Taking in the Apple... bite by bite

It’s been crazy up here. City Uprising NYC was absolutely great, and I want to update ya’ll with the numbers and all the specifics but I don’t have the sheet. Just as a preview, I’ll let you know that over 1,800 people got tested in 3 days! Praise the LORD!

I, along with 3 of the guy interns, am now in Baltimore. We’re working with The Gallery Baltimore and getting things set up for their City Uprising next week. Baltimore is COMPLETELY different from the city and not what I expected at all. It’s a ton of neighborhoods, all put under the name Baltimore. And nothing is close together. NOTHING. And there is no efficient public transportation. I walk 1.2 miles to and from work every day. Needless to say, I have calves of steel and  a pretty awesome tanline on my feet from my Toms. I’m living with the two girl interns here, Shoshawna and Karissa, and they’re really awesome. It’s been a lot of fun, but I’ve missed the girls up in NYC. They’re all coming down tomorrow so I’m pretty pumped!

City Uprising here is going to look extremely different. I’d say it’s due to the huge difference in the city and even in the staff here. It’s just a completely different animal. There aren’t as many people coming up to help so we’re organizing it differently. Everybody is doing the same thing every day. Monday is School Project day. Tuesday is HIV testing. Wednesday is Park Beautification. Monday and Wednesday should be pretty easy and to the point. Tuesday is where it gets tricky. Handing out cards in the City is a piece of cake, whereas in Baltimore, you’d be lucky to run into 100 people in a couple hours walking the street. People just don’t do that here. We’re going to be out a lot longer than we were in the City and might not have the same results. And that is OK. God is sovereign and He’s going to get done what He wants done!

I’m getting pretty worn out in every way possible. It’s been an amazing summer so far, and it’s not over yet. I’m just looking forward to what God is going to do in Baltimore through City Uprising! Keep us in your prayers!!!

And we’re off!

City Uprising started with a bang tonight. Nothing went horribly, horribly wrong. There were a few mishaps and some misplaced papers, but nothing worth boring you with.

It was a challenge to be pulled in 4 different directions all at the same time. I don’t think I’m very good at multi-tasking or delegating tasks so this week will be an exercise in that. Hopefully our team learned from tonight and tomorrow night will be more efficient.

My team is doing HIV testing outreach tomorrow and I’m VERY excited! In the morning we’re working with an adolescent testing center and in the afternoon we’ll be working with APICHA, a testing center geared towards the Asian and Pacific Islander groups of the city. I’m honestly not nervous in the least bit, because the HIV testing has been my baby for the past month and I feel like I know it inside and out. I’m just praying for my group to be open to the people and willing to engage them even though they may be totally different than anything they’ve ever seen before.

Speaking of my team, they’re wonderful! There are 3 teenage boys and an adult from a church in Mboro, 2 women from a church in Orlando, the pastor’s mom, and Melodie Garner and Stephanie Finch from Longhollow! They all seem so excited to be here and so eager to serve. God knew that I needed a motivated team this week. He is good!!!

Prayer Requests…. Pray for the leaders of the groups. I’m nervous about all of them going to the right place at the right time with HIV testing, and not due to anything they could do wrong. Our system of handing out the information was far from practical and very overly complicated. Things got mixed up. I know God is sovereign and He’ll get the people where He wants them. Just pray the leaders will have discernment and confidence in all the daily situations they’ll be in.

And most of all, pray for the people we’ll come in contact with tomorrow. Pray that God will soften their hearts to allow even a pinprick of his love into their hearts. Pray they’ll notice something different about us. Pray that they ask us questions that will lead us into the gospel. 

I’ll update nightly with the days events! Be praying extra hard!! Love yall!

City Uprising 09 is almost here! It has been a crazy crunch time this week, trying to get everything ready. My body isn’t getting too worn out, but my mind was gone by around Tuesday. We have 20 rapid HIV-testing sites and are hoping to test at least 3,000 people over a 3 day period! Be praying! It’s been hard work getting logistics figured out with so many organizations across all of NYC, but between the 3 of us on a team, it’s gotten done!

Pray specifically for the hearts of the people coming up to help. There is a good variety of ages coming, but a lot of them are youth. My prayer is that they’ll have open, servant hearts because that is the only thing that will get them through the week. They’ll be seeing things they’ve never seen before and meeting people that are nothing like anyone they’ve ever met. I’m praying that God would open their eyes so they’ll see like Him. They’ll see these people the way God does, as broken, hurting children whom he loves.

I’m so excited about this all happening and it’s so surreal it’s really fixing to start! 

I know I’m slacking on pictures, but I’ve been so busy that when I get time off, I don’t feel like putting them up. I will soon though!

I love ya’ll and REALLY appreciate your prayers and support!

This weekend was a rough one. The devil’s lies had penetrated each of our hearts in some way and it was evident. Only through God’s grace are we starting to get back on track, but praise Him!, because it’s happening! This week is CRAZY busy and we have a lot of stuff to get done to start our final preparations next week before all the teams get in. Keep praying for unity in our team!

My team has been meeting with HIV/Aids organizations about the 3 rapid-testing days we’ll be teaming up with them to do. It’s been an extremely interesting learning experience. Brooklyn Plaza Medical Center was the first one we talked to and the man in charge there ended up being a godly man and spend 2 hours with us, walking us around the area and encouraging us. It was so great and much needed because we were all nervous about who we were going to run into. The others have all be very welcoming and excited to be working with us, which honestly is not what I had expected. The woman we talked to today is also a believer and she said she struggles with her job sometimes because she has to talk about HIV prevention and safety and things and it goes against a lot of what she believes, but she feels God has put her there to help slow the spread of HIV. It’s just been an all-around interesting experience.

On a fun note, there’s a movie filming on 43rd & 9th and we’re going to see it tonight!! It’s called “Date Night” and it’s starring Steve Carrel and Tina Fey! I don’t know if they’ll actually be in the scene filming tonight but their costars are Mark Ruffalo, Mark Walhburg, and James Franco. So if we see ANY of those, my summer will be made. For sure!

Well, off to work on some more hop-stopping locations to give to the incoming teams! If any of you all are coming up here for CityUprising, start praying now and get excited!!!!

Ministry isn’t always easy or glamorous. 

In all honestly, I think every person on  our team here is experiencing some serious spiritual warfare, in all forms. There’s physical pain, emotional pain, and spiritual pain all over the place and it’s only been 2 weeks.

Don’t get me wrong, this has been a WONDERFUL experience! Living in the city is incredible, and I already feel like I know my way around enough to blend in to locals (even though I may just be fooling myself into believing that… haha) The Gallery staff is incredible and so in tune with God’s vision for the church. The team as a whole is wonderful as well.

The devil is just extremely crafty and knows each of our footholds and cracks he can slip into to get us down. Prayer for strength would be greatly appreciated. In EVERY sense.

There are more detailed stories that I plan on sharing but for now I’m going to leave to pray and sleep. It’s much needed. I love you guys!

So I’m sitting in the Laguardia airport and it probably looks like I’m a homeless person living out of suitcases. I have two huge suitcases, packed full of course, a huge Vera Bradley duffle bag, a pillow, a blanket, a computer case, and a purse all surrounding me while I wait for an hour to be picked up. Oh well, who cares… I’M IN NEW YORK CITY!!!!! The city looked fake, like legos, from the plane. Saw the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State building and all that good stuff from up there. This is such a cool blessing!

Leaving was a little sad. I shed a few tears telling my mom and Clint bye at the airport and watching them leave. It felt strange that their daily lives are going to go on like normal and I’m going to dive in headfirst to a whirlwind of a summer. As I was standing in the line for security, I realized that I shouldn’t be crying. I should be shouting with joy at the fact I’m getting to further God’s kingdom this summer! He doesn’t HAVE to use me, He’s just chosen to bless me with the opportunity. That sure did dry up my tears real fast!

I went with a big group of friends to the Hillsong United concert on Saturday night and it was absolutely incredible. To be with that many people, truly worshiping the Lord together with complete abandonment was something I’ve never experienced. When they sang “Shout Out to God” I stood there and just took it in for a few minutes. If you don’t know that song, or maybe I should say chorus, it goes like this:

The enemy has been defeated

Death couldn’t hold you down

We’re gonna lift our voice in victory

We’re gonna make your praises loud

Shout out to God with a voice of triumph

Shout out to God with a voice of praise

Shout out to God with a voice to triumph

We lift your name up

We lift your name on high

A friend of mine described it as, “the pinnacle of joy in my life,” and I think he took the words out of my mouth. In that moment, I was as joyful as I’ve ever been. The realization that GOD IS VICTORIOUS hit me in the face. Romans says that we are more than conquerors through Christ and that song is a declaration of that Truth.

To bring this mini-sermonette thing back around, a lot of other songs were about the hope we have in Christ. We are hopeful in His return and in His promise for us. He’s promised us that we’ll win and we find hope in that. As I was worshipping, I was struck hard with the fact that SO many people don’t know that hope. I can’t imagine what life would be without that, how empty it would be. And I realized… I GET TO SHARE THAT HOPE WITH PEOPLE ALL SUMMER! God knew exactly what I needed to hear to calm my fears and nerves about leaving for an entire summer, that He was sending me specifically to share the victory and hope we can have through the Cross!

With aaaalllllllllllll that said, I’m pumped. There are still prayer needs, specifically my health. My prayer is that God would miraculously stretch the inadequate hours of sleep I’m sure I’ll be getting to be sufficient for my body this summer. I’d love you all to pray that too.

I’d better be going now though! I’m going to try to find one of my teammates who just landed!!!