Dear Pastor Johnson & Cornerstone Baptist Church,
Cindy and I leave here on the 12th of July! (Yes! We’re already packing our suitcases!) We have had a wonderful five years on the field this term! Even through the COVID mess, the challenges brought blessings!
I hope that we get to come by and tell you about it! We already have two missionary conferences scheduled and so I have started (five years late!) taking pictures. Our sending pastor told us in 1979, as he prepared us for our survey trip, “Take lots of pictures! After you there a while you won’t take pictures because you’re used to everything.” He sent with us 20 rolls of film with 36 exposures. (I wonder how many of todays supporting pastors have ever taken that kind of picture!) We took them all. BUT THINGS HAVE CHANGED HERE SO MUCH OVER THE PAST 44 YEARS!
- Where our slides showed jungles, there are thousands of acres of soybean fields just in our state! Over 100 million acres in Brazil!
- Where we used to drive jungle roads and preach the gospel to dozens of people who had walked to hear, there is now electricity in every rural area… that means TVs and Internet, so they don’t walk to hear anymore!
- When we had the only camera around, NOW ALMOST EVERYONE, EVEN THE SMALL CHILDREN, HAVE CAMERAS IN THEIR PHONES!
- When we had one of the very few private vehicles in town and our bus/trailer ministry brought in hundreds of children and adults on empty streets, now we bring in dozens AND WATCH OUT FOR THE TRAFFIC!
I preferred the old days! However, I tell those that we teach and train, “Problems were made to be solved!” The Lord shows us how to adapt! Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; (do not worry!) but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Actually, because of the changes over the years there is a need for more workers! More missionaries! There are so many more opportunities! While some parts of the world are shutting out missionaries, Brazil is still open and the souls here so precious to the Lord we serve also! I pray I get to be there with you.
By the time this furlough is over I will be almost 75 years old. There are at least two towns here with empty church buildings available! I wish I could be there (in both!) now! Perhaps there are those in the Cornerstone Baptist Church whom God would lead to work with us here!
We can hardly wait to see you all to tell you about these opportunities in person!
Sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Tom Brewer