Nathan Neighbors » Mission Canada

Mission Canada Report

Nathan Neighbors — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:11:50 +0000

Wednesday night we had our report service here at Morningside for the Canada Mission Trip. Thanks to all of you who spoke about the great experiences we had in Kingston. Here is the video from our trip report. If you didn’t get a copy of the video or you were unable to make it to the report – give me a call and I’ll get you a copy of the video.

Coming Home from Mission Canada

Nathan Neighbors — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:03:22 +0000

Today is our final day of our nine day journey to Canada for our 2009 mission trip. We’ve had a wonderful time. We’ve seen many sites, learned from God’s Word, met new friends, shared the Good News of Christ, ministered to the people of Kingston, and been confronted head on by spiritual warfare. It’s been a good mission trip.

Last night, the teenagers had a great night last night looking around Hershey’ World of Chocolate and now today we’re just a few minutes from boarding the bus for one final day of travel to Spartanburg. Hopefully we will be home between 6:00pm and 7:00pm tonight. I’ve not mentioned the Tuareg Cross for the last couple of days. Since I last mentioned it – it was with LeAn Ross. She then passed it on to Molly Long…who passed it on to Anna Robinson…and then she passed it Friday night to Collin Briscoe. It will be passed one more time today during our worship time on the bus and that person will be wearing it when we arrive back at Morningside. See you then!

Mission Canada Day 6

Nathan Neighbors — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:43:09 +0000

Thursday was no ordinary day. I’ve been to a lot of summer camps and a lot of mission trips with teenagers in my ministry and the events of yesterday we’re anything but common. Everything yesterday was so connected (even God ordained) and such a great learning experience for our team. Little did we know that the theme for the message last night would be the Holy Spirit when we began our day.

Yesterday started pretty normal as we went out to ministry sites. But as we returned from track groups we learned that 14 children at one Bible Club accepted Christ. Then it was on to our “Free Time.” Normally on this day at M-Fuge they give church groups an extended free time to spend time in town. So, we loaded the bus and headed to the waterfront to go out for dinner. Free time is our downtime. I wasn’t expecting it to be ministry. God had other ideas. Our plan was to have all the students back on the bus at 8:30pm in order to be at the 9:00pm worship service. As a few of us were hurrying back to the bus (at 8:30pm) we passed by a small street festival when all of a sudden three darkly clothed men jumped out in front of us and said, “Do you believe in Jesus?” Quickly a couple of the teenagers said, “yes” and we kept walking and not really thinking much of it. Seconds later these same men ran out in front of us and started yelling and telling us we were stupid for believing in Christ. “How could we believe in some mythological creature that doesn’t exist,” they said. “How can you be so manipulated by the government to believe such a thing.” “Jesus may have been a real person – but no different than you or me.” How can you believe in a God that kills his people and allows us to be in so much pain?” For what seemed like eternity these men shouted and raged out at us. I was stunned. All of us were stunned. These men never introduced themselves. Yes, they looked as if they were stoned or high on something, but I could sense it was something more. You could see the depth of their pain and the emptiness of their hearts.

Spiritual warfare is something that is alive and well. It’s not too often that I’ve seen it as clearly as last night. The eight of us who were standing their took a stand in that moment. Chase & Paul and I began to speak to these men about our faith. LeAnn and a few others went back to the bus to pray and the rest of the girls and guys who were with us stood by our sides. In that 15min encounter it was like heaven and hell were right their in front of us doing battle. Satan wanted nothing to do with what we were about. I was so impressed with the students who were standing there in that moment eight of our older teens said, “yes we believe.” They said, “it’s not about religion, it’s about the change that Jesus Christ has made in our lives.”

The leader of the group of men was completely out of his mind. Once he new he wasn’t going to deter us, he ran off and the younger man was left standing there talking with us. I’d love to say that man listened and believed, but not at that moment. He simply ran off a moment later after his attempts to scream at us failed. As we headed to the bus I told the teenagers that they just saw spiritual warfare at it’s darkest. We boarded the bus had a prayer for those men and then headed to worship. (We’re now running about 15min late)

As we entered worship the worship leader began to sing, “You’re the God of this city…You’re King of these people, You’re the Lord of this nation…you’re the hope for the hopeless, you are…there is no one like our God…there is no one like our God. For greater things are yet to come, and greater things are yet to be done in this city….” We worshiped and our spirits were comforted and calmed in those moments. Then the camp pastor preached on the work of the Holy Spirit. Wow! This was no ordinary day. We closed our day in church group time praying over one another and asking the Holy Spirit to give each of us boldness to step out into Kingston on Friday ready to face the darkness that would love us to leave and stop telling the Good and Great News of Jesus Christ.

Free Time? Our time is not our own. What was supposed to be our group free time was really God’s in the end anyway. We’re called to be ready at anytime to give an account and take a stand for the God of this City…the God of all Creation…the King of Kings…and Lord of Lords…Jesus Christ.

Mission Canada Day 6

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Mission Canada Day 5

Nathan Neighbors — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:07:11 +0000

Wednesday was an amazing day at Mission Fuge. The students had a great day at their ministry sites and then we had Mega Relay in the afternoon. Last night after worship we had a wonderful church group time. Church group went so long and the Spirit of God was so much in the midst of the conversations of our teenagers that we decided to delay the “initiation” of our new mission team members. It had been my plan to do it last night, but it wasn’t God’s plan. I’m glad God was in charge of last night and not me. A lot of growth happened in the lives of the students last night. At the end of church group devotion time LeAnn passed the cross to Molly Long. The video below highlights how great our Wednesday really was and shows some of the other ministry sites (including children’s ministry groups, social ministry, & creative arts.

Mission Canada Day 5

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Images of Mission Canada Days1-4

Nathan Neighbors — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:44:02 +0000

Here it is. The first four days of our trip are now on the video below. We have students on six ministry sites – but I didn’t have all the cameras from the team members at the time I made this video. As the week goes on I will make more videos to highlight other students and ministries going on here in Kingston. Tonight the cross was passed from Lauren Lytle to LeAnn Ross. By the way the videos at the end are from a “Night Life” event that was an 80′s themed team competition. Our students don’t normally dress this way. Ha Ha. Enjoy!

Canada 1st Part Trip Video

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Night Life @ Mission Canada

Nathan Neighbors — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:05:17 +0000

Tonight was our first “Night Life” activity and many of our students got up on stage to participate. It was totally fun. Here’s a great clip of Janna McClure in a “whistle while you eat” competition. They had to see who could whistle first after eating peanut butter. She lost – but her team came in second place over all. It was great. She made us proud. I’ll try to upload a full slide show on Wednesday of all the great pictures so far from the trip. Thanks for all your prayers. This week is going great!

Jana Video

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Mission Canada Day 3

Nathan Neighbors — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:05:52 +0000

Today (Monday) we arrived at our destination. We’re staying at a college in Kingston and participating in Mission Fuge. There are about 100 other people (from 7 other churches) here. With our 40 – we’ve got 140 at camp. Needless to say, there’s a large Morningside presence. We’re divided into six ministry groups and tomorrow we go out to ministry sites around 10am. Groups will be doing ministry such as: painting a church, leading a backyard Bible club at a Salvation Army, leading a local church’s VBS, doing recreation at a Boys & Girls Club, doing creative arts at nursing home, and other ministry at the Salvation Army. As you can tell, tomorrow will be great. Tonight the cross was passed from Jeff Briscoe to Lauren Lytle. Keep praying for our team. By the way, I’m feeling better. Thanks for your kind thoughts and prayers. I’ve recieved over 20 emails of people who are praying for us.

Mission Canada Day 2

Nathan Neighbors — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 03:21:59 +0000

Today was a great day for the team. We arrived in Canada, checked into the hotel, toured Niagara Falls, road the Maid of the Mist into the Falls and then watch fireworks over the Falls after dinner. We’re headed to Kingston tomorrow. Hopefully I will feel better (I’ve been a little sick today). Here’s a picture from today taken by Sean Lytle. The cross was passed from Nic Moore to Jeff Briscoe.

Mission Canada Day 1

Nathan Neighbors — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:32:51 +0000

We’ve traveled today from Spartanburg, SC to Pittsburgh, PA. It’s been a long day, but a lot of fun. The charter bus was wonderful and we were able to watch about four movies that helped pass the time. Everyone is doing great and we’re headed to our hotel rooms now for the night. Tomorrow we are up early again and headed to Canada. We’re going to spend tomorrow afternoon touring around Niagara Falls and spend the night in Niagara and then on to M-Fuge in Kingston, ON on Monday. Check back for more updates each day.

Passing the Cross Once Again

Nathan Neighbors — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:47:17 +0000

This weekend we began passing the Tuareg Cross among the teenagers in the youth ministry for the summer. This is the fourth summer what we’ve passed this cross among the teenagers at Morningside. Martha Lee Lancaster started the cross by passing it to Nic Moore on Sunday night. Both she and Nic are serving this summer as Child Evangelism Fellowship Summer Missionaries. They are helping lead Bible clubs for children all around our county this summer. Martha Lee was able to lead a child to Christ this past Friday. She passed it to Nic who will carry it on to our Mission Trip to Canada this Saturday and then it will be passed each night of our trip to various teenagers and adult leaders on the mission team. The person who is carrying the cross passes it to someone in the group whom they saw Christlikeness in that day. Be sure to check back for daily updates on our mission trip progress and the passing of the cross.