Autor: eabrazil

Last night’s Bible Study went well in the Patos church and you can see the group that was present below. The service was tinged with sadness at the prayer time when news came through that a couple from the church in their 40s had lost their longed for baby when a medical examination showed the foetus to be without a heartbeat. Please pray for this family.

This weekend sees me facing a wide variety of demands/events which I will need to go to. This Friday night I am invited to go to the inaugural lesson of the Patos School of Medicine (FIP) where Dr. Paula (ex-EAB Care Centre doctor) is the coordinator. So I will need to dress up posh for this event and have bought a new suit for the occasion, as my old suits are all gigantically too big after all the weight I have lost! The Patos School of Medicine is an important step forward for the town and region as I definitely feel it will bring progress and higher medical care standards with it. All we need is for doctors to be more human (sensitive / caring) in their work as Dr. Paula always has been. She is an ideal person to coordinate the course.


Then tomorrow I am invited to an internet company’s inauguration in Patos which I will go to as the owners are friends. During the day men will be installing a small water fountain at Green Pastures for the wildlife. The fountain I received as the best Father’s Day present in years! Far better than socks!


Amidst all this I need to polish up my sermon for this Sunday in the Patos church. Prior to me preaching our deaf pastor Luiz Carlos will preach so it will be a case of two shortish sermons rather than one long one. Your prayers are valued.

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This morning I went to Green Pastures for a good walk and photographed bats, a snake and a Field Punarei which is a sort of large field mouse or rat. I have seen these a number of times but never had managed to photograph one, but today I clicked one which was part of a family darting in and out of the rocks near the dam. (see below)

Going back to Tuesday in Flores (Pernambuco State) I wrote yesterday about what we did in the morning. In the afternoon we visited the EAB/ACEV Action School and that was nice. We even had a bit of fun with the kids teaching them English as that was what they wanted.

 At night we met with the church members and after a time of prayer and worship we had a good discussion about the work there at Flores seeking to hear what they wanted us to know and how they felt and what they would like to see in the church. It was good. We drove home late at night and we got to bed after midnight. Thanks for your prayers.

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Liz and I left Patos on Monday evening at 6.11pm and travelled up the Teixeira mountain in the jeep arriving at Princesa Isabel about 8.25pm. We stayed at the “Ideal” sort of little hotel built on top of a petrol station. It’s quite neat, clean and tidy but the ramp (no stairs) to get up to the rooms is quite a climb! We asked for a coffee prior to hitting the hay, but they only did coffee with sugar in so that was me out. I had a zero Guaraná instead (a Brazilian pop drink). We then headed for our earliest night in a long time.


We had breakfast at about 7am and after a good shower, despite brackish well water, we headed across the border into Pernambuco State to Flores where we were met by local pastor Nemias. Together we headed for our first visit of the day along dusty earth tracks to Seriema Community where EAB/ACEV drilled a well a few years ago. It was good to see the community surviving thanks to the well and growing all sorts of things like Moringa and Coconut trees, vegetables and elephant grass for the one cow that survived the drought!

Since the well being drilled we saw how the community itself had layed pipes so that all the houses have water on tap in their little houses, which is considered quite a luxury in these parts. The people remain very grateful. Liz got involved with some counselling whilst at Seriema and then we moved on to another rural community called Serra do Cruzeiro which involved negotiating some tracks which our jeep laps up! Again we met up with thankful people who are able to carry on in their community thanks to a well we drilled there about 5 years ago. 


It was a hot and dusty morning, but around noon we headed back into the town of Flores where Nemias and his wife live together with their son Isaque. There we had lunch and a siesta, prior to more visits in Flores later – but I’ll tell you about these another time. Thanks for your prayers for our health and strength which make it possible to do such good trips as this one to Flores! The people liked it and the local Christians were encouraged.

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(I decided to tidy things up and transfer this from my Portuguese language blog so as to keep the English blog and Portuguese blog separate. This below I preached in October 2013 at the EAB AGM via Skype)

It’s a joy to join you in this EAB’s 75th annual celebration! God is good! His love and mercy endures forever.

We think back today over the many mission names of years gone by: Mundy,
Dyer, Snelgrove, Peasley, Emmens, Zacarias, José Paulino, Antônio
Pirambeba etc.

We think back over the names of so many EAB Board members and supporters
like Shearing, Parsons, Dibden, Dyer, Simms, Hurst, Bergersen,
Medcraft, Irish, White, Dalton, Scard, Cox, Rashleigh and so the list
could go on and on!

We think back over the thousands upon thousands of people who have heard
the Gospel over the years through the ministry of EAB and the thousands
upon thousands who have come to know the Lord as their savior and also
been benefitted by the multitude of EAB projects.

Indeed on this 75th anniversary we have much to thank God about and
rejoice about! As the Psalmist said in Psalm 126 – “The Lord has done
great things for us – and we are filled with joy”!

But we do not just think back over 75 years tonight! We also think and praise about what God is doing today!

Take for example the Green Pastures church 12 miles east of Patos which
is on fire for God and planting new churches. One such church plant
happening right now is in a new settlement of 30 families who were part
of the Brazilian “landless movement” but who have now been given land
which once belonged to a corrupt land owner who didn’t pay his debts.

EAB has launched into this new community and many have already come to
Christ! People are standing up in the middle of services and saying they
want to commit their lives to Jesus without any appeal being made but
with tears rolling down their cheeks! PTL!

I am talking about not just what God has done over the past 75 years but
what He is doing today, and just yesterday we inaugurated a new
plantation project in Capim Grosso (Thick Grass) Community in Itaporanga
County about 75 miles west of Patos. Since drilling the well there a
couple of years ago we have seen the community greatly helped and
blessed by the practical demonstration of God’s love and many have come
to understand the Gospel because they have seen it (if you see what I
mean)! 17 have already become Christians there! The transformation is
terrific!

However yesterday EAB projects there took a step forward with the
inauguration of the Plantation Project which includes irrigated organic
horticulture and fruit trees together with Moringa and Neem trees – plus
a brand new element – fish farming! The community is jubilant and
praising God because they have been helped to help themselves! They have
self-esteem and income generating …

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Last night’s public meeting of the Patos “Think-Tank” received the illustrious visit of Judge Ramonilson (2nd right wearing a jacket) and debated ways to combat corruption in the coming general election. It was a superb meeting and was expecially encouraging because we had younger people present like Philip, Brenda, Raylla and Pamela from the EAB/ACEV church. Please pray.


Today is our youngest daughter Sacha’s birthday. Happy birthday! May the Lord bless you. Have a great day! 🙂

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After 10 years at http://medcraft.blog.uol.com.br I am transferring my blog to this address, as from today, because the old provider does not move with the times and is giving me all sorts of problems. See below my final words on the old provider which I did not manage to publish. 


Productive day


I
have had a good day and prepared a sermon out of the blue! This was not
scheduled for today, but the Lord blessed me in my devotional time and
things just went from there.

I’ve also worked on the church building project and the Patos Bible College. My health continues very good. PTL!
The
service last night in Patos was very good. The P&W was lovely and
it was good to have Philip back and Pastor Ângelo preached from our
Soledade church. He really is becoming one of our best preachers.
Excellent! I I led the service. 

I have had a couple of contacts with the State Governor again today.

Maria
from Green Pastures is back in Campina Grande to have a further brain
scan. She is still there and we await news a bit apprehensively. Please
continue to pray.


Tomorrow
I will take part in a public meeting with my friend who is the
electoral judge, Dr. Ramonilson, to discuss combatting corruption in the
electoral process. The slogan this time round is “He who buys votes is
the worst candidate”. Please pray for this important meeting. 

(I took the above photo this month of this Brazilian Tanager – Ramphocelus bresilius)

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