I left our Chain Reaction adventure off somewhere in Massachusetts a few weeks ago. I figure I should add another installment and fill in the blanks.
We drove to NYC (under my superior navigational skills) from Mass on Saturday the 14th. We've been staying at Abounding Grace church on each trip to New York that we've made there for the last five or so years. Being there is honestly like being with family. We have a deep love and respect for Pastors Ricky and Arlene DelRio. Their son, Jeremy, is not only my husband's ministry partner, but one of his closest friends as well.
Abounding Grace has done an outreach called "Jesus Loves You New York" for many years. This year, instead of bringing a Chain Reaction to NYC, we decided to add the efforts of our team to the JLYNY outreaches. They consist of basically throwing a block party at a different park every day. It was a great deal of hard work, but we really enjoyed it. I was so proud of Matt and our interns and the way they put in many long hours and did a lot of challenging tasks.
Fortunately, doing outreach in NY every year always allows us a free day. In years past, we've done the Staten Island Ferry, Central Park, Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building. This particular free day was on what started out to be a very rainy Wednesday. Luckily, the rain went away and we hopped on the subway (which included our first experience with changing trains. We did well, though we almost accidentally ended up in Queens!) and went to the Museum of Natural History. Yes, this is the museum from the movie "Night at the Museum", though we found very few similarities in the appearance. We had a great time and saw about 2/3 of the huge museum before it closed.
We then met up with intern (and nephew!) Zak and his girlfriend, Whitney, who had flown in for a few days, and intern Jesse and his wife, Rachelle (also joining for a visit) for dinner in Times Square. We ate at a great Italian restaurant by the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Late Show with David Letterman is taped.
We jumped back in the next day with more outreach events. We continued through Saturday, which happened to be Micah's 8th birthday! I've always felt a little bad for Micah because his birthday always falls during Chain Reaction, but I realized to turn eight at a park in New York City with a moon bounce, cotton candy, a live band, etc. is not so bad!
A real highlight of Saturday's event was something that happened at the school by the park in which the party was held. Some of the young adults from the church teach at this elementary/middle school and have been able to build good relationships here. That coupled with the fact that Generation Xcel, the ministry's after school program, is located in the housing projects just across the street set the situation up for God to open some cool doors. There are several well-known artists and graffiti artists that are a part of Abounding Grace. They were able to paint some incredible murals on the columns in the school's playground. The messages weren't overtly Christian, but positive all the same.
We hung out for church Sunday and a few extra days to help with some of the post-outreach clean up that needed to be done. On Tuesday, Jeremy took us to the oldest pizza place in the country. It was a yummy way to end our New York adventure this year.
I am trying flickr.com to show you my New York pics. Jeremy uses it a lot on his blog and I thought I'd give it a shot. I like it because you can scroll through and look at individual pictures instead of having to wait through a slide show. Let me know if you like it.
Peace out -- for now anyway...
We drove to NYC (under my superior navigational skills) from Mass on Saturday the 14th. We've been staying at Abounding Grace church on each trip to New York that we've made there for the last five or so years. Being there is honestly like being with family. We have a deep love and respect for Pastors Ricky and Arlene DelRio. Their son, Jeremy, is not only my husband's ministry partner, but one of his closest friends as well.
Abounding Grace has done an outreach called "Jesus Loves You New York" for many years. This year, instead of bringing a Chain Reaction to NYC, we decided to add the efforts of our team to the JLYNY outreaches. They consist of basically throwing a block party at a different park every day. It was a great deal of hard work, but we really enjoyed it. I was so proud of Matt and our interns and the way they put in many long hours and did a lot of challenging tasks.
Fortunately, doing outreach in NY every year always allows us a free day. In years past, we've done the Staten Island Ferry, Central Park, Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building. This particular free day was on what started out to be a very rainy Wednesday. Luckily, the rain went away and we hopped on the subway (which included our first experience with changing trains. We did well, though we almost accidentally ended up in Queens!) and went to the Museum of Natural History. Yes, this is the museum from the movie "Night at the Museum", though we found very few similarities in the appearance. We had a great time and saw about 2/3 of the huge museum before it closed.
We then met up with intern (and nephew!) Zak and his girlfriend, Whitney, who had flown in for a few days, and intern Jesse and his wife, Rachelle (also joining for a visit) for dinner in Times Square. We ate at a great Italian restaurant by the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Late Show with David Letterman is taped.
We jumped back in the next day with more outreach events. We continued through Saturday, which happened to be Micah's 8th birthday! I've always felt a little bad for Micah because his birthday always falls during Chain Reaction, but I realized to turn eight at a park in New York City with a moon bounce, cotton candy, a live band, etc. is not so bad!
A real highlight of Saturday's event was something that happened at the school by the park in which the party was held. Some of the young adults from the church teach at this elementary/middle school and have been able to build good relationships here. That coupled with the fact that Generation Xcel, the ministry's after school program, is located in the housing projects just across the street set the situation up for God to open some cool doors. There are several well-known artists and graffiti artists that are a part of Abounding Grace. They were able to paint some incredible murals on the columns in the school's playground. The messages weren't overtly Christian, but positive all the same.
We hung out for church Sunday and a few extra days to help with some of the post-outreach clean up that needed to be done. On Tuesday, Jeremy took us to the oldest pizza place in the country. It was a yummy way to end our New York adventure this year.
I am trying flickr.com to show you my New York pics. Jeremy uses it a lot on his blog and I thought I'd give it a shot. I like it because you can scroll through and look at individual pictures instead of having to wait through a slide show. Let me know if you like it.
Peace out -- for now anyway...
