NYC 2022 Day 4 - New Friends and New Shoes

NYC 2022 Day 4

I’ve said this before, but none of us really knew what to expect when we came. Tuesday we had an amazing 2^nd day on the streets of NYC we thought… “okay, now what know what this will be like…” We were wrong. I think Wednesday took almost all of us by surprise. Almost every group connected with people again who they had connected with on Tuesday. It was a nice surprise. We have made a number of new friends and we have certainly walked the soles off our shoes and sometimes our feet.

Our groups were able to continue several gospel conversations with people in parks, in coffee shops, and on the street. The people we met were so kind and so eager to have a conversation with the “Texans.” We find ourselves in the middle of Queens, a burrow so full of life and diversity it’s impossible to describe. I personally spoke with people from every continent just today. As a group we probably spoke with people from 20-30 countries. After a day of walking Queens, we joined at least 10,000 people, could have been considerably more, and watched a great fireworks show. I want to give you the experience in the words of some of our team members:

One thing that no one really emphasizes for mission trips is the fact that not everyone will be on board with everything you say all the time. So, when iGo introduced that scale from negative ten to positive ten for becoming a Christian/ your walk with the Lord, it put everything in a whole new perspective. All week, Bill has been telling us how lost the people of NYC are and how important it is to share Jesus’ grace with everyone. But it’s a whole new ballgame when the people you come into contact with are completely opposed to the gospel.

On Tuesday, I met Naomi, she is a little eight-year-old girl with an Arab background. She’s spunky, and energetic, and everything that a little eight-year-old girl should be. She loves to run and play outside, and spend a ton of time with whoever will give her attention. On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to talk with Naomi a little bit about Jesus. One of the perks of being on REC-Team is having the tools available to work Jesus into any conversation with kiddos. What really broke my heart yesterday was the finality in which Naomi said things like “Oh, I don’t believe in God. I think  church is boring. My grandparents are the only ones who make us go to church when we visit them.” This lively third grader had no idea the hope that Jesus has to offer, simply because her parents weren’t believers. It made me realize that that is the whole reason why we are “on mission”. That is the whole reason why we are called to be the light of Jesus for every single person. That is why we love on kids, and spend time with them, and play volleyball or freeze tag for an unusually long amount of time. Later Wednesday night, we watched some fireworks in Astoria Park. Naomi found me and Emerson, out of this huge crowd of hundreds (thousands) of people, and gave us the biggest hug in the world. She felt instantly comfortable around us, and the rest of the group simply because we put in an effort to make her feel loved. So, even if N doesn’t come to realize as an eight-year-old in Queens that Jesus love is never ending, she felt, and noticed the love that our team shared. It’s all about planting seeds, not forcing them to grow. (J.D.)

Our day started at Al Qud’s. We met Asif and he was so cool. He was very kind to us and explained how to go about ordering the food. Asif talked about his story a little and that he was born and raised in NY and has owned the restaurant for a little bit. He discounted our total price for lunch which was alpha of him.

After that we walked to the park and split up. Drew, Noah, and I walked around Astoria Park while Wes and Luke played basketball with some kids (Kyle and Cohen were talking to Jose and Red). I found a man named Jacob who loves writing and wants to be a novel and newspaper writer. He’s Roman Catholic but said he didn’t go to church much so we talked about going to church and I went through the three ring gospel we talked about this morning. I was able to ask him if he thought he was missing anything in his life and he said nothing but he wanted me to pray for his father who passed away and his gambling and diabetic mother named Marie. He was very grateful for our conversation and so I recommended he visit the Astoria Community Church and he seemed interested about that and I got his number.

After the park I met Jay and Koran who were the kids we took to Rizzo’s and had 4 whole pizzas with them and just had a fun time with them. (K.J.)

So we went to an Algerian place and started to each lunch. Wayne saw a kid, about 20 or so, and he went to go sit with him. They started to get talking and we found he was from Algeria and he played basketball in Nebraska. He had actually played in Midland against Midland College. His name was Malik. Wayne started talking, and after a while we started to talk about faith. Malik is Muslim and he preached the Quran but not a lot and he wasn’t really that strong in his faith. He was super nice, Wayne talked to him for about an hour and he started to get more comfortable around us so we invited him to the park tonight… When we left he was kinda sad and disappointed that we were leaving him. He was really nice and polite. (J.P)

Please continue to pray for our team. After working with this team, I believe I better understand Paul’s gratitude for his coworkers in the gospel. The joy I have had working with this team is difficult to put into words. We have such an incredible group of leaders in our church, and we have been blessed to be joined by Sara this week who has jumped right in with our team. No small feat considering how long many of students have known each other. Our students have been bold and courageous. They have walked miles and miles each day to share the gospel with strangers and to follow up with people they met days previous. This group has been the hands and the feet of THE church and specifically FBC Midland this week. I am so thankful for great ministry parters like iGo and Global Gates!