Pastor's Corner
Each month one of our pastor's will be writing a book review to highlight a book that has impacted them.
February Book Review
Bruchko by Bruce Olson
We have been challenged to read a missionary biography by the end of March. I recommend "Bruchko" by Bruce Olson. It is a powerful and astonishing true story of Bruce's own life - that as a nineteen year old was captured by the Stone-Age Motiline Indians in the remote jungles of South America. As Bruce lived out his faith in Christ Jesus among them, the good news of the gospel reached their hearts.
The setting of the story is in the early 1960's and is all about how the message of Christ's forgiveness came to his own heart as a teenager, and how it lead to many personal challenges with friends and family, but through it all Bruce felt God's call upon his life to take the gospel to South America. With no formal training, having been turned down by Missionary Sending Agencies, Bruce felt the unmistakeable call of God to go anyways. The story converges in a time when the Motolines never allowed a white man to be among them long enough to live and tell about it. Through it all, Bruce survived being among them, and more than just survived he became their friend and supported them through the chaos and corruption that threatened their identity and culture.
Bruchko is a missionary classic of how one young man, called of God, reached an Unreached People Group with the gospel of Jesus Christ. As you read the story it will amaze you to see God's general revelation among them (Romans 1:20). Using their legends and stories, he took what was familiar to them and bridged what was unfamiliar to them - the message of Christ. Their response to the gospel will remind you that with God all things are possible. It is a must read!
"For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Romans 10:13-15 (NIV)
Pastor Mark Bergen