Mission Adventures 2014 WAVES Conference

This weekend I will be heading to Orlando, Florida for our annual North American Mission Adventures WAVES gathering.  I am really looking forward to this conference, but at the same time I will not look forward to being away from the family.  We currently have 19 YWAM locations in North America that are running Mission Adventures.  This is an increase of 8 locations in the past year and a  half, which is tremendous growth! 16 out of those 19 will have representatives present for the gathering.  Please lift this conference up in prayer as we worship, meet, plan, strategize, and seek the Lord for the future of Mission Adventures in North America. I sit as the chairman for MA in North America, so I am very encouraged at what I see the Lord doing in this amazing ministry nationwide, and am excited for the 8 new locations and seeing them get off the ground. Should be a great time.  Please pray for Sarah and the kids while I am away.  I am sure I will owe her a few dates upon my return!

A Street Musician and Good Friday

Today was Good Friday, and I went downtown to do the Gospel Guy.  There were a lot of people out today as the weather was wonderful.  The above question was the one I was asking. I had a few real good conversations, some not so good, some horrible. That's usually the way street witnessing goes anyway.  There was one conversation i had that went fantastic with a street musician named Isaac.  Isaac is in the picture below, and he is on the street quite often when I am doing Gospel guy.  Today I decided to actually see what he believed about God, Jesus, etc...  I asked him what he though about God.  He answered that God is what we want him to be.  I asked him what he thought would happen to him if he died, and he said that nothing would happen, he would just cease to exist.  We spoke for about 30 minutes, and I was able to challenge his thinking through many illustrations, sharing scripture, etc... By the end of our talk, as I presented the Gospel to him, i actually thought he was ready to repent and trust in Jesus.  But then he told me he was not ready yet.  I did not force him.  I gave him a Gospel of John and went my way.  Pray for Isaac.  He is 19 and searching for truth.  It was for people like Isaac that Jesus died for.  Another interesting thing I thought about today was how many people stop and listen to Isaac play his music (which is beautiful by the way) and throw him a buck or two.  And yet, they often glance at me, my sign, and simply walk on bye.  Here Isaac is offering music, and people are interested.  Here I am offering the greatest news in the history of the world, and many don't even give it a thought.

A Week Teaching in the DTS

This past week I taught in our Spring DTS on evangelism.  It was a quick turn around as I just spoke in the Winter DTS at the end of their school, and for this school I was scheduled in the second week.  It was a great week, and as always I learned a lot as well as had the priviledge to teach the students.  This particular group of students will be heading to Rwanda and Tanzania in 10 weeks for their outreach.  This group will be doing evangelism with me and my co worker Ryan every Wednesday for the duration of their lecture phase here.  Yesterday was the first time for many of them to share the Gospel with people.  So good!

Birthdays, Tulips, Baseball, and Hikes!

On April 13th we celbrated Sarah's... 23rd birthday.  It was a great time and the kids made a lemon poppy seed cake.

Anders and Aidan recently started spring little league. 

Spring time here we always make the trip out to the beautiful tulip fields here in the valley.  

The three girls as pretty as the tulips!

Picture of Sarah and the kids last weekend when we took a hike in the mountains.  

A Great Way to Spend Retirement

A while back I met an older Christian man named Mike in a Starbucks I frequent.  I always saw him leading a bible study, and if he was not in a group he was always reading his Bible.  He was an electrical engineer...which means he is a lot smarter than me.  We got to know each other, and long story short, he told me that he has been praying for a way to "simply discuss the scriptures with people". I told him I knew a way.  He asked how.  I told him about the Gospel Guy and invited him to come along.  Today he did, and Mike had an amazing time.  He did a great job, and spoke to many people.  He was so excited after today he asked me if I would be willing to do a seminar in his church for people on evangelism, and then asked if he could begin to come more often.  I of course said yes to both.  But it was what he said at the end of our time together that blew me away.  He said, "You know Tim, I am retired, and I could not imagine a better way to spend my days than doing this."  I put the picture above with a bit of a sarcastic mindset behind it.  Mike is a good example for me.  In a world where many think of retirement as a time to focus on ourselves and slowly begin to die, Mike is looking at it as just the beginning of a new adventure in sharing the Gospel with others!  On a side note, please continue to pray as more and more people are asking to join us doing Gospel Guy.  It has the potential to get way bigger than I ever thought!  Isn't that often how God works?

Jesus Sent Them in Two's for a Reason

I took this picture today while out doing the Gospel Guy.  It is of my good friend Ryan, who goes with me three times a week.  Ryan is one of my best friends, but more than that, he is a great example to me for his love for Jesus and passion to reach the lost.  It is so great to have someone like Ryan in my life and who is rite there beside me as we share the Gospel with people. I was reminded today of how Jesus sent people out in two's.  I think He knew what He was doing when he did that.

Doing the Groundwork for Summer

The above picture was taken this week.  It is of the amphitheater that is located in Salem's Riverfront Park rite along the Willamette River.  It is a beautiful park, and in the summer it is bustling with people.  The people you see in the picture are of our DTS students doing intercessory prayer for the outreaches we will be having here this summer.  Open air evangelism in Salem's busiest park this summer every Thursday evening.  I am so excited for this, and we need your prayers.   How awesome it would be if this place was full of people eager to hear the Gospel preached!  We are going to be going to this park every week to drown this place in prayer until we begin the outreaches in the summer with our Mission Adventures groups.