Merry Christmas!

As we bake Christmas cookies, drink cider, and listen to Bing Crosby, Christmas time is always a fun time here in the Walter home.  I am a big "traditions" guy, so I have probably "forced" a bit to many on the family. We have the classic prefered music list, the Finnish reindeer cookies we make, the watching of "Christmas at Plum Creek" on Christmas eve, and a few others. Oh well, when the kids get older they can ditch the ones they don't like, but for now, they will have to like them!  This is the time of year where the Gospel story rings home more than ever.  We would like to wish you all a wonderful blessed Christmas, as we all rejoice in the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas everyone! Love the Walter tribe!

Three Cold Days in Minneapolis!

I just got back from our yearly North American Mission Adventures Leadership Team meeting, which we had in Minneapolis.  The temps averaged around -5 degrees.  It was a great time and we accomplished a lot.  I even managed to roll around in the snow and jump in a suana.   Brought back memories of growing up as a kid with Finnish grandparents. Mission Adventures in North America has seen a recent surge of interest in YWAM bases around North America who desire to start MA at their locations.  We had lots of meetings and prayer times in which we planned out our next 2014 year goals for our region. These times for me are always very encouraging and refreshing, as they remind me of the "Big Picture" we are working towards.  This is going to be a very action packed exciting year for Mission Adventures!  Our next big even will take place April 27-30 when we gather in Vancouver, BC for our yearly WAVES gathering.  Anyone interested in going?  Let me know!  Your more than welcome!  Sarah as usual managed the kids great, and it was so good to get back home to them!

Let it Snow!

The Lord blessed us with some nice cold temperatures and some snow.  Just enough for the kids to go out and do some sledding and build some small snowmen!  We do not often get snow here in the valley, so it's a big treat!  Please be praying for Sarah and the kids as I will be leaving Sunday for 3 days to Minneapolis for our North American Mission Adventures Leadership Team (NAMALT) annual meeting.  Also, pray for those meetings as we pray and commit Mission Adventures in North America to the Lord these next few days.

Encouraged by a Surprise Prayer Warrior

The above picture is of myself with my friend Tim.  Tim works for the city of Salem, and basically walks around checking for parking violations. I met him a while ago, and the other day he mentioned something to me that was so encouraging.  He said, "Tim, I see you and the other guys out here all the time, and I just want you to know that I lift you up in prayer every time I walk this block."  How awesome to have prayer covering the Gospel Guy outreach!  It is guys like Tim that shake the heavens through their committed prayer life to seeing Jesus glorified!  By the way, don't show this picture publicly or else the city might fire him!

A Great But Tough Week

This week I was on the streets every day doing the Gospel Guy.  The Lord opened up some amazing,but very difficult discussions.  For example, I spoke with a young man who is searching for meaning in life, he actually says he has no purpose on earth.  I spoke with a young couple who do not believe in the existence of God as they think there is no proof. I spoke with a few gang members, one of whom dad was a pastor. He had a lot of hurt in his life, and I appreciated his honesty although it was tough to hear.  The number one conversation I had with most people dealt with truth and if indeed there is a moral law giver.  C.S. Lewis type stuff.  I found myself stumped many times, but also at times I could sense that God was working through the discussions.  I left this week with a reality that it is exhausting intentionally sharing the Gospel.  Satan does not want the message to be shared, and I could many times feel the discouragement, unworthiness, shame, etc...as he flung his arrows.  I also was amazed once again how many people would talk to me if my sign had a question about God.....but how little would speak to me if the sign had the name of Jesus on it.  Amazing.  On the flip side, what an amazing God we serve.  I truly believe that standing on that corner talking to people has given me more life than most ministry I have been doing since I became a Christian.  Please pray for the Gospel Guy outreach.

Going to the Nations

This Thursday we had our fall DTS commissioning night.  We prayed out 5 teams from our fall schools.  These are young amazing people who will be taking the Gospel to the nations of Nepal, Thailand, Tanzania, Kenya, and Turkey over the next 8 weeks.  The above picture is of one of the teams sharing rite before we prayed over them.  If you recall, this is the school in which I recently taught in on Evangelism.  The pace never stops here at YWAM Salem, as these 5 teams head out, and our winter DTS will be starting in January.

Hitting the Streets for the Christmas Season!

Today was an interesting day doing the gospel Guy.  First off, it was cold.  Around 33 degrees.  What better way to spend a cold day in the Northwest than talking to people about Jesus and giving them hot cider, candy canes, and cookies!  Honestly though, I was not counting on there being to many people wanting to hang around and talk.  I was wrong.  The day started off with many brief conversations, some good, some no so good. One guy told me Christmas was another made up holiday for weak people.  Another told me he did not want to tell me what he thought about Christmas or else the CIA would be after him....weird to say the least. But it was two conversations I had that I wanted to share.  If you recall, this past summer I asked you all to pray for a kid named DJ whom I had met.  Bottom line, he was a skeptic about Jesus, and we talked for almost an hour.  I prayed for him, and that was the last I saw of him, and this was I believe in June.   this was a classic "seed planting conversation" in where I left wondering if anything sunk in. Well, DJ walked by today and wouldn't you know it, he now is a brother in Christ!  Long story short he got into drugs, got thrown in jail, and met Jesus in jail via a Bible study group.  Now he is trying to build his life back together.  Pray for DJ.  The other conversation I had was with a 19 year old kid named Anthony. When I asked him why he celebrates Christmas, a very somber look came on his face as he answered, "I have no idea."  We talked for about 45 minutes, in which I shared the Gospel message with him.  It was one of those conversations where I could just sense the Holy Spirit working on His heart.  He said he was not ready to commit his life to Jesus however, but very much appreciated the conversation we had.  I gave him the Gospel of John.   As he walked away he let me pray for him.  Would you please lift up Anthony in your prayers?

Happy Thanksgiving

I love the Norman Rockwell painting above.  It was one of his from his "Four Freedoms" series.  This particular one was titled "Freedom from Want".  As we look upon our 14 plus years in YWAM, we are amazed at the faithfulness of God is so many ways, and have indeed lacked nothing.  One of those ways in particular that we give thanks for this Thanksgiving is all of you who have supported us so faithfully over the years through prayer and finances.  We are able to do what we do because of you.  Thank you so much for believing in us and the ministry God has called us to.  We truly wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving. Above all else, may we take time to look upon the day of our salvation as the most remarkable day in all our lives, and live our lives in thanksgiving and devotion to the One who gave up all, so that we could have and abundant life! 

DTS Students shares about her week while Tim taught on Evangelism

Click on the link and see what a DTS student had to say about the week while I spoke on Evangelism!

http://vimeo.com/79251728

A Great Week Teaching in the DTS

Last week was an awesome time teaching in our fall DTS.  I spoke on Evangelism, and the students were great!  It was super encouraging to see the students perspectives of what evangelism is be challenged and then strengthened.   The first day I taught for three hours on hell.  i have never done that before and was a bit nervous how it would go.  Turns out, that was one of the students favorite parts of the week. Here is an interesting fact, of the 25 students, not one of them have ever heard a sermon on hell in their lives.

 When I teach I love having interactive break out sessions for the students.  The above picture is a group of them doing an activity I call "Mirror Image" in which they look at the different metaphors the Bible gives us to describe Christians, and what that should mean for us.  The group above where the "Salt of the Earth" group.

A Full House!

Alistair is now two weeks old and adjusting to life quite nicely.  It seems as of now he is a mello little guy.  The other kids love holding him and loving on him.  Sarah and I are doing great, and I have even managed despite sleep, to fit in some duck hunting with the boys a few times.  I figure I can sleep next year.

The kids in their pajamas hanging out watching Little House on the Prairie before church!  A Walter family tradition! Not sure if Alistair really was a fan!

The boys with a few mallards.  This season is the first time I have been able to bring the boys hunting with me, and they absolutely love it.  I am very fortunate to know a farmer about 15 minutes from our place that has some great duck habitat and he allows me to hunt on his land.  I can go hunting a few times a week, and never miss a minute of work or any family time!  What a blessing! The boys are anxious to begin to hunt in a few years themselves. The below picture is of Autumn who loves helping dad clean the ducks!  A possible future hunter?

Teaching in the DTS

Next week I will be teaching in our fall Discipleship Training School (DTS).  The topic I will be teaching on is Evangelism.  I have three hours a day, which is a good 15 hours next week I get to teach 30 eager young students about evangelism. I absolutely love these times where I am able to speak in the DTS schools.  i would appreciate your prayers as I prepare for next week.  I am actually a bit nervous in one regard as I am trying a new thing out.  usually in day one I focus on the students definitions of what they think evangelism is, and then I form my teaching rite there on the spot with them.  However, I have felt the Lord leading me to spend the entire first day on a topic I have never really taught on at any length.....hell.  My teaching is called "5 of Satan's Best Kept Secrets About Evangelism".  I would appreciate the prayers, and that the Lord would speak through me and the students would have open hearts.

Alistair is doing great!  The above picture was taken yesterday as he was hanging out in the crisp fall air of Oregon!  We are adjusting quite nicely to life with six kids!  God is faithful!

572 Bibles in 2 Hours as Youth Groups Bless Salem

This Saturday we hosted another EXIT outreach.  We did not manage to get all our cities Exits covered, but the 7 youth groups we had participating had a blast and did a great job.  The outreach was from 10:00-12:00 and they ended up passing out 572 Bibles!  Some groups even bought some lunch for some homeless people who were begging at the same exits.  The weather was cold and miserable, but Jesus was glorified.  Exit is a great outreach that provides a great platform for youth groups to bless their city, and do outreach together.  Please pray for the 572 seeds that were planted!

Alistair Timothy Makes His Appearance

We are proud to announce that on October 24th at 11:35 pm Alistair Timothy came into the world!  He weighed a solid 8 pounds 13 ounces and was 20 inches long.  Sarah is doing great.  As you know Sarah was two weeks past due, and so her doctor suggested that she take some castor oil to see if that would speed the process up.  So, she tried it....5 hours later Alistair was born!  Who is to say that old methods don't work anymore!  The delivery went great, and we are back home now.  Kids love him like crazy, and it is basically a competition on who gets to hold him the most.  Thank you all for your faithful prayers!

Jesus died for Cyrus

The above picture I had taken today of me and my Iranian friend Cyrus while I was doing the Gospel Guy. You all know of Cyrus, as he is the gentlemen who had me over for tea a couple weeks ago.  Cyrus is an amazing man, very loving, caring, but also very lost.  Today I had a particularly deep conversation with Cyrus about absolute truth. Cyrus believes that truth is subjective to our own experiences. I shared about the fact that as a Christian, I take an objective stance when it comes to truth.  We talked for over an hour, and to be honest I felt outclassed in some regards as some of the questions Cyrus posed were very hard. But as we neared the end of our talk, I really felt the Holy Spirit working on his heart.  I shared with him the perspective of salvation by grace through faith....something he had never heard of.  He is of the mindset that we must work out our salvation through our deeds, and is very skeptical of the church for the hypocrisy it has shown.  Anyway, God loves Cyrus, and I see him softening his heart.  Please continue to pray for Cyrus, and that we would soon turn to Jesus for salvation.  Pray for me, that I would have wisdom when speaking to Cyrus.  If anything talking to Cyrus has done, it has really forced me to dig deep into figuring out what I truly believe in terms of the questions he poses.  In the end of our conversation, I told him that even though he is 61 years old, Jesus looks at him as a child in need of a Father.  When I said that, I saw something change in his countenance. God is after the heart of Cyrus.

Leo Gives his Life to Jesus

The above question was the one I posed today while I was downtown Salem doing the Gospel Guy.  Lately, I have been praying for salvations on the streets as we do the Gospel Guy.  I want to see people come to know Jesus, and at times I grow discouraged when it seems that all I do is plant seeds.  So today, a young man named Leo walked up to me and honestly answered the questions by stating he had no idea what the purpose of his life was.  We spoke for over an hour, and during our conversation, I could sense the Holy Spirit working on his heart.  As we talked, he began to get gut honest and real about how lost he was, and how full of sin his life was.  His eyes began to water as I shared the Gospel with him.We spoke of the reality of God's righteous judgment, and that one day we all will be held accountable.  I shared with him the amazing message of the love of Jesus Christ, and the conversation eventually ended up with Leo receiving Jesus into his life.  I then was able to connect him with a local youth pastor in town here who Leo happens to live nearby.  God's work on the life of man is so amazing.  Pray for Leo, and that the new life he has in Christ will be rooted in the word, and that he finds a good church.

Exciting Things Lay Ahead for Mission Adventures

One of the greatest challenges we face in Mission Adventures in North America, and Internationally for that matter, is fully committed program leaders. The turnover rate for our programs in terms of leaders is crazy, and it is hard to see our MA programs firmly planted in their locations because of this. The turnover happens for many reasons, from young leaders trying new things every two years, to bases simply not having the manpower to run successful MA programs.  One thing we want to bring to the for front in our mission is the need for YWAM to get back to it's main routes.....youth and evangelism. Well, we are excited to try something out to help address our need for committed leaders who desire to do Mission Adventures full time, and it will be coming in March, in the form of our first ever School of Mission Adventures.  This will be running out of Vancouver, Canada.  The school will be three months long, and have many purposes, but the end result we hope to see are well trained future Mission Adventures leaders.  I have helped in the structural formation of the school, curriculum, etc...and will be going to Vancouver a time or two to either teach or serve alongside the staff there.  Please be praying for this school!  It will actually be an accredited secondary school of YWAM's University of the Nations, so this is exciting!!

Pumpkins and Waiting for the Baby

The above picture is of the kids at a near bye pumpkin patch.  The kids are doing great, and enjoying homeschool.  The keep pretty busy for sure!  Sarah was due October 10, so it is only a matter of time before the baby comes!  We are super excited for the new arrival, and have decided on the name Alistair Timothy. Thank you all for your prayers!  We will let you know when the little one arrives!

Above picture of Sarah and I on her due date at the Pumpkin Patch!

Amazing What a Sign Can Do

The past few weeks have been an amazing time with the Gospel Guy.  The Lord continues to challenge me as I have had countless opportunities to share the Gospel.  This past week, I spoke with a young 20 year old kid who has recently gotten involved with a cult. I spoke with a man involved with Wicca.  He told me of how he casts spells on others, and that he worships many gods. Both of these men were very nice,but oh so lost.  Every time I do the Gospel guy, the Lord breaks my heart for the lost.  One man in particular is a 62 year old Iranian man named Cyrus.  A few weeks ago, he approached me and we talked, and had a great conversation.  Cyrus does not believe in God at all.  Over the past few weeks, he spoke with me while I did the Gospel Guy, and today he invited me into his home for tea.  I of course accepted and it was a great time. Please pray for Cyrus. He is so alone, and needs Jesus so bad.  He is very open to the Gospel, and he has asked to go to church with us.  Please continue to lift of the ministry of the Gospel Guy in prayer, which I do on Monday's and Fridays.

Video of Youth Pastors Olympics!

We had an amazing time with our 2nd Annual Youth Pastors Olympics!  Check out the video by going to this link!

http://www.ywamsalem.org/community-life/youth-pastors-olympics/

Fall Quarter Has Begun at YWAM Salem

YWAM Salem is a busy place as we move into our fall quarter.  Yesterday 24 students arrived for our Fall Missions DTS.  15 Koreans arrived for our Fall Korean DTS.  13 students arrived for our Fall Basic Leadership School.  You top on all those new students, a major project going on on one of our main buildings, a ropes course which sees 4,000 people go through a year, the local stuff I am doing with Mission Adventures, and you have yourself an extremely busy YWAM Campus!  One great thing about YWAM, is there is no "work yourself up the ladder" mentality.  One day I'm leading outreaches for high schoolers, the next day I am cutting cucumbers in our kitchen for lunch prep.  Everyone serves to help keep the ship afloat at YWAM Salem!!

Above picture is the other day as I was helping with lunch prep!  Scary thing to see me in a kitchen!  Serving in the kitchen with students offers great time for discipleship, not to mention a lot of fun.

God Created the Missionary

The above video sums it up as to why we love being in missions.  The voice is of YWAM's founder, Loren Cunningham.  May we all be inspired to see God glorified in our lives more!

YWAM Salem Fall Staff Conference

Every September, for three days we have our YWAM Salem staff conference.  It is always a great time. This was a special conference for three main reasons when I look at it.  First, is we got to hear an amazing challenging message via the internet from YWAM's founder Loren Cunningham. What an amazing man of God!  He has literally been to every nation on the planet, and his message was tremendously inspiring to all of us YWAM'ers. I would highly suggest watching it by clicking on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Tr64QyL8s&feature=share&list=PLRjvOusQuQkodw3rlmR15sX6rbLon8PPx and start around minute 42. It is a great message!  The second reason our conference was special was that we were able to pray out and commission the starting of YWAM Yosemite!  For the past three years, a couple has been in training at our campus here in Salem, and are now going to pioneer a YWAM base rite outside Yosemite National Park!  We are already discussing getting Mission Adventures started there for next summer!  The third reason the conference was special for me personally was I ran into a past Mission Adventures student named Peter who is on his way to Montana to go do a DTS there and go into the mission field!  And it was his time with Mission Adventures that played a vital role in that process!

Above picture during a worship time at our Fall Staff Conference

Above picture of Peter and I.  Peter came to Mission Adventures two years in a row...now onto the Mission field!

Above picture of Annie and Juba.  A beautiful picture of the multi-cultural beauty of being a YWAM Missionary.

2nd Annual Youth Pastors Olympics a HUGE Success

On September 11th, we hosted our 2nd Annual Youth Pastors Olympics.  It was a huge success, as we had around 40 local youth leaders from our city attend.  Compared to 9 last year, that is quite a growth margin!  The youth pastors competed in 16 events, and our winner received half of a missions trip through Mission Adventures, among other things.  Unfortunately, your going to have to wait a couple weeks before we have our video made of the Olympics, so stay tuned!  We were able to raise over $1,000.00 for a local organization helping military families in our city.  Check out there website at http://www.sovah.org/.  This Olympics I believe will continue to grow each year.  We had over 19 different churches participating as well.  Please stay tuned for the video, and thank you all for your prayers for this event!!

Connecting with our city through Night of Missions

This October, we will be starting a monthly gathering for the youth groups of our city.  We are calling it the "Night of Missions" and it will be held the first Thursday of every month.  The are a few purposes for the Night of Missions.  First, to inspire and challenge the youth of our city through the testimonies and stories from missionaries around the globe.  Second, to keep missions in front of the youth of our city.  Third, to offer another venue to our local churches and build relationships with them.  I am real excited for this, and will be the MC of the event each month. Should be a lot of fun.  Our first speak is one of staff here Stephen Wani from Sudan.  So excited to see how God will use his amazing testimony to inspire and challenge the youth of our city! Please pray for the Night of Missions!

Back from Vacation

We just returned from a great two week family vacation. After a very busy summer of Mission Adventures teams, we were truly excited for some vacation time....especially before baby # 6 arrives!  The first part of our trip was with Grandpa and Grandma Beckstrom in Glacier National Park.  We had a wonderful time there, and as you see in the picture, we even saw a Grizzly bear in the wild!  Kids had a great time with grandpa and grandma, and I think thoroughly tired them out.We then spent two nights at the YWAM base in Montana, followed by a few nights at the camp YWAM Idaho has in the beautiful mountains of Idaho.  As you can see from the picture, the camp was miraculously preserved from a huge forest fire a few years ago.  The fire burnt everything around the camp, but never touched the camp itself!  We then spent one night in the city of Baker City, OR, and walked through the Oregon Trail interpretive center, which was amazing. One of the pictures below is actually of still existing wagon ruts from the trail!  All in all, we had a blessed vacation, and it is back to work Monday!

Above picture of the kids in a beautiful valley where the Blackfeet Indians used to camp.

Above picture of the Grizzly Bear we saw in the wild! Picture was from about 150 yards away.

Above picture taken from the top of a mountain Anders and I hiked up of the YWAM camp in Idaho.  Notice all the destroyed forest around it from the fire....the prayers of many were answered as God literally saved the camp!

Above picture taken of existing wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail.  Simply amazing and inspiring.

Above picture of kids having some fun in a covered wagon.

Above picture of Annie explains how I think both Sarah and I felt the entire trip!

A Name on the Streets of Salem

This is our second week doing "The Gospel Guy', and it is going fantastic.   I cannot explain in a short update how many amazing opportunities we have had to plant seeds and share the Gospel.  One highlight of this past week was one of the city police officers downtown came up to me and said he was a Christian, and every time he walks by us he prays for our ministry.  He said that because of his work, he cannot share the Gospel at all, and he challenged us to take every opportunity we can to do so.  Another man, named Isaac said that he has seen us every day he has gone to work.  He asked for prayer for a troubled marriage he is in.  I am so excited to see "The Gospel Guy" becoming a familiar face downtown in our city.  Please continue to pray for this ministry.

Coffee Hour and Conversation

This past Wednesday we hosted our Youth Pastors Coffee hour.  We had a great time.  It is amazing to see the diversity this meeting brings.  our youngest youth pastor present was 22....all the way up to one guy in his late 40's. I love this once a month meeting.  We question we discussed was "what is the most challenging thing in youth ministry?"  It is always so cool to see youth pastors and their different perspectives and answers.  We also spoke about our Youth Pastor Olympics coming up in September.  This is something I am really looking forward to.

Debriefing...a powerful time.

The above picture was taken with our most recent MA group after an outreach.  In this picture, the students are debriefing their outreach.  Debrief time is always an amazing time of hearing how the Lord worked in the lives of the students, and the people they encountered.  We hold out debrief times in the Salem House of Prayer which is an amazing place.  SHOP is located in what used to be a strip club where sex trafficking was going on.  Now, today, it is a place where the Lord is being worshiped 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year!   I love being able to partner with ministries like SHOP to make our Mission Adventures trips all the more powerful for our students.

The "Gospel Guy" hits the streets of Salem!

This past week with one of our Mission Adventures groups, I hit the streets with the "Gospel Guy". I was real curious to see how it would go, and it went awesome!  I was on the corner of the busiest street in our city.  I've never done anything like this before, so I did not know what to expect.  I had reactions of all sorts.  One guy walked up to me, asked what I was doing, and we had a 30 minute conversation about the Gospel. One homeless man who has been clean from drugs for 2 years hung out with me and shared of Christ changed his life.  He had tried every recovery program known to man...none worked....until the power of Christ changed Him.  A lady spoke to me, and shared how she had been praying for a long time that our city would have a "street evangelist".  One guy yelled at me and said he was the devil!  I am so excited to continue to do the Gospel Guy each week.  Our city streets are filled with things of the world, why not stand out for the light of Christ?  Generally, people were very open and curious.  Pray for the Gospel Guy as we aim to become a center point and familiar face in our city.

Keeping cool with the "bob style" haircut and cold drinks!

Abby and Autumn are super excited for their new "bob style" haircuts they recently got.  They both say it keeps them cool in the hot sun! The below picture is of the kids at the cafe on our YWAM Salem campus.  This is one tall order for Lindy to take on!!  The kids love to get some cool drinks in the hot summer!

Anders turns 11 and celebrates in the clouds!

Anders turned 11 on the 26th.  It is crazy how time flies bye.  He still has a dream to be a pilot, and he was blessed to be able to fly in a Cesna plane!  A local farmer on whose land i duck hunt offered to take him up in the air for an hour, and boy did he love it!  What a special birthday present for AndersNoah!