The Brouwer Family

We work with the Kisukuma tribe of people in the village of Fumagira. Like most other tribes here in Tanzania, the Kisukuma people are very superstitious and steeped in traditional witchcraft. Non-Christians visit the local witchdoctor regularly to receive protection from evil spirits and healing from physical ailments.
During our worship services on Sunday, the congregation likes to sing a chorus in their native tongue. They sing this chorus virtually every Sunday. I like the tune, but honestly I had no idea what the words meant. We are still trying to learn Swahili, let alone the tribal language of Kisukuma. Our assistant pastor is not from this tribe, so he himself is trying to learn some Kisukuma. He wrote out the words to this chorus on a 3x5 card, and he sings along with them. This morning on the way to church, we asked him for the words to this chorus so we also could sing along. We also asked him the meaning of the words. The basic meaning of the chorus is this: "I used to visit the witchdoctor, I used to bring him my chickens (they are used by the witchdoctors in their rituals), but now when I am sick, I go to Jesus, my Lord." Hallelujah!!! When they sang this chorus this morning, my heart was thrilled to know what they were singing about. May God continue to bring them out of darkness into His marvelous light.
God gave us good services today, however, attendance was down a bit due to the frigid weather conditions. It was probably about 75 degrees this morning with a breeze (Brrrrrrr). I thought it felt quite comfortable, however for these dear Tanzanians, it was downright chilly. No one was saved during our services today, but we did have two precious souls receive Christ during our Wednesday soul-winning visitation.
Please pray for the Lake Victoria Baptist College this week as a new term of Bible college assembles for these one-week intensives. Pray that God would speak to the hearts of these dear leaders as they train for the work of the ministry.
Also, please pray for us as we travel to Kenya at the end of this week. Our children will be attending a camp for missionary kids, while Tammy and I relax a bit in Nairobi. We will also have an opportunity to do some teaching and preaching while in Kenya. I will write the next update when we return from Kenya in about two weeks.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have discovered that village work is quite a bit different than city work. We have never worked with a village church before, and we were not sure if we would enjoy it. Well, we do!!! Today was another classic example of life in the village.

An infant child of one of our church members died, and the burial was planned for this afternoon. Instead of having an afternoon service at the church, the church decided to minister to a family in need. We cancelled our regular afternoon service, and instead we all met at the home of this grieving family. There were about 75 members from our church present at this funeral. There were also many family members present, along with many from the community. Judging from the activities and attitudes of a large group of people present, there were many unsaved people in attendance. It was a tremendous opportunity to display the love of Christ, and to present the Gospel to many lost people.

We sang several congregational songs, our choir sang several songs, and our assistant pastor preached a very pointed salvation message. Using the Scripture concerning the death of David and Bathsheba's infant son, Pele made the point that this infant child was with the Lord in heaven. Then, he began to ask people publicly where they would go if they were to die. I had never seen him so bold, but obviously the Holy Spirit was leading him to do this because you could sense the Spirit working in the hearts of the people. He asked one mzee (old man) where he would go if he were to die. Publicly and unashamedly, this old man admitted that he did not know where he would go if he were to die, and then he publicly admitted that he was also afraid to die. You could sense that people were shocked by his blatant honesty. Some people laughed, but it was not a normal laugh. It was a nervous laugh to try and ease the tension. Without a doubt, God used this old man to bring conviction on the lost people there today. Please pray that God would continue to use His word to bring many of these lost people to Christ.

Most of the people in the village of Fumagira have been born there, and they will die there. This is their village and community. Most of these people know nothing outside of their village. As far as I know, the Independent Baptist Church of Fumagira is the only Gospel-preaching church in this village. This church has a glorious opportunity to minister to and impact an entire village for Christ. Please pray for this dear young congregation to be the salt and light in Fumagira.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jesus said that, "The harvest truly is plenteous." There is a tremendous spiritual harvest here in Tanzania. Please pray that God would continue to enable us to preach the Gospel with power and boldness so that many lost souls would turn to Christ for salvation.

By God's grace, this week we were able to harvest some lost souls for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We had one person receive Christ as Savior on Wednesday soul-winning visitation, and this new convert was in our services this morning. We also had two ladies who received Christ this morning during our services. One of them was a first-time visitor. Our assistant pastor, Pele, travelled to the town of Bariadi this week to help a national pastor (pastor John) hold some evangelistic crusades. They had a tremendous response with many people being saved. Pele preached one night, and 34 people responded to the invitation to receive Christ as Savior. The words of Christ are still as true today as they were almost two thousand years ago. "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest."

Will you please pray with us that God would send more laborers into Tanzania to reap this harvest?

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)