It's summer in the neighborhood

It's SUMMER in the neighboord!

Yes, it is now officially summer. Let's take a moment to check out what ministry activities we can do in our neighborhoods this summer.

• Host a backyard picnic/cookout for the entire neighborhood. Mail invitations or deliver them in person. This gives you the chance to meet new neighbors, have a chance to talk with the neighbors that you haven't seen for a while, ect. You could also ask each family to bring a salad or dessert or perhaps an ice cream topping (instead of doing an entire meal you could just opt. for a ice cream party - the ideas are endless).
  
  If you have any talented musicians your family, neighborhood, or church invite them to play a few good old gospel songs. Or perhaps put in a good CD to listen to while you are eating.
  
  Pray that God will give you open doors and that the unsaved will have hearts & minds that are open to the gospel.
  
  


• Host a neighborhood yard carnival. This is something we did years ago when the children in our neighborhood were young. We also were asked to do it in other neighborhoods as well. We would pick a Saturday morning and invite all the children to come to a yard carnival - we would give out balloons - all colors of the wordless book: green, red,black, white, yellow), my dad would do several gospel illusions, we would do a craft (e.g. a little wordless worm magnet). We would also have a puppet show (my sister and I did a puppet show with just the small hand puppets when we were about 8-10yr.). We would sing (and sometimes we would have a tape player sitting outdoors playing children church songs). Of course, we would have all sorts of little games to play in the yard (those can range from three legged races, sack races, and even beanbag toss). For more fun game ideas you can check books out at the library (or if you don't want to do that just search for children games on the Internet) - remember if you plan on having a theme carnival (wordless book, Noah's Ark, etc.) you can try to adapt your games to go along with the theme.
  
  


• If you know of other Christians in your neighborhood you might consider starting a Bible study with them one night a week or perhaps 1-2x's a month.
  
  


• Take a morning or evening stroll through the neighborhood - you never know who God might have you speak with while you are out walking. Usually in the summertime neighbors are out working in their yards or sitting on their porches which gives you a great oppertunity to speak to them about the Lord and perhaps invite them to church.
  
  
  Those are just a few of the many ways you can reach out to those around you during this summer. If you can't witness and talk with your neighbors (which by the way God has given each of us a mission field right were we live) - how can we expect to be great witnesses elsewhere around the world if we cannot reach out to those right where we live?