Get Ready to Get Wrecked

A Journey with Mission Discovery

Nathan Walters

Christian missionary work goes beyond just helping others; it embodies the call to be the hands and feet of Jesus, deepening faith and showcasing the transformative power of serving in His name.

Pastor Bob Thibodeau welcomes Nathan Walters, president of Mission Discovery, to discuss the organization's impactful work since 1991, where over 50,000 volunteers have served vulnerable communities through various life-changing projects.

Nathan shares his personal journey from being a volunteer to leading the organization, highlighting the importance of spiritual growth and community engagement in their mission trips.

The conversation delves into specific stories, particularly focusing on the profound impact of their work in Haiti, where the need for food, water, and the gospel is immense. Listeners will gain insight into how Mission Discovery equips individuals and churches to fulfill the Great Commission while offering practical advice for those considering their first mission trip.

Takeaways:

• Mission Discovery has mobilized over 50,000 volunteers since 1991 to serve communities.
• The organization focuses on meeting both physical and spiritual needs through missions.
• Nathan Walters started as a volunteer and has now become president of Mission Discovery.
• Missions can transform individuals' perspectives on faith, service, and the needs of others.
• Building relationships with local churches is crucial for effective missionary work.
• Mission Discovery emphasizes preparation and support for individuals and churches embarking on missions.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Email:  nathan@missiondiscovery.org

Website:  https://www.missiondiscovery.org/

_____________________________________________

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One.

Hello, everyone, everywhere.

Pastor Bob Thibodeau here.

Welcome to the Kingdom Crossroads podcast.

Today, we're so blessed that you're joining us.

You know, Christian missionary work is not just about helping others.

It's about living out the call to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Through missions, believers can deepen their faith, experience God's love and action, and see firsthand the transformative power of serving others in his name.

Today we will be talking about missionary work with Nathan Walters, president of Mission Discovery.

Mission Discovery is committed to building bridges of hope and faith across the globe.

Nathan's responsible for leading the organization to further his mission of building those bridges of hope by removing the logistical burdens and creating opportunities for you to share Christ's love unhindered while on a missions trip.

Now, beyond meeting physical needs, Mission Discovery also fosters spiritual growth by empowering local churches and offering nightly worship services for the team so they can reflect on the day's impact.

Mission Discovery equips individuals and churches to fulfill the Great Commission blessing both those who serve and those who they serve.

Help me.

Welcome to the program, Nathan Walters.

Nathan, it's a blessing to have you join us today, brother man.

Thank you so much.

I cannot, that, that introduction, you, I couldn't say anything, but I don't know what I can add.

That was amazing.

I appreciate that.

Praise God.

I appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to come on the program.

Hey, man, oh man.

No, this is great.

I appreciate you.

The first question I always start with though is this.

Other than that brief information I just shared, tell us in your own words, who is Nathan Walters?

When it started, I was one of those, I was one of those 50,000.

And so back in the day, trips were going, we were building houses in Mexico, you know, all kinds of stuff.

And, and that was my first trip with Mission Discovery.

Was, was going to Mexico and building a home for a family and, and I was actually, I came on and, and the worship leader, I didn't know anything about Mission Discovery at the time.

They asked me to come lead worship and I said yes and, and, and, and I loved it so much that the following week I stayed.

You know, they needed me for one week and I stayed for two just to see and get caught up I was just caught up, you know, I was caught up in what God was doing through this incredible organization.

And all the volunteers there, you know, you get a bunch of people just surrounded, just surrendered to God and worship and just watching him work in these amazing ways that are much bigger than any one of us, you know, it's amazing.

So it captured my heart.

And so, yeah, who am I?

I was one of those, I was one of those volunteers.

Thanks for asking.

Yeah.

Amen.

How did Mission Discovery get.

Get started?

Yes, well, that's a, that's a good question.

So there's a guy named Maury Buchanan who started mission discovery in 91.

And so he had worked as a youth pastor here in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

And he got the call on his life.

He's kind of like, you know, just out of the blue, God.

He felt like God was telling to start a missions organization and he did not know what to do with that information, you know, because it's like I said, you know, it's a, this thing is much bigger than any one of us, you know, it's, it's just crazy.

Once you start working in the Kingdom of God, what God can do with, with an ordinary person, just the extraordinary things that he can do, it just blows our minds, you know, every, every day.

So, so he thought, you know, that's kind of crazy, let me go.

And actually his wife made the, made the appointment with his, with his pastor.

And so he, he went over to the church and met with his pastor and said, morri, would God call you to do a God sized thing or, or a mori sized thing?

And he didn't answer the question.

It's like, I'm gonna take that with me and just mull it over.

Yeah.

He still runs trips with us, he still goes on the mission trips and things like that.

And so, and so, and then, and then that guy pass it on to me.

So it's just an incredible honor.

I'm sitting in a chair I never thought I'd be sitting in right now.

So.

So that's crazy.

Yeah.

Hey man, that's awesome.

That's awesome.

And your trips, they provide a wide range of services, like I said.

Building homes to supporting education and feeding programs.

Can you share, like, a specific story that highlights how this work has basically brought the love of Christ to life?

In a tangent?

Sure.

Yeah.

I mean, we.

We serve in a lot of.

How many stories can you pick?

Right?

Yeah, I know.

Yeah, we serve in a lot of different locations as well.

And so the.

The location I'll share about, you know, was.

Is a.

Is a location that's dear to my heart.

I pray for them every day.

And so it's.

So we've had to stop going there.

And it's.

To Haiti.

Port au Prince, Haiti, it's just gotten too dangerous for anybody.

Actually, the airport's closed right now as we're recording this to U.S.

flights.

And so I'm going to share that story even though we don't go there right now, because we still have an impact there.

We're still funding ministries there.

And it's just, you know, they're very dear to my heart, and every day I'm in prayer for these people.

And so we went there and we wanted to take a medical team.

And this was Maury, who did this, and he.

He looked around and all these pastors, you know, were asking for money to have mission discovery help them out, or, you know, if we wanted to serve in their areas, then they wanted to take some money.

And so we found the one pastor that.

That would not do that, said, come follow me and I'll take you to the people that are really in need.

And so we followed that pastor, and what began there was a relationship that built over the next 10 years of not only were we bringing medical trips, we were bringing teams to build churches.

We founded or we planted 14 churches in this one area of Haiti, which was an area that was a no man's land before the earthquake.

But what happened after the earthquake was started sleeping outside in the streets because they were afraid to sleep under the buildings.

You know, everything's concrete there.

And so they were afraid of another earthquake and the crumbling of the building on top of them.

So they slept in the streets.

And the government said, well, we got to get these people off the streets.

We can't.

We can't, you know, move forward.

And so the government opened up a bunch of plots of land around the city of Port au Prince.

And this was one of those.

It's called Onaville Haiti.

What was a place for onaville means old village of old people.

So it was a kind of a retirement place.

You know, you'd put your retired people over there.

Well, they opened it up to everybody, and it just began getting more and more and more populated.

And the need for the gospel in that area was incredible.

And not only the need for the gospel, but meeting, like, physical needs like water.

People were having to walk miles and miles and miles for water every day.

And you hear those stories, you know, you hear them all the time.

This was my first time seeing it.

You know, these are kids that are out of school because they have to go get water for the day, and that's their everyday life, you know.

And so.

And so we began building churches, planting churches with water stations so that the community didn't have.

Have to go so far for water and providing them with clean water.

We did food distribution as well.

We did.

They have microlending through a couple of these churches, and it was.

It's just, you know, it's an incredible thing to.

To be a part of.

To see the.

To see how God can use, um, just one little.

It's like God plants a seed, and then you just watch it, and it's like, how can we be a part of something so incredible?

You just see it come to life.

And so that was my.

You know, if I'm talking about, you know, mission, mission discovery and trips and things like that, the place that really stands out to me is Haiti, because there's so much desperation.

People are just so desperate for food and water and things that we have so readily available here, and they're desperate for the gospel, too.

And just being able to see all of that and be a part of it is just so humbling.

And so I pray for them every day.

It breaks my heart that we're not there.

You know, I got to a point where I was going to church there on Sundays, and you walk in and it feels like your home church, you know, it just that you can't speak the same language, you know, as them.

But.

But, you know, everybody's just.

It doesn't take language, you know, it's just.

It's just incredible.

So.

Amen.

Glory to God.

Amen.

Yeah, but how does.

How does mission discovery help?

I mean, I know it costs money to go on a missions trip, so how do.

How do you help individuals and groups prepare well, both spiritually and logistically for their missions trips?

Yeah, well, you know, groups, what I like to say is churches that go with us, a lot of times they are the churches that don't have a missions program yet.

They might be looking at getting one and things like that.

And so what we do, you know, of course we've been doing it since 91, so we've got a bunch of resources that we can give people.

We walk people through the planning process.

We'll go visit with the church if they need it.

We'll, we'll, you know, all of the preparation spiritually for their teams, we try to give to them.

You can always tell who's really prepared and who, who hasn't, you know, and it just makes the difference on a trip.

Like who.

If a leader has really prepared themselves and their team for a trip, then that trip is going to be so much better than if, than if a bunch of people just kind of signed up and came.

So, so how do we do it?

You know, we, it's time, time, effort, energy, all the resources that we make and build and put together relationships with the, with the people meeting with them.

Like we're meeting now over zoom before trips and things like that.

It's just that that's kind of the real, the real piece that I think a lot of people in churches may not have access to.

You know, they, I believe that a lot of churches really want to step into missions and really want to, you know, go out and whether it be in their own community or somewhere in the States or somewhere abroad, they want to reach people for the good news of Christ.

And they want, they know that there's a lot of people that need, need to be taken care of and they want to take a part in that.

And they just might lack the, know how, they might lack the funding, they might lack the, you know, other resources that Mission Discovery can kind of help them with.

So, so that's where, you know, we, we kind of step in there.

So.

Yeah.

Amen.

Amen.

What, what advice would you give someone?

Because I know a lot of people, they, well, I'm going to go on this missions trip and when they come back, their entire attitude has changed.

I mean, the Holy Spirit has got them type thing kind of like what happened with you, Right?

Yeah.

What advice would you give someone considering their first missions trip to, you know, going with Mission Discovery and prepare them for how it might just totally transform their perspective on faith and service.

Goodness.

That is, you know, that question is so well phrased.

It, you know, it's kind of like, what would you, you know, if you were back in the day, you were.

You were around when Jesus was walking the earth physically and, and he was about to come to your town.

It's like asking, what advice would you give to the people of this town who's about to encounter, you know, Jesus in this very real way?

You know, I don't know that there's such.

There's great advice for it.

I mean, just like, get ready to get wrecked.

I mean, that's, that's probably.

I mean, like, Jesus is going to come to town and he's going to change everything you thought you knew.

And he's going to call you, follow him and be.

Get close to him and your eyes are going to be open.

It's like you're seeing color when you've been seeing black and white all your life.

It's like, you know, and you're.

It's like, well, what happened?

You know, the blind saw, you know, and so everything that people were, you know, it's just different and exciting and alive.

And so I don't know that there's great advice.

Maybe that was it.

Get ready to get wrecked.

That's what happened with me, you know, I mean, my heart just changed completely going on these trips.

And so.

And it.

And yeah, so maybe that's it, you know, you will experience.

If you come and you're asking yourself, you know, why am I coming?

What?

And you're in your prayerfully going into it, and you're fertile soil, you know, if your heart is fertile soil for the gospel and even if it's not, now I've got a story of somebody who wasn't then, then.

And I'll share that in a minute.

But God will completely turn your life into something you never thought possible.

He does immeasurably, more than we could ever ask or imagine.

So what are you asking?

What are you imagining?

You know, this.

You know, he's going to do more.

You know, there was a girl named.

Well, I won't share her name, but she came to Mexico with us and.

And she came with her dad and her sister.

Her mom was not there.

And it turned out that her dad had gone to this church, gotten saved.

And these two girls, one was on her way to Jesus and the other one just was not her mom.

Their mom was Wiccan.

Practicing Wiccan.

So she.

That's why she's not on the trip.

Right.

She completely doesn't believe it.

So this one girl comes on the trip with her mindset of.

I am not going to engage with the Christian part of this trip.

I'll go help build a house.

I'll go put some nails and boards, but I'm not going to engage in.

As a matter of fact, if that stuff comes up, I'm gonna, I'm gonna speak against it and I'm gonna try to disrupt what God might be trying to do, you know, whatever.

So, so that was her mindset going in.

She, she wanted to disrupt the spiritual aspect of the trip.

And she got there on a Sunday with her group and by Tuesday she decided to follow.

Her and her sister both were baptized by her father and the youth leader of the, of the group.

So, you know, it's, it's get ready to get wrecked because it happens, you know.

So there you go.

Yeah.

Hey, man, that's awesome.

That is awesome.

Yeah.

You know, back when I was 18 years old, joined the military and my first deployment was to Korea.

Yeah.

A couple years ago, right?

Yeah, yeah.

1976.

77.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

And you know, the, this is way back before any really big development was taking place other than in Seoul.

Right.

Okay.

And we were at the end of a.

About a hour and 20 minute ride down a dirt road and that dead ended at our compound.

And you see the, it wasn't tense.

It was more like the barracks like you had with Gomer pile, you know, the Quonset huts.

Right.

That was, you know, that's, that was our little camp.

Right.

And the village was similar to what you saw on mash.

I mean, just a lot of was just temporary buildings and.

Right.

Tents and poverty.

I mean, it was just.

Sure.

And that changed my perspective on how blessed we really are in the United States, you know, and you know, we went back, you know, to different places and stuff like that over my career.

But you know that I always said that it's a good thing for kids, you know, and I'm talking about, you know, teenagers on up to young adults, 21, 22 years.

You need to go overseas.

I don't care if it's.

Sure.

You know, not, not on a organized sightseeing trip like on a cruise or something like that where they're taking you the, the nice areas.

Go see how people actually live and it will change your perspective.

Totally.

That's right.

Yeah.

And like the vice president of our ministry, he does a lot of work down in Haiti.

He supports a school down there and all that Christian school.

But you know, he went there on a missions trip back in the late 70s, early 80s or something like that.

And it totally just, it did, you Know, for you, it just totally changed his perspective on everything.

But yeah, so I can understand and I agree with you 100%, you know, because when you see what people live like outside of this nation and they don't know Jesus and when they come to know Jesus, I mean, they finally have something they can hope in.

That's right.

That's right.

Found them is not looking great, but they have hope now.

You're giving them hope.

And that is, that is absolutely awesome.

Amen.

Question I got for you though.

Is there any like, age group restrictions that Mission Discovery has, you know, living who may actively participate on a missions trip?

You talk about the young girls and stuff.

I mean, Is it like 12 and up or 15 and up?

Is there anything like that?

And so, yeah, I'll give you a.

So this summer, back in, in Bluefield, West Virginia, this summer, one of the places that we work, I had my son who's one year old, and then we had a 90 year old.

So this.

So can we work with anybody?

Yes, we can.

We, we definitely can.

But we generally say I think it's 10 and up.

And, and then of course, like if there's.

So one of the things that we do is work with families.

A lot of, a lot of, there's a lot of benefit to having a full family on a mission trip.

It really changes the DNA of the family.

I've seen it happen multiple times.

And so, and so like families will bring their six year old, their four year old.

I've had a family bring their one year old.

As long as we have a good heads up here at the office and the, and the, the children have adequate care, you know, the people that will watch them and not us qualified people that will watch them, then it's fine.

Generally though, if it's a youth group or something like that, I think it's 10 and up.

It's a good question.

Okay, man.

And how do you help, you know, like I said, I know like it, it costs money to go on a missions trip and you know, how do you help the churches or the individuals?

I mean, you know, someone contacted you, wanted to sign up for a missions trip to wherever you guys are going.

How do you help them with the finances?

Because I know it says you help with the logistical aspects.

What do you do with that?

So Mission Discovery.

Yeah, you're right.

It does cost money.

Food, lodging, transportation, you know, everything that you can imagine.

Imagine going on a vacation, it's going to cost money because there's so much that happen, you know, to take Care of.

So, yeah, it does cost money.

One of the things that we do as a staff to bring down the price of a mission trip is that if you're a project coordinator with Mission Discovery, which means you're the person running the project, then you are tasked with raising your funds.

It's just like a missionary position from a church or anything else.

It's like you go out and you raise your funds to do that.

And so, yeah, right now the model is people raise 100% of their salary so that the cost for a mission trip for a volunteer is kind of.

It's brought down because of that.

Of course, there's other ways that we bring costs down.

We've worked with certain Mission Discovery or mission partners for years, like hotels and things like that.

And so we get rates that are better than what you'd find on the Internet anywhere, you know, and.

And so, yeah, it's just all in a matter of, like, on our side of things, how are we managing our expenses so that we can bring the cost down for the person that's going on the trip?

That's a big goal of ours.

On the church's side of things, more logistically, we go.

You know, you can have.

There's several different ways that you can raise money if you're a church or a school that's going on a mission trip to kind of offset the cost of the trip for each individual person.

You know, there are simple fundraisers like bake sales, or, you know, different things like that.

I often tell people the best fundraiser that I've ever seen is raises $20,000, which is crazy.

And it's an easy way to raise $20,000.

And that's on our website, highlighted that for people, so they can see that and that, you know, of course, $20,000, you're thinking, my goodness, that's a crazy expensive mission trip.

Well, if you're thinking about bringing 20 people or 25 people on a mission trip, it does add up.

Those costs add up.

So.

So, yeah, if you can raise 20,000, that's incredible.

So, yeah.

Amen.

This is so good.

I can just keep asking you questions on this stuff, but it's so interesting.

And the work you and your organization is doing is definitely impacting the world with the Gospel.

Amen.

I'd appreciate that.

If someone has a question or would like more information, how can they get in touch with you and Mission Discovery?

Oh, yeah, well, they.

You can go on the website and find any information on there, but you can always call the office or email the office.

InfoMission, discovery.org is a good, good place to start.

That's InfoMission discovery.org we have an 800 number and I would tell it to you, I don't remember it.

It's probably on the website.

Yeah, there you go.

It is, it is.

Yeah.

So, so, yeah, but definitely just email us.

We're always available, you know, to talk through it.

And our goal just to like back up here, Our goal is to partner with people.

So if you've got a group or if you've got a school group or whatever that wants to go and do some good and, and get close to Jesus and what I say, get ready to get wrecked or whatever.

Yeah, our goal is to partner with you in that.

And so it's, it's more than just like going on the website, paying some money to go on a trip.

That's a way to look at it.

Our way to look at it is like we're partnering with you to bring the gospel, bring the good news to these locations and, and share your story and be a part of what God's doing in these places that we're serving.

And so, so yeah, it's all about partnership for us.

So.

Amen.

Amen.

And how can someone donate to, to Mission Discovery and help you offset some of those costs?

Yeah, same thing.

Go to, go to the website and there's a donate button right there and the website's missiondiscovery.org you know, so it's, it's pretty simple.

Yeah.

Amen.

I'll put links all this in the show notes below.

Amen.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Mission Discovery exists just to connect people with meaningful opportunities to serve and impact communities worldwide through short term mission trips.

Guided by the vision of being basically the hands and feet of Christ, Mission Discovery mobilizes churches, schools and groups to meet real needs.

Building the homes, providing food, supporting education, sharing the love of Jesus.

Everywhere they go, participants will experience spiritual growth, deeper faith and lasting relationships as they serve.

Together with the logistics, the food, lodging, all arranged by Mission Discovery staff, your team can focus fully on just making a difference.

Every missions trip is an opportunity to transform lives, including those who serve and those who served.

I urge you.

Drop down the show notes, click the links right there.

Reach out to Nathan Wilders.

Click the link.

See what kind of impact Mission Discovery is already making.

Pastors, I believe you could definitely be a blessing by supporting the work of Mission Discovery and having some of your folks take a trip for themselves.

Amen.

Ah, don't shut me down.

I'm preaching.

Good now.

Glory to God.

Just click the links right there.

Find out for yourself.

The blessing of serving others on a short term missions trip with Mission Discovery.

Nathan, I appreciate your time for joining us today and sharing all about Mission Discovery.

Man.

You guys are doing a great work.

Thank you so much for having me, man.

This is a great, great time for me too.

And you're such a blessing.

I love hearing you and hearing your story.

So thank you.

Amen folks.

That's all the time we have for today for Nathan Walters myself.

Is Pastor Bob reminding you to be blessed in all that you do?