March Temple Talk

This months Temple Talk was a bit different as we did not go to any place, but rather thad my Atheist friend David come to our office and discuss his beliefs with us there. It was very laid back, very real and personal. David is a great guy, and did a fantastic job fielding questions, and at the same time those who were present really asked him and were asked some difficult questions to ponder. Please pray for David, that he would one day turn to Jesus. His four main "stumbling blicks" that he had in regards to Christianity are 1) How can the finite even say they can graps the infinite? 2)God cannot be all good and all powerful at the same time. 3) Why do you need a God to explain anything? 4)God stopped being necessary for me when I grew up.  

Rags to Riches...I think...

This is my buddy Ray. Ray is a local legend here in the world of Salmon fishing. Anyway, a few months back I had another strange idea to use for evangelism. I began to think of me sitting in a boat...except the boat would not be on water...but in the middle of the commons area on college campuses. I would use the boat to share my testimony and the gospel. An allegory to the highest degree. As I began to think of this and mull it over, I started to search for a boat to do this with. Enter my friend Ray. He simply said, I have a boat and I'll GIVE it to you. This boat has been sitting behind his shed for years collecting moss. Now, it will be used to reach people for Christ!  I have no idea how this outreach will go, but I am excited for it. To be honest, the feedback from many has been negative and a bit discouraging. But then again, many of my ideas have been met with a strange skepticism...Im okay with that. Anyway, below is the finished product and I plan to have the "U.S.S. Repentance" mayden voyage very soon!  Join me in prayer! Pray for this boat to draw people to Jesus, as crazy as that may sound!

Phone Home Outreach is in the Making

In May, a near bye town has one of the nations largest UFO festivals. A few thousand people show up for three days to do everything from attend UFO and Alien seminars, to partake in the UFO parade and a tone of other stuff. We will be doing a 3 day outreach called the "Phone Home" outreach. Take a look at the above flyer and that will give you an idea what we will be doing. I am very excited to mobilize believers to attend this event to share the gospel with people. Would you please join us in prayer for this event?

Here is what our t shirt will be for the festival

Pulpit to Pavement Expands!

This past month we had the opportunity to head up to Vancouver, WA to join our Pastor friend Randy DeWater as he hosted his first Pulpit to Pavement for local pastors. It was so encouraging to see him organize this event and he had a great turn out. Very cool to see a simple thing like Pulpit to Pavement be something a pastor could use in his own city. As usual, many of the pastors had never done evangelism this way before, and it was great to come alongside and encourage them. 

Autumn turns 10 and I turn 42

On March 23rd our little Autumn Beth turned 10. What a joy she continues to be. Fiercly independent, very adventerous, and highly opinionated. She never shys away from sharing whats on her mind for sure. Time is flying bye!

For my birthday we took a nice hike and celebrated my 42nd

"Ugh...tomorrow is my monthly prayer meeting."

The above picture is of two pastor friends of mine. The first Monday of the month, we gather early at 7:00 am in my office to simply pray for the lost people of our city. I have to be honest, when that first Sunday night of the month rolls around and Im getting ready to go to bed and then check my calendar and remember that I have this prayer meeting, my first reaction is never excitement. As a matter of fact, I grumble, sometimes even try and think of an excuse to cancel. Just being honest. But then, I go. It is just us three. Thats it. But the same thing happens EVERY TIME. As we begin to pray, I am reminded of the beauty of prayer. The joy of gathering with other brothers in Christ to pray for lost people. And at the end of our time, I eagerly await our next months prayer time...that is until the night before that prayer time! You see, we wage a spiritual battle, and prayer is always one of those battlefields that Satan attacks so much. But when we gather to pray, the heavens move, lives are changed, our lives are changed as well. I wanted to share this with those who struggle to keep prayer a priority, rest assured I am one of them. But it is something we must not give up on, and like any Christian discipline, its rewards will reap both fruit now, and fruit eternally.

Sharing the Gospel with a priest

I recently was doing outreach with a friend of mine. We were walking past a beautiful Catholic church and I told my friend I wanted to just go inside the church. I love old churches, so my intentions were purely selfish and honestly maybe even an excuse to get out of the rain. As we sat inside the church, I noticed that the confessional lite was on and that the priest was taking confessions. Im not Catholic, and I had never been in a confessional. As I sat there, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me to go into the confessional and share the gospel with the priest. If you can imagine, ever doubt, questions, and reason not to do that came into my mind. "Are you kidding me Lord?"  Isn't that a bit awkward, if not seemingly arrogant?" As I sat there, i knew that I needed to do it. So I obeyed, and went into the confessional (picture above). To make a very long conversation short, I was up front and honest with the priest and told him I was not Catholic, but I wanted to ask him a question. I then asked him if he knew if he died today where he would spend eternity. He obviously was a bit taken back by the question, but his response was bone chilling. "My child he said, nobody can know the answer to that question." I proceeded further. I shared with him what the Bible says about certainty of eternal life through faith in Christ. I then asked him what he would tell me if I was seeking eternal life. His answer again was bone chilling as it was a works based righteousness type of answer. I left the confessional feeling very heavy hearted. Here was a many counseling thousands of people, and yet I believe he had not a clue as to the Gospel of grace. Disclaimer, I am not saying you cannot know Jesus and be Catholic. I know plenty of Jesus loving Catholics. What I am saying is that the teachings of the Roman Catholic church are not in accordance with scripture in so many regards, as was evidence in my discussion with the priest. Anyway, it was the first time I had even done anything like that but I am glad I did. I never thought I would ever say, "I got to share the gospel with a priest today."

Office Makeover is Done!

After a month of a day here, and a day there, we have finally finished the "upgrade" of our GF office!  We ripped up all the nasty old flooring, repainted, and then layed new donated flooring that we got for free from a local flooring company! We had people from the community who are in some way involved with the ministry give a hand, whether that be when we painted, layed floor, or whatever.  Blessed to have so many folks give us a hand! 

Ri[ping up the old carpet was insane. It was all glued down.  We got it done though!

Rabbi Eli

I would like to ask you all to pray for my friend Rabbi Eli. We have become great friends, and recently after a Temple Talk him and I met up for coffee. We discussed the difference between Christian faith and Jewish faith. It was a fascinating conversation. The Holy Spirit is working on Eli. We have the depth and respect off friendship to really go deep in our discussions. This past one I even asked him if he found out that Jesus was truly God, would he follow him? He answered, "Well, I would be an idiot not to. But Tim, do you know what that would mean to me? Do you know what I would have to do? It would be a slap in the face to everything I stand for."  We recently had him on our podcast (By the way, please subscribe to Gospel Focus podcast if you havent! You can find it on podbean or i tunes) and it was such a rich discussion. Thank you for praying for Eli!!

DTS Graduation

And just like that, the fall DTS graduated this past week. We had the privaledge to work alongside these amazing people each week as we did evangelism with them all. We are presently doing weekly outreach with our Winter DTS, and soon they will all leave for outreach. I am looking forward to spring quarter in which we do not run any DTS's. This will give us a bit of a break with facilitating weekly outreaches for all our students. 

Yearly Council Retreat

Every April, we have our annual YWAM Salem Council Retreat. There are seven of us on this team, though two are missing from the above picture. I am truly humbled and blessed to serve alongside these amazing people. Stewarding a ministry as large as YWAM Salem has takes a lot, and God has blessed us with this great team. All of us wear many different hats on our campus, but all operate in the roles of elders to the great vision of YWAM Salem. Our time was filled with prayer, Bible study, vision casting, goal setting, and even a fun day of snowshoeing in the mountains just to get out of the seriousness of things!  One of the things I love about our council team is how diverse in giftings and even nationalities. We have Americans, Koreans,  and Germans on our team. We look forward to another year of leading the YWAM Salem campus. By the way, if it has been a while since you have checked out all that is going on at YWAM Salem besides the main minstry we run with Gospel Focus, check out our website at https://www.ywamsalem.org/