The Brouwer Family

Since "a picture is worth a thousand words", we will recap our Christmas day service by way of a few photos.

We had a total attendance of 603 as several of our sister churches participated in our combined service.

While a national pastor, John, preached to the adults in the main auditorium, Tammy and I taught the older kids in children's church.

Since the ladies were using the grass-roofed building to cook the food, the small children met under a mango tree for their children's church.

After Pastor John preached, 11 precious Tanzanians put their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.

Our assistant pastor, Pele, baptizes one of the 50 people from the village of Fumagira who followed the Lord in believer's baptism. Since we have had no rain in the village for such a long time, it had been months since we were able to baptize.

These dear ladies cooked for over 600 people without a stove, microwave, refrigerator, or Pampered Chef utensils!!!! They did a tremendous job.

Is it worth the sacrifice to support missions or to be a missionary? We will allow these photos to answer that question. Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for the Lord's work in Tanzania.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At this very special time of year, we wish each of you a most blessed Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our wonderful Savior. It is our privilege to serve Him here in East Africa. We deeply appreciate those of you who co-labor with us for the work of the Gospel in Tanzania through your prayers and financial support. One day it will be worth it all when we see Jesus!!!!
Please pray for our special Christmas services. We have a national pastor, John, coming to preach on Sunday and on Monday, Christmas day. We are planning a big service on Christmas day with a special emphasis on inviting unsaved visitors. We will also have dinner on the grounds, and we will be showing an evangelistic film in the late afternoon to cap off the day. We are praying and expecting many lost people to attend, so please pray for the Holy Spirit to bring conviction on their hearts.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Lord gave us a beautiful sunny day today for our Sunday services. Attendance was good, and the spirit of the services was good, as well. I continued teaching through the Book of Revelation in adult Sunday School. We are currently about half way through this great book of the Bible. We have had some great questions and discussion while studying this book. Many times I have just had to respond to a tough question by saying, "I don't know." "We'll just have to wait until heaven to get the answer to that question." Many of the false cults here use the Book of Revelation to teach their false doctrines, so it has been good to refute these teachings.

The afternoon service found me at the Igoma Baptist Church. Pastor Gervasi invited me to preach for this service. It is always a blessing to be with the dear folks in Igoma. It is encouraging to see this indigenous church moving forward with a national pastor. This church has several good men who have stepped up to help their pastor lead this church. Also, the new church in Kisesa that this church in Igoma helped to start is doing very well with a national pastor. To see the Lord raise up national pastors for these new churches is truly thrilling for a missionary.

Much was accomplished again this week on the new church building in Igoma. More than half of the walls have been completed. We should be able to finish the walls by Wednesday and start on the floor by Thursday. The workers have done an outstanding job. The brick walls look very sharp along with the windows. The new building has created a lot interest in the community. Pastor Gervasi said that they have had several first-time visitors the past few weeks since we started putting up the walls. This church is hoping to be able to meet in their new church building for the first time on Christmas Day.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Happy farmers make for happy church members. Since we continue to get plenty of rain almost every day now, we have a church full of happy farmers in the village of Fumagira. There was a noticeably joyful spirit in our services today. After several tough farming years because of a lack of rain, these dear folks are very grateful for the good rains we have been receiving. Attendance was over 200 today for the first time in awhile. All in all it was a great Lord's Day today.
Saturday found us in the village practicing for our upcoming Christmas play. This young church has never done anything like this before, so it has been interesting to say the least as we been working with them on this project. This was Tammy's idea to begin with, and since I don't have a theatrical bone in my body, I am just trying to stay out of the way. Tammy wrote the play in Swahili and is doing a marvelous job instructing the cast members. The choir will also sing several songs as part of the play. They are all having a lot of fun putting it all together. I am sure everything will turn out well on the day of the play.
Much was accomplished this week on the building at Igoma. The gables were finished this past week, and they also started on the walls. The workers are doing a good job. The bricks we are using look very nice. This coming week, we will continue on the walls. Perhaps we will be able to finish the walls this week. After completing the walls, we will start on the floor. We are hoping to be able to meet in this new building by the end of this month.
We truly need and appreciate your prayers.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)