hey everyone! were back for another update on how New York is. i guess we can just start off with saying how amazing our time here has been so far. God has truly blessed us with a fantastic team and people to work around. Almost all of us have been sick by now. Beth and Karla were getting over a nasty cold, and Bekah had a sinus infection. Asher and Aaron got some sort of stomach bug. Renee and Eryca have been the only ones to not get sick so far! it seems like satan is really trying to take us down! not gonna happen!! we are all getting used to our busy weekly schedules. its a lot of things in a week to handle, but its becoming routine and not so much chaos and stress. praise the Lord for that.

Karla left off on saturday night so i guess i will start with sunday. In the morning we went to fellowship chapel for church. It was a very good sermon and she challenged us to write a missions statement of what we plan on doing to serve the Lord. afternoons here are normally pretty quiet. i think everyone took a long nap and relaxed the rest of the day.

On monday, Mike came to share to us about the importance of evangelism and different ways to do it. In the afternoon we went out on the streets to do evangelism. some of us were more nervous than others but once all of us got out there it wasn't so bad. everyone split into teams of 2 to take surveys on spiritual interest and hope that a conversation would spark from there. there was one particular person that Renee and Eryca talked to that seemed very spiritually confused in what he believed and his view on God. that was definitely a challenge for them to stand up for their believes and question him. Other than that, conversations seemed to go smoothly, and people seemed to be open to talk for the most part.

on Tuesday it was basically the same thing, Mike had sessions with us in the morning and then we were out talking to people on the streets after that. we weren't so intimidated because we had done it the day before. There was another person who spoke to Karla and Asher who also seemed very confused on his view of God and said a lot of things that didn't really make sense. it was also a challenge for them to stand up for their believes. i guess this is just a small taste of what we could be getting in Thailand! that evening all of the teams that have to learn spanish went to a spanish class and then to a spanish church, while karla and i had the apartment to ourselves. We did some Thai lessons and had some really great conversations. it was nice to have that time to spend just as a team to get a taste of what it will be like in Thailand.

Normally on Wednesdays we go to the Bowery in the morning but this week we did not have to so we pretty much had all morning to ourselves. it was nice to be able to sleep late and spend some alone time with the big man upstairs! in the afternoon we went to the after school program (operation exodus) in Manhattan. i think we can all agree that we had a blast! all of the kids are so much fun and we really enjoy spending time with them. they were so loving and welcoming. all of us came home exhausted with sore muscles from picking them up and jumping around and dancing with them. we definitely slept well that night!

thursday was another late morning. we went to the love kitchen where people in need come in to get groceries. i think that is pretty stressful because the majority of the people there only speak spanish. the language barrier is a challenge for sure! after that we went to the after school program again. this time we were more prepared for the amount of energy that they have. they are just so lovable!

friday we went to world vision in the morning. we split up again. half of us went to the old site and the other half stayed at the new site. Bekah, Eryca, Asher, and Aaron went to the old site and destroyed some more things that they didn't need anymore. Beth, Karla, Renee stayed at the new site and folded cloths all day. we came back to the house and all took a nap for about an hour. in the evening all of the girls (minus renee) went to times square church again. this week was a missions conference, so instead of just the young adults having a service, it was the whole church. we got there extra early to get good seats. the service was fantastic.

saturday is normally our chill day for the week. but in the morning we went to manna of life to serve the homeless food and to serve the day workers lunch. we all went home and went to the park and walked around for awhile. the evening we just hung out for the rest of the evening

sunday! today! whew. okay. this morning we went to church in the morning again. this afternoon we went to central park. when we came home we watched the phantom of the opera and bekah made muffins. its been a relaxing day.

ill try to add some pictures tonight or tomorrow. thanks for reading again!