It's Over?!

That was the fastest and best 5 weeks of my life. It truly was incredible!

Many of you, I'm sure have a lot of questions about what I did exactly. Our daily schedule looked something like this:

• Wake up/eat/get ready for the day
• TWL (Time with the Lord)
• Meeting/training
• Lunch
• Campus time
• Meeting or group dinner

I really appreciated having Quiet Time (QT, TWL, whatever you'd like to call it) built into our schedule. One thing I learned over the summer is that it's best to have this time in the morning because it gets your day started off right (or it does mine at least). I used to have my QT at night, thinking it's a good way to end your day, but many times I would be so tired that I wouldn't get anything out of it and if I did get something out of it, I would fall asleep quickly and not meditate on it at all. When you having this time in the morning, you can meditate on it all day.

Our morning meetings differed from day to day. The first week we were refreshed on how to use Cru's evangelism tools: Soularium, Perspective Cards, and the Knowing God Personally booklet. We were also trained on how to lead small group Bible studies, talked about God's heart for the world, how to interact best with international students, how to study the Bible, etc. 

Tuesday mornings were different though. We would still have a morning meeting, but it was not a training time necessarily. We had a time of Prayer, Praise, and Celebration that the Prayer Team was in charge of. I was privileged to be part of the Prayer Team and helped plan this time every week. It was great! I learned a lot from the planning process as well as the actual meeting Tuesday mornings.

On to campus time. We were split into two missional teams that covered 4 different campuses: Brooklyn College, City College, Queens College, and New York University. I was stationed at NYU all but two days during the summer--I went to Brooklyn College twice. As I stated in a previous post, ministry was really hard to do there. It was difficult to find students--we had to go to Washington Square Park, in the midst of the campus, because non-students could literally not get into the buildings. We got rejected a lot by students and non-students--some because they probably thought we were trying to sell them something, some because they didn't have enough time, some because they just simply did not want to talk to us.

Monday evenings we would have our Monday Night Meetings (MNM). These were events open to the public held in our office space. These meetings were like our regular Cru meetings on Thursday nights at Eastern. We had a fantastic praise and worship band, a wonderful emcee, and great speakers every week. We talked about being captivated by Christ, being changed together by Christ, being compelled to express love and life with others, and choosing Christ over everything else. As you can tell, our conversations were Christ-centered and Gospel-rich. It was great!

Overall, my experience in New York was fantastic. I am so blessed to have been able to go on this trip and if you supported me through prayer or financially, I cannot explain how much I appreciate it. Our group shared the Gospel no less than 90 times--those were only the ones that we for sure remembered as we were tallying at the end. You were a part of that! And even though we didn't see anyone make a decision for Christ, there's a whole other spiritual world that we don't see how the Lord is working in! The seeds have been planted and God will water and grow them in His own timing. 

I have learned a TON over this summer and I am currently processing it all. As I do this, I plan on sharing what all I have learned on here. So plan on checking back!

ps- While in New York, I walked no less than 150.48 miles. Assuming my stride length was set correctly and not adding in the times that I couldn't wear my pedometer. That's a lot!

Incredible.

Project is already halfway over! I feel like I just got here yesterday, but at the same time I also feel like I have been here for a forever. In just two and a half weeks of being here on mission, I can say it's been the most incredible summer of my life. Not only are we sharing the Gospel, but we're also getting to do "New York" things--Broadway plays, pizza, different culture dinners, and hanging out in the city in our free time.

This past Wednesday, our group went to see The Phantom of the Opera and it was phan(tom)tastic. (Yes, I do realize that was a really lame pun.) Moving on! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I would go back and see it any day of the week. The special effects were great and the phantom was spectacular. It was great to experience the musical live in a theater--the way it was originally created to be seen.

I have found that it's really hard to do ministry here, but at the same time it's good for me. It has helped me learn to be dependent on God. In Kentucky, I have realized that I tend to try and do everything by my own power, which is not the way a Christian is supposed to operate. It's definitely not the way you can operate in New York City.

The people here are normally pretty open-minded, but not necessarily open-hearted. A lot of people seem to think that you're trying to sell them something when you go up to talk to them--understandable because a lot of people have tried to sell us things (including in my discipleship time last week). If you are able to get into a conversation with them, they're usually very willing to tell us their thoughts on God and spirituality, but they haven't been very receptive to the Gospel. It's heartbreaking, but we must understand that our job is to go out and share through the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the rest to God. Just plant the seeds and let God water and grow it.

Sometimes it's hard to keep your head up high when you've been rejected so much, but a couple verses come to mind:

"But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how 

can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without

a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent?"

-Romans 10:14-15

Much, much worse than getting rejected is a soul spending an eternity apart from God. We all need to proclaim the Gospel, whether on a mission trip or not, because how can they believe if they don't hear about the Savior? 

New York University

Yesterday was our first day on campus! It was a great day weather-wise as well as being able to talk to people.

Our project covered four different campuses: Queens College, Brooklyn College, City College, and my group went to New York University. NYU already has a Campus Crusade, which will be great for students that we will be talking to this summer. We can direct them to an organization that we know is solid and will give them a place they can feel comfortable and grow in their faith.

Yesterday, our ministry objective was to "decode" our respective campuses. We had questionnaires to fill out, asking questions about the campus. We did this get to know the campus--where the hangout spots are, what the spiritual climate is like, etc. Ministry is going to be somewhat difficult at NYU because you can't physically get into the buildings without a student/faculty i.d. card. You can't even use the restroom at the on campus Starbucks without an i.d. card. I have complete faith in God that He will provide us a good place for great opportunities though!

In talking to these people yesterday, it gave me a good perspective about how many lost people there are on the campus and a small dose of how many there are in the city. The students that we talked to said they think most students on NYU's campus are open to talking about spiritual things. Going deeper though, it seemed that the general student population was already set in their religious beliefs and were mostly just open to having an intellectual conversation about these things where ideas were exchanged, but nothing more was done.

Honestly, it was somewhat disheartening. One girl told us that people didn't want to step on anyone else's toes. She also told us that there was a Muslim Center and Jewish Center on campus, but couldn't tell us for sure if there was a Christian center. Even though it is disheartening to hear these things, it's exciting to be working for the advancement of the Gospel here. We could share the Gospel with a future president, business tycoon, pop star, or any sort of positions that could have a huge influence on people.

Today, we went back to NYU to use one of our evangelism tools called Soularium. This is a survey asking five questions that the person answers using one of the fifty 4 x 6 photographs in front of them. The survey is geared to help you get into spiritual conversations with anyone ranging from strangers to your closest friends. It's a great tool that my roommate Katie and I got to use with several people today.

We asked one girl if she had time and wanted to take our picture survey and she said yes! We went through the survey and found out that she had really been turned off by the church, I think largely due to legalism. We asked her what her spiritual life was like and she said she was just searching for truth. Little did she know, we had The Truth. Through that confession, we were able to share the Gospel with her. She didn't accept it, but I think she is very close. I'm praying that we will see her again and be able to talk to her for a longer amount of time! My hope is that you will pray for her as well. That she will find and accept The Truth.

I'm looking forward to watching and being a part of what God is going to do in New York City the next 4 1/2 weeks!