Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 5 (Wednesday)

This morning we ate breakfast at 8:30am. It was Jon Mee's Birthday!!! so we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. We then packed up and cleaned the church building we were staying at. We then got a group pic in front of the church and met with Pastor Ron and shared our thanks to him for their gracious hospitality. He shared some thoughts with our team, and we prayed for their work. At noon Don Anastasio arrived with the church van and we loaded all of our luggage into it to be driven back to the church. We then had our final small groups time. On Monday we walked Wall Street so we wouldn't have to trek all the way back there for today's learning experience. Our theme today was "Greed." After small groups we ate lunch, did our final cleaning and headed to the subway which we took to Jamaica where we caught the train back to Smithtown. We walked over to Buona Sera where we had a team pizza dinner. At 6:30pm we drove everyone back to the church where we unloaded the van. Before breaking up into our Wednesday night small groups we shared testimonies from the trip and watched a recap slideshow. We thank God for a safe trip. May fruit remain!

Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 5 (Wednesday)

Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 4 (Tuesday)

Today our theme was Building Bridges and we talked about how God has built a bridge to us in the person of Jesus, and how we need to be building bridges (relationships) with lost people to connect them to Jesus. As our discipleship adventure we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn, had lunch outside on benches in the freezing cold, them walked back. It was a tough (simply because of the cold), but good experience which lent itself well to some great conversation about what is involved in reaching the lost. Read more below...

Then this evening we had the privilege of going to the New York City Rescue Mission where we worked with Rev. Ron Panarello. Before the service began we witnessed the "Bed Lottery" at the Mission wherein they select guys to have a bed and shower for the night. Unfortunately, the men who are not selected usually end up sleeping outside in a doorway, under a box, in a dumpster, or in the subway tunnels. It was very humbling to experience. When the service began we did some group singing, Mike and Claudia led a few songs, Ron called on a number of our students to get up and share their testimonies - beginning with my 9-year-old daughter Natalia, I shared, then Ron preached, and our team prayed over the men. The best compliment we received was from Ron who said our students did a wonderful job and we had an open invitation to come and work with him anytime. I was proud of the team!

Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 4 (Tuesday)

Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 3 (Monday)

Last night our team had a powerful time of worship and prayer ministry for about an hour-and-a-half. It was one of those special God-moments and a very special time for us as a team. 

Each day on the trip we have a discipleship theme that is discussed at length in small groups and is reinforced by visiting a site in New York. This morning we our theme was the Bible's call for us to be hospitable and welcoming to strangers. So at 11am we boarded a ferry and headed to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We spent about 4 hours visiting the two Islands. After that we walked up to Wall Street (which will tie in with our discussion on Wednesday) then took the train up to Chinatown and Little Italy where the team was able to do some shopping. When we returned to the church we had dinner then did a bunch of cleaning around the church, and some of the girls sorted out items that our team donated, making gift baskets for children who attend the church's after school program. We were also blessed to have Tommy LaBarbera's dad stop by for a visit! After breaking up into our small groups to converse about our experience and unpacked them in light of our biblical study, we enjoyed playing games and some ice cream. 

Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 3 (Monday)

Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 2 (Sunday)

This morning when I woke up I experienced quite a dizzy spell. I tried laying back down but when I got up again it was still there. I got our team down to breakfast but everything was spinning for me. The team prayed for me and I got a bit of sugar into myself and after about 3 hours I was stable - just in time to for church. Our team led the service here at Living Waters. Mike and Peter led us in musical worship, the team gathered into small groups to pray with people from the congregation, Valerie shared her testimony, and I preached. It was a great service and we were glad to be a part of it. After our team small groups we had lunch together then headed to Central Park which tied in with our theme of Rest. We spent an hour and a half walking the park and thinking about the picture of disconnect the park provides and what it means for us as we seek to live God's way. We then went down to Times Square for a while before heading back to the church for dinner and conversation about our learnings from the day. Melissa Carey, one of our youth leaders, was kind enough to join us for the weekend, but had to return this evening for work tomorrow morning. Adriana will be coming out to be with us tomorrow morning. We are now going into a time of worship as a team. Another good day!

Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 2 (Sunday)

Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 1 (Saturday)

Saturday morning at 10am, 23 Planet Impacters met at the Smithtown train station and headed into New York City for a week-long adventure of serving Jesus and growing in God. We to the Long Island Rail Road to Jamaica, then took the subway to Dekalb Ave. in Brooklyn where we disembarked and walked two blocks to our host church, Living Waters Fellowship. We were blessed to have chef John Long welcome us with a hot lunch. We then quickly jumped back on the train and headed all the way up to Hunts Point in the Bronx where we met Pastor Reggie Stutzman, a friend of Pastor Kevin, who is planting a church in the area. Hunts Point is an area of the Bronx that desperately needs the message of hope, the good news of Jesus.

A cool thing happened when we got off the train. Pastor Reggie instructed us to walk up the street while he parked the car and he would meet up with us. Pastor Kevin led the team up a few blocks and then stopped in front of an vacant building to call Pastor Reggie. At that moment Pastor Reggie walked up and said, "I't really interesting that you stopped in front of THIS building. We have been praying over this building for a while now - that God would open a door for us to make this our permanent church location. Wow!

After a briefing and a time of prayer, our team walked the area for about 45-minutes and handed out 300 flyers inviting people to the service tomorrow. A group pic, goodbyes to Pastor Reggie, and we were back on the train heading down to Manhattan where we took the team to The Top of the Rock - the top of Rockefeller Center. Today was brutally cold with strong, whipping winds, so you can imagine what it felt like 70 floors in the air. We got a group pic and enjoyed the fantastic views of the city. Back downstairs we had some coffee and snacks, then took the train back to Brooklyn.

Dinner was followed by an orientation by Pastor Ron and Anna - the pastors of Living Waters. We then got settled into our rooms, PK met with the leaders, then we had our small groups. Our theme today (which tied in with the trip to Rockefeller) was human potential. We studied the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and had some terrific conversations about the good things people can accomplish together as well as the potential negative consequences of human achievement. We then worked on our first memory verse of the week (2 Corinthians 4:7) and prayed together. A great start to this adventure!

Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 1 (Saturday)