New York City, specifically the Bronx, can be quite dirty. With just the sheer amount of people living so close together the trash is never ending, odd colored puddles of water where the sidewalk meets the street seem to never disappear, and let's not forget the sidewalks covered in dog poop so much so in some areas that walking down the street with 2 young kids looks more like a game of "the floor is lava" rather than a family trying to get to the park. So when I typically think of feet I've usually got the mental image of scrubbing my kids feet trying to get the dirt off of their toes, ankles, legs, and especially out from under their toenails! Not quite an image of beauty. But let me tell you, as we've just ended the summer and finished up with our last mission team, we have had some of the most BEAUTIFUL feet on some of the most beautiful people come and serve alongside us at Everlasting Church. We are humbled and so grateful for each church, each team, each person who came and spent part of your summer with us. Your sacrifices of time and finances and just willingness to come to NYC to be in the Bronx (let's be honest, most people planning to come to NYC don't typically get most excited about spending their days in the Bronx) are deeply appreciated. Please know you encouraged us, blessed us, blessed our community, and we are praying that God will continue to use your efforts above and beyond all that we could ask or imagine in order to bring glory and honor to Him. So here is just a peak into what the summer of being a church planter looks like.
We started our summer the very first week in June with a group of students from Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Georgia. They are a large church and brought well over 100 students on a choir trip. They traveled to NYC to perform and do some concerts. But on their off days they sent a small group to work with our church. They did surveys, engaged our neighbors in gospel conversations, picked up trash, got down on their hands and knees and deep cleaned our church facility before a big community meeting that was taking place, and just loved on our neighbors. Their last day they bought a ton of popsicles and we took games and activities for kids and set up at the park to try and reach out to new families. This was our first outreach event of the summer in our park and we met 2 new Albanian families, one of them had only been here in the US about a month! We have seen and been able to interact with these new families during some other times we've been out in the park this summer so that has been encouraging. They know us, recognize us, and have been willing to at least have some conversations about Jesus.
Following Johnson Ferry we had all of our end of year activities for Maria. There are so many holidays on the school calendar here in NYC for all different religions so our school year goes through the end of June. We are proud to announce she finished kindergarten with honors (I mean what does it really mean to be on the honor roll in kindergarten anyway?), wrapped up her first year of dance with a great big recital on stage (no surprise at all, she loved it!), and we were able to have Grammy and Granddad in town for all of it! Kindergarten was quite a shock to her system (and all of us really) due to how structured and rigorous it was. We were not expecting so much....but on the plus side she made it through, knows how to read, write, and do some math and still is a little excited about starting first grade!
We were then so excited to welcome Waterloo Road Baptist Church from Edmond to our neighborhood. This was their first trip to the Bronx and they did awesome! Jordan and I have known the pastor there for many years and we are so blessed by them....shout out to Griff and Shari Henderson for all of your love and support! It's amazing to me to look back on relationships that God placed in our lives many years ago that was all part of the preparation for such a time as this. God really does have a plan that He is working out for each of us and it's better than you could ever imagine! Anyway, that could be a topic for a whole other blog post. Back to the summer....this group jumped in with both feet loving, serving, and getting to know our neighborhood. They hosted an official "first day of summer" party in the park and we had another God-ordained afternoon of meeting neighbors and making more connections. The majority of New-Yorkers we have met have definitely NOT lived up to the stereotypical rude, fast-paced, and unwelcoming bunch of people that you often hear about. We genuinely have felt welcomed and loved and accepted here. However, I will say many of them are definitely guarded. They are not willing to just jump into a church and new community of people who they do not know or trust. Church planting has required SO MUCH patience and trust in the Lord's timing. So please know that all these events we do are helping us show our community that we love them and more importantly that the Lord loves them; but also that we are here to stay and that our message can be trusted and accepted.
Immediately following Waterloo Road we had Arrow Heights from Broken Arrow come in for the week. This is their third summer serving with us and their second summer in a row to do our Vacation Bible School in park and the Lord used them in BIG ways! They are pros at what they do and we love them for it. We had over 60 kids come through during the 3 days we had our VBS and the last 2 days we had several Muslim students stay and hear the Good News of Jesus presented. Praise the Lord! We do not know right now the effect that this VBS had on those young students but we do know that seeds have been planted and that we serve a God who can do ANYTHING. Please pray for a harvest to come. One of Maria's friends who came to VBS is still singing the songs we learned and asking when we are going to do it again. Arrow Heights made a great impact on the lives of the many kids who attended but also brought some people on their team who were fantastic at engaging the adults who hung around. We are so grateful for the many new connections we made through this week and the numerous kids who heard the gospel for quite possibly the first time.
The very next week we had Westport Baptist Church from North Carolina come serve with us through the World Changers organization. For a group that we had not met before and had no connections with their church previously they were a great blessing to our community. They willingly served and loved on our neighbors in whatever capacity they could. Their love for Jesus and for others was clearly evident. We specifically have 1 new family who has been coming to our church because the team from Westport stopped and took time to visit with them as they were picking up trash. As I previously stated, the Bronx can be quite dirty. We usually have teams serve one day by picking up trash and people in the community notice it because it's not common. The team from Westport used that God-given opportunity to invite a family to church and it made a difference. We often do not know the how or the when there will be a move of God, but it is clearly evident that He IS working. We pray that our church and those here working with our church will be sensitive to His leading, and this was one of those times! It's so exciting to see God moving in our neighborhood.
We had a couple of weeks of downtime where our family was able to get away for a bit and do some camping at Lake George, which was so fun and so needed! We came back to the Bronx and jumped right back into things with Fayette Baptist Church from Somerville, TN. This is the church that Gabe and his wife Lexi had come from, as well as our 2 interns Alexis and Anna. We are so grateful for these connections God has given us in multiple states around the US. The team from Fayette led us in worship on a Sunday morning, did surveys around the neighborhood, picked up trash (a never ending battle around here), and helped us with something else we have been feeling led to do. We would love to start a partnership with our local elementary school and so the past few months we have started trying to get into the school and get to know the leadership there. Fayette was gracious enough to help us buy some trays of food to take over to the school and also helped us write some encouragement and thank you notes to the school as well as several businesses around the area who have been so good to us on this journey of planting a church. There has been a great response from some local people so far and it has definitely opened up some doors to talk about what God is doing in the life of our church and our community.
The final team of the summer just finished up last week. We had Parkview Baptist Church from Tulsa come for their third summer in a row and they were up for trying something new, so we did! God showed us favor and definitely blessed our week with them. We decided to rent out the community center where we have church on Sundays for 3 days during the week and do a kids craft week. I was totally blown away by this team. Not only did they do crafts they sang and taught us new songs, told AND acted out a Bible story every day, and just shined so bright with the love of Jesus. It was such a fun week! We also decided to have our craft time in the morning from 10 to noon, which we have never done anything that early in the day. If you spend any amount of time with us here in the Bronx you will realize that starting times for most activities seem to be just a suggestion. Many scheduled events we do will have people show up anywhere from 30 min to even 2 hours after things have started. So we didn't really know what to expect. Things definitely started out slow, but by the last day we had close to 40 kids come and with the parents who were there also had over 50 people! That's the most people we have ever had in our actual church location for anything so we are thanking the Lord for His blessing and provision! We are still so excited about the new connections that were made and are praying for fruit to continue to come from this week. Parkview was also so gracious just to love on our family and our kids and that's something that is always refreshing and such a blessing to us. Parkview is also one more example of God preparing us in advance to be here in NYC planting a church - the pastor at Parkview was my BCM director back when I was at TU. I'm so grateful for these people that God placed in our lives over the years who continue to love, support and help us. Another big shout out to Steve and LeeAnn Lewis, we love you guys!
If you've stuck it out this far thanks! It was a crazy busy summer doing ministry here in Pelham Parkway but God has been at work and we are grateful and humbled to be a part of what He is already doing. Please know that when we say THANK YOU for each group who has come this summer we mean it. It is not possible to do this without support from our brothers and sisters in Christ. It's also hard to put into words how encouraging it is to have groups of other believers come and join us in what God has called us to do. To partner with us, to support us through prayer, to give sacrificially of your finances and time and people is what helps us and encourages us at Everlasting Church to keep going. It's what continues to lift up our family personally to keep pressing on. Ministry can be so hard here in the city. It's draining physically, emotionally, and financially. It also can be quite lonely. But to know we have a network of believers around the country supporting us, praying for us, and believing in us is a big part of what helps us keep going day after day. Stay tuned to see what God will continue to do in the upcoming months and please continue to pray for fruit to come from this summer. Love all y'all!
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