nyc edition_finale

well, we have been back in Texas for a week now, and i never finished the nyc edition. i hope i haven't left you with jaws agape, drooling over the possibility of the next installment. and i'm sur ei haven't, so i will not apologize.
but we are back, and the trip was great! as for the final two days there:
friday was long. we worked all day in the church, did the final kid's camp, and then prepared for, and had, the friday night cookout. the time between kids camp and the cookout was a little stressful. no one told us the kids would probably hang around for the cookout, and not go home as normal. so at one point, while everyone else had gone to prepare for the cookout, i looked around and found myself in the gym with 12 delinquents. ok, i'm kidding...there were only 10. ok, kidding again, they weren't all delinquents. most of 'em were great kids and i will miss them. but they were definitely tough. please keep praying for them and their families.
anywho, i realized i need to go help set up, so i left the kids with pastor kevin and two homeless guys that wondered in. i think they were fine.
the cookout was populated mostly by homeless people and a few parents of the kids. i don't think anyone from the street the church is on showed up. i'm not sure how much they like those weekly cookouts on their street that bring in what they may consider "riff raff", but the "riff raff" enjoy it and are very grateful. i may one such man named esteban, or steven for us whities. he was apparently a former banker who seemd to know quite a bit about the economic state of our country. he had fallen on some hard times and lived on the streets for a bit. now he lives with a bunch of family in a small apartment in brooklyn. he gave me some great isnight on the homeless condition in new york. there are quite a few people who can't help it simply because it costs too much to live anywhere in new york. i fi get in to school at nyu, this may be me.
the cookout went well, everyone seemd to have a great time. jeremy looked like he got cooked (he was on the grill all night with dwayne). then a few of us went in to town for one last night, and then came back to the church.
the next day, a few of us got up and went to the Met. the ones who decided to sleep in took a while getting to the Met, and then complained that we left them. those silly heads. i love 'em anyway! i also visitied FAO schwartz, then we all went back to the church, got our luggage, and went to the airport.
i think the coolest thing about this day was pointed out by our very own elizabeth montez. she siad that it would be relaly cool to go back Texas, hang out with people saturday night, and when they ask what we did today say "oh you know, went to the Met." good point montez.
well, that was a quick wrap up of our last two days in brooklyn. i would hav eat least done day 7 in new york, but the internet connection i was highjacking wasn't there when i tried. so, it took me a week of being in Texas to get around to it. i hope you have enjoyed this saga, adn that you will continue reading aboput my life. if you get reeeallly bored.

nyc edition_day-6

this will be a short post. it is 230 in the morning here, and we just got through with a game of sardines. if you have never played sardines, especially in an old, empty church, then you should. if you don't know what sardines is; it's this game where one person goes and hides while the others wait. then they, after the proper waiting period is over, go to find said person. as each individual, or groups if they are scared, finds the hiding person then they stay and hide with them until all have found the hider. whoever arrives last has to go and hide for the next round. it is almost always fun.
and that is what we did to end our day. everyone is asleep now. some are going to get more rest than they thought because they have decided not to go to the miley cyrus concert in the morning. others are not going to get nearly as much sleep as they thought because they decided to play sardines.
the rest of our day was fairly relaxing. the homeless team did not see their normal guys. they suspect it was because of the mean store owner from the other day. that is sad.
the rest of us did some painting and got ready for the kids to arrive. i painted a fence that is directly above a 15 foot drop-off. somehow everyone else's idea of using a ladder that has a sign on it saying something to the effect of "hey, don't use this ladder" was better than mine and allison's idea of creating a harness out of some solid rope. oh well, got it done.
after kids club we ate a lovely dinner prepared for us by rachel, ashley and gary. then we went to central park. that is just about the most amazing place in this entire city. it's a gigantic park in the middle of a gigantic city. it's almost perfect.
then we tried to go to f.a.o. schwartz, which was close. so we went next door to the apple store for a while. that was cool. apparently all you have to do to make something, let's say a store, cool, is make it clear. that's what apple did, and it worked! that store is pretty cool.
then we came back to the church, threw uno cards at each other, had a dance party, played sardines and went to bed.
tomorrow should be good. we are going to do some more work, have kids klub, then a cookout. i am excited about the cookout. i think it will be a nice chance to do the kind of ministry most of our group is good at. the relational kind. we are all pretty good at getting to know people and i think that will be a good thing.
please pray for our kids and for the cookout. throw 'em up to God and they will be taken care of. we thank you for all your prayers, we miss you, and we will see you...tomorrow (since this is technically friday). also, this turned out to not be so short. oh well. gnight! :)

nyc edition_day-5

have you ever been "shown up"? we have. all week.
the other group staying with us is a youth group from indiana. they are leaving tomorrow and will be getting some well-deserved rest when they get home. they've been putting in roughly 12 hour days all week with their ministry. they get up early, clean, meet, and go to work. then, when they get back, they meet again and worship together. we all feel kinda bad, every now and then. but we are having so much fun!
the group with the homeless ministry had a good time today. they were gone for a while and came back talking about having more good conversations. they also had some sad news though. apparently the owner of the grocery store where the homeless get their cans and hang out ran them off today. and with more than a hint of rudeness. he was yelling at them and kicking them off their stoops and being rough with them. this broke the heart of a few of the people. please pray that the owners heart is softened. and pray for the homeless that are out there, and all over the world. they all go through so much and could really use some love.
construction is going well. dwayne finished up some spackling in the entry, while belle and elizabeth started painting some of it. gary, jeremy and i worked some more at cleaning out this large storage room in the church. it went even faster when allison and ashley joined in our efforts. then we all had lunch (sandwiches and leftovers), and got ready for the kids. during this time, a wasp landed on my sandwich. i didn't know what to do. so, i asked "what do i do with this?" it was funny. at least, it was funny for everyone else.
the kids today were pretty good. there were a lot of new kids, but then there were also a few missing kids. i don't know...sometime sit feels like we aren't doing much with that ministry. but, like i said yesterday, we are trusting God. and in that, we are seeing Him work in other areas. and, we are having fun!
tonight we planned on going to a broadway show. daniel and i finally convinced the group to go see spamalot. we had almost everyone ready to go. ashley and rachel took our money to the tkts booth to get our tickets. and they were sold out. it was sad.
so, instead, we all went to dinner. we got dressed up, or at least put on nicer clothes than we have worn all week, and went in to manhattan. we ended up eating at "juniors famous restaurant. the best in brooklyn" (or something like that). and yes, the "best in brooklyn" was in manhattan. but it is a chain, so it's ok.
after figuring out a confusing ticket and eating for 2 hours, we went in to time square...for the bazillionth time! it was still fun, though. i got "nuts 4 nuts"! they are these delicious little cashews, almonds, and peanuts covered in some sort of sugary goodness. we also went to toys-r-us, the m&m store and a few gift shops. kimberly and daniel had to leave early, though. daniel accidentally stepped in a puddle full of sewage water and splashed kimberly. they smelled so bad that they decided to head back to the church early.
now we are all here, and i am writing this blog. amanda, dwayne and belle are drinking slurpees, elizabeth is on the phone, and jeremy is playing the piano. everyone else is asleep. hopefully i will be soon. please continue to pray for our kids, our other ministries, the homeless here and all over the world, the city of new york, and our people. have a great few days until we return!
(also, thank you to everyone who has left a comment, and to all the readers! i hope you are enjoying this. and as for the questions about pictures: i wanted to post a few, but we do not have a cord to get the pictures from the cameras to this computer. sorry. but i hope i have painted at least a vague mental picture for you. bye!)

nyc edition_day-4

one of our group members just shared a sad, but true, observation with me. the difficult part about dealing with most of these kids is that when we give them love they don't return it.
we aren't just being selfish. i am sure it may be some of that because, well, we are not perfect. but the other reason this is difficult to deal with is that the "bad" kids we normally work with act the way they do because they just want love. and normally when we give it they are so appreciative, and it moves them so much, that they return it. this shows us that we were effective. that we got through with love. and that there is hope for them. but when we show love and we get rudeness and disrespect in return, it can be a little disheartening.
but we can't let it drag us down. because it's not about us. this very well ma be a lesson in understanding that no matter what we do, the effective things are God working through us and through others. we don't do it. we can't. we have to have faith in Him, and if we think it is us then our hearts are not in the right place.
also, the coolest things on this trip haven't even come with the kids! twice this week we have had girls come back from a different ministry talking about feeling the Holy Spirit give them the words to share the gospel. that is amazing!
everyday some of our group takes a couple boxes of sandwiches to an area in the neighborhood where the homeless congregate. they pass out the sandwiches and spend some time mingling. today when they came back, amanda had a story about an old man named (possibly joey). she said he has muscular dystrophy and a big beard. he has gone through a lot in his life, and he was just happy to have some love. after hearing his story, amanda was able to share the gospel with him in conversation without preaching at him. she is not sure exactly how he received it, but is trusting God to continue working in his life. elizabeth had a similar story.
on tuesday nights, the pastors wife leads a small Bible study at a nearby women's shelter. tonight almost all of our girls went to help (allison came with us guys and amy, the summer missionary here, to central park/st. johns cathedral/columbia university). it was a good thing so many of our girls were able to go tonight. they had about 10 women come to the study. the pastor's wife said this was the most they had ever had. they had a fun night of painting nails and talking. and elizabeth had a fun night sharing the gospel...in spanish! elizabeth is not quite fluent, but she grew up around spanish and spent some time in spain recently. but tonight she ahd all the words she needed! she said she began sharing the gospel with the woman in spanish, and came away from the conversation feeling like she wasn't even sure of what all she said, but the woman heard it. and again, she didn't have a conversion experience right there, but we are all trusting this woman into God's hands. we know He is faithful to finish the work he has started. please be praying for joey and the hispanic woman. we know they are in good hands!
oh, and as for the rest of the day: kidz klub was fine (it went a little smoother than yesterday, but there were still a few problems[some of the kids do not show our people any sort of respect and made one of our girls cry a little today, please pray for them]), we had real, new-york-style pizza for dinner, the girls went to the woman's shelter, daniel and jeremy saw a concert in central park, me, gary, allison, dwayne and amy saw st. john's cathedral, and allison and i walked around columbia university (it is by far the coolest college campus i have ever seen. there were huge, old buildings and little patches of grass everywhere. allison was very excited about all of the libraries, especially the main one, and about the statue of the thinker. i was very excited too. i think i may apply to columbia for grad school.)
ok, that is all i have the strength to write. i hope you have enjoyed it. i also hope that you will continue to pray for us and for the kids and for the various other ministries we are doing here. have a great day! we will see you all soon!

nyc edition_day-3

i still haven't showered. i made a guy angry on the subway. i had dim sum for the first time. i didn't go in the empire state building. i tried to teach the kid that sprayed me in the head with silly string how to dribble a basketball. i got sprayed in the head with silly string. i beat elizabeth montez at knockout. i lost a game of soccer to 8-year-old zach with the rasta braids. i played an animal game with montez, the jamesons and 4 8-year-olds. i scraped and spackled an entry way with dwayne, jeremy and gary. i ate breakfast at a local diner.
i awoke around 730 to eat breakfast at the park slope diner. i was reading and had the sneaking suspicion they wanted me out of there. so i went back and relaxed until people got up and got ready. we had a meeting with pastor charlie at 930 and he gave us the rundown for our week. we were in there for a while.
during all of this, the other group staying with us was cleaning the place. i think they think we are messy.
most of the group started cleaning the kitchen and getting food to feed the homeless. amanda and montez made some terrific signs for our kidz klub. gary showed me, dwayne and jeremy how to scrape away the old wall in the entry way and spackle it over with new wall. this was fun since the ladders we had were older than us.
the kids slowly began to show up a little after 3. gary, jeremy and i took care of a few more labor projects while the rest of the group played with the kids. then we went back for group time. i had the 8-year-olds with montez and the jamesons. zach and his rasta braids did not want to join. he already knew the lesson (on creation) since he and his dad have been reading the Bible and they were in zachariah. when he came back to the group, we made our creation book crafts and stuck name tags on our foreheads with various types of animals written on them. the kids were good at this.
after we played some games in the gym and most of the kids left, zach and i went back and forth using a small basketball as a soccer ball. i think he has played soccer with his dad too. he was good. when he went home i played knockout with 6 or 7 people. it came down to me and montez. then it came down to me.
after most of the stragglers left, we all went and ate dinner. then everyone got ready for the evening with a nap and a shower. i chose neither. i mostly sat and debated whether or not to take a shower. then, as we were waiting on everyone to get ready, a couple kids came back with silly string. that was fun. then i tried to show one of them how to dribble a basketball. that was also fun. i'm not very good at basketball...i think little kevin got jipped. but i also think he had a good time, and so did the rest of the kids. there were a few that proved my foreboding feelings from yesterday...ok, most of them did. but they still seemed to kiiind of enjoy it, and we all made it through. thanks for your prayers! some of these kids have rough lives. it is easy to get frustrated when you don't know what they are going through. i will need to keep this in mind for tomorrow. please pray that i, and the rest of the group, can do that.
(specific kids that i remember need prayer: zach, jason, brian, kevin and irvin)
when everyone was ready, we headed to the empire state building. but with the train in front of us having a break emergency, slow walkers, picture takers and people wandering away from the group, we did not get there until dark. most of the people that went did not want to see the city at night. still not sure why.
we then went to time square again. everyone pretty much did their own thing here. dwayne and daniel went to watch some of the home-run-derby on tv, rachel helped gary, the jamesons had family night and got a picture out of the deal, and i went with the remainder to walk around. but when they went in to the m&m store, i decided to go exploring. i went up and down a few streets, tried to get in to the lion king backstage door, met an up-and-coming comedian named jose vega and had dim-sum for the first time at some small restaurant named john's shanghai. it was good, but the dipping sauce smelled like feet.
on our way back home i was taking pictures of everyone with daniel's camera. the scruffy guy sitting next to me reading his paper and doing a sudoku seemed thoroughly annoyed with this. he kept huffing and rolling his eyes. but i kept taking pictures. i think he got over it, or gave in.
now we are back at the church, sitting on the front porch. you can deduce what i am doing. belle and montez are talking to ife. dwayne is reading his lesson for tomorrow (i should be doing that...). amanda is reading her Bible, writing in her journal and listening to her ipod. daniel is drawing his sidewalk chalk masterpiece. oh, and i think montez just woke the neighborhood up with a laugh. and through all of this, i have not showered since last night. between sweating in the gym and walking through nyc, this is gross.
that was our day. if you have made it this far, i thank you. and i hope you have enjoyed your read. i also hope you will continue to pray for us. we have 4 more days of kidz klub left, and we are going to need some strength. pray that we can help this church make a difference. pray that God will use us while we are working, and while we are playing. finally, pray that He will show His infinite and wonderful love through us. this is all we really have to let the world know who we are and who He is. we can be knowledgeable and skilled debaters, we can yell fire and brimstone or calmly point out the beauty of nature. but if we are not loving, they won't see the One, True God.
we love you, and we will see you soon!

nyc edition_day-2

today was yet another fun day. anyone who woke up before 9 heard the Russian service held in the church sanctuary. it’s full of Korean people. apparently there is a large number of Korean people that live in the area and only speak Russian. that was interesting.

by 930 the team was up and eating breakfast together in the kitchen. from there we went to the adult bible study and then the regular service. our very own Allison Robertson fought her nerves and got up in front of the congregation to do their special music. half way through the service, 4 of us took the 4 kids who were under 9 years old and had, or attempted to have, a kid’s church.

if this one-on-one ratio of worker-to-kid was any sort of foreshadowing for the upcoming week…we are in trouble. they were definitely a handful. actually, 2 of the 4 were a handful, and the other two were rather docile. this is even more foreboding. but God will strengthen us! and we will need it!

after church some of our group went to the store and grabbed some supplies for lunch and dinner. the rest of us stayed at the church and played hop-scotch with a couple of the kids until they had to go home.

at 3 we split again. gary and I went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle and the rest of the group went shopping in SoHo. the rest of the group missed out. while they were getting their cheap purses and expensive juices, gary and I got a free concert, and quite a show. it was definitely very interesting. there was speaking in tongues, and “hallelujahs!” for guitar solos. it was also rather easy to pick out the Baptist youth group mission trip. they were the two rows of white kids in shorts and Christian t-shirts,s mouthing the words to the songs and not daring to make a clap, much less move their feet.

to end the day, we cooked some greasy tacos and went to Coney Island. Jeremy, Elizabeth, Amanda, Rachel and Belle stayed behind to play games and chill. they changed their plans on us and left the church to explore Brooklyn. this got them locked out of the church. they had to wait on the rest of us to get back from the Coney Island adventure.

coney island was a treat. one observation, a very Texan observation, was that it was roughly 2-3 times dirtier than the State Fair of Texas. while Texan, it was also true. we thought about getting a Nathan’s Famous hot dog, then decided to go to the beach. we walked across the famous boardwalk, spent a while in the sand, washed of our feet, and walked back to shoot a freak. that’s right, a freak. we convinced Dwayne to pick up this paintball gun and shoot a live target. a young man with pads, a helmet, and a shield went in to an ally-sort-of-thing and let Dwayne fire off 15 rounds in his general direction. this was totally worth it. and so were the Nathan’s Famous hot dogs we decided to go ahead and get on our way out.

now we are back at the church, planning tomorrow’s Kidz Klub. we will need our rest tonight. before we do the afternoon Kidz Klub we have to do some street evangelism, construction in the church and possibly various other tasks. if you are reading this, please pray that God gives us strength for them all. we know He is faithful and will provide. we cannot wait to see what he is going to do!

nyc edition_day-1

hello everyone! (i say that assuming anyone is actually reading this). if you are new, i am eddie. this is my blog. this is going to be the nyc edition of my blog. i will try to update this everyday while we are in new york. we shall see how that goes.

we arrived in new york somewhere around 330pm. we got our bags, our ride, and headed to brooklyn...then we sat in traffic. but we had a great driver who told us how awesome the food in brooklyn is. this had us excited, because we were all starving. donuts apparently will not hold you over for 6 or 7 hours.

once we got to the church, we got our bags out, and talked to pastor charlie of park slope community (or baptist) church. he is the pastor of the church we are working with here in brooklyn, and a great guy. he loves the work he does here, and he is certain of his call.

he is also certain of nearly every pizza shop within 4 or 5 blocks. and there are a lot. sadly, we could only eat at one for dinner. but it was a good one. "Spidey", as kimberly called him, runs the Pizza Grill. you can order from them online at www.delivery.com

once we had our bellies full of new-york-style pizza, we headed out to ground zero. there is a lot of construction going on there. and once we took our pictures and talked about how crazy all of that was, we went on to the rest of our evening activities. (because this is getting long, i will keep the rest of this short)

we split into two groups. one went to central park to walk 20 blocks into the park and listen to bon jovi sing a few songs. they had fun. the other group went to the staten island ferry and got a free ride across to staten island with a nice breeze and a great view of the statue of liberty/nyc skyline. then we all met up in times square. then we all hopped on about 4 different trains trying to find our way back to brooklyn.

from there we bought breakfast for in the morning, talked about the next day, met a few of the other groups here, then passed out. we are all planning to wake up tomorrow and get started with our mission! we are very excited and can't wait to see how God is going to use us. it seems like we have partnered with a wonderful church who has a clear goal: spreading the love of jesus to their world.

my misadventure for one_part3

all night i woke up and went back to sleep. the entire time i was sweating. but luckily i had this nifty little camping pad thing that actually made a big difference. when i finally decided to stop going back to sleep, or maybe i just got to a point where i couldn't anymore, i unzipped the tent and stepped out into a glorious, bright, beautiful, hot day. 9 in the morning, and it was hotter than it had been all year. oh well, it was still nice. and it's Texas. i love Texas.
as i stepped out into Texas, i began my morning with a survey of my campsite. everything was the same, and the fire was gone. again, nothing had burned down. always a plus.
i got out my Bible and read some as i ate breakfast; a banana and a nutrigrain bar. then i began the difficult part. taking everything down. that was a beating. undoing the tent was fine. snuffing the fire's embers was fine. picking up my trash was fine. but stuffing the 2-3 person tent back into its box that is designed to work only once, not so fine. it was really tough. then i got it in there!...then i realized i had left the rain cover out. crap.
so i finally got it in there, and threw it, almost angrily, into my truck. then i gathered up the rest of my trash and took it all over to the nearby dumpster. and what do i find when i open it? a terrified little raccoon looking right up at me. it was cute, and pathetic. i had to help. i looked around and found a large stick, and stuck it in there. raccoons are super smart, and within 10 seconds it was up and out of the dumpster. the coolest part was when it got to the top of the stick. there, it stopped, turned back and looked directly at me. almost as if it was saying "thank you"...or "don't think i won't still kill you in your sleep if i get the chance." one of the two.
after this, i grabbed my backpack and went hiking through the wonderful lake mineral wells state park. Texas is beautiful. the hike was beautiful. any tough times during the previous night were worth that hike. i thoroughly enjoyed that weekend, and i hope anyone who has read these posts has enjoyed my report of that weekend. have a great day!