The Brouwer Family

We broke ground on the church building in Igekemaja this week!!!! We started on Monday, and we have almost finished putting in the foundation. This coming week we should be able to finish the foundation and start putting up the pillars. What is more exciting than the building is the anticipation of the people of this village concerning this new church plant. The village chief and other elders of the village were very encouraged to see us actually start building a place for us to meet in. They told us that other groups had talked about starting a church in their village, but for one reason or another, nothing ever materialized. As we have previously mentioned, this village has one small Catholic church and one small Charismatic church on the outskirts of the village. Therefore, there is a definite need for a fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church in this village. Matter of fact, today we had two older men from this village walk all the way to our church in Fumagira for our services there. That is over a two-hour walk one way. They even stayed for our afternoon service, which today was our Bible Institute week. They are anxiously awaiting the day we start services in their village. We have visited this village on several occasions to pass out Gospel tracts and booklets of John and Romans. We have also spent quite a bit of time visiting in the homes of the people there. Please pray for us as we put up this building and prepare for our first official church service sometime in March or early April.
Also, we had a wonderful time this week at the school that we have been working with. This school was started by a faithful member of the church at Igoma a few years back. There are now 162 students, and God is really blessing this school in a great way. My wife and I teach chapel services at the school each Wednesday afternoon before our mid-week services at Fumagira. My wife teaches the chapel service for the younger kids (K-5 through 2nd grade), and I teach the older kids (grades 3-5). We have been systematically teaching through the entire Bible starting in the Book of Genesis. Most of these kids have had little, if any, exposure to the Bible, so we have been going very slowly and thoroughly through the foundational truths of Genesis. Several weeks ago, we started on the Book of Exodus. This past week we taught on the Passover from Exodus chapter 12. Throughout Genesis, we had been really emphasizing the core truths of the Bible. God is holy. Man is sinful. Man cannot make himself acceptable to God. God must punish sin. I really felt like these kids were ready for the message of salvation when we got to the Passover.
As we carefully went through the details of the Passover, I related them to Christ as our Passover lamb. I sensed the Holy Spirit was allowing these young people to understand why Jesus had to die upon the cross. Some of these kids are Muslims. Muslims find it offensive that we teach that Jesus was crucified upon the cross. How could God ever allow a holy man like Jesus to die in such a manner? They openly deny that Jesus ever was crucified. The teaching of the Passover was an effective way of teaching why Jesus was crucified. I sensed that the "light came on" for many of these young people. I then gave an open invitation for this class of around 80 kids to believe on Christ and receive Him as personal Savior. Twenty-four of these students publicly prayed to receive Jesus as Savior. Since we work with them every week, I tried not push any of them to "just say a prayer." We will follow-up on each of them this coming week to make sure they understood exactly what they were doing. Please pray for the Jacaranda school as we continue to teach these young people the Word of God.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 7:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The day started normal enough with warm temperatures and beautiful sunshine. When we arrived for services in the village, it was cloudy, but no rain as yet. After Sunday School, we begin our morning service, and we made it through the song service with not even a drop of rain. When the preaching began and the children were dismissed for Children's Church, God opened up the windows of heaven, and it began to rain. After a few minutes it became a total downpour. Our buildings have tin roofs, and the sound was deafening. I tried to scream for a few minutes, but it was to no avail. I had to stop preaching, and we began to sing instead as a congregation. It poured down rain for 30 minutes with no end in sight. The dirt road in front of the church was now a river of water. Since this area is already so water-logged from the heavy rains we have been having for about two months now, I knew that we better get out of the village quickly or else we would be stuck.
We closed the church service as the rain continued to come down in sheets. The dirt roads out of the village were now raging rivers. There are times when we probably do not need our big four-wheel drive vehicle. However, today I was very grateful to have it. I am not sure if we would have made it out of the village without it today. I was scheduled to preach at Igoma Baptist Church for their afternoon service, so we were heading to a restaurant for a quick bite and then onward to Igoma.
Well, here the day gets even stranger. When we arrived at the restaurant, there were no tables available. As we waited for a table to open up, an American couple motioned for us to come to their table. This sweet couple told us that they were just waiting to get their bill, then they were going to leave, so we could have their table. As we sat at their table, we introduced ourselves and they did, too. They introduced themselves as Bob and Hope Taft. That name did not immediately ring a bell with myself nor Tammy. As they waited for their bill, we began to engage in some small talk. Bob mentioned that he had lived in Tanzania about 40 years ago when he was in the Peace Corp for two years, and he wanted to come back with his wife to see Tanzania once again. I asked him what kind of work he was involved with in the States, and he said that he was a very recently retired politician. Shame on me, but his name still did not ring a bell. I know you folks in Ohio are probably laughing by now because you know exactly who this guy is. He told us that he was for the former Republican governor of Ohio for the past eight years (1999-2006).
On most days at Tanzanian restaurants it bothers me to no end how long it takes for them to bring the bill. However, today it was just fine. They must have forgotten about the Taft's bill because we talked to them for 30 minutes until their bill finally came. After paying their bill, they excused themselves saying that they were going to try to visit a local museum. I then talked to a church member at Igoma who said that they were canceling their afternoon service because of the heavy rains. Now, things get even stranger still. The Tafts come back to our table about 15 minutes later saying that because of the rain that they would be unable to visit the museum today. So, they ask if they could sit at our table, order a desert and talk to us some more. We talked to the former governor of Ohio and his wife for about two hours!!! They were very kind to ask us in detail about our work in Tanzania, and of course, we had to talk a little Republican politics. I do enjoy talking politics, so I had the time of my life!!!! As you well remember, Ohio was the key state in the most recent presidential election, and Bob Taft was right in the middle of things for the Republicans. It was a most enjoyable conversation. What a first-class couple!!

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In our last update, we had asked you to pray for our new proposed church plant in a needy village called Igekemaja. We visited this village again on Wednesday of last week with several of our leaders from Fumagira. We spent some time visiting the folks in the village and reminding them of our intentions of starting a new church in their area. We received a very positive response from almost everyone. The people kept asking us when we are coming. We told them that it would be very soon. These people seem very receptive and even started asking many questions about the Bible. We are going to have a meeting this week with some local builders to plan what kind of a structure we are going to be able to construct for a church building. As soon as we have a place to meet, we will start this new church. Please pray that God would continue to give us wisdom as we proceed.
We had excellent services in Fumagira this week. Attendance was good as well as the spirit of the services. God seems to be blessing the churches here by His grace, and we are grateful to be co-laboring together with you for the dear people of Tanzania.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is a side shot of the new building. Central Baptist Church had recently put the roof on, and you folks put up the walls, windows, and flooring. This building is good size and should be able to seat about 500. Now, we need to pray that this church will work hard to fill this building!!!

Here is another shot of the completed brick work on the walls and windows. The building looks really nice and is a great testimony to the community.

Here is a look at the inside of the building as they work on the cement floor. From this angle, you are looking from the back door toward the front of the auditorium.

Here is a shot of me pretending that I know what I am doing. At this stage of the flooring, the gravel and mud is being packed down in preparation for the cement.

This is a picture of the workers building the walls for the pastor's office and storage room. These rooms are located at the very front of the auditorium behind the baptistry and pulpit area.

Here is the pastor of the Kanisa Huru La Kibaptisti (Independent Baptist Church) of Igoma. His name is Gervis. He has been at the church for a number of years. He is continuing his studies in our Bible college along with pastoring this church. He and his wife have four children and live in a small house on the church property.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)