Sharing the Gospel and Listening to Christmas Music

You Mean I Don't Have To Get Baptized?

It was about an hour before the end of the day and I stopped two young men as they were walking.  They were 22 years old, and on their way to the bar to have a few drinks.  I asked them why the celebrated Christmas.  Our conversation slowly began to take shape, and I began to ask them questions about Jesus, heaven, hell, their life's purpose, After establishing some trust and openess, I asked one of the young men whose named was Gustavo if he died today what would happen to him. He thought for a few seconds and said that he would without a doubt go to hell.  I asked him why he thought that.  His response was chilling.  "Because I have not been baptized yet." I related ot him quickly, as growing up in the Lutheran church this is what I was taught. I then shared the Gospel to him.  It was the first time he had ever heard in his life that His salvation rested in faith in Christ, not in a church tradition. I shared an illustration with him of a dirty car.  Believing that baptism saves you is kind of like believing that taking your car to the car wash once will keep it clean forever.  i am always amazed at hoe the man made doctrines held in many churches are keeping people from receiving the grace offered in Christ.  Pray for Eduardo, and that he would look to Christ for salvation, not a tradition.

Hot and Cold

The first week of our Greatest Gift Outreach was amazing.  I would like to say it was hot and cold.  Some days we had just open doors like crazy, countless conversations, and many opportunities to share the Gospel.  Peoples seemed to be very receptive and willing to discuss what they believe and why.  They were curious about Jesus, and the people joining us felt encouraged.  Then, the very next day, it was almost as if we had a complete opposite experience.  Things went from "hot to cold".  People were non receptive, very angry and aggressive, and it seemed as if we were as Paul said, "the scorn of the earth".  This all is part of the territory when it comes to evangelism isn't it?  One of the reasons we see people grow weary is that they are so focused on experience rather than reality.  Experiences will always waver, truth never will.  We try and remind ourselves of this daily.  That whether things be hot or cold, our witness shall never waver.  The reality is, sharing the Gospel although life giving, can be very discouraging and hard.  This should not surprise us, and may we always look to Christs example to not grow weary in proclaiming His name.

Greatest Gift Outreach Week One

This past week we started our Greatest Gift outreach.  The above picture are of some people from 4 different churches who are part of the Gospel Guy Network who hit the streets with us.  this week alone we saw 15 different people participate in our outreach.  What a blessing to see the body of Christ come together for this outreach.  One of the great things we have noticed is that all these people have different fears when it comes to evangelism, but through the Gospel Guy, they are overcoming them and becoming more bold in their witness.  God is so good!  Please continue to pray for this outreach as we hit the streets again on Monday!

Greatest Gift Outreach

Starting December 1st, we will be doing the Gospel Guy every day  Monday-Friday.  We ask that you please keep this outreach we are calling "The Greatest Gift" in your prayers.  We are asking the Lord for people to come to know Christ every day.  Pray for endurance, wisdom, and the lost to come to know Jesus.  All the network churches that are a part of the GGN will be taking part as well.  Its going to be awesome.

Last office Picture...I promise.

I figured I would keep you all up to date on the progress of making the GGN office more comfortable.  Above is a handmade table and world map frame made by my co worker Ryan.  This guy is so gifted and we are blessed to reap the benefits of his craftsmanship!  

Every week we write something on our chalkboard and leave it for all passer byes to see.  This little sign has led people to stop on it and chat.  

More and more are hitting the streets

The above picture is of some students from YWAM Salem's Introductory to Leadership School (ILS).  Every Friday we take these guys out on the streets to do the Gospel Guy.  It is so cool to see these students challenge themselves to share the Gospel.  In the picture above there are Americans, Koreans, Brazilians and a Canadian.  The nations are meeting in the GG office and then hitting the streets of our city!  I did some math the other day, and apparently we have a GG person on the streets for around 45 hours every week here in Salem.  This is amazing.

The above picture is of some ILS students praying for 4 siblings on the streets.  These four teenagers have been in church their whole lives, When our team asked them what the Gospel was, they had no idea.  They had never heard the Gospel.  Today on the street was their first time ever hearing a clear Gospel presentation.

Teaching in the Korean DTS

This past week I taught on evangelism in the fall Korean DTS here at YWAM Salem.  All these students are from Korea and it was an awesome time.  This was my first time speaking in a Korean school, and my first time speaking with translation since our days in Russia.  The Korean students were eager to learn and taught me many things as well.  Theses students were truly loving people, eager to know God more and make him known to the nations.  The highlight for me for the week was when they sang me a "Korean Blessing Song"...I attached it below.  Truly a humbling way to thank me for speaking in the school.  

Further Education

Over the past few months, I have been praying about and considering getting more training and education to help me in ministry, and in particular with the Gospel Guy Network and the School of Evangelism and Apologetics I run in the fall. To be honest, I have kind of "hit a plateau" and feel the need to be challenged more and get more schooling.  I have toyed around with going for my masters, but after prayer and thought, now is no the time.  So, I have decided to take an Apologetics program through Biola University.  It is a course that in the end will give me a "Certificate of Christian Apologetics" and if I decided later on to go for my masters, it would be credited to that.  It is your basic go at your own pace type of distance learning.  I will be doing it with a co worker of mine which I am real excited about as it will help me stay accountable.  The Lord has provided the funds for me to do the course through the generosity of His people, and I am truly grateful.  If your interested in checking it out just go to http://www.biola.edu/academics/sas/apologetics/certificate/.   I would appreciate your prayers for me as I do this course, and that what I learn will help me further His kingdom in my life, and the ministry we have here in Oregon.

Maybe I Should of Been a Decorator?

Just thought I would send a picture of how the office is slowly coming together.  We hung up some old pallads and painting some pretty convicting scriptures on them.  Never thoughtt I would be on the cutting edge of interior design.

Each week we have a different thought or question that people who walk by see daily

Table Talk Thursday

The above picture is of a table in our Gospel Guy Network office my co worker Ryan made.  He intentionally took some old wood that was to be thrown out and through his awesome giftings, made a great table out of it. We call it the Redemption Table.  Anyway, I would like you all to begin to pray for ministry that will be happening around this table on Thursdays...it is something we are going to call Table Talk.  Every Thursday, we will be inviting non Christians to come in and dialogue with us in regards to spiritual matters.  This upcoming Thursday, we will be discussing, "Who is God?" with someone from the Christian Science cult.  I am very much looking forward to these times together.  Please begin to pray that over time, people would come to know the truth via the discussions we have with them around this table.

Remember Lot's Wife!! Are you kidding me Lord!?

Remember Lot's Wife...that is what the Lord told me to preach on this past Monday night while speaking in the DTS up in Discovery Bay for their Monday evening community service.  There was just one problem, I had already planned a teaching for that evening, and it had nothing to do with Lots wife!  I told the Lord that I had already prepared a great sermon for the evening.  He told me He did not care, and I was to speak on Lots wife.  I begged and pleaded with God, that's not the type of thing you preach on your first evening some place!  As much as I did not want, to, I obeyed and spend Monday afternoon coming up with my teaching.  I was not to happy to have to speak on Lot's wife, but when God says to do so you better.  So I preached my sermon, and to be honest, I had a tough time because it covers some heavy topics.  Anyway, as we were having coffee and fellowship after the meeting a lady came up to me, and stared my in the eyes and said, "I am the reason the Lord changed your plans and told you to preach on Lot's wife".  I was shocked to say the least, but as she explained what she meant by that it became apparent to me that the Lord had a specific word for that lady through the message.  Obedience to God, no matter how hard our awkward, is always the best choice.  In my teaching I had a phrase where I said, "Hesitation to obedience will result in the isolation of disobedience". This is the word the Lord had for that lady.  In certain areas of her life she was disobeying God and needed to repent and change that.  Moral of the story I guess is when God asks you to do stuff...do it.

A Week in Discovery Bay

This past week I was up in Discovery Bay, WA speaking on evangelism in their fall DTS.  It was a great week.  I think the highlight of the week for the students was when I took thenm out to do evangelism.  For all of them, it was the first time doing anythign like that.  One student was brought to tears during one of our witnessing times.  I was speaking with a young man about the Gospel, etc..  During our discussion, he stopped me and said, "Here is what I do not understand, how could it be that just because a guy died, all my sins would be forgiven?"  I looked at him and sais, "You know, I completely agree, there is no way that just because a man died all our sins could be forgiven...but on that day on the cross, it was not a man dying, it was God who died."  The young man took a few seconds and asked me, "What?  You mean God died?"  I then shared the Gospel and in specifics about the incarnation of Christ.  As he walked away one of the students said that today was the first time in her life that she was brought to the reality that God died for her.  Even hearing it for years in church, something triggered that truth in that discussion.  Just in that one afternoon, students spoke to Muslims, Satanists, Athiests, Wiccans, and many "religous" people. 

It was great having Abby and Autumn sit and listen to me teach.

By far the best part of the week was spending a lot of time with Abby and Autumn.  So blessed to be able to have had this time with them.

I took the students into the city to evangelize.  They were speaking to people about ghosts.  Great time.

Pumpkin Patches and a Birthday

Fall here in Oregon is all about apple picking and hitting the local pumpkin patches for a day of fun. As you can see, the kids are getting bigger by the day.  Alistair turned 2 on the 26th and enjoyed gorging himself on pumpkin pie.

Alistair excited to blow out some candles.

The Birthday Boy

16 Years Later!

On October 16th, Sarah and I celebrated our 16th Anniversary.  We spent the day as any true North-westerner should...in the outdoors.   We hiked along the beautiful Comlobia River Gorge to a lookout place called Angels Rest.  Truly blessed with the faithfulness of God in our lives,marriage, and family!  If you think of it...it also marked our 16th year serving the Lord in YWAM!  Where is the time going?

No justice after death

This has been an amazing month so far as we have been speaking to people on the streets about their beliefs in spirits, ghosts, etc...  We have seen 3 people give their lives to Christ over the past two weeks and have had some other amazing conversations.  One of the things that has struck out to me so far this month in our conversations with people is how so many people believe in justice here on earth, but do not belief in a justice after death.  The logic just does not make sense.  One man in particular was having a tough time grasping the grace of God.  He said there was no way he could believe in a God who would forgive someone as nasty as Adolph Hitler on his death bed if he sincerely asked forgiveness.  I spoke with him a bit about God's love, justice, grace and mercy...but nothing seemed to be getting through.  Then I approached it a different way and asked him that if he had three kids, and two of them turned out good, but one ended up messing up their life, becoming a criminal, doing horrible things, etc... If this person found out they had a terminal disease and were on their deathbed, and they asked to see you and with all their heart asked forgiveness from you for how they treated you as their father and how they messed up their life, would you not forgive them?  The look on the guys eyes said it all.  Of course he would forgive him.  How much more would the God of this world forgive those that deserve justice?  He realized his logic was flawed, and that making the excuse of God forgiving a "bad" person on their deathbed was just a scape goat for the real reason he did not believe in God would not cut it.  I continued to share the Gospel with him and prayed for him.  These past two weeks we have had tons of these types of conversations.

In Our New Office!

This past week we finally move in to the Gospel Guy Network office in downtown Salem.  I am so excited about this!  We could not of asked for a better location in the city and we are looking forward to seeing how this office can be of great use to the ministry.  already on the day we were moving in the guy who was putting our decals on the window ended up sitting there with me for about 45 minutes and I was able to share the Gospel with him.  One of the awesome testimonies of this office is that the rent is being paid by the 5 churches who are part of the network.  What a blessing!  We still have some decorating to do on the inside, but when all is said and done, we are stoked!

Captive by Demons...Freed by Christ...

This month we are talking to people on the streets about their beliefs in ghosts, spirits, the afterlife, etc... the month of October is always a great month to talk to people about this stuff since it is the month of Halloween.  Today, we were asking the question..."Do you believe in the spiritual world?"  As we prayed and asked the Lord to send us the lost, a young man approached us and I asked him the question.  He responded "Absolutely...I have personally experienced this type of stuff."  I asked him to share what he meant.  He went on to explain that there has been a few times in his life where he has been held down in his bed by a dark shadow. During those times he has not been able to move, or even talk.  He said that during those times he feels terrified and is not able to do anything but  wait until whatever it is lets him go.  We went on in our conversation, and I then began to share with him what I believed those "shadows" were....demons mean to keep him from Christ.  As I began to ask him questions, and answer his questions, it became apparent this guy wanted to find new life in Christ.  After speaking to him for about 30 minutes, this young man surrendered his life to Christ and as he did, he said, "I dont know what just happened, but I literally feel a strange tingling in my body and I feel happy."  Don't get me wrong, I don't rest anything in peoples feelings, but I truly believe that Holy Spirit and that time was doing something in him as he became born again.  We exchanged numbers.  Pray that this young man will begin to be discipled and find a good church and mentorship.

Invading Peoples Lives with the Gospel

When we bring people on the streets with us, one of the biggest hurdles we run into is people's fear in not wanting to "disturb" or "interrupt" people and talk to them.  I see this all the time, and to be honest, have experienced it in my own life many times.  However, when we read the Bible, we see God doing just that...invading peoples lives with the Gospel.  Jesus invaded this world to bring salvation, and He brought truth that confronted mankind. I tell people who come on the streets with us that invading somebodies life and confronting them with truth is indeed Biblical, and actually, one of the most loving things you can do for them.  Like the martians in the picture above, we need to invade the world for the Gospel. Today on the streets we saw two people give their lives to Christ because we stepped out in faith and chose to confront them with the truth of the Gospel.  We also had an angry atheist give us an ear full.  When we proclaim the Gospel, truth cuts to the heart of man.  Some receive it, and some do not.  We measure our success in our obedience to the call...not the fruits of our obedience to the call.  I encourage you to invade someones world with the message of the Gospel...for it in the end is truly the most loving thing we can do.

The Gospel Guy Network Video

Please check out this link http://www.ywamsalem.org/gospel-guy/ and take a look at our new promo video for the Gospel Guy Network. God is doing great things.  We should be in our office by October 1st.  Stay tuned!

It Was Actually Comical

There she goes!  

Above is the picture I took of our van...rite after the transmission went out between Kadoka and Wall, SD.  If your not familiar with those areas, just think of somewhere far away from everything and that is a pretty good description.  If you will remember, our van broke down last summer on our family vacation as well, leaving us stranded in California for 5 days...this year however the tranny went out. Long story short, when the van broke downm, we all chuckled and laughed.  Unreal we thought. We ended up staying at a camp I used to work at in the Black Hills, called Outlaw Ranch for 5 days as we waited for the transmisssion to get fixed.  We were blown away by the kindness of so many people, whether it was the nice tow truck driver, a friend who connected us with a mechanic and covered our hotel cost, to Sarah's folks who came all the way out to spend a few extra days with us and help out.  After 5 days, our transmission was fixed and we headed back home to Oregon, arriving safely last night!  What a trip to remember! Thank you all for your prayers during this time.  My advice...if we veer invite you to go on a vacation with us...plan on a vehicle breaking down in the middle of nowhere!

If there ever were a "step" that you needed to do to get to heaven...it would be going to Wall Drug, SD.  Since our van broke
down we had no choice but to go there and take pictures like the one above!

Family Vacation

Three weeks ago, we left for our annual National Park vacation when we meet up with Sarah's folks. Each year we try to hit a new National Park.  This year it was Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.  We had an amazing time, filled with great weather, beautiful scenery, and time spent together.  We then headed to South Dakota for a week to visit with supporters and one of our main supporting churches.  We also, had a great time there as well.  One of the more exciting things that came from this time, was that I got to do a little outreach with our supporting church and share about the Gospel Guy.  Long story short, they are considering having the Gospel Guy planted in Sioux Falls!  I will keep you posted, as I do not want to put the cart before the horse.  But there may be a possibility of me going back out to Sioux Falls in November to do some training with the church and help start the Gospel Guy there.  This to me is super exciting.  I never knew the Gospel Guy would potentially soon become multi-city!  Lots of questions arise, and I am looking forward to seeing how it may possibly come together. 

Autumn with her first Bullhead!  Nothing like cacthing Bullheads in the South Dakota summers!

Getting creative helped make the long drives through the Great Plains bearable

Grandpa and Grandma Beckstrom were kept pretty busy over the past few weeks!

Busy End of Summer and Fall For the Gospel Guy Network

With having to cancel our Outward Apologetics School for this fall, although disappointing, it will allow us to focus a lot of our attention on the further planting of the Gospel Guy Network.  God continues to show His favor on this ministry, and I thought I would just list some of the things we will be accomplishing the rest of this summer and into the fall. 

1. September 1st we are hoping to finally get our office in downtown Salem.  Please be praying for God to use this office mightily.  We still need to raise $ to purchase things like furniture and things so we ask your prayer for that as well.

2. On line Training- We now have our 5 session "Gospel Guy foundations" Training on line and accessible to all our "Torchbearers" in the churches to use to help train the people in their churches.

3. Monthly Exposure Tours- Once a month we will continue to do our Exposure Tours for people in the GGN.  

4. Monthly Training Times- Last Monday of the month we continue to have training times for local churches.

5. Touch Base Meetings- Once a month we meet with the "Torchbearers" of each church individually to help encourage them and help them to see how GGN can work for their churches

6. Gospel Guy Network Promotional Video- By October we will have a great short promo video for the GGN to show to pastors in our city to try and encourage them to become involved.

7. October "Pitch" Gathering- In October, we will be inviting as many pastors in our city as we can who would like to pray about seeing the Gospel Guy become a ministry of their church.  Please  be praying for this time.  We would love to see more and more churches become involved!

8. September GGN outreach/BBQ- In September we will be having all the people involved with the GGN to take part in a joint day of outreach followed by a BBQ.  This is just another way to try and bring all the people from various churches together and show our appreciation for them partnering with us and have some BBQ at the same time!

Outward Apologetics School Cancellation

As you know, last year I pioneered the Outward Apologetics School here at YWAM Salem.  This September, we planned to run the second one, but unfortunately, we have had to cancel the school do insufficient student numbers. I am pretty disappointed at this, but realize that pioneering something often has its set backs for sure.  We plan to run it next fall, and will have quite a bit of time to do more promo about the school to get the word out.  Please be praying for the future of the OAS.  I truly believe this school will one day take off in YWAM and we will see it be planted in other base locations.  One thing that is truly encouraging has been the attitude of all the speakers whom we had to cancel on.  Every one of them was so understanding and all of them asked to be able to speak next fall.  

A Teenager in the Walter Home!

Well, i never thought the day would come...but as of Sunday we will have a teenager in our house!  Anders turns 13.  Where has the time gone?  I took him on a great hike in the mountains here and took this above picture.  Anders still wants to be a pilot.  So, as of now, we are taking donations for pilot school. Any amount is welcome! :)

Welcome to the Northwest

The above picture is taken from inside the Unitarian Universalist church here in Salem.  We take our students on our "Exposure Tours" every week.  On these tours we simply take them into different religious places of worship, cults, etc... to be exposed to belief systems that are not Christian.  i took this picture because it always is a shock for our students to see.  unfortunately, we will begin to see more and more of this stuff here in the Northwest I believe.  People are hungry for identity. May that identity be found in Christ.

Knocking on Doors

Every Tuesday we take our Mission Adventures students to neighbourhoods in our city to do door to door prayer.  Super simple...knock on a door, tell people we are praying for our city and ask is they need prayer for anything.  This outreach paints a great picture of the Gospel message, as sometimes nobody is home, sometimes we get rejected, sometimes we are rebuked, but sometimes people open up for prayer, and then more than that, sometimes we are able to see people give their lives to Christ.  such is the story of the young man in the picture above named Horatio.  I knocked on his door, and from the get go we started off a great discussion.  He actually said he was thinking about God, whether He existed, etc...After speaking to him for about 20 minutes, I asked him what he thinks would happen to him if he dies today.  He had NEVER been asked that question in his life.  Through that question, I was able to share the Gospel to him and the Lord opened his heart and rite there in his doorway he knelt down and gave his life to Christ!   What an amazing God we have!!  Please pray for Horatio.  He helps his father with a trucking business and is away from home a lot.  Pray for him to find a good church, and Christian friends.  I aim to stay in contact with him.

Another Great Week With Mission Adventures

We recently had a Korean church from Portland come and do a week of Mission Adventures with us.  This was a very interesting week.  From the start, we recognized that many of these students seemed to be "walking the fence" with their faith.  We challenged them all week long and by the end of the week we saw a huge turn around in many of the students commitment to Christ.  This was one of those weeks where of course the students shared the Gospel and ministered to many, but I think the main point reason the Lord brought this team to us was that they could be ministered too in various ways.  When we did open air evangelism, I was blown away by how many students wept in front of the crowds as they simply shared about how they were struggling to follow Jesus, and how the only reason they did was because their parents forced them too.  So sad, but to see the Holy Spirit move in their lives was awesome.  God broke through for sure in their lives!

Students having their beliefs challenged doing our "Take Your Pick" Outreach. 

A Life Changing Week

This past week we hosted 60 students for a week of Mission Adventures.  They came from three different churches, one local church, one from Texas, and another from Washington.  This was one of the most memorable weeks of Mission Adventures I have ever had.  These students were hungry for the things of God.  We were blessed to see 7 people commit their lives to Christ through these students.  

My good friend and youth pastor of one of the groups doing open air evangelism

Awesome to see students praying for each other before sharing their testimonies in public

With the large group we held our program in a tent outside all week

Students were challenged standing behind this table and engaging people in discussion

This room was once used of sex trafficking.  Now, it is used for an office for the Salem House of Prayer.  the "Shine Cafe" tour is a powerful part of the week when we highlight the redemptive story of how God can transform a place of darkness into a place of light.

During our "take Your Pick" Outreach students spoke with Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, and many other people with various belief systems.  For many of them, it was their first time talking to non-Christians about Jesus.

Gospel Guy Network Office

What your looking at is the future location of the Gospel Guy Network office!  We have been praying for a about 6 months about potentially renting a small office downtown.  Long story short, after taking our students on our "Temple Tours", one of the place we would take them to was the Christian Science church.  The people there are good friends of ours, and we pray that one day they would come to know Jesus.  Anyway, they are temporarily renting the above office as they do repairs for their larger one.  They asked us if we would like to rent it after they were out...month to month...for $400.  They are not the landlords, but they connected us with the landlords.  How cool is that? A place being used by a cult will soon be used for the Gospel Guy Network!  Pray for us, we do not have $400 a month.  We are asking network church partners to pray about committing a sum of money for an initial 6 month trial period for us to see if this office is worth it. One church has already committed $100!  We hope to be getting it in August. We see it serving 4 main purposes:

1. Continual Downtown Presence 

2. Launchpad for all our teams and churches involved with the network

3. Place to run our monthly training times out of

4. Meeting place to speak with people off the street

Calvary Chapel Soccer Festival

Its that time of year again where i help out at our churches Soccer Festival.  This is a cool outreach our church does to kids in the immediate vicinity where our church is located.  The soccer festival continues for another two weeks so please lift that up in prayer.  I was only able to help the first week a bit as we have MA groups arriving this weekend.

Salem and Yosemite?

This coming Monday starts our summer Mission Adventures season.  The picture above is of myself with some of our staff.  The two in the back right are a couple from Mission Adventures Yosemite.  We helped start their program last year and this year Rob and Sandy came up to learn a bit more about the nuts and bolts of running Mission Adventures.  They will be with us this next week and then head back to host some teams in Yosemite.  This is one of the great things about my job.  Being able to help other MA programs become more effective in their locations.  By the way...the breakfast was killer!