It seemed like we went to Starbucks a lot!
We left Sunday night after church, Pastor and Bro. Jason drove the bus, while the rest of us slept. We arrived there Monday night about 10 p.m.; after wondering around in New York City for about an hour. The church was in Queens, New York, and some said it seemed like we were in Mexico. It was dark and many people were still out on the streets, they had us girls stay inside of the church, because of the surrounding area, not being the best part of town (some of the girls were a little uneasy about all of that). So finally we got everything brought in from the bus, and taken where it needed to go.
This picture was taken from the Empire State Building, Nice view!
This is a picture of the Empire State Building, right outside the door!
We went up eighty-six floors, it was awesome!
Wednesday we went soul winning all day, in the morning we headed to flushing, which is a Chinese area of New York, I expected it to be easy, like it was the day before, but no one would take your tracks or even hardly speak a word to you. So I was thinking, and asking the Lord what I was doing wrong, I mean yesterday was so easy, it didn't matter if you had a smile on your face or not they would take a track, and then it seem like the Lord was saying try a "perfect greeting" which is enthusiastically greeting everyone you meet, as if they were your best friend. So I thought about that, I had tried it a couple years before when Mr. Gothard explained it to me, but it didn't seem to really work. Then the Lord kept saying just try it one more time. By then I had to do something, because I was not giving out very many tracks. So finally, I said, okay Lord I'll try it, so I started making eye contact, smiling, letting them know I cared about them, and started showing them that I had "the most important thing you must consider" (that was the name of the tracks we were passing out). I had so few people reject tracks after that, I could probably count them on one hand. I had to get more tracks, I passed out all the tracks our group had, IT WAS AMAZING!!! I couldn't believe it. These Chinese people were actually taking our tracks, and reading them. Because they saw someone cared, I thought that was so neat how the Lord works in and through each one of us, that are willing to share His light. That night we attended the evening service of Faith Baptist Church.
This is in Flushing, where everyone speaks Chinese.
Thursday we went sight-seeing, we went to the Statue of Liberty first. We were there pretty early, so that we could get our tickets for the ferry ride over, but there was only one problem, I was caring my knife and pepper spray which will not go through security. So I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do, then I thought, lets hide them in the bushes, so Hannah jumps over the fence and tries to secretly hide them in the bushes, while I'm just praying, it will be there when we come back. Anyways the boat ride was really incredible, and when we got to Liberty Island, I couldn't believe, I was actually there at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. It's something you always see in pictures, but to actually be there was amazing! We also saw Ground Zero, Wall Street, and several Church's, including one that George Washington attended. We found ourselves back at Times Square that night, Shopping.
This picture was taken from the top of the ferry.
This was on the Island.
Times Square!
Friday was good, went soul winning in flushing, and went to a city park in the evening. When we got back to the church some of us sang some hymns around the piano, in attempt to form a singing group.
Saturday was really great, I think it was my favorite day! We went soul-winning with Faith Baptist Church, they did some street preaching, we passed out tracks to people walking by, and would talk to them if they had time to stop. So, I was passing out tracks on a corner by the subway, and there were quite a few people around, and I noticed this man off to the side, he was kind of old and ruff looking, had some tattoos and was standing there smoking. He had been there a while, but I really didn't think much about it, because I thought I had given him a track, and he seemed to be waiting for someone to pick him up. Well it turns out I hadn't, and he comes over and in a really deep, gruff voice, He asked, "what are you handing out?" So I replied, Sir I'm handing out gospel track, and he said, "who are you with?" so I said, "We're here helping Faith Baptist Church, spread the good news of Jesus Christ. Once I said that, he quited down, and said "my Dad was a Baptist Pastor, and I accepted Jesus Christ when I was three, (I was thinking, wow, what happened) and he gave a clear salvation testimony, then he went on the say that, he rode the bus every Sunday with his Dad, and had attend church whenever the doors were open. Then he said, "when I was a teenager I started rebelling, left church, turned from the Lord and His ways, and got involved in all sorts of ungodly things." Then he said, "whatever you do, don't get out of church, don't quit loving the Lord or your family, and always remember what Christ did for you on Calvary." He was telling me that he knew he needed to get back in church, so I asked him, what turned you away in the first place, and he told me the main thing was all the hypocrisy in the church. I encouraged him to get back in church, stay faithful to the Lord, because his grace is sufficent no matter what we've done, Calvary covers it all. That's why both small and great can proclaim, "I stand redemmed, by the blood of the lamb." I don't think I'll ever forget what this man told me, he was almost like a preacher, but he was sincere, he knew where he had been living, and that he needed to get right with the Lord. What a blessing to see the Lord working in lives of all people everywhere.
These are the tracks in English, that we handed out.
Saturday night we were headed back on the bus, and Bro. Jason and His family were heading back to Times Square. As we were standing there, we suddenly relized that Bro. Jason had the key to the church. So Pastor starts running out of the subway after him, (because there's no cell phone reception way down there, to call him). So while we were waiting for Pastor to get back, we all decieded to start singing great old hymns. It was so much fun, then the subway finally came, so we got on, I kept on singing, everyone else had quit, then my sister Hannah started singing with me. We sing all the time together! :) Hannah noticed this Chinese fellow over across from us who had started crying. So, Hannah asked, if I had a chinese track that she could give him, I had given all of mine away, so she started asking the rest of our group, Miss Tammy still had one, and she gave it to the man. He read it, and just kept weeping. So she asked Bro. Brady to go talk to Him. The man said, "Just keep singing". Then some of the other young people on our team joined us in song, and Miss Tammy started passing out tracks, she said that because of our singing, people seemed to respond better. We stepped off the subway, and everyone started claping, and said thankyou, and how much it had blessed them. I thought, wow, what something so small and insignificant can do in someones life is amazing. I thought they were all ready for us to leave. Some were shocked that we weren't asking for money, because you'll see a good amount of people singing or playing their instrument for spare change.
The Subway, that we rode everywhere.
Sunday, was pretty awesome, we packed up the bus before Church, and cleaned up all of our mess. They asked me to play the harp in the spanish church service, that was really interesting, because I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but I think it blessed them a lot. Then they brought the harp downstairs, and I played for the english service. We stayed after Church and played vollyball while eveyone else went out to eat lunch. Then we headed home, it was a great trip, and I would do it all over agian if given the chance. I just want to give all the credit to the Lord, for eveything that took place, because without Him we could not have done it.
Sorry, I haven't posted in a while my computer hard drive crashed on me.
