Week 1. NYC

Wow. Totally unbelievable. One week of life in New York is already down. But, it feels like we've been in New York for a lot longer. Annnndddd!  It feels like we have all known each other for weeks. The people that we live with are hilarious! we love them!

There's Renee from PA; she's like the mom of the family. She keeps everyone calm, but she has those random moments when she's hilarious. Basically, she doesn't talk a lot  but when she does, it's worth while :D. Eryca is from Ohio; she's a ball of energy. She has all of these funny quotes that she says that make all of us laugh. Beth is from northern PA . She was a dairy farmer, and she has the cutest little giggle! Aaron is a hard-core dare devil who loves to bike. He's from Canada but he does not say "Eh?" It's so annoying! He does say "day" and "say" and "out" really oddly. All of us girls make fun of him a lot. he takes it like a man for the most part. Asher is from Wisconson and is constatnly singing like hes in a musical and dancing. Needless to say, we get a lot of funny looks from the people in the community, but we're absolutely okay with it!

This week was a lot of fun. we started out with going to fellowship chapel on sunday morning which is the only BIC church here in New York. it is very small due to a transitioning time, but it is very energetic! our group doubled the attendance! the service really was amazing though. we spent the rest of the day getting settled into the apartment and getting better aquainted with each other. we went to little Italy which is right down the street from our apartment and got some awesome pastries.

On monday we all piled into the SUV and went to the mall around here to do some grocery shoppin and buy the best game that was ever invented, quelf, and for those of you who dont know what quelf is.... You must go find out for yourself! It's a lot of fun. We spent a lot of e rest of the day playing quelf, and meeting our first mentor, Ken. He was full of energy and had a lot of good things to say to us. He really tought us about having a prayer life with the Lord and having a personal "love life" with God. It should not have to be discipline but a love life to maintain. also, he talked about how the devil only comes places where we allow him to be, so if we continure to maintian our love life with God than it is harder for the devil to come in an stir things up in our lives. obviously no human is perfect, and the devil will come into our lives at some point, BUT we should have an open and honest relationship with the lord and admit that we were wrong and we need forgiveness. a lot of the things that Ken said, we had all heard before, but not in the perspective that he put in it. i think we can speak for everyone when we say we learned A LOT from him and he was an awesome mentor. in the evening he took us to dallas barbeque in Times square for the first time, and the food was amazing

Tuesday morning was our first day of breakfast ministry which is feeding the homeless breakfast in the basement of fellowship chapel . only 3 of us go at a time. This time it was Bekah, Eryca, and Asher. It went very well.. a lot better than we were expecting i think! all of the people were very nice and respectful. after that We had another session with ken which We basically summed up in the last paragraph :) after that was our first day at world vision which is a warehouse that people donate goods to for people under poverty to come in and shop for free! This warehouse is under the process of moving to a different location, so basically we were unpacking boxes of things and stocking the shelves with them. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of heavy lifting and heard work!

Wednesday was our first day at the bowery mission. It has been around for around 130 years and they basically have a church service before every meal of the day and anyone who attends the service can get a free meal! Or 3 free meals a day if they attend every service. this is mostly for the homeless people in the community. they also have a 6 month program for men on the streets who want to change their lives to come in and they basically work for the mission 15 hours a week and take classes to learn how to work at a job and balance their money well so they are able to eventually apply for jobs and get interviews and eventually make enough money to put a down payment on an apartment! Basically what our job while we were there was to work in the kitchen and help the serve all the people that come through for meals

Thursday we were also at the Bowery in the morning and basically did the same thing as Wednesday, and organized the huge pantry they have. All of their food is donated and comes in by truck loads! Out job was to put everything in it's place. We met a lot of awesome new people while we were there. The head chef's name is Trevor, and 3 of the chefs that work under him are Ping, Ali, and Cannon. All of them are a lot of fun to work around and have great personalities. the rest of the evening we sort of had to ourselves to spend time with the Lord, and nap, and fellowship with our team mates. It was a nice evening

On Friday we went to world vision again to finish unpacking some boxes and making signs for each section of the warehouse. We also had a conference call with some surrounding world vision warehouses to show them what we had done so far in the moving process. In the after noon, we (Bekah and Karla) went running with Asher and Aaron and relaxed for awhile afterwards. In the evening we went to Times Square church with Asher, Aaron, and Eryca. It was HUGE and absolutely amazing. the worship was fantastic. Words can not describe how powerful it was to be in that place. we plan to go there often throughout the next 7 weeks :)

Today we got up and prayer mapped around our neighborhood and prayed for the people here. after that was lunch and cleaning the apartment. then we went "intentional sight seeing" and prayer walked through a lot of different areas here in New York. we went to dallas barbecue again for dinner and Bekah Eryca and Aaron went shopping afterwards. we got lost coming home because the subway systems were all messed up and confusing. after about 2 hours, we finally got home, safe and sound.

we have had an amazing time so far here. all of us get along very well and are having a lot of fun along with learning a lot of new things about ourselves and each other. this week has been great.

thanks for reading! look for another post next week. :) and now... SLEEP

STEPping into New York City

hey everyone!
we made it to New York safe and sound. carrying our suitcases up 4 flights of stairs was not an easy task! I think we all agree that packing lighter might have been a better idea! The apartment is a decent size, but we DO have 8 people living here, needless to say its a bit cozy. All of us are getting to know each other pretty quickly. We think we will all get along just fine for these next 8 weeks. We are excited to see what God has in store for us for the rest of this trip and on to Thailand as well. Thank you to everyone who has supported us financially and in prayer. If it wasn't for all of you we would not be here! Please continue to pray that we will be able to get what the Lord wants for us out of this trip. the outcome will be amazing!