Peter and Josi’s Newsletter - April 2018

Peter and Josi’s Newsletter - April 2018

Dear Friends,    

Greetings once again in Jesus wonderful Name!

Thank you to all of you for your prayers and support. Since our last newsletter, the school
Escola Crista Água Viva has had a chance to settle into the school year…..and it appears to be
going well. It is earning enough to cover teachers wages, and we Praise the Lord for this…..
but there is something like 4,000 reais of school fees, outstanding (about 800 UK pounds) Which
makes life rather difficult for us.

Escola Crista Água Viva - Celebrating Easter -  The journey to the Cross - The footprints of
Jesus - each child designed a footprint of Jesus for the Easter event and placed them all
together to follow the journey to the Cross.

 

Criancas do Rei - has started again, and Josi attends the mothers and children, many of whom
are in great need.  Some of the cases of children, we really don't have conditions to take care of
the cases in the way they deserve.  We simply do not have the resources. Which makes us look
like failures and rather sad. We watch a neglected and broken generation pass right before our
eyes….and we get a grandstand view of it.  I don't know what the reach is or the impact of our
newsletters is, perhaps I should start putting them in bottles and throw them in the sea...maybe
the sea currents have a better chance of distribution.

At the end of the day...it is the Lord who makes the difference opening doors and finding help.
Joseph in prison found this out. And we too have to look beyond our failure and through eyes of
faith - believe God to do the impossible.  It is after all only a little thing for God to muster 10,000
angels and dispatch them to take care of this. But instead He left it to us…...  How are we doing?

“If in all our success we have not gained Jesus, then the success is really a
failure. If in all our failures we gain Jesus, that failure is really a success”   

Anon

This is a flyer for a YWAM Workshop for Education Josi is helping to organise in July.  
There is a also a YWAM Leadership conference we will need to attend this year and also an
Arts Conference which I expect should attend also.  

We are extremely challenged financially to do all of this. Please pray.

One of the things I have been doing since our last newsletter is updating my website Art
Gallery. www.pictureswithamessage.com  Plus my online shop at RedBubble. RedBubble
can even make pictures to decorate dresses - as in the photo. If any ladies are really stuck
for a dress - Maybe they can find inspiration with a picture!

https://www.redbubble.com/people/petermill/works/31453412-those-who-wait-upon-the-lord-isaiah-40-31?asc=u&p=a-line-dress&rel=carousel

Recently while looking  through pictures on my computer - I found a picture a very kind
friend gave me many years ago called the Gospel Compass - For Sailors of all Nations.
I never really investigated the picture properly but apparently it is very rare.  
Since I have the original litho print of this picture I have restored it digitally and have it at
my Redbubble online shop - I sell the picture without any problems as it is 1880s
and falls outside of copyright restrictions.

https://www.redbubble.com/people/petermill/works/31420761-the-gospel-compass-for-sailors-of-all-nations?p=poster&finish=semi_gloss&size=large&asc=u

Above is a picture I made to illustrate the scale of the Broad and the Narrow Way picture,
Mr Gawin Kirkham used for street preaching during the Victorian era.  I may even try to paint
my own version to scale.

I am currently illustrating a book all about the Story of the Broad and the Narrow Way picture

Prayer

We give thanks to God for all the answers to prayer - and grace to endure.

Please continue to pray for Crianças do Rei and for suitable space - and for volunteers.
The families that are being served are very needy.

Please pray for the ongoing children’s work and saturday mornings Childrens church.  

Also please pray for a new laptop computer, and washing machine...also not forgetting the
unfinished swimming pool.  And a host of things broken and need replacing - chairs, tables
too many things to write.

Please pray for Safety and security - Brazil continues to face many challenging times.

Please pray, It would be nice to visit the UK again - I have not visited since 2007. Perhaps
time to visit and meet up with family and friends again.

With love and best wishes

Peter, Josi and Dorothy    

Newsletter in a Bottle

Rewriting lyrics - This time I couldn't resist rewriting lyrics to the 1979 hit single by the Police called "Message in a Bottle" 

(I find it helpful - We laugh so we don't cry - and takes out some of the sting....oops!)

Just a missionary

To the nation of the lost and desperate

Another challenging day

With all my FB friends faraway

More challenges

Than any man could bear

Rescue me before I fall into despair

I'll send our newsletter out to the world!

I'll send our newsletter out to the world!

I hope that someone gets my

Newsletter in a bottle…..

Its been awhile since I wrote our news

But I should have known this right from the start

Only the Lord can make things work….

Love can mend your life

But loving can break your heart…..

I'll send a Newsletter out to the world!

I'll send a Newsletter out to the world!

I hope that someone gets our

Newsletter in a bottle….

Walked out this morning

Don't believe what I saw

A hundred thousand bottles

Washed up along the shore

Seems like I got a big surprise   

A hundred thousand students

Looking for a gap year…

And now I'll build a recycle plant for the Lord!

And now I'll build a recycle plant for the Lord!

With all these many bottles...

With all these many bottles.....

And lots of students helping.....

(If Sting was a missionary - what an opportunity for bottle recycling!)

​For those who would like to help financially:

Giving through Stewardship

An update - For those who kindly wish to support us in missions. We are registered with
give net - Stewardship Services in the UK. Monthly and one-off donations can be easily
processed with Debit and Credit cards - please visit the link below to see our giving page.
Give net has made some recent updates which should make this easier - for those who
wish to remain anonymous, give net makes this provision. For people outside the UK who
wish to give - the payment process allows International donors to opt out of UK Gift Aid
system. Stewardship Services are a Christian organisation serving charities and
missionaries from the UK.

For those who wish to pay through STEWARDSHIP  We have an account
at https://www.give.net/20089559   Before confirming any gift on give.net you will be
asked whether you wish to remain anonymous. If you choose this option your personal
details will be will not be made known. If you have any questions please ask for details

Donations may also be sent via Western Union which we are able to receive here.   

Peter and Josi Millward, Rua Pintor J. Figueiredo No. 805. Praia Iparana. Caucaia, Ceara.

CEP. 61.627-250.  Brazil. https://www.facebook.com/escolacristaaguaviva  

Peter and Josi’s Newsletter - February 2018

Peter and Josi’s Newsletter - February 2018

Dear Friends,    Greetings once again in Jesus wonderful Name! I fully intended to write a
newsletter in January - but time passed so quickly.

Escola Crista Agua Viva.

The school started back once again in January and got off to a good start! Praise the Lord!  

This is the first day back for the Infants and teachers - the first week starts off with activities to
help the children become  accustomed to their new classes, teachers and new school friends.
The school is for children aged 2 - 10 years.

Crianças do Rei project

Has also just started back. But we had to hand back the property we had for
Crianças do Rei project which we had partially renovated. The perimeter wall was quite low
and various individuals have been entering the grounds of the property while we are not there.
There is a risk the property could be invaded and taken over. So it's just as well the owners
took the property back and have relatives staying there.  We are kind of sad, we were never
able to raise enough funds to adequately take care of the property and all the needs of the
children’s work. So now we are trying to make space on our property, but this also requires
finance.

All the difficulties and challenges we think we may have, must always be seen through the
lens of Calvary and the price Jesus Christ paid on the Cross - Which puts everything into
perspective… including whatever hardship we may encounter...   Last year we had a fall of
40% in personal support.   We still have not returned to the same level of support.   
The swimming pool we had planned to build so we can rent to Churches and Church youth
groups remains unfinished….many times last year we even struggled to find enough to buy
food, especially difficult at weekends.  There was one rather challenging weekend we faced…..
but a faithful friend asked how we were doing and rallied help for us. Praise the Lord!  
I knew at the start of last year we would be in for a white knuckle ride….and it did not
disappoint….but we also had the presence of the Lord to strengthen and uphold us.
It was a great blessing to be able to attend JOCUM em Familia in December.  And when
we think how the Lord answered Dorothy’s prayers for a Yorkshire Terrier…..who would
have thought this little dog would be such a blessing to cheer us up!     We were very
grateful last Christmas for the help of those who generously gave and we were able
celebrate Christmas with a full table.   We give thanks to God through whom all blessings
flow!

William Cowper's hymn comes to mind - God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to
perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm…...should we think
life will be any different, if we endeavor to follow Him?
January

Praise the Lord! I was able to enter my website again after a number of years being unable
to update,  but grateful for the help of a Christian brother in the USA who helps me out with
my website at   www.pictureswithamessage.com  

I have for a number of years placed an extract from Gawin Kirkham's
"History and Explanation of the picture " The Broad and The Narrow Way". and is from a
copy given to me with a faded print of the picture by my Great Aunt. The picture has always
inspired and fascinated me. Placing Gawin Kirkham's History of the picture on the site has
been a great blessing, over the years quite a number of people contacted me asking about
the picture and it's story..  

A significant date

The 21st of January 2018 was very significant, but it passed without my knowing until a few
days later while I was catching up with my website, the date - exactly 150 years since the
designer of the picture - A Mrs Charlotte Reihlen of Stuttgart passed into Eternity.  Somehow
I don't think this is a coincidence…  For along time I had not visited my website...Plus, I had
been unable to update the site…. But this same week I was able resolve this…...So for me
this is very significant.  So I decided  to make a picture as a tribute to Charlotte Reihlen.  
But I am thinking perhaps I should make an illustrated book ….. 150 year ago the world
was a very different place but the picture still has a very up to date message to tell!

Charlotte Reihlen

Do we want to change the world for the better? If we do, then it may be helpful to understand
how God changed the world in the past through His people. .... and still impacting around the
world today, 150 years later.  January 21st 1868 Charlotte Reihlen passed from this world to
the next. She died relatively young - 63 years. Little did she know that a picture she
commissioned in the last years of her life on earth would have such an impact. Her prayers
and sincere desire to share the Gospel through the picture  - became a wonderful reality.  
The image was the culmination of a life dedicated to serving Christ and His Kingdom.
Charlotte along with her husband Friedrich were used by God to begin many good works
in their native city of Stuttgart, Germany, helping the poor, rescue houses for needy children
and starting Christian initiatives that still exist today.

Charlotte was not an artist, but she had a good idea of ​​what she wanted to say through art.
When she met a pious artist by the name of Conrad Schacher. She was then able to transfer
her message to the world through the image he created. This started an incredible story - as
no sooner had she passed away. The image fell into the hands of an English preacher named
Gawin Kirkham, Secretary of the "Open-Air Mission." He was so impacted when he first saw
the picture and understood the message - He saw it as his life's calling to preach the message
of the picture, and commissioned 3 large paintings, copies of the picture, each one bigger
than the previous, the largest being 9ft x 12ft for open air preaching - in the streets, public
squares and churches up and down the British Isles. During his lifetime he preached well
over 1000 times in public - Even travelling to the United States and the Continent, and even
visited Israel taking the message of the picture.

Over a 100,000 copies of the picture were printed, and went to the four corners of the earth,
translated into several languages. The picture is by far the most well known and sought after
of it's type - even today 150 years later.  By all accounts Gawin Kirkham was a  formidable
open air preacher, a dynamic personality who raised an army of a street preachers in the UK
and beyond during his active years as the Secretary of the Open Air Mission Society whose
ranks swelled to over a thousand.  Today,  the image still has a lot of fascination, although not
without criticism, some complain for theological reasons or ridicule as old fashioned ... But the
image has a testimony and a history that we do well to ponder and respect ..... It was used by
the Lord for good, making wise to salvation a generation during the Victorian era.   Anyone
who studies the history of the picture and its message can not deny,  the picture brings
eternity into sharp focus with a message that is not negotiable - it is for every generation
to believe and seek the Lord while He may be found .... It's the message  Charlotte Reihlen
wanted to speak to the world, and Gawin Kirkham took up the baton to make known.    
And is the same message we too are entrusted with.

Prayer

We give thanks to God for all the answers to prayer last year and we shall look forward to all
the Lord has planned this year and with YWAM.

Please pray for Crianças do Rei and for suitable space - and for volunteers. The families that
are being served are very needy.

Please pray for the ongoing children’s work and saturday mornings Childrens church.

Also please pray for a new laptop computer, and washing machine...also not forgetting the
unfinished swimming pool.  

Please pray for Safety and security - Brazil continues to face many challenging times.

Please pray, It would be nice to visit the UK again - I have not visited since 2007. Perhaps time
to visit and meet up with family and friends again.

With love and best wishes

Peter, Josi and Dorothy    

​For those who would like to help financially - Giving through Stewardship

An update - For those who kindly wish to support us in missions with YWAM Brazil. We are
registered with give net - Stewardship Services in the UK. Monthly and one-off donations can
be easily processed with Debit and Credit cards - please visit the link below to see our giving
page. Give net has made some recent updates which should make this easier - for those who
wish to remain anonymous, give net makes this provision. For people outside the UK who
wish to give - the payment process allows International donors to opt out of UK Gift Aid
system. Stewardship Services are a Christian organisation serving charities and missionaries
from the UK

For those who wish to pay through STEWARDSHIP  We have an account
at https://www.give.net/20089559   Before confirming any gift on give.net you will be asked
whether you wish to remain anonymous. If you choose this option your personal details will
be will not be made known. If you have any questions please ask for details

Donations may also be sent via Western Union which we are able to receive here.   

Peter and Josi Millward, Rua Pintor J. Figueiredo No. 805. Praia Iparana. Caucaia, Ceara.

CEP. 61.627-250.  Brazil.

Peter and Josi’s Newsletter - December 2017

Wishing all our friends and supporters a belated Merry Christmas and a
Happy New year!

Dear Friends,

I am writing this on the final day of December 2017!

December has been a rather intense month with the end of the school year for Escola Cristã Água
Viva and for Crianças do Rei. Also JOCUM em Familia - Thankyou to all who responded to our
fundraiser for going to and participating at the reunion for YWAM Leaders and YWAM Brazil Family
Reunion at Caldas Novas - Praise the Lord were were able to attend and stay for both events!

We look forward to 2018 with renewed vision and hope…..but must not underestimate the
challenges facing us.  Education and the Arts. Two spheres of society which are key to the
future of Brazil.. How is the Church going to engage these two spheres in 2018?  
 Will the church bring reformation?  But it certainly looks like the Church needs reformation
all over the world before we can reform nations.   The nations are sinking down because many
have assimilated and absorbed the world's values. Jesus calls us to be light and Salt in the
world and stand against darkness.   As Paul Washer said  “Your children will go to public school
and they will be trained for somewhere around 15,000 hours in ungodly secular thought.
And then they'll go to Sunday school and they'll color a picture of Noah's ark. And you think that's
going to stand against the lies that they are being told? "   

This situation is very serious - What will your church do about it in 2018?

To put things into a local context…...The situation of a local public creche not far from our school.
A mother that had placed her child there, came and explained to Josi the teachers were teaching
a story to the children about gender and that animals don't have male or female
sex defined at birth - They then went on to explain humans are the same also.  
The son came home from school and explained to his mother this terrible ideology.
Where on earth is the world going too?  And what are we going to do about it?  
Who will run to the battle?….In a world of growing darkness.

In spite of the challenges, we have renewed vision and hope. JOCUM em Familia was a very
good time of reconnecting and for Josi it was important meeting others called to education…..
 Christian educators need to work together to face the challenges ahead. It was good to see
Josi networking and organising meetings.

Speaking for myself, many of you have known me for years…...some of you I first met at Christian
conferences in the UK.  All I can say is how grateful I am for you all and your support and
encouragement.  A few weeks ago I was starting to say to myself (As one does when you
get past 50) …..My best years are behind me….but then it was as though the Lord caught
me and said, “No, your best years are ahead of you!” It was such powerful word,
 it stopped the negative thought dead in its tracks! But I am now wondering what on earth the
Lord has in store? Somehow I have a picture in my heart and mind when I hear the theme
“Where Eagles Dare” it was composed as a theme for a war film, an earthly battle…...
But the music is too great for this movie...it seems to lift me out of the world into a heavenly
place.  To me it’s the music for this hour and beckons the true church to arise and ascend
into the heavenly places to rule and to reign upon the earth.   “You have made them to
be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." Revelation 5:10
Are we on board? Are we on take off? Are we even in the hangar?
…..are we where we ought to be?….are we where the Lord wants His church to be during
these days?

For a long time art is a way for me to express what I believe ..just as Jesus said “Whoever
believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." John 7:38  
The year 2017  has been very creative one for me.  One may ask to what end?  But I would say
it will be a lot like the scripture ”By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later
receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
” Hebrews 11:8    

I don't have a gallery, I don't have an art agent, I don't have anything the world says I need to
be a successful artist. In fact the world would probably say I am a complete failure, irrelevant.…...
But this does not disappoint me….rather I exult in - God calling me to paint for His glory…  
and when a sketch and paint….I sense alignment…. moving into destiny…. I sense His
closeness - the living Christ…The fire…..The fire that burns…in a world full of disappointments….
Christ does not disappoint!

It is said of some Moravian missionaries when they went on a mission to minister to African
slaves  - they called out to their loved ones on shore as they left   "May the Lamb that was
slain receive the reward of His suffering!"

I never tire to hear stories of church history and missions….Hand over the paper, pens and
brushes and let me celebrate this wonderful prayer and call…..Let us set the world alight for
the Lamb that was slain that He might receive the reward of His suffering! Those who have
gone before us, have set the pace….are we going to disappoint that great cloud of witnesses
cheering us on as it were, even now from Heaven?   I hope this inspires you…...as we go into 2018

Dorothy is growing up into a charming young lady - for us,  such a pleasure and joy to be her
parents. She brings us much joy…what pleasure we had to see her enjoy being at JOCUM
em Familia and make lots of new friends!

2017 has been a year of many financial struggles…... but also many victories…..We look
forward to all the Lord will have prepared for those who love Him in 2018….He is faithful.

Please continue to pray for Escola Crista Agua Viva nd for Crianças do Rei. Also for JOCUM
Praia as we pray for staff God has called to serve Him here with us and seek to disciple Brazil
and the world in the ways of God and His Kingdom!

Happy New Year!

With love and best wishes

Peter, Josi and Dorothy    

​For those who would like to help financially my bank details are as follows.

Giving through Stewardship

An update - For those who kindly wish to support us in missions with YWAM Brazil. We are
registered with give net - Stewardship Services in the UK. Monthly and one-off donations can
be easily processed with Debit and Credit cards - please visit the link below to see our giving
page. Give net has made some recent updates which should make this easier - for those who
wish to remain anonymous, give net makes this provision. For people outside the UK who wish
to give - the payment process allows International donors to opt out of UK Gift Aid system.
Stewardship Services are a Christian organisation serving charities and missionaries from the UK

For those who wish to pay through STEWARDSHIP  We have an account
at https://www.give.net/20089559   Before confirming any gift on give.net you
will be asked whether you wish to remain anonymous. If you choose this option your
personal details will be will not be made known. If you have any questions please ask for details

Donations may also be sent via Western Union which we are able to receive here.   

Peter and Josi Millward, Rua Pintor J. Figueiredo No. 805. Praia Iparana. Caucaia, Ceara.

CEP. 61.627-250.  Brazil.