Activate Your Life are delighted to announce that we have appointed someone to work part-time as our National Co-ordinator, taking Activate forward. Lindsay Bruce has a first class degree in Applied Theology as well as having had years of experience as a multi-media journalist and a church pastor. She lives in Birtley and is currently working for the charity ‘A Way Out’ in Stockton-On-Tees. Lindsay is a natural communicator, a gifted public speaker and impressed us with her positive, dynamic personality. She hails originally from Scotland and has two young children. Lindsay will be travelling around speaking, working to spread the message and awareness of Activate, to help with the admin and finances, as well as writing for our website, Facebook page and twitter account.
We look forward to welcoming her to the team in early March and will be able to introduce her to you all at the Weekend Away. Here is her summary paragraph from her CV…
‘A passionate preacher, journalist and advocate for freedom, my drive in life is to see people connected to God through Jesus Christ and then planted and flourishing in the House of God. As a wife and working mum,I have come to love doing life with generations of women and believe I have a mandate to empower every day girls to know their worth and value, to see them mobilised and ‘on mission’ in their daily lives.’
Let’s give Lindsay an opportunity to answer some questions…
Why do you believe in Friendship Evangelism?
Well, I think on the first count, it’s because I made a decision to become a Christian because I had met and made Christian friends. The life they lived stood up to the claims they made, so when an opportunity was given to ‘have what they had’ I took it. Secondly though, I think it’s biblical. I love being part of a church which gives people an opportunity to respond to Jesus, in every single service. I’m often the person who brings that opportunity. But I also love the fact my church encourages people to invite and bring their friends – and encourages us to ‘find our voice and tell our story’ wherever we are. Jesus left us with a command to go and make disciples, friendship evangelism is about acknowledging your own faith and believing that you can help someone else find this amazing treasure that you have, and bring them with you on this journey, just be doing life together and building a friendship, just like my friends had, which matched up to the words they said.
How did you come to believe in Jesus?
I mentioned a little bit of that already. I don’t come from a Christian family but I did make Christian friends when I started high school. This led to me going to a youth club and finding out more about this Jesus they were all going on about. The night I decided to say ‘yes – I want to be a Christian’, a lady pointed me out of the crowd and told me God wanted to use me. I stuck with my faith until the discovery of boys and moving away from home, age 18, to do my journalism training. The combination saw me walking away from God. However, on returning home, I knew I needed to sort myself out. I got back to church, served in the youth team and then one day, darting across some Scottish moors trying to get back to the office for a newspaper deadline, I had a car accident. Black ice was to blame, but I ended up flipping my car a few times before coming to rest, upside down, under water in a river. I remember praying, ‘God if you still want to use me, you need to get me out of here. Please!’ And so he did. Without a scratch. The car was a write off and my life has never been the same again.
Tell us about your family and children?
I am married to the gorgeous Nathan – 12 years this year, and we have two amazing boys called Corban, who is almost nine, and Micah who recently turned six. Nathan is an incredible speaker and teacher and together we have planted a church, grown a youth ministry and now serve our pastors together in our church in Newcastle. I have two very different sons. Corban is so intelligent. He loves to write, like me, and loves fashion. I mean loves it. He asked Santa for Zara vouchers! Micah is more rough and tumble and is altogether hilarious. He gets all his words back to front, like hot for cold, and up for down, and if he’s not protesting his innocence about something he’s singing. At the top of his lungs.
Which aspect of the Activate role excites you?
Most of it! I’m excited to be part of team whose focus it is to empower women to share their faith. I also love writing and talking – and I’m told I will get to do both. It excites me that if we can help mobilise a company of women to share their everyday ordinary lives, as Romans 12 in the Message Bible puts it, we, that’s you and I ladies, could be sowing seeds to change the world.
And which aspect scares you?
The word ‘finance’. I’m all about the words. Numbers scare me :-0
Tell us your favourite film?
Gosh, I have loads. I do love The Devil Wears Prada though. I think I can relate to feeling like the least glamorous of them all in the world of media. And any dance movies. Totally believe I can street dance whenever I watch them. For the record, I cannot.
Favourite treat?
Chai Tea Latte and great food. I love food.
If you were a kitchen utensil what would you be?
Wooden spoon; multi functional and you’d be lost without it !
Tell us about someone you recently shared Jesus with.
I am someone who has a lot of opportunity to share Jesus; from the platform in church, in my role working for a Christian charity, and even moving to a new town has given us the opportunity to speak to our neighbours about our faith. But in October I went to Uganda and Kenya, where I had the privilege of spending time with women in prison. Some of these beautiful ladies were sentenced to death, awaiting a date to be hanged. They believed God had forgotten them, that they had no way back. I had the privilege of telling them the truth, that Jesus came to bring life, not death, and freedom, not captivity, and that he came for THEM. Loads of my lovely African sisters found a way back to their God that day, through an introduction to Jesus Christ.
What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
There are too many to tell you here! But here’s one that will give you a laugh. So there was a season in my life, with a toddler and a brand new baby when I had just returned to work for 7am starts. I was getting dressed in the dark each morning, for fear of waking the beasts, and often would have mishaps. I went to work one day thinking I had conjunctivitis when in reality I had put on lip gloss not mascara. And odd shoes were almost routine. However, one fateful day it all got a little bit worse. Did I mention that I think I am the inspiration for Miranda???
Basically, in the middle of a press conference in a board room full of men and a particularly grumpy editor, I was aware that my ankle was itchy. When I put my hand under the table to scratch it out from the leg of my trousers fell yesterday’s underwear! And not just any underwear. Black lacy French knickers. I had to lean down, pick them up and pretend, for the rest of the meeting that I had a cold and had opted for a black lacy hanky! No joke.
What is your favourite Bible verse?
I love Isaiah 46:4 ‘even until your hair is white with age, I made you and I will care for you, I will carry you along and save you.’
Favourite song/chorus?
At the moment it’s Man of Sorrows from Hillsong’s Glorious Ruins album. It says, ‘now my debt is paid, it is paid in full, by the precious blood that my Jesus spilled, now the curse of death has no hold on me, whom the Son sets free, is free indeed!’
Favourite chocolate bar?
All of them. No, anything with mint in it.