MOUNTAINOUS WEEKEND
I will be going up the mountain to preach at the EAB church at Teixeira shortly. I will come back down to sleep only to go back up again tomorrow afternoon and go along to Princesa Isabel to preach there. I will sleep the night at Pastor Manoel Jorge's house and come back down again on Monday morning. I spent all morning preparing sermons as you might imagine. Our son-in-law, Biba, is much better after his accident yesterday. He is bashed and bruised a bit but miraculously well considering he flew through the air for quite a distance. He is natually shaken but smiling again. Thank you for praying. I also sent out the EAB Diary Update this morning. I sent the ACEV weekly Update (now compiled and written by Sacha) out last night. I just do the final check and it's gone. I see QPR have scored 4 goals in the third successive match! With a game in hand they are now in the play-offs section of the Championship. Wow! If they can keep this up... well... the only problem is that little word if.
 Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 04h54 PM
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BIBA IS KNOCKED DOWN
Biba, Sacha's husband, was knocked off his pushbike tonight as he rode home from work. A 15 year old girl, without a driving licence (inevitably at that age), driving a twin-cabin pick-up truck pulled out suddenly on a road where Biba had the right of way. Biba slammed his brakes on and went flying. He is OK, but badly shaken, and has brises all over and a very painfull hand. Please pray. A very serious problem has arisen with one of the teachers at the Patos Bible College. I cannot possibly give any details. Please pray as I will have to hold a series of meeting to solve this. I received my Green Award from the Paraíba State Government for my environmental work tonight. It was a very long three and a half hour event! I was given an enormous heavy gold-like medal. I have just learned that the very large bird I photographed this morning was in fact a Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle. Wow! 
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 12h22 AM
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GREEN
 I photographed this plant on the Green Pastures lake this morning. I was up at 4.40am and away within the hour and had a lovely walk. I think I photographed a new species of hawk but I await the specialist's analysis.
I am now off to receive my Green Award from the State Government. I hope the ceremony doesn't drag on too long as these things tend to do. I have just finished another meeting with one of the leadership of the Patos Bible College.
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 05h29 PM
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NEWSPAPER
I wrote my monthly local newspaper article this morning and was interviewed for a Radio programme. I have also been sorting out difficulties which have arisen at the Princesa Isabel Bible College. Lynn's blood pressure is now stabilised as a result of the medication and she is feeling much better. Thank you for praying. I have received my 2010 diary from my sister Jean this afternoon. Thank you Jean. It is always essential for me to receive this early as my diary for the coming year already has a lot booked.
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 09h27 PM
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WORKSHOP
Last night's Patos Bible College Workshop on HIV/AIDS was superb. We gathered the whole college at the Independent Presbyterian church, which is close to the college, and what an excellent workshop we had! It was led by EAB/ACEV's social worker and HIV/AIDS project leader, Marah Danielle, together with her team composed of Lila, Jucineide and Márcia. I felt so proud of Marah Danielle as she really has come to have a grip on the subject and is gaining experience fast in this field. I remember when Marah Danielle was born, and she is still a pretty small mum of two, but she had the whole college eating out of her hands! Simply wonderful. Straight after the workshop a 1st Baptist leader came and asked if the workshop could be done with their youth at his church? Of course our answer was yes, or rather, YES! It is wonderful to see this project, which is not a full 10 months old, taking off and making a profound impact in the interior of our State of Paraíba already. It is changing the image of the Evangelical church before the authorities who when they first heard of our project said, "Oh no! Not evangelicals and HIV! The evangelicals are the group that has most messed up our HIV programme by telling people not to take the medicine but to be healed only through prayer".
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 09h54 AM
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WHITE-EARED OPOSSUM
I got off to my walk this morning somewhat late because the Kombi had gone off up the mountains on EAB Action School monitoring work, with Gerlânia and Pastors Schoeps and João George. Also the Corsa had to take John David to school before I could leave. Hence I didn't get to the farm till 7.30am which is far too late as in my case the slogan is: "The early worm catches the bird". Anyway I had a good walk and may have identified a new species of bird. We shall see. However what was very interesting was to photograph a White-eared Opossum nested in the roof of the canteen at Green Pastures. We have a pair apparently rearing a new family between the rafters and tiles and I managed to get this photo as one peeped out to see who the visitor was. The female carries her average litter of six offspring in a pouch for about seven weeks after birth. I had already been told that the Opossums had been seen during the Leadership Conference and since then they have appeared during services held by our local church at the farm. I hope to get more photos when the family emerges. Watch this space. Last night I led the prayer meeting in Patos. We had 20 there which was more than at the Rotary where only 15 turned up. The prayer meeting was good. I was blessed. Lynn is a little better and the medication is starting to get her blood pressure under control. I must rush off to the Bible College now where we are to have a workshop on HIV/AIDS with the whole College tonight.
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 07h07 PM
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LEGAL HEARING
I represented ACEV this afternoon, together with our lawyer before the District Attorney, to try and reach a workable solution for our Patos church after a neo-pentecostal group came and plonked themselves almost directly opposite our church in February. The main clash occurs on Sunday evenings which is the main service of the week. The noise they make badly affects our service and this has made it necessary to seek a solution. The group refused to change their service time but at least made a legally-binding agreement to turn their sound equipment down and limit their service to between 7 and 8.30pm. Ours runs from 7.30 to 9.15pm. We shall see what happens in practice. I hate these sort of situations but unfortunately there is nothing that we can do to stop a noisy group open up next door or opposite us. Please pray that this group will see sense and go somewhere else as this would certainly resolve everything. Patos is such a large town and there is room for everyone so why move into our front room? 
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 06h45 PM
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TERRIBLE NIGHT
Lynn was ill all night. We got to bed earlyish but at 1am were awoken with Lynn really poorly. Liz checked her blood pressure which was high at 180/120. Lynn has been having hipertensive problems for some time and will really have to sort it out. Eventually in the middle of the night Liz medicated Lynn to lower her blood pressure. We don't like to do this and would have preferred a doctor, but at 3am this was not viable. Lynn eventually got to sleep and Liz has just checked Lynn's blood pressure which has normalized, under medication, at 120/85. Lynn will be going to see a doctor this morning. Please pray. Yesterday I produced and dispatched the EAB Nutshell Update for mid-October.
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 09h29 AM
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WELL, I'LL GO TO SEA IN A ROWING BOAT!
My previous entry in this blog was of course written with tongue in cheek... but lo and behold Marian Rashleigh tells me that it might actually be true! She writes: "I have a confession to make... You see, when you put all your boo-hooing on the blog on 21st September about not having any HP sauce I sent a copy of your heart-felt cry, and asked if they had a supplier in Brazil as it was urgent (hoping they might send you some). I didn't hear back from them but it is strange that this advert has just appeared here a few weeks after my email"! Well last night's service in Patos was excellent. The sermon on 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 went very well, we received a new member, Ricardo, into fellowship, and the P&W went well with just one scary moment when Philip's deputy started a song in a different key to everyone else. This week promises to be as hectic as ever. Tomorrow afternoon I have a legal hearing in Court to sort out the mess caused by a neo-pentecostal group moving into a garage almost immediately opposite our church and blasting us out in every service with insupportable noise so as to make our life very difficult. We are to argue that in the light of us having been in the street for 60 years, whilst we can't stop them holding services where they are, they should agree to hold their services at different times to ours. Please pray. I will then go on to lead the Prayer meeting and from there go to a Rotary meeting. On Wednesday I will be leading a special workshop at the Patos Bible College on HIV/AIDS, on Thursday I have a 'think-tank' meeting about Council finances, and on Friday is the official award ceremony in the Patos Council Chambers when I will receive the 'Green Award' for my work with the environment. This is an award from the State Government who will be holding a special session in Patos for the event. Then on Saturday I will be preaching at the EAB/ACEV anniversary services up in the mountains at Teixeira and on the Sunday preaching at the anniversary meetings at Princesa Isabel. Phew! This week looks like being some sort of marathon! 
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 11h12 AM
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I KNOW THE FEELING
Fred, to the left, is probably into 4th degree withdrawal symptoms from HP Sauce! This photo can be seen in UK Asda supermarkets, I am told, and its display was probably inspired by this blog! Asda is not giving me the credits so as to avoid sending a fat cheque to EAB!
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 05h48 PM
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PHILIP IN UK
Philip is safely in the UK at my sister Joy's before going up to York I believe. He was eating fried egg and fried bread with HP sauce a while back!  I am at the grind preparing my sermon for tonight in the Patos church. Liz is teaching her class at Sunday School.
Escrito por John Philip Medcraft às 11h38 AM
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