Fall evangelism before Reformation Day!!Welcome to our blog! As we pray for this fall and this coming Reformation Day, we have been so thankful for the many evangelism opportunities we have been blessed with, including some fall festival evangelism we have been blessed with, as shown above. Wherever we go, we want to be intentional about sharing the Gospel faithfully, as we were blessed to do at a pumpkin patch (as shown above). We also shared the Gospel at a kids event with some “trick millions”, and dog-themed tract. I thought Taliah’s outfit would be helpful in starting conversations because of the tract themes. And…it did! It went sooo well! Daniel was also blessed with the opportunity of preaching again at our church! He is such a gifted speaker - listen and be convicted: 3 Evidences of the Spirit’s Work in Believers by Daniel Bruce: https://youtu.be/1A3CAE1xUVg Though people celebrate evil this month, we can remember the Gospel, that Jesus Christ has already won the battle, and share the Gospel boldly to a world that is dying. Tribal-looking masks…If this is your first blog: we are missionaries in training to Papua New Guinea! Daniel is from Australia (which is just below Papua New Guinea), and I’m from Detroit; we met through missionary training and ended up in Phoenix! Our goal, Lord willing, is to establish a self-sustaining church in the unreached people groups of Papua New Guinea. This means we plan to learn their language and culture, teach them the Bible from the beginning, pointing to the hope of the Gospel after we explain to them God’s character through His law (and our sinfulness in comparison), and then we want to translate the Bible into their language and help them plant their own church! That’s why Daniel is in seminary right now, I’m taking college classes, and why I’m preparing to homeschool! On top of that, local evangelism is very important to us, because we never know when we’ll take our last breath. Banana man.If you look at any previous blogs, you’ll probably notice that we mention a ministry called Living Waters often. This ministry, started by Ray Comfort (known as the Banana Man in some circles), has been very influential in both Daniel and I’s testimonies. (If you want to know the Banana Man story, please see this link: The Fool (Ray Comfort) Movie link: youtu.be/hlCc_TA7gw8.) A major point their ministry makes that we strongly believe in is their use of the Ten Commandments in evangelism, which is used to personalize sin so as to show people their need for Christ. So, in honor of Reformation Day later this month, through-out this blog I’ll go through and highlight the Ten Commandments, relating them to the pictures I have, and pointing it all back to Christ. I’ll also share some seminary updates and more information about missions. Take a break from looking at the more frequently on display ungodliness this month and celebrate salvation by faith alone as you read through this! Taliah in a giant bath!Phoenix definitely has some interesting places to play! It’s exciting to watch Taliah play and have Gospel opportunities at such places! Turning anything into an analogy to help people relate to and understand the Gospel is always helpful. I’m still learning how to do that well, but I can give some examples here! Have you ever wanted anything that isn’t yours? Maybe you wanted a bigger bathtub, or some glittery CD’s? That’s called coveting, the tenth of the Ten Commandments. What about lying? I’m sure you’ve lied before, but can you even conceive of how many lies you’ve told in your entire life? Maybe your lies have been connected to your coveting. Can you think of examples? Keep this in mind as we continue. More commandments to come…after more missionary info! More about missions!This Bible (from our church library) is written in Hawaiian Pidgin, an interesting language that relates to the trade language spoken in Papua New Guinea. Though it’s different than what is spoken in Papua New Guinea, this language started in PNG as a Dutch settler language, but it soon became a popular trade language for the country. Still, many tribes speak other, harder to learn languages, and they don’t have the Bible in their heart language. Pidgin doesn’t always bridge the gap for them, and they are in need of the Bible in a language they can fully understand. That’s one significant need of Papua New Guinea. Seminary classes!Like this New Testament timeline, our timeline right now involves Daniel’s second year of his four year seminary program. His classes right now include: (1) an English course, (2) a church history class, (3) Hebrew, (4) Greek, (5) a preaching lab, (6) an apologetics course, (7) and a pastoral leadership class! That means he’s busy, but he still makes time for quality time with us, evangelism, countless church activities, work, and much more! I’m so proud of him, and I’m so excited that he’s already done with year one! I’ll highlight his favorite class if you keep reading! Taliah at the park!If you see the little pictures directly above this text, you’ll find Taliah touching a statue of a child’s foot (far left), and then (on the far right) her looking up at the child to see if there was any reaction. Is something a sin if others react to it, or is it still a sin if no one knows about it? Have you ever stolen anything? This can include something from a sibling, time from your boss, or downloading illegal music. It doesn’t matter if you were caught or not - God looks at the heart. You might not not ever committed adultery, but Jesus says if you look at another person to lust, you’ve committed adultery in your heart (Matthew 5:27-28). That’s pretty serious. Can you handle more? Let’s see if you can keep going after more on missions! Cultural trinkets.In Papua New Guinea, stuff is very much valued. Idolatry of stuff is everywhere, just like it is in America. It’s so important that tribal people know that animate objects are just that - animate. Due to a belief in animism, many tribal groups believe everything has a spirit, which can make for some messed up spiritual traditions/practices. This is another reason Papua New Guinea needs the Gospel desperately! Can you spot the Gospel tract in the above picture? Daniel’s favorite class:Church history! Daniel specifically told me he likes church history the most because he hadn’t studied it much before. Something that he’s learned that he’s told me is interesting is the rise of Catholicism through Constantine, and how the mixing of church and state started all the way back then. More reasons to be thankful for the Reformation! I’ll explain more about my classes soon! Taliah learning various things; then looking at Gospel booklets!When you look at life, especially life that’s so young and precious, it’s hard to think that anyone could ever murder someone else. Yet, that’s where each of us would be without the restraining power of God upon humanity, due to our sinful nature. You might think you’re still pretty good because you’ve never murdered anyone, but Jesus says if you hate someone, you’re guilty of murder in your heart (Matthew 5:21,22). Let that sink in before you read this next one. What child perfectly obeys their parents? No child does. If someone says they have perfectly obeyed their parents, I would encourage them to go look at the commandment above about lying! That’s why it’s so important as parents to teach children from the start the things of God, because it’s their sinful nature to sin from the beginning! Australian items!We found some awesome Australian items at this store, which was really exciting for Daniel and I! It’s always important for me to remember that Daniel is from the other side of the world, near Papua New Guinea, because there are many cultural differences! Though Australia is considered “Westernized”, they follow the metric system, they have climates that are much more similar to Papua New Guinea than America, they have more PNG natives in their population, and they have their own words for many things that most Americans wouldn’t understand! What’s a “boot” and a “bonnet”? What’s an “indicator”, or a “pram”? You’ll have to ask Daniel to find out… I could go on… My favorite class!When I’m not putting Gospel tracts in random places (find the two tracts above), I have been enjoying my five classes: (1) Hebrew, (2) Scripture and God, (3) Man and Sin, (4) a historical eschatology class, (5) and an English course. I like all my classes for various reasons, but I’ll highlight my favorite (and second and third favorites) soon! It’s been really fun to be in Hebrew when Daniel is in Hebrew, and to have an English course when he has one too! Now, back to evangelism! Foam fun, then evangelism!We are blessed with so much in this life! So many freedoms, activities, etc. can be taken for granted. Why can’t we set aside one day for the Lord? Have you set aside time to rest in Jesus Christ, as the fourth commandment implies? Take a look at the middle, smaller picture above. The tract Daniel has says “Mad as Hell”. Though you could be offended by the language of that tract, the purpose of it is to explain what’s wrong with being angry, ungodly people who make jokes about places like Hell. Hell is not a joke, and you can’t avoid Hell by living a good life. That’s why it’s important to give the Gospel to the unreached, as I explain below. The importance of literacy!Can you imagine not being able to read or write in your own language? It would be such a hardship to not have that luxury, yet we take it for granted. One thing that’s important to us in tribal missions is that tribal people should be taught to read and write in their own language, so they can read the Bible for themselves. This concept reminds me of the Reformation, because before the printing press, people were left listening to the priest without Bibles in their hands… …but we believe everyone should have a chance to read God’s Word for themselves! This is not my favorite class…The reason I chose this photo for my favorite class is because it shows WHY I like the class: it has a biblical worldview that stands in the way of idolatry, like shown above. My favorite class right now is Man and Sin. This class includes discussion posts that I have with my professor and other students, so that I can have conversations regarding issues of man and sin with others. Besides that, Scripture and God has a similar layout to Man and Sin, so that’s been a favorite as well. Hebrew is also really exciting to me. I love the language, it’s so interesting to me, and it’s been so fun to learn it! Back to Taliah! Can you stand under the weight of these serious commandments?The second commandment has to do with making idols, as I have mentioned through-out this post. Do you believe in the Lord revealed through Scripture, or have you made a god to suit yourself? The first commandment addresses having other gods before God. Have you always put God first in your life, above everything else, loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Every idle thought, wasted resource, and lack of proper time management is a sin against the Creator of everything. So…what can you do? Get baptized? Do good works? Pay money to a church? None of that dismisses your case before a holy God because you are guilty. Keep reading to understand further… Teaching through the BibleA major aspect of tribal ministry is teaching through the Bible. This book from our church library reminded me of that process! It’s so important to start from the beginning, because without the beginning, you can’t fully understand the end! You can’t appreciate the good news until you understand the bad news, as Charles Spurgeon has said. That’s why serious Bible ministry is so crucial! Taliah’s favorite class!Just kidding! Taliah isn’t in class yet, but I’m so excited to homeschool her!! It’s so fun to teach her new things every day and to watch her grow! So thankful for her and Daniel! It’s crazy to think that soon Daniel will be out of school and Taliah will be in it! A Gospel focus!No matter what we do, it should be Gospel focused. Whether it’s going out to specifically evangelize, going to a fun place packed with Gospel tracts, or going to the store with thoughts of talking to the cashier about Christ, we all need saving. We are all guilty, and we can’t do any good to save ourselves. Someone sinless, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, has to come pay our debt for us. That’s exactly what He did over 2,000 years ago on the cross through His perfect life, death, and resurrection, and that’s why we know we can be saved through faith alone, through Christ alone, apart from our works (Titus 3:5). More languages in the world don’t have access to this truth than those that do. 1 in 3 people are still considered unreached. 2,000+ years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the body of Christ has not fulfilled their mission that they were commanded to: they have not gone to the ends of the earth and they have not shared the Gospel to every creature yet. Does that bother you? Is your conscience urging you to do something for the sake of the Gospel? Please seriously consider this, and feel free to comment below! Want to support us or find out how you can go the mission field yourself?
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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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