The Brouwer Family

No, we haven't fallen off of the face of the earth. Yes, we are still on the mission field!!!

Between the electricity rationing (we are now being rationed seven days a week, twelve hours per day) and Internet problems, we were not able to send email updates for the last several weeks.

Although these inconveniences have been annoying, the blessings of the ministry here have far outweighed the problems.

Recently, we have had the joy of seeing so many dear Tanzanians turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Today on soul-winning visitation, three precious souls were saved. Last week our assistant pastor and five other church members from Fumagira participated in an evangelistic crusade in Bariadi where they saw 65 people receive Christ as their Savior.

Two weeks ago, we had the joy of seeing 19 new converts follow the Lord in believer's baptism at a new church plant. This new congregation has been started by a man named Petro who has been sent out of the church at Igoma. He is doing a tremendous job.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we are heading to a village beyond Fumagira to survey for the possibility of a new church plant there. Several men in our church have been approached by men from this village asking us if we would consider starting a church there. As far as the men in our church know, there is no church of any kind in this village. Please pray that God would reveal His will to us as we visit this village.

We are thrilled to be a part of what God is doing here in the Mwanza area, and you certainly also have a part as you co-labor with us through your prayers.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had a tremendous week with great services today at Fumagira. Attendance was good again today. I did not get an exact count, but it looked like about 220 or so. A faithful young lady in our church had been inviting a friend of hers to church for quite some time. This friend came today as a first-time visitor, and at the invitation, she came forward to receive Christ as her Savior. The young lady from our church was so excited to see her friend get saved.

On Wednesday soul-winning, we went to visit the same family for the fourth time. You may remember me telling you about this lady and her family in a previous update. On our first visit to this home, this lady told us that she could not get saved nor visit our church. She told us that she had invited a demon to live in her, and that Satan would be very upset if she visited our church. We tried to convince her from the Scriptures that God was greater and more powerful than Satan, and that God would receive her if she received Christ as her Savior. She insisted that the Devil would not allow her to do this. We went back a second and a third time but to no avail. We believed that the Lord was again leading us to her home on Wednesday afternoon during our soul-winning time. When we arrived, we were promptly told that she was not at home. Upon further investigation of the premises, we found her hiding around the corner from her home. We again told her that we cared about her soul and would like to talk to her about the Lord. At just this moment, her husband and a neighbor arrived. We asked the three of them if we could share with them some Scripture from the Bible. The two men seemed very interested, so we begin to witness to all of them at the same time. After a very long discussion and after answering their many questions, we asked them if they would like to receive Christ as Savior. Shockingly, all three of them (including this lady) enthusiastically said, "YES"!!! They all got really happy after believing on Christ and so did we. Hallelujah!!!!

The new buildings at Fumagira are almost completed. We just need to build the benches for the new Sunday School building, and we need to put up the short block walls for the children's church building that we renovated. Again, we are so grateful for the Fellowship Baptist Church in Greeneville, Tennessee, for helping with this project. We should be able to finish this work this week.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)