New York Mission Trip, Day 2

Friday was our first full day in NYC, and what a day it was! We woke the group up at 6:30 for breakfast, prayed our morning prayers, and then got to work prepping for our VBS program. The VBS went well. The children enjoyed having lots of personal attention lavished on them, and all of our activities focussed on learning about the birth of Christ and how He was born for us out of God’s love.

After lunch our group split up for about an hour and a half. The men went to observe (though not participate in) the prayer service at a mosque a couple blocks away. The visit helped us learn a little bit more about Islam, even as it raised many questions. One fact about the difference between Islam and Christianity became very clear, however, and that is that Islam is a religion of extreme works-righteousness. According to that faith, one becomes acceptable in God’s sight through one’s actions and deeds, and this belief is extremely different from Christianity, which teaches that we are acceptable in God’s sight by faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ.

While the men were at the mosque, the women were working extremely hard on the church’s community garden. We were all amazed at how much work they accomplished. Some painting prep then rounded out the work day.

After our work was done, we went to eat at the “Himalayan Yak,” a local Tibetan restaurant. I have to say that the kids are doing extremely well with the multiculturalism of the neighborhood. Actually, this group of country kids are doing much better than any of the groups of suburbanites I’ve ever brought here, and this was displayed with how well they ate up the food, which included things like “Yak blood sausage.”

We took a trip down to Times Square to celebrate our hard work. Lots of sights to see!

Finally, we came back to Christ Lutheran, prayed Vespers, and hit the hay.

Keep us in your prayers!