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!