Categoria: News

It is lovely to share our house with House Sparrows. I was just sitting talking to Liz when one came hopping through the kitchen and front room looking for crumbs on the floor! 🐦 In our garden we are hearing a number of Sayaca Tanagers. 

Last night my co-pastor Rafael led the service and I preached on ‘Hezekiah trusted in the Lord’ from 2 Kings 18:5-8. It was a lovely service.

One of the very beautiful and colourful birds in the northeast of Brazil is the bright yellow Great Kiskadee, and I am hearing them a lot of late from my office in Patos.

The average rainfall at Green Pastures in January over the past 25 years is 112 mm, but this year we have only had 6 mm! The situation is critical. Please pray.

Sadly QPR lost 3 x 2 at home to Wrexham yesterday. Oh dear! 😖

I went and took the service, as I always do on Saturdays, of the Green Pastures church and I preached on Jesus walking on the water from John 6 (I am going through John’s Gospel with the church) with the help of Matthew’s added information that Peter had a go too! It was a lovely service with the children singing beautifully and Fred singing sat down, debilitated by a stroke, but he still sang. I heard a Ferruginous Pigmy-Owl whilst there. 

I spent the whole day yesterday working on a new sermon for this Sunday in Patos. I had been scheduled to preach a week later but Sacha and I had to swap as she had no time to prepare owing to her daughter Bia’s illness in hospital. So I will be preaching this Sunday on ‘Hezekiah trusted in the Lord’ based on 2 Kings 8:5-8. The 3 points are: 1) Hezekiah trusted in the Lord (verse 5). 2)  He held fast to the Lord (verse 6). 3) The Lord was with him (verse 7).

Amy Gough safely returned to Southampton last night from her visit to EAB/ACEV here in Brazil.

Beatriz (Bia) was sent home from hospital last night and will continue her recovery at home. Thank you for your prayers.

Please pray for our 16-year-old granddaughter Beatriz (Bia) who is in hospital on a drip for dehydration as she has gone down with a vomiting virus which has hit our region of Brazil. Our granddaughter Amanda also has the same virus in João Pessoa. Please pray for Amanda also.

Our third church in Campina Grande, in the borough of Novo Cruzeiro, has grown already from a church plant to 56 people! Please pray as they seek to purchase land in order to build their own church and move out of their current rented building. 

Our visitor Amy Gough flew out of Recife airport last night on her way back to the UK where she will write a report on her stay with EAB/ACEV in Brazil for her Bible College before she graduates with a degree in theology and gets married in June. God bless you Amy! It was lovely to have you here with us.

With 4 states, including our state of Paraiba, yet to report their statistics for December, the murders of women in Brazil in 2025 totals over 4 a day, with many “honour killings” where men kill their wives/partners if they decide to leave them.

Yesterday we had 1 mm of rain in a momentary shower at Green Pastures. We are desperate for rain in this the rainy season.

In my summaries of the Bible I have now covered half the book of Job having completed chapter 21. Job is a complex discussion of human suffering and its causes.

Amy went to the Bessa beach yesterday in João Pessoa and visited the Tambaú handicraft market and had a walk on the Cabo Branco sea front.

This year Brazil will elect its president, senators and federal and state deputies for the next 4 years, and we commend this to all for prayer. We ask all our ACEV church leaders and members to refrain from posting about politics on our WhatsApp church groups or any other of our social media. Let us above all maintain the unity of the faith!

In less than a week I have driven for 16 hours, and not always on so good roads! I praise God for health, strength and travelling mercies. On Thursday and Saturday 4 hours driving each day took us twice to the outreach, and then on Monday and Tuesday it was 4 hours each day from Patos to Caroá and then back. Thanks for your prayers.

QPR drew 0 x 0 again yesterday away to Oxford and so slip to half-way house on 12th in the 24 team Championship.

We do not believe in prosperity theology which teaches that you must not
go to the doctor and not take medicine but you must only seek divine supernatural
healing. We pray for the sick and we go to the doctor and take medicine too.
The way we get better doesn’t matter. If you have toothache what do you do?
Pray for divine intervention or go to the dentist? So the health recipe in our
churches is pray always whilst going to the doctor and the dentist.

Amy Gough has just left Patos with our daughter Lynn, her husband Hutan and their daughter Amanda. They will take Amy to the beach before taking her to the airport tomorrow for her return flight to England.

Yesterday and today we have been travelling with our UK visitor Amy Gough and we have just got back at 4:30 pm. Yesterday we went up the mountains to Teixeira and showed Amy our church there. We then went on to visit our Matureia school and church and we were given a nice snack by Pastor Renilson and his wife Getiane. We then went by our churches at Juru and Tavares before showing Amy our original EAB/ACEV church which Bert Mundy built at Princesa Isabel in 1943. We then drove on to Caroá where we had a lovely evening meal of free-range chickens, rice, pumpkin and sweet potato.

In the evening we took part in a lovely service with a church packed out on a Monday night. Amy brought a word interpreted by Liz, the deputy mayoress brought a word of greeting and I preached the Gospel. The service was led by Pastor Valdemy.

This morning we visited the Caroa wells and the incipient market garden there. After this we headed to Manaira where we visited Pastor Francinaldo and his church and school followed by a visit to the little shop run by 85-year-old and father of 15 José Paulino, which started over 30 years ago, fruit of the EAB income generation project. 

On the way home we stopped at our Imaculada church, school and playground to show Amy. When on our way down the mountain we stopped for a drink of Guaraná and diet Coke at the viewing point of ‘Pedra do Tendó’ where Amy went climbing to the top of the big rock for a better view. 

Having descended the mountain we witnessed a dead man alongside the road with police taking photographs of him. Police say that the 44-year-old father of 2, who had been riding a bike, probably had suffered a heart attack as he had no signs of injury on his body.

Whilst we were away Patos received 60 mm of rain (2 and a half inches) but it didn’t rain a drop at Green Pastures.  Now it is raining again in Patos so we hope and pray that it will reach Green Pastures too.

I led the service last night in Patos and Murilo preached on the ‘Consequences of the Cross’ from Luke 23 which was an excellent sermon. All our young people that have just got back from the 10-day Outreach gave their testimonies and this was wonderful. Amy Gough, who will be going back to the cold of England on Thursday, also brought a short word interpreted by Bia. 

Today we are taking Amy to Caroá where we will take part in a service and show her some wells.

I preached last night in the final evangelistic service of the 10-day outreach. A very large crowd gathered in the main town square of Soledade with our worship group from Campina Grande leading the praise and the dance groups joining in. It was a wonderful service.

This 10-day outreach was the 24th year in succession that we have held them and this year’s team of 130 was a real blessing. They evangelized 480 houses and 1,075 people were personally evangelized as well as 423 children. 27 decisions to follow Christ were registered and 12 backsliders recommitted their lives to Christ. We will monitor these numbers to see how many are truly converted. 93 houses asked for a follow up visit. 22 Bibles were distributed and over 3,000 Gospel tracts were given out.

It was very good to have Bible College student from the UK with us this year Amy Gough. She will graduate with a degree in theology in June at the St. Mellitus College in London. I have asked her to write a short report on the 10-day Outreach pointing to what was good and what could be improved. Amy fitted in very well with the team and was especially helped by the English of Alice, Bia and Rayssa. 

QPR drew 0 x 0 yesterday away to Stoke and remain in a mid-table position (11th) in the Championship.

We are praying every day for Pastor Phil Watkins of Bristol Ivy Church and ask you to please join us in our prayers. Phil is undergoing chemotherapy for Leukaemia. 

I have just eaten a plate of watermelon. 😋

The Southern Wren is singing in our garden again. 🎶I also saw in the garden a Glittering-bellied Emerald Hummingbird. They are so beautiful and fast, rotating their wings in a figure eight 80 times per second!

On this penultimate day of the 10-day evangelistic outreach at Soledade our 130-strong team is holding a social action day with doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, hair dressers, manicurists etc. attending the poor. Then in the main closing open-air service in the town main square I will be going to preach the Gospel. Tomorrow the team will take part in an internal communion service in day 10 bringing the wonderfully blessed event to a close.  

Last night we went to Soledade to take part in the 10-day Outreach, day 7, which evangelized the Sítio Cordeiro rural community and held the evening service there. Pastor Robério led the service, Pastor Hamilton preached the Gospel and Liz and I took part with short words. The dance group did a presentation too and so did the drama group. It was a lovely service. The journey to Soledade took us 1 hour 45 minutes to get there.

We have just learnt of the murder of a 19-year-old niece of our member of the Green Pastures church Vilene. Her and her husband were involved in a traffic dispute on their motorbike in São Paulo and a car driver chased them and shot them both killing the wife and wounding the husband. Please pray for the family.

I had a nice video call yesterday with my 2 sisters Jean and Joy which was very good.

The 10-day evangelistic outreach at Soledade continues to go well with decisions being made for Christ. Our visitor Amy Gough is enjoying it and yesterday helped cook for the 130 participants and also spoke again in the evening service!

Our granddaughter Beatriz’s (Bia) 16th birthday is today. Happy Birthday Bia! 😘

It is quite amazing how frogs and toads survive in the drought by borrowing deep down in the sand of the dry river beds and hibernating there for months or even years. When heavy rain comes they reemerge singing and mating!

We had a quick shower of 5.5 mm of rain at Green Pastures which is a sign of hope. Multiply this by 200 and we will be smiling!

Liz led the Patos church prayer meeting, and we have been involved in extensive counselling.

Please keep praying for the Outreach at Soledade which has now reached the half-way stage with 5 days completed. The team washes toilets, sweeps floors, cooks food, prays, does door-to-door evangelism, praises, preaches, does drama and dance etc. etc. May the 130-strong team continue to pull together for the glory of God!

The amount of universes that exist is unknown, but the amount of stars
that exist in our universe alone is estimated to be between 10 sextillion and 2
septillion, which means there are more stars than grains of sand on all the
earth’s beaches! However stars rarely collide. “The heavens declare the glory
of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”. (Psalm 19:1)

Yesterday the 10-day evangelistic outreach team held a street service in
the morning in the weekly Soledade street market and greatly impacted the town. The team did door-to-door evangelism in the afternoon and held a street service at night. There have already been a number of decisions of commitment to Christ made as a result of the team’s ministry. 

We have reached nearly 450 comments on this blog and we thank one and
all. Special thanks go to Roberto
Tiburtino, Veronica Morais and Pastor Manoel Oliveira Filho. Please remember
that if you don’t write your name I have no way of knowing who wrote the
comment.

Last night our daughter Sacha led the service in Patos and I preached on King Hezekiah of Judah from 2 Kings 18:1-4. It was a lovely service.

The 10-day outreach at Soledade pressed on in its third day of blessing. The 130-strong team went out doing door-to-door evangelism in the afternoon and did a street service at night in one of Soledade’s boroughs. In the morning they did prayer and Bible study.

QPR were knocked out of the FA Cup yesterday away to West Ham 2 x 1 after extra time. Long gone are the days when we won the League Cup at Wembley. I was there and I was 18, and I started going out with Liz later that month of March 1967.

Our son Philip has gone to Holland today with his work.

Last night I went and held the weekly Green Pastures Church service and I preached on the feeding of the five thousand from John 6. Sister Nega led the praise and worship. She sings really nicely. It was lovely to see sister Odilia at the service aged 92 and fully active.

On the earth road on the way to the service I saw a Pigmy Nightjar. 

The service on the second night of the 10-day outreach, with a team of 130, was held alongside the church in the open-air, and went very well. Amy Gough from Southampton gave a word in the service.

A 36-year-old woman was bitten by a shark at the island of Fernando de Noronha but thankfully survived. We have been to this island both with Bob and Jo Dalton and with Marian Rashleigh.

Yesterday I went to Green Pastures where I saw an Iguana lizard and a Ferruginous Pigmy-Owl. The drought here is utterly catastrophic and the rain just doesn’t come! 🙏

The 10-day evangelistic outreach at Soledade is underway and in its second day with a team of 130 mainly young people. The outreach is under the leadership of pastors Robério and Rafael and Missionary Betânia. Please pray.

Yesterday we took Amy to the Diamante (Diamond), Barra de Oitis and Vazante churches and projects. The initial nearly 2-hour journey west was on asphalt, but from then on the roads were bumpy earth roads. We showed Amy many toilet/shower units built for the poor and some market garden projects which are doing very well despite the drought. We had lunch at Pastor Nezinho Abílio’s house where I ate a lovely tilapia fish. At night I preached at the Diamante church and Amy brought a word of greeting interpreted by Liz. We got home a little before midnight after a lovely day.

The 10-day Outreach starts today at Soledade. Please pray. Amy has gone together with our granddaughters Alice and Bia who both speak English. 

Amy has been on a tour of Patos visiting our friend Dona Florzinha in the borough of Placas, followed by visits to the the boroughs of Sete Casas and Serrote Liso where we always distribute food hampers. She then visited the meat market where she found the cow intestines interesting, before going into the central market where she met Jesiel who used to be in Philip’s band called ‘Lift Off’. Liz then took Amy to visit the Roman Catholic shrine called ‘Cruz da Menina’.

After lunch we went to the Pastor Frank Dyer School followed by a visit to Green Pastures. I showed Amy the meeting hall, kitchen, EAB/ACEV museum, bedrooms, dormitories, swimming pool etc. and took her on a short walk along a dry and barren nature trail where we saw lots of Armadillo burrows. On our visit we saw a pair of Pearl Kites, a pair of Caatinga Cacholotes and a Roadside Hawk. We also heard Campo Troupials and Rufous-bellied Thrushes.

The Life-Squad (Pastor Rafael, Roberto Tiburtino and Iara) evangelized the Men’s prison again yesterday and 3 men made commitments to Christ.

Liz travelled to Recife airport yesterday, with Netinho from the Patos church, in order to meet Amy Gough from Southampton who is a theology degree student at St Mellitus College and who is coming to experience our 10-day evangelistic outreach, with a team of 130 mainly young people, which will be held this year at Soledade. There are a number on the outreach who speak English, including our granddaughters Alice and Bia, so communication will be no problem. We will also be taking her before and after the outreach to visit some of our churches and projects further in the interior.

Amy’s flight arrived about 30 minutes late and she came through customs at Recife airport about three quarters of an hour before midnight, so they slept the night at the Ibis Airport hotel from where they will be driving to Patos today. Welcome to EAB/ACEV and Brazil Amy! May God richly bless you with us!

Great Kiskadees, Smooth-billed Anis and Variable Orioles have been around our house in Patos. Birds not normally found in towns seem to be coming in in search of food and water. The drought here is catastrophic. 

I finished writing this year’s Easter play yesterday which our drama group will perform on April 4th which will be Easter Sunday. The play is called “Two Days to Easter” (Matthew 26:2). Having finished I have already got ideas for the Easter play 2027!

Ipueira is a small town of just over 2,000 population in the state north of us called Rio Grande do Norte. We have been working there for God for 13 years led by deacon Dedé and the ‘Christians in Action’ team from Patos. We have now managed to purchase a piece of land for the building of a small church there. Please pray for this venture of faith.

QPR beat bottom of the Championship Sheffield Wednesday (with minus 7 points!) yesterday 3 x 0 at home. 😀

Last night I led the communion service in Patos and Pastor Rafael preached on being in the world but not of the world from John 17:14-19. It was a good service. It was good to see 7 deaf people in church with another 10 or so missing. This ministry to the deaf is doing a great work. 

Yesterday Pastor Jair, who leads our second church in Princesa Isabel in the da Baixa borough, baptized 5 new converts. PTL!

Last night I drove out to the Green Pastures where I led the monthly communion service and preached. I preached on the ‘Testimonies about Jesus’ from John 5:31-47 and then about our testimonies for Jesus. It was a lovely service with over 30 local folk present. The service was really participative and blessed. Fabrícia and Fernanda did an excellent work with the children whilst the sermon was in progress.

I went out to Green Pastures yesterday and will be going there again today to take the weekly service of the church there. Yesterday I saw White-naped Jays, Red-cowled Cardinals and White-throated Seedeaters. Francisco reported having seen another wild Margay Cat and a 6-banded Armadillo. But everything is so barren there with the awful drought.

The youth have gone to Green Pastures today for a day outing. 

We had our traditional New Year’s Day family lunch yesterday with chicken casserole for one and all. It was a nice time of food and fun together.

I see that the BBC News site has the Rio de Janeiro New Year’s celebration as its main photographic feature. The photo taken by a drone above the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue with the fireworks in the background on Copacabana beach is beautiful.

Oh dear! 😖QPR lost their first game of 2026! They lost 2 x 1 at home to Norwich.

How good it is to know as we go into another year that God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth“. (1 Timothy 2:4) Praise God that the Gospel is for the whosoever!

We had a good online meeting yesterday with Pastor Wostenes and his wife Gleydice discussing issues of God’s work.

We wish all our readers a Happy New Year full of the blessings of God!

Last night we held our final thanksgiving service of the year which I led. A variety of people took part with short words of greetings and songs of praise. I kept all the participations down to 5 minutes by threatening them with a hooter if they went over… and it worked! 😂It was a lovely service. We received video messages from Philip and family too which was nice.

After church we had another family get together around supper and then we saw the New Year in together.

During December this blog was read 13,267 times. Thank you to one and all. Please add your comments and greetings at the bottom of the posts making sure you put your name.

I had my hair cut for 2026 yesterday morning at 7:30 am! It was this early because my hairdresser cuts my hair at our home before going to his shop. I can’t stand my hair long so I hope you like it? 👨

Our final service of the year will be tonight at 7:30 pm and will be a thanksgiving service for 2025 with multiple short words from folk interspersed with singing items. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Please pray for our 10-day evangelistic outreach at Soledade from January 9th to 18th which will have a team of 130 mainly young people drawn from our churches. 43 come from our Campina Grande region, 41 from the Imaculada region, 29 from the Patos region, 10 from our Itaporanga region and 7 from our João Pessoa region. Part of this team will be Amy Gough coming from Southampton, England. May the Lord give us much fruit.

Francisco saw 3 Jaguarundi Wild Cats at Green Pastures yesterday. Wildlife is attracted by our watering troughs and they are easy to see because there are no leaves on the trees at all with the catastrophic drought.

I have just read an excellent article on the BBC website written by John Simpson who is one of their most experienced and competent journalists. The article is entitled “I’ve reported on 40 wars but I’ve never seen a year like 2025”. The article is in my view accurate, frightening and well worth reading.

QPR lost their last game of the year 2 x 1 away to West Brom, so end 2025 in 9th place in the 24 team Championship.

Liz went to the prayer meeting last night and practiced to sing with the ladies in our New Year’s Eve service tomorrow. I continued to prepare a sermon on King Hezekiah. 

2 more have been baptized. This time at our church at Juru where Pastor Esequias is the pastor.

I led the last Sunday service of the year last night and our daughter Sacha preached on “Hitherto has the Lord helped us” from 1 Samuel 7. It was a good service.

An awful road accident in the north-eastern state of Bahia, where we have a church, left 11 dead. The head-on collision was caused by irresponsible overtaking and there were 8 people in one of the cars!

I have just eaten some delicious red mombins. 😋

3 were baptized at our Água Grande church and 2 were baptized at our Juazeirinho church yesterday. Then 2 made decisions for Christ at the Sítio Mumbassa in the municipality of Flores in the state of Pernambuco. All glory be to God! We are ending the year well!

Last night I led the Pastor Frank Dyer School Christmas service together with the inauguration of the new school playground. Liz (Frank’s daughter) opened in prayer, we had a Christmas choreography and a short Christmas play. I then preached the Biblical Christmas gospel before we gave certificates to the mothers who had done our cookery course, and then we gave presents to the children. It was a lovely service after which we served a snack to one and all. There were about 350 people present.

I have finished reading the 9th book in the Blitz Detective series called ‘The Soho Murder’ by Mike Hollow. It was another most relaxing and enjoyable read and I now look forward to the sequel. I send my congratulations to Detective Inspector John Jago for cracking another nut! 

With the temperature at 37 degrees it hardly seemed like Boxing Day yesterday!

QPR drew away to Portsmouth 1 x 1 yesterday and continue close to the play-offs. 

I went to Green Pastures and saw Picui Ground-Doves, Black Headed Vultures and Caatinga Cacholotes. A large deer was sighted yesterday morning drinking from one of our drinking troughs maintained for wild animals. A number of rust-coloured wild cats have been observed too, together with a small spotted wild cat and many foxes.

Someone asked me if I believe in extra-terrestrial creatures? Well I believe in the incarnation. I believe that the Son of God was born of a virgin at Bethlehem. I believe that God became flesh. So yes… I believe in extra-terrestrial beings coming to earth. That is the whole point of the Christmas message!

Last night I led the traditional Christmas Eve service which had as its main feature a one hour play which I wrote called “Son of Promise”. The play starts with Isaac the son of promise of Abraham and Sarah. Then comes the birth of Jesus the son of promise and the play closes with the words of Paul in Galatians 4:28 that we in Christ are the “Children of Promise”. The service ended with us giving gifts to the children.

Once home from church we had a family Christmas Eve supper together which was very nice.

I gave Liz a bouquet of flowers for her Christmas present and she gave me a chocolate panatone cake of which I have already eaten half! 💞

I have done my Pilates and aquarobics so am fit for Christmas! 🏃Everything in Brazil focuses on Christmas Eve with a special supper after the service in church. However having dual nationalities we also follow the British tradition of the special turkey lunch on Christmas Day! 😋

Last night I travelled to the town of São Mamede with the Patos Men’s Fellowship to take part in another street service there to which between 40 and 50 people gathered to hear the Gospel. School teacher Claudivan led the service and Pastor Rafael preached a Christmas message from John 3:16. It was a good service with Rebeca working with the children during the sermon. After the service Sister Maricó served soup to everyone.

Brazil’s President Lula has decreed that “Gospel culture be officially recognized as a national manifestation”. This is a positive recognition of the evangelical church’s strength in Brazil.

Liz and I visited our Pastor Frank Dyer School and saw all the preparations for the official opening of our new playground this Saturday together with the school’s Christmas service. The playground looks lovely.

Speed bumps are an epidemic in Brazil! Whereas in Switzerland they don’t exist and in the UK they hardly exist, here in Brazil they are everywhere. Speed bumps here are speed walls or mountains and are ridiculous.

Last night we had a shower of rain in Patos but not at Green Pastures. Showers change nothing here, but at least they are a sign of hope. 

Yesterday I baptized 10 in a lovely service at Green Pastures and Pastor Rafael helped me. 7 were from the Patos church, 1 was from our congregation of São Mamede, 1 was from the ex-landless settlement of NS Aparecida II, and 1 was from the Green Pastures church. Marina and Rogaciano led the worship and Pastor Rafael brought a brief word on baptism. After the baptismal service we had a delicious fellowship breakfast together. It was an excellent morning. 

5 were also baptized at our Princesa Isabel church yesterday. PTL!

Last night I led the service which was blessed by the deaf choir and a lovely Christmas choreography. Pastor Rafael preached on ‘Mary’s song’ from Luke 1. The praise was led by Sacha and Rogério. It was a good service.

A team led by Pastor Rafael held a meeting in the Rua do Meio street in Patos last night and 4 decisions of commitment to Christ were made at the end. The street is known for drugs and murders. Please pray for those who made decisions and for the monthly services we are now going to hold in this street. All glory be to God for the faithful evangelism of this street by sister Iara for years, and for the more recent evangelism there by Roberto Tiburtino and his wife Nenem. 

The water crisis gets increasingly worse here and the Farinha reservoir is down to 1% of its capacity with masses of fish floating dead on its surface. Please pray for rain!

Last night we went to take the Green Pastures Church’s Christmas service. Deaconess Josinete went with us and both her and Liz brought short words to the church. Liz also read a lovely Christmas poem. I led the service and preached on the Christmas story going through prophecies from Isaiah and the New Testament virgin birth narratives from Matthew and Luke. The children also had a special dance participation in the service which was excellent.

When we go into a community with a project we don’t just land by parachute and drill a well or build a toilet. First of all we hold community meetings to get to know the people and to hear what their needs are. We listen to the people and respect them. We also hold educational community meetings such as to teach people to care for the environment and not throw rubbish in any old place. We have seen real transformations as a result of this. Then we always hold a thanksgiving inauguration service where we clearly preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When EAB/ACEV drill a well they take 2 types of water to the community!

Our church at São Vicente do Seridó, about a 2-hour drive east of Patos, is led by Missionary Nenem Guimarães, and she and her flock have just made a beautiful Christian gesture in the town. They organized a delicious and plentiful Christmas breakfast for all the road sweepers who absolutely loved it and said nothing like it had ever happened to them. (I should just explain to overseas readers that the term ‘missionary’ is used in ACEV to define ordained workers who are not officially pastors, though in effect they are!)

I went to Green Pastures and had a nice visit with our 3 donkeys: King Solomon, Queen of Sheba and Merrylegs II. They are well and nice and plump despite the drought. I saw White-naped Jays and Chalk-browed Mockingbirds whilst there. A small flock of Red-legged Seriemas came to drink water at our water fountain and 2 males got in a big fight over the females making a terrific din!

I have started a short course online on Philosophy taught by Dr. Luiz Felipe Pondé who is a professor at São Paulo University (USP).