WHO'S IN TOWN THIS SUMMER??Family photo!A great beginning to a Phoenix summer! Though it’s already over 100 degrees F pretty much every day, we are doing well! We have some pretty excited news we will share at the end of this blog. We are so blessed that Taliah is growing well, and that God has given us so many blessings to be thankful for! What's new in terms of travel...? Airplanes and parachutes...We are still, Lord willing, heading to Papua New Guinea! And guess who just got here from Papua New Guinea?!? The Canns!! They are one of the missionary families who shared the Gospel with the Do tribe. The teaching of the update videos I had in this blog a while ago was all led by Zach Cann! I can't wait to give you an update on them later. But, I will save the BEST for last, and give you an update on us currently first. The plan is for Daniel to start seminary in August, and then to go to the field in about four years when he's finished with that training. Maybe we could take a trip to either Australia or Papua New Guinea before then? That's possible, but, if so, we would want to do both at once; right now that's not possible with the corona restrictions that are still present around the world. So you can pray for everything to work out in God's timing! Speaking of travel... I thought these pictures of a playground were awesome, because it reminds me of going to the mission field, and of an awesome analogy that Ray Comfort has. He uses the analogy of two men on a plane, sitting in their seats comfortably. One man is told that he should put on a parachute because it will improve his flight. So, he puts it on, and the opposite happens! People started making fun of him... It became harder to sit up straight in the seat... He stood out because he was the only one he could see wearing one... So, what does he do? He rips the parachute off - because he was lied to! The other guy, however, is told that the plane is CRASHING!! The only way to be saved from the destruction to come is to put on the parachute! So, what does he do? He gratefully puts it on. And when the other people made fun of him, and when it got harder to sit in the seat comfortably...it just made him cling to the parachute TIGHTER. This is a picture of the error of what is told in the modern "Christian" movement. If you're told that Jesus will improve your life, you will feel lied to when you face the PROMISED persecution that Christians receive for their faith. You don't get saved to improve your life, you get saved out of gratefulness to Jesus Christ for His shed blood on behalf of undeserving, lying, blasphemous, ungrateful sinners who deserve Hell. But don't just take my word for it, look at this video, it's only 4 minutes: Ray Comfort Parachute Analogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqgWEf4xVOg What about evangelism?Hope that analogy made sense to you! If it did, get out there and share it with others! Or...stick to leaving tracts in bathrooms! Here's sweet Taliah getting excited!! She is doing so well! We are so thankful for her growing healthy and happily, and for all the things we are able to do with her! Look for the tract game!!I promise there is a tract in each of these pictures! (If you can't find one, comment below.) These pictures were taken in a mall store that Taliah and I went to. I couldn't believe all the idols in the store, so I figured it was a perfect place for Gospel tracts!! My favorite pic is the one of the elephant who has something stuck in his tusks... Taliah and I sharing the Gospel at First Friday's!I mentioned going to First Friday's before, but now it's gaining more and more people! In case you forgot, First Friday's is a festival in downtown Phoenix where people come to sell their art, eat at local restaurants, walk around and hang out with friends, or proclaim loudly that the earth is flat. I had one good conversation that stood out with a lady named Chauntel! Pray for Chauntel! Her and her boyfriend (I assume) seemed pretty open to the Gospel, admitting their sin in the conversation, and letting me explain the Gospel to them. Daniel was able to pass a lot of tracts, and we had the great privilege of being joined with a couple from our church! It was both Taliah's and the couple from our church's first time!! First times are SO exciting to me! Another first time for evangelism!!Daniel, Taliah and I (along with a lady from our church and her daughter) made it to a Phoenix Suns Arena game for the first time! Before the pandemic, thousands of people would be lined up in downtown Phoenix for this game, but, when we went, there was only a few people here and there. It was still worth it though, because Daniel was able to share the Gospel with two different guys. Pray for Eric! Daniel and I were able to share the Gospel with him and call him to repentance, even though he seemed kind of out of it...saying weird things at weird times. For example, Daniel asked him if he had heard of the “Law of sin and death”, and he ended up talking about millet and cereal... Pray the Gospel gets through to him regardless of drugs, etc. We didn't get the other guy's name, but you can pray for him too! It was such a blessing to be able to go!! Hopefully Taliah was thankful she was able to go as well!!She is getting more expressive, and it's so fun! I'm so excited to get to know her and her personality as she gets older! I can't believe that, this month, she will be three months old already!! She's growing so fast, and I'm so thankful that she's pretty well-behaved for a baby! Want to hear about more of our adventures...? Find the tract in the nine lower pictures!!I can't believe how many stores have New Age stuff in them! Most of the pictures I have taken have been from the same mall. Pray for people to stop following after their idolatry and to turn to the true God!! Comment below if you don't see a tract in a picture! I really enjoyed putting tracts in places in this store. :) What else has been going on? The Expositors Seminary application is OFFICIALLY IN!!YAY! Daniel is still hoping to go to Expositors in August, and his application has been officially put in! Even though he had it in awhile ago, there were references that needed to be filled out, and those can take a long time. So thankful that it's officially in!! Also, in case you were wondering, we are finishing up our Going Deeper Greek book, and then we will be reviewing and taking a break for the summer! This picture was taken at our church. If you look at the second picture from the bottom, that's us!! It's so exciting that there are two campuses in the Phoenix area for the seminary!! If Daniel gets in, he will be able to study at the church during the week, and get solid teaching from all the of other campuses over Zoom while staying at his home church! Taliah will be so old by the time he's done!! Not old enough for Disney though...What do you think about Disney? Do you think that it's an ungodly source of idolatry and lies? We do! I'm not going to go on about conspiracy theories or anything like that, but I do think that, whether people realize it or not, Disney is promoting ungodly principles, such as self-love and prideful self-esteem. The company glorifies sin through Disney Channel shows promoting sexual sins such as homosexuality, teaching kids wrong views about relationships, and introducing physical themes before children are ready for them, as well as promoting universalism through their language in their shows and themes. I could go on, but the main point Daniel and I want to make is that we want to guard our children from worldly thinking without being legalistic. It's a hard, fine line, but we want to be careful to call sin for what it is without pretending like it's innocent and okay. That's why we put tracts in the Disney products. :) What's all the excitement about?I just had to show some pictures of Taliah's excited face! She doesn't need Disney to have a good time!! I love how much energy she has, even as a little baby! I'm not one to sleep much, and I think she's taking after that... She's still more like Daniel though...and I'm SO thankful for that!! ;) One more find the tract game!!This store was REALLY terrible. :( I don't want to share much about the things in the store, because I don't want to be glorifying sin, but let's just say these pictures were all I could do before I had to get out of there. As a Christian, you should feel a deep burden for your own sin, and a serious uncomfortableness around the sin of others. As long as you're sure that your sin is confessed and that you're in a right place before God, I want to encourage you to not be content watching or listening in the sin of others. Flee!! Honoring God is more important than temporary pleasure. Praying that this cute little one comes to understand the importance of honoring the Lord!!We are praying for Taliah already, that she understands these things, and that she sees her own sin seriously before God. It can be so tempting to think that she's "innocent", because she can't comprehend too much yet, but she's getting there, and she was definitely born in sin! This Scripture comes to mind: Psalm 51:1-10, "Be gracious to me, God, according to Your faithfulness; According to the greatness of Your compassion, wipe out my wrongdoings. Wash me thoroughly from my guilt And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my wrongdoings, And my sin is constantly before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in guilt, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in secret You will make wisdom known to me. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; Cleanse me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, Let the bones You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And wipe out all my guilty deeds. Create in me a clean heart, God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me." Speaking of Scripture... These cute ones need the Gospel too!!What's going on in Papua New Guinea? The team is on furlough, trying to travel to and from Papua New Guinea as best as they can with all of the restrictions still set in place. The Do tribe is continuing to grow in the faith, and our upcoming team, the Pano team, is getting everything in place to move in to a new tribe!! For now I'm giving a short report, BUT...by the time the next blog comes out...I should have a LOT more information to share!! Pray for the work of Bible translation and creating a self-sustaining church in the Do tribe, and for the Pano team to be able to build their houses, get to know the language and culture of the Pano tribe, and for them to be able to share the Gospel and give the Pano people the privilege the Do tribe had! Waiting for the Canns!Speaking of Papua New Guinea... The Canns are in town, and we were already blessed to spend time with them!! YAY! These pictures are of Taliah waiting for them at the airport. Here they are: Welcoming the Canns at the airport!In case you don’t know the whole story, the Canns came home because of a mini emergency. They were planning on going on furlough (missionary break) soon, but they ended up leaving the tribe and returning much quicker than planned because Jude, their oldest, hurt his jaw on his bike. They thought he might need surgery for it, but he ended up being better than they thought, which was a huge relief!! Now they plan to stay here in Arizona for about a year. And we are so excited!! Zach Cann gave an update on their first Sunday here on the Do tribe to our church. If you want to listen to it, here it is: Cann PNG Update at GBC, Summer 2021: www.gbcaz.org/sermon/png-and-cann-family-update/ Do you see Taliah’s shirt?!?If you can’t make out the writing, it says “Future Finisterre Vision Missionary”, and it includes the Finisterre Vision website. Of course, the future is in the hands of the Lord, so we don’t know what’s going to happen... ...but our hope and prayer is that God allows us to get to the mission field!! And we are so thankful for the Lord blessing us with Taliah before our time on the field! Our prayer is that she sees the need for the Gospel to go to unreached people groups as well. But more about the Canns... Daniel patiently enduring my many pictures of anticipation at the airport.Here you see Daniel waiting for the Canns. You know their update...but what have they told us personally? A huge thing that stuck out from our conversations with them is that, while theological training is REALLY important, someone training for the mission field NEEDS to have people skills. Going into the tribe knowing how to properly translate the Bible is essential, because you need to rightly handle the Word of God, but... ...if you’re just sitting at a computer all day... ...you can’t learn the Do language!! It was really encouraging to hear that boldness in street evangelism and talking to strangers in general is extremely helpful on the field. My prayer is that YOU keep that in mind, and remember that you don’t have to be a “special person” to go to the field. You need lots of training, and it will be very hard, but people are dying, and they need the Word of God in their language. They need an established church! All you have to do is talk to people!! Also... Of the Do people, Zach guesses that there are around 20 believers!! About 50 people attended the meetings where the Gospel was preached. Pray for the Do tribe as they become a growing church!! A missionary family photo!In this picture, all three of us have our missionary shirts on! We have been so blessed this month! So thankful for our time with the Canns so far, and for everything God has done through us this summer! We can’t wait to see what God has in store next! Pray for the unreached people groups of the world!! Want to help us continue our work?
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AuthorsDaniel and Sarah Bruce desire to be missionaries to the unreached peoples of the world. Daniel is from Australia and Sarah is from Detroit, MI. They reside in Phoenix, AZ, where they are members at Shepherd's House Bible Church in Chandler, AZ. Archives
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