Why do you intentionally interrupt peoples lives?

I hear people all the time say that they do not do evangelism because they do not want to invade peoples space, or privacy.  I myself have said and thought the same thing.  The problem with these statements are they are simply unbiblical.  We are called to "spread the gospel to all creation"...not just the people we know.  Jesus invaded our world, and calls us to invade other peoples world. The above picture is from a text I received the day after we were doing evangelism at the UFO Festival. I met this young very bright man named Nick who peppered me with questions about Jesus, the Bible, etc... We talked for a good hour, and I gave him my card.  This is something I always do, and I pray that the Lord would lead those who are seeking him to just give me a call so I can continue the conversation. Many times people never call, but Nick did. And there are many "Nicks" in my life. This is why I do what I do. Because there is nothing more important than where a person spends eternity in my eyes, which means every single person I talk about Jesus is worth the rejection, shame, etc that evangelism often brings.  I am meeting with Nick this coming Tuesday. I ask you to pray for him.  When I teach in schools, churches, etc...I often get asked the question about "What we do for follow up?"  I answer in three ways.  First, follow up starts B.C...if we are not following up with people before the know Jesus we are missing the point.  Second, follow up starts with you. You are responsible to follow up with those who God brings down your path. Third, follow up is a hard thing to do...but it is ALWAYS worth it.

Mission Adventures WAVES gathering

Amazing Mission Adventures leaders from different locations in North America....and a snow man that I built...all by myself. :) 

For the past 14 years I have been involved with the Mission Adventures ministry in YWAM.  Part of that involvement has been being the convener of our annual WAVES gathering in North America.  This is the time of year when we try and rally MA leaders to come together for 4 days of worship, prayer, training, fellowship, etc...  It has been my priviledge to be able to lead these times, and in April I led my last one in Madison, WI.  It was a bitter sweet thing for me.  I was hoping to get up to a supporting church in Medford, WI but unfortunatly a mid April blizzard decided I was not going to be able to do that.  So despite that, the rest of the conference went fantastic, and I will always thank the Lord and remember the past 14 years working with Mission Adventures.  I still will be helping with some parts of our summer teams here in Salem, but will no longer be leading from a national level as I feel the Lord has made it clear to me to lay that down in this season. 

Civil War Costume Leads a Man to Jesus

Picture of me leading Marcus to receive Christ in my Civil War garb! I did not know the picture was being taken.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to share a devotional at our weekly YWAM Salem staff meeting.  I decided to teach out of Colossians 3, in particular focusing on the whole idea of putting off the things of the flesh and putting on the things of the spirit.  To illustrate this, I decided to show up in my Civil War reinacting garb. The illustration did its job, and as I was getting ready to head out to a local university that we do outreach at on Tuesday afternoons, I thought to myself, "I am just gonna wear this on the university campus and see what happens."  The costume proved to be a great ice breaker. My "in" with people was asking them if they think my attire made sense in todays world.  All of them of course said no, which then led me to start from the basis of how do we make sense of a world where so many things seem"out of place"...like my costume.  The highlight of the day, was when a 24 year old man, with 2 kids who was a student stopped and talked with me.  Thirty minutes later, he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ.  The crazy thing about this story, is that a pastor friend of mine had literally been praying for this young man at the exact moment he gave his life to Jesus as he had been "trying church out" for a few weeks.  I have realized God works many times through two main things...desire and obedience.  If  you have the desire to see people come to know Jesus, and you obey the voice of the Lord to do it, then lives change...even if that means you wear a Civil War Costume.  Praise the Lord! 

UFO Festival

We recently took a group to do outreach at the 4th Largest "UFO Festival" in the country.  It was in a neighboring town here.  We had a fantastic time. One young man gave his life to Christ, and I made some great contacts that hopefully will allow us to get a tent there next year to actually have a full time presence.  It was a mix of sincere UFO believers, "normal" every day people, and the occult.  What an opportunity to share the gospel.  I cant wait until next year when we have time to plan an actual 2 day outreach through Gospel Focus. It is going to be great.

Simple questions that lead people to Jesus

Set up a table, throw some tarrot cards, crystal balls, buddha statues, and the people show up!

A few local pastors joined with us which was great. Hoping to build on this for next year!

Family News

The Annual Tulip Festival. Gods creation is amazing.

April and May have been a VERY busy two months for us as we have had 3 birthday parties, amongst other things.  Take a look at the below pictures to see what the family has been up to. 

Sarah celebrated her 21st birthday on April 13th

Aidan celebrated his 14th birthday May 6th

Abigail celebrated her 12th birthday on May 8th

Alistair spends some of his days catching crawdads at the YWAM Campus

Autumn continues to be our outdoors girl. Sun up to sun down...she is outside.

Annie and Adalyn love playing in the lawn

PRAISE REPORTS:

1. Salvations this month through Gospel Focus

2. Kids are done with school! We made it another year!

3. Students applying for the Outward Apologetics School

4. More people are getting involved with Gospel Focus

5. Overall safety, and wellness. Praise the Lord.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Continued health for the family

2. Wisdom as we lead our family and ministry

3. For those Tim and Gospel Focus staff have been reaching out to to come to know Christ

4. For provision for homeschool curriculum and tires for our van

Outward Apologetics School Fall 2018

The above is a screen shot picture of the accepted students we have so far for my fall Outward Apologetics School.  I am super excited for this school, and ask you prayers as we hope to get more students for sure.  A real neat thing about this school is that we are having non YWAM ers who are in a "retired" stage of life take the school.  Looks like the school will also be culturally diverse as we have a Canadian, Indian, Russian, and possibly a Sudanese student...not to mention Americans. Please list this school up in prayer.  Here is a link to the school, and I would ask you to please have a look!  http://www.ywamsalem.org/outward-apologetics-school/. This will occupy 100 % of my time from September through December.  The great thing is that this school is so intertwined with Gospel Focus Ministries that in a way I do not have to lay down anything, but rather just figure out a way to run both at the same time.  Should be fun.