Extreme Tour 2011

On July 30, 2011 we arrived in Barstow, CA for our first event as a part of the West Coast Tour. We met a a hyper old man named Gary who used to be a drug dealer. Gary told us his story of how he had given his life to Jesus 5 days before the extreme tour had came the year before and how excited he was that we came back. Gary had been clean ever since. He told us stories of how the people that he used to sell drugs to are now getting saved and getting clean. As we spent the 3 days in Barstow, we realized that a lot of people had stories like Gary and the Lord had rescued them from drugs and, ultimately, sin. The church in Barstow was on fire, and they knew the saving power of God.

It was such a blessing to be able to put on an event that connected more people with that amazing church, and that is why people like Gary get so excited - people come to know Jesus, and then have the opportunity to get discipled by an amazing group of believers.

A lot of the places we visited were strange little towns that were placed in the desert or mountains - we would drive through desert or uninhabited mountains for a while - several hours sometimes - and then literally in the middle of nowhere there would be a town. They often times appeared to be ghost towns, but with people. Most of them were poor areas with a lot of drug use, but most of them had skate parks, and every single city had kids that loved to skate.

The Extreme Tour normally has skate boarders on the tour, but for some reason there weren't any this year. We held skate competitions as often as possible (almost every city), and we always announced that the winner could possibly come on the tour with us, but when a kid named Gabe won the competition in California City, CA it actually happened. Gabe and his brother Jr. spent the next couple of days hanging out with us after he won the skate competition, unaware that they both would join our tour only days later.

Gabe had broken his skate board and did not even expect to be able to enter the competition, but as he went to the park to wait for the Extreme Tour to arrive that day, he put 2 x-box games in his backpack, for no reason at all. When he arrived at the skate park a boy approached him and asked if he had any x-box games with him that he would like to sell. Gabe traded the games for the boy's skate board, and thus, was able to enter (and win) our competition.

Gabe and his brother joined us for our Bible study the following night, which ended up going for about 2 hours because so many people were opening up that night. Gabe and his brother remained silent for most of the time, but both of them ended up giving their lives to the Lord before the next day was over.

Jr. was not planning on attending the Extreme tour at all - he later told me how he had plans to go smoke pot with a friend that day, but his plans fell through, so he came to our event. Jr. has not touched pot since. These two young men told me about how they ran away from home and were homeless for about a year as teenagers, around sophomore year in high school because their dad beat them so badly. They spent half a year living in the desert in a fort they had built, eating whenever they could find food. It is such a great opportunity for our tour to be able to disciple these guys as they travel with us around the country.

It is evident that the Holy Spirit is in Gabe and Jr. and that they are continually growing and maturing spiritually. Their mom is very supportive of them being here, and has recently given her life to the Lord as well.