Hello, Yada Family.
I am Bruce Plourde, a husband, father of two boys, YadaFactor course graduate, and newly elected YadaFactor board member, currently living in Greenville, SC. Having grown up in South Florida, I was fortunate to watch YadaFactor develop and grow from the original triad (Cindy, Debbie, and Pegi) to such an incredibly supportive ministry helping people around the world who desire to know God, be known by Him, and to share that relationship with others in such a safe and sacred way.
I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t know Jesus as my Savior. Although I was immersed in church and had a solid Christian faith my whole life, I struggled a lot with my relationship to God when I was growing up and throughout college. I always believed He was there, but I didn’t know how to hear from Him. I would pray to Him, but really, I only hoped that He heard me and might answer in some way. Can you relate?
I got married right after college, worked as an architectural designer and taught design courses at a local college until I took a staff position within a megachurch’s growing communications department. Soon after, my wife and I had our first son, and life just kept getting busier. In 2006, we decided to move to South Carolina to start our own art-fulfillment business. We joined a thriving church, got involved serving, participated in small groups, etc. Life was great. We were doing what we loved, had a beautiful home and family, attended a great church, but somehow there was still this “do I really know God” feeling under it all.
What I began to realize was that although I had a full and vibrant life with our family, business, church, and community, it was covertly replacing my purpose of intimately knowing God and being known by Him. I was missing the whole reason I was created by God in the first place – to look and listen to Him through a Divine relationship before all the doing of works-based responsibilities for Him. How we connect with God to hear what He has to say about who we are in Him is so critically life-sustaining and life-giving. From His words to us and through our words to Him, we find an eternal equipping to be and do, as He intends. He fills our cup with Himself and from that “we can do all things” (Philippians 4:13). It all starts with time alone with Him.
Psalm 33:4 says, “For the word of the Lord holds true and we can trust everything He does.” As I currently journey through Psalms, I am often comforted by God because He hears and sees us in the midst of our daily battles and is our Ever-Present Advocate, Protector, Provider, and Giver of Peace. I am so grateful for ways I have learned to hear God through YadaFactor and for the daily impact it has on my steadfast pursuit of knowing Him more. What was once so much “doing” in my life has now turned into a deeply rich and sweet communion with the Holy Spirit and with others. I hear Him and He hears me, and nothing can be better.
