Enjoying the Oregon Outdoors

Every winter we try and get out to the mountains for some ice skating and sledding.  This year we are going to try and get some snowshoeing in as well, but our first time out to the mountains the kids had a blast ice skating and sledding.  Great times and it is so great to be able to drive an hour and a half away from the rain and be in the dry snowy mountains of Oregon!  

The kids had a blast sledding.

Enjoying the snow

YWAM Western North America Gathering and NAMALT Meeting

I just returned from a YWAM Western North America Gathering held in Chico, CA.  It was a great time and there were around 250 YWAM'ers representing all of Western North America.  YWAM is goin thruogh some good structural changes, and this gathering was about how that all looks.  Long story short, it was great and so good to see old friends and meet new ones.

The other purpose of my time in Chico was meeting with our Mission Adventures North America Leadership Team (NAMALT).  This is a once a year meeting and I always look forward to it.  We are seeing Mission Adventures programs pop up all over North America rite now, and it is so cool to be a part of it all.  This was a great meeting of goals setting, strategizing, prayer, etc.. for our ministry.  One great take away from our meetings is we are offering 4 internships this year, one in Salem, one in Orlando, one in San Fransisco, and one in Vancouver BC to help YWAM locations in their pioneering of the program.

Gospel Guy Network Prepares to Launch in Salem!

I am super excited to announce that in early 2015, most likely February, we will officially launch the Gospel Guy Network in our city!  What does this mean?  In a nutshell, it means we will begin to see GG started in various churches in our cities.  Churches wishing to join the network will take part in  our "Foundations Training", commit to 3 months doing the GG as a ministry of their church, be involved in a monthly network support meeting and training session, and various other things.  This is HUGE!!!!  Although I have not set the exact date of the launch of the network, I am hoping early February.  It looks like we will start with 3-4 churches and hopefully grow from there.  We really need your prayers for the future GG Network.  I feel the Lord has challenged me to do this and even said, "Tim, my church needs this ministry in Salem."  So I guess we better obey.  Stay posted!!

The Twelve Questions of Christmas Outreach

Starting December 1st, Gospel Guy Ministries started what we call the "Twelve Questions of Christmas" Outreach.  For 12 days in a row, we will be on the streets sharing the Gospel with as many people as we can.  Some of the questions we have asked are, "Would the world be different in Christmas never existed? "What makes a gift a gift?"  "Do Christmas and heaven have anything in common?"  What we have seen is amazing opportunities to share the true meaning of Christmas.  You know, you hear a lot of different meanings for this holiday, but at the end of the day, it is the simple fact that Christmas is about a holy God humbling Himself to rescue the souls of man. This is the message we preach.  Please continue to pray for the rest of our outreaches.

OAS Ends!

This past Friday our 6 students graduated from the Outward Apologetics Seminar.  It was amazing how quick the past 8 weeks went!  They all did a fantastic job during the school.  I could write a novel on all the amazing things that happened, but most of it I have encompassed on our weekly updates.  The students last week was what we called their "project Week" in which we had them do a number of different things.  To sum it up, take a look at the below pictures and the text below each one explaining them.  I am super excited for how the OAS is going to grow.  Plan is rite now to run a full 12 weeks school next fall.  

Our students taught on evangelism and apologetics in local youth groups

Students had a 60 question Final Exam on the weeks of lecture

Students shared the Gospel in the open air t our city park

Last day of school our students went to different areas of our city for reflection.  This is taken in front of the famous Circuit Rider Statue commemorating the early pioneer missionaries who brought the Gospel to this region

The last morning of the OAS, our students shared the Gospel on the streets of our city. This is the point of why we do the OAS..to equip others to share the Gospel 

Puppet Making, Alistairs 1st Birthday, and Trick or Treating!

Anders has been making home made marionette puppets and selling them to make some $! Creative kid!

Alistair turned 1 on October 24th!  Time flies

Kids had a blast on Halloween.  Anders and Aidan had homemade costumes!  

Searching for Truth...Finding the Savior

On Monday we hit the streets with our students to do Gospel Guy.  My friend Tom who was our speaker for the week joined us.  It was typical day, some good conversations, some not so good.  As I was talking to Tom a young man named Jordan approached us.  Now plese note, that is a very uncommon thing to have someone approach us and engage us in discussion without us having to take the inititative first.  Tom and I began to talk to Jordan.  I do not believe i have ever seen such a hunger in a young man to be sincere and seek truth.  He shared his life story with us, in how he grew up in a Chrstian home and left the faith mainly because of so many unanswered questions. My friend Tom did a great job answering his questions, and in return asking some great questions to get Jordan thinking.  Long story short, in the end, Jordan nelt down on the pavement on the corner of Chemeketa and Liberty streets in downtown Salem and surrendered his life to Christ.  I called a local church and introduced Jordan to the pastor. Pray that Jordan's new found faith in Christ would grow deeply and richly.