IN MY HEAD

NewSpring Church is heading to Kenya again.  As you probably already know – NewSpring Church is partnered up with The 410 Bridge to reach out to Segera, Kenya.  This is our fourth service trip to this area and we are looking forward to reuniting with our Kenyan friends this week.  We will be leaving today (Thursday) and return on Saturday, February 13th.  I have listed below the twelve folks that will be heading to Kenya today.   I would love for you to join us by committing to pray for this team.  You can pray for the team’s attitudes, for God to prepare the people of Kenya,  and for safety from physical & spiritual opposition. I wanted to give you a general itinerary of what will be going on.

• Thursday and Friday – we will be flying a lot.  Leaving GSP and heading to Washington DC.  This evening we will leave DC heading to Amsterdam.  Leaving Amsterdam on Friday morning and arrive in Kenya on Friday night.
• Saturday – we will leave Nairobi to head up to the area of Segera, which is typically a 4-hour bus ride.
• Sunday – will be a wonderful day attending church in Kenya where we will have a great opportunity to worship with our Kenyan friends.  This has been a great opportunity for people’s perspective of worship to be altered. Always a great experience!
• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – Work days in Black Tank (a small community in the area of Segera) in which will be doing activities with the children of Black Tank as well as helping with construction work at that school.
• Thursday – saying good-byes at the Segera Mission and heading for a quick safari.  Hope we can see a lion and an elephant!
• Friday night & Saturday – a day FULL of flying home back!  Yeah!

NewSpring Church: David Nimmons, Jon McDerment, Will Rodes, Justin Dick, Eddie Gowan, Anna Gillespie, Meredith Orten, Lynn Bigby, Anna Marie Hilliard, Charli Alford, and Adam & Sydney Haskett.

Happy New Year!

So not only are we arriving at the end of the year, but the end of a decade. And what a run of ten years it has been. I have had a blast over the last ten years and I am amazed how so many things happened to me over the past ten years.  Last decade (1990-99) I only remember graduating high school and college.  This decade (2000-09) I had the chance to get married to Amanda, hold several full time jobs after college,  travel to China & Africa, become a proud dad to Caleb.  And…… the wonderful experience to be apart of NewSpring Church from the first service in January 2000.  It has been a great ride these past ten years and who knows what the next ten years will look like for me and for NewSpring.  We are getting ready to celebrate our TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY at NewSpring and I can not wait. We showed this video during our Christmas services and wanted to post it here. Hope to see you at the BILO Center in Greenville on Sunday, January 24th.

NewSpring 10th Anniversary promo from NewSpring Production on Vimeo.

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You ever heard the question:  what’s the difference between a major surgery and minor surgery?  The answer:  minor surgery is when it’s happening to you, major surgery is when it’s happening to ME.  It is so funny to realize when the story involves you… it seems more important.  I thought about this joke recently when Amanda told me that Caleb (our 14-month son) had busted his upper lip and needed to go to the emergency room to get stitches.  I did not freak out, but I was more concerned about this situation that all the other things going on in my world that Monday morning.  Why?  Because this was a situation that involved MY son, not just any child.  Most parents can understand that.  The concern and more importantly – the love I have for Caleb is one that is huge, however, my love pales in comparison to God’s love for Caleb.  Even better – God’s love for all His children.  The crazy day was a big reminder of how much God loves us and cares for us – His children.  I really believe the things that go on in our lives (good and bad) are not just minor things to our Heavenly Father.  They are major in His eyes.  Why?  Because it’s personal, we are His children.  He loves us!

BTW – Caleb got three stitches put in his lip and removed a week later.  He’s doing fine.

So NewSpring Church had the opportunity this week to be a blessing to four elementary schools around each of the NewSpring campuses.  We were able to provide shoes and socks to every kid that wanted them for this Christmas season.  We had the privilege to partner with New Prospect Elementary in Anderson, Alexander Elementary in Greenville, Harbison West Elementary in Columbia, and North Vista Elementary in Florence.  We had the chance to put over 1,500 pair of New Balance tennis shoes on kids’ feet and simply display the love of Jesus.  It was such a blast and I am sure, the NewSpring volunteers got as much a blessing from seeing the smiles on kids’ faces as the kids got with a new pair of shoes.  It is such a neat thing to be apart of a church that wants to help out the community that we live.

A few of the schools had the chance to make the local evening news.  WYFF in Greenville and WIS in Columbia.  How cool is that?

WYFF Greenville

WIS Columbia

I wanted to let you guys be apart of the NewSpring Kenya November Trip by praying for us as we leave today (Thursday) and return on Saturday, November 28th. I have listed below the 48 people going on this upcoming trip. I would love for you to pray for people’s attitudes, God to rock the team’s world, God would open up the Kenyan’s heart to receive the Gospel, and safety from physical & spiritual opposition. I wanted to give you a general itinerary of what will be going on.

-Flying on Thursday and Friday. We have a 13-hour layover in Paris. Good news: we will be doing a tour of the city. Bad news: I don’t want to lose anyone in France or miss our last flight.
-Saturday morning we will hit the ground running (literally) and will be heading up to the Segera Mission with only two back-to-back “redeye” flights as our sleeping opportunity. Yikes!
-Sunday equals church day with 4 church opportunities in Endona, Black Tank, Depatus, and the Segera Mission
-Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Work Days which will be (1)Jigger Removal & Education of the families with kids (2)Construction of the roof of the water tank (holding tank) at Black Tank (3)Working with school kids of Endona & the Mission
-Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) That day will consist of saying good-byes at the Mission, dedicating the Black Tank water project, and heading to Sweetwater to relax and enjoy Turkey Day.
-Friday, as you know is the longest day in the world, and has the opportunity to make people irritable and ready to SNAP! But we are going to pray against that.
-Saturday is a day FULL of flying home and missing the annual USC-Clemson football game. Boo!

NewSpring Church Staff:        Michael Brown, Shane Duffey, Lee McDerment, Paul Marshall, David Nimmons, Amanda Nimmons, Jennifer Turner, Amanda Thompson

Anderson campus:  Rhonda A., Danny B., Rachael C., Lee F., Kayla G., Johnny H., Michael H., Seth H., Don J., Casey K., Jesse & Nancy L., Cristin M., Carla P., Sarah P., Haley R., Natalie S., Philip T., Mark W.

Greenville campus:       Lauren C., Heather E., Danielle L., David & Sallie P., Caleb R., Kathryn S., Mara S., Brittany S., Brandi T., Kristin Z.

Florence campus:   Bob B., Cookie C., Heather C., Jennifer D., Shane & Courtney G., Liston G., Robert G., Alicia P., Kim S.

NewSpring Church – Using their gifts… from The 410 Bridge on Vimeo.

So we are leaving today and heading again to Kenya.  We have 34 folks from NewSpring Church going with us on this trip.  Half the team will be doing medical clinics for 3.5 days around the Segera Mission and surrounding area (Endona, Depatus, Black Tank).  The other half of the team will be working on building pit latrines for the community of Depatus as well as having the opportunity to do several outreach activities in the community.  The entire team will get the opportunity to worship with the Kenyans at several of the local churches in the area on Sunday; one of the highlights of the trip.

Would you take the time this week to pray for the NewSpring Kenya Team over the next 11 days?  We will be leaving out Thursday afternoon and returning on Sunday evening, August 30th.

August Kenya Team:

• NewSpring Staff (David Nimmons, Brad Cooper)
• Medical Team (Diana, Chasse, Rhonda, Michael, Maggi, Jane, Camille, Barry, Tammy, Matt, Suzanne, Carla, Kristen, Mandy, Lindsey, and Zack)
• Service Team (Rebekkah, Julie, Seth, Caleb, Matt, Megan, Alison, Walker, Lauren, Bill, Charlie, Vikki, Wanda, Carly, Erin, and John)

So we have been waiting for this event for some time now.  After much prayer and consideration we are heading to Kenya with NewSpring Church & The 410 Bridge for a service trip.  Please be in prayer for the team that is going on this trip.  We will be leaving on Thursday, June 11th and returning on Saturday, June 20th.

June Kenya Trip Participants:  Jake, David, Jason, Will, Matt, Trey, Giles, Steven, Chris, Jeremy, Morgan, Zach, Kendal, Joe, Bill, Patrick, Kylie, Carol, Molly, Ronnie, Nancy, Christine, Leslie, Kacie, Cyndi, Mike, Brian, Mindy, Ashley, Justin, Tiffany, and Chuck.

We would love your prayers over the next 10 days.