November (Mostly)

Hi Everyone,

Update Time! So yesterday was the two-month mark for me being in Switzerland which is crazy. It has gone by so fast. I think its because we’ve been doing so many books. Since my last update in October we’ve gone through Luke, Acts, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians. The part that is almost disheartening is the fact that by the end of this quarter, we will have only done 17 books. Which is no where near a third of the 66 books in the Bible. So, the quarters are going to be even more packed. Things to look forward to. It has been crazy and awesome and I am learning so much from each book.

I was struggling for awhile over the past couple weeks, feeling like there was just too much information that I was learning that I just couldn’t take it all in. It felt like it was blurring all together and like I couldn’t remember any of it. I prayed about it because it I didn’t want to be missing out on anything or feel like I’m wasting my time here. But around a week ago (as close as I can pinpoint) there was a change. I started making connections to real life and the things we’ve been learning in the books. Certain situations that would make me think of different scriptures that were more applicable because I could recall the situations of the original readers of the book. Things were starting to come alive, things were starting to bubble up in me and I didn’t realize until then just how much I have been taking in. Yes, it is still a lot of information but now I know that lots of it is sticking, lots of it is making a home in me. That just really encouraged me.

I’ve done some pretty cool things outside of the classroom as well. One Monday as a base we had what is called a Prayer Day. What was so cool about this is that everyone was split into teams and together every single canton (province or state) in Switzerland had at least one team pray over it while they were in that canton. Yes, we sent people literally all over Switzerland to pray for each area. My team went to Zurich which the largest city in Switzerland. We went to a cathedral and went up the tower and while we had a view of the city we prayed for it and the canton. One Friday a lot of us from the base went to Geneva and visited the UN and attended a lecture on Reconciliation Through Forgiveness. It was part of an event called YWAM Peace Week, this was the first time this event has happened and they are hoping to continue it. The event is all about trying to get peace between nations and people groups.

We had a huge thanksgiving dinner, there was over 170 people there so it was a bit chaotic. But it was a great night with a wonderful amount of amazing food. Then on Saturday we had a good old fashioned Turkey Bowl Tournament. That was a lot of fun.

So, to sum it up, I’ve been learning a lot and having a blast while doing it. God is so awesome!

Also, some last big news, I found out where I am going for outreach. So after my nine month lecture phase which ends on June 22, there is a trip to Israel. That trip will be around two weeks and will be a sightseeing trip, visiting places talked about in the Bible. After that will be the actual outreach and that will be two to three weeks long. The location of the outreach is Egypt! We don’t know many details yet but we do know that we will be teaching whole books on our own. Our school leader said that there would be help preparing but we will be able to teach the book our self. I am so excited for that.

Just one prayer request. It’s getting near to our Christmas break, only a couple more weeks, so, a prayer request would be that I continue to push strong into my studies and don’t let myself slack off just because it is almost time for the break. Apart from that God has been sorting things out as they come.

I wish to extend a thank you to the people that have prayed for me and supported me so far in this journey. It means the world that you are helping me in this endeavor with God.

If you wish to partner with me in helping me achieve this journey, I am raising money for the outreach portion of this adventure. I have opened a GO FUND ME account, and that is the easiest way you can donate to help make this dream become a reality.

https://www.gofundme.com/2r5d8dmc or just go to www.gofundme.com and search “Tyler Alspaugh”

Cheers,

Tyler Alspaugh

                                         A View from a hike.

                                                    In Zurich from the cathedral.

                                                     Thanksgiving

What I'm Up To

Hello Family and Friends,
Almost a year ago I went off following God’s call (though I didn’t know it). I spent three months in New Zealand being broken and reformed with God at my core. There was a lot of truth learned and knowledge gained. It was a time where the me that didn’t know God was broken and I received a great amount of healing and renewal. I learned a lot about God and His love for me and awakened a desire for more. After that I spent two months in Papua New Guinea as a missionary. The desire to share the gospel was awoken within me there.

I have received many words that call me to rebuild and strengthen the weak. Biblical knowledge is one of the areas that I am weak in and I feel that God has called me to change that. Because if I am going to go help people then I am going to need to be grounded and have knowledge in me for God to call up from within when the time is right. To this end I am going to Lausanne, Switzerland on September 26 of this year. It is a course through Youth With A Mission called a School of Biblical Studies, it is an inductive bible study of the entire bible. The purpose is to get the tools to help my own growth with God and be able to encourage and equip others. The course is nine months long, broken up into three, three month segments. After that there is a two week trip to Israel to see all the places we just spent nine months studying. After that there is an outreach where we will apply all the things we learned. Going and helping to equip others with the tools that we’ve just learned.

I am looking forward to this next stage of my life with God. I am looking for people who wish to partner with me in prayer and financially. If you wish to partner with me and support me in this adventure there are a couple of ways that you can do that. First off, if you live in Prince George, you can give the money to Karen Alspaugh, private message me for contact info. I also started a Go Fund Me page as another way to donate.

I can’t wait to see what happens in the coming months. If you want to keep up to date, I’ll be posting updates on facebook and through email. So if you can’t get me on facebook then send me an email and I’ll make sure you get those updates that way.

Cheers

The One Before Outreach

So, this is going to be the last update on here for a couple months. Outreach is literally upon me.

My Christmas break was pretty darn good. Most of us slept at the base on Christmas Eve and then made breakfast together. I spent most of the break just relaxing and hanging out. Overall it was quite relaxing.

For our last week we had the topic of Missions. The speaker was Dan Bauman, he is definitely in my top three speakers. I think it was because I enjoyed his humour. Also he is just so full of passion for God and maybe a bit because of all the crazy stories he has. For example he spent time in prison in Iran, he has worked in Afghanistan for 8 years, he's spent time in China and he got invited into Saudi Arabia and converted the family and the person who invited him. Just to name a few of the stories.

The biggest thing for me that week was just that passion for God is beyond emotions. Let me put it this way, when you go to say a conference about God it's easy to be passionate about God as you are riding that emotional high, but when you leave the conference it's easy to go come down from that emotional high. Dan then asked this question: "What has changed apart from your emotion?" The answer is nothing. How God sees you and what is true about God is the same. What you believe about God is the same, you just don't have the same feeling at the time.

This week has been all about just getting ready for outreach. It's been hard as my team is the last to leave so we had to send off everyone else but now our time has come. I'm so excited and I just can't wait to go and see what God has in store for us.

If you could pray for protection and unity for our time there I'd be so thankful. Also that we would keep the focus on God and not His works as He will do what is best on His timeframe.

Love you all and may God pour out His blessings over your lives.

This is Tyler, signing off.