Evangelism

I DO HAVE A GOD GIVEN GIFT FOR YOUR CHURCH!
My heart is steadfast O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul. Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. (Psalm 108:1-3)
Remember what Christ taught and let his words enrich your lives and make you wise; teach them to each other and sing them out in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing to the Lord with thankful hearts. (Colossians 3:16)

Let me ask you question. What, or better yet Who brought you to this page and to what you're reading right now? Even if I sent you a flyer about my music ministry, called you, e-mailed you or grabbed you by the neck and told you that you'd better take a look, you still had a little voice in you that said you should maybe take a look. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do, there must be a reason why you're here. So please take the time to read this page and listen to some of the questions I used to ask myself. Questions like:

01) Why do I have so many musical abilities with so many instruments and a voice that doesn't seem to wear out, but has had only a few beginner piano lessons when I was a little kid? And those that know me, know I didn't even practice at my trade. And yet I've been a professional musician for over thirty years with five albums out in the late 70's and a new Gospel CD done in Nashville, Tn. and while I'm at it, where in the world did I get this auctioning ability?

02) Why has the Lord been so patient with me and stayed with someone like me through all my rough and rowdy days.
(You can read about some of them is my sample talk below)

03) Why would the Lord be so forgiving of someone like me when I've spent most of my life turning my back on Him?

04) Who gave me the idea to start a Birthday Club that now has thousands of people in it? How did I ever get a web site? I'm computer illiterate! How am I able to speak to so many people, to run a computer, to write songs, to type what I'm typing right now...........I'm a high school dropout for cryin' out loud! And now He has given me a three hour Gospel show every Sunday morning on one of Montana's most powerful radio stations. KYSS FM 94.9!

And now for the answer to these questions and many more that I used to have. There is only one answer to all the questions. GOD LOVES ME AND HE HAS ALWAYS HAD A PLAN FOR ME!

GOD'S PLAN FOR ME!

I believe that God's plan for me is to minister to others through my music and through a past life of rough and rowdy years, but not wasted years. They're not wasted if by telling others about them and all the false happiness they bring, will help them to choose God's path. I've been there. I'm not proud of that, but I have walked the walk. The things I talk about are not hear say. I was there when they happened, so I guess I ought to know.

My ministry is not just for the youth or the adults. It's for everyone. I can relate to the youth because I know about peer pressure and the things in this world that look so exciting and fun. I can relate to the adults because I was in my late forties when I returned to the Lord. Whether young or old, I know that it is never too late to return to our Father in Heaven.

WHAT IS GOD'S PLAN FOR YOU!

I don't know. But you are here and reading this. Are you the head of your church? Are you a pastor? Are you on the entertainment committee at your church? Have you heard of some organization that is looking for a Christian speaker, musician or auctioneer? Are you supposed to tell someone else about this site and this page? Are you a school teacher and you're supposed to correct my spelling and grammar? I really don't know why God brought you here, but He did, so give it a little thought. I live in Missoula, Montana, but if the Good Lord's willin', I'll travel anywhere.

A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ME AND ONE OF MY TALKS!

I am also speaker for Stonecroft Ministries. I do a lot of speaking for their Christian Women's Association throughout Montana. They usually have me speak at their family night when they invite their husbands to attend. I guess because of my rowdy years from the 60's through the 80's where I really did earn my name "Wild" Bill, they believe that if someone like me can find my way back to the Lord, maybe some of the wilder husbands can do the same. My talk consists of part speaking and part music. Some of the songs are on my new CD and tape, "Big Sky Country Gospel". Music being the biggest part of my life and what I've done for a living for over 35 years, it's a big part of my ministry. I try to focus my talks on the importance of children attending Church. The Church is so important in giving a child the guidelines they'll need in this troubled world. If your Church or organization is interested in having me come and share my ministry, please feel free to e-mail me at or phone me at 1-406-542-7746 or 239-4373. I would be very happy to visit with you and tell you more about myself and my program

A SAMPLE OF ONE OF MY TALKS!
This is a talk I give at Christian Women's meetings. I guess it's my testimony!

Good evening and thank you for having me here tonight. My name is Bill Ochsner, but I guess I'm best known as "Wild" Bill. Now, I may have deserved that name in my younger days, but by now you'd think I'd earned the right to be called "Sweet William", or one that I really prefer is "Mild & Handsome Bill". Now doesn't that have a nice ring to it?

As a child I was raised in a home that didn’t have a whole lot of money, probably like a lot of you. But Dad made enough to build us a nice home with his own hands and he earned enough money to keep us in nice clothes and to keep food on the table. We were a musical family but we didn’t have the money for music lessons and such, so I learned all my music through the listen-try it, listen-try it, listen-try it method. I’d listen to it on the record, try it on the piano or guitar and do that over and over again. But even at an early age, God gave me a gift for learning & playing music. I still don’t read music at all, but thanks to God, I’ve done just fine.

We were an average type Christian family, but my mom did something that I’m still thankful for each and everyday. Every Sunday she sent me to Sunday School at 9:45AM, then Mom and Dad would join me at 11:00 for church. At 6:30 PM she would send me to Y.F. (Youth Fellowship) and at 7:30 Mom and Dad would join me for the Sunday Evening Church service. On Wednesday nights she would send me to choir practice at 6:30 and they would join me at 7:30 for Wednesday night prayer meeting. And every summer I had to go to Bible School. If I told you how much I loved going to all these church events, I just might have to jump out of the way of a lighting bolt that just might hit me for lying to you. I fought it each and every Sunday & Wednesday & summer!

Yes, I fought it all the way to the age of when I thought I was smart enough to drop out of high school and pursue my becoming a star in the music field. I think I was 16 years old. At age 18 I headed for uptown Missoula and the bright lights of a bar called "The Crystal". I told them I was 21 and could play guitar like Chet Atkins and sing like Elvis Presley. Lucky for me the owner of that club was tone deaf and when people are drunk I guess I really do sound like Elvis and Chet. And they paid me more money than I’d ever had in my life. I played seven nights a week from 9:00 to 2:00 in the morning and made $13.00 on week nights and $15.00 on weekends, with no breaks and if you had to go to the bathroom, there was a unemployed guitar player out there that didn’t have to go. And because they thought I was 21, I got all my drinks free. And guess what, when you’re around people drinking, you start drinking so you can be a part of the crowd. And when people are drinking they say what is on their minds and what they say is not always things that make you feel good, you learn to retaliate by knocking their block off……or vice versa. And that’s when I first heard someone call me "Wild Bill"!

Actually, I sort of liked the name Wild Bill. It made me feel tough and I felt it might help make folks respect me a little bit more. And I started earning that name by spending time with some pretty tough dudes who frequent those type of establishments. And because of the crowd that I ran with and the type of environment I chose to be in most of the time, I saw and felt more hurt than someone my age should experience. Two happy-go-lucky brothers from California are one example. You could tell they loved each other very much, but one night after drinking too much, they got into a fight and one shot the other to death uptown on a Missoula sidewalk in front of The Crystal Bar. I was 20 years old at the time. I lost five other good friends in the 70's. One was a drummer friend of mine, who left a party we were all at on Christmas Eve, and went home and took his life with a rifle. One was a guitar player who bought the Crystal Bar. His wife left him and he went upstairs to his room and took his life. One was a bass player friend of mine who was killed breaking into a Stevensville drug store for drugs. The other two were killed in vehicle accidents. Both were alcohol related. One on a motorcycle at Hwy. 93 & South Ave. and the other by the Greyhound Bus depot on Broadway. Any one of those things could have happened to me, except for one thing. To this day I still feel God was watching over me. Watching over me, loving me, training me & teaching me so I could be here tonight sharing my life with you in hopes that my story might touch the heart of someone that needs to come back to the open arms of Jesus, our Savior. Folks, Jeremiah 3:25 tells us "We have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day."God's words in Romans 3:23 tell us that, "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." And that because of that sin I was separated from God. But one day about eight years ago God must have thought enough is enough. One morning in Phoenix, Arizona on the way to work I was listening to an audio tape entitled, "Power Thoughts", hoping it would help me improve my skills in sales. The speaker brought up how great it is to know Christ. He challenged me to act like a Christian for a whole week and to do everything that a good Christian should do. I thought to myself, "Why not?" But where do you start. I remembered a verse I'd learned as a child, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". (1 John 1:9) So I poured out my heart to Jesus, asking His forgiveness for leaving Him out of my life, and begging Him to help me become what He wanted me to be, and to serve Him. I knew I could only do that with His help.

So, if I was going to act like a good Christian, I had to start going to church, which I did. I should start reading the Bible everyday, which I have been doing ever since. And the hardest part of all, was to be completely honest on my job. You see....at the time....I was a......car salesman. I was a........car salesman. I said, "I was a car salesman. (I've even thought about writing a book called, "Can Car Salesmen And Their Customers Ever Go To Heaven?") But that's another story. All I could think of now was, My, My, My, My, My, My, My, My, My........I might never sell another car as long as I live. I'll have to tell everyone the truth about that used car they're thinking about buying. And what am I going to say when they ask me if this is the best deal I can make on this car? And I'll never be able to use my favorite line again. Do any of you know what that line is? "IT WAS DRIVEN BY A LITTLE OLD LADY BACK AND FORTH TO CHURCH ON SUNDAYS!"

I recall this one couple that had just bought a car from me. I was going to sell them on a paint protection package, because I'd get a pretty good bonus. They didn't think they needed it, so I pointed at my truck which was freshly washed, and I was about to tell a fib. I said, "Look at my truck! It......it.........doesn't have the paint protection package, but I might get it someday." They looked at me like I was nuts, and they said they would take the package. The surprise is that out of 45 salespeople at that dealership, I was always in the top ten. And in the Southwest region which included California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, I was one of the top ten in sales for customer satisfaction.

Now that one week of acting like a Christian turned into months, and now years, and let me tell you, there is no happier person in this whole entire world, than one who is right with God. Psalm 146:5 says "Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God." Sure I still have trials in my life. I had my marriage of 35 years end. It was a hard marriage because of my life style. And because of my wild days, try as we did, we just couldn’t save it. But I’ve been up on the mountains more than in the valleys. My new wife Linda of ?? months/years loves the Lord with all her heart has been a huge inspiration to me in my secular and my religious life. And she believes like I do that the Lord is working in our lives. Let me give you some examples of how He is working in my life.

I am a believer of saying the Prayer of Jabez every day in my daily prayers. The prayer of Jabez can be found in 1 Chronicles 4:10 and it says, "Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain." Folks, the Lord has given me so many blessings and continues to shower me with so many blessings that sometimes I feel like asking Him to slow down so I can rest a minute. But He knows just how much I can handle, that’s why I continue asking, "Oh that You would bless me indeed." And as far as enlarge my territory, I once thought I had a great idea. (I know it was His plan.) I thought I would start calling all my friends and relatives for their birthdays & anniversaries. It would give me a way of keeping in touch with them. And then I thought, (it was His idea), I should do something for their special event. So I went to Ruby’s Café and asked the owner Gene if he would let them come in and get a buy one get one free dinner. He said he would. Well, I’m still calling everyone for their Birthday and Anniversary and there’s almost 30,000 people in the birthday club. And they still get that free dinner from Ruby’s Café along with over 30 other free dinners, car washes, Dairy Queen’s……105 other sponsors all together. Did He help me expand my territory?

Expand my territory! One day while in my prayers, I laughed and asked, "Lord, what are you going to do next?" It wasn’t long after that when our biggest radio station, KYSS 94.9 FM called and asked if they could use my birthday club to help their ratings. They wanted to mention everybody’s birthday & anniversary each day on the radio. So I agreed. They asked what I would want in return. I told them that if it worked, I would like a three hour Gospel show on Sunday mornings and they couldn’t put any of their ads on during my show. I now have a Sunday morning Gospel show. Pretty soon it will be celebrating one full year on the air. It’s going out all over Western Montana. Expand my territories?

Expand my territory! What about my talks with the Christian Women’s Association? I’ve been all over Montana and Wyoming. What about my auctioning ability. It has helped me raise over $800,000.00 all over the Northwest for children in need, Christian schools, Campfire Boys & Girls and much more. When I think of all the Lord has done for me I think of this verse from Jeremiah 18:6. "As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand." I am so glad that He took the time to train me, teach me and to mold me into what you’re seeing and listening to today. I really like that bumper sticker that says, God don’t make no junk!" I thank God for the plan He had for me from the day I was born to this very second I’m standing here. From those days of my mom making me go to Church. If you really think children don’t remember what they learn in church, even if they don’t want to go, I’m a living example that you’re wrong. Those days are what made me different from those friends who died and the ones that are still in those bars looking for happiness. Every Sunday morning on my radio show I tell all the children to gather round the radio and sing so loud that they wake the neighbors up and then I play "Jesus Loves Me". Folks, I have children of all ages calling me and singing "Jesus Loves Me" over the radio and at concerts that I do. They’ll remember that song as long as they live. And they know that Jesus loves them and died for them. Jesus loved the little children so much that it is mentioned three times in the Bible, the dangers of harming a little one. I’m going to read from Mark 9:42, but also check out Matthew 18:6 and Luke 17:2. "But if anyone causes any of these little ones who trusts in Me to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck." As followers of Jesus, we should feel the importance of living a Godly life and giving our children a chance to know Jesus by taking them to church so they can learn the true values of living a good life here on earth. For children that grow up and go down that wrong road without knowing Jesus, what are their chances of ever coming back and finding the right road. Very, very slim.

Folks, you will never know how much I regret those years I spent without Jesus. But it is a comfort to me knowing He never left me. And it is so comforting knowing the Jesus loved me so much that He died for all my sins and I am His child again. Colossians 1:14 says, "God has purchased our freedom with His blood and has forgiven all our sins".

I’ve been standing here telling you just a few of the blessings the Lord has bestowed on me. There are so many more, to numerous to count. Like two wonderful sons, Scott & Kory and a wonderful daughter-in-law whose name is Selena that Scott found for me who gave me two wonderful and loving grand twins, Cody & Kasey. My new puppy Samantha. My music ministry that is really starting to kick off. My new live gospel show that I call "Wild Bill’s Gospel Oprey" that I would love to bring into your neighborhood sometime. More friends than I thought I could ever deserve. And so very many, many more.

I see a lot of my old friends. At a get together one time I overheard one friend ask the other, "I heard Bill is a Christian now." The other friend replied, "Oh yeh, but he’ll get over it." So for those of you who might wonder, "Will he ever return to his wild days" , I would like to leave you with this verse from Psalms 23:6. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Folks, I’m going to be with Jesus for the rest of my days here on earth and for eternity in heaven.

And do you know that each and every one of you can walk with Jesus too. Do you know if you’re right with God? Are you tired of trying and trying and absolutely nothing seems to work. Is there an empty spot inside you that you’ve tried to fill, with relationships, work, sports, booze, drugs and maybe just being wild? But they just don’t fill that empty spot, do they? I know, I’ve been there. And now I know why. It’s because that spot is God shaped, and only, and I mean ONLY God can fill that spot. He’ll come in and fill it if you will pray and ask Him to. The Bible says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His own Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." I’ll read a prayer out loud, and if you’ve never prayed and asked Jesus to come into your life, and it’s your desire to do so, you can repeat it silently while I pray it out loud. (Prayer from the Wonderful booklet)

Now it’s very important that you get into a church, and into studying the Bible. Christian Women’s Club has some great Bible studies, find out about them.

Thank you very much for having me here tonight. I’ve enjoyed the whole evening. There’s a little welcome card at each of your places, take a look at it, there’s a place for you to mark if you’re interested in Bible studies, put your name on it, and if you prayed that prayer with me tonight, I’d like you to put a little musical note in the corner. You can give it to me on the way out. I’ll be back by the door and I would like very much to meet each of you. And I have a booklet for anyone who prayed for the first time with me tonight. It has the prayer we prayed, and a place to sign your name and today’s date, so that you will always know just when you made that decision. If you get the feeling like nothing really happened when you prayed that prayer, you can look it up, and remember that Ol’ Sweet William said you could depend on God 100% of the time!