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...

Training, Fellowship, and Exploring

Those are the three words that sum up these past few days.

I can't believe week one is almost over already...I have a feeling five weeks are going to FLY by!! We've been packing as much in as possible this week--it seems like the only time that we're really sitting during a normal day is for about 3 or 4 hours when we have evangelism training/"track time," which entails get-to-know-you activities with our track. On a side note, there are actually five "tracks" of Crusade students on project here in NYC this summer. There's the Epic track, which is reaching out to Asian American students; there's the Bridges track, which reaches out to international students in general; there's the Innercity track, which ministers to the homeless and underpriveleged in the city; there's the Arts track, which obviously reaches out to the Arts students; and then there's the track I'm on, the Campus track, which reaches out to college campuses in general.

This week has just been a preparation week--getting to know each other, exploring the city, and being trained in evangelism--in order to prepare us for when we'll begin going on campuses to share the Gospel this coming Monday, which we'll do Monday through Thursday for the remaining weeks. One of the presentations that the staff gave today that I enjoyed the most was about "decoding." This involves researching different aspects about a college campus that we would need to know before we go onto that campus in order to most effectively share the Gospel with the students there. This could include the demographics of the students, where the most popular hang-out place for students is, how many (if any) student ministries already exist on that campus, what good churches are near the campus, and so on. When we Campus track students find out to which campuses we'll be going next week, part of our preparation will involve this "decoding" of the campuses before we go there, not only to help our summer ministry, but also to help out the NYC Crusade staff already here. I have no idea which colleges I'll be going to, but someone did tell me that we most likely will not be going to Columbia University or NYU since those are the two universities in NYC that DO already have established ministries there.

Another thing we talked about today that I'm excited about is "Prayer Walking," which we'll be doing around the campuses. (And really could do anywhere in the city!) This idea is taken from the example of the wall of Jericho in the book of Joshua when the Israelites marched around the Jericho walls until they fell down. While we won't be expecting campus architecture to tumble down, Prayer Walking will involve a couple of us walking through campus praying over the campus and the students there and for whatever the Lord prompts us to pray--praying the walls of spiritual darkness down. The staff leader who talked about Prayer Walking made the powerful point that this Prayer Walking very well could be the most effective tool in spreading the Gospel on NYC college campuses.

As to fun things....

Last night our whole team went out to dinner together in Little Italy. So delicious! And of course while you're in Little Italy you have to get gelato! Later that evening a group of us went over to Brandon and Ansley Hammond's (a couple who have been part of the permanent Crusade staff here in the city) adorable apartment in Brooklyn to watch the Lakers v. Celtics game. Boo to the result!! Not that it really presented an excruciatingly painful experience for me...since I just enjoyed chatting with Ansley, Abigail (who's a leader from the University of Kentucky and is my dicipler for the project), and other girls around Ansley's kitchen table.

TODAY (yes, that's a clue!) I rolled out of bed at 5:15 a.m. to meet my friends Brittany and Lauren at 5:30 to head to see James Taylor in concert on the Today show. We were pretty pumped. Our optimistic mood only skyrocketed when we got to Rockefeller Plaza and we saw the stage where he'd be performing and there were hardly ANY people around it!! We thought our chances for front row spots were pretty legit. Our naivete must have seemed pretty obvious to the the security guards who politely asked that we go around the corner of the building...which we did...to be greeted by a mile-long line of people. Oh well! We had decent spots...I could see James Taylor's head if I stood on tip-toes. Not QUITE convinced it was worth waking up at 5:15, but it wasn't so bad that I'm not planning on going back in a couple of weeks to see Lady Gaga--heck YES we will be waking up at 3 that morning to guarantee a good spot. :)

We did the MOMA this afternoon with the entire project (all the tracks together). One of the guys in my group was on the Arts track, so it was fun having him with us to explain things and make modern art more interesting for me. My favorite part of the museum was definitely the Picasso and photography exhibits. "Starry Night" was beautiful, for sure, but I have to admit it was a little anti-climactic.

After the museum a large group of us got a CHEAP dinner (slice of pizza for $2.50!) and took it to Central Park for a picnic on the rocks. Very fun and relaxing. Frozen yogurt afterwards in West Village at a place that may be my new favorite place ever--it's self-serve soft-serve with a billion different flavors to choose from, from Watermelong to Reeses Cup! And then they have a toppings bar with fresh fruit, chocolate chips, cookie dough, gummie worms, pretty much anything you could want. The TRICK is that you weigh it at the end and pay by the oz. Sooo you COULD end up with a $7 frozen yogurt, but if you're careful it's not unreasonable at all.

That's all for now....absolultey MUST make myself go to bed after being up since 5!! Ridiculous!

P.S. Pics to come! Haven't had time to upload any yet!

Only in New York City....

would you pass a man quacking on a bicycle (yes, like a duck).

would you be able to sit on the mad hatter's hat of a bronze statue (I did, in Central Park).

could you hang out in the dusk watching a man make giant bubbles (HUGE, and all different sizes! again, in Central Park).

Those are just a few of the random parts of this first official day in the city that stand out in my mind as I try to make my brain focus at midnight after a loonngg day of walking. Despite the totally wiped-out feeling I have right now, though, Summer Project Day 1 was a success. After an interesting crash course on the history of New York City History and a speedy orientation on the subway system and etiquette required there in order to NOT be an obnoxious tourist, the Crusade staff put us into groups and pushed us little student birdlings out of the nest of the "NYCAM" (where we have our group meetings) to experience the city on our own wobbly wings. One of their biggest goals was I believe for us to become comfortable with the subway system, but I admit I'm still confused. They gave us all handy little maps that I think I'm just going to sit down and study until I get how the system works, whenever I have a spare five minutes...which so far hasn't happened. (Hence my writing at midnight!)

A few quick highlights from what we did today:

~ walking through the beautiful campus of Columbia University
~ lunch at a fun little Mediterranean place called Amir in Upper West Side
~ hearing a travelling choir sing in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (also in Upper West Side--the way their sound echoed throughout the cathedral was other-worldly.
~ sitting on a boulder in Central Park with our group of six, sharing stories about how we ended up on this project
~ visiting with different members of the team at the Top of the Rockefeller building
~ the Bubble man--I really hope we see him again this summer. I'm telling you those bubbles were SO COOL!
~ dinner at a thai restaurant called Chai (smallest restaurant I think I've ever been in! But yummo food!)

Primarily, I feel like I learned so much more about New Yorkers' perspectives today. That was one of the main points of us exploring the city today, even learning subway etiquette. One staff member explained that the subway is New Yorkers' time to "decompress," especially after a hectic day of work in the city, by listening to their ipods, reading a book, or simply sitting still with their eyes closed. That's why it's considered rude to talk loudly on the subway. This among other tips helped to change my mindset: when I see a New Yorker give someone "the evil eye" or get visibly frustrated, I can jump from my first instinct of the Southern girl perspective, "People from New York are always just SO RUDE!" to Oh, that man was hurrying to catch a train and that person literally just halted in front of him blocking his path. I'd be pretty annoyed with that tourist too.

Also, another staff leader reminded us before we set out this morning to look at the people we pass in the city and remember that each person has a soul. God knows each one of them. He reminded us to pray for the people we see. I was looking around at the variety of people sitting in the subway car with me and just prayed over that subway car. Also, our leader (his name's Ross) reminded us that God is in New York, very actively so. This is not a trip where we're isolated from God and He might send us a postcard. He is right here, coming alongside us.

On that encouraging note....more later!