DID TALIAH RIDE A HORSE IN THE WILD, WILD WEST?No...but she did see a rustic, western town!Picture it with me, follow along to a short narrative of my favorite book outside Scripture (look at the first two lines of pictures to illustrate the story, from left to right): You’re living in a small home with your mom and sister. Little do you know that massive treasure (see the million-dollar bill) is lurking outside. Suddenly your world is turned upsidedown and your father is shot outside your home for a reason you can’t understand. You are forced to be the “man of the house”, though you’re just a boy. You live on meager portions of food and visit Saloon’s often to try to relieve yourself of the pain, because you can’t figure out who has murdered your father! You roam through the town – nothing. Then, through a crazy series of events, you learn that the murder has something to do with gold. There is hidden treasure – hidden gold, and your mother has been hiding it from you! You have a golden nugget, your friend steals it from you, so you almost murder him. You found a girl you want to impress so you pretend you’re a Christian and she does too but neither one of you are saved! You can’t find the treasure! Everything is hopeless! You were shot! You almost die, in anguish because you realize that your sin of hating your friend is as bad as murder: you’re just as guilty and deserving of punishment as whoever murdered your father! You have lived a life of hypocrisy, pretending to be what you’re not when really you’re deserving of Hell! From another country, a preacher has come to explain the Gospel to you. His name is Charles Spurgeon, and he explained that Jesus (who is God in the flesh), came to live, die, and rise again. He died for people of all different nations, for people who are liars, thieves, and murderers at heart. He explained that repentance is turning from sin to Christ. You understood the depth of this, that this message is better than treasure, and you lost your bitterness towards your mother because you understand why she would keep such riches from you – the same riches that killed your father because of his greed. At the end of your story, you casually decide to get your hands on an old typewriter so that you can type out verses that you’re learning from in the Bible. You find an astonishing treasure through many sermons you find within the old typewriter, and as you look through everything, you notice something you never would have found if you didn’t care about writing out Scripture – the hidden piece of treasure! But does it even matter anymore? To read this book for yourself, check out this link (don’t worry, I skipped around a lot…there are many more surprises in the book). Jake’s Fortune by Ray Comfort book link: www.amazon.com/Jakes-Fortune-Ray-Comfort/dp/B005UVWRPK But how did our trip actually go? From dressing up in western hats and bonnets, to playing with western crafts, to seeing the sites of a western town, little Taliah had such a great time on our little trip! This little town in Arizona is very well-built, complete with pretty much everything western you could think of! But why would we go to a little western town? Simply put, it was on our way to somewhere else, and we thought it would look great with some Gospel tracts! If you look at the pictures above closely, you’ll see some of the Gospel tracts in the photos below. Another reason we visited this little place is because Daniel thinks its really cool in general, and I like it because it reminds me of my favorite book outside of the Bible: Jake’s Fortune (as I have illustrated above). So thankful for the experience…and for Taliah’s growth! She's grown SO much!!This is a 4th of July pic from last year of Taliah (left) compared to one from this month (right), at the same event – fireworks in Gilbert, AZ! But this time…they had lots more activities…including Mormon-run sports bouncy games! I was so excited to give them tracts, and I had a great conversation (sharing the Gospel) while on the park with Taliah, while Daniel had a great conversation while walking around the park looking for people to talk to with some other guys. Pray for Ashland and Giana! I was able to share the Gospel with them while holding Taliah. I think she really helped to break the ice, and I was able to explain to them how serious eternity really is. Pray for Ali, a guy from Pakistan who was very open to Daniel sharing the Gospel with him. Daniel ended up giving him a Living Waters Four Gospels, because he seemed very interested in becoming a Christian. Also pray for some Mormons who were running some rides. We were able to give two of them tracts. Overall, it was a great 4th of July... ...but someone wasn't too happy on the 4th... A little angry about the Gospel...?It’s time to get a little political! This tract here is proof that sharing the Gospel isn’t always a cup of tea! Though Daniel and I said nothing to anyone about Trump, or the Republican party (and this booklet says nothing about Trump either), someone threw this out into the street after we put it on their house (I crossed out some “swear” words). Why? Because many Americans equate Christianity with the Republican party. While abortion is murder and same-sex “marriage” (along with fornication and many other sexual sins) are not acceptable in God’s sight, that doesn’t mean Jesus is a Republican or that Jesus “hates Trump” – it means that Jesus died for His people, of all nations, not for the Republican party, or for the Democratic party. So, don’t be discouraged if you are trying to share the Gospel with your tracts and someone yells at you or throws the tract back. Wait…you don’t have any tracts? Heres a link! The best Gospel tracts link ever: store.livingwaters.com/gospel-tracts.html Botanical gardens exploration!This place, a botanical gardens in Phoenix, was interesting to visit. It received some Gospel tracts (see the link above to get yours), and it had some scenery you wouldn’t see every day. The colored (not natural) structures you see are hand-blown glass. I think they’re quite bizarre, but that’s okay… In this set of pictures, Daniel likes the glass the farthest to the left on the very top, and the farthest to the right on the very bottom. I really like the sun dial here. Anything that somehow tells time is interesting to me, and it serves as a reminder of how short our lives are. Speaking of that, I have written about some of the things we have been doing lately, but I think it’s also appropriate to introduce ourselves briefly. Interesting...?WELL…how’s that for an introduction? Honestly, I thought this picture could serve as a great intro to our backgrounds, because it touches on a few key things that are related to who we are, specifically Daniel: 1. Daniel (my husband) was born and raised (his whole life) in Australia. He just recently moved to America to pursue missionary training to Papua New Guinea (just above Australia). 2. Similar in quite a few ways to the Aboriginal people of Australia, our plan (Lord willing) is to end up in an unreached tribe one day that has NEVER heard the Gospel. 3. Just like this little blurb mentions the Greek translation of the Bible, right now Daniel is studying in seminary (on break for the summer) so that he can be equipped to translate the Bible into a tribal language (we have both already taken some Greek). Back to Jerusalem!Why did I include this magazine? I wanted to share a little more about my background too, and looking at this magazine brought up many memories for me that I want to briefly share: 1. I took an amazing trip to Israel in 2019. In Bible college, I had been planning to be a missionary to Israel; I was even in contact frequently with an organization I wanted to go with. 2. Similar to the people of Israel before the time of Christ, I learned after I went to Israel that people of the land that Christ walked in are not as unreached as the people of Papua New Guinea. They have the Scripture in their language, and they have some churches, but the unreached in Papua New Guinea have nothing. That’s what made me originally think PNG over Israel would be more “needful” (in biblical terms, Rom. 15:20-21), though I still love the people, culture, and language in Israel. 3. Just like Greek, Daniel and I both have learned some Hebrew, which will also aid in Bible translation. Botanical hideouts and art!That’s why we’re in Phoenix, because the missionary training is here that could help us greatly in an endeavor to go to the unreached in Papua New Guinea! Of all these pictures, I think the little hideout (the one with Daniel and Taliah in it…if you look close) is the coolest. Did you know that people used to live in huts like these? It’s not quite like that in Papua New Guinea, but it’s interesting to learn about “off the grid” living (though it’s not really exciting to me, it’s worth anything to see the people of PNG have the Gospel in their own tongue). Something else related to Papua New Guinea... An Aussie education!Another aspect of living in Papua New Guinea would include homeschooling! Though I can’t be sure what I’m going to use for Taliah yet, the idea of using a curriculum that’s Christian, but also Australian based, is very appealing to me, because I want our daughter to be able to learn about people groups all around the world versus having an American-centric education. Living in America for however long we’re here will give Taliah the American perspective that I think will benefit her, if it’s balanced with Australian curriculum, living in Papua New Guinea, visiting Australia, etc.! The most important part about her education, however, is that the Gospel is in the center, not the Republican, American-dream centered “gospel”, but the true Gospel of the Hebrew-and-Greek written true Bible! This is a really good, relevant documentary if you’re interested in what I mean by the American Gospel: American Gospel movie link (free hour long YouTube verison): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocHm18wUAGU I love this...This is kind of random, but I just had to include this notepad, because I love what it says so much! As Christians, we need to have this mindset: get it done! Progress for God’s kingdom! (In a loving, Christian way:) attack!! I just want to encourage you to not be concerned with the things of this world. Think every day, is what I’m doing going to impact eternity? If not, why are you doing it? Now get out there, share the Gospel, and spend quality time with your spouse and children! Fun time with her father!I love these pictures! It’s so amazing to be able to spend time as a family, still studying and sharing the Gospel, but having more time together because of Daniel’s break. Doesn’t Taliah look excited? She is very active, and she loves being around lots of people, which is such a blessing! Because… Various meanings of the word "your neighbor" in other languages...…in the tribe, where we would potentially be translating the Bible, has lots of tribal people who will most likely want to be around you all the time! I got this picture from a Bible Translations Instagram post (they also did the kangaroo pic above). I really like how they illustrate Bible translation. I’ve brought it up before, but please remember at all times that there are more people groups WITHOUT Scripture in their language than those that do. Let that sink in. ISRAEL!I wanted to share a little more about my time in Israel that I mentioned above. Mainly, what I wanted to get across for is that the Gospel didn’t originally come to the American people (contrary to concepts within Mormonism). The Gospel was originally spread through-out the Jewish populations to the Gentiles (everyone else). This flies in the face of the idea that American church is the “Christian church”, as if it was the ground that Jesus walked on. That’s why we want to teach Taliah about different cultures. Fun exploration!Here’s an example! Though obviously these pictures were taken in America, as Taliah gets older, I want to teach her about different fish, fruit, and mammals in other countries. Daniel is VERY helpful in this endeavor because he teaches me new Australian names for things I’ve never heard before! Sometimes he even mentions fruit, animals, etc. that I’ve never heard of, and I always laugh about it! So, even more than I’m excited to teach new things to Taliah, I can’t wait to see how much she learns from her Australian father! How close is Australia to Papua New Guinea?If you notice in these pictures, Australia is located in the section of books that includes New Zealand and Indonesia. Well…Papua New Guinea is even closer to Australia than Indonesia! And New Zealand (where our favorite evangelist, Ray Comfort, is from), is very close as well! Why am I bringing that up? Because Daniel knows WAY more about Papua New Guinea than I do, and probably much more than the average American, which is so encouraging! But this is not encouraging… Not the Message!I just wanted to comment here on the “Message” paraphrase. I would not call it a translation. I would call it a paraphrase that’s inaccurate in many ways. You can comment below if you want more information. It’s just important, with all our English versions of the Bible, to make sure we’re using a translation that’s accurate to the original manuscripts in Hebrew and Greek. That’s what we want to do, create an accurate translation of the Bible into a tribal language. But until then, we plan to make the most of our time in Phoenix, and share the Gospel, because we aren’t promised tomorrow. Loving the water in the summer...Taliah loves the water! It’s so fun to be able to beat the heat in the cool water of our local parks. People flock there in the summer, too, so it serves as a Gospel opportunity as well. I love watching her get excited about the water! It’s also encouraging to see her watch me give out tracts, because then sometimes she wants a tract for herself! Super interesting...This is that same organization I mentioned above. I included this post because I think it serves the theme of this blog very well. Can you imagine what it will be like to meet the Lord of Heaven and earth? Could anyone ever comprehend the weight of what God was communicating to us here in the Gospels? Soon, we won’t be American and Australian, Aboriginal and African, but all believers will be one “country” of the Lord together. Super bad...This is an example of the battle that Christians should recognize that we’re in every day. This booth is not innocent, it’s directly anti-god. Palm readings are not acceptable, and the only “spiritual energy” that is of God is directly from the Word of God, and that’s clearly not what this is talking about. Why include this in the blog? To remind you that we are in a spiritual battle. We need a plan of attack! That plan should be bathed in and fully dependent on prayer, not our plans. Enjoyment of the park!So, while you’re enjoying your life, will you ponder the unreached? Will you consider sharing the Gospel? What would it take for you to get some Gospel tracts and start using them? How can you share the Gospel regularly in your context? Think about the depths of the Gospel, and don’t sit in a “padded church pew” (as Ray Comfort would say), as the world around you sinks to Hell. The urgency of the message.Interested in helping us spread the Gospel to the unreached? Donations go to help us with our studies.
Finisterre Website: www.finisterremission.org/donate/
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What's new in our lives in 2022?Family time in Gilbert!Hope your new year is going well! It's so crazy how time flies - and it's so precious!! This year, we want to redeem the time for the sake of the Gospel, and we've had some encouraging times so far! If this is your first blog post you've read, my name is Sarah Bruce, my husband is Daniel, our daughter is Taliah, and we plan to be missionaries to Papua New Guinea! Currently, we live in Phoenix, AZ. My husband is going through seminary training in order to be ready for the mission field. These pictures above show us in a town close to downtown Phoenix, called Gilbert. What do we want to spend our time on?This is Taliah at the park! We have had many opportunities to share the Gospel at the park, which is such a blessing! It's so nice to live in a place where you can basically go outside all year round, and you can usually find someone to talk with about what really matters - that's what we want to get busy spending our time doing, because we are not promised tomorrow! Here's a highlight of a conversation I had: While at the park, I saw a lady sitting by herself. Out of respect for her I’d rather not share her name. She was crying through most of the conversation because she said she was convicted over her sin of drug use. She said she had been clean for five years until last Thanksgiving, then having a few drinks opened her up to other things. Because she had been heavily involved in her church, individuals from her church had been reaching out, but she had felt too ashamed to answer them. So, I encouraged her to get back into church, to get into the Bible, and to make sure she is right with God, pointing her to various resources. We also talked through parts of 1 John, and I encouraged her to read it. She seemed genuinely encouraged and challenged to have someone to talk to, and she thanked me for listening to her, asking me more questions about my church and what I do. Please keep her in prayer. If it helps to use a name to pray for her, you could call her by her first initial: P. Thanks for joining me in prayer!! What is our plan (Lord willing) in Papua New Guinea?Our goal is to share the Gospel with the unreached. 49 people groups in the Finisterre Mountains of Papua New Guinea have NO Scripture in their language, no church, no pastor, and no one to share the Gospel with them. All of those groups have different languages that aren't written down yet, so they have no access to understanding the Word of God. What we want to do is "finish the Great Commission" in at least one of those people groups, working with them so that they can have their own alphabet, written language, Bible, and self-sustaining church. People are dying - it's time to act! Starting the hard-core studies!Here is a picture of my husband, working hard on some studies for seminary. Daniel was studying for one of his classes in this picture. The Christmas break was nice, but now it's time to get back into the books! Last semester, Daniel had five classes, and one other class that was for half of the semester, and it wasn't for credit. Now, Daniel has six classes, and he's doing so well managing all of them so far! I'm so proud of him! But what about Taliah...? Taliah's adventures - notice her outfit!!Because the bottom part might be hard to read, Taliah's outfit says... "FullyFreeFilms.com FREE ONLINE MOVIES!! Ask my parents for a free movie gift card! (Living Waters logo)" So...I don't need to tell you about it...you can go check it out yourself! :) Living Waters Free Movies link: www.livingwaters.com/movies/? Some of the other pictures I included show some stops we took on our trip last month, along with some local places. So thankful for fun travel! JUST SO YOU KNOW - THIS IS WRONGOkay, it's time to rant. This is a pamphlet I received from a local missions conference. It looks nice, and I appreciate what this ministry (naming the ministry is not important) is trying to do, but it is not factually accurate when it comes to Papua New Guinea. If you're not sure what you're looking at, what I'm saying is inaccurate is what this map shows about Papua New Guinea, which is the country all the way to the right in pink. This map shows a cross, meaning that PNG is "Christian" already. No. Here's why some people think that: Specifically in the 1940's, Lutherans (and Catholics; the Lutherans were extremely similar to the Catholics) came to PNG to spread their catechisms and baptisms, but they did NOT share the true Gospel. If you were to ask a tribal person what the Gospel is, they might know about someone named Jesus, but they don't know that they need to put away their practices of worshipping other gods. The Lutherans didn't start by teaching them the foundation of Creation, understanding their own sin (lying, stealing, etc.) and their need for a Savior, they just taught them rituals, like they were already doing, when the tribal people probably still went away thinking that Jesus lives on a nearby mountain. The number of the unreached is far worse than this map explains. Someone may have told the people of PNG that God loves them, but they are still going to Hell without access to the true Gospel. Some final pictures of our travels!In our last blog, I explained some of our travels we went on for the month of December, but I never finished telling about our way back because our trips went almost into the new year! So - here's the rest of the pictures I have! Find the God Puzzles (little booklets that have the Gospel in them) in the bottom six pictures! In one of them you can only see the author's name (just barely). The top three pictures show a floor map of Route 66, and the images under those show a nice shop we stopped at on Route 66. But now we are back home (this "Bible wall" below is at our church)... Taliah!She has been growing so much! I know she'll be walking soon!! It's been such a joy to parent her - I can't believe how fast she's growing! She loved the travel, and did great in the car on the trip. We want her to be used to travel... ...because this is what's on our hearts!!Rom. 15:20 was a verse that helped me understand the need for going to the unreached. If you can see the information in the corner of this poster, you can see that out of 17,013 people groups in the world, 7,076 are still unreached. Roughly 7,000 people groups still have no Scripture in their distinct language, no church, and no way to hear the truth of the Gospel before they die and face a just God who must punish their sins in Hell because He is holy. Why aren't more people going to them? I'll let this passage speak for itself: Rom. 15:18-21: "For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and all around as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And in this way I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already known by name, so that I would not build on another person’s foundation; but just as it is written: 'They who have not been told about Him will see, And they who have not heard will understand.' " Can you find the Gospel tract?Because we have a translation of the Bible given to us in America, Daniel and I want to share the truth of the Word of God as much as possible with the many resources He has given us. That's why we use Gospel tracts! This tracts are comics which share the Gospel from Living Waters. They're really cool, and you can actually read them on their website. Check them out! Living Waters Comic Tracts Link: store.livingwaters.com/gospel-tracts/comic.html Soon she will be able to read comics!Here's Taliah playing again! She loves being active! This is her playing on a friend's mini piano, and then some other pictures of her playing at the park. I can't wait until she's old enough to read! Maybe she can make pamphlets that are accurate about PNG - because I found another one that is wrong!! Another missions map...This one is a little bit better, but it's still not accurate. It might be hard to see, but Papua New Guinea on this map is listed as "0-9" least reached people groups, which makes it look like PNG is more reached than America, which has "50-99" unreached groups! I want to commend missions organizations for even attempting to make maps like this, and I really do appreciate what they're doing, as long as they're preaching the true Gospel, but I just want to point out that there's really more need than what people are saying out there. More people need to go to the least reached, and one of the least reached places is PNG. 49 groups in the Finisterre Mountain range alone (a range so small I couldn't show it to you well on this map) have no Gospel. Yet...what are Christians today focused on...? Art?Take a moment and try to figure out what this is. Did you guess? It's the Ten Commandments. On the one hand, I think this is kind of cool, on the other hand, I wonder why we spend our time doing fancy things like this when over 7,000 people groups don't have ANY access to truths like the Ten Commandments. Also, how many people walk by this every day without thinking about what it means? If you are willing, take the time to go through the commandments yourself! I'll provide them below in case you can't see them very well. " 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of [a]slavery.'You shall have no other gods before Me. 'You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. For six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your cattle, or your resident who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 'Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be prolonged on the land which the Lord your God gives you. 'You shall not murder. 'You shall not commit adultery. 'You shall not steal. 'You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 'You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male slave, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.' " Just one more last memory of our trip...I mentioned in the last blog about visiting the MTC (the missionary training center for Ethnos360, where I went to college). These pictures look like they are from the MTC, but I took these photos at my friend's house. Please read the posters - they are really convicting and helpful! It was so great to see old friends, including my friend Renee on the way back, and my friend Emily, who I met through doing Living Waters evangelism in California. But we are glad to be back... ...until we end up at one of these places!Can you guess what these flags are? The one on the left is the Australian flag, and the one on the right is the flag of Papua New Guinea. If you don't know where these places are, check out one of the map pictures I included in this blog. Papua New Guinea is just above Australia! Daniel was born and raised so close to Papua New Guinea, that it's crazy to think he travelled across the world so he could share the Gospel to the unreached! So how is he doing that? Studies!I included these pictures to show how hard Daniel studies for seminary! He's doing so well!! The picture on the right shows an image Daniel showed me in one of his textbooks, and I thought it was pretty funny. I wish all his books had funny illustrations like this one does. But I think someone else is almost ready for picture books... The library!Taliah is almost ready for picture books! It's so fun to watch her grow. The library is such a great place to go, because Taliah can learn, Daniel can study, and we can try to share the Gospel through talking to other parents and putting tracts in books. So thankful for Phoenix library! I wonder if this place has libraries... ...guess where this is...This is Madang! Madang is the town in Papua New Guinea we plan to go to before we get into the tribe. I thought it would be helpful to put an image to the work we plan to do! Please pray for Madang, and pray for the unreached people groups of Papua New Guinea! The region we are planning to work with specifically is having serious problems with gang groups, so please keep that in prayer... ...as we prepare... Greek class!While Daniel is studying Hebrew, I've been studying along with him in Hebrew, but also taking this Greek class! It has been a great class to be part of. The class is specifically great because it's over Zoom, so I can participate with Taliah (and she loves it). Language training (Lord willing) will really help us in PNG. So would you consider helping us too? Any donations at this time go to help fund Daniel’s studies at seminary:
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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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