Praise God! We made it back home safely. God watched out over us in every way. We had an amazing time in NYC and in some small way we impacted the city that never sleeps! Thanks to all who prayed for us during our time there. Blessings!

-andy

Sunday, A day of Rest!

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to send my last update before we leave. We had our own Church Service this morning and had a chance to decompress from an intense week of ministry. God has done such a work in each of our team members. There were so many people that we had an opportunity to share the love of Christ by encouraging them.

Today, we had a nice afternoon relaxing downtown. Ryan and I took in a baseball game at the NYC ESPN Zone in Times Square. The others visited the Mac Store and went shopping downtown to get last minute gifts. We all chilled tonight and played games.

We'll be on our way home tomorrow morning. Please pray for safety on this last leg of the journey. We look forward to coming home and sharing with everyone when we get back.

-Andy

Fourth of July

As I sit down and reflect on the day I realize how blessed we are to live in America. Thank God to all of those that have fought and continue to fight for our freedom.

Freedom reigns in this place. It was very evident when we were doing evangelism down in front of the Hudson River. We had freedom to openly share Christ with people right out in the open. We shared a moment of celebration together with over a million people in NYC. It was a significant moment for me. I realized that people all over this planet all are yearning for the same thing. A relationship with a loving God that will share life with them. I talked with several people tonight and they all said the same things. They knew God existed and they knew He can be called in their time of need, but they need to get back to their roots. Please pray the people we talked to tonight. He's faithful.

Late Friday Night

This morning we went to a soup kitchen that was most amazing. (That's Missy and Sharon putting on their hair nets!) The staff there was awesome and they had the kitchen set up restaurant style. The people that came in were so grateful. Our team worked in the kitchen, washed the dishes, and waited and cleaned up the tables afterward. Lots of hard work but very satisfying helping those in need.

We spent our evening in Midtown passing out blankets and sharing our faith with these guys. I was amazed at how open most were to the gospel. We had some great stories and we will share them with you soon. What a rush it is sharing the transformational power of Jesus!

Goodnight and pray for us tomorrow as we minister in Times Square in the morning and minister on the Staten Island Ferry tomorrow night. We are trying to figure out how we can try to get a peak at the fireworks afterwards.

A Day in Manhattan

Good morning,
We are having a blast here in New York City. Yesterday was our day off, and we got to hit the town and see the sites. Once we all got up and got ready we walked a couple of blocks and hit up a local donuts shop here in Queens, called D'light Donuts, it was pretty good. Then we hopped on the subway to head to down town. We got off at Central Park, and once we were in the park, we forgot that we were in a giant city with a constant hussel and bussel. Next we walked down to 30 Rock. After exploring there for a while it was time for lunch, so we headed over to Carnegie's Deli for some of their world famous subs. Don and Adriann got some of their famous salami pastrami and their were huge! After getting filled up we got back on a train to head town to China town, so the girls could do a little bit of shopping, while the guys waited passionately with smiles on our faces. After doing that for a while we got back on the R train to head up to time square. Time Square was even cooler in real life, than it is in the movies. We headed over to the Toys R' Us (because we are a bunch of kids) to ride the ferris wheel and check our all the cool toys. While in Time Square we all headed over to a gift shop to pick up some souvenirs for our family members (so don't worry ;-). By that time everyone was tired and wet from the rain so we got back on the R train to head back home and get some famous New York pizza from Queens. Next we headed home to play some Mad Gab and headed off to bed.

We had a great day taking it all in. Today now that we are all rested we are super excited to see God at work through us as we minister to the homeless.

Mission Blog Days 1 & 2

Day1: Made it to NYC and we have plenty of pics on our way up that we'll be uploading soon. If you want a little update on where we are and what ministry we are working with check this website out. http://nysum.org/ We have stories to tell and we've met many really cool people and shared the love of Jesus with some of the most precious people. Tonight we went to visit a Cerebral Palsy home. We went and led worship with them and had a blast. They were singing and dancing and praising God! It was a beautiful site!

Day2: We woke up pretty early for most of the team. We ate breakfast and then went to a ministry called "Way Out church Ministries". they minister primarily in the Bronx and have a center for those who are breaking the dependency of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. We did a chapel service for them and we had the opportunity to share our testimonies, do a drama on breaking change and give a message on childlike faith. It was a Spanish speaking group so we worked with an interpreter but when the drama was performed there was no need for an interpreter. One man visibly wept through the whole drama. We prayed that God would bring to completion the work that he started in each of these young men's lives!

Right now we have a short break and then we'll be heading out doing vbs ministry. Please continue to pray that God will give us opportunity to share and encourage people here in NYC.


More soon!

-andy