Bruce Tong was born in Zambia to missionary parents who worked for the Salvation Army. He spent the first eleven years of his life experiencing what a third-world culture is like.
...view moreBruce Tong was born in Zambia to missionary parents who worked for the Salvation Army. He spent the first eleven years of his life experiencing what a third-world culture is like.
Returning to New Zealand with his family, Bruce continued his journey in the Salvation Army in this new culture, both in its social entities and through its holiness teaching. It was during his late teenage years that he felt God calling him to greater things, the first of which was marriage. He met the love of his life in a neighbouring Salvation Army church, and the rest is history.
With their small family, Bruce and Valerie went to train as Salvation Army officers at the Booth College of Mission, where they graduated with diplomas in biblical studies and readied themselves for the adventure ahead. At Bruce’s commissioning, he became a third-generation officer. This rich heritage he has in the Salvation Army is part of his DNA, which he draws on when he speaks or writes.
Bruce and his wife have worked for the Salvation Army as corps officers (church ministers) for fourteen years in various communities throughout New Zealand, gaining many life skills that have shaped both of them into the people they are today. He draws on those experiences as an officer and a family man—as a son, father, and husband—a graduate in biblical studies, and a qualified spiritual director to fulfil his mission in life, which is to have a loving and intimate relationship with God and to encourage others to do the same.view less