OAS Comes to an End

On December 14th, after 12 weeks of hard work, our Outward Apologetics School students graduated. The past 3 months doing life with these 10 students has simply been amazing.  I am so proud of all of them for sticking it out. I am so excited to see what the future holds for them. Two of them will actually be coming back to YWAM Salem to volunteer with us for a few months which I am excited about. One amazing testimony from our graduation ceremony. At the time of our graduation, we still had students owing finances to the school in the amount of around $2,000.  In my years in YWAM, I have seen God provide last minute in multiple ways, however this one was by far the "latest" biting your nails type of thing. As I was handing out diplomas, I had to let the 4 remaining students know that they could not get their diplomas until their tuition was payed off.  They already knew that so it was not a surprise, but it was still dissapointing for them to not recieve the diploma. As I am giving out the diplomas, one of our students looks art her phone and starts crying. She received a text that she got a large ananomous donation which would cover her school. She did not stop there. Apparently it was large enough that she gave the rest that others owed to cover their cost to! It was a room filled with tears I tell you! What a provider we have in Christ!

We enjoyed a festive graduation meal at our staff Melissa's home

In our last week of the school, we had many neat activities we did for the students.  The above is of them doing a "memory timeline" of the past 12 weeks. So good to reflect on the faithfulness of God over the past 3 months. 

Christmas Carolizing and Salvation

This past December was filled with "Carolizing". I was so blessed to see this go over so well.  We did it many times with our OAS students and had a few churches also participate in the city.  This was a great way to get Christians sharing the gospel intentionally over the Christmas season.  One quick story I have to share. We went down to a college campus to do some Carolizing one day only to find out the campus was already on Christmas break.  So we decided to just go to the mall in that city and Carolize outside.  While we ere doing it, I asked the head security guy if we could sing inside the mall. He brought me to the mall manager, I explained that we were the "Cherry City Carolers" (hey, technically we are if you think about it) and wanted to sing in the mall. Long story short, we ended up on a bug stage in the middle of the food court singing before Christmas shoppers! (By the way, this exact scenario played out at various malls in December for us, it was a blast).  After we were done, I walked up to the security guard and began to talk to him. I noticed the whole time we were singing he was listening intently. He had never heard the gospel.  In an amazing discussion and sharing time, this man surrendered his life to Jesus...in the food court of the mall...while on the clock at work! What a faithful God we have.  There are many other testimonies of how Carolizing worked in the loves of people, but I think this one was the icing on the cake type of story. 

This particular church, which happens to be the one we attend, was able to do Carolizing in the Sky Bridge of a local mall. We also were able to raise some $ for the Salvation Army while doing it.

The familiar site for us this December...

The Yankees and the Red Sox

The above picture is of me and a friend I recently met named Moose.  I was downtown doing evangelism with our OAS students.  That particualar day, we were doing our coffin outreach in where we are simply asking people what they think happens when you die.  I noticed this man above walking towards us and asked him if he had a second for a question, he politely said no and walked passed us.  At that exact moment I felt the Lord tell me that I need to try again to approach him. So I turned around and noticed his Yankee cap.  Without really thinking I just yelled, "Go Red Sox!". He literally stopped in his tracks and turned around and with a friendly smirk on his face said, "What did you say?"  The next 45 minutes we spoke about everything from baseball, to family, to hobbies, until we got to the most important menu item on the day, the gospel.  Moose had never heard the gospel before.  He was super open and curious.  I was able to clearly explain the way of salvation to him and pray for him, and give him one of our Bibles we always give out.  Moose did not give his life to Jesus, but he walked away curious about this man Jesus more that when he approaches us.  I wanted to share that story because I feel it highlights something important.  Just because someone says no does not mean God is not working.  Keep pouring into those you love.  Keep planting seeds of truth.  Do whatever you can to start a conversation...even if that means offending a Yankees fan!

You've heard of Christmas Caroling...but have you heard of Christmas CarolIZING?

I wanted to share with you all a new idea I have that I think will revolutionize the Christmas Caroling industry (if there is one...is there?). Anyway, I was thinking about caroling, and I was thinking about doing it this December.  Then I began to think about the idea of mixing Caroling with evangelizing....Carolizing!  So, I introduce to you Christmas Carolizing!  The idea is very simple but serves a couple purposes.  Here is how it will go.  I am selecting certain Christmas Carols that are grounded in the Biblical story of Christmas. We sing them, and then in between Carols one person steps up to an open mic and open air preaches a 3-4 minute message that connects with the particular carol just sung.  While this is all going on, we have others walking around doing evangelism as well. I am super excited about this, and we have begun to put together an actual packet for churches and people to use so that they too can do the outreach.  Christmas Carolizing!  We will be doing this multiple times before Christmas, every time in a very public area.   The point of this whole thing is to challenge believers not just to go around singing Carols, but to preach the gospel.  I am writing a scripted message for each carol, for those that may not feel comfortable sharing something off the cuff.  Who knows, maybe you would like to do this with a group from your church?  If interested, let me know and when our booklet is complete I can send you the file.  Go, Tell it on the Mountain!!

OAS Going Strong

Our last weeks speaker Randy Dewater teaching on the doctrines of heaven and hell

We are now in our 8th week of the Outward Apologetics School. It is flying bye so quickly.It truly has been amazing.  To try and fit all that God has done in an update is tough.  Our students are growing in tremendous ways and have engaged every different aspect of the school with tenacity and grit.  We ask your prayers as we have one more month of the school, which ends December 16th.  Please pray for finances, as many still need funds to pay off the school. Pray for perserverence as many have kind of hit the "mid school slump" and have gotten tired, and need some encouragement.  This week our speaker will be speaking on Creation and Evolution.  Each week the teachings have been tremendous.  Since our last update a month ago, we have covered topics like Church History, Cults and the Occult, and Evil and Suffering.  

Every Thursday afternoon our students are studying through the Apostles Creed. Another unique component of the OAS. 

Every other week we have an activity called Traffic Light in where we look at and study the doctrinal statements of various cults, etc...

Weekly intercessory prayer with the whole YWAM Campus.  If you'll notice the tape on the ground...our intercession team literally made a map of the city of Salem on the floor as we interceded for our city.  Pretty cool!

Two of our students Brock and Nancy doing Gospel Guy outreach.

Students with our "Take Your Pick" table doing outreach

Alistair Turns 5

October 24th our little Alistair turned five years old.  He is literally is the sweetest little boy you can imagine.  He was pretty excited for his presents and day of fun. Little fin side note...that birthday sign above his head has been the same one we have used for all the kids, for every one of their birthdays!  Still going strong!

Pumpkin Cannons, Cider and Donuts

The OAS is a very intense school, and its important to every know and then let the students kick back and realax.  This past week we went to a local pastor friend of mines place and spend the afternoon shooting pumpkins out of a pumpkin cannon, drinking cider, and eating donuts.  It was a beautifull crisp fall afternoon here...no rain!  So blessed to have friends who are willing to bless our students in this simple yet fun ways.  One cool note, the particular church my friend pastors (which happens to be the church we attend) also is one of the Gospel Focus Ministries local supporters.  Super cool. Our fall weather here has truly been unbelievable.  Hardly any rain. 

Pumpkins ready to get shot out of cannon

Pastor Chris and the Cannon