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Summer Training Report

7/30/2014

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2014 Summer Training Report

Prayers & News
News:

Summer Training Survey Results at a glance - 1,790 visits, spoke with 617 people, left literature at 1,173 homes. Of the 617, 194 knew Christ as their Savior, 94 were trusting their works to save them, 72 didn't know how they'd be saved, and 255 didn't answer. There were discovered 24 prospects and 62 unchurched whom we invited to local congregations.
Our 11 person Travel Team was sent through Kansas, Colorado, and north Texas, working toward interest in starting two new groups out of Broomfield, CO and Wichita Falls, TX. They were met with great interest and we are hopeful that this will produce new groups.
We welcome Mr. Mark Clemens as the new local director for the Texhoma Group based out of Wichita Falls.
We rejoice that Pastor Matthew Larson of Faith, OKC and the pastors of the Oklahoma district have taken up the task of organizing weekends in Oklahoma.
We rejoice that Pastor David Baumgarn is going to be working to organize and direct weekends in southern Minnesota.
We welcome our new Board for the 2014-2015 year: Pastor Matthew Tassey, Pastor & Rebecca Nehrt, Pastor Peter Kirby and Pastor Jacob Mueller, Roger Schafer and Paul Schlake, Sandra Hernandez and Jennifer Krupp, Nathan Nehrt and Gabby Mitchell, Collin Coats and Aaron Fosse, Lauren Sperry and Brittany Jennett.
Following Summer Training, Pastor and Rebecca Nehrt will be assuming the duties of Financial and Business Manager for OAFC. This will change our national office address and phone number, so we'll send out a mass update when this change is finalized.
We thank Nathan and Dorothy Ruppert for their faithful service as national Financial and Business Managers, even as they step down from these positions this Summer. We pray God continue to use them locally for OAFC.

Prayers of Supplication:

That God would continue to guide and bless our Travel Team as they finish their travels.
That God would open doors for local groups to have weekends across the country.
That God would continue to remind us of the importance of sharing our faith even while enlivening the hearts of unbelievers to hear.
That God would continue to raise up faithful volunteers to help both nationally and locally with the ministry of OAFC.
That God would provide a smooth transition to for our new offices.

Prayers of Thanksgiving:

That God so abundantly blessed our National Summer Training.
That God has so richly blessed us with new leaders and groups.
That God provided us with great hosts for Summer Training: Good Shepherd, Midwest City, Faith, OKC, Emmanuel, Kingfisher, and Trinity, El Reno.
That God continues to provide for our financial and prayer needs through volunteers like you.

This Summer, youth from across the country gathered in Oklahoma City to spread the Gospel with the Synod R.S.O. Ongoing Ambassadors For Christ (O.A.F.C.). This youth evangelism organization has been equipping youth and adults for sharing the Gospel for 44 years in the Missouri Synod, and this year was no exception. As with our outreach weekends, this Summer's weeklong evangelism conference didn't just sit around talking about sharing the Gospel – we actually got out there into the communities and spoke face to face with people about the saving word and works of Jesus Christ.

During the week of July 17-23rd, O.A.F.C. youth and adults worked with 4 local Oklahoma congregations to train almost 20 new youth and adults in sharing their faith while further equipping about 50 trained Ambassadors to be better leaders and teachers in their local groups across the country. This year's conference theme was PROCLAIM! From 1 Peter 2:9. In O.A.F.C., youth learn to PROCLAIM their faith through Christ-centered Bible Studies, Puppet Shows, Dramas, Songs, a Neighborhood Survey, and Personal Witnessing, so that any Lutheran youth can find a means of expressing their faith in a way that fits their personality and abilities. In the conference Bible Study, each day youth worked through the epistle of 1 Peter, learning how God has called every Baptized Christian to PROCLAIM! the excellent work of God in Christ through the daily opportunities God gives us through our vocations – in both the good times and the bad. Youth also learned the importance of being prepared in their witness; making the effort now to consider how they'd share their faith in personal situations so that when the time comes, they're ready to proclaim and defend the hope that they have. One of the keynote workshops was on witnessing in the digital age: where both youth and adults shared and prepared ways that we can use modern and trending means of communication to be witnesses of the faith within us. Yet, even in the digital age, youth and adults learned that nothing is as powerful as face to face, personal conversation and care. In further workshops, 3 new leaders were trained to start OAFC witness training groups in their local areas and a team of 10 youth and adults was sent out in the O.A.F.C. van to travel through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Texas to work on starting other local groups, there.

With the witnessing survey, O.A.F.C. youth and adults partnered with local congregation members to visit 1,790 houses and to speak with 617 people about the Gospel. They shared with all who would listen that everyone can have the assurance of eternal life by faith in Christ and not by our own works or inventions. 70% of the people they spoke to didn't know or confess Christ as their savior, and so they had the opportunity to witness to them about the certainty of salvation in Christ and to encourage them to go to their local Lutheran congregation to be fed by the spiritual food of the Word. In these canvassing efforts, 24 people were found who were interested in learning more about Christ and their local Lutheran church and 62 people who weren't going to a church were invited to visit our L.C.M.S. congregations. These youth and adults even took that saving message to local nursing homes, reaching out to everyone with the Good News that God so loved them that he gave his only Son for them. Through the efforts of great pastors, youth, and adults, the O.A.F.C. Summer Training was a success - both in spreading the Gospel and in spreading the ministry of O.A.F.C.

For more information about this evangelism training ministry of the L.C.M.S., visit the website at www.OAFC.org, and consider inviting a team to your church this year for an outreach weekend.

Please consider printing and posting this newsletter on your church's bulletin board. Thanks and God bless.

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July 2014 Crier

7/1/2014

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Prayers & News:
News

It is with great pleasure that I report to you the acceptance of Rebecca Nehrt with the assistance of her husband Rev. Dr. Jeffery Nehrt to take over the business manager/ treasurer duties of OAFC. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Thank you Rebecca and Pastor Nehrt.
Summer Training is July 17-23rd, 2014 at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Midwest City, OK .
Our Summer Travel Team is going to Colorado and North Texas, both of which have expressed interest in starting new local groups.
We've purchased a new van for our Travel teams to more confidently go out and share the Gospel. Look for it soon at a church near you.
The new 5th edition of the OAFC Songbook has finished production. We're planning to distribute them to local groups at Summer Training. (Everyone who comes to Training gets a songbook).
We're making room in our archives by digitizing our files. We've purchased a commercial document scanner and will be working on this project for the next few months.
Executive Director Matthew Tassey and wife Veronica are going to be bringing our new baby to Training, so come and see. (She'll only be a month old, so cute!)

Prayers of Supplication

That God would guide and bless our Summer Training preparations and conference.
That God would guide and bless our Travel Team.
That God would bless our local groups with weekends, youth, and leaders.
That people would be receptive to the Gospel.

Prayers of Thanksgiving

That God provided new business/financial managers in Rebecca and Pastor Jeffery Nehrt
That God continues to provide for OAFC's financial needs through our supporters.
That God blessed the production of the new OAFC Songbook and we give thanks to the CID LWML for their grant which provided the funding for this project.
That the Oklahoma District so graciously received us for Summer Training.
That God has given us many great leaders and volunteers to serve OAFC.

2014 Objectives

Sustain and grow our current groups
Add more local groups across the country
Equip youth and adults for witnessing in a cyber-based culture
Recruit a new Business and Financial Manager *

It's Vocation, not Vacation

As we continue looking at the Apostle Peter's first Epistle in preparation for our Summer Training, PROCLAIM! from 1 Peter 2:9, let's look at the teaching that forms the foundation for all of Peter's call for every Christian to share the Gospel: Vocation.

As with most classical Church words, Vocation is a Latin word, and it means "Calling." Throughout Scripture God calls many different people in multiple ways to do various things. It's the same God doing the calling, it's his same almighty plan he's accomplishing, but he calls each of us to do it a little differently according to who we - who he's made us to be - where we are in the world and where we are in our lives.

So the Apostle in 1 Peter 2:13-17 tells all citizens how to live for God in their calling as citizens in the country in which God placed them. He says, "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good... Fear God, honor the emperor." He then, 2:18-25, gives instructions to servants and masters just the same - to live for God in your callings. He then begins chapter 3 directing husbands and wives how to live in their callings to the glory of God in Christ: "Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives... Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life..." And Peter then says, 1 Peter 3:8, "Finally, all of you [that is, regardless of your particular Vocation/Calling], have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind." And in chapter 4 he goes on to describe how we do all of this in all of our Vocations because we know that "Christ suffered in the flesh" (4:1). Finally he speaks to those who have the Vocation of Pastors (5:1-11), encouraging them to be under-shepherds to the great Shepherd: Jesus.

All of that means for you that wherever you find yourself you are put there to serve God for the sake of the name of Christ. Whether you're a child, a parent, a student, a teacher, a worker, a boss, a citizen, a soldier, or whatever - you are called by God to proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light through your words and actions in those places. That's Vocation. And sometimes that's hard; but that's why it's a Vocation and not a vacation. That's the Calling of God.

For more about your calling from God, look at the Table of Duties in Luther's Small Catechism.

The Mission of OAFC is to equip youth and adults to witness more effectively of Jesus Christ through Singing, Bible Studies, Personal Witnesses, Dramas, Puppet Shows, and Neighborhood Canvassing.

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Summer Training Report

2014 Summer Training Report

July 2014 Crier

It's Vocation, not Vacation

The Crier

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