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.