Chad's Post Trip Blog...

It's always so difficult to know how to summarize a missions trip. There are so many stories to share. I will just try and cover some of the highlights for you. We spent the week working with a ministry called J.U.M.P. (Joint Urban Missionary Partners) led by Harve and Robyn Bowman. We stayed in a church in the Bronx called "The Pilgrim Church". This church has experienced some difficult times and Harve and Robyn are helping to lead the church through pastoring and fixing up the building. The church building looks to have been at one time one of the most beautiful buildings on the block, but over time the structure has decayed. The Bowmans have fixed up the basement and have around 20 boys from the neighborhood hang out in the church to play games and have Bible studies. These guys would live there if they could. It was really encouraging to see the impact the Bowmans were making on these boys.

There were two really significant moments for me at the church during the week. One was on Wednesday night when we worshiped with the boys from the Bronx in the old Sanctuary. Robyn told me that it had probably been over 5 years since worship has happened in the sanctuary. It felt like as we worshiped, life was being breathed into that place again. Our prayer is that it will again become a house of worship. Following the worship, several of our students and several of the boys from StreetLight (the ministry name they are a part of) share testimonies. Following this time, our guys and the guys from the Bronx shared and prayed over one another. Truly a special moment. The next night, we hosted a block party offering free burger and hot dogs to anyone in the community. We had many people come by and stay for a time while we worshipped right there on the sidewalk. Several people from the community commented to me how encouraging it was for them to see the church open again. It was a sign of hope for them!

The times that most of the group will say were very significant were the "ATL's" or Ask the Lord. These were times spent in listening prayer where a group of 5 or 6 students and leaders would spend time separately listening to what God was sharing with them. Then the group would get together and compare. It was amazing to see how much continuity there was! I sat in on 4 of the 5 of these and every one of them was different, yet each significant! Then the group would ask God what they were to do that afternoon. So many neat things happened during these times. One group saw two people as they were praying, then met those people on the street and were able to pray with them. Another group stayed in the church to pray over that place. Other groups walked around the Bronx to prayer walk and interact with people as God led. It was really significant!

For me, there was a time in one of the groups that I participated in that really blew me away. As I prayed I had seen a lady in a purple dress. Others in the group saw this as well. When we were walking, we saw a women in a purple dress, my heart started pounded. We tried to catch up to her but she went in the subway station. Thinking we had missed out, we went in anyways, wouldn't you know it, she and her friend could not find their subway card. I went up to her to see if we could buy her one, she said no, they had one, then I asked if we could pray for her. I told her about how we had seen her...she just started crying. We ended up praying for her and her friend. It was incredible. THEN! Later that night we were traveling to the Brooklyn Tabernacle on the subway. At one stop in Manhattan, a woman gets on, Billy Wirth gets up to give her his seat and wouldn't you know it, it's the lady in the purple dress!!! I have tried calculating odds to how many people rid the subway, how many cars, trains, tracks, etc. and what the odds would be that she would come sit right next to my wife and I can't calculate it! It was definitely a faith building time for this guy! :)

There were so many other incredible moments on the trip that you will just have to talk with me about! I am so proud of each of the students and leaders who went on this trip. I think I can safely say we were all stretched by God and this will be a week we will never forget! As you think of it, pray for the Bronx, pray for the Bowman's, and pray for Pilgrim church that it would be a source of hope to the community. God is working in the Bronx, and it was great to be a part of it!