Day 1

There’s nothing quite like a road trip!

There are few times you’ll find me happier than in a vehicle driving across the country with wonderful people. Talk about great relational time and shared experiences! Today has been a perfect start of our road trip to Brooklyn. This morning, 20 of our team of 27 met at 5:30 to begin the trek. After 14.5 hours on the road—filled with iPod games, road trip BINGO, group story-writing, music, books, sleep, and lots of conversation—we arrived at our hotel in Cleveland, OH, with no major vehicle problems or delays. That’s a huge answer to prayer!

Tomorrow our 7 flying companions will meet up with us in Brooklyn for a relaxing evening together before all of our Sunday worship adventures. We’ll have the chance to join multiple ethnic communities for their church services throughout the day. It will be a profound experience, I’m sure.

Please continue to pray for God’s protection as both the drivers and flyers journey to Brooklyn tomorrow. Pray also for deep conversations and continued team bonding, as well as spiritual preparation for us and those we will be serving. I’m personally praying that God will surprise all of us with the ways that He chooses to work through us while we’re in New York, and that through all of our experiences we will see God and His mission in a new and bigger way.

Thank you for partnering with us through your prayers! YOU make the difference.

Jennifer

This is Second Evangelical Free Church in Brooklyn and this is where we will be "living" for a week. The red sign on the left edge of the building is John 14:6 in both English and Chinese because 2nd Free is in a largely Chinese neighborhood on 8th Avenue. On Sundays they conduct services in both English and Chinese.

During the week the operate a summer program for children and many of our team will be assisting them. In the morning, tutoring in math, English, and reading. In the afternoon, conducting a VBS program for the kids.

We will be using drama, teaching, crafts, games, and music to help the children understand the Bible better and how to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Please pray for good connections between our team and the kids. Pray also that we will have good connections with parents when they arrive to pick kids up at the end of the day.

-Larry

Well, we could call today D-day minus 2 for those of us who will be meeting at Centennial EFC at 5:30 a.m. on Friday. Right now we are in the stage of sending a flurry of emails to make sure everyone has the information and forms they need for the trip.

Last night some of the gals were at the church painting the last of four large murals that we will take with us to New York for the VBS program.

Over the next couple days, people will be dropping off luggage and tools to be loaded into the trailers so we're ready to head out on time Friday morning.

It's hard to believe that something that seemed SO far off a short while ago, is now upon us. Thanks in advance to all of you who will be checking the blog and praying for us while we are in NYC. We consider you a part of our team (remember the chopsticks illustration).

--Larry