I have arrived…

Well I have officially been in New York City for more than 24 hours, and it has been some of the craziest 24 hours of my life.  To say that this place is different from Kentucky is a gargantuan understatement!  Everything is different–literally, everything!

Just to give you a sense of what it’s like here…the pacing is fast–really fast.  It’s like there are waves of people rolling through every street, each with a very specific direction and intention.  It’s literally organized chaos!  Traffic is intense, as well, as one would think with so many cars running in such tight spaces there would be backups all of the time–not so!  In fact, traffic moves quite quickly, as the drivers here are unbelievably quick (apparently speed limits don’t matter in the city)!  Cars weave in and out of one another like bees around a hive, and the response time of the drivers is impeccable, as they stop on a dime!  It’s also incredibly noisy!  This is truly the city that never sleeps!

All that to say that this place is incredible!  There’s an energy here that is unlike anywhere else!  There’s also an beautiful diversity, here!  I was told that there are 500 different people groups living in the city (all of which have significant populations)!  500 people groups!  That’s astounding (this gives you a sense of how difficult ministry is, here, because it’s so hard to engage with all of these different people groups, effectively–but, the Gospel transcends cultural, racial, and gender barriers in all ways)!  I’ve heard more languages in the past two days than I ever have in my entire life!  It’s amazing!  I’ve also encountered every religion under the sun–Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Moneyism (okay, so I made that last one up, but you get what I’m talking about).

I’ve come to find that many New Yorkers possess harsh attitudes towards the Church, as they’ve been burned by it in the past.  That’s one of our goals, here:  to soften the hearts of New Yorkers to Jesus Christ.  We’ve got some sweet stuff planned for the summer to do this!  I’ll keep you posted as the vision develops.

The staff of the Gallery Church is fantastic!  They gave us a small vision of what we’re here to do, today (which we’ll go over in detail, tomorrow), and I’m supremely excited, to say the least!

There’s so much more that I could say about the city, about the ministry we’re doing, and about how God is going to use the Church to change the city, but I’ve typed a lot, already, so I’ll spare you for another post!  Thank you for your love and prayers!

Pray for this city–it needs the love of Jesus in a big way.  Pray that God will break down the walls that satan has built in the hearts of New Yorkers towards the Gospel and the Church.  Pray that God will be glorified, and that the people here will be astounded at His glory.  Pray for us.

“Greater things are yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city!”  We humbly expect God to do great things; pray that His will is accomplished.

A view from our living space