My father died when I was 16.  Mom moved to Florida with my brothers and sisters.  I stayed in New Jersey, because of a girlfriend, where I painted store windows.  I ended up living in my car, in a park, underneath the pier, during my senior year.  I’ve been working since I was 12. I used to take my bike to downtown Danville and paint shop windows – Christmas windows.  At the pier, during my senior year, I used to paint all the arcades and the games, and I did all the sign work down there.  I cartooned for people.  After graduation, I came down to Florida to be with my family and got an apartment.  I remember my dad telling Navy stories, so I joined.  And just like him, I started drawing cartoon characters on envelopes for the guys.  I charged two bucks an envelope and would make $80 or $90 an afternoon.

I got out after four years and opened up a design company.  My dad always taught me that what makes me different was my ability to cartoon.  Every time my father was home, I’d have a paper and pencil and beg him to show me how to draw.  He taught me the Disney style.  But during all of this, it was like God was pruning me.  When things would go bad, I would think, “Why me?” But God was pruning me to get ready.

Annabelle:  Tell me a little bit about that – about how God came into your life.  I understand you weren’t exactly expecting to become a Christian when you took on that church project.

Bruce:  No! (laughs)  I got a phone call from a children’s pastor in Arkansas, and I was like, what is this?  I’d never even heard of a children’s pastor before!  Well, he’d seen my website and wanted to fly me out there to look at a space that he wanted developed for kids.  So I met with him, did some sketches and a model then drew up a contract.  It took seven months to build it, and I sent it up there on an 18-wheeler. 

All the while, I was preparing myself to refuse them when they asked me to come to church.  I just knew they would, and I was all prepared to say, “No thanks – that’s not for me.”  But I was there two weeks with my team, and nobody asked me anything or invited me to come to church.  At that time in my life, I was starting to lose faith in mankind.  I’m from New Jersey and nobody is nice to you there, but at this place, people were so nice.  They were bringing us food and talking to us and helping us – it was amazing.  But they never tried to convert me or anything.

Then one day, I was in the gym looking at these vignettes set up for Halloween, where they had all these stories and kids came dressed as their favorite Bible characters. A little girl came up and asked me to draw a whale, then told me I wasn’t drawing it right. I was thinking, ‘Look, kid. I’ve been drawing whales since before you were born!’  But I asked her why it wasn’t right, and she said that I needed to draw it with its mouth open.  That surprised me.  “Why?” I said.  And she said, “Don’t you know the story of Jonah and the Whale?”  I didn’t, so she told me.