Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  It was a great 2016 year and we look forward to 2017.  We are truly grateful for you all and your faithful prayers, support, and belief in our ministry here with YWAM in Salem.  This is our 17th year in YWAM!  How time flies.  This year we saw God's faithfulness in so many ways.  Hundreds of young high schoolers changed through Mission Adventures.  Over 8,000 people in our city this year were told of Jesus through the Gospel Guy Network.  And the first ever Outward Apologetics School was a tremendous success.  This next year will be one of transition in many ways for me (Tim).  This summer, I will be passing the baton of leadership over in Mission Adventures.  I have been running this program 14 years, so it will be a big change.  I will still remain involved very much, and committed to the international side of things, but the day to day running of the program here in Salem will be passed on to another person.  This will free me up for more time to invest into the Gospel Guy Network. I am very excited for this.  In May, we are hoping to go to the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Mission Adventures ministry which will be in Thailand.  Please pray for provision.  On the family side of things, we could not be more grateful.  Kids are healthy and growing!  Thank you all for supporting us so much!

OAS 2016

On December 16th, we graduated our 13 Outward Apogetics Students. These past 3 months have truly been amazing. Could nit be more proud of our students. We look forward to next September when we run the school again. Thank you all so much for your prayers over the past 3 months. 

One More Week of the OAS!

A new outreach we do.  Simply ask people what things come to mind when they see certain pictures. Great ice breaker.

We officially have one and a half weeks left of our Outward Apologetics School!  The past 3 months have flown bye, and our students have been absolutely amazing.  Since our last update, the topics we have covered have been: Bible Overview, Evangelism, Islam, Cults and the Occult, and Church History.  Every week our students have been fire housed with new information, coupled with 12 ours a week of outreach with Gospel Guy. In this school we have seen around 10 people come to know Christ through the bold witness of our students.  One story in particular that really stands out is one of our students Hosanna has been meeting regularly with one girl she met while doing outreach. Last week, this girl gave he life to Christ!  Hosanna was so encouraged! Our last week of lecture will be on the topic of heaven and hell, followed by three final days which consists of an outreach up to Portland, a final 100 question test, and our students will be split up into three groups and will be teaching in different churches in our city on the topic "Five Reasons I am A Christian."   

Three rugby players I witnessed to in the mall. the guy on the right gave his life to Christ.  It was beautiful.

Alistair Turns 3!!!

Our little Alistair turned 3 on October 24th.  What a little jolly kid he is!!

Speaking in a DTS

This past week I took Abby and Autumn with me up to Washington to speak on evangelism in a DTS up there. It was a fantastic time, and my staff back in Salem did an excellent job running the OAS in my absence.  I look speaking in these schools, and of course the added bonus of having the girls with me makes it all the more special!

One thing I have the students do is share the Gospel with their fellow students.

I love the international feel of YWAM!  Above are students form the school I taught in...an Indian, a Sioux Indian, and a Mongolian!  How cool is that?

Abby and Autumn loved our time together as did I.  They had a blast playing on the shores of the Olympic Peninsula.

5 Weeks Into the OAS and going strong!

We are officially 5 weeks into our Outward Apologetics School.  It has been going great.  Our students have all be putting their all into the school.  So far the weekly topics have been on "Evidence for God and the Ressurection", "Science and Faith", "Authority of Scripture", "Christology", and this past week was on "Creation".  Please continue to pray for our students as they continue on!

Friday Morning "Skeptic and Defender Debates".  The students are growing in leaps and bounds in their ability to give very compelling cases.

Tim Barnett from "Stand to Reason" ministries teaching on Science and Faith.  Our speakers have been fantastic thus far.

With 12 hours of outreach doing Gospel Guy a week, our students are taking what they learn in the classroom and applying it!

Thursdays we go on our Temple Tours.  So far, they have been to a Universalist Church, Mormon church, Bahai Faith Center, Unity Path Center, and Sikh Temple. 

Wednesday morning is our "THINK" activity.  Students wrestle with tough passages of Scripture that are often used against Christians to attack the character of God.

Gospel Guy Ministry Continues to Train and Change Lives!

This past month at our Gospel Guy Network Training  time we heard form a local pastor who has been with us for a year and a half share.  It was an awesome time to hear his perspective as a senior pastor what God has taught and is teaching him and his church through the ministry of the Gospel Guy Network.  Another testimony is that in this very first week of our OAS students doing Gospel Guy, four people came to Christ!

Pastor Craig Smith sharing