Spread Truth New York City 2014: Spreading the gospel through Vacation Bible School, soccer and basketball camp, and evangelizing the parks and streets of New York City.

How do I start? Well first off I had never been to New York City. It was awesome. The man made structures are beautiful and very neat to look at. But as much as I can say I enjoyed New York City, with its tall skyscrapers, statues, and vastness of how big the city is, seeing the cool things that mankind has created still pales in comparison to what God has already naturally created. I'm in awe when I look at the mountains. I cannot believe the vastness when lying underneath the stars in pitch black, unable to count how many are in the sky. The moment the sun rises above the horizon and I stare silently. The way Niagara Falls and many other waterfalls just make me think of Gods majesty and yet I feel calm and relaxed by their beauty. And I can never get over looking at the ocean and realizing just how small I really am. I have seen all these things in person and I still hear that the Grand Canyon is one of the most beautiful things anyone has ever seen. At this point I can only take their word for it. But my whole point is that God creates amazing and beautiful things! And he even created us! We are made in his image and I believe just like our creator we want to create amazing and beautiful things. But because he is perfect...his is way more majestic than ours ever will be. And sadly I believe we are hindered from being able to create even greater things because we as humanity have been cut off from the one true God by the disobedience of the first created man and women that has been passed down generation to generation. That is why we have wars. That is why we have "innocent people” dying from disasters. We know everyone dies one day...but why? Those are our consequences for disobedience to a perfect God. I'm not saying we can't be good without God, I'm saying that none of us can be perfect. Everyone says it,  "I'm not perfect" and we take it lightly how holy and perfect God is. Honestly he could have started over from the beginning after Adam and Eve disobeyed, but God made a promise to rescue them as well, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of Satan, the evil one, that made Eve question God to begin with.  God wanted to redeem mankind from the beginning and he gave us a choice to choose him or not, so we are not just robots forced to "love" God. I'm so thankful that I have hope beyond the imperfections I see in me and in this world. There is a lot of brokenness and sadness because of our sin. Yet Christ gives us a hope now and for our future. I have hope now because I do believe in Jesus Christ as savior. Gods own son who lived the perfect life we could not live and died on the cross, taking the wrath of God that we deserved. It may seem unfair that God would do such a thing...but we take our sin to lightly when we begin to think like that. Christ saved me! How do I know? Because he conquered death and on the third day he rose from the grave! He saved me, us, not just from the wrath of God, but gives you and I his Holy Spirit when we believe so that we may be able to live and follow Jesus Christ. That I would be apart of a people who have found this same hope as me and is striving towards this same goal to encourage each other and share that fact that there is a savior for the world. I must remember the church is a people, not a building, and if I'm not perfect, I shouldn't expect them to be either. Loving someone despite personality differences is hard, but as Christ has loved us and forgiven us, so should we love and forgive others. And I'm so thankful I will one day not have to struggle against my sinful nature but will COMPLETELY rest in the new heavens and earth that God will create for those that trust in his perfect sacrifice to reunite us with him. 

            I strayed quite a bit from what I did in New York City, but honestly this is the whole reason I went New York, was to share this good news with other people. Not only that, I am reminded this week of these very truths. And I was able to see God work and move in mighty ways. At times I have a hard time believing that God could move the mountains... I asked God to help my unbelief.  I'm was and am tired of trying to do things in my own strength. I needed the spirit of God to do the things I got to see happen this week. The Lord needed to stretch me and I was uncomfortable. I was constantly nervous with butterflies before I would go out and strike up random conversation with a stranger. I needed the spirit to guide me the right people. I had to constantly be on alert and in prayer. I only averaged six hours of sleep a night and was go, go, go all day. For those of you that know me I have a hard time with only six hours, I can become cranky, and I get sick easy, but God brought me to the end of myself.  Overall I got to share the whole gospel with over 20 people and got to pray for a lot more than that! Some of those I approached were believers and unbelievers. I didn’t personally "lead" anyone to Christ but I got to see a couple people desperate to be saved and saw them turn their lives over to Christ. It was beautiful. The biggest thing I want to take home from this trip is that I can be more intentional while I'm at home to share the gospel. It doesn't have to be awkward, I just have to ask The Lord to help me and lead me to gospel conversation. If Christ is truly on my heart and mind that should be easy for me...because I love talking about The Lord. I don't want to be fearful of mankind anymore! I want to trust God! That even when I look like a fool to those that are perishing, I share the hope I have and the love I have in my Lord Jesus Christ. I will also say I was surprised how open people were to talk with us in New York. I had only ever heard people are to busy, hardened, and unwilling to talk. But that is where prayer changes things, because The Spirit was definitely at work. It was also crazy to know that a couple of different groups I got to talk to, one visiting from Belgium and another from France, had either never heard the gospel or their knowledge was VERY limited and God allowed me to share as they were intent to here truth they never heard before. And this was one of the tools that we got to use to help share the gospel (http://viewthestory.com/5378) I have many stories of when I was able to go out and talk to people in the streets and parks but I will just tell you my favorite one.

I was in Manhattan Central Park in NYC (picture to the right). It was a beautiful day. I couldn't have asked for better weather. There were many people in the park that day, but it is New York, I have no idea if there is ever a day that the park was not full of people. This was actually toward the end of our stay in the park that day and we had many good conversations but this one stuck out to me as my partner Jesse and I were praying we approached a man fishing with a young girl in the park and was able to strike up conversation.  First it was just about fishing, then about heritage, family, etc. but I saw the young girl sitting alone and decided to sit down by her side. I asked her name and she was shy at first but she soon became a little chatterbox. She told me her all her favorite things and where she went to school and about all her cousins and the fun things she gets to do with them. I got to know her favorite movies and shows and be able to use that incorporate my favorite movies and stories and share the story of Jesus with her. I had a bracelet with green, blue, red, gold, and clear beads would that would remind her of God’s story for her and for us all. Each bead represented a part of the gospel:

Green: Creation

Blue: Sadness, brokenness, the fall

Red: The blood of Jesus covering our sins 

Gold: God sanctifying and redeeming us 

Clear: That God has made these things clear to us and that we should make a  clear decision for to follow after him. 

            I found out she LOVES to read and when I handed her the Bible I asked if she had a book like this, she shook her head no and I said “it’s yours.” She was so excited when I gave her a Bible that specifically helps give a summary of each book of the Bible with a really neat cover. I told her some of my favorite stories in The Bible, and marked out some easy stories to start with in Genesis, the book of Ruth, and said if she really wanted to get to know Jesus more to read about what his good friend John wrote about him. She told me she couldn't wait to read them and gave me a high five and hug before I left. That moment was very special for me. Kids are so open and I pray this young girl really comes to know this amazing savior I know and that this seed can be watered and grow. I praise God for all the many moments I had but I'm very thankful for this little girl who was so open to hear that day :)