Hello from Christchurch. We have finished our North Island tour and now we are starting the South Island part! God has been so faithful!!!
SEE THE BOTTOM OF THE EMAIL FOR OUR GUITAR MIRACLE STORY!!!!....God is SO faithful.... thankyou to those of you who have been praying and given toward our guitars. We hope you are encouraged by Gods faithfulness in this story. He is our loving father
- See attached photo of Kaden at the Parachute music festival with his protective head phones to keep the loud music out!!!!! Jericho did some art on them to make them cool!!!
Here is a brief outline of what we have been up to!
* - Chinese Church in Auckland. - We were so blessed to be working with this church and we had a combined Chinese church gathering. This was the first time they had done a youth event combining the youth groups and inviting others. - God really came and 2 people raised there hands to accept Christ ( they then went with some leaders to go and pray and talk in their own language). Then we had a great time of worship and God really broke through. By the end of the night we had them jumping in a song to God!! It was just great to see some freedom in worship as it was quite a conservative church. We had great conversations with people afterwards and just loved working with the Chinese churches!! I think there is more to come in the future.
* - Kaden is a TEETHING machine!!!! - Oh man... I have been so stretched on this tour!! Kaden has had such random sleeping patterns since he is teething (6 teeth). I have had to call out to God for strength and energy. The lack of sleep for both dave and I is hard but MAN God has been SO faithful and SO incredible to still move through our weakness. Please pray for energy and for Kadens teeth!!
* - WELLINGTON - we all just loved this city!! this was our busiest time! ( Steve.. I met one of your roommates, will - I think that was his name!!... he has dreds... he said to say hi!!)
Thur - Tawa Highschool - lunch time outreach concert and a fashion show walk thing! Very cool to connect with kids and invite them to the evening concert.
Thur night - Primal Youth Church - Great night... Time of worship was cool.... people really laying things down before God.
* -Fri - Wellington Girls College - Lunch time concert-fashion show - SO cool.... this is a huge girls highschool and we got to play for about 500 at least. They really responded to the music and we had some great talks after the concert.
* -Fri night - ZEAL CAFE - we played with 2 other bands in a cafe setting. This is an outreach cafe that builds relationships with people. It was great to meet the other bands and encourage them.
*- Saturday night - Blueprint Church - This church is a church plant of "THE ROCK" church. Awesome vision. This church was a cafe setting and is really growing so much. they focus alot on the arts and building relationships with mostly college aged people. -
* - Sunday morning - THE ROCK - We just love this church... God has lead us here now our 3rd time! They are growing so much and God is doing great things here. - The band played one song and then I spoke on a topic in a series they are doing called" How to Make good choices" It was a great topic to think about and pray into.
God was so faithful even in my complete exhaustion from being up with Kaden!! We had a prayer time and worship time at the end and alot of people responded for prayer and we heard later that a man around his 40's who was visiting his brother at the church accepted Christ at the end! So thats always exciting... Parties in Heaven!!
The Rock church also was so generous in giving us a van to use for free in our time in wellington.
* - Sunday night - THE STREET church - dave and I were at this church 4 and a half years ago on our very first tour and OH MAN has it grown since then. it is just awesome to see.... such solid leadership and loving people. This night was just so fully led by the Holy spirit. - The message was on faith and stepping out in dreams and visions and at the end we had a time of worship and response. God just started moving and touching people. It was a time when even our band just felt so lost in the presence of God in worship.
* - Ferry crossing to the South Island - Our drummer Tim had a idea to get us a free ferry crossing so he kept calling and got our band a free ferry crossing (saving us hundreds of dollars!!). We played in the ship's bar area for an hour or the three hour boat trip and even sold a few cd's. It was fun... no sound gear... just acoustic but very fun! God is so good!
* - Elim youth group - Good night.... small group but we had some great talks with kids at the end.
* - Timaru - New LIfe Church - combined youth groups - It was so great to visit this same group for the 2nd time... its always great to reconnect with the same kids and encourage them. This was a really cool night .. dave shared his testimony and an awesome challege..... he has such great humor when he speaks!! We ended with a powerful time of worship at the end and response. We had so much fun worshiping God and jumping and dancing before him!!
* Waimate - Combined Town event - This was our second time in this small town and once again God was stirring. It seemed just like last time there was such spiritual warefare going on all day..... our van broke down - smoking. funny noises etc...
We went to the highschool and played at lunch time inviting the kids to the night service. Kaden had a really hard day of teething and so Kate stayed with him at a house that night during the program. As the night approached we just kept praying.... We had a range of age's though mostly this time quite young... like early teens and some late. During all the band songs it was so distracting and people coming in and out for a smoke outside etc. kids were into the music at the front dancing...which was good. As I was speaking and telling the gospel it was still alot of distractions but those listening were really listening. 10 kids accepted Christ!! 8 of them were not from any Christian background. We are now following them up and the churches are too.
The next day we baptised 3 kids down at the "COLD" river! Dave and I wore wet suits and it was such a privilage to baptise 2 girls and 1 guy. It was a great time.
* - SUMNER ANGLICAN CHRUCH - On sunday night we took the service here. This church has so loved us and supported us... We have practiced here alot!! its my parents church. It was a great night and a really awesome time of worship.. really free and great to see breakthrough in that.
* - SPECIAL NEEDS SERVICE - Last night we took a service for people who have various problems physically or mentally. It was such an honor to be here and we dedicated the service to our friend Kate Burrell who died almost a year ago. She was an inspiration to us and we took this service last time here with her with us, so it was very special. I shared on how Kates life had affected us and on her favorite Psalm - Psalm 23. The presence of God is so in that place! When they worship ( almost everyone has differnent instruments) its so free and real.
We leave tomorrow for Grey Mouth... a little town on the West Coast. We love going here and this will be our 3rd time with this group.
WE appreciate your prayers SO MUCH! Please continue to lift our group up and the youth here in N.Z. We have 2 weeks left....
Love in Christ....
Dave, Natalie and Kaden Bruce
DAVE'S GUITAR MIRACLE
By David Bruce....
Let me just start by saying there are about 6 people in New Zealand that are left handed guitarist which has made it quite difficult to find a guitar. So we were working with the a Chinese church in Auckland where we did a the worship workshop and a concert. Which was a great experience! They have never had a drum kit in their Church so you can imagine they were a little apprehensive having us. However, the night was a success…a couple of young boys received Christ, and they were so excited about the night and the worship that leaders met and they are going to purchase music gear to start worship teams in the church. They want us to come back and they will want to do a large outreach to the Chinese community in New Zealand which is around 120,000.
Anyhow, I found a guitar online through trademe (Ebay) The guy happened to live 10 minutes from where we were staying with the church. So I drove over to his house to check out the Guitar. His wife starts asking us all theses questions and it comes out that we work under Youth With A Mission. She happened to be a counsleor and runs a ministry at their house. Anyhow, to make a long story short He said, “I feel like the Lord wants me to give you this guitar.” Well I just about cried. actually the truth be told I did a bit. Nat and I have been having few rough days with the hectic schedule and lack of sleep because Kaden has 6 teeth coming in at 6 months old and he has been up alot at night and demanding because of the pain. The guitar was just God’s encouragment at the right time that we are not crazy! It is a beautiful Maton guitar. He paid $2000 for it so it is a very nice quality guitar. Plus he gave us an amp, guitar leads which we needed, and a guitar bag. God is so faithful!
It keeps going! So we had this big older amp that we didn’t need so went to a pawn shop thinking we would be lucky if we could get $150. The guy said nope sorry don’t need it! So we were leaving and as were leaving the owner comes running out to the car and He starts chatting about it. He said well what do you need. I told him I need a floor guitar tuner….(which consequently run about $150) he said “Well I have one at my wharehouse I can get it to you tomorrow.” I said well we are going to church in the morning and heading out of Auckland. He said “Oh yeah which one” and “I said CLCA”….He said “oh that’s my Church.” So we made the exchange at church the next morning and then he invited us to have lunch at his house and then he gave us a bunch of guitar strings and some other equipment for the road. In a Country that is 4 % Christian that is a Miracle to meet 2 out of the blue that blessed us greatly. It is really cool to see How God is teaching us through this time.
NATALIE'S GUITAR -
by Natalie bruce..
The very next day after Dave got given a guitar!! dave saw on Trademe(ebay) the exact same guitar as the one that had been given to him... just a lighter color. He made a bid on it and we got an incredible deal... a 2000 dollar guitar for $900 dollars including a $300 dollar flight case! and a tuner! So basically the guitar was about $600 dollars. He surprised me and got it and brought it up to me yesterday as I was sitting on the couch. He said "try playing it".... I said. " its a left handed one, I can't!" He said "oh I changed the strings around"... then as I was playin it I realized it was a different guitar... it TOTALLY surprised me and I LOVE IT! It has a rich sound and compares with my old one. I loved my old guitar so its amazing that I like this one. We are very thankful! THANKYOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE SENT DONATIONS TO US TO HELP PURCHASE THIS GUITAR!! Obviously God knows our needs and desires... and ultimatly He is our provider in this crazy existence we live in.
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