Upon hearing that, after 60 years of service, Bruce Cumming was to leave Venezuela, a Christian in Caracas who had known the assemblies of God’s people since the 1940s said, “Well, of all the foreigners who have come to this country to serve the Lord, Bruce Cumming was the one who identified most with the Venezuelan people.”
Bruce, with his wife, Rhoda, gave himself spirit, soul, and body to evangelize the state of Falcón, on the northwestern coast of that country, and to build assemblies according to what he believed to be the pattern laid down in the New Testament. It took pressing circumstances, or strong persuasion by his fellow workers, to convince him to interrupt his labors where his heart was.
He visited the humblest of homes, far from populated areas, preached publicly the Word of God in his down-to-earth, earnest way, sponsored literature distribution in every hamlet, constructed many gospel halls, and counseled a people who respected him for what he was as well as what he did.
Bruce Cumming was born in Squamish, near Vancouver, Canada, on July 11, 1921 into a family of six boys and three girls, and grew up in Vancouver during the Great Depression. His father was killed in a train accident when Bruce was 11 years old.
At age 19 he had a desire to be right with God. Alone, he kneeled down by a cattle trough and prayed, “O God, I am no good at all.” There came to mind what he had learned in the Woodland Drive Gospel Hall: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1John 1:7). He believed that great declaration from Holy Scripture. His soul was saved and his cigarettes were destroyed as a sign of new life.
Friends persuaded him to join the Canadian army as a non-combatant, and he was engaged as a code breaker for four years. In England, before being sent across the Channel, he longed to hear the Scriptures preached and to know God’s people. Bruce found an assembly of believers and was baptized among them. Visiting David Livingstone’s birthplace, he was challenged by Isaiah 6.8: “Who will go?” He dedicated himself to the spread of the gospel.
As WWII was ending, he was severely burned in Germany while rescuing a group of people from a burning building. Treatment required months of hospitalization in London.
The promise that the Lord gave Jacob before he left Bethel, “I am with thee and will keep thee in all places,” was the assurance that he received when returning to Canada in 1946. He was received into the fellowship of Christians in the Fairview assembly. The following year, he married Miss Rhoda Alves.
Commended to full-time service in the Lord’s work, they arrived in Venezuela late in 1947 and soon were engaged in the arduous project of constructing the rudiments of a house and a gospel hall in Cumarebo. Those buildings are icons to the present day.
While it is true that many centers in Falcón are prosperous, large areas are marked by scorching heat, dry and cruel to man and beast, and to God’s people. But Falcón responded, and there are leaders in New Testament churches in other parts of the country who trace their spiritual heritage to what they learned in childhood when “Don Bruce” arrived in the jeep.
Bruce and Rhoda relocated to a more adequate residence in nearby Tocópero. Anna, David, Douglas (deceased), Mark, and Leonor had been born in the leaner years, but ironically, none of them, Venezuelans to the core, were to live there, although retaining their love for the country.
Bruce’s health failed when the couple was in Vancouver in 2008. He suffered frequent falls and was admitted to a care facility where he remained quietly with Bible, books, and prayer until his home-call. Or was he there? Rather, he was reliving unstinting service for the Lord Jesus Christ in a certain corner of the vast field, which is the world, that is crying for the gospel.
