Friday, July 24, 2009

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'Step on the Enemy' competition connects with a generation By CHAKARA BENNETT ~ Guardian Summer Intern: Christian Evangelism in this country is about to do a double take. Synergy Soldiers for Christ (SSC), a group of 12 multi-denominational young men have merged old traditions of evangelism with the more modern and youthful medium of stepping to create a unique way to spread the word of God to the younger generations of the country. This group, which has been established for almost two years now, started out as only a four- man team but grew and grew as more young men were spiritually changed and wanted to share their experiences with others. Currently, there are 12 members in the group even though only eight step. The remaining four assist in technical support at events. The founder and leader of SSC, Nathaniel Adams, 21, came up with SSC because he himself is a very religion-oriented young man and wanted to show other young people that being a Christian does not mean the end of "good times." "I want [young people] to see that yes, I and my group are all Christian men of God but that doesn't mean we shrivel up and die and only go to church. He wanted to show them that there was more to being a Christian than that. As a Christian, you can do whatever you would like as long as it is within the bounds of our faith. So, dancing and stepping are perfectly fine as long as you are appropriate and put God in all that you do. You have to remember that no matter what you do, or how well you do it, you are nothing if God is not present." Adams also felt that there were so many young people losing their way or not attending church because they found it boring. He wanted to remind them why church and God were so important in their lives. He really wanted to find a way to connect with his generation. "We found that young people are always excited about step competitions and honestly we are just looking for an excuse to gather them in a crowd so that we can talk about God's love and his message with as many people as possible. And at the end of the day, no matter how much work, we have to put in to pull off our competitions. If we save one life then it is all worth it. We are here to win souls for the Kingdom, so there is no such thing as too much work." Adams said that he was inspired to start SSC and the competitions a while back when he had a conversation with a young man from Freeport named Nirron Rolle whom he met at a conference in Barbados. He and Rolle were jokingly arguing about who could step the best and Adams said that long after the frivolous conversation he was still thinking about the possibilities of using step as a means to interact with young people. When he returned to Nassau, he began to seriously think about whether he should do a Christian-based step competition. He decided that he would and immediately started to research how much it would cost him to pull off such a project. He realized that it would cost him $6,000 for everything to be planned and without any personal money, he could not do it out of pocket even if he wanted to. n See Step on REL6 "When I realized how much it was going to cost me I didn't quite know what to do," he said. "To this day I still don't know how we came up with the $6,000. We depended heavily on sponsors and the Lord's grace. And it all came to fruition. This year the competition is about four times bigger and we needed about $10,000 to pull it off this time. We decided to do projector advertisements to help with the expenses. This means we go to companies and tell them about the event and get them to agree to pay for an advertisement during our competition. Honestly, even the sales made with that was not enough and again we needed donations and support. Well, the bills are being paid somehow and we got the $10,000, so I guess a miracle has happened again this year. The Lord truly provides." This year's 'Step on the Enemy' competition will be held this Saturday, June 27 at the All Saints Community Center in Joan's Heights at 7:30 p.m. Competitors include the J.A. Allstars, Radicals for Christ and last year's third place winners, Trinity Phi for the senior division. Currently, only the Conquering Warriors for Christ (CWC) are participating in the junior division. There will also be a number of local musical artists performing at the competition as well. They include Rocky Solomon, Angelica, Leah, Church of God Mass Choir and Manifest. This year, SSC does not plan to compete in the competition in an effort to encourage more groups to participate. However, they do intend to put on a special challenge in order to spice up the competition. This challenge titled SSC Challenge, allows them to put on a performance after the main competition in which they are also scored, and if the group with the highest score from the competition out-scores them, the competitors take home a floating trophy signifies that they have taken the title of best step crew from SSC. Since claiming the title as top group at last year's Step on the Enemy competition, SSC has competed in multiple step competitions, all of which they have won. These include the National Youth Step Competition, Christian Discipleship Ministries Int'l (CDMI) and Step Up to Christ. The group has also travelled internationally and domestically to schools, churches and conferences to spread their ministry. Adams is happy that SSC is being received so well and added that other groups, more specifically the Shachah Dance Ministries and the Virtuous Steppers United (VS1), sister dance and step groups, have emerged under the guidance and influence of SSC. He hopes that eventually chapters of SSC can be formed in the family islands and even Florida. Step on the Enemy Competition When: Saturday, June 27 Where: All Saints Community Center, Joan's Heights Time: 7:30 p.m. Cost: $10 in advance or $15 at the door Outlets: 100% Bible Bookstore Thursday, June 25, 2009