Gospel Guy Network Prepares to Launch in Salem!

I am super excited to announce that in early 2015, most likely February, we will officially launch the Gospel Guy Network in our city!  What does this mean?  In a nutshell, it means we will begin to see GG started in various churches in our cities.  Churches wishing to join the network will take part in  our "Foundations Training", commit to 3 months doing the GG as a ministry of their church, be involved in a monthly network support meeting and training session, and various other things.  This is HUGE!!!!  Although I have not set the exact date of the launch of the network, I am hoping early February.  It looks like we will start with 3-4 churches and hopefully grow from there.  We really need your prayers for the future GG Network.  I feel the Lord has challenged me to do this and even said, "Tim, my church needs this ministry in Salem."  So I guess we better obey.  Stay posted!!

The Twelve Questions of Christmas Outreach

Starting December 1st, Gospel Guy Ministries started what we call the "Twelve Questions of Christmas" Outreach.  For 12 days in a row, we will be on the streets sharing the Gospel with as many people as we can.  Some of the questions we have asked are, "Would the world be different in Christmas never existed? "What makes a gift a gift?"  "Do Christmas and heaven have anything in common?"  What we have seen is amazing opportunities to share the true meaning of Christmas.  You know, you hear a lot of different meanings for this holiday, but at the end of the day, it is the simple fact that Christmas is about a holy God humbling Himself to rescue the souls of man. This is the message we preach.  Please continue to pray for the rest of our outreaches.

OAS Ends!

This past Friday our 6 students graduated from the Outward Apologetics Seminar.  It was amazing how quick the past 8 weeks went!  They all did a fantastic job during the school.  I could write a novel on all the amazing things that happened, but most of it I have encompassed on our weekly updates.  The students last week was what we called their "project Week" in which we had them do a number of different things.  To sum it up, take a look at the below pictures and the text below each one explaining them.  I am super excited for how the OAS is going to grow.  Plan is rite now to run a full 12 weeks school next fall.  

Our students taught on evangelism and apologetics in local youth groups

Students had a 60 question Final Exam on the weeks of lecture

Students shared the Gospel in the open air t our city park

Last day of school our students went to different areas of our city for reflection.  This is taken in front of the famous Circuit Rider Statue commemorating the early pioneer missionaries who brought the Gospel to this region

The last morning of the OAS, our students shared the Gospel on the streets of our city. This is the point of why we do the OAS..to equip others to share the Gospel 

Puppet Making, Alistairs 1st Birthday, and Trick or Treating!

Anders has been making home made marionette puppets and selling them to make some $! Creative kid!

Alistair turned 1 on October 24th!  Time flies

Kids had a blast on Halloween.  Anders and Aidan had homemade costumes!  

Searching for Truth...Finding the Savior

On Monday we hit the streets with our students to do Gospel Guy.  My friend Tom who was our speaker for the week joined us.  It was typical day, some good conversations, some not so good.  As I was talking to Tom a young man named Jordan approached us.  Now plese note, that is a very uncommon thing to have someone approach us and engage us in discussion without us having to take the inititative first.  Tom and I began to talk to Jordan.  I do not believe i have ever seen such a hunger in a young man to be sincere and seek truth.  He shared his life story with us, in how he grew up in a Chrstian home and left the faith mainly because of so many unanswered questions. My friend Tom did a great job answering his questions, and in return asking some great questions to get Jordan thinking.  Long story short, in the end, Jordan nelt down on the pavement on the corner of Chemeketa and Liberty streets in downtown Salem and surrendered his life to Christ.  I called a local church and introduced Jordan to the pastor. Pray that Jordan's new found faith in Christ would grow deeply and richly.

Is Jesus the One and Only Way?

This last week of lecture, my good friend Tom Regan came and spoke on the topic of Jesus being the only way to God.  He did an absolutely superb job.  He had our students look into the claims of Christ, the trinity, proofs of the Resurrection, and even spent an entire day on the topic of the reality of hell.  Bottom line, this was a great week for our students to finish on before their project week and final exam next week.  After this week, our students felt complete confidence in the truth that their is no other name by which men must be saved!

Final Skeptic and Defender Debate

The above picture is of our students rite after their 6th and final Skeptic and Defender debate of the school.  Their faces do not lie...they were happy that this was the final one!  Having a debate each week is a lot of work.  They debated whether Jesus is the only way to God.  It was an awesome debate and it is so great to see how far these students have progressed each week in their part of the school.  Our fall DTS students showed up for the audience, so it was a full house as you can see from the picture below!

Full audience for todays debate

This is a picture of the grading ballot our judges fill out for each debate.

"Battle Packs"

Above is some stuff that is in what I call our "Battle packs".  We take these things on the streets with us because you never know whom you will speaking with.  Having specific cults literature available to discuss with them has proven to do two key things.  First, is it shows them you really do have an interest in what they believe, and second, it allows us to share how those beliefs line up or do not line up with what Scripture teaches.  

Skeptic and Defender Debate #5 "Creation vs Evolution"

Friday was Halloween...so our students asked if they could dress up in costume for our weekly debate.  Sure i said.  Despite the light heartedness of the attire, the students did a great job in the professionalism of their debates.   Each week they grow more confident.  

Ghosts, Goblins and Spirits!

Since Friday was Halloween, we decided to ask people on the streets about the above question.  It was a VERY heavy afternoon spiritually speaking.  I myself spoke to three people heavily involved in Wicca.  i shared the Gospel with two of them, the other guy just wanted to argue.  These particular guys had just that morning cast spells on themselves and others.  This stuff is not joke here in the northwest.  Wicca is huge.  I also spoke to another lady who grew up in a home in where her mom was, and still is, a psychic.  She shared with me how "ghosts" (I call them demons) visit her and her mom all the time in her home.  How she has one in particular that will stand in their hallway at night.  We spoke for about 30 minutes in where I shared the Gospel with her and challenged her to consider what she was messing with, and that all those ghosts were just demons that Satan uses to keep people away from the truth....even if those ghosts are in the form of passed loved ones.  She asked how i knew that and I was able to go through some scriptures with her in regards to this topic.  

Temple Tour # 5 Church of Christian Science

Our temple tour this week took us to the Church of Christian Science.  The lady who gave us the tour was very kind and did a great job.  She was actually one the the "healers" that the church has.  This to me was one of the scariest tours in terms of doctrine because they claim to be Christians.  It does not take long to read the writings of their founder Mary Baker Eddy to realize that it would be impossible to say that her teachings and those of the Bible are compatible.  I am hoping to continue my discussions with Melissa, the lady who gave us the tour.

A Week Looking at Creation vs Evolution

This past week we had Suzy Clark a biologist from Mount Hermon in California come and speak on the topic of Creation and Evolution.  It was a great week, and the students spent a lot of time looking at the many different theories, debates, etc...in regards to this topic.   At the end of the week, it was very clear to our students the overwhelming evidence for the existence of a Creator.  It is amazing to see how much of our elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and universities almost all educate our kids with the understanding and assumptions that we were all formed by chance. Scary to say the least!  

Temple Tour # 4 Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses

This past week our students went to a local Kingdom Hall to hear about the Jehovah's Witness faith.  This was the first time for all our students ever being in one.  It was once again a fantastic way for the students to hear from another viewpoint, and then match it up with what scripture teaches.  It was a very different type of temple tour, as the Jehovah's Witnesses kind of "preached" to us about why Jesus is not God in the flesh, and was a created being.  So sad to see people believe such a lie.  Anyway, our students left feeling more equipped and aware of where to take Jehovah's Witnesses to when witnessing with the scriptures.

Dealing with Tactics, Abortion, Homosexuality and Good and Evil

This past week we were blessed to have two guys from Stand to Reason ministries come and teach our students.  These guys travel all over the world teaching on apologetics, and we sure were fortunate to have them with us.  The first two days, Alan Shlemon spoke on tactics in defending the faith.  This was a great tteachingthat helped our students learn how to effectively communicate with people.  Alan then took on two very difficult topics, homosexuality and abortion.  Amazing teaching to say the least.  What I loved about his teaching was his sincere love for people, and how loving people must be before all things when witnessing to them.

The second half of the week Brett Kunkle from Stand to Reason spoke on some deep topics as well.  Good and evil, the existence of God, and a few others.  Brett has a ton of experience with college students and our students really related to him well.  No doubt, a great week all around!

Skeptic and Defender Debate # 3 "Salvation Can or Cannot be Lost"

The above picture is of the winning side of our thrird Skeptic and Defender debate.  Each week our students are improving in so many ways as they hash out tough issues in front of a live audience and judges panel.  This past week they tackled whether or not a person can lose their salvation.  It was a great one!  

Temple Tour #3 Bahai Faith Center

This past week our students visited a Bahai Faith Center for their temple tour.  Once again, a very beneficial eye opener for them. These temple tours are driving our students to know more and more why they believe the Christian faith to be the true faith that has the only answer.

The Lordship of Jesus

This past week our students were asking questions to people on the street about the Bible.  I started to talk to a young couple who were very open and our discussion quickly turned to the concept of absolute truth vs relative truth. I could see the layers of their unbeilief begin to unfold as I shared some truths with them.  Then, after about 30 minutes of discussion, these two young people said they wanted to give their lives to Christ.  I went a step further.  I told them that what they needed to do was not just accept Christ as Savior, but also to surrender to his Lordship in their lives.  I had a crazy thought and asked them if they would bow on their knees with me rite there on the street to pray and receive Christ.  without hesitation, they said yes!  Although a bit akward, it was a powerful testimony they were making...despite people walking by and cars slowing down to see what in the world they were doing, these two surrendered to Christs Lordship rite there on the corner of Chemekata and Liberty...a corner I have come to dub "Collision Corner".  They live about an hour from Salem, so I called a pastor in that area and he has already followed up with them. Pray for spiritual growth for Richard and Ashley.

Testing the Bible

This past week our students were challenged to know whether or not the Bible truly is God's word to man via a great series of teachings from my good friend Joe Castanada.  Our students looked at the reliability of the Scriptures from historical, archeaological, and prophetic angles.  It was an amazing eye opening week for us all.  If the week could be summed up in one statement Joe made it would be this, "It is all in or all out with this Book. You either accept all of it, or none of it."  

Temple Tour #2 Unitarian Universalist Church

This weeks temple tour was at a Universalist Unitarian church.  This was a very interesting time for our students.  In the end, our students were discussing the craziness of the whole worldview of this church.  To this church, there is no absolute truth, Jesus was just a good guy on earth, and there is a ton of contradictions in their belief systems in which our students saw.  This is why I love doing these temple tours.  it exposes our students to so much, and forces them to look to God's word for truth.  As i always tell them, the more you know God's word, the easier it is to identify false teachings.  This particular church even had dual gender restrooms which took me by surprise.  My goodness what is becoming of our world?

"The Lions Den" Equips our Students

The above picture is of our students partaking in what we call "The lions Den".  This is an interactive training activity I created to help equip students at defending their faith.  One person is in the middle (aka the lions Den), and all the others sit in a circle around them.  We create a scenario, and then the conversation begins in which the person in the middle has to answer 3 questions regarding to the situation.  for example, one scenario could be your in a conversation with some people and they ask you why would you believe in God if there is so much evil on the world.  Thus begins the conversation.  It has proven to be very effective and useful for the students, as well as humbling. We do the Lions Den once a week.

Exposing Cults with Dr. Bob Wright

We had Dr. Bob Wright from Corbon University with us this week teaching on Cults.  It was truly an amazing week and the students learned a lot about the false teaching of Cults such as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, and various others.  Most importantly, Bob taught some great stuff on how to effectively reach out in love to people of these different belief systems.  A nugget of truth Bob left us was some great advice about how to finish strong in ministry.."Keep your sense of humor and loose your sense of smell."  In summary, stay light hearted, and expect ministry and people to disappoint you at times.

Does God Exist? Student Debate # 1

This week was our first "Skeptic and Defender" debates for our students.  They were debating with each other the existence of God.  they did a great job, and it was sure a pressure cooker in there.  We had members from our YWAM campus and local youth pastors and friends form the panel and audience.  The students are eager for their next debate next Friday.

Team of students taking notes and listening to the opposing viewpoint present their case

A Visit to a Sikh Temple

Our temple tour this week was of a local Sikh Temple.  The Sikh's showed us amazing hospitality as we sat and ate delicious snacks and drank tea together. Our students heard about the Sikh faith and in turn were able to ask the Sikh's their viewpoints on many areas of life.  One thing that stood out to our students was how kind and welcoming they were.  "We could learn a lot from their kindness"s said one of our students.  On the same note, our students were broke for how the kindness the Sikhs showed are in direct correlation to their belief in reincarnation and Karma.  Later in the week our students had an hour long intercessory prayer time for the Sikh's of the world.

"Sure, but I'm a pantheistic pagan witch if that's okay."

Our students did an awesome job on the streets their first week.  They were definitely challenged in many conversations.  One of our students asked if she could ask a lady our questions of the day.  In response, the lady said, "Sure, but I want to let you know I am a pantheistic witch if that's okay."  Talk about diving rite in!  In one sentence our student was caught off guard and asked me after he conversation, "What is a pantheist?"  This is why the Outward Apologetics School is so vital.  Pray for our students as they hit the streets three afternoons a week in the school.

The Discipline of Apologetics

This week our students were challenged by our speaker Peter Koenan.  Peter taught on Apologetics as a foundations and spiritual discipline in the life of the Christian.  It was an amazing week and went very deep into theological thought. From worldview, to the problem of suffering in the life of the Chrisitian, the week really forced students to grapple with the tough questions. This week really layed a great foundation for the next 6 weeks of the school.  If I could sum up Peter's week in one thing he said it would be this..."A peacemaker is someone who is willing to go into conflict for the sake of the truth."  

Fall time in Oregon

One of the great things about Oregon in the fall is pumpkin patches.  This weekend we took the kids to our favorite one, and they had a great time.  The kids are now about a month into school, Anders is in 6th, Aidan 5th, Abby 3rd, and Autumn kindergarten.  This of course keeps Sarah pretty busy, as she has Annie and Alistair to wrangle as well.  We are truly amazed at how quick time flies bye.  Kids are a precious gift from the Lord.  I just wish these gifts did not have to grow up so quick!

And We're Off!!

Students have arrived, and its time to get this thing started!

The first two days of the OAS went great, and we are excited to get the ball rolling this Monday.  the first two days were spend doing basic orientation stuff, going through our syllabus, etc... We have a great group of six hungry students, and I am so excited to see how this all goes!

First two days were spend going over our course syllabus, orientation,etc..

Handpainted pictures decorate the classroom

Our "OAS Crest" made by one of our staff.  Our room looks great...with a kind of midevil feel to it

 

Talk About a Full Schedule!

As we begin our Outward Apologetics Seminar. I took some time to count the number of hours our students will be involved in different areas.  It is not an exhaustive list, but I think it will give you a pretty good picture of what life will be like for our students over the next seven weeks.

• Students will spend 108 hours in lecture 
• Students will spend 56 hours on the streets doing the Gospel Guy
• Students will spend 7 hours participating in open forum team debates
• Students will spend 3.5 hours in simulated improve witnessing training sessions
• Students will spend 3.5 hours reviewing video clips of apologetics and evangelism
• Students will spend 6 hours in intercessory prayer for specific cults
• Students will spend 7 hours fasting over the course of the school
• Students will spend 28 hours serving on our campus in different capacities
• Students will spend 2 hours doing open air evangelism
• Students will spend 6 hours visiting different cults
• Students will read 2 books over the course of the seven weeks
• Students will lead apologetics/evangelism training sessions for three local churches
• Students will spend 6 hours participating in the ASK curriculum of Ravi Zacharias Ministries
• Students will spend a TON of time in homework assignements

Youth Pastors Olympics Video

Check out our video of our recent youth pastors video.  http://vimeo.com/106764528

Outward Apologetic Seminar is Almost here!

Starting September 25th, we have 6 students arriving for our Outward Apologetics Seminar.  The day is finally approaching! I have been very busy and put a lot of work into forming this school/seminar and cant wait.  Just a brief look into the school for you.  Our students will be living on our YWAM Campus for the 7 weeks of the school.  Every week we have a different speaker coming in to teach on various things such as Truth, Tactics and Defending the faith, Creation/Evolution, the rreliabilityof the Bible, etc...just to name a few.  Our students week is packed full of teaching, outreach, homework, and activities that will all equip them to reach the lost through effective evangelism which gives people dignity, while sharing truth.  One of the activities i am real excited about is one called "Temple Tours".  Every Wednesday, we are taking our students to get tours and interviews of different cults.  They will be going to a Mormon ward, Jehovahs Witness Kingdom Hall, Universalist church, Bahai temple, Christian Science Center, and a Sikh temple.  Its gonna be awesome.  Starting in two weeks, I will be posting a weekly overview on the blog of things going on in the school, as this will encompass our lives until Novebmer 14th when the students graduate!  Please be praying for our students and this school!!

Youth Pastors Olympics 2014

Great day spent with local Youth Pastors at the Olympics

On September 11th, we hosted our 3rd annual youth Pastors Olympics.  It was a great time, and we raised money for a local work here called Serving Our Veterans at Home.  We had 50 guys signed up, but only about half that ended up coming, but fun was still had by all.  Here is a link to the local newspaper that did a small article and video feed on the event.  Take a look!  http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/life/faith/2014/09/12/silly-games-bring-together-area-youth-pastors/15515751/

Wayne Crowder, director of SOVAH (Serving Our Veterans at Home) recieves honor and shares with our local youth pastors.  Great being able to honor vets through this event

Gospel Guy Growing

Bennett, one of our staff, prays for a man who is doubting the existence of God

We would appreciate your prayers as we have been getting more and more interest from local churches who would like to participate with the Gospel Guy.  With my upcoming Outward Apologetics School coming up, we are going to be doing the Gospel Guy 3 days a week with our students, so I will have to put the networking with churches on hold for a bit. But it is clear that we are on the verge of entering a new season with the Gospel Guy.  I am excited to see how we develop the Gospel Guy.  Prayers appreciated.

A Vacation for the Memory Books

Each summer we try and vacation at one of our nations National parks. After living in Russia and traveling in many parts of the world, we realize how privileged we are in this nation to have these amazing parks.   This summer after our busy Mission Adventures season we had planned to drive down to Yosemite and the Redwoods. To make a long story short, out of a 7 day vacation we ended up in Yosemite only two days, spending the rest in obscure small downs stuck in hotels as our van broke down time and time again!  The Redwoods will have to wait for another year.  It was definatley a vacation that we will never forget.  By the way, despite all the stress and issues with the van, we did enjoy the two days in Yosemite...even though we ended up having to take a bus into the park because of the van breaking down!  Fun times!

Kids enjoyed playing and swimming in crystal clear rivers in Yosemite

The family truckster got another badge this summer as we FINALLY got to Yosemite