Where did we go…?Narnia!Haha…we did go to Narnia! And by Narnia I mean Focus on the Family headquarters!! We have had lots of travel and excitement this month, along with WAY MORE studying and work with seminary starting!! I’ll share more about Focus on the Family through-out the blog, and give you an update on how everything is going with our church, missionary training, and our lives. What have Taliah and I been up to? Putting pro-life tracts in IKEA!This was a fun trip. I thought the display of a baby crib was missing something… …an image of a baby with the Gospel on it! Find the tract in each of these pictures. It’s so important to remember that life is precious, that people are all created in the image of God, and that they all need the Gospel. So that’s why we go to First Fridays!!If you’ve missed other blogs, First Fridays is a monthly festival in Phoenix where we’re able to get into conversations with people so we can share the Gospel with them. These curved illusion tracts really catch people’s attention, and they lead to great conversations!! With these particular tracts, it’s easy to explain to people that our eyes can easily deceive us, because these tracts look like one is bigger than the other, but they’re both the same size. Are you tricked easily? Try this: 1. What is the name of the raised print that deaf people use? 2. How many of each animal did Moses take on the Ark? 3. Spell “shop” out loud and say what should happen when you come to a green light. Check above the next pic for the answers. Did some of those get you? Even if they didn’t, one question gets most people. “Do you consider yourself to be a good person?” Most people profess their own goodness, because, if we’re honest, we think we’re a little bit better than the next guy. You know you’ve sinned, but somehow your sin of lying, gossip, coveting, etc., doesn’t seem as bad as others around you. That ideology is full of pride, which is seriously condemned in Scripture! I’m so thankful for the cross, the fact that Jesus died and rose again for His people, those who are guilty and deserving of Hell along with those around us who seem to be so sinful. We are blind to our own sin! (The answers are: 1. Deaf people don’t need a raised print. 2. Moses didn’t take any animals on the Ark, it was Noah. 3. You go, you don’t stop.) Speaking of blind…who put these books backwards…?I couldn’t help but take a picture of this bookshelf. Is that supposed to be some kind of cool style or something? How do you know what each book is if you can’t see the binding?? That would annoy me so much… …guess who would never do that with his books…? Daniel!! My husband!! He got into seminary!!!! YAY! I’ll share more on that after my Taliah update!! The Taliah update!!YAY! She’s growing so well and she’s so cute!! Taliah has been doing awesome! She’s starting to do so many things for the first time! We are so thankful for her! Here she’s sitting happily as we left these Ray Comfort books on people’s driveways. Living Waters is doing a video on this project! Can’t wait to share it soon!! Study time!Along with spending time with us, doing evangelism, and working, Daniel has been super busy with seminary!! He’s doing a program at Expositor’s Seminary, which is out of Master’s Seminary. He’s able to do all the training out of our church, Grace Bible in Tempe, Arizona. He’s taking SIX classes, and I’ve been so proud of how well he’s been taking it, and how motivated he is!! If you haven’t caught up on our other blogs, we are missionaries in training to go to the unreached people groups of Papua New Guinea! Lord willing, someday this blog will soon turn into more missions and tribal people after we’re finished with our training… …but for now… …we’re working towards church planting in a tribal context by learning the biblical languages, having cultural training for Papua New Guinea, and, for my husband, learning how to be a pastoral leader for those who have NO church, NO real understanding of the Gospel, and NO Bible in their language. We have done lots of cultural training, so now the next step is seminary for my husband!! He just started this month, so by the next blog I should have more updates on what he’s learning in class, what’s really sticking out, etc.! But for now, our prayer is that we are careful that “our fire doesn’t go out as we’re gathering sticks”, as Ray Comfort would say… (In other words, being on fire for Christ, because we may not have tomorrow.) And…we’re spending time being thankful for this little one!!I just had to share these pictures of Taliah! We had some great fellowship at this park (the two outer pictures) with friends, and Taliah was so excited!! As she grows, we want to share with her a balance between the sovereignty of God and a serious zeal for evangelism. The middle picture shows her having some learning time on her stomach! A healthy balance between work and play, and having fun (having a good attitude) while doing things of use are among the many things we want her to experience. A new experience of all of us. :)What would be a new experience for us? Papua New Guinea! This is a random sign we saw in Phoenix. I think it’s there because it was close to a coffee shop that (probably) sells coffee from PNG (Papua New Guinea), but I put it here because PNG needs the Gospel. Papua New Guinea has less than 9 million people, compared to the 328 million in America. Just for comparison’s sake, Arizona alone there are over 7 million people, and California contains over 39 million. Can you imagine the population of just one state speaking over 830 languages. That’s how many languages are in Papua New Guinea, and many of them don’t have biblical churches and don’t have the Word of God. That’s why we want to go there. And we hope she’s excited to go!!Taliah is so expressive for her age. I love her expressions, and I love her! These pictures were taken at a little outdoor mall called Tempe Marketplace. We go there to get some ministry work done, and to see if we can get any conversations with people. Another place we like to go is the mall… An awesome store in the mall…I had a great conversation with the owner of this store. Everything sold here is made in Italy. This place was a great conversation starter, because of the Catholic crucifixes, the Nativity, and the chess boards. I’ve collected chess boards from all the countries I’ve been too (besides Canada). So far I have Israel, Guatemala, and the US. I hope Australia and Papua New Guinea are next! Our new musical addition!!YAY! Not to brag on my husband too much… …but… …after looking around different places a bit… he bought me a keyboard!! I’m so excited to play songs for us, and maybe teach Taliah to play one day!! And how to not be like this…Feminism is everywhere. It’s ironic to me that people who advocate for “women’s rights” don’t see the inconsistency of saying that they “care about women”, but they put them into lustful subjection. Because of that, I thought this display would look good with a “What Time is Purple”. It’s hard to see stuff like this and not do anything… …even if it’s a quick tract, it’s better than nothing because it brings glory to God. And so do these cute ones!!I love the way they look together. Though it looks like Taliah is laughing at a funny Ray Comfort video on YouTube, she’s actually laughing at something one of us said or did. Daniel wasn’t watching YouTube, anyway. I don’t remember exactly what he was doing in this picture, but I’m sure it was something useful! When he’s using his phone, he’s always doing something productive and helpful, and I’m so thankful for that!! Back to our travels… Purple art…Art makes no sense to me. Who would pay money for a giant thumb tack that you couldn’t even practically use? I’m sure it’s just meant to draw attention, but I think it’s sad to know people pay for items like that. Hopefully someone gets a nice surprise and reads the Gospel when they stop to look in that “art bowl” in the middle photo! Enough of pointless art… …let’s get to real creativity!! Focus on the Family!!Here are some pics from our trip to the Focus on the Family headquarters! These pics are from the Adventures in Odyssey land they created!! Daniel had a great time looking at all the elaborate decor, and Taliah was SUPER amazed! :) It was awesome to see a Christian place that was so clearly so well loved by many people. But hold on! I have one more set of purple pictures!! What time is Claire’s?I had to share these too, before I continue on with the trip. Can you find the booklets? I thought this booklet fit well in this store. (Here’s a hint…there’s actually only one booklet in two of the three pictures.) Okay! Back to the trip… Wow!You look away for one picture and Taliah got so big! Just kidding… In these pictures, Taliah is Connie Kendall and Daniel is Eugene Meltsner from Adventures in Odyssey. If you know the show, or you know Daniel, you know that both of them speak in very precise language… You should listen to it sometime! BUT PLEASE DON’T PLAY ANY OF THESE GAMES!!Find the tract! (Disclaimer: this was not taken at the Focus on the Family headquarters.) Did you find the tract yet? It’s an “Are You a Good Person” one. You should see it in the to the right of the “meme” game. NOW, I can Focus… (get it? Focus on the Family?) A Global FocusThis globe was so cool! It shows all the stations around the world that have Focus on the Family on them!! Our prayer is that Papua New Guinea can have as much Gospel influence as we are blessed to have in America. The rest of these pictures show some fun we had in a little play area they had. Do you like where I put Taliah’s sticker? I thought it was funny… (See the middle picture.) What else were we up to? Huntington Beach!!AREN’T THEY CUTE?!? AHH!! They’re mine, you can’t have them… In the pictures I have below the most ADORABLE one, I show the three best conversations Daniel had on the beach. The guy on the far left was Catholic, but open to the Gospel. In the middle was a JW… And on the far right was a guy who may have had a disability, but he was open to conversation. Praising God for all those conversations!! I love this picture of Taliah under the bridge!!Doesn’t she look so excited? Lots of exciting things happened… At Huntington Beach, they were having a yoga festival…which made for some interesting conversations! It was so fun to share the Gospel in a place that needs it so badly. But, what does Taliah have on her shirt…?? Living Waters onesie!!Can you read it now?? “FullyFreeFilms.com FREE ONLINE MOVIES Ask my parents for a free movie gift card!!” Ray Comfort loved it! He said it made his day. :) What other adventures did we go on?? We had a great time at a local park… …and we went to Grace Community Church!! See us with Phil Johnson below! Want us to continue this 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
March 2024
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