Year In Review

As we come to the end of another school year, there's plenty to catch everyone up on! This year has been amazing, difficult, rewarding and challenging; It's brought countless ministry opportunities for Brittany and I as well as incredible God moments and conversations!

It's been a while since our last newsletter so here's an update on all things Brittany and Daimian as well as Youth Alive and the Oregon Youth Alive Ministry Academy!

Brittany has been blessed with a job position with the Oregon Ministry Network doing what she loves and is skilled in. Not only is she managing event photography and social media for the Network but she's also now a part of the Synergy ministry team for social media and web presence. This team assists churches by setting up quality websites and running well-crafted social media accounts for them. The heart of Synergy melds perfectly with her passion to be a blessing to our Oregon churches and she loves it!

As for me, it's been a wild few months facilitating all of our OYAMA weekly meetings, teachings, ministry events, church visits and internships and sharing about all things Youth Alive at various churches and groups around Oregon. The Lord has allowed us opportunities to speak and have leadership trainings in churches from Grants Pass to Sherwood. We've also been serving with ministry teams for events such as Fusion, Summit and Amplify. Our students also finished their time doing Church Visits, where they had the opportunity to observe and participate in over 30 weekly Sunday, Children's and Youth services! We were also able to send our students to help run Easter services at one of our AG churches on the coast which was a HUGE blessing! 

Aside from all of the "doing" of ministry, the bread and butter of what we do in OYAMA is still our weekly meetings. We spend 6 hours every Wednesday morning meeting with our students for individual life & ministry coaching/discipleship conversations, we teach on everything from communication skills to studying other belief systems, from loving other people to how to be a healthy leader in ministry and from actual ministry practices to ways to make disciples in the world today.

While we continue to meet sporadically throughout the summer, we take a break from weekly meetings until the new school year. During the summer our students focus on these key priorities: 

1. Spiritual Disciplines
2. Summer church Internships (3 are serving at Neighborhood Church in Albany.1 is serving at Willamette Christian Center in Eugene)
3. Coaching conversations
4. Working as much as possible

As Brittany and I look to the near future we have plenty of things we're working on and things that we'd love for you to be praying with us for God to bless and use to bring the students of our state closer to Him...

• Youth Alive annually produces the Pendleton High School Graduation (June 2-5)
• OYAMA applicants Interviews (June 16)
• Oregon Central Camp (July 20-23)
• What Now Getaway (July 25-27)
• Many speaking engagements over the summer

We need your prayers more than ever! The Lord is continuing to open doors for us to have greater influence in the lives of young people all over Oregon, deepening our relationships with those we disciple, more and more ways to serve local churches and of course, He is moving in great ways in the lives and training of our OYAMA students. We are blessed to see the amount of growth, learning and reliance on the Holy Spirit that we've seen in this year's group of students. Please continue praying for them too! Pray that the Lord would keep providing their needs as they are obedient to Him and that they'd have hearts that would be soft and moldable to the Lord's will.

Will you pray and ask what you can do to financially support this ministry? If the Lord leads you to partner with us, it's easy to do so; Just go to https://giving.ag.org/home, Click on "Give Now" and fill out the needed info. 

Thankful for these times!

Wow what an incredible season it has been! It's been a while since our last newsletter and in that time there's been a lot of incredible God moments and ministry moments! It would take far too long to share everything that's happened in the past couple months but we'd like to share some of the highlights!

First, I want to take a moment to brag on this new group of students; While this group is one of our youngest ever, they have hearts to serve and a strong desire to better know and love Christ and others. All of the skills of ministry can be learned through study and experience but for a group of young people to have a heart for the Lord is something different altogether. For us, being tasked with developing future ministers, one of the biggest blessings is seeing young people take ownership of their Calling and strive to be the best disciples, Pastors and people that they can! 

Our new students: Adonai, Grady, Levi, Peyton, as well as Christian and Trinity (our married couple) have been busy as they acclimate to new jobs, living in the Youth Alive homes, college classes, serving at the Kids and Youth ministry at Hope church in Albany, working jobs and meeting with us each Wednesday. We spend 6 hours each Wednesdays morning coordinating all of those things as well as leading individual coaching with each student, planning ministry events and teaching/discussing topics to prepare for their future as ministers. With this group, there's never a dull moment at our weekly meetings!

As much as I could go on and on about this current group of OYAMA students, another BIG WIN has been seeing our recent graduates begin their new ministry positions as Youth Pastor at Real Life Church in Goshen and Kids Pastor at Relevant Life Church in Salem!

A few other highlights of the past couple months…

• Helping coordinate and serve at multiple events (Youth and Kids Conventions, Network Intermission for Pastors and a Speed-the-Light Turkey Bowl fundraiser).
• The opportunity to preach at our home church in Salem!
• Meeting with other Youth Pastors to discuss discipleship practices and offer training to their young leaders and staff.

As we look ahead to the Christmas season and Winter would you join us in praying for the following…

• This year's OYAMA students.
• Brittany as basketball season starts. She has a strong call from the Lord and occasion to influence the young women at McNary High School.
• More opportunities to share with ministry leaders and teams about how to disciple young people in today's culture.
• Continued vision and discernment for the entire Youth Alive team - Tom & Dalleen Bachman, John David & Suzie Urrutia as well as Brittany and I.

We need your prayers but we also cannot continue to serve in the capacity that the Lord has called us to without others financially partnering with us to ensure the continuance of OYAMA and all of the other YA ministries! It's because of people like you that two churches have recently gained new Pastors. Your financial giving and monthly pledges continue to allow to us travel and preach, it allows us to give our entire focus to our OYAMA students and their preparation, partnership provides us the opportunity and ability to serve the Oregon Ministry Network of churches in a host of ways from helping plan and serve at events to serving by taking pictures and helping run the social media ministry. 

We are asking you to take a moment and seek the Lord for if He would have you join the Youth Alive team. We have a wonderful team who continually prays and gives faithfully. Will you pray and ask what you can do to financially support this ministry? If the Lord leads you to partner with us, it's easy to do so; Just go to https://giving.ag.org/home, Click on "Give Now" and fill out the needed info. 

Have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas as we celebrate our Lord!

God Bless

End of summer means the start of crazy!

 September and October are wonderful, crazy, busy months for us in Youth Alive! There’s a lot to report, a lot of amazing blessings and opportunities as well as a lot of hardships and prayer needs. Here’s a recap of all we’ve been doing…

• We’ve also had our Start-of-the-Year Retreat. This year’s event came with plenty of challenges but was exactly what we needed in the end. Oregon, showing it’s true colors, rained us out of our original plans and annual boating on the lake, but we made the best of it and actually had a lot of fun! We even got to have the students participate in an escape room and team building activities and it was really interesting to see all the different styles & personalities working together. Thanks to Legendary Entertainment!

• The first week of September, we started our weekly Wednesday meetings back up with our 5 new, first year students joining us. They have bonded so well, becoming good friends, adventuring together and been honest and vulnerable in our times together. Praise God they've all found jobs and settled into the Youth Alive homes! Now they've begun serving at a local church helping in all areas of Kids, Youth and online ministry! We are really excited for our next two years with them!

• We recently had our annual OYAMA Ministry Fair. Nearly 25 pastors from all over our state came to interview our 2 graduating students; one Kids Pastor and one Youth. It’s always bittersweet for us! We love partnering our students with churches and them jumping into ministry yet knowing that so many will walk away without a helpmate is a constant reminder that the work isn’t done. The need is incredibly great in our state and it keeps us focused to keep doing what God has called to, reaching the children and teens of Oregon through the local church. We are blessed to be a part of God’s work multiplying throughout Oregon! These young ladies now visit 3-4 churches as they continue the interviewing process and pray about where God would have them go. Keep Sarah and Alexis in your prayers!

Please continue to pray for us as we step into event season (we have 4 coming up between September-November). Finances always get lean for our students while they miss work, but we truly believe in these events and what they can learn during them. It can always be tiring for them, but in the best way. Pray for us to lead our students well and to serve our Oregon Ministry Network to the best of our abilities.

Pray for us as leaders as well; we so desire wisdom, patience, knowledge, energy, and learning to love our students well. We continue to be humbled by your partnership with us, whether financial or prayer, so thank you. Pray as we enter into this busy season and prepare for more speaking opportunities to share all about Youth Alive and OYAMA.

Thank you again for your generosity. Brittany and I can’t believe that you would believe so strongly in what God is doing through us and through OYAMA that you would invest your prayers and finances! If you haven’t yet, we’d love to partner with you! Go to https://giving.ag.org/ and type in 282345 where you can give one time gifts or set up recurring donations. Again, thank you and we love you!

How is summer almost gone?

 Happy summer!

Hopefully you're all staying somewhat cool during this heatwave of a summer we're having in Oregon. While both Brittany and I are big fans of the longer days, we both despise the heat. Praise God for a vehicle with AC! As we travel more and more with opportunities to speak at churches and youth ministries, the blessing of working air conditioning in our car isn't lost on us! Praying you're all staying cool regardless of either your love of or mutual dislike of the heat.

As always we want you to be aware of everything happening with us and specifically the Oregon Youth Alive Ministry Academy. Some exciting updates are:

• Our students continue to serve at their ministry internships. They are busy planning, attending and helping with various projects, VBS events, summer camps and weekly services.
• Brittany and I have been invited to share about Calling (what it is and how to discover yours) at multiple churches.
• We used a couple weeks in June to take the students through Assemblies of God history, polity and theology. This will become an annual teaching for our students before they begin their 2nd year with us.
• Lastly, we had the honor of sitting six potential new students before our OYAMA Board. All six of these students were approved and will be joining us for the upcoming school year! Please join us in welcoming new students - Adonai Zafranco, Ahbrea Barber, Christian Thom, Grady Phelan, Levi Soyster and Peyton Crape.

Prayer Needs:

As we plan and prepare for this upcoming school year please keep us in your prayers! 

Firstly, we are desperate to be in the will of the Lord with every decision we make, every discussion we have, every teaching and curriculum we take students through and every internship partnership we make. Pray that we are sensitive and discerning.

Pray also for the incoming students, for their transition to Albany and for jobs that will work with their school and ministry schedules. 

Pray for our upcoming Start of the Year Retreat.

Lastly, please keep our soon to be graduates, Alexis and Sarah, in your prayers. In early September they will sit in interview after interview in our Ministry Fair as they begin the exhausting but exciting process of graduating our program and moving to their first ever Pastoral assignment!

Thank you again for your continued financial support. Consider joining our team of monthly supporters! Sign up here at https://giving.ag.org/ and type in 282345 as the ministry code. We are always excited to come speak at churches, youth groups, etc. and are humbled when you partner with us in any way. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

May Milestones

 After the craziest year OYAMA has seen, God was still at work in and faithful to our students and us. Here's a bit about what's happened in the last couple months:

• All 4 of our OYAMA students, 1 Compass student, Brittany & myself served at Summit, our statewide pastors conference for the Oregon Ministry Network. It was the first event all of our students were able to serve at since COVID shut everything down and we LOVED it. 
• Only two weeks later, we served at 2 Amplify Fine Arts Conferences, one in Albany and the other in Bend. Normally, there is just one, but this year - to maintain social distancing and size restrictions - there were 2 back-to-back.

We love events, we love serving and getting to see other pastors in the state. However, it is a rough time financially for our students because of all the work they have to take off, but it's also an amazing time for students to experientially learn the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord.

• Our 2 second-year students, Alexis & Sarah, were celebrated at Northwest University, Oregon's graduation for earning their certificate of ministry. We are so proud of them! They officially have every class needed to move forward with their credentials with the Assemblies of God.

We celebrated our end of the year with a trip to Red Robin. Because we have extended the program, our summer will look different this year, with some familiar things as well. 

• Our two first year students, Nick & Kaity, will be interning with Neighborhood Church in Albany through September with a brief pause in August when they get married! Then, they'll begin a new internship, but more on that later.
• Alexis & Sarah will continue with their respective internships through fall. They will be interviewed by pastors from all over our state in September and will accept a position by October when they will graduate from the program. 
• In the next month, we will interview our potential students for next year. Please be in prayer for us - for wisdom, discernment, etc. - and for them. 
• I am also working on implementing our summer curriculum where I'll meet with the students every other week or so to discuss things like who the AG is, why we exist as a denomination, and more. I am excited to have extra time with them!
• At the end of this month, we are headed to Pendleton with the rest of the Youth Alive team and others to put on Pendleton High School's graduation. Youth Alive & Pendleton First have helped with this for years and we love being a blessing to my hometown!

Brittany and I continue to be humbled by the responsibility and calling God has given us. So many churches and pastors contact us as well as US Missionary, Tom Bachman, asking for help, asking if we know anyone looking for a job. Our state desperately needs pastors! We are passionate about discipling and raising them up. Brittany is also entering her coaching season at McNary (basketball is normally in the winter, but got pushed back to COVID), so that will be something to figure out for us in this year where everyone has to be flexible. We continue to serve the Oregon Gen Now leadership team in any ways that we can & are looking forward to summer (well, I don't love the heat, but we can get out and disc golf more...😆)

Thank you again for your continued prayer and financial support. Please consider joining our team of monthly supporters! Sign up here at https://giving.ag.org/ and type in 282345 as the ministry code. We are always excited to come speak at churches, youth groups, etc. and are humbled when you partner with us in any way. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

- Daimian

The Final Stretch

We're in the final stretch of the school year! Students are starting to look ahead to Summer and the end of their classes. This is a weird time of year for us because on the one hand, school at Northwest University is winding to a close and with it our weekly OYAMA meetings; On the other hand, event season is ramping up as we prepare for 3 weeks of ministry events! 

April is a crazy time for us as we help produce and serve at the Oregon Ministry Network Summit as well as the statewide GenNow Ministries' Amplify Fine Arts Conference! This year, with covid restrictions, Amplify is being split into two separate events, two weekends and two locations. All of these events are near and dear to our hearts. Summit is a conference/business meeting for all Assemblies of God Pastors and leadership statewide and Amplify is an amazing event for young people to Discover, Develop and Deploy their God-given talents and gifts in front of panels of evaluators and other students. 

Both of these events are great opportunities for our students to love on others, serve well, meet more people and get the word out about our program. Amplify is a great opportunity for OYAMA to connect with others who may be called to pursue Pastoral ministry! 

I'd love to share some of the wins within OYAMA lately:

• First year students have been blessed to visit and observe multiple youth and children's services all over the Willamette Valley and beyond.
• All of our students have gotten stable jobs that provide exactly what they need to continue to pursue ministry! Go God!
• Being able to help serve at the GenNow Fusion leadership conference in February and the Embraced Women's event were HUGE wins for us! Students had the opportunity to serve their soon to be peers and it's always great to see previous OYAMA grads serving their churches and communities well!
• Our weekly meetings have been a lot of fun as we discuss multiple difficult ministry scenarios, how to become better speakers/teachers, how to turn social media into social ministry, 

As we enter this busy season, please be praying for our students. They will be tired. They will be exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally. Pray that we will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve well, minister to others, grow personally, lean on the Word and presence of our great God, pray that the Pastors and teens of Oregon encounter a very real God during these events and that our students would finish the school year strong through all of it. 

On a personal note, I'm overwhelmed with the provision of our Father. As you've joined with us in prayer and support, the Lord has opened doors and provided more and more opportunities for Brittany and I to travel and speak. We've had chances to fill in for Pastors needing a break, we've been able to share about OYAMA and Youth Alive as a whole with entire churches and we've been able to connect with people all over the state and encourage many to continue seeking God's will for their individual lives. 

As always we need your prayers! Pray for our students, pray for the churches and people that we minister to, lastly, pray for us that we would be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and continue to walk in faith through every opportunity the Lord would lead us to take. I ask that if you haven't yet, please pray and consider whether supporting Youth Alive, OYAMA, Brittany and myself financially would be a step Jesus would have you take.

You can set up monthly support at https://giving.ag.org then type in 282345 as the ministry code. You can set up one-time or recurring support. We cannot continue to minister without our team of prayer warriors and those who lift us up financially.