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. 

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.