NYC Mission Trip

This weekend I went on my first mission trip with people from my (new) church at home [Calvary].  We went to New York City and slept in a very hot, no air-conditioned church Saturday night.  We got up at 5am on Saturday to begin our journey and really didn't stop until we got home at 8:30 pm on Sunday night.  Needless to say it was a busy, busy weekend.

If anyone wants details of things so that you know specifics of what we did or who to be praying for (especially of the people on the streets that we got to know and witness to) you can email/facebook me-- right now I'm going to just talk about how God worked in my life during the journey.

us on the second day (several people didn't spend the night so our group was significantly smaller on this day)

Going into this trip I was extremely nervous.  I'm sure many of you that I talk to on a regular basis were aware of that fact.  I asked quite a few of you to pray for me (and for the rest of the group of course!) because the closer the date was to the trip, the more my nerves were eating away at me.  I had never been on a mission trip before.  Evangelizing in NYC?  That's sort of asking for trouble.  How was I going to go up to strangers and just talk to them about Jesus???  It's been hard enough for me to talk to my non-Christian friends about Him and I have actual relationships with them.

But I was going.  I wanted to meet new people from Calvary.  I wanted to have this experience before I entered the school year as chapter president for intervarsity.  But most importantly, this is exactly what we are called, as Christians, to do.  There are people all over the world who don't know Jesus and someone needs to show them the Way.  And my heart breaks for each of those that are lost.  So I dragged myself out the door and onto the train Saturday morning because I knew I had to do it.

On Saturday we did some evangelizing and fed the homeless in Union Square Park, among many other things.  My evangelizing did not start off on a good foot because the first guy was hitting on me.  And so I immediately decided to follow Gregg around, feeling much more confident around someone that would protect me-- a pastor, nonetheless.  That was probably the best decision I ever made.  Gregg is the most friendly and down-to-earth person I know.  Not only could he strike up a conversation with anyone but he knew exactly how to direct the flow of the conversation into their need for a Savior.  After taking pages upon pages of mental notes from him, I was off on my own.  And thanks be to the LORD for calming my nerves because I talked to and prayed with a few strangers on my own.  My prayers were answered.

"20 Somethings" on the first day

And so the first day was a success in so many different ways (again, more on that in an email if you are interested).  The second day was extremely trying.  I slept for maybe 30 minutes Saturday night, as did the majority of us, because it was so hot.  We were all dragging, but pushing on for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified.  It seriously must have been 100 degrees out both days.  Terrible.

Sunday afternoon we headed to Coney Island to put on a skit.  To watch the youtube clip of the skit we replicated click here (seriously watch it, it's good! Obviously this isn't us performing, it's the original link that we found for it).  I don't remember who, but someone volunteered me to be the main girl (in the white shirt).

Uhhh, what?

At first I was like, "Okay cool, I'll do whatever."  But when we actually arrived at Coney Island on Sunday and Kevin set up our "stage" in the middle of the boardwalk where hundreds of people were, I began to freak out.  I kept going up to people from Calvary saying "I CAN'T DO THIS."  I was convinced that someone was going to see the skit and get offended and shoot me (Yes, with a bullet and a gun. Can you tell I'm a bit irrational at times?).

Right before we started I prayed, Okay, Lord.  I don't want to do this.  I know that the fact that I'm nervous is because of my own sinful nature to care more about how I'm viewed than about Your glory.  So Lord I'm giving this up to You.  Do whatever You want with it.  Change hearts.  And stretch mine.

I took a deep breath and I did it.  And it was so great!  So many people watched and it was fun.  We did it a second time and I noticed people were video taping it on their phones.  I was laughing so hard because during the second time, Gregg (who was sex/abuse) actually accidentally pushed me down when I was in the middle of the circle at the end.  So funny.  My prayers were answered.

I'm so grateful that I went on this trip.  The Lord really stretched me and I feel like I've grown from it a lot, in so many different ways.  While I only talked about Him working through my fear of street evangelism, He did so much more to my heart that I would love to share with all of you if you'd like to hear about it (it's a bit too long for one little blog entry).  I made new friends, some much younger than me, some my age, and some much older than me.  I had so many good laughs (like when I ran screaming out of the kitchen because an enormous cockroach flew at my face hahaha).  I was stretched spiritually and watched as the rest of the group grew, as well.  On the train ride home I couldn't believe that it was just the day before when I hadn't known this group from Calvary.  I felt like we had been on a trip for a week together and it had only been two days.  We laughed together, cried together, shared testimonies together, worshiped together, prayed together, and grew together.

What God really made me realize is that my fears of evangelism came from my sinful nature.  All of the children that were there were excited right off the bat to talk to people and never got enough of talking to strangers about Jesus.  They weren't afraid of what people thought about them.  They weren't afraid of getting shot.  They weren't afraid of not knowing the answers.  They just wanted everyone they met to know and love Jesus like they do.  They wanted everyone to feel what they feel.  They wanted everyone to get saved.

Abigail, Abigail and Jake witnessing in the park to kids much older than them

Their love for the Lord astounded me.

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." --Matthew 18:3

We all need to have faith as pure as a child's.  We need to trust that the Lord will provide and protect us in whatever He calls us to do.  We need to pray for Jesus to take away our anxieties and fears because He will.  And He will make us warriors in the process.  My prayers were answered.