Days 3 through 5 followed much of the same pattern of activity and ministry
opportunities for our mission trip in New York City!
Each morning we began the day with two training sessions by veteran
missionaries there on the field of NYC!
We learned techniques for subway ministry,
ministering to the Spanish community,
the challenges of pastoring a multi-ethnic church,
the challenges of Bible translation work in other cultures,
understanding Jewish culture
and how to share Christ with them.
After the morning sessions, we split up into our teams and traveled
to our area of ministry and to have lunch together as a team.
The afternoons were spent in various ministries on the streets of New York,
followed by dinner either at one of the church's that we were participating with,
or at our hotel.
Each evening was filled with another challenge from God's Word,
and finally some time to rest up for the next day!!
At the very beginning of our preparation for this trip,
our leader challenged us to begin praying for an opportunity to lead
at one person to Christ while we were in New York City.
This became the goal, the purpose of each of us as we prepared and traveled.
I was praying to lead at least one child to Jesus because I know that if you reach
a child, the chances are high that you'll reach an entire family for Christ.
Every day each of us were looking specifically for "our one."
But by Wednesday, many of us, including myself, did not get that chance.
Simply by the nature of the type of ministry we were chosen to participate in each day,
there was not a minute to engage anyone who was lost.
One afternoon, my team and I were up on a platform of a subway train where
the missionary had a few moments between each train
to share a Gospel object lesson
and give his audience an opportunity to take a Bible booklet with them
before jumping on their train.
Then we as team members would distribute Gospel tracks to the hundreds
of people either getting on or off the train.
We had literally minutes to pass out as many as we could
before the platform was empty
and we would start all over again as the time approached for the next train.
I referred to that afternoon as "speed planting!"
People had plans for their day, a mission to reach, and most did not have time
to stop and chat.
Pastor Dan Shafer of All Nations Baptist Church of Woodhaven
Evangelist David Tinsley
By the end of Wednesday evenings prayer service, several of our teens were
simply broken-hearted that they would most likely go home without
having lead a single lost soul to Jesus.
But then we were reminded that that is often real-life on the mission field.
Some missionaries go months and months without any fruit at all!!
Lots of prayer.
Lots of pouring themselves into reaching people, and nothing.
Lots of locals taking advantage of the good works of said missionaries
with no intention of accepting the life-changing work of Jesus into their lives.
Missionary work is not easy.
It's not always as fruitful as we would like to think.
But Christ did not call us to do all the converting ourselves.
We are simply called to go and tell others the way.
A delicious Thai meal!
Pastor John Gibson of Shalom Baptist Church in Queens
Evangelist David Tinsley
Pastor Humberto "Tito" Martinez of Iglesia Bautista de La Fe in Corona
Can you see the Empire State Building in the distance?
Dr. Ken Fielder, Director of World View Ministries
Missionary Justin Levine to the people of Nepal and Tibet
Dr. Bill and Marcy Patterson and their daughter Trisha.
Director of Mt. Abarim Baptist Mission International and
Our Fearless Leader!
An amazing lunch of Tibetan Mo-mo's and Chicken Chow Mein!
Goat head's for sale in a local grocery store.
On Wednesday evening,
we also said goodbye to so many friends who we would not be seeing
again until next year.
Another real-life experience of missionaries!!
