting from our Portelo church) + praise from different ones, including a dear older brother whose song “Please help me Lord” sounded like he was strangling a cat and that he needed help!) But in church we don’t just strive for perfection but for people to do their best to praise the Lord and learn to develop ministries. Fortunately I managed to control myself when the dear brother was singing so as not to get hysterical!

I did a photo shoot with Amanda Ivy, now 2 months old, doing well, getting a little bit plumper and certainly more and more beautiful!


I am utterly rushed off my feet with all the on-going ministries (dedicate 3 on Sunday + baptise 1) plus all the community protests I am leading plus all the preparations for UK next month + Action Child work + people who need to speak to me etc. etc. Please pray and those who are waiting for replies from me please hold your horses!

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Communion

The Communion service last night turned out to be quite extraordinary with the sermon having wonderful response with different ones putting things right with others as a result straight after the meeting. PTL!


On the Saturday we had the deaf fellowship reaching out to the deaf, the Christians in Action group continuing their ministry with the church plant in Rio Grande do Norte State, a lot of the youth making a new start to an effort to plant a church where we have our school in Patos, and the teenagers visiting a senior citizens’ home. 45 from one of our Campina Grande churches spent the day at Green Pastures.


On the Friday the new little church at the ex-slave community of Fonseca was opened and it was also Philip’s 37th birthday!

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Well – Drought – Bible Study

Yesterday was a long tiring but good day travelling to Sousa to inaugurate another well – this time for the largest Gypsy community in Brazil. It was quite an experience! Intestesting. I took 2 workers from the Care Centre with me. I collapsed into bed at night and slept really well. You can see in the photo two of our pastors at the event yesterday with one of the gypsy leaders in the centre.

This morning I went to Green Pastures where we are doing yet more work to cope with water supplies with the unbelievable drought we are now facing. What a challenge! Please pray. Tomorrow night 40 from the Campina Grande church will be sleeping there at Green Pastures and spending Saturday there.


I have prepared the Bible study for tonight and am looking forward to the service. I have also had my haircut.

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Petition in Orbit!

My petition to save the beautiful natural habitat and wildlife at Jabre Peak – the highest point in the State of Paraíba – has today passed the 9,000 signatures mark! PTL! It would appear that things are starting to have the possibly desired effect as I received information today that the top environmental council set up to defend nature discussed the question and it was made clear at the meeting that the State Governor is organizing action. Please keep praying.


I had a good discussion with Philip this morning on this year’s EAB/ACEV Youth Conference to be held at Green Pastures in October whilst we will be in the UK. It was a very good chat with some clear plans drawn up to aim at for the conference. Please pray.


I have done some more work today on preparations for what to say and present around the churches in the UK in the autumn.


Tomorrow I am going to inaugurate the well at Sousa for the gypsies. It is the largest gypsy community in Brazil.

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Petition takes off!

Last night’s service in Patos was great. A real blessing. The sermon on “To Fast or not to Fast? – that is the question”! was from Mark 2:18-22 and the answer some are asking me for can only be given in a longish sermon really. But certainly not like a show-biz act like the Pharisees but sometimes yes as a private discreet devotional exercise.


This morning I was out to Green Pastures early for exercise and discussions. It was good.


The petition in defense of the natural environment at the highest point in the State of Paraíba has really taken off today so as to double signatues in a day to over 3,000 thus far! PTL!


Please pray for the EAB finances, as I have been told today that our contingency back-up fund is down to nought!

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EAB/ACEV’s Got Talent!

Last night’s special service, uniting almost all of our church ministries, was very good. The church was packed out on a Saturday night with people dressed in regional dress and taking part with songs, dances, poems, testimonies and a short play. It was wonderful! Afterwards there were the typical regional foods made from maize for all. You can see the kid’s choreography group below with our granddaughters Bia and Alice 2nd and 3rd from left.


I finally got my sermon preparation done yesterday afternoon ready for tonight. The title is “To Fast or not to Fast? That is the question”! based on Mark 2:18-22 in my 7th sermon in the series in this Gospel. We value your prayers.

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Word + Radios

The Bible study went so well last night. I am giving an increasing amount of opportunity to different ones to take part with short words early in the service and last night we had 4 young people bring words! PTL! Rayla, Brenda, Lucas Silva and Jonatas. Wonderful! The whole meeting was a real blessing. 

Today I did three radio interviews. Two in the morning and one this evening. There’s never a dull moment!


Tomorrow night we have a special big Saturday night meeting with all the ministries coming together for praise, fellowship and food! Everyone seems very upbeat about it. PTL!


Philip got back from India late afternoon. He must be exhausted. He brought me some pencils back from India made of Neem tree wood. The Neem trees’ origins are in India.

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Preparation for Euro Trip

I worked a lot on preparing for our trip to Europe in 2 months time yesterday. It’s always a challenge to try and figure out what to speak about and show in our presentations as there is so much to chose from. I remember in my youth producing a super-8 film which lasted over an hour! That was crazy! We learn by our mistakes! So I am now in the process of getting my mind round all we have going here in terms of churches and projects and then chosing just a little bit of this to present. All suggestions are welcome – not that we are in a position to guarantee anything at this stage, but I always consider suggestions and put them in the mix to see what comes out at the end. We value your prayers.


Tonight is Bible study night so I am preparing for this too.


Philip, I am glad to say, is flying back from India today and should be back in Patos tomorrow afternoon.

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The battle is hot!

We would appreciate your prayers and support for our campaign in defence of the most beautiful area in our region: Jabre Peak – the highest point in the State of Paraíba. Owing to its height the vegetation is different with a more humid atmosphere and thus the fauna is richer too. However the promised protection for this very special area (promised in the State Government decree of 2002!) has not been forthcoming. Hence we have lots of illegal and enormous antenas on top of the peak, ruining its beauty. We also have hunting and trapping for later selling of wildlife totally out of control, logging is also occurring as is the proliferation of rubbish by the visitors, hunters etc.


The battle is hot on the matter as I have had discussions with the State Governor and County authorities. There are vested interests in the status quo from some quarters. So to increase pressure on the Government to ACT I started an online petition last night which already has 250 signatures. Please help us by signing the online petition no matter where you live if you love God’s creation and believe it is right to defend it. All you need is to give your name and email to sign the online form. 

https://www.change.org/p/governo-do-estado-da-para%C3%ADba-vamos-salvar-o-pico-do-jabre-8d836171-1540-4eda-9a88-368b190a9ea2?recruiter=32259807&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg&fb_ref=Default

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I trod on a Snake

This morning’s Green Pasture’s walk saw me engaged in two snake encounters close up. Clearly snakes-on-the-move time is here again. The first was a second encounter with a 6 foot Black Snake (Pseudoboa nigra) which I had seen at the weekend. 


Not more than about a hundred metres from this encounter something a bit more complex occured as I trod on a highly dangerous Coral Snake which I hadn’t noticed on the ground as I was looking for a bird in the tree Tarcísio and I were under. Tarcíscio saw it all happen but it was so quick that it was all over in seconds. The snake wrapped round my boot and as I walked on got loose and I then saw it disappearing down a hole in the ground. This is why I always walk in the bush in boots and jeans as it gives you necessary protection.


The church youth’s special programme to coincide with the St. John’s Festival here, with its heavy drug, drink and promiscuity, is going very well. How wonderful to see them all in church having fun last night and tonight there is more. It’s no good just telling kids not to do wrong. You’ve got to give them good alternatives!

Our campaign to get the drunk drivers’ situation here taken seriously is finally paying dividends. The police have really got their act together at this festival and many have been arrested. This has certainly saved lives.

Tomorrow is St. John’s Day which is the big festival in Brazil’s north-east, so as things always happen on the eve of the day (e.g. Christmas Eve) so tonight promises to be noisy and long!

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I won the pizza, but Louisa & Tiago ate it!

Saturday night’s wedding went off lovely. I conducted the wedding held in a new restaurant’s party area made for these sort of events and my loyal granddaughter Louisa sang beautifully accompanied by her boyfriend Tiago. Normally at these events Philip and I have a private guess as to what time the bride will actually be at the entrance to the church or whatever, to start the proceedings. Whoever gets nearest is bought a pizza by the other! 

Well… as Philip is in India I challenged Louisa and Tiago to maintain the tradition as of course the bride never turns up on time! For the 7.30 kick-off Tiago (inexperienced in the field!) went for 8.10, I went for 8.30 and Louisa for 9.00. The bride was ready to roll at 8.35 (a mere one hour and five minutes late!) so I was nearest and won the pizza. However as Louisa sang so well I paid for her and her boyfriend to go and have a pizza together after the wedding!


The service this Sunday night in Patos was great. Liz brought a great spontaneous word early in the service which set the tone for the rest. PTL! The worship was good, the church was full and into overflow mode, the sermon went great and one decision was made at the end. I also dedicated a little child – Miguel. You can see the child and family with me below.



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Wedding

I’m off to do a wedding in a couple of hours and Louisa (bless her heart) is going to do the songs accompanied by her boyfriend Tiago. This couple are my great supporters in the mid-week meetings when Philip is away as Sacha works in the evenings. Louisa always is there. A chip off the old block! The wedding isn’t even anyone from the church but the groom is a brother of a deaconess – so out of consideration for her I accepted the wedding on top of everything else I have on.


I finished preparing my sermon this morning for tomorrow in Patos. It’s sermon 6 in my series in Mark’s Gospel and talks about the Call of Matthew: 1. The challenge of the Call (after all he was giving up a lot more than the fishermen!). 2. The Grace of God in the Call (traitor to apostle!). 3. The Cure of the Call (the best doctor at work!). – For a small fee I’d let my friend Michael Rollo borrow these 3 points!!


Baby granddaughter Amanda Ivy is steadily improving. PTL! She had her weekly weigh-in yesterday with the paediatrician’s and is over 2.7kg now and should reach 3 kg at next Friday’s visit calculating by the rate of daily weight increase she is now into. We are very happy. Thanks for your prayers and please keep praying!

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Very hectic week

That was the week that was! I’ve been so busy that I can’t even remember all I’ve done. I just know that lots of church issues were initially sorted plus more work on EAB’s Action Child Project.


Then on Wednesday I was invited by the State Government to a meeting in the morning on the environment and I went. I was the first to ask a question about the criminal devastation and hunting going on up in the mountain in the beautiful area of Jabre Peak – the highest point in the State. Since then I have been leading a campaign with the Stae Governor to change things and I have had some good exchanges of views with him and we seem to be making progress. Please pray.


I gave the Bible Study last night and that went great and the meeting was followed by umpteen meetings with different people. I had a meeting today with one of our pastors and have been preparing my sermon for Sunday on the Call of Levi/Matthew from Mark 2. This is sermon number 6 in the Mark’s Gospel series.


Now it’s the noisy St. John’s Festival time in Patos. May the Lord help us between now and next Wednesday!

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Great Service

The service in Patos tonight was really good. The church was full but not the overflow hall. The P&W was lovely and the sermon really rocked! 2 decisions were made for Christ at the end, including a man of about 40 who was last in church in our Sunday School as a kid of 7 years of age, having been living in a poor little house near the church. He is now bubbling and says he’s back with his wife and child! PTL!

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Action Child, water shortages etc.

Thursday’s meeting of the Action Child leaders went very well and lasted about 4 hours. We did a complete overall evaluation of the different schools and set things in motion (I think and I hope) for the speeding up of the making available of new children for sponsorship with EAB oversees. I sent 4 this week to the UK coordinator Pauline and now hope to be able to send more next week.


Following this meeting we had another on the the new project in a very complicated and dangerous borough of Patos where drugs reign supreme! We discussed some necessary adjustments to the project and praise God that thus far things are going well.


After lunch there was a general meeting of all our project coordinators. The work of God marches on!


Yesterday I was preparing my Sunday sermon (to be completed today) and went to Green Pastures to visit our school there and also to work on ways to cope with the new horrific drought. We have water from wells which is fine for certain things but is too brackish for others. We have discovered that another well little used and some distance from the centre of Green Pastures has good quality non-brackish water so we are working on running a pipeline to have access to this.

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Action Child meeting

Liz, Sacha and I are just off to an EAB/ACEV Action Child leadership meeting to discuss how things are going in this year of transition for the programme and what can be done to speed the process up and make things flow smoother. Leaders are coming from Campina Grande and Imaculada and meeting at the Projects Centre next to the church in Patos.


Yesterday I dispatched to Pauline the first new children for this year for sponsorship. All 4 are either nursery or year one kids as the new Action Child system requires. Your prayer are valued.

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Patos church leadership meeting

The meeting of the Patos church leadership team was very worthwhile last night. It lasted about 2 hours and covered a wide range of topics. On July 1st we restart our church planting endeavours in the borough where we have our school. Please pray for the Jatobá borough church plant project.

The team in the photo: the ladies from the left are Marcia (projects team member), Marah Danielle
(Social Worker), Deborah Maria (Deaconess) & Liz. (The men from the
left) Ricardo (3rd year Bible School student), Philip & me just squeezing in!



Other topics covered included some counselling issues in progress, youth leader, a request for someone who had left the church last year to return etc. It was a good positive united meeting. PTL!

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Communion

The communion service on Sunday went particularly well – especially the sermon – because it was a sermon with a difference. I asked the church to give me the words that come to their minds at a breaking of bread service and preached on the spot on the 13 words they gave me plus one which I added. It was a risky thing to do as it might have not taken off – but it did! PTL! Some people gave rave reviews afterwards and said it was the best communion service in years! The words the church gave me were Love, Pact, the Blood of Jesus, Gratitude, Salvation, Last supper, Forgiveness, Communion, Reconciliation, Hope, Commitment, the return of Christ, Worship – and I added the Cross.


Yesterday (Monday) we had a special thanksgiving service for the graduation of a young woman in our church who has just become a physiotherapist. These events are always great opportunities to share the Gospel with people who do not usually come to church. There were at least 50 people there on a Monday night who I had never seen before. PTL!


Tonight we have a Patos church leadership meeting.

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Non-Stop

Thursday’s Bible study went well. I am encouraging people to voluntarily bring short words in the earlier part of the service and this is really taking off. This week we had a young man called Joely and a married man called Dedé. Really good. PTL! It is a very participative service with different folk singing too plus good times of prayer. The Thursday night service is now getting between 40 and 50 present and it is varied and lively.


This weekend the Singles/Divorced Fellowship is running a food stall at the annual united church outreach in Patos. The stall serves also as the central point of focus for our church and is being a real blessing.


Philip is on his way home from Holland and should be back in Patos late tonight. He went and watched the Holland 3 x USA 4 football match in the Ajax stadium prior to leaving last night!


I am preparing for a graduation service on Monday evening. I am already prepared for tomorrow night’s Communion service.


Baby Amanda Ivy has now recovered her birth weight and passed it a bit. She is slowly improving and growing but still no visits allowed as great care needs to be taken to keep her away from viruses or the likes. Thanks for your continued prayers about everything.

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Drizzle

I woke at 5am hearing a drizzle of rain falling! Wow! Unbelievable! It drizzled for about an hour and then stopped only to return for a couple of further hours later. It’s of no use for reservoirs but fine rain is so beautiful when you’ve never more seen it!


Today the youth of our Princesa Isabel church have come to Green Pastures to spend the day which is a public holiday here. Actually they came last night and slept there to be on site bright and early. Bless their hearts.


I now must prepare for this evening’s Bible study in Patos.

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Communications Statistics

This blog has now passed the 138,500 visits mark.


My Flickr photos page has now passed the 183,000 visits mark https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmedcraft/


EAB’s English language facebook page now has 1,038 likes https://www.facebook.com/eabrazil


John’s personal facebook page mostly in Portuguese has the maximum 5,000 friends or there abouts https://www.facebook.com/john.p.medcraft


The EAB/ACEV Patos church’s facebook page in Portuguese as 2,125 likes https://www.facebook.com/pages/A%C3%A7%C3%A3o-Evang%C3%A9lica-Patos-PB/773650192729931

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The Ups & Downs of Action Child

The ups and downs of EAB’s Action Child Schools programme stared us in the face today as we worked through reports about each pupil spread around our schools. On the one hand we saw the trajectory of a little skinny poor lad born out in the sticks in the middle of nowhere, who ended up graduating from Bible College with a degree in theology and is at this time leading an EAB church plant.


On the other had we came across reports like – “moved in with her boyfriend at 13 and won’t listen to anybody”. Or – “her Mum was murdered in front of her because of her brothers drug debt”. Or – “Her Dad’s in jail, her Mum’s gone off with someone else, her brothers are hooked on drugs and her sister is a prostitute. Now she’s disappeared and EAB’s UK office is crying out for her half-yearly letter and photo for her sponsor”!


We value your prayers for Action Child. It’s not easy and it doesn’t always go according to the script! Please pray for EAB’s UK Action Child Coordinator Pauline Pennels and her husband Adrian as they handle reports and communications with sponsors in Europe. Their email addresses for further information are: papenn3557@hotmail.com / adypenn3557@hotmail.com

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Action Child Programme

Sacha and I did a complete review, child by child or person by person, of every sponsored child / person in EAB’s Action Child Programme this morning. I say person and not only child because everyone get’s older and we have sponsored people who are no longer kids! 

This year is a year of transition to a tighter sharper version of EAB’s Action Child programme. We have learnt over the years and are still learning – so seek to improve the programme and increase its efficiency for the kids and for the sponsors who maintain the programme running. Let me explain how things are now run.

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EAB Action Child Schools will focus on
primary education with intake at nursery and year 1 levels with children
studying with EAB’s school programme through to the end of year 5. Everything
else stays as it was – education with God’s love on a full tummy! 

The defined goals of the programme are:

•             Pupils
learn thoroughly to read, write and handle basic maths.

•             Pupils
receive special help with homework and areas of need so that they pass each
year’s final exams in their regular school.

•             Pupils
receive Christian education to lead them to possibly making a commitment to
Christ.
Thus in the coming months EAB will be encouraging sponsors to switch to new younger children in accordance with the new programme guidelines above, if their current sponsored children are outside the primary school age bracket. This switch will be done slowly over the next year or so, unless sponsors particularly want to stay linked to their current child, because we know friendship links do become strong with some. In this case the sponsors support will go into the schools pool fund.

The point of all this is that EAB realizes it can’t do everything and feels it can more efficiently give poor kids a good start in life by concentrating its efforts up to year 5. Please pray with us in this extended period of transition and stay with us in the EAB Action Child programme for the glory of God.
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I have cuddled Amanda Ivy!

Our 8th grandchild, Lynn & Hutan’s daughter Amanda Ivy, was born exactly 4 weeks ago today and finally this afternoon arrived in Patos with her parents and Grandma. It’s great to have Liz back and everyone here. Amanda is so cute, very tiny, but slowly making progress. I had my first hold of her and sang to her! We just need to pray for her to put on weight and get stronger quickly. The doctor has said we must avoid visits for the time being so as to avoid the transmission of illnesses or the likes. So praise God with us and please keep praying.

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This was the day!

FA Cup final day, FA Amature Cup final and Wimbledon final day were the three days as a lad that I was allowed to watch sport on TV! TV, for my fundamentalist dear old Dad, was tabu, so we sneaked into our neighbour Mrs. Wheeler’s ground floor flat in Highlever Road, North Kensingston, and watched on black and white TV. The FA Amature Cup was important because my Mum’s home town of Bishop Auckland won it three times in the 1950s


So today I’ll cheer for the underdogs in both English and Scottish FA Cups – Aston Villa and Falkirk!


My sermon is all ready for tomorrow in Patos. I will be preaching on Mark 1:40-45 about the purification of a leper who probably wasn’t a leper! This is the 4th sermon in my series going through Mark’s Gospel. 


Liz, Lynn, Hutan & Amanda have just left João Pessoa gratefully, so they should be in Patos this afternoon. Now this IS good news! PTL!

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Blessing

Last night’s service was really blessed in the Patos church. I led and gave the Bible study and we had so much participation from different folk with words and songs. Really encouraging.


News from São Mamede is good too where the church plant there which had folded up is about to restart. PTL! In the rural areas the work goes forward in leaps and bounds.


Slowly, very slowly, prem. baby Amanda is getting stronger and it looks like they will all be coming to Patos at the weekend at last after a month in the capital where Amanda of course was born. Thanks for your prayers. Please don’t stop.


The water situation in our State is utterly desperate. After the drought from the second half of 2011 through to March 2014 we just had a few good months of rain prior to the drought kicking back in. Hence 2014 never recovered the reservoirs and now with a poor rains of 2015 things are worse than ever. Things are very serious indeed – even in cities which normally don’t have droughts, like Campina Grande, there will be water rationing for 3 days every week as from next week!

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