Student Missions to NYC on Spring Break

When someone mentions "college students" and "spring break," most people have thoughts of the beach, partying, binge drinking, and a week's pass on sexual morality. But for some college students, spring break is an opportunity to go and serve God by serving other people. The past two weeks have been filled with college students who came to New York City to serve alongside churches and church plants. I'd like to share how one particular team was used by God to open up a big door for Connection Church NYC!

We had students from North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia come serve with us. One of the adult leaders from Alabama interviewed me on camera while I was driving them in my Yellow Cab to the association office in Manhattan (sounds cool, huh?). He asked me to give encouragement and advice to those who were contemplating going on a mission trip themselves. While I gave a couple of different answers, I believe there was one answer that was the most critical, and I'll share it with you. Dear Mission Teams: Be prepared to do whatever you are asked and whatever you can to help the local church/ministers gain favor in their community.

We had a great experience with our teams, and one of our groups was given the task of sweeping the local playground, cleaning the bathrooms (yes they were nasty), and shoveling the dirt from the places where dirt shouldn't be. If you're not careful, you'll dismiss this kind of work as something "not worth" traveling and spending money to do. But this was a project that needed to be done. As members of our community, we (the local ministers) had eyes to see what would be most beneficial to our community at the time, and these students believed us and cleaned that playground with passion. It just so happened that God opened up a door as a result of their "menial" work.

One of our girl students was sweeping and a lady came up to her and asked, "What are you doing?" She replied, "We're cleaning the playground." This lady asked another question, but she seemed to be almost frustrated as she replied, "WHY are you doing this?!" Our student said, "Um... you can talk to Larry. He's a pastor here and we are here to help their church." So the lady went to Larry to seek out answers to her query.

Larry told her that Connection Church is a new church coming to Astoria and wanted to serve our local community however we could. Well, this lady was certainly surprised. As it turns out, she was far from frustrated with our work. In fact, she was almost in a state of shock. This inquisitive woman was not merely a neighbor of ours either, but she worked for the Queens Parks and Recreation Department! Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up. She thanked Larry and the group for all their work and asked us to get in touch with her whenever we wanted to use a park for future events. She also set us up with her boss, and we have now contacted him. He also told us that if we ever did anything like this again, please don't spend our money on trash bags and cleaning supplies as they would love to buy those things for us. Is that cool or what?

This summer we would have contacted this department to get permission to access the parks for outreach events and been just another group wanting to use a facility. But now, we have a personal connection that God has given us by his providence. We had NO IDEA we would get any attention for this act of community service. This was not our motivation either. But when we bathe our work in prayer, look for ways to serve people, and give glory to God then God opens doors for us to do more of the same. He increased our favor through these short term missionaries, and this is only one of many connections that God has given us through their work.

Dear Mission Teams: Whether your task seems big or small, just do it with a passion to show your love for God and for people. He will take our works, big or small, and turn them into great movements. Our teams successfully left the mission field knowing that the favor of the local church was increased. That means they were successful in their work. Instead of spending a week's vacation partying on a beach and glorifying themselves, they used that time to invest in the kingdom of God and glorifying the Son of God.

To God be the glory!

God Leads. We Follow!

One major aspect of following someone is that you will change direction when they change direction. As church planters we are firmly grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ and will never waver on that. But we are also committed to allowing God to change the course of how the gospel manifests in our community, and God has given us a clear word through prayer and counsel from other pastors and  successful church planters in the city to make some timely adjustments.

Originally, we were planning to have our first monthly service on March 4th, but we have changed to May 13th (Mother's Day) instead. There are many factors that led us to make this decision. First, God opened the door for us to use an absolutely AMAZING space for our future worship services. It's a church building that we could not only start in but continue in for a long time. Get this: it costs less than HALF of what we were budgeting! Hallelujah! 

Sweet Pad, huh?

When I first saw this building on the inside, and before I ever knew the price, I could envision Connection Church meeting here. My heart was stirred as the vision of this building being filled with people praising God and hearing the gospel every week. Isn't it a beautiful building? It's within walking distance of our homes, the subway, and a major street (Steinway) in Astoria. We could not have asked for a better location.

Secondly, instead of spending extra money on those two monthly services, we are using that money to get connected with the people of our community. Our desire is for Connection Church to be a church birthed from the community we live in. In order for this to happen, we must be an integral part of our community first.  We are looking for ways to plug into our community and invest our lives into the lives of our neighbors. Waiting until May for our first service is definitely a God initiated change.

God has answered several prayers for us: I received a MacBook for free. Someone anonymously bought our complete sound system for the church. We also had someone buy our printing station. And we have people and churches who continue to support us on a monthly basis by regularly giving offerings to the church. As we look back on all the answered prayers, we see a continuous path of God's provision. Praise him!

Here are some other updates on a more personal note.

Larry and Lindsey had a son on January 26th and have experienced life in a new city, with their newly adopted son Micah (2) and their newly born son Noah. Their sleep patterns have been altered significantly with a new baby, so keep them lifted up in prayer as they continue to adjust to life with baby Noah. Larry is also working to sell commercial energy as a broker, so if you're in a deregulated market and you have a business or church, you need to let him look at your electrical account and see if he can save your business/church money. You save money, and Larry makes money.

I was in Taxi school in January and took his test to become a NYC Yellow Taxi driver. The process took a few weeks and few hundred dollars, but I just finished my first 3 shifts as a driver and have made a little money and met many different people. I've shared my story of faith in Christ, my family, and the church.  And driving in Manhattan traffic keeps me praying ... constantly! :)

Finally, God has reminded us recently of his power to provide for his work, and we are in awe of his love for us, for you, and the world. Being church planters, we are extremely dependent upon other Christians stepping out on faith and sacrificially giving to see this church get off the ground, so we don't take for granted your faith to give of your resources especially during these times when most everyone is tightening their budgets. Whether you are supporting us through prayer, giving, mission trips, or all three, we are thankful to God for you.

I'll finish with one more picture of the church building. We are excited (in case you didn't notice) about this space. It's awesome to experience God making vision become reality. Now... envision with us this place being filled with people who are lifting up the name of Jesus, being built up in Christ, and being equipped to reach the world for the kingdom of God.

Can you see it? :)