The Brouwer Family

We had quite a normal day in the village of Fumagira today. In Africa, normal is good, so we are certainly not complaining one bit. Adult Sunday School has been so engaging as we continue through the Book of Revelation with many questions and lively discussions each week. Pele, our assistant pastor, preached for us in the morning service. Due to a scheduling change, we had Bible institute again this week as we work our way through basic Bible doctrines on Sunday afternoons. All in all, it was a very good day.
The new building in Igekemaja continues way ahead of schedule. Is that even possible here? (HA!). We praise the Lord for the tremendous progress that we have seen. They finished building the trusses this week, and they will start putting them up on Monday. Maybe by Wednesday we will be able to start putting on the iron roofing sheets. We will be planning our first service in this building very soon. Please continue to pray for this new church plant.
Lastly, our regular prayer letter was sent out from the States on February 22nd with the following information, however, we will repeat it here so as not to miss anyone. This summer will see us complete four years on the field this term, so we are planning a furlough. We will be available for meetings from the start of September until the end of May. We would be honored to report to your church during our furlough. Therefore, if you wish for us to report to your church, please contact us through email, and we can arrange a date to come. You may use the following email addresses: servingintz@barmedas.com or servingintz@yahoo.com

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are praising the Lord for another great week in the service of the King.
God gave us good services on Sunday. We are a little more than half-way through our study of the Book of Revelation in adult Sunday School. Petro, a faithful national at the church in Fumagira, preached the Sunday morning message and did a fine job. Pele, our assistant pastor, was out of town preaching at a church in Lamadi. This was Bible Institute week, so we continued teaching through our foundational Bible doctrine material on Sunday afternoon. It is so refreshing to work with new converts who have never heard much of this material before. Please pray for these dear babes in Christ to continue to grow in grace.
Lastly, our church building for our new church plant in the village of Igekemaja is continuing to move along quite nicely. The foundation is completely finished along with the supporting pillars. We are now working on the ring-beam which will support the roof. Below is a photo of the building in progress.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rain, rain, and more rain!!! After last year's drought here in East Africa, everyone is happy to see the rain, however, El Nino has really pounded Tanzania this year. For the second Sunday in the last few Sundays, we barely got out of the village without being swept away by raging rain waters. Once again, we were mighty grateful for a high-clearance 4x4 vehicle. On the way out of the village we noticed that the only bridge leading in and out of Fumagira was severally damaged. I was very skeptical whether I would be able to drive across the bridge without ending up in the water below. However, there is no other way out of this village. We prayed, and by God's grace, made it across. I told Tammy that I am not going to go across that bridge again until it is repaired. Repairing this bridge looks like a pretty big job to me, so who knows when it will be finished. Until the bridge is repaired, we will need to park the car just before the bridge and walk about a half a mile to church. We need the exercise, so it will no problem at all.
Before the rains came we did have good services this morning. Attendance was down a bit because of the threatening weather. Phinias, a national from the church at Ibungilo, preached for us this morning and did a fine job.
The church building at our new church plant in Igekemaja is moving along very quickly. The workers are doing a tremendous job, and the foreman seems extremely motivated to finish the job. Maybe it is because we are not paying him by the day, but for the entire job. We have learned a few things over the years here (HA!). Please continue to pray that we would finish this building quickly so as to start holding services there as soon as possible. Again today, two older men from Igekemaja made the long trek on foot to Fumagira to be in our services there. Many people at Igekemaja are anxious to start having services in their village.

Posted by Bill & Tammy Brouwer at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)