Farewell to NYC

So, I forgot to mention this lasy night, but yesterday - during our group devotional share time, Joseph Felkins simply stood up and said "Let's just stay a couple days longer!" And we all roared with applause. Anyway, tonight, during our final devotional, the same Joseph Felkins stood up and said, "I have just one question to throw out there: Where are we going for our mission trip next year?!" It got the biggest applause of any statement all week!!

We are slightly sad to be leaving new York, but it seems to me that most everyone is ready to get home. We sponged every bit we could out of the city, and everyone enjoyed it, but are satisfied and ready to return to their loved ones (by loved ones, we of course mean their cell phones). We've had a great week full of stories, trials, and celebrations. And today (Friday) was no exception!

Last night, I asked our exhausted, hot, completely worn out team of teens to consider waking up at 5:30 a.m. to go help lead anotehr chapel service at St. Paul's House. There were about fifteen who said yes. No perks, no benefits, no bribes, I just simply asked who wanted a little extra ministry in their trip. And they were fantastic!! Daniel lead some worship music, and then Monique, Hannah R, Erin Maynard, and Paul Tribble each gave a brief testimony about an incident from the trip and how it impacted them. Christine and Weston Rountree read some Scripture. The Porths, Tanner, Toly, and Hayley were also there to help with the music and to cook/serve in the soup kitchen. They were unbelievably amazing, efficient, bold, and focused - and all that bright and early of their own volition. It is truly amazing to me that these youth leap at the chance to serve! Kayla and Janko would have been there too, if not for an alarm clock snafu. These teens really have a heart for God and a desire to serve, and boy, did it seep through at the chapel service this morning!! Their testimonies and singing were nothing short of extraordinary!

After we finished there at St. Paul's, we met the rest of the group at Rockefeller Center, which we could walk to from the soup kitchen (rags to Rockefeller in just a few blocks). We enjoyed some incredible views from the Top of the GE building. A myriad of delays caused our first group to miss their NBC studio tour, but a group went on the second tour. A small cluster also went to Radio City Music Hall. After the tours, we met at the steps of the exquisitely beautiful St. Patrick's cathedral. The group took the afternoon to explore/shop/eat on 5th Avenue. All in all, a very good time.

While at our designated spot, we were waiting on the last group to arrive. When they did, we instantly noticed that Clayton barron was not with them. The group he was with quickly retraced to where they last saw him. We sent an immediate search party out, kept a few adults at the meeting spot, and sent the rest of the team out to our next destination. We prayed for a safe return and, after a few tense moments, we rec-connected. He had gotten seperated from his group at Times Square, but was able to find his way to the meeting spot. We called the search team (just as they were getting onto the Subway toward Times Square), as well as the big group. We all met up shortly to a standing ovation and lots of hugs for Clayton. By God's guidance, he was only seperated from us for about 25 minutes, but you can imagine how tense those minutes were.

After we tracked down our missing person, we headed to Grand Central Terminal for a brief visit.

We then returned to the church and had a cookout with the Hondo, TX team and the local community in Park Slope, Brooklyn. after the dinner, our teens hosted a worship concert. They led worship, we had a solo, duet, and four-person group sing as well, They all were great. We ended with a couple songs for everyone to sing and you could sense the Presence of God shifting Mightily in the room. It was a really great time of significant worship.

After a couple hours of free time for showering and packing, we had our last devotional. some from teh Hondo, TX group joined us for some celebratory worship. It was awesome to be able to sing with them! The worship was loud and palpably heartfelt. After sharing a few stories about the day and our final thoughts on the experience, we closed by circling up and started heading to bed.

Today was a day all about worship. Even though we temporarily lost a youth and missed a tour, it was probably my favorite day of the trip. Our teens served incredibly at the soup kitchen, fellowshipped gracefully throughout our time together, and shook the gates of Heaven with their praise at both the concert and devotional.

Please pray for our travel tomorrow. The first flight should get in around 11:30 a.m., the second around 4:00 p.m., and the third about 7:30 p.m. (all nashville times). We'll be up tomorrow, cleaning and getting ready to come back home. It has been a blessed week, but we are ready to be back home.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. We look forward to seeing your faces again, showing our pictures, and telling each of our stories.

Thanks and God bless,

Joey

Thursday - whatever numbered day that is!!

Good news! The temp in the church has dropped 10+ degrees in the last couple nights! We even woke up chilly today!!

Today was our last full day of service and it started with a bang!

The purple team, Daniel, and a few adults led a chapel service at St. Paul's home, which hosts a soup kitchen immediately after. We played some music, had a Scripture reading, and a short sermon. The group of about 25 mostly just listened, until our last song... Amazing Grace. The room filled with the sound of our teens leading this large group of homelsee in a song about grace. It was a truly touching moment.

The boys finished off work at Sinai church today and the pastor/congregation there could not be more pleased. We did more than what was asked, or even hoped for, out of us this week. They wish to send their thanks to our congregation, family, and frineds for making our service there this week possible.

The purple girls enjoyed a nap and some down time when they got home from helping at the soup kitchen

Our red girls went to Yorkville Food Pantry, an impressive soup kitchen and food pantry that serves upwards of 1800 a week!! It is the largest of its kind in NYC. The girls assembled to-go grocery bags, operated elevators, sorted toilitries and organized produce. It was a hectic, but wonderful day of work.

We had some bad news make its way through our ranks early this afternoon. Candy Dodson is not feeling well and is going to go home a day early. Please be in prayer for her as she plans to leave early tomorrow. It is not an emergency, just a precaution bringing her home. Obviously, we hate to see her go.

We spent another afternoon in Washington Square park, handing out lunches for the last time.

After a quick dinner in the NYU area, we headed downtown and took the Staten Island Ferry by the Statue of Liberty. We timed things out well enough to catch a glimpse of the sunset and I'm sure there were some great pictures taken.

Pray for our last full day tomorrow. Pray for Candy. Pray for another morning at St. Paul's to go well. Pray for the worship and fellowship of our day. Pray that we'll remeber that ministry is a 24/7 experience.

Thank you for your encoraging words. We read some of them to the team tonight and they very much enjoyed hearing from you!! And, brace yourself, I had a few of them tell me today that they missed their parents!!!! Quite a confession. Know that you are on our hearts and keep us on yours.

Thanks and God bless,

Joey

Day Four - A day late

Fear not! We are very much alive and well. Sorry about no post last night! We had a late night with our Broadway show and a Subway delay, so decided not to post and just get some much needed rest!!!!

Day Four (Wednesday) was another great day. God continues to put people in our paths that need His Love and to be served in his name!

Today, the painting duties at Mount Sinai were passed on from the girls to the boys. The congregation there ordered pizza for the boys. They are so incredibly excited about us being there! They continue to refer to us as an "answer to prayer." Their hospitality reveals their extreme appreciation. The team is really starting to see what a big deal this is for Sinai church and how much it means to them. It is so neat for our teens to have a chance to laugh, fellowship, and serve with this upper west side congregation. With just one day left, their is a lot to be done.

The younger girls (red) helped out at Furnish a Future today. They helped move some furniture around and did some work eith their box of files, as well as unpacking some of the donated items onto the store shelves.

The purple team was at St. Stephens food pantry and soup kitchen. We formed an assembly line to put together the grocery bags for the visitors that came for lunch. some of the girls also got to serve the bags directly to the homeless. I had one of teh girls tell me that she thought NYC was all full of wealth and high rise buildings. We certainly disproved that myth. It is so crazy that this city is diverse enough to house hundreds of soup kitchens, thousands of homeless, Wall Street, and movie stars (my sister-in-law saw Daniel Day Lewis at the park today). The city is a melting pot that provides very unique oppurtinies to serve both suits and rags on teh same city block!!

Its clear to me that this city is reaching out for something. In the midst of all the chaos, noise, and non-stop action of the city, residents are desperate for peace. They want to be seen and connected with in ways that the flying by city does not adequately address. It has to be so strange for so many people to be so lonely with so many people around.

On the Subway today, a few of our teens found themselves sitting next to a woman who was trying to untie a string from her cart that was stuck. The girls helped her cut it off and started talking to her, explaining who they were and why we are in New York. The woman said that she had planned on getting on a different train but did not and wondered if their encounter was more than chance. She told them that there had been a rope around her heart, just like the one that had inhibited her cart. She asked the girls if they could sing a song for her. So our team of red youth sang a few verses of "Mighty to Save." She was moved to tears. Hannah Rountree prayed for the woman and her future plans. The woman was a Christian and was very encouraged by the ineraction with our young girls. And what a powerful image to the other people on the train who witnessed this uniting of the body of Christ!!

In the late afternoon, we handed out lunches to homelsee people at Washington Square Park. There was a man surrounded by birds and a fountain to play in, which our team enjoyed! Because of our late schedule we decided to have our devotional at the park. We discussed out stories from the day and sang a few accapella songs (including Happy Day). The park waqs extremely crowded and we indeed had a few visitors join in with us.

We left the park and went to Times Square for a group dinner at JOhn's Pizzeria, which was amazing!! After that, we sent 5 to Phantom of the Opera, 20 to The Lion King, and 25 to Wicked. Everyone was glowing after seeing the shows. It was really neat to see how much they enjoyed it. And after a great days work, it was the least they deserved!!