The Adventure So Far!

Hey guys this is Riley Stuart. All of us here in New York are having a wonderful time! On Sunday we had our Kids Jam services in the Haitian Church, and also the Fountain for the Nations Church. We all have a very good feeling that all the kids had a very good time, and learned more about God. Today, we are painting our hearts out! All of the rooms are looking amazing, and we are hoping to finish all of them tomorrow. Talk to you guys later!

Hey,it's Ali Shaw. So to start off, new york is AMAZING. I'm in love with it! Saturday night we went to times square. We heard and saw some weird things but it was awesome. We ate at TGI Friday's and saw someone propose to their girlfriend while looking out the window. It was cute. We road the subway to get everywhere. A few of us have had conversations with the people on there but the rest of us stood in a group. Kensley, Mallory, and I met some kids that were on a field trip from Paris. Only one of them could speak fluent English but it was cool learning some French words. Well I'm gonna go! Miss you everyone. -Ali (:

We have such a great group of students on this trip! They have done awesome with navigating the subway, jumping in on each task and encouraging each other. Today and tomorrow we are PAINTING, PAINTING, PAINTING, as we makeover three Children's Rooms for the Fountain for the Nations Church. It's really cool to see the students use their creativity and take such pride in their work. Will post pictures when we're finished:) Right now we are headed back to get ready to hear from Josh Lee about Metro Ministries and watch the Butler game from the top of the Getz's apartment building! Go Bulldogs:)

New York LifeLight #4

We(the New York Team 2011) are just finishing packing up everything at Grabill and getting ready to take the midnight train going anywhere(okay fine 1:15 and to Penn Station, but still ;) We are all really excited but getting tired(needless to say we are all just a little funny right now, and ready to sleep on the train). Prayer requests for all of us is that we would have a safe ride out and that we would be unified and joyful all throughout the week. Well, off we go to get lost in the city. This has been Ashley signing out.

Prayer Walk/ Bronx is BURNING!

we stareted Tuesday off by dividing in half. Some of the group went to RestoreNYC help make laptop covers and the other half went on a prayer walk through New York. The laptop covers are sold online at Hellorewind.com for RestoreNYC, which helps the sex trafficing victims by giving them a job that earns honest money. On the prayer walk we visited the UN building and a couple other main places like Trump Tower, Pfizer, Bryant Park and Grand Central. Each group would do one of the things and then switch. It was very fun :) Nick SanGiacomo

Grant- The Bronx is Burning here in New York last night. There was a obnoxious fan wearing a Posada jersey, who had a mohawk and was screaming at the Boston fan behind him (not to smart on the Bostons fan part to wear that hat at the Yankee Stadium). We watched the Yankee game, ate hot dogs, drank sodas, and enjoyed the fight that went on. We were very blessed to be able to attend the game, I just want to thank God for eveything He has blessed us with.

Leah- Today we helped the beacon church by passing out door hangers in the neighborhoods around the church. We separated into groups and were able to pass out over 2,000 flyers!! God really tested my patience with the long walk in the intense heat, but I am thankful that Hannah was with me to pass the time:)

Getting up every morning is fun cuz leah and i get up like 30 min before everyone. when we are up we get ready and talk, after a hot and hard day yesterday we had a lot to talk about...the funny thing is we talked about how excited we were for today and how much we wanted to help everyone. (: we were jumping around like crazy people the first half of the day. we wanted to help so badly...when we got there we were smiling at everyone and tried our best to be encouraging. the hard part was the fact some of the people did not want our help and so it took them a while to trust us. we helped with a variety of apartments today. leah and i were cleaning windows with dirt everywhere and had a blast! i love how God puts joy in people when they ask and truly want it. (:

Hannah Klimek [:

Like Hannah said, the day started out kind of rough. Yet, by the end of our service time, people became more and more receptive. Late, we visited the World Trade Center where, without fail, I cried a ton and left the building with a knot in my throat. To somewhat "lift our spirits" we went for a ride on the Staten Island Ferry :) For dinner, we came to the Getz's home.

On a more spiritual level, Chelsea, Amanda, Jeff, and Christine Getz shared their story with us. One of the coolest things for was when Jeff was talking. In my head, I was forming a question concerning the field or work I want to go into. As I was thinking, Jeff answered my question as precisely as if I had actualy voiced the question!

Signing off,

Meredith Kreigh

Across the City....literally!

We hurried through the city to attend the Westbury Haitan Church. To get there we rode the Long Island Rail Road. Their service was spoken in French Creol. We were able to recognize some of the songs they sang and several people translated the service for us. It was so great to be reminded that the same God we worship, in english, can also be worshiped in another language. They don't have a "time limit" on their service, which is quite the contrast to the rush, rush of the city. But because of this we had to speed through our VBS. The kids were SOOOO excited because they don't have a Kids Service on a regular Sunday morning. They were so receptive of what we had to say and participated so well! As we rushed out of the church to catch the train they gave us water and sandwiches because the heat was exhausting! We then took a looooooooong ride over to the Bronx.....

Most of us had hit a caffeine low and stopped at a Dunkin Doughnuts to refill as we waited for the church bus to pick us up. How relieved were we! When we arrived at the Foundations of the Nation Church we started our kids program right away. The kids had so much fun singing with us and playing games. Many of us got attached to specific children as they sat on our laps and hugged our necks. We ended up streching our program for an extra 45 mins to allow the adults to remain in the service. As we were leaving the pastor of the church told us how thankful he was to have us come and serve. As they are entering our Missionary Church family they were grateful to see other missionary church members serving them with joyful spirits and smiles :)
By the time we left the church it was pretty late, and we had to take the long ride back to our home. I'm pretty sure we all slept soundly last night as we were exhausted from traveling from one side of New York to the other. All in all it was a great day for a VBS marathon and we felt as though we left both churches with smiling kids and grateful congregations.


God Bless, Ashlen and Kendra :)

Hope Fest 2010

Hi this is Katie Pannabecker. We are finishing up our last minute preparations for Hope Fest 2010 in Paterson, New Jersey. One of the guys who picked us up from the bus stop came to know Christ through this event so God works through all types of different events. Our Kidz Jam service will be happening at 5 o'clock p.m. so pray for the skit, singers, small groups, and Ashlen who will be giving the message. So far, New York has been very hot and there is a lot of walking, but no one has been lost. We are all having a lot of fun seeing the city and taking it all in.