WHAT BETTER NEWS COULD BE IN THE FINISTERRE MOUNTAINS?!?Starting the Year off with Evangelism!!Well! I have a lot of share! This year has been going very well concerning evangelism, here in Phoenix, AND...in the Finisterre Mountains! I can't wait to share with you all of the exciting things going on in both places, saving the best for last! This first picture was taken on Mill Ave. in Tempe (Phoenix area). We have had some of our best conversations, this year and last year on this street! I will highlight some of those conversations, as well as some other things we have done before I get to the BEST NEWS EVER! Daniel and I doing some evangelism on a small lake.Daniel and I took a day-trip to a nice little lake north of Phoenix! As you can see from the pictures, we had lovely weather! The park had a little play area, and it also had a random donkey in the parking lot! We thought that was pretty out of the ordinary... Tracts were pretty well received, though there weren't a lot of people there. We couldn't believe how many people were receptive at the next place we went though... On a certain "trailhead"...Where were people surprisingly open to the Gospel? On a mountain trail called the "Mormon Trailhead"!! People were so open to the Gospel on this little trailhead, even when climbing up a mountain! We weren't expecting that, so it was a huge blessing! If you're curious...the name is in reference to the 1,300 mile long hike (the Mormon Trail) from Illinois to Utah. It was used by Mormons in order to get away from a town in Illinois after Joseph Smith was murdered there. Ironically, we didn't run into any Mormons on the trailhead (that we know of)... An interesting place to put a tract on the Mormon Trailhead. :)While on the Trailhead, after realizing that I had ONE MORE of the hundreds of corona tracts we had ordered months ago, Daniel found an interesting place to leave this tract. :) There's a lot I could say about this picture, but I'll focus on one thing specifically. When you're looking at all the people around you, who are wearing their masks without even thinking about it, think about the blindness of our culture towards the things of God and the Gospel. The masks might as well be over their eyes, because they are all blindly headed towards a cliff of destruction, on their way to Hell because of their crimes. Their lying, stealing, blasphemy and thinking things against the things of God (just to name a few) keep them from seeing the Gospel clearly. And we are just as guilty of those sins! Let us go share the Gospel to them before it's too late! On the subject of masks...can you spot the tract? :) Before I finish talking about tracts, I HAVE to mention this tract... Do you see it? IT'S SO FUNNY! It's a Living Water's million with a MASK on it! I love them! They go out so well (usually...some people just look at me like I'm stupid). This is at Mill Ave., where they have billboards up everywhere about masks. How then could someone complain about this Gospel tract? It's wearing a mask... Handing out booklets at a local park with a little train.Do you remember those little booklets that we were giving out before? Well - here they are! We still have a bunch of them, and we are looking for creative ways to use them. This little park we went to contained a few people who took them, as well as a little train! It's actually an amusement park (open on the weekends). Hopefully we can go when the whole park is open sometime, and be able to share the Gospel with those attending! I talked with one interesting lady at this park, but she didn't speak the best English and I didn't understand her accent very well. Speaking of interesting... a Scientology Center!! Pics from “Church of Scientology” in Phoenix and L. Ron Hubbard’s house...What is all of this? Well... while doing some studying through a training course on false religions, I stumbled across a website that shared some of the history of Scientology. Guess where it started?!? PHOENIX!! I couldn't believe it... But what is Scientology...? A peek inside one of the Scientology books...Scientology was created by L. Ron Hubbard (in Phoenix apparently), a science fiction writer who wanted to create his own "non-religious" religion. So...he basically did... According to Scientology, you can be ANY religion and adhere to the principles (some unbiblical principles) taught through dianetics, which is basically based off of the occult. It's similar in though to Buddhist teaching on "mindfulness", and using ungodly means to try to get peace. I think it's important to know at least a little bit about these things, because some people might come into contact with Scientologists, and then get themselves into something that's NOT biblical! Just to comment briefly on this page (see picture above), I wanted to point out that, yes, in a sense, we should "respect other's religious beliefs"...BUT...this kind of thinking can be so dangerous. If you take it to it's logical conclusion...this means, if you respect other's beliefs, you shouldn't share your faith with them in order to try to get them to see why Christianity is absolutely true. Because we know that the Bible is true, we need to try to persuade others of the life-giving Gospel because without it, they will perish in Hell. That is not an opinion. If we really "respect" people, and love them like Christ did, we will tell them the error of their thinking. We need to be prepared (2 Tim. 2:15-17) to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Speaking of being prepared...how is Greek going?The plan is to officially finish in mid-Feb. with our first semester of second year Greek. I will keep you updated on what the plan is after that. One more big exam and we will be finished for a while! If I had to pick one major thing that has been really impactful so far through the Greek learning process, I think the use of sentence diagramming has been the most helpful. And...it's not that complicated! You can do it in English, too! For example, take a verse such as John 6:15 (NASB), "So Jesus, aware that they intended to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself, alone." What does this mean? Is the main point that Jesus was to be taken by force? Is it that Jesus liked to go to mountains to be alone? Is it that certain people were intending to come? How do you know grammatically? Well, you find the subject: (Jesus) and the main verb: (withdrew). So, the main point is that Jesus withdrew! This helps us not make the text mean whatever we want it to mean, but what God intended it to say to us. Want more of this sentence diagramming. Check these videos out, they are so helpful! Grace Bible Church - Sentence Diagramming for Dummies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvnUlKuM6QM&list=PLmrj25zC0cBcWFoyPRANHorJickTh3qYq&index=2 GREEK NEW TESTAMENT - SWEETEST GIFT MY HUSBAND COULD EVER GIVE ME!!On the subject of Greek... DANIEL GOT ME A UBS 5 GREEK NEW TESTAMENT!! Why is this so exciting?!? Because, THIS Greek New Testament can be read by someone who knows all the Greek words in the New Testament used 30 or more times. If a word is used less than 30 times, the Bible provides the English word for you. I'M SO EXCITED! How important is Greek? Without it, you might become a Flat Earther...You can talk about biblical truth with people who believe the earth is flat as much as you want, but what it really comes down to is that they are filled with their own interpretation of what they think the Scriptures say. They rehearse their arguments, but they won't listen to actual truth because they don't want to hear it. What are their arguments like? You don't want to know. Basically, they will take a random verse, and they won't look at context, but they will claim they know what the Hebrew says (they usually go to Old Testament verses), because they looked up a word on a Bible website, and they think they have the liberty to interpret it however they want. After a long conversation with these guys, Daniel got to the root of why they are so hostile towards us. Because of their faulty methods of interpretation, they think that including repentance in salvation is "adding works" to grace. This is a scary conclusion to come to, scarier than the whole flat earth thing, because they are denying the importance of the lordship of Christ. Please pray for them!! Also, on an encouraging note, at this same spot where the Flat Earthers were, Daniel, our friend Nicholas and I were able to share the Gospel, and to have GREAT conversations with plenty of people, including a woman named Arah (I think) who seemed REALLY open to coming to our church! Yay! We have had other exciting things happen too... Daniel and I went up to Flagstaff, a couple hours north of Phoenix, on a day trip with Joey, founder of Finisterre Vision. Flagstaff was really nice! Believe it or not, they actually do get snow sometimes!! I, for one, was very thankful that I didn't have to endure snow, just good fellowship. :) Joey Tartaglia is the founder of Finisterre Vision. Him and his family are hoping to move to Papua New Guinea with their four little ones next month. If he's able to fulfill this role in the Finisterre Mountains, he will be doing this work on TOP of all the other work he's currently doing, which includes training missionaries like us to be prepared for tribal work. They have already reached a tribe with the Gospel years ago, the Mibu tribe, but now they are seeking to go again so they can fill a logistics position that has an IMMEDIATE need to be filled. Please pray for their travels and their responsibilities! Speaking of travels - an interesting sink I came across in Phoenix.Why the picture of a sink? I thought it looked really cool! Also, I just wanted to say as a reminder to those who are reading this and are new to the idea of evangelism, that your evangelism doesn’t have to start with something HUGE. If talking to people is intimidating for you, or you’re not used to sharing your faith in vocal ways yet, or you can’t for some reason, you can always leave tracts in bathrooms!! I know it sounds really cheesy, but I would encourage you to do this, and to do something so you remember to pray for the tracts you placed! God has saved countless souls through simple tracts in random places. Another random tract example I thought was too funny to not share...Phoenix has some interesting sights... I honestly don't remember all the places I take pictures, but when I look back at them I laugh a lot at all the ones I've collected. Yes...you're seeing this picture right... This is a picture above a cactus (and a Living Waters tract) of nuns secretly smoking. When thinking about hypocrisy in general, remember that the only true church is filled with true converts, those who repent and put their faith and trust in Christ. Daniel sharing the Gospel to a man on “Mill Ave.”Speaking of true converts... Please pray for our evangelism on Mill Ave.! This is a picture of Daniel witnessing to a guy named Ravi. The conversation was interesting, and it ended with Daniel having the privilege of inviting him to church! The night this picture was taken on Mill Ave., we had some other conversations too! Some guys who were with us talked with a guy named Colin, and I talked with a couple who was open to the Gospel. Our church has seen fruit from this ministry, so please pray that we continue to see fruit, especially as school starts up again and more people start to come out! Exciting day of evangelism!After a busy night on Mill Ave, Daniel and I had the opportunity to go to an awesome pro-life event! This is us (complete with Trump tracts) with about 500 people or so in the background!! Why did 500 people gather from a bunch of different states? For a rally to propose a bill in Arizona to fully abolish abortion in the state! The event was such an encouragement! Some Catholic priests (I think) at the rally.The best part of this event was how clear the Gospel was proclaimed. This Catholics, (being the odd ones out, not the ones who ruled the event) stood there and heard the Gospel! They heard how the modern pro-life movement is a problem, because they don't take the things of God very seriously, and they're not all really trying to fully abolish abortion, either. I was so encouraged to be part of an event that understands the distinction between Christians and Catholics. What was even MORE encouraging though, was that my loving husband went ALL the way back to the car because I forgot to bring specific tracts we have for Catholics. We were able to give some to them, and they took them!! My sweet husband overlooking all the events...I thought this picture looked really cool, so I wanted to include it. I'm so thankful for all the evangelism I'm able to do with Daniel! It has been so encouraging to look over all these events, especially during this time of crazy world events. The discouragement can set in when I think of all the cancelled church events, the lack of actual Gospel conversations with people, etc. ever since the virus. BUT, when I look back on all these events and good times, it reminds me to be thankful for the fruit God has given us during this season of waiting. When the world has completely gone haywire, God is still holy, stable, and secure. The Gospel is eternal and immutable. Hundreds of people listening to a message on abortion that included a great Gospel focus!This is what I wanted to get to... The fact that, at this event, the Gospel was so clearly preached!! Also...do you see the guy in the bench in front of us sitting on the right? That's James White!! If you haven't heard of his works on textual criticism, please start with this video, it's a must watch for anyone who wants to seriously understand the background of the text of their Bible: James White on the Reliability of the New Testament: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuiayuxWwuI A cool map! Transition from Arizona to Papua New Guinea.2021 is a LANDMARK YEAR... As of January, 2021... Unreached tribes in the Finisterre Mountains are down to 49... Why? KEEP READING!! The Exciting News!!THE DO TRIBE HEARD THE GOSPEL IN THEIR LANGUAGE FOR THE FIRST TIME!! This is the best news that Do will ever receive! Christ is being GREATLY glorified in the Finisterre Mountains! The Do Tribe is having mixed feelings about the teaching. Some can't believe that their good works don't matter, and they find it hard to believe that salvation can be so simple! Others are responding VERY well, and the missionaries there believe they TRULY understand the Gospel, and are saved!!!! Want to hear more about it?!? FOLLOW THIS LINK: Do Teaching Videos: https://youtu.be/PevbQH27k4I ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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