Every year about this time the Santa Maria Christian Youth group called “Generation Extreme” comes to our neck of the woods to play in the snow and get closer to God.
Teresa Bruce, Youth Pastor and team leader – along with her husband, have pioneered this Ponderosa adventure for the youth, going on 12 years. They stay about 2-3 days and then travel back home.
Pastor Teresa Bruce, who is with the Santa Maria Church of the Nazarene, {www.smnaz.org} started out as an associate pastor and as the Church grew and the needs increased they brought her on board full time.
This day they were in Coffee camp, one of the last stops before heading home, and the youth were more than willing to take pictures for the Post and talk about God and their issues … including the destructive nature and character of gang membership.
Since this was an official Holiday, the Post asked all the leaders if they knew what holiday it was. Pastor Bruce said, it’s … Washington or Presidents day. Close enough.
Their take on this year’s election - not unlike other Christians who’ve been interviewed by the Post - was virtually the same. They’ve prayed about who’d be the best choice for the White House and stated Governor Mike Huckabee best represents what and how they believe.
However, as evangelicals, they believe that the main stream media has not been true in their representation of evangelicals. “They tend to put us in a box” stressed Pastor Bruce and “They look at the issues and not at the heart of the matter and rarely get it right”.
Going a little further, Mr. Bruce lamented … “We really need to pray that God will put the right man in the White House. Our country is built on Biblical principles and without those principles I’m afraid that our country is in for some hard times.”
Pastor Teresa Bruce can be reached for comments at teresa.bruce@verizon.net.
