Face to Face Continues

This is Kaleb. He is a pastor here in Salem who is one of our Face to Face interns. Great guy, growing so much in evangelism!

We are coming to the mid way point with our first 6 Face to Face interns. So far, the internship has been going fantastic, and I am very excited to see what we can do with our next internship which will start the end of September. So far, we have been getting great feedback from all our interns, and it is very clear to see why God has led them all to do Face to Face. For all of them, the Lord is working in different specific areas related to evangelism. For one of them, it is learning how to listen better, to another, it is learning how to ask good questions, for another, it is learning how to be okay with being rejected. The list could go on and on, but at the end of the day, all of our interns seem to be enjoying Face to Face. We look forward to when all of them complete it and we can then have a good time of debrief and feedback. We presently already have 4 interns lined up for fall, and most likely will add more. Thank you all for your prayers, and we ask that you keep praying! By the way, if your interested in checking out some new additions to our website, please do by going to www.gospelfocusministries.com and check it out. You also can hear our latest podcast in which we interview one of our DTS students who is an ex Mormon. Fascinating discussion!!  

Gospel Focus Podcast

I just wanted to remind you all about our Gospel Focus podcast. We are 20 episodes in, and have been hearing great reviews form our listeners. This is another neat feature of our ministry as we strive to come along side the church and equip for evangelism. If your a podcast person, please subscribe to our podcast and give us your feedback! Stay away from the first 2 as they were pretty choppy! :)  Go to https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gospel-focus-podcast/id1440255303?mt=2 to subscribe!

Evangelism and more Evangelism

As you all know, Gospel Focus is a full time ministry of YWAM Salem. Therefore, not only do we equip the body of Christ in Salem to do evangelism, we are also the primary evangelistic ministry of YWAM Salem. This means that every 3 months, we get a new group of DTS students to train, disciple, and send to the nations.  The summer quarter is an extra busy one for us as we have 13 DTS students going out with us every week, and on top of that, we have 4 straight weeks of doing evangelism with our Mission Adventures program students, which is about 30 high schoolers each week on Wednesdays. We also have the usual people from our city who are a part of Gospel Focus joining with us, as well as our 6 Face to Face Interns. It is busy, but a good busy. So please pray for strength, patience and that we would use wisdom in all situations. Its going to be a great summer of reaching out to our city.

Face to Face Evangelism Internship

Last week we started our Face to Face Internship. We have 6 interns, from all walks of life. Nate in the picture above is a corrections officer who wants to learn how to talk to people about Jesus better. We have a senior pastor, a youth pastor, a retired lady who runs a women's ministry, and the leader of a local college outreach program all doing our internship. We are so excited about this and already are hearing fantastic feedback from our interns. It is going to be a very busy summer running these internships, at the same time as leading weekly evangelism for our Summer DTS students as well as Mission Adventures students. Bring on the coffee. 

All Hands on Deck on a YWAM Campus

Being part of YWAM Salem is such a blessing. One of the reasons for this is I am forced to look outside of Gospel Focus many times and serve the YWAM Campus in many different ways. One of them, is I sit on our leadership team which requires quite a few hats. But one of the great things about being in a community like this, is how we can all help each other when needed. Last week we helped pour a new concrete slab for our Ropes course on our campus and it was a fun time, as you can tell by the above picture, we will do whatever we need to do to make things work!  Jeff and Fred in the above picture are legends here. Jeff has planted over 15 Ropes courses all over the world, and Fred has served faithfully in our maintenance department for years. I learn a tone from guys like these. Mentorship for free!

Pulpit to Pavement

In June we hosted another Pulpit to Pavement outreach. I believe we had about 15 pastors show up and we had an amazing time of fellowship and evangelism. One of the highlights of this day was when a very skeptical pastor of evangelism came, and by the end of the day, he was so encouraged  and even convicted about his heart towards evangelism. Another highlight was that one of the pastors who came, has signed up to be one of our interns for our Face to Face Evangelism Internship! How amazing that a senior pastor would do this with us! We are so blessed every time we do Pulpit to Pavement and we look forward to the next one in the fall time. 

Some of the pastors who joined in on the day

Berry Picking and a Birthday

Oregon is an amazing place to live....in the summer. :)  We have been having a great time on weekends picking blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc. The other day in about an hour we picked 48 pounds of blueberries. I wish I could say that will last us for a long time, but not so lucky. I give it a few days and they will be gone. I blame the kids.  In June we also celebrated our little Annie Rose and her 8th birthday. 

Annie Rose on her birthday