Hey everyone! Sorry for not updating in so long! With work, school, traveling (lots of it!), and the duties of everyday life I have been very busy this year! Life is good though and I praise God for the many blessings He has given me! Our God is truly an awesome God! J

Let me give you a little update on what’s been happening in my life lately…

As most of you know I attended the ASI Youth For Jesus program in Sacramento, CA this past July 11 through August 7. This was my first year with the ASI Youth For Jesus program and it was the most exciting experience in my life!

We had about 40 young people that attended this year’s program along with seven speakers, about 15 bible workers, and our awesome leaders and staff.  Our group of young people was split into three groups which branched out to our three different sites that were located in different areas of the city of Sacramento.  Our first and main site was the Sacramento Central Site which was located at the Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist Church.  Our second site was the West Sacramento Site which was first located at a local high school and then moved to the West Sacramento Seventh-day Adventist Church.  Our third site was the Russian speaking site which was located at a gym in a Russian and Ukrainian community of Sacramento.  We (ASI Youth For Jesus) had four Revelation of Hope Seminars going at one time with the Sacramento Central Site (which is where I was) hosting two of the seminars each day except for Mondays.

Each morning our team would meet together for worship and then for classes.  During classes we would learn from our instructors such as Chester Clark, Tyler Long, Kevin Sears, Pastor Doug Batchelor, Allan Parker, Jëan Ross, Israel Ramos, Ernestine Finley, and others as they thought us how to be more effective soul winners for Christ.

In the afternoons, right after lunch, we met for outreach.  First thing during outreach, we would meet in the youth chapel and discuss each person that had been attending the meetings.  First we discussed the people that had attended the meetings from the previous evening as we tried to get a feeling of how they were responding to the meetings from night to night and then developed a plan to more effectively reach them.  From there we discussed the people that had missed the previous night or nights, and had one of the team members volunteer to either go visit that person or call them and let them know that we had missed having them with us at the meeting and invite them to attend that nights meeting.  After we had finished developing our plan for that afternoon we headed out with our Bible Workers to make our visits and phone calls.

When we returned from outreach it was time for the meetings and each of us went to our respected places of duty.  Every few nights we would rotate our responsibilities, wither it was greeting people as they walked in, working at the registration desk, doing special music, leading out in song service, ushering, working in child care, giving heath talks, mingling and talking with the people, sitting beside them during the meeting and praying for them, running the PA system, or whatever our job might be, so that we would each get a chance to experience as many areas that are involved in evangelism as possible.  Each meeting was such a blessing as each of the speakers clearly spoke from the word of God! God truly blessed each of them in a mighty way!  We had over 300 non-Adventists attend the meetings each night, and at the end of the seminar there were right at 100 people that requested baptism.

Each night after the seminars we would have a meeting and discuss how the seminars had gone so far and how we could change things to make them better.  We also shared testimonies of how God was working in the lives of the visitors that we had visited with that night.  It was so awesome to see people’s lives being changed right in front of our eyes and to see how God was using us as young people to bring people closer to Him!

I praise God for the opportunity to have been a part of the ASI Youth For Jesus program in Sacramento this summer and I’m look forward to being apart of the program again next summer in Dallas! I only wish that more youth could have the opportunity to be apart of this life changing experience! I can’t thank ASI enough for making this program possible!

This past year I thought about attending AFCOE (Amazing Facts College of Evangelism), but I didn’t think I would ever get the opportunity with my schedule being so busy.  However, after attending the YFJ program and having instructors from AFCOE teach at our classes, and after talking to some of the graduates, I decided that I would really gain a huge blessing if I attended.  I sent in an application to attend AFCOE this coming February and I’m really looking forward to it! AFCOE starts February 5 and ends June 10. After AFCOE I will be heading to the 2006 ASI Youth For Jesus program in Dallas, TX! I’m really excited to be going back again this year and can’t wait for another awesome experience like I had this past summer in Sacramento!

This coming December the General Youth Conference is coming to Chattanooga, TN, about 2 ½ hours from me!  I was just looking at the different speakers (Ron Clouzet, C.D. Brooks, John Nixon, Cindy Tutsch, Michael Hasel, Randy Skeete, Mark Finley and David Gates) the other day and I’m sure that it is going to be a huge blessing that nobody wants to miss! I’m looking forward to attending this year’s GYC and hope that I will get to see all of you there as well!

I must get back to work now, but I thought that you guys deserved an update on what has been happening in my life lately. I would like to ask that you guys would keep me in your prayers as I prepare for both of these events. It won’t be long until they both pop up and I’ll be trying to figure out where 2005 went. If any of you would like to learn more about the 2005 Sacramento ASI Youth For Jesus program go to www.yfj05.com. Read some of the awesome testimonies and take a moment to look at some of the awesome pictures from this year’s team! Find out how you can come and join us this next summer in Dallas and discover this life changing experience for yourself! I look forward to seeing you there! God bless!

In Him,

Walter