The Lake Avenue Community Foundation (LACF) Board of Directors are pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Bruce Menser as its new Executive Director.
Bruce has served the past 27 years with World Vision International (1981-2009). Bruce lived and worked in Africa and the Middle East, leading emergency relief and community development programs in Zaire, Mozambique, Sudan, Somalia, and Lebanon.
Bruce grew up in the First Presbyterian Church in downtown San Diego. Children and youth ministries had a profound impact on his faith from his early years. He went forward and accepted Christ at a Billy Graham meeting when he was just 11 years old. Bruce's faith and commitment to Jesus Christ has always been strengthened and supported by a loving father and mother.
Prior to World Vision, Bruce worked in youth ministry at churches in California. Bruce also traveled on short term mission trips to East Africa, Asia, and the Dominican Republic with sports ministries, playing basketball and sharing his Christian faith. Bruce's first travel outside the United States was with a basketball team to East Africa in 1974. For Bruce, this was a life changing experience that led him to pursue a career in international development and missions.
Bruce earned his Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Stanford University, a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from San Jose State University, and his Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. Bruce was ordained in 1983 with the Presbyterian Church USA at San Jose Presbytery in California.
Bruce married Elzbieta in Poland in 1984. They met through a World Vision food aid program. At the time, Elzbieta was working with the Polish Ministry of Health. Bruce and Elzbieta have a daughter, Natalie, who is currently studying International Health at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Bruce's father recently passed away and his mother currently resides in San Diego, California.
Please join the LACF and Lake Avenue Church communities in welcoming Bruce and Elzbieta Menser!
