Bruce is 23 years old and he lives in Kacyiru, the same neighborhood that I live in. However his house is very small and in a very bad part of the neighborhood. Bruce’s young childhood was good. He was born into a good Christian family. His father was an alcoholic and was not a good influence on Bruce. This led to Bruce’s drinking habit to start when he was just six years old. By the time that he was thirteen he was drinking, smoking, and fighting with other guys. His father passed when he was 14 and he was in the worst stage of his life. By that time he had joined a gang. He smoked weed and did all of the other bad things associated with that. He was with the gang until he was 20 years old. He says that his life was going down the drain.

During that year he was saved. Bruce felt something in his heart telling him that something was wrong. He says that he would be so drunk and still feel a problem pulling at his heart. His mom prompted him to clean up his life and get saved. He wanted to get out of what he was doing he just lacked that will and energy to get out.

Bruce found YoungLife. He was one of the first students in the ministry. Removing himself from his old friend group was hard. They helped support him in everyway. He would have visions in his drunken slumber that would make him worry about where he would go. He asked God to help him stop drinking and to help him part from his friends that were bad influences. He had several God moments from this point on. Whether it was people supporting him or chance meetings with people of good influence on his bad nights. In 2004 Bruce was able to support himself and finally break ties with his old friends.

Bruce is now a stronger Christian than he has ever been. Bruce loves dancing. And he is very good at it. He is now a leader in the ministry and uses his skills to reach out to the teens around him. He would love to continue to serve the lord in ministry but also has a place in his heart for video production and would love to do that with his life someday. “God gives me joy. Everyday God helps me get through the day, and I trust him whole heartedly.”

Bruces favorite bible verse is Isaiah 17:7-8. It says, “In that day shall men look unto their Maker, and their eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Isreal. And they shall not look to the alters, the work of their hands ; neither shall they have respect to that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images.”