Bruce’s Testimony

A testimony of a brother, a friend, a coworker and now a fellow Christ Follower. This is a quick praise report about how God moves in ways we can’t even imagine. It’s been my privilege to be mentioned in the tiniest bit in this great transformation taking place. I’m humbled and have grown tremendously from this amazing brother’s heart for Jesus.

From Nothing to Something

“I knew absolutely nothing about God or Jesus. Not a little, nothing.”
— Bruce Edgerton

That’s where the story starts.

When I asked Bruce to expand on this, he began to summarize. It didn’t begin with a dramatic moment or a crisis. It started slow, the way a lot of real things do. Bruce drove his truck to my place as he was passing through and ended up staying a couple of nights. He went to church that Sunday with me.

The next time he passed through was on a Wednesday. Bruce hit the men’s group named Iron Sharpens Iron. He even showed up to a Summer Nights event where kids were throwing colored chalk, Pastor Joe was even participating in the chalk mayhem, and people were playing cornhole in the parking lot.

That stuck with him. Not the theology, just the realness of it all. People having fun. A church that didn’t feel like a performance.

Something was moving in him, even if Bruce couldn’t name it yet.

The Moment Before the Sermon

There was something that happened at church that Bruce still can’t fully explain. He kept seeing an image he couldn’t shake, and every time he consciously tried to push it away, it came right back. He didn’t understand it then. Looking back, he thinks it might have been God saying “you can do this.” Keep going. He held onto that quietly and kept listening.

The Sermon That Changed Everything

Back on the road, Bruce kept listening to the Sunday online live sermons. Then one landed differently. The one about how living by the Ten Commandments isn’t enough. That you have to believe. Not just try to be good. Actually believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

That one hit him.

Out there driving truck somewhere, Bruce made a quiet decision. He wanted Jesus in his life. He wanted to be part of that.

The Dreams

Almost immediately after that decision, the dreams started — and Bruce doesn’t dream. Or didn’t used to.

Three of them came in close succession.

His dad appeared first, looking down at him, letting him know — I’m up here. I’m looking out for you.

Then a crowd of people celebrating, someone leading Bruce by the hand, others coming up to embrace him like he’d just done something worth honoring.

Then his mom’s voice, carrying the one thing Bruce had always struggled with. The idea of the afterlife, of what heaven actually looks like. She told him not to worry about it. Jesus will take care of you.

For a man who had always balked at the image of sitting on a cloud strumming a harp, that one settled something deep.

Praise Reports

Once Bruce started praying, things started moving.

He prayed for his kids. One relationship in particular had grown distant (that’s his story to tell) but he reports she’s coming around. Their relationship is growing and repairing in ways that have brought great joy to him.

He started going to his wife’s doctor appointments, something he admits he likely wouldn’t have done on his own. Now she has new knees. A new shoulder coming. He credits Jesus with the shift in him that made that possible.

He found his way to a church in Green Bay. Non-denominational. Literal translation of the Bible. He’s going to Alpha meetings. He’s going to men’s group when he can. And he’s got a tell , when he pulls up sermon videos online, he looks for a shiny bald head. When he sees one, he knows he found the right one. That’s Pastor Joe.

The Turn

What Bruce said near the end of the conversation was maybe the most honest thing in it.

He came into this friendship thinking he was helping Tim, helping get his trucking career back on track, taking care of practical things that needed doing. And somewhere along the way Bruce realized it had flipped. Tim wasn’t the one being helped anymore. Bruce was.

“I’ve certainly gained a lot more from you than I’ve given. That’s the way I look at it.”

“You got Jesus into my life. It just snuck up on me. Pretty soon it hit me right over the head.”

That’s the testimony as it stands. Still a journey in progress, church still being figured out, baptism still ahead but the foundation is there. Bruce met Jesus on the road, in his dreams, in his answered prayers, and in a friendship he didn’t expect to change him.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Reference: https://www.abundant.church/