Teaching in DTS's and YWAM Salem

In October I spent a week speaking on evangelism in Washington at the YWAM Discovery Bay campus. I always look forward to this trip each year. It was interesting as I had to stand behind plexiglass while I taught. It was a busy week as I taught for 18 hours. We also did two afternoons of outreach, so it was a busy week.

I taught standing behind this plexiglass screen. Felt like a fish in an aquarium. 

Multiplication

 

DTS students talking to people over Halloween. Great time to talk about spirits, the afterlife, etc...

With running DTS outreaches and our Face to Face internship, we are amazed at how God is multiplying the work here. Please pray as we continue to start new internships, and we ask your prayers for us as the weather turns to rain that we would stay healthy. We are not allowed on the college campuses because of COVID, which means we are outdoors all the time! Fun times!

Ministry Continues

 

Despite the COVID situation, ministry actually has been exploding! Sure, we have made adjustments. Sure, we have to wear masks. Sure, we have had lots of difficult decisions to make, changes, etc.. but in all of this, we have seen the favor of God in so many ways. One of the major areas we have seen growth in is in the area of multiplication. Through our Face to Face internship, we now have 4 additional people who are working with us, all of whom have come through our internship. These are not full time YWAM'ers, but people who have ordinary jobs in our city who have committed to help us mentor people in our internships. They basically give us a 2 hours slot each week and are such a blessing. This is so encouraging and it has been a lot of work to finally see this multiplication factor begin to be a part of our ministry. We also have 3 new full time YWAM staff joining us! So when you boil it down, we have a consistant staff base of 12 people! Another area of growth is simply in numbers. We have presently 9 interns and will be graduating and starting new ones shortly. Having extra staff who are trained, allows us to take on more interns and spread out our weeks quite nicely. We also continue to weekly take our DTS students out for outreach as well. We are seeing people come to know Christ, and we are seeing people equipped for evangelism. I literally can say I have the dream job. 

Our Face to Face Internship continues to grow! Picture is of the "packet" we give to new interns. 

YWAM Salem Staff Conference

 

We recently just had our yearly YWAM Salem staff conference. It was a great three days of seeking the Lord together and reflecting on the goodness of God this past year. These are always special times, and even though we had to make quite a few adjustments because of COVID, a great time was had by all. I think the highlight for me personally for this conference was hearing the testimonies of what God is doing all over the world in YWAM during this crazy time. He is doing amazing things! 

Worshiping the Lord 

One of our staff is going to be pioneering a YWAM base up by Portland over the next 3 years. We spent time praying for this work and hearing the vision behind it. So exciting to be a part of planting other YWAM locations!

Family News

 

The past few months have whizzed by on the family side of things. The kids are all doing great despite the changes in life COVID has created. We have spent as much time outside before the rains come as we can. Back in late August we had terrible fires here in Oregon as I am sure you all know about.  To get out of the smoke one weekend we headed up to Port Townsend, WA to a YWAM base up there. Our first two days were great, then all of a sudden our little Annie Rose decided that it would be a great idea to make things interesting and ended up in the hospital to have her appendix removed! So a weekend trip ended up being a 6 day trip! Praise God for the medical care that we received and for her full recovery! Other than that, life on the home front has been pretty status quo. Thank you all for your prayers for our family, we appreciate them so much! 

Annie Rose in the hospital. What a blessed time we had together.

On October 24th Alistair turned 7. Time flies!

Enjoying one last clear warm day before the rains on the coast!

Trick or Treating was interesting this year. Very odd as all candy was put in bowls in peoples drive ways rather than the typical knocking on doors. Kids got a ton of candy and we had fun. As you may noticed, Anders opted out this year! 

Evangelism During COVID

 

Currently, we are out on the streets doing evangelism 3 times a week rite now. Mondays we take our DTS students out, Tuesdays is a day when past interns and others join us, and then Wednesdays we hold for our current Face to Face interns. Amongst these 3 days, we have about 30 different people doing evangelism with us. It has been fantastic, but we have also had to be careful, and get creative. It has been awkward with masks, and there are times when we have had to adjust what we do, and how we do it. But one thing is for sure, it is a ripe time to share the gospel with people. Please pray for us as we bring the greatest message in the world to the people of our city. I could type endlessly with amazing testimonies of what God is doing at this time. People are responding to the gospel, people are looking for hope, people are hungry to hear the gospel!

Equipping DTS Students with the simple gospel

 

I recently developed a 12 week curriculum for our DTS students called "Repent, Believe, and Follow". This is a simple reflectional study journal that is meant to help DTS students reflect on their "journey of evangelism" during their DTS. The spend 3 weeks focusing on each of the core components of the gospel. So far, it seems as if it has been very helpful to them. Times have changed, and it is very common to have students come to do a DTS that have no ability to articulate the gospel, and in many cases, are not sure themselves what the gospel truly is. This is the world we live in, and we must engage people where they are at, and equip them to become confident in what the gospel is, how it applies to them, the world, and how they can share it with others. I look forward to seeing this be another useful component that Gospel Focus can offer to our DTS program here at YWAM Salem. 

Slogan Surgery

Recently I have been giving a teaching to our students, interns, and anyone else interested in how we can engage our changing culture with the gospel using the popular slogans of the day as our platform to begin conversations. I think it has been received very well, and I have seen first hand people implement the things I have taught them in their evangelism, and it has been so encouraging to see them share the gospel. Here in the northwest, we are saturated with slogans everywhere. Below are just the common ones that you see walking down our city streets. What a great opportunity to engage people with the hope found in Jesus. 

 

Face to Face Graduation

 

Above is our "ZOOM Graduation" for our Winter Face to Face Interns. It was definitely different, but felt great to see these guys get their certificates. We presently have 5 interns doing our internship, and have intentionally kept our number smaller as we navigate things with COVID. The internship is going fantastic, and we are seeing tremendous fruit from it. I think one of the fruits I am most excited about is how we have staff members now who graduated from our program, and now are working with us! This is a such an encouragement to me, and I hope a good indicator of the effectiveness of the internship Our desire is to grow and multiply evangelists, and it appears that is happening through Face to Face. Please pray for us as we continue to invest into seeing others grow in their witness. 

YWAM Salem Summer Quarter

 

The Summer here at YWAM Salem has been interesting. As you can see, YWAM Salem has moved outside for all our gatherings. We have a DTS running, and basically the other summer ministries like our Ropes Course, Mission Adventures are virtually shut down. To put it into perspective we typically run around 5,000 people through our Ropes course a summer...that is now below 500. Our Mission Adventures Program runs around 250 high schoolers a summer...that is now 0.  But, despite all of this going on , we have seen the faithfulness of God in so many ways. One way in particular is in the area of finances. We saw an $85,000 deficit in our yearly budget because of COVID. The Lord, in His faithfulness thorough a massive fundraiser all our staff were engaged in, we able to raise that sum to help us see it thorough the year. We did have 3 students who tested positive for COVID, which was sure a trial, but we are past that now and in the clear. Prayers appreciated as we navigate what the fall may look like here at YWAM Salem. 

Welcoming new students, staff, and volunteers for the summer

Family Life

 

Despite the COVID reality, we have been doing our best to keep life normal this summer, which for us means doing a lot of outdoors stuff. I (Tim) have taken the younger kids camping a few times, and we have tried to do as much hiking as we can. The above picture is of Sarah and I along the Pacific Crest Trail. The kids are all doing great. Staying busy during summer doing things kids should do...reading books, being lazy in the sun, building forts, etc... The boys have taken up Kayaking, so between that and airsoft matches with their friends they are rarely seen now a days. I guess the newest thing would be as Anders is approaching his senior year of High School, he is beginning to think through the next step. This looks like it may take the form of him going to get his AMP in Aviation Mechanics possibly. We have visited a local Aviation school, and he really enjoyed it. Time will tell!

The kids have picked a lot of berries this summer

A day at the coast

Hiking with 5 of the 7

Camping along the Metolius River 

Anders flew out to meet us for a day of hiking. He cannot get enough of planes. 

Letters and Lyrics

As we continue to navigate this time during COVID 19, I am starting a new training component called "Letters and Lyrics...Lessons for the Past, Lessons for Today".  Once a week, we will be studying a letter from past church fathers, theologians, missionaries, etc and with it we will be looking at the lyrics of some classic hymns and studying their history and theology. As we look at these letters and lyrics, we will see how diving into this type of stuff can make us more evangelistic today in our every day life! Our first one is this Friday and I am really looking forward to it! Join in if your free ab able!

"Take a Walk With Me"

When we all went into "Shelter in Place", I began to take 3 walks a day, morning, afternoon and evening. Its great exercise and when its all said and done for the past 8 weeks I have been walking average of 8 miles a day! This has also helped me to loose about 10 pounds which is great, but I guess thats not the point of this post. Anyway, I began to see the same people all the time on my walks, and one day it occurred to me that I have never share the gospel with people in my neighborhood. Sad, but true. I have a ministry in our city thats sole purpose is to share the gospel, and yet, for some reason, I seem to turn that light switch off in my neighborhood. Well, this COVID 19 thing has been a blessing to me as it has given me a new perspective on the mission field of my neighborhood. So now, when I go on walks, I ask the Lord for witnessing opportunities, and boy has He given me them! I shared this with others in our ministry, and it has been so encouraging to see others joining in this. The fact is that rite now, by the nature of being "stuck at home", I have to be that much more intentional sharing the gospel with people. Don't worry, I keep a good 8 foot distance! Please pray for these daily walks, and the many who have joined with me in doing likewise. 

Mormonism

For the past 5 weeks, our weekly Evangelism training has focused on Mormonism. A local friend here who grew up Mormon has been leading our time, and as more people join in our ZOOM meetings, more and more questions pop up which means we simply extend the training each week. It has been eye opening and so beneficial. Actually led me to reach out to our Mormon neighbors the other day!

Weekly Temple Talks

Since Oregon went into "Shelter in Place" back in the end of March, I decided to try to set up our Temple Talks via ZOOM. So far, it has gone really well as we have had on Temple Talk a week since then. ZOOM has opened these up to anyone who would like to be a part, so it has been great having people form all over the globe join us! Please continue to pray for these times as we continue to build bridges with non believers, and ask sincere questions to challenge their worldviews and thinking. We have had talks so far with: Unitarian Universalism, Unity Path, Sikh, Muslim, Bahai, and Buddhist. We plan to continue these for as long as we can or until we run out of people who can host our discussions! 

The "New Normal"

Like the rest of humanity, the Corona Virus has forced me into adjusting what ministry looks like during this time. To be honest, despite the disappointments, there is so much opportunity. Since we cannot go do evangelism on the campuses or on the streets, we are spending more time seeking the Lord in what He has for our ministry during this time. Right now, we are focusing more on the equipping aspect of our ministry. Once a week I lead an evangelism training time for our YWAM staff. Once a week I lead an evangelism training time for our Face to Face interns. Fridays I host a thing called "Quarantine Conversations" which is an intentional discussion with non believers. All of these things of course we do on ZOOM and other social media platforms. So when we lump all these things together, along with normal prayer times, strategy times, it is amazing how full a week can become. Please pray for us as we continue to adjust and navigate Gospel Focus at this time. 

Family Time

January and February are our snowshoeing months. 

Up until the Corona Virus, we were doing our typical family stuff this time of year. Some hiking, some snowshoeing, and we celebrated two birthdays as I turned 43 and Autumn turned 11. During the "home in place" measures we have been doing our best to walk 3 times a day, which amounts to 8 miles a day, and weather permitting taking hikes in the mountains. But even that is getting limited as state parks and national parks are closed! All things said and done, we are truly grateful to have a roof over our head, food in the frig, and to date we are all healthy!

The kids and I on my 43rd birthday

Autumn Beth turned 11 on March 23rd. She is still our spitfire, very opinionated, and independant risk taker of the family.

If you squint your eyes and look about half way up you will see a plane in the background. That was Anders flying over us on one of our hikes. Any clear weather he has, he is up in the air earning hours towards his commercial license.

I took this picture hiking one day with the family. I love them all so much, and these times go by to quickly.

"A Year With the Giants"

Many times I get asked what I do for personal devotions, study, etc.. This year I decided to read a different autobiography or biography on some heroes of the Christian faith every month. January, was John Paton, February was David Brainard, March was St. Patrick, and April I will be reading the biography of Amy Carmichael. I absolutely have loved doing this in my personal devotion time. I cannot help but evaluate my Christian walk when you read these types of books. 

February Reading

March Reading

April Reading

Winter Face to Face Internship

The above is a screenshot of two messages one of our Face to Face interns shared not to long ago about his experience doing our Face to Face evangelism internship. I think it sums up very well what God is doing through the lives of all the people involved. I thought I would let the words speak for the internship. This winter, we had 15 interns, and all were set to graduate until we all had to go on lock down for this Corona Virus situation. January, February, and most of March was packed full of evangelism with our interns. We had 14 signed up for our Spring Internship, as well as already 10 signed up for our summer one. At this time though, we have to put the internship on hold. Please pray for us as we navigate the months ahead.