OAS 2016

On December 16th, we graduated our 13 Outward Apogetics Students. These past 3 months have truly been amazing. Could nit be more proud of our students. We look forward to next September when we run the school again. Thank you all so much for your prayers over the past 3 months. 

One More Week of the OAS!

A new outreach we do.  Simply ask people what things come to mind when they see certain pictures. Great ice breaker.

We officially have one and a half weeks left of our Outward Apologetics School!  The past 3 months have flown bye, and our students have been absolutely amazing.  Since our last update, the topics we have covered have been: Bible Overview, Evangelism, Islam, Cults and the Occult, and Church History.  Every week our students have been fire housed with new information, coupled with 12 ours a week of outreach with Gospel Guy. In this school we have seen around 10 people come to know Christ through the bold witness of our students.  One story in particular that really stands out is one of our students Hosanna has been meeting regularly with one girl she met while doing outreach. Last week, this girl gave he life to Christ!  Hosanna was so encouraged! Our last week of lecture will be on the topic of heaven and hell, followed by three final days which consists of an outreach up to Portland, a final 100 question test, and our students will be split up into three groups and will be teaching in different churches in our city on the topic "Five Reasons I am A Christian."   

Three rugby players I witnessed to in the mall. the guy on the right gave his life to Christ.  It was beautiful.

Alistair Turns 3!!!

Our little Alistair turned 3 on October 24th.  What a little jolly kid he is!!

Speaking in a DTS

This past week I took Abby and Autumn with me up to Washington to speak on evangelism in a DTS up there. It was a fantastic time, and my staff back in Salem did an excellent job running the OAS in my absence.  I look speaking in these schools, and of course the added bonus of having the girls with me makes it all the more special!

One thing I have the students do is share the Gospel with their fellow students.

I love the international feel of YWAM!  Above are students form the school I taught in...an Indian, a Sioux Indian, and a Mongolian!  How cool is that?

Abby and Autumn loved our time together as did I.  They had a blast playing on the shores of the Olympic Peninsula.

5 Weeks Into the OAS and going strong!

We are officially 5 weeks into our Outward Apologetics School.  It has been going great.  Our students have all be putting their all into the school.  So far the weekly topics have been on "Evidence for God and the Ressurection", "Science and Faith", "Authority of Scripture", "Christology", and this past week was on "Creation".  Please continue to pray for our students as they continue on!

Friday Morning "Skeptic and Defender Debates".  The students are growing in leaps and bounds in their ability to give very compelling cases.

Tim Barnett from "Stand to Reason" ministries teaching on Science and Faith.  Our speakers have been fantastic thus far.

With 12 hours of outreach doing Gospel Guy a week, our students are taking what they learn in the classroom and applying it!

Thursdays we go on our Temple Tours.  So far, they have been to a Universalist Church, Mormon church, Bahai Faith Center, Unity Path Center, and Sikh Temple. 

Wednesday morning is our "THINK" activity.  Students wrestle with tough passages of Scripture that are often used against Christians to attack the character of God.

Gospel Guy Ministry Continues to Train and Change Lives!

This past month at our Gospel Guy Network Training  time we heard form a local pastor who has been with us for a year and a half share.  It was an awesome time to hear his perspective as a senior pastor what God has taught and is teaching him and his church through the ministry of the Gospel Guy Network.  Another testimony is that in this very first week of our OAS students doing Gospel Guy, four people came to Christ!

Pastor Craig Smith sharing

Outward Apologetic School 2016!

We have finally started our Outward Apologetics School and are very excited about it!  Above is a picture of our students, who will be with us the next 12 weeks to learn how to defend their faith and share it with others.  Our first week has been amazing.  Our topic was "Evidence for God and the Ressurection".  Our teacher was a man named Fred Allen, a local guy here who was a professor at George Foxe University.  Teaching was dynamic and probably the best teaching i have ever heard on both those topics.  Students were challenged!!

School staff.  Great group of guys.  So blessed to serve and work with friends who love Christ.

Some classrooom decor!

Some required readings for our students

Welcome dinner for all our Fall quarter students

Our speaker in the past was an English literature professor...hence very articulate and animated fella

First of 11 "Skeptic and Defender" Deabtes

Family Vacation 2016

We returned about two hours ago from our summer vacation where we met Sarahs's folks in Grand Teton National Park. We had a great time.  Time flies to quick during these times.  

We did a ton of hiking around

Picture taken is where the western  movie "Shane" was filmed

Kids had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma Beckstrom

Reki Gets Baptized

I had the amazing blessing of being asked by Reki from PapauNew Guinea who gave his life to Christ about a month and half ago (I wrote about that in a previous blog) to help baptize him.  This was a truly special day.  I never would of thought the Lord would give me the priviledge to lead a man from across the globe to Christ and then help baptizer him here in Salem.  the Lords ways are truly amazing.  Pray for Reki as he gets ready to go to Mongolia on his DTS outreach.

Mission Adventures 2016 Comes to an End

The first week of August we hosted our last summer Mission Adventures group.  It was a big group of about 50 students from a church in Idaho.  It was a fantastic week and a great end to the summer.  Stay tuned to see how many high school students we sent on mission trips this year through Mission Adventures in North America!  One thing to ask for prayer in is next April the Mission Adventures ministry will be celebrating its 20th year!  We will be having our annual WAVES gathering in Thailand.  I am hoping to bring Sarah and some of the older kids with me.  Taking contributions for this trip immediately! Pray for this as we fundrase for the trip.

Anders Turns 14

Anders turned 14 on the 26th. How in the world did that happen?  He spent his day working on the YWAM Ropes course, and then in the evening later on that week he did his weekly magic show for our Mission Adventures group.  We are truly proud of him in all ways.  

Anders had the crowd captivated for a solid 45 minute magic show.  

A Witch and a Punch

This past week on Wednesday we had an intense day of outreach.  The highlight of the day was when a 20 year old girl named Moria who is a practicing Witch, gave her life to Jesus Christ.  While that was going on, my co worker Ryan was sharing the Gospel and got punched in the face.  You just never know what is going to happen when you intentionally share the Gospel!   Ryan is fine by the way!  Our students got see all aspects of what happens when we share the Gospel.

Conversations with a Witch

This past week we took our Mission Adventures student on our weekly Temple Tour. We ended up going to a ladies home, named Cleta, who is a Wiccan Priestess (also known as a witch). It was quite an amazing time for the students as she was the first practicing Wiccan many of them have ever met.  I was surprised at her 4 acres of land and how full it was of her "Ritual Gardens".  Pray for Cleta, that one day she comes to know Jesus.  She has lived their since 1974, and we were the first Christian group who has ever come to her place!  Quite sadly, she mentioned how around Halloween when she and other Wiccans are doing their solstace rituals, Christians will stand outside her home and sing real loud worship songs.  No wonder she has not interest in following Jesus.  It would be like a bunch of Wiccan people standing outside a church on Christmas and casting spells and chanting!  I look forward to more conversations with her.

Students having home made tea and asking questions about Wicca and having their beliefs challenged.

Cleta showing us the Ritual Garden.  That is the pentagram of the five sacred elements to Wiccans.

Rheki from Papua New Guniea

The above picture is of some tables we have in our front lawn area at YWAM Salem. In the summer, you can find them filled with people hanging out, eating meals, etc...  This past week, these little every day tables were the setting for probably one of the most amazing ministry times I have ever had.  Ill keep it in a nutshell if I can.  YWAM Salem presently is running a DTS and one of the students named Rheki is from Papau New Guinea.  The school only started about three weeks ago, and I have not gotten to know Rheki very well. All i knew is that he supposedly has like 15 moms (tribal culture) and was sent her by his father who is chief of a village to "get his life on track".  As I saw him sitting alone at a table just looking at his phone, i sensed Holy Spirit telling me to go and share the Gospel with him.  So, I went over and began to ask him questions about his life, etc... Within a few minutes it was clear to me that he did now know Jesus personally, and was striving to earn the approavl of God via works and performance.  I share the Gospel with him, and the Holy Spirit brought him to a place of surrender, and rite there, Rheki surrendered his life to Jesus with tears in his eyes.  He had NEVER heard the Gospel before.  He may have heard portions, but never the full Gospel.  He literally asked me, "Tim, I want forgiveness and I want a relationship with Jesus...but how do I do that?"  Amazing. After he gave his life to Christ, I let his DTS leader know and they threw him a "birthday party"!  They went out and bought chicken and mangos, two things he misses deeply from his homeland.  God is so good.  But it gets better.  The very next day, Rheki went out on the streets with my coworker and they led someone to Jesus! Praise God!!! Couple points to ponder.  Never assume people have heard the Gospel. Always share the Gospel.  And trust Holy Spirits leading.  Amen!

Rheki, rejoicing in his new life in Christ

"Birthday feast" of chicken and mangos for Rheki

Annual Father Son Camping Trip

Summit of a 5 mile hike to the top of MacArthurs Rim

This past Thursday-Saturday the boys and I went on our annual father son camping trip. We vcamped at our favorite spot in Oregon here along the beautiful Metolius River in Deschutes National Forest.  Spent the days hiking, swimming in mountain lakes, and reading bear stories at night. These times are priceless, and they go by to quickly.  The years sure do pass by quick.

The boys exploring along the Metolius River

The Harvest is Plentiful

On Wednesdays, we take our students on the city buses and we preach the Gospel.  It is definately scary, always intimidating, usually awkward, but always fulfilling.  to be honest, it is very hard, and many times people scorn you, or simply put their headphones in.  It's easy to get discouraged.  This past Wednesday, the Lord blessed us with the priviledge of leading a young man named Donny to Christ.  As we got on the bus, i stood up and shared the simple Gospel.  But the interesting thing, was that Donny took out his earphones, rather then put them in. As soon as he did that, I decided that I would preach to him, and forget that others were on the bus.  When i was done giving my message i could tell the Holy Spirit was speaking to him so I sat next to him and began a conversation.  Before he left the bus, Donny surrendered his life to Jesus.  To be honest, I was shocked....that hardly ever happens when we do evangelism on the buses...its usually just the opposite!  But God had different plans for us that day, and for Donny. It was a huge encouragement to us all, and a great reminder that if we would just open our eyes, we would see the fields of the hearts of man are ripe for the Gospel of grace.

Do We Weep for the Lost?

I decided to quick take a picture of one of our summer staff members Melissa.  This was during our prayer time after one of our Temple Tours.  i took the picture about 10 minutes after we got done visiting a Christian Science cult and hearing about their beliefs.  Melissa was broken over their lost state.  Notice the tears in her eyes.  This picture convicts me.  when was the last time I wept for lost souls?  When was the last time you wept for lost souls? This is one of the main reasons I take people on these Temple Tours...so that they could get God's heart and perspective on the lost.

Another Amazing Week of Changed Lives

We just finished up another week of Mission Adventures.  We had a youth group from Idaho with us.  It was the first mission trip most of these students have been on.  To try and describe all the amazing things God did in their lives this week would take forever...it was simply a great week. The students allowed the Holy Spirit to work in their lives, and they stepped out of their comfort zones in so many ways.  One young man now has a calling to go to Pakistan.  One young girl said that the past 4 days was like nothing she has ever experienced with Jesus.  All of them, have already begun to plan outreaches in their hometown.  One of the coolest parts of the week was today actually when we did Crosswalk.  After all the students drug the cross through our city (many of whom had tears in their eyes while doing it!!) they decided that they all wanted to carry it together as a team.  It was the first time I have seen a group do this, and it sure was special.

Students decided to carry cross as a team

What a great group of world changers

Walters Summer

We love the summers here in Oregon.  To be honest thought, it is hard at times because it is also very busy for me with Mission Adventures.  So whenever time allows, you can bet you will find us in the great outdoors!  We also had a great visit with my parents as well.  It was great to see them after 3 years!  

Alistair gets no quarter!  in the Walter home as soon as you can walk you hike!

Grandpa and Grandma Walter and the kids...they were tired by the end of this trip!

Blueberry picking in Oregon!  Nothing like it!  This summer we have picked around 50 pounds!

Our little Annie Rose turned 5 in June!

Outward Apologetics School

Thank you all for your continued prayers for our upcoming fall Outward Apologetics School.  The above picture is some of the students who have applied, and to date we are at 14 students!!!  This is an amazing thing, and I am looking forward to the fall to start this school.  What is the Outward Apologetics School?In case you forgot...check out this link http://www.ywamsalem.org/outward-apologetics-school/ that will fill you  in!  To date, this is the first ever Apologetics school in YWAM!!!!  Pioneering stuff here!!!