New York - Saturday, day off

Today we spent some time in Central Park with some folks from churches around the city. We prayed for New York for a revival, and for people to come to Christ. Afterwards, we scouted around for the "perfect NY pie" and found a great pizza place. I'll tell you one thing New York can really do right and that's make some great pizza for a great price! Afterwards we caught the subway up a few stops and got off at the Museum of Natural History (think "Night in the Museum" movie). It was awesome! It has the largest collection of fossils in the world! Remember Rexy from the movie? He was there in his glory - of course in the real museum he's up on the 4th floor, not out in the front lobby. And...no statue of Teddy in the front either - he's out in all his bronze prominence in the front of the building (see picture). Well...we walked our buns off, spent hours there, saw tons (and still didn't see it all). We also managed to get up to see the artwork and artifacts of Central America. Saw some stuff from the area of Central America where we will be. Kind of cool. Left, walked a bunch more, found our way home via the subway. We then went to go pick up our laundry we had dropped off at the cleaners - and Mike was in heaven :-) Everything was folded - even our undies! I think the only time in my life I have every folded my undies was when I was in the Army. Very cool! Didn't do anything but put our laundry away! Well worth the money! Will be busy tomorrow - going to go worship at Inglesia Nueva Vida (Spanish speaking only), probably eat while we are out - then go to a Redeemer church. I look forward to sleeping in (I know - I'm a wimp), and Madison is looking forward to that as well. This is the first time since we have been here that we have been at home before 5:30! Nice!

Most difficult thing so far - adjusting to life in NY to include our tiny apartment; a bath tub/shower that's so tiny if I had to sit down in it I probably would barely fit; shopping EVERY day; no washer/dryer; tons of people; busy, busy, busy; tiny double bed for two people; not seeing my friends and family :-(

New York day six

So, you always wondered what it's like to be a New Yorker in New York? Very different then coming here on vacation. Here is what we get to experience everyday!


This is the subway entrance we go into everyday to get to the number "1" subway we take to get to Time Square. It's about 1/4 mile long. Dirty, smelly, long, busy, graffiti, messy...

This is a picture of the outside of our apartment. We are in Washington Heights. It's an old area of Manhattan - but a lot of historical events took place in this area. We live in an apartment that is the farthest away from everyones apartment on our team. In other words, we have the farthest to travel every day. It's always an adventure.
This is the local laundry we take our clothes to. There are no washer/dryers in our apartment. Many apartments have a general use washer/dryer in the basement, but just as many do not, so many utilize the local laundry. They have two services - you can stay and wash/dry your own clothes, or they have a drop-off service. Drop your clothes, and return in 3 hours to pick them up. We are going to have to drop them off as we have almost no spare time to be able to stay and wash them ourselves. Almost every minute of every day is taken up in ministry work!
This is a very typical mini-mart. They can be found on almost every corner in the borough's in Manhattan. We are right outside of Harlem. Fitz has already become our friend - they recognize us as we are there almost every day. As no one has cars, you just can't buy lots of food at any given time. You only buy what you can carry, or carry in small wire carts. So - fruits, veggies, bread, milk, etc. we go often to purchase these things. The water from the tap has an interesting taste, so we prefer bottled water - heavy - so only 1 or 2 large containers at a time. As it is very humid here (although nothing like the South), we are drinking up a lot of Gatorade.

I'll be honest - we are all pretty tired. We are so busy learning, participating, up at -630 everyday, and in bed by 11:30 or later. August 1st we will come home and sleep for 3 days straight! With almost no time off, it's going to be a challenge getting to see some of New York as a tourist! Tomorrow morning we have a prayer meeting in Central Park from 0900 - 1100, then we will actually have some time off. We are hoping to get out to the Museum of Natural History. We shall see what comes of it.

New York - Day four and five

This first picture is our walk back after seeing the fireworks. You just can't get a grasp of the multitude of people.

This is a blog entry for the 4th of July and for today. Yesterday was quite busy, so didn't have time. We went on a 4 hour bus tour of Manhattan, learned some interesting facts, and saw some areas we hadn't been to before. Much of it we had already seen the last time we were here. We wanted to see the fireworks, and beat feet to the East River to try and catch them. But - we should have known. In typical New York fashion - the entire state also wanted to see them, so we ended up seeing most of them through heads of other people. It was a smash of humanity. After sweating, running, not seeing much - at least I had a laugh at the end. It almost seemed more appropriate given the circumstances, it was New York at its finest. It was celebrating our Independence in its own unique way, and I enjoyed it for that. We were with friends from our group, and we all enjoyed the experience. Madison was pretty bugged that it wasn't the spectacular event she was expecting, but in the end, she did see it for what it was - Independence Day in New York.

This picture is taken from the Manhattan bridge looking back at the Brooklyn bridge with New York in the background.

Today I really feel like we are getting into a routine of things. Showers for Madison in the evening - hair up in braids. Preparing lunch, Gatorade, and coffee the night before. Up around 6:30 - out the door by 7:30 - subway ride to our destination - ministry work - subway to our host church - class time and lecture (led worship again today) - hour subway ride home - stop by the local street side mini-mart - home for dinner - post on the blog - bed!! I'm exhausted just reading it. I have really wanted to write a blog about "living in New York". I think I'll do that tomorrow that will give you a really good picture of what its like living here - not just visiting on vacation. What does it take for the average New Yorker to live in this crazy/amazing city. I'll include lots of pics of our neighborhood, and routes - so be sure to check back tomorrow.

New York - Day three

Subways and Worship...

Already, the incredible subway system of New York has become part of our daily routine. Starts with a block walk to the closest subway entrance. We walk down a long (1/4 mile) tunnel under a park to get to the actual subway stop; go through the turnstile; wait maybe 2 whole minutes, and get on the train. In the mornings, it's standing room only - bummer as the trip takes over an hour! So - from beginning to end, our trip each morning and coming home each evening is an hour and fifteen minutes! Yikes! However, if/when we do manage to get a seat, it's a great opportunity for reading. I have found this an ideal time to do my morning devotional. That may seem strange, not really a quiet environment for that kind of thing - but the way I look at it - in the midst of all the craziness of humanity, I can find peace in God by reading His word, and doing a study as the screeching train, mass of humanity, graffiti drenched buildings, and world goes by. I find it quite peaceful.

Be careful what you pray for - God will answer! I pray to rely upon God for all things - and He often reminds me of it in the oddest ways. My flight down the stairs was a reminder - His angels were on duty to prevent me from serious injury, and today...I am part of the worship team. I am not playing as we have two worship leaders in our midst, a beautiful piano player, and 3 guitar players. So - I volunteered to put the words to Power Point for slides each morning. However, when worship time came today, our primary worship leader was not around - he had gotten lost in Central Park, and wasn't going to make it back in time to lead worship - so here I was, the go-to person to lead worship. Have I done it before?! No. But - reliance upon God led me to lead worship. And, as God provides for His Saints, I stepped up and went for it! And things went fine. Thank you God! My only concern - what else does He have in store for me? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

New York - Day two

Today was a much better day. Went to bed last night about 10:30, and woke up at 10:00 in the morning. Probably could have slept another hour or two, but we needed to get some stuff done before we met for our orientation. Still had some groceries to buy, and figure out where we were going. Scrubbed our apartment - floors (you don't even want to know) - refrigerator - hmm...well, let's just say it got a good scrubbing also, and let's just give a big ol' THANKS to the creator of Febreeze (too late to own stock?!). Met up with all the folks we will be spending the next month with, and had a full run-down of what we are going to be doing. Tomorrow we meet at the church we will be ministering to. Already sounds like it is going to be very fun, and lots of Spanish! No mishaps today - no falling down stairs, no hauling bags (just the grocery kind). The picture is at the end of the day when we were all gathering around getting ready to head back on the subway. There 30 adult missionaries, and more than 20 kids! More tomorrow...

New York - Day one

Well...we arrived. And it wasn't without some mishap. We arrived into JFK without a problem. We decided to save some money and catch the subway out to our apartment. It's much longer, but it's a straight shot - the "A" train, right to our block. Or so we thought. We started out no problem, but they announced that we had to get off and take another train as there was construction, and the train didn't continue on this route. So - off we went - all 6 of our bags. We measured - to be sure - each were 48 - 50 pounds. However, getting up a full 2 flight of stairs with all that stuff turned out to be a challenge. Mike and I each had on a 50 pound duffel bag, and another 50 pound bag we were pulling; and Madison was towing her 50 pound bag on wheels. But, we couldn't expect Madison to pull her bag up the stairs - so here I go, with my 50 pound bag on my back, and a 50 pound bag on each arm, hauling them up the stairs - that is until my foot caught. And down I went. The bags flew out of my hands, I landed on my back (I guess let's hear it for the duffel bag), and fell backwards down a half flight of stairs. Mike had already gone ahead, and didn't realize my predicament. Looking back on it I can see the humor - Mike peeking down the stairs, and there I am like a turtle on my back, arms and legs flailing in the air. I did manage to smash my hand, smack my leg, get some whip lash, and tweaked my back. It could have been SO MUCH WORSE. But, by God's grace, I was spared worse injury. But, not to be out done, I managed to make it back up. What else could we do?! We made it to the next train, only to go part way, and they told us that it too was closed and we had to get off and take a bus to our final destination. However, we didn't manage to get the right bus. Still had to walk about 6 blocks to get to our apartment. What normally takes about 1 1/2 hours by subway took about 3 1/2 hours. We arrived, got some food, went to the grocery story (more on that later), and fell down in utter exhaustion! And this is only day one!!!

Here we go a traveling...

Well, I knew that support raising was going to be full of traveling, but let me tell you - it has proven to be quite a challenge. This week as we are preparing to leave to New York for the month we have had 3 house parties. On Wednesday we went down to a beautiful house not far from San Luis Obispo - about a 4 hour drive. We stayed for about 3 1/2 hours then started the trip home at 9:30pm. However, it wasn't the 4 hour drive - it turned into a 6 hour drive because of road construction. Rolled into bed at 0315 just to get up at 0715 to help with the fireworks stand. Thursday, another house party (this one in town), and Friday we went down to Fresno for a house party. We stayed the night, took off at 0830 for the drive home - frantic last minute stuff, packed, and headed to the airport. Left friends behind - it was the first time this whole process has seemed real to me. I'm no longer an official employee of both Kaiser and Sutter; a month away from home; saying goodbye to friends...wow! The beginning of the rest of our adventure.

Another fun thing I've done is sell...sell...sell...most of our stuff on e-bay and Craigs List. Our house now echos with empty rooms, walls, and cupboards. We still have a bed and Madison's mattress is on the floor, but not much else.

Next post will be from New York!