The work here in New Brunswick is going well. In fact it is going better than I or anyone could have imagined. We have had some growing pains and hurdles for sure, but the church up here is strong. We are up in number, experiencing spiritual growth, and it looks like it is reasonable to expect that in about a year the congregation here will need no outside support whatsoever. That is even taking into consideration our needs for a building and having a full time preacher on staff.
The need for a building is great. It should not be the case, but it is, that one of the barriers to our growth right now is having a building large enough to accommodate the people. When visitors come we have a hard time finding them a place to sit. For us this is wonderful. I am afraid that for visitors this is perceived as an inconvenience and somewhat uncomfortable. Having a building that is more traditional to people’s expectations would also project a sense of validity to the community. As I said, I know this should not be the case, but I am afraid it is. Currently we are meeting in a building that is a renovated house. It is surly nice and has served the congregation here well for years. It is only able to comfortably accommodate about thirty people. We are having right at thirty people on Sunday morning. We have looked into having a structure built on the property the church already owns. It is more cost effective to do that than to try to buy a piece of property in this current market. We hope to be able to do this within the coming year. With God’s help and your continued support we can achieve this.
As far as the issue of the full time preacher on staff, well, we are working on that too. I, the Brewers, have just sent a thirty-five hundred dollar payment to the immigration consultant handling our case. Work permits have been filed, a formal offer of employment has been made by the church, and the government now has all this information. We are just waiting on them. This makes about ten thousand dollars that we have spent thus far out of our own pockets. We are happy to do this as we are convicted that the work up here is worthy of such investment. I am not sure we will ever be able to recoup what has been spent. We do not look at this investment in that way.
All the aforementioned leads to this paragraph, in the moment we are still vastly shy of the amount of support we need. The amount per month we need is forty-five hundred dollars per month. We have about one thousand a month currently. The way we mitigate the difference is LaBeth does some mental health consultation through zoom and LaBeth and I both work with DigitalBibleStudy.org. This helps but it does not come close to making up the difference. I trust in God as He has always provided. For some reason we have never gone without up here. Usually what happens is that a random check will show up just when we are about broke and do not know what to do. I am continually amazed and humbled at this. We need to bridge the gap between what we currently have raised and what we need. If there is any way you could pass this along to some congregation who would be willing to talk to us about the work we would be eternally grateful. It may be that there is a congregation out there who would oversee the funds so as to make raising the support easier. I would appreciate any help in this you could give.
All in all the work is going wonderfully. The people have a mind to work. Visitors are coming. Bible studies are hard to come by but progress is being made. We planned two congregational meetings, one to discuss how to better ourselves and one to discuss how to better affect the community. The former has been had and was very good. Positive changes were made by some as a result. I can not say enough good about these Christians up here.
I am sorry that a report has been so long in coming. We are eternally thankful for all you have done for us. We covet your prayers. If you have any questions at all about the work up here do not hesitate to reach out.
God bless,
Tony Brewer