Special blog update!!We went to the Radius missions’ conference!Radius is a missionary training organization - and they had a big conference out in LA! We were so glad to be able to go! The mission that we are wanting to go to Papua New Guinea with (as you can see from the pictures above) presented with a booth at the conference, which was really exciting for us! The entire time was fun fellowship with others from the same mission (who are all from our church), great connections with new faces (who are now new friends), very encouraging conversations with like-minded believers connected with Radius who are thinking of going on the mission field as well, and a great time with an old college roommate of mine - Holly! Though the connections with others who are wanting to go give the Gospel to the unreached were the most encouraging, I wanted to use this blog to highlight some of the helpful insights from the speakers, as well as explain the rest of our trip! Also, take at close look at our (FinisTerre) missions’ booth! It’s full of super important information!! And when you’re finished with that, please check out this quick audio recording of Daniel’s summary of the trip. He gave this update at small group and I promise it’s worth listening to!! It’s like listening to this blog but just worded better in an Australian accent! ;) Radius Conference Update Audio: radius_update.m4a Brooks Buser and Costi HinnThe beginning of the conference started with Daniel and I’s favorite speaker of the entire conference: Brooks Buser. A highlight from his message was that he explained the horrible, puzzling statistic that the more education a perspective missionary is given, the more perspective missionaries falls away from going into missions. The question is…what could be more important than reaching those that are unreached? Is a nice, stateside pastoral position more appealing? I’m sure it is…but that doesn’t matter. What matters is giving the Gospel where the need is the most. Daniel had a good insight to the effect of “if someone is not willing to go themselves then they are not ready to send”. I thought that was a great point as well. The pics above also show Costi Hinn speaking, a cool live version of a missionary podcast, a ministry in Mexico called Caravan, and a cool sign inviting you into the bookstore! Wayne ChenDon’t let the sleeping child deceive you! The sessions we heard by Wayne Chen were incredible! An impactful story he told was of how 1/3 of the tribal people in Papua New Guinea stopped coming to hear his teaching, never coming back, when the law (the Ten Commandments) was expounded as a means to show people their inability to get right with God. The truth of our sinful state before the Lord as seen through our lying, stealing, and sinful thoughts (etc.) should convict us enough to want to leave… …but the truth of the Gospel is worth the pain of going through the Law! Ian HamiltonThis speaker had an incredible message…and Scottish accent! I really wanted to hear him and Daniel talk together (and eat some Aussie Bites)…haha! But in all seriousness, a highlight from his message was that he spoke clearly about how we aren’t our own. He said…even our clothes! It was such a great reminder regarding modesty and in self-denial. You probably can’t see it super well in the pictures, but Taliah’s shirt above is about being a “future Finisterre missionary”…let’s use every opportunity we can think of to get the message out there! Chad Vegas and Aubrey SequeiraAbove is Chad Vegas, who was a guest on the aforementioned missions’ podcast. His message was great because it included a Gospel call, in the sense that he didn’t assume that even those in the room (who are at a missions’ conference at a solid church) are all saved. The Gospel, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is always essential, for believers and unbelievers! Aubrey Sequeira, the next speaker, was also incredible. His message on the honor/shame system was so helpful that I actually edited one of my college papers on “Missionary Work in Asia” because I learned so much from it! Below the big picture are additional pics that include some of the booths at the conference and part of a fun on-site playground that we visited a couple times! Niña BuserThis session was a women-only breakout session I went to, but I just had to include it here because it was soo good! Niña was soo encouraging! She spoke about how she didn’t experience some mystical “call” into the field, but she just knew that, because of the need, it would have been disobedient for her not to go. She also explained that she learned a lot about patience for those around her in the local church because it was really difficult to come back to America and have people ask all about the food or weather in Papua New Guinea, when she just wanted to talk about the Gospel! People are dying! Her perspective on balance was also very helpful. Sometimes balancing evangelism, parenting, college, a tutoring job, helping Daniel with seminary, and many other things can be a challenge, but it’s helpful to remember that I’m not alone! And this next session was even more convicting… Brad BuserI thought this (main) picture was fitting because Brad was a missionary in Papua New Guinea like the couple in this photo that are doing similar work there now in a tribe with its own language group. What was specifically convicting about Brad’s message was that he explained how you have to be willing to give up everything for missions, including your spouse and children. When he was in the village, their 18-month old almost died because they couldn’t get medical care in time for him. The tribal people were laughing as their son was dying in their arms, because they said he was already dead. They didn’t understand why he couldn’t just have another one… He told another story of a couple who had a son who had a bunch of medical issues, so much so that he had to live in a wheelchair. So, did they quit? No! The couple literally created their own “sidewalk” on the rugged terrain so that they could continue their work in the village with their son. That is commitment! Another thing Brad said was, “When God has spoken, it’s time to move.” He has spoken. The Great Commission has been given. Let’s go! John MacArthurJohn MacArthur also spoke at the conference! He said some helpful things concerning right theology and doctrine! Pictured above is MacArthur’s systematic theology in a bunch of different languages. And, you can also see some fun that Taliah had after the conference! With that said, I want to add a quick note on her before we conclude (with a surprise…keep reading)… Taliah!Just as a side comment, I wanted to highlight how much of a blessing it was to have Taliah with us on this trip! From sitting in sessions, to getting some play-time (that certainly wasn’t wasted: she made incredible friends and I had great conversations/connections through those times), to fun car activities, it’s so exciting that our little girl is growing up! Doing things as a family is incredibly important to us, so we were super excited to be able to have time together on our little trip! So…what else happened? Did we go to LA just to talk about missions? Ray Comfort?No! We went to share the Gospel! This trip was astonishingly incredible because we made a crazy amount of unexpected evangelism connections, and we found ourselves doing outreach and other events with new friends from Grace Community Church (the church of the conference) every day! From sharing the Gospel on Huntington Beach with the unexpected blessing of having a SUPER encouraging believer come with us, to unexpectedly being allowed to join in on some evangelism after church (with the encouragement of an incredible sermon on evangelism by Pastor MacArthur) with some other encouraging believers…this trip was incredible. Though there is so much I would love to share, to keep it short, I want to conclude by explaining an encouraging conversation we had at Grace Community before the outreach. When asked, we spoke of the need in Papua New Guinea. We explained that they are unreached. We shared about how tribes have been begging for missionaries for years and years. The man we were talking to basically said, “Then go now!! Why don’t you go now?!?” People are dying and going to Hell because they have no access to the Gospel. The very least we can do is do everything we can to try to get to them as soon as God allows us to. Every Christian, as we learned at the conference, needs to go or to send, because anything other than that is disobedience. Those who are sending don’t have any excuse to not share the Gospel where they are at, because time is running out. You will never get this time back. Why are you still reading this? More time is going by… Figure out now what you can do to share the Gospel now! More info about the missionary conference we went to and to hear the sessions for free, visit: radiusinternational.org/
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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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