Nathan Neighbors

Class of 2012

Nathan Neighbors — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:00:45 +0000

Today we celebrated with our seniors at Morningside as they move into the next chapter of their lives. Congratulations to our class of 2012. It’s been great seeing these students from the day they entered 7th grade till today. I’m proud of you and pray God’s blessing on you all. May you all keep Christ first as you head off to college in the fall.

Mside Summer 2012

Nathan Neighbors — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:43:10 +0000

We’re just a week of away from the end of another great school year. Summer 2012 is here! There are tons of great things going on this summer at Morningside and I hope you get connected with all of them. Our summer begins in seven days with our college mission trip to Costa Rica next Thursday. Pray for us as we go proclaim the great name of Jesus Christ. For all the details about our summer plans with the mside youth click to see our Mside Youth Summer 2012 Brochure.

Love The City Reflections

Nathan Neighbors — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:57:15 +0000

Love The City Day 4

Nathan Neighbors — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 01:07:55 +0000

It’s a little late, but here’s a short video of our final day on the Love The City mission trip. We helped lead the TOTAL Ministry Mobile Food Pantry on Tuesday. The students sorted and bagged over 6000 pounds of food and then handed it out to almost 300 families in need. Click the link below to see the video.

Mobile Food Pantry – April 2012.

Love The City Day 3

Nathan Neighbors — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:04:49 +0000

Today we hosted about 80 from Shepherd’s Door and Good News Club for a fun Bible Club. Our students divided the children into five rotations including: Bible story, crafts, recreation, bounce houses, and snacks. It was a great day! The kids had a blast. I heard one child say, “this is the best church I’ve ever been to.” The children were taught the story of how Christ died and rose from the grave to free them from their sin. I was very proud of how our students led and taught the kids about Christ.

After the children went home we spent a few hours preparing for our food ministry tomorrow and sent a small team to finish up the final bit of painting at Ms. Keenon’s house. Later this afternoon we took about sixteen of the teen girls from Shepherd’s Door bowling. It was a good opportunity for these two groups of students to spend time with each other and share their lives.

I’ve got to say that it’s been an amazing week so far and we’re not done yet. We have one more day. Tomorrow we hope to feed 300 families through the TOTAL Ministry Mobile Food Panty. Keep praying for us.

Love The City Day 2

Nathan Neighbors — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:26:30 +0000

Today is the Lord’s Day, Palm Sunday, April Fool’s Day…. and it’s also Day 2 of our Mission Trip. Today was another great day. After our quiet times we all walked across the parking lot from our hotel to the Spartan 16 to worship with Hub City Church. The students loved getting to see a local church plant reaching the city for Christ. After worship the students prayer walked the theater campus. We prayed for God to do mighty things in this city, in our hearts, and at our churches.

After worship we headed to Frankie’s Fun Park for some downtime together. There is nothing more fun that playing some laser tag and spinning out on the go-kart tracks.

In the late afternoon part of our team headed back to Ms. Keenon’s to finish painting and the rest of the team went to Morningside to prepare for our Monday & Tuesday ministry days. Tomorrow we are leading a kids Bible Club for about 50-60 kids. Pray for our students as they teach the children about Christ.

Love The City Day 1

Nathan Neighbors — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 03:27:43 +0000

It’s the end of a 17 hour work day on our first day of Loving the City of Spartanburg. What a day it’s been. We worked on a house on North Forest in downtown Spartanburg. There is no way to adequately express all that God has done today. But let me share a few of the highlights.

#1. We woke up to rain, but left our morning devotion time to clearing skies.

#2. We had nearly 60 volunteers help transform the house.

#3. Students actually asked to go door-to-door delivering food and the Good News to all the surrounding neighbors.

#4. God let us meet an angel today. Towards the end of the day a neighbor named Mark walked up and offered to help . He was a professional roofer and he jumped right in. In fact, he took over and finished a whole side almost by himself. More than that he’s coming back tomorrow to finish what we couldn’t. He said that he had done a lot of wrong in his life and needed to begin giving to others. He may not be an actual angel, but the Lord is working in his life and God used him to be an angel to us and to the roof work for Ms. Keenon.

#5. A hail storm was predicted to hit us – and it passed by with barely a few drops of rain.

#6. People from Morningside ranging from six years old to seventy plus came together to be the hands and feet of Christ.

#7. Ms. Keenon’s house now has: a new roof, freshly painted trim and front porch, freshly painted kitchen, new flooring in the kitchen, a refrigerator, cooktop, vent hood, bed (she had no bed before), ceiling fan in her bedroom, and a new hot water heater (her water heater has been broken since 2005 – she hasn’t had a hot bath in her home for seven years).

#8. Ms. Keenon was overwhelmed by the love of these students. Our church was overwhelmed by Ms. Keenon’s love for us. We are all overwhelmed by Christ’s love.

We have three more amazing days ahead of us. Keep praying for our mission team.

There’s No Place Like Home

Nathan Neighbors — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:24:41 +0000

A few days ago Anderson’s teacher (Mrs. Fisher) asked the class to write a journal entry about a place that makes them happy. To our great surprise we found out that Anderson wrote about our house. This was an in-class assignment so he came up with this totally on his own. Though he hash’t accepted Christ as his Savior, it’s awesome to see him drawing closer to it as he talks about how much he enjoys reading the Bible at the dinner table. The phrase that makes me just want to bust with pride is when he writes about bring his kids one day to this home. I sure do hope this continues as he goes through the teen years (though I know better). More than anything I pray that the Lord will continue to help Ashley and I raise all three of these little boys to become men who follow hard after Jesus. We want our home to be a place where Jesus is spoken of all the time and where children are loved, encouraged, and discipled. In the day-to-day hectic pace of being in ministry and raising three boys we don’t always get it right. Ashley and I sometimes fail as parents and as partners, but it’s awesome to see that at least in this moment it’s making a difference for Anderson. May our homes be places where disciples are made. That’s the place where God designed it to happen in the first place.

24 Years of Freedom

Nathan Neighbors — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:42:40 +0000

Today is a special day. It’s my birthday. Not my biological birthday – my spiritual birthday. On March 6, 1988 my life was forever changed. I was an eleven year old kid living in Florence, SC going with my family to Greenwood Baptist Church. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting with my family on the back left side of the sanctuary. For a few weeks prior to this day I had been sensing that the Lord was after my whole heart. I knew about Jesus, but I didn’t know Christ personally. I had never asked him to be my Lord and Savior. But during the invitation time on March 6, 1988 I release my hands that were gripping the back of the pew and nearly ran down the aisle. I can’t remember all that I said, but I remember crying and barely being able to speak. I remember telling the pastor of my sinfulness and my need for Jesus. As he and I prayed, the God of the Universe and I were reconciled to each other through Jesus Christ. That day began the amazing journey that I’m still on today. I love you Lord. You are my God and forever will be. Thank you for giving me this abundant and free life. To You be the glory forever and ever…amen.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

An Extra Day!

Nathan Neighbors — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 03:00:51 +0000

Have you ever said, “I wish there were more hours in a day.” I may not always say it, but I certainly live like I need more hours. Work, school, family responsibilities, sports practices, rehearsals…the list is endless. There just aren’t enough hours in a day. But what would we really do if we had more time? What if we had a whole extra day? Tomorrow we get our wish. It’s February 29 – Leap Day. This is a once every four-year opportunity. What will you do with your extra day this year? Let’s spend it glorifying the Lord and making Him known!