So much to do, so little time!

*Disclaimer: This was a draft I started this past Sunday but didn't have time to finish, so instead of starting afresh with a new, current post, I'll finish this one before I write another post that's more to-date.*

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It's amazing that the final full week of project has come to a close. Wednesday the campus track family will all go our separate ways to our different REAL homes...South Carolina, North Carolina, California, Missouri, Illinois, Florida, Kentucky...

Needless to say, the faster the end of Summer Project approaches, the more packed our schedules have become as the intense desire to make the most of every moment increases.

Because last week was our last week of ministry on campus, the staff strongly encouraged all of our ministry teams to focus on a specific vision for ministry on our campuses, and to take active steps to further that vision before we left those campuses in the hands of future believers to reap the harvest of what the Lord has sown through us. Our particular vision for our home campus, City College, was to that a visual community of Christian students would rise up on the campus. It's been amazing how different student life is on the campuses we've visited in NYC compared to those in the South...in most cases, student life as we know it at say, USC, doesn't exist up here. This is largely due to most of the colleges being commuter schools so ninety percent of the students just come to take their classes and then leave to go home. So if student life in general is lacking, Christian community is definitely lacking. Although we knew we would not be able to see a Christian community all of a sudden pop up at City College in the short time we were there, we knew we could do some sowing that could open the door to that happening in the future. Just a few good Christian contacts would be all that's needed to get a movement started. Tuesday we approached students with a bag of candy and asked if they would have time to do a 30-second survey with us, which looked something like this:

1) Do you believe you have found your purpose in life? (Circle yes or no)
2) What do you believe determines how you find a sense of purpose in your life? (Circle one: self, family, God, other)
3) Would you be interested in attending a discussion with other college students to learn about Jesus?
4) Name: _____________
Number: ___________
5) Can we text you at this number or contact you on Facebook? (Circle yes or no)

We were able to cover a lot of ground with these surveys as far as getting a list of students who said they wanted to learn about Jesus. We then invited those who said that they'd be interested and gave us permission to contact them to a "focus group" we planned for Thursday. The idea of a focus group is to ask the students a series of questions about life, relationships, and spirituality--questions such as, "What would you characterize as a wasted life?"--without giving our own answers to the questions. The point was to let the students be heard without pushing our own views on them. There goes a lot to be said for making people feel respected and not looked down upon--something the stereotypical Christianity has frankly done a poor job of communicating to non-believers. We would let the students know at the beginning of the discussion that we were only going to ask for an hour of their time, but for those who would be interested in hearing our views, we'd be happy to talk to them after the focus group.

So that was the plan. We were thrown a curveball, though, when only two people responded to our texted invitation, and both of those said they were busy during the planned time for the discussion. Thursday came, we met on the grassy area on campus we described in the invitation with a box of cookies from a local bakery, and waited. After a while a guy named Allen showed up. We initially all felt a little awkward since he saw he was the only one there, but he turned out to be really friendly and easy to talk to, and so we spent the focus group hour chatting with Allen about the city, his background, and got a little into the spiritual side of things towards the end of the conversation. The discussion certainly didn't go as we'd planned, but we were able to have a nice laidback conversation with Allen. We were able to share with him some of our beliefs, but we didn't force a deep spiritual conversation, which I believe the Lord will bless in that we we were clear with him about what we believed but were able to show him that we cared about being his friend, not just getting a conversion.

And now for the highlight of the week for me: Monday we were able to lead a student to Christ! We got a later start that day because our morning meeting ran long because of a training session on how to talk to Jewish students, so once we got to campus we were all feeling discouraged because we only had a little over an hour to be there. However, as we gathered to pray over our time there before we split off in pairs, one of our staff members, Stephanie, optimistically shared that she really felt like the Lord would love to show off for us that day and teach us how limitless He is, despite our time limit. When we all split off, Stephanie and I went together and approached a girl to ask if she'd be interested in doing a picture survey with us. This picture survey, by the way, is a ministry tool Crusade uses called "Soularium," a project some arts students did that involves asking people to answer questions about their life and view of God based on an assortment of random, artsy photographs. She agreed, taking her ipod earphones out, and we introduced ourselves and she introduced herself as, we'll call her, Sylvia. As our conversation progressed, we learned Sylvia is originally from the Dominican Republic and has been living in NYC for about 9 years. I was especially struck by how friendly and open she was with us. While we went through the Soularium questions with Sylvia, she gave very well-thought-out answers. She shared with us that she believed it was possible to have a personal relationship with God, and even felt a kind of connection with him; but when we asked her what she thought about Jesus and who He was, she wasn't able to give us an answer. It was like she hadn't given him any thought before. We told her we believed that Jesus is God, and then took that opportunity to ask Sylvia if we could tell her a little bit about what we believed. We shared the Gospel with her, and it was so beautiful to see the gradual light come across Sylvia's countenance as we saw she understood what we were saying and responded when we asked her if yielding her life to Jesus was the desire of her heart with, "Yes! Definitely!" We prayed with her to welcome Christ into her life right there at a table under a tree of City College's lovely campus. It was so sweet to hug Sylvia afterwards and celebrate that we had a new sister in Christ! More good news: there's a ministry that's a part of Campus Crusade at City College that focuses on Latinamerican students (Sylvia is Dominican) called Destino, and Sylvia was enthusiastic about becoming involved when we told her about it.

Also, Thursday, our last day on campus, two of the people on our ministry team, my friends Julian and Ali, were able to lead a student named Charles to Christ! I can't tell you exactly how that conversation went, but what an encouragement that we started AND ended the week with seeing someone accept Jesus as their Savior for the first time. Even though the focus group didn't reach our standards of success, the Lord blessed our last week of ministry in the best way possible--we have two new members of God's family to look forward to seeing in heaven!

A Night of Sharing Sandwiches and a Listening Ear to NYC's Homeless

Last night we had our weekly Monday night meeting, during which all the different tracks on the NYC Summer Project come together for dinner and worship. Each week a different track hosts the meeting, and last night was the inner city track's turn. After a brief time of sharing testimonies in regards to how they had seen the Lord work through ministry to the homeless, the inner city staff divided us into groups, gave us some instructions, and handed us bags of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to distribute throughout the city. Perhaps "distribute" is the wrong word. What the inner city track strongly emphasized before sending us out was the value of spending time with the men and women to whom we gave the sandwiches, to allow them to share their story with us and just be heard. My group was sent to a K-Mart near the Penn Station subway stop, where we found a side street that turned out apparently to be one of the hot hang-out spots for a variety of homeless men and women. My friend Jordan and I approached an elderly woman named "Delores" (either that or "Doris"; I couldn't quite make it out for sure), asked if she'd like a meal (some bags we were given to hand out contained a few more items than just a sandwich), and if we could sit down with her for a bit. She was very sweet, and was delighted to find out that Jordan and I were from Florida and South Carolina, since she had family in both of our states. During our time in that side street behind K-Mart, I was struck by how the homeless people around the area all seemed to look out for each other. At one point a man passed us carrying a life-size batman "stuffed toy" (to call it a doll seems weird, and it wasn't a stuffed animal, so I'm not sure what exactly to call what he was carrying other than that). Of course that grabbed our and Delores' attention, and she halted our conversation to ask what he was doing. "I just found it, and thought I'd give it to the kids; I thought they'd get a kick out of it!" was his jovial reply in a very New York accent. Also, Jordan told me that when he approached a different man to offer him a sandwich, the man told Jordan to make sure he gave one to Delores. I felt convicted about my tendency to so often jump to negative conclusions about the attitudes and motivations of the homeless. But one thing the Lord taught me last night was that they too can have the ability and the desire to step outside of themselves and look out for others, even when they have so little to give each other. And I inwardly begrudge giving a dollar to the man on the street who asks me for money. May the Lord give me more of the love of His heart for ALL of His people, not just the outwardly lovely ones.

After we all returned from sharing food and spending time with the homeless at our separate locations, a group of us from campus track got together to hang out for a little while, during which we were blessed to hear the exciting news that one of the couples who are on our campus track staff, John and Ellen from upstate New York, were able to lead a homeless man to Christ! Praise the Lord that this man was not only fed physical food last night, but received the Bread of Life!

Monday after a FULL weekend

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend celebrating our country's independence!

This past weekend, from Thursday to Sunday, was busy busy! I soaked in wonderful teaching from a seminar, explored vintage shops in Brooklyn, and played games at the park with Campus Track friends while waiting for the Macy's annual fireworks show, to name a few activities. I was delighted to discover this past weekend several of NYC's treasures outisde of the tourist bubble, one of the main things I love about spending an extended period of time in this fascinating city!

Before I share a few tidbits from each day, I'd like to tell you a little about the seminar we attended Thursday and Friday.

The Summer Project was priveleged to be able to attend a seminar by Sy Rogers, a pastor and speaker who travels around the world teaching on Christians' relationship with sexuality. Our staff prepared us in advance to be shocked, and indeed, hearing his testimony and teaching was unlike anything I have EVER heard before. He mainly focused on sins Christians struggle with in regards to sexuality, but his teaching was relevant to pretty much any sin Christians deal with. Although he did not mince any words, all of his hard teaching went hand in hand with beautifully redemptive messages. His teaching was particularly helpful in learning how to understand the roots of sexual sin and knowing how to answer questions we might encounter from people of different backgrounds (homosexuality, for example) while sharing God's love with college students on campus. One key point Sy made that made an impact on me was how important it is that the Church speak openly and frequently about Christians' relationship with sexuality, in a world that is OBSESSED with sexuality. If the Church does not teach Christians how to think about sexuality, we are learning how to think about it from the world's twisted view, whether we realize it or not. The Lord is doing powerful work through Sy Rogers' story and teaching, and after sitting through his seminar, I heartily wish every church could hear him speak. His website is www.syrogers.com.

Now for the highlights from each day:

Thursday: We attended the Sy Rogers seminar in the morning, and were then given the rest of the afternoon off to spend personal time with the Lord and rest. During this afternoon I discovered a new favorite coffee shop! (Speaking of which,there will be a post to come about all of my coffee shop discoveries in the city, unsurprisingly) It's called 'SNice, and reminded me of my beloved Immaculate Consumption in Columbia, where I have spent many hours reading the Word and journaling. That evening, the campus track ate at a Cuban restaurant together for our weekly cultural dinner. After dinner, a group of us walked through the newly opened High Line Park in Chelsea, one of my hands down favorite sites in the city! It was built on top of an old railway track. I didn't have my camera with me when we went, but I plan to make it back there for a picture trip soon. Until then, here are some photos I got off of the park's web site (http://www.thehighline.org/galleries/images/high-line-park-photos?page=2). Of course, they're much better than any I could take anyways.




We strolled through the park during sunset...so perfect!

Friday: The Sy Rogers Seminar lasted all day, with an afternoon "Women's Time" break during which the campus track women staff led a discussion and prayer time of diving deeper into the applications of Sy Rogers' teaching in our own lives. Friday night a large group of us went to Brooklyn to have a babysitting party at Brandon and Ansley's apartment (a couple who is on staff permanently in NYC, but are actually getting ready to move to Charleston to work on staff at College of Charleston and Charleston Southern...I'm SO excited they'll be closer for me to visit after project!). By babysitting party I mean a large group of us picked up food at a local Italian restaurant and then enjoyed just hanging out together at Brandon and Ansley's while they went out on a date and their sweet 10-month-old Myra Grace slept.

Saturday: Went for a run at the beautiful Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, another new favorite spot in NYC! I think I like it so much because it reminds me in a way of the waterfront park in Charleston. :) Met up with friends for lunch at John's Pizzeria on Bleecker Street--best pizza I've ever put in my mouth! (although, we've concluded that all the pizza places have to be great in NYC in order to stay in business since there are so many of them...going back to Dominos once I get home is going to be hard!) My friend Ali and I then went to Brooklyn where we had fun toodling around some vintage shops. After a while we made a visit to Brandon and Ansley's, where we enjoyed chatting with them and playing with Myra Grace. Later that evening, Ali and I met up with a couple other campus track friends and we all went to South Street Seaport,an old fish market overlooking the Hudson River that has been turned into a shopping and dining center. I loved seeing the beautiful old warehouses that had been converted into shops, the brick roads, and the boats on the water. Interesting fact: the first J. Crew store is located there! Again, sadly, I did not have my camera with me, but I surely plan on making another trip (or two) back there before I leave the city!

Sunday: Went with a group to Brooklyn Tabernacle, and got to hear Jim Cymbala preach (shout out to Aunt Mary, who highly recommended that I visit his church while I was in NYC). Brooklyn Tabernacle is famous for their choir, but the service we attended did not have the full choir, although the music was still beautiful. Sunday afternoon around 4 we all headed to a park on the Hudson River to snag a good spot on the grass for fireworks viewing later. Five hours waiting for fireworks in the blazing July heat (little did I know I would experience a summer in NYC as hot as any I've lived through in Columbia)was unappealing at first, but the time passed quickly while we all had fun taking pictures, napping, and playing Catch Phrase and card games. Once the sun went down, we decided the sunset and spectacular fireworks show, combined with the fun we had enjoying each other's company made the five hours well worth it.







And now we begin a new week of ministry! What does the Lord have in store for us this week?

Piano Art Project

So the other day I was walking with a group through Herald Square in Manhattan and was astounded to see a piano sitting smack dab in the middle of the square. I didn't think too much of it (it IS New York City, after all), but then a few days later when we were going on the Staten Island Ferry I saw another one sitting outside the visitor's center at Staten Island. Intrigued, I asked someone if they could tell me why I'd been seeing pianos randomly placed throughout the city. I was told that it was part of an art project. I decided to find out more about this piano project for myself, and discovered this article explaining that a British artist placed 60 pianos in NYC for anyone who feels so compelled to stop their busy day to plunk some keys. Local artists have decorated many of the pianos.


So delightful! How many different pianos can I stumble upon? I've found three so far, and will continue to post pictures of every new one that I find.

Ups and Downs

Today I want to share with you some of the ups and downs we've experienced lately in our ministry here in NYC. We're definitely encountering the tension between the reality of how awesome our God is and how fallen our world is.

We're now officially two weeks into our summer project. As the staff put it, the "honeymoon stage" is starting to wear off. We're all a little more weary, a little more intolerant of the heat or the crowded subways, a little more prone to random teary moments, and a little less patient with each other. In short, our "Sunday best" sides are giving way to a more authentic (which can sometimes, unfortunately, mean more sinful) manner of interacting with each other. Some of us are struggling with feeling discouraged by our campus ministry. Some of the campuses we're assigned to are extremely tight on security and will not allow anyone but students into the buildings. Also, we've met many students who have closed themselves to hearing anything that relates to the Gospel. I've talked to students who have no desire to know God or even what their purpose in life is. It baffles me that they could be content to go through life without addressing those deep questions that I feel every single person must wrestle with at some point or another.

So that is the reality of some of the downs we've been experiencing. I hated beginning with the discouraging news, but I feel it's important to communicate the reality of spiritual warfare, while at the same time trusting that our God is bigger than anything the Enemy can throw at us. With that, I am now excited to share with you the encouraging ways I've been able to see the Lord work these past several days! :) Get ready.

Of course, those two students who accepted Christ last week have been the examples of the most powerful way I've witnessed the Lord work on the project thus far. My second major praise has to do with a young man named Jaime. My ministry team went to City Tech (one of our secondary campuses) for the first time last Wednesday, which is also high on security. The entire campus is contained in one or two buildings, so we couldn't just find a grassy area outside where students hang out for us to talk with. We got past the security guard by telling him we wanted to go to the admissions office. When we got to admissions, we tried giving them a brief description of who we were and asking them if we could just walk around by ourselves to talk to students, but they told us we had to have a tour guide with us. When the tour guide appeared (Jaime), we told him upfront that we were not interested in enrolling in the school and so didn't necessarily need a tour, but asked him if he would be willing to sit down with us and answer some questions we had about the school. He was very laid-back and willingly answered all our questions about the college's fields of study, clubs and organizations, and other aspects of student life. At the end of our conversation, we told him that we were with Campus Crusade for Christ, and asked him if there was any way we could get access to campus past security to just talk to students. He was very receptive and gave us his contact information so we can get in touch with him any time we need to get into the building and he would be able to make sure we'd get in. Jaime was definitely a God-send to give us access to such a high-security campus. Hopefully our ministry team will continue to be able to build a good relationship with Jaime, so that he will be able to be a useful contact at City Tech for NYC Campus Crusade staff in the future. Please pray that the Lord would continue to grant us favor with Jaime and the City Tech administration, and that we would even have a chance to share the Gospel with him at some point.

My second encouraging news to share has to do with how I've been struck with how the Lord is working in a more over-arching way in NYC this summer through all the different tracks working here this summer (campus, innercity, arts, international, and asian). Last night we had our weekly large group meeting where all the tracks come together for dinner and worship. It was such a huge encouragement to me to be reminded of how the Lord's work is so much bigger than even simply our campus ministry. Summer project people are literally taking the city by storm! Arts track students are working in the studio preparing works of art that communicate Christian themes for a show that they will host in a few weeks for local NYC artists, and have also been going around the city doing picture surveys called Soularium (something we've also been using on campus) that are designed to ignite spiritual conversations. Innercity track students are helping distribute food to NYC's homeless and working in Vacation Bible Schools for children in underprivileged neighborhoods. The international tracks are reaching out to all the students who come from all over the world to NYC for school. And then we campus track students are spreading the love of Christ to about twelve different college campuses in the city. If the Lord is working in such a huge way just through Campus Crusade's summer project this summer in NYC, think about how much MORE He's working through the thousands of other churches, Christians, and ministries in this city!

"You're the God of this city..."

The Kingdom of God welcomed in two new family members yesterday.

PRAISE JESUS!!

So...I'll back-up. This week was our first week doing campus ministry. The staff split us into ministry teams of about four students and two leaders. Monday we were on our own to explore whatever college campus we wanted in the city just to get an idea of what campus life looks like on a typical NYC campus. We visited New York Institute of Technology and Columbia University, and tried to find out as much as we could about the colleges as far as what organizations are popular, what is important to students, central spots where students hang out, etc. through talking to people and doing some "decoding" surveys (like what I talked about in the previous post).

Yesterday was our first day on our "home" campuses--the campuses we were assigned to that each ministry team will focus on for the rest of the summer. My team was assigned City College, in the Upper West Side. It's a beautiful campus, and we were so encouraged to come across a lot of students around campus to talk to! Within our group, we split up into pairs, and my friend Julian was my ministry partner for the day. We set out armed with the Holy Spirit and a stack of surveys (de-coding surveys asking about student life as well as more spiritual-directed surveys called Quest surveys which asked questions about a person's spiritual beliefs). After talking with a student about student organizations and popular hang-out places on campus, Julian and I headed into the school cafeteria and decided to approach a student (I'll call him "Ben" for this blog) who was sitting quietly by himself enjoying a bagel lunch. We told him we were with a group from out of town in NYC for the summer and that we were trying to get an idea of students' spiritual beliefs on campus and asked if he'd have time to do a survey with us. We began going through the questions with him: when we asked him about his spiritual background, Ben said that his parents were Christians and had taken him to Sunday School as a kid, but he hadn't been to church since he'd been in college because he didn't have time. We then asked him what he believed happened after death, and he said he believed in a heaven and a hell. When we asked him where he thought he would go when he died, he replied that he hoped that he was going to heaven. We then asked him how he thought he'd be able to get to heaven, and he responded that he believed he could by leading a good life and doing the best he could. We then got to a question asking him to rate his desire to know God on a scale of one to ten--he said it was a seven. Julian then pulled out a Knowing God Personally booklet that we had, which explains the basics of the Gospel message. We showed it to Ben and asked him if we could read through it with him, and he agreed, so we shared the Gospel with him. At the end, I asked Ben what he thought it meant to know God personally after hearing what we'd just read, and he responded that it was through Christ dying on the cross. Julian then asked if he'd like to pray to receive Christ. When Ben answered that he would, Julian said he'd pray and Ben could pray silently. Aftewards we asked Ben if he'd be interested in getting together with other Christians to talk about God, so we got his contact information.

Would you please partner with us in interceding to the Father on Ben's behalf? Please pray that he would seek to grow in a relationship with God by reading the Bible and seeking out other Christians. Please pray that we would be able to follow-up with Ben to get to know him better and go through a short Bible study with him Campus Crusade does for new believers examining how to have a deeper relationship with Christ. Please pray that he would be able to share the love of Christ with others.

I am so blown away by the Lord's goodness in allowing us to witness Him working in someone's heart in such a powerful way right before our eyes. I know that every conversation may not end in seeing a new person become a follower of Christ, but it was so sweet to be able to witness that for the first time yesterday. When we met back with the rest of the campus track at the end of the day, another ministry team shared that they also had the privilege of leading a student to Christ. I can't remember his name right now, but please keep him in your prayers as well!

Wow. Only a few days into actual ministry and God is already blowing our minds with His power and grace.

Moving away from the ministry update to more frivolous things, here are a few fun highlights from the past several days:

Saturday evening: eating take-out from the famous Grimaldi's Pizza in Brooklyn all together at a waterfront park in Brooklyn, then walking back to Manhatten over the Brooklyn Bridge surrounded by laughter and water and city lights

Sunday afternoon: I won the Wicked Lottery!! For certain broadway shows, they give away "lottery" tickets two hours before the show for front row seats for a really cheap rate. They gave away 13 seats, and my name was one of the one's called! The fun part was that we got to take someone with us, so my friend Ali got to go with me. I'd seen the show before in Atlanta and LOVED it, but experiencing it from the front row where I could have reached out and touched the actors at some points was FABULOUS!

Sunday night: hanging out with our whole group playing a couple intense games of Maufia. :)

Tuesday night: They split us up into small groups for the summer, and we had our first Bible study last night. We went to a really fun restaurant called Cowgirl in SoHo!

Wednesday night (tonight): The entire group went to the Mary Poppins broadway. Magical! My favorite part was when she glided in the air above the audience.

Thank you again, sweet family and friends, for all your prayers and for letting me share with you!!

A Few Photos...