Wednesday morning didn't come near as early as Tuesday morning. Day 2 of our New York trip started for me at 7:30. After a light breakfast our group met together for a time of praise and worship. The plan for the day was to spend the morning picking up trash along 3rd and 5th Avenues and the afternoon passing out cards to passersby promoting Cornerstone Church.
Bro. David started the morning session off by leading us in a verse of Amazing Grace. This was followed by others breaking out into their favorite worship songs. After a few songs Bro. David reminded us of the story of Mordecai's plea to Esther in the book of Esther. When the decision was made to destroy the Jews, Mordecai pleaded with Esther to approach the King about this. When Esther expressed her reservation about this Mordecai more or less replied to her by asking her who is to say that God didn't put her into the position of royalty that she was in so that she might be able to make a plea on behalf of the Jews. David used this story to show us that we quite possibly were born into the family we were born into so that we might grow up and one day become a member of Wynne Baptist Church and one day become a member of the WBC Music Ministry team and one day be able to take a trip to NYC so that we might be standing outside the subway so that we might be able to give someone a card inviting them to Cornerstone Church where they might hear the Gospel and accept Christ and spend eternity in heaven praising God together with us. With God all things are possible!
With all of that under our belts we began to assemble candy bags. These bags basically consisted of a Cornerstone Church information card and a piece of candy in a clear plastic bag. I have no idea how many bags we made, but I would guess at least 1,000. We broke up into groups of 3 and were assigned area to work for the day. I was in a group with Dena McClain and Debi Weaver. We were assigned to pick up trash from 86th Street to 95th Street along 3rd Avenue, so with our rubber gloves, trash bags and candy bags in hand, we headed for 86th & 3rd. Yesterday Nathan told us people would really be shocked to see us out there picking up trash. I thought he was crazy, but he was right. I was blown away by the number of people that stopped us to ask us what we were doing picking up trash on the streets. We replied by telling them that we took vacation time from work to come to Brooklyn to work with Cornerstone Church. We told them we loved Jesus and Jesus loves them so we are here to serve and love them too. Many of those who asked us were complimentary of our effort and very receptive. I was not surprised by the number of New Yorkers who were in "the zone" and didn't respond to a hello or good morning. No surprise there.
We met up with Mary Helen Winkler, Sue Garner and Karen Freeze for lunch. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called "86 Noodles." After a great time of fellowship and dining, it was back to the streets. We spent the afternoon standing outside the subway entrance passing out our candy bags. We stood there for about and hour and a half passing out cards before heading back to the hotel. We met back as a group to report on our day with Nathan Tubbs, pastor of Cornerstone Church. After a time of celebration and rejoicing it was dinner time.
We were given the night off so 7 of us (Me, Chris, Dena, Debi, Mary Helen, Jeff and Mark) decided to take the train into Manhattan. It was about a 45 minute train ride to Times Square. I will never forget the feeling of walking out of the subway station onto 42nd Street and Times Square. OH-MY-GOODNESS!!!!!! The sight nearly took my breath away. I couldn't believe that I was standing where I was. I looked up and saw the famous New Years Eve ball. Down the street was ABC Studios and all of the other sights I had only seen on TV. I couldn't believe I was there! I just had to stand there and take it all in. We made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe to eat and man was it delicious. After dinner, we ventured down to the ABC Studios to see where they shoot Good Morning America. We continued down 42nd and came across The Naked Cowboy. We convinced Mark Clark to go and have his picture made with him. Needless to say we weren't able to get Mary Helen to do likewise. It started to sprinkle and since we are coming back tomorrow, we decided to go and catch the train back to Bay Ridge.
On the train we met a very nice lady from Brooklyn. Her husband was a firefighter in Queens and was near Ground Zero the day the towers fell. We talked to her all the way back to Brooklyn. Don't forget about her. She will come back into play later. We make it to our stop and exit the train. As the door closes and the train begins to pull away, Chris realizes he left his backpack, with his camera and lenses on the train. In a panic we head to the ticket counter to see if there is any way to catch the train in an attempt to get the bag. He says that the train stops for about 15 minutes at 93rd. We are at 86th. Chris and I book it to 93rd. After running about 3 blocks, my fat rear end has to just walk. Chris continues on and I lose sight of him. When I arrive at the 93rd subway entrance,the train is still there. Hallelujah! I go to the conductor and he says I can look but will have to hurry b/c the train would be leaving soon. I run down the line looking in each train. I looked in every train. NO BACKPACK. I then look for Chris. I go back up to street level to call him. He answers and says he was heading back to the hotel. I asked him if he found the bag. He said YES! Remember the lady I told you about. Yeah, she noticed that Chris left his bag. A guy actually took it and she took it away from him and told him that it was Chris's bag. She was going to take it to our hotel and leave it for Chris (we had told her where we were staying). She was still sitting on the train when Chris got back there holding his bag. CAN I GET A HALLELUJAH?! God is so good! This was definitely a God-thing. I met back up with Chris and we head back into the hotel.
God has really done some amazing things today, granted the most dramatic thing coming at the end of our day. We spent the day spreading the seed of the Gospel in and around the Bay Ridge area. It is now up to Cornerstone Church to water those seeds so they may be sowed. Tomorrow we head to a park to do cleanup work there. TO GOD BE THE GLORY GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO!!!!
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