Eva J. Brouwer

Nov. 29, 1927  - Aug. 18, 2016                       , age 88, of Willmar, formerly of rural Bunde, died Thursday afternoon, August 18, at her home in Willmar following a short illness.                Services will be held at 10:30 AM, Monday, August 22, at Bunde Christian Reformed Church in Bunde.  The interment will be in the church cemetery.  Visitation will be on from 2 to 4 PM  Sunday afternoon at Bunde Christian Reformed Church and 1 hour prior to the service.  Memorials are encouraged in her honor to CRWRC-World Renew (worldrenew.net) and/or CRC World Missions (www.crcna.org) both at 1700 28th Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI, 49508-1407. Eva Jane Hoogeveen Brouwer, a near life-long resident of rural Bunde (Clara City), Minnesota, passed from a busy life of serving others into eternity with Jesus, surrounded by family, at her Willmar home, after a brief and valiant wrestling with illness, on August 18, 2016. Eva was a faith-filled woman who succeeded at most challenges she encountered, in a long life of devotion to God, love for her husband and children, and untiring work for her family and countless others. She grew up in Prinsburg, Minnesota, where, along with her siblings, she helped support her untimely widowed mother as a telephone operator, store clerk, and house cleaner. Lester was the love of her life, a farm boy who helped her transition from the Dutch immigrant town to rural German immigrant life. Bunde Christian Reformed Church became the center of their spiritual and social life, and remained so until her death.  Eva was an energetic mother who marked her children's long march (31 years!) through schooling at Central Minnesota Christian Schools and Dordt College with handwritten notes and letters, and thoughtful care packages. She farmed devotedly alongside Lester, and traveled extensively around the world with him in retirement. Three passions in particular lit Eva's dramatic eyes: working in disaster recovery with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, engaging prison inmates in Bible Study and prayer through Crossroad Bible Institute, and playing Scrabble with her daughters.  Eva's name is carried forward by her namesake great-granddaughter Eva Kralt, born on her birthday in 2010.   Eva is survived by Lester, her husband of sixty-nine years, six children and their spouses (Jean and Stan Starkenburg of Palmyra, New York; Wayne and Brenda Brouwer of Holland, Michigan; Shirley and Bill Kuurstra of Ottawa, Ontario; Evelyn and Jeff Thomson of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Ardie and Nathan Elgersma of Abbotsford, British Columbia; Lyle and Beth Brouwer of Byron Center, Michigan), fifteen grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, and brother Stan (Clara) of Pella, Iowa, and sister Lorraine Hoogeveen of Willmar, Minnesota.   She was predeceased by an infant sister and four other siblings: Angie Gort, Helen Mulder, Harry Hoogeveen, and her twin, Esther Zondervan, who died on their birthday in 2011.    

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