Bruce Robinson
European Area Director
Living on a lake shore in rural Minnesota was the world to me. My father drove a cross-country bus and occasionally my world expanded as far as Fargo, Duluth or the Wisconsin Dells, but, I wondered about the world beyond. To satisfy my wonder and venture out, I enrolled in a Christian university in South Carolina - seven states and 1,200 miles away! My upper-class room mate was preparing for the ministry, which didn’t interest me. I was determined to break out of my shyness, make lots of friends quickly and pursue an elementary education degree.
One day a friend made a snide remark against ‘preacher boys’. That haunted me and started some soul searching. Soon I had to settle my conscience and surrender to the ministry myself, a pursuit totally opposite to how I assumed God put me together. But the thought of it rang an adventure bell.
My mother had an English heritage and had encouraged me to investigate my roots. Soon after the call to the ministry, my room mate divulged he wanted to study and preach in Britain. Concurrently, a Scottish evangelist was on campus to raise a team for work the following summer. We met and he asked us to organize the team. Roy and two others went that year, but I transferred to a Bible college in Minnesota and bypassed Scotland. Britain never left my mind, however, and, two years later, I went independently. By God’s grace, a young woman on another team captured my heart. Bonnie and I married two years later and we became missionaries to England with our 18 month son.
After 12 years planting our first church, it ordained a national pastor that I trained and we moved back to the US to seek a pastorate or teaching position. Nothing quite right materialized, so we wandered, for five years, in a desert experience of missing Europe and not fitting into US life. Gene Brush (a college friend entering European missions when we did), recently returned from Spain, asked me to brainstorm with him regarding ways to encourage national missionaries in their own countries.
Having viewed a similar scene as Gene had, the invitation rekindled mission passion. Partners In Evangelism International resulted and I joined the original Board.
We were eventually invited, by the pastor of our first church, to return to England to start a church 12 miles from the first one. This was to be in partnership with our home church in Minnesota. The targeted town contained a university of which 75% of the students came from numerous countries. This exposed our whole family to the beauty and diversity of various cultures. We made many friends and saw several saved and baptized. This made a significant impact on our children - today our two sons and two daughters are in Christian work and married to people of other countries.
Before the fall of the Soviet Union, I accompanied a British pastor on a fact-finding trip behind the Iron Curtain. Ten days after the Romanian revolution, we were asked to bring supplies to the Christians, the first relief convoy from Britain and a newspaper headliner. This church effort was supported by our whole town, including the loan of two trucks, food from stores and clothes from all other churches.
Resigning the second church plant has given Bonnie and me opportunity to minister more widely into Europe. We developed a ministry to serve indigenous churches, assist national pastors, counsel missionaries, and encourage upcoming leaders. Partners In Evangelism International, entrusting me with the role of European Area Director, provided many new opportunities. Through PIEI we have stepped in to negotiate a camp property in Russia, furnish a pastor’s conference in Romania, participate on the Board of a Hungarian mission, advise a church in Spain during difficult times, assist pastors in personal matters and develop strategy for churches in administration and outreach.
My goals include having a part in multiple-church plants, providing ‘cross-border conferences and fostering a ‘cross-pollination’ mentality, i.e. churches of one locale pooling resources and efforts with those in neighboring countries for missionary outreach. It is also a privilege to work along side partnership committees in the US and be a liaison between them and the national committees. These are just a few of the ways the Area Director helps US interests to be more practical for the benefit and future of mission. Western ‘Career missionaries‘ someday may be prevented from operating in their traditional way, so Implementing national Christians is the hope of missions.
Through the years God led us back to Britain, throughout Europe, and onward with a fresh perspective on mission. A Ukrainian once said we were ‘safe’ - that we understood US missionaries who started churches and how Western church models and methods often confused nationals. We would see them through European eyes and they could relax with that.
Partners In Evangelism International is careful in its operation and caring in its approach. Information brought to the Executive Committee, of which I am a member, is prayed over and processed well. That’s important to me. It’s a privilege to work with Cornel, Wayne, Gene and the volunteer staff of PIEI.
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