Looking Back and Looking Forward
20 Years with Brass Tacks - ‘serving those who serve’
by Dr R. Peter Coates, M.B.E.
Before Brass Tacks
In the early years of our time as missionaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo most building projects and maintenance were done by resident missionaries, some who felt called to the task, such as Harold McKenzie from New Zealand. Others just added the jobs to their already full routine.
Then we had short-term workers - for instance three Swiss engineers who spent just over a year with us at Kasaji in 1966-67. It was more difficult on small stations and some in the UK had a burden to help.
The Beginning
In 1986 my wife Ruth and I met with Derek Beckwith, David Vardy and others to discuss the problem of practical help that was needed by assembly missionaries overseas. After much prayer it was decided to start a service group called Brass Tacks (which stands for British assemblies tactical support).
The Inaugural Meeting was held in London on 27th September 1986 when Gordon Blower of Mobile Mission Maintenance, a similar group in Australia, spoke of their work. Trustees, a treasurer and secretary were appointed. At the second meeting of the trustees on 17th November 1986, William Rea, now of Moshi, Tanzania, was appointed as co-ordinator of the work.
Early Days
The first Brass Tacks project, in December 1986, was to La Roche-sur-Yon in France to help Les Cline with the church building there. Our son James went along as driver and handyman to help a carpenter and an electrician on the job. There were then other projects that William arranged. I resigned as chairman in 1988 when Ruth and I returned to Kasaji, Zaire, though I was asked to stay on as a trustee. Colin Breeze was appointed executive director when William resigned in 1990.
Development
The number of jobs completed increased and teams of volunteers were going to Zaire, Zambia, Mongolia, Russia, France and other countries. Over a few years, full time workers joined Brass Tacks - Paul and Angela Hannay in ‘91, Jim and Anne Smith in ‘95 and Dennis and Mary Bowman in ‘96 - and have given valuable help to the work, especially that of leading the teams.
At Kasaji we benefited from the visit of a team led by Colin Breeze in 1991 when they built us a laboratory, then later a group installed a 26 KVA generator and put in underground cables. One of the second team drew up plans for a church building in Kasaji Town and started the foundations - another “while you're here” job! The number of volunteers has now reached 200 and over 130 projects have been completed in 28 countries.
The Future
There is a constant flow of requests for help coming into the office and more could be done if we had more full-time workers who can lead teams, and more volunteers. The trustees continue to meet every six months and new trustees are needed. The work could be expanded, going even into other countries to help establish similar groups for greater outreach and so ‘serving those who serve’.