Monthly Temple Talk and Toolbox

In April we took people to a Progressive New Thought church. It is by far one of the most frustrating Temple Talks I have had in a while. If your not familiar with Religous Science, please get familiar with it as it is growing all across the nation. Pray for Rev, Maur, the man who is the pastor there. Our temple talks continue to be eye opening for believers as they intentionally hear about other religions and see how much the gospel is needed in our city. At the end of May, we will be taking people to a Mosque in town for our next Temple Talk. Pray. 

This month at the Toolbox I led a training time on "The Art of Conversation. How to start, maintain, and end conversations about Jesus."  We had a great turn out and I think it went very well. Pray for these monthly equipping times at the Toolbox. 

USS Repentance Mayden Voyage...Amazing and Frustrating

USS Repentance on a college campus

Me sitting with Stephen. Please lift him up in prayer.

In April, I finally found the time to take the USS Repentance out for her mayden voyage at the local college. I have to admit, Iv'e never felt more weird, akward, and judged than when I came dragging a massive boat into the middle of a college campus. The look started immediately. I prayed. Lord, for your glory use this ridiculous boat to bring people to you. Within 5 minutes, after a nudging from my co worker, a young 21 year old guy named Stephen approached me. "Hey man, mind if I shared with you a story of my life using this boat as a metaphor.?" I asked. With a chuckle, he responded, "Sure".  He sat in the boat, and for the next hour, I shared with him my story, and the gospel. He asked questions, we had great conversation and I could tell God was working. And then, to my amazement, Stephen prayed to receive Christ as His Lord and Savior. This was the first conversation I had in the boat. I was in shock and blown away by the faithfulness of the Lord.  There is more though. If I could say how a "textbook" salvation should be, it would have been this one. All the stars alined, Stephen seemed to be very serious about it, understood it, etc. Signs of a true repentant heart were there. He even texted me the very next day, asked for my churches address, and said he would be there on Sunday. He took a Bible from me, and we had arranged to begin to meet every Monday to study it together. He was also interested in plugging into a college ministry group on campus. I was overjoyed.......that is until Sunday came and Stephen never showed up. I have not heard from him since that day. I have called, texted, etc... This to me is one of the most frustrating things about evangelism. You simply never know the fruits of it, even thought at first the fruits appear like they are real. Was Stephen serious? I think and hope so...it sure seemed so. Do I feel like I may have been "given the slip" by a nice guy who just was being nice? Maybe. Am I bothered that what appeared to have been a real salvation, may not of been? Absolutely. Do I ask myself a million questions about this conversation, how it went, why he seemed so genuine, only to ignore me after? You better believe it. Does it cause me to ponder the working of God in evangelism, how He works, what does true salvation look like? Yes. Has thus type of "thing" happened to me before? Countless. Am I able to figure it all out this side of eternity? Nope. Will this deter me from doing evangelism. Never. Why? Because I measure my effectiveness in evangelism through my obedience, not the fruits of my obedience. Will I take the USS Repentance out again. Absolutely. Have I seen people who did not seem genuine at all in praying to receive Christ end up being bold followers of Jesus? Yep. I say this all to highlight that God works in ways we cannot understand. I truly hope Stephen came to know Jesus. Fact is, to this day Im not sure why he never responded. He could have lost his phone, he could have had some big life issue come up?  He could of even died. I have no idea, I have not seen him. I pray wherever he is, he is following Jesus, and I will continue to proclaim the name of Christ to the lost, even if I question it in its results and applications all the time.  So if you've ever experienced the same, I want to encourage you. Stay true to the proclamation of the gospel. Let the Spirit do His work in the lives of all you speak with, trusting Him and how He is working.

And Ministry Rolls On and On

Two college students engaging people on the streets about their beliefs bout the Bible

Ministry on the streets and college campuses continues week in, week out. We are actively doing outreach 3-4 days a week. April has been filled with amazing testimonies. We are working with such a diverse group of people all the time. Here is a glimpse of a typical week this spring. Monday mornings we hit the streets downtown with college students from a local Christian college, along with people from local churches. Monday afternoons we are doing evangelism at a local college campus. Tuesday mornings staff meeting, Tuesday afternoons outreach again on college campus. Wednesday we do evangelism with people at our city farmers market, then in the afternoon are on the streets in downtown Salem. A midst all of these times, we have people from local churches joining us, YWAM DTS students, college students, etc... So it is just awesome, but also very tiring and busy. Pray for strength! 

Farmers Market on Wednesday, One of our favorite places to do evangelism.

Co worker Cole and I decided to try out our banner that we will be using for the upcoming UFO festival

Tables where we engage with college students

YWAM Salem Annual Leaders Summit

For our last day we had a special time of worship and communion outside

Every April, we have our YWAM Salem Leaders Summit for a week. It is the week of the year we we do all the fun stuff...budgeting for the next year, setting calendars, adjusting strategies, etc... This year was a great time. Even thought the days were long with meetings, we made room for plenty of prayer, worship, and sharing times.  Being a part of a campus as large as YWAM Salem can be difficult at times since we are all so busy with our ministries, but it is so good to connect and reevaluate and plan as we all together head in the same direction with YWAM Salem. 

Our Korean staff treated us all to a Korean style barbeque that was out of this world. So awesome to work with people of so many different nationalities.

Family Stuff

April 13th Sarah turned 25. The kids made the day special for her in every way, and there is no doubt in my mind they love her more than me! :)  It was also a big month for Anders. After a tremendous amount of hard work, dedication, and focus, Anders received a $10,000 scholorship from the Experimental Aviation Association that will help him get his private pilots license. So, this month he started flight lessons and most likely will have his first solo flight within a week or two! Unreal, at 16 our son is flying airplanes! We cannot say enough thanks and gratitude for the mentors of EAA in Anders life. They have truly been remarkable. But most of all, we are so proud of Anders and his determination and maturity. He earned the scholarship through good old fashioned hard work. In the end, this scholorship is a huge answer to prayer for us. When we saw his desire to pursue aviation, we had no idea how we could help in the financial part, as it is very costly. Once again, the Lord has provided in an amazing way.  He still has 2 years of high school left, but is already beginning to narrow down some options into what type of field he would like to work in.  All the other kids are doing great and ready to finish school for the year, and since we have 7 kids, if I was to write up a long summary of each of them I would have no more memory available on my laptop. So for today, you got the details of Anders. 

Anders is the plane ready for his first flight lesson

One day he is playing with a toy plane, we blink our eyes and then he is playing with real ones

In mid April my folks arrived and have been here in Salem a month. They sold the farm and now live in an RV and are swinging through Oregon. They have been able to see the "daily life" of the Walter clan in many ways. The above picture is of when they first arrived the kids put on a circus for them.