Welcome to my journal of my NYC Mission Trip! I will do my best to recollect as much as I can as I really did not "journal" much while there. I jotted down a few thoughts and key points here and there, but much of what is written below was written after the trip. Our personal time was very limited, which made it challenging (at least for me) to journal every day. On any given day, we were up and out of our hotel as early as 5:30am and as late as 7:30am (I never thought I'd be saying 7:30am is late!) We typically didn't get back to our rooms till 11pm - Midnight.
So to Day 1 of the trip....we had to meet at the airport at 5:40am...as many of you know, I am not a morning person! On top of that, I had been fighting a cold for the past 3 days and at this point, it was getting worse and not better. Needless to say, I was up till 1am with some last minute packing/organizing. My boyfriend Scott, who was my biggest supporter of me taking this trip, was kind enough to drive me to the airport :) As he helped me unload my luggage, he gave me a sealed 8 1/2 x 11 envelope to take with me. On the outside of the package it said "Do not open until on the plane to NYC". Tempting as it was, I obeyed :) The team gathered at the airport, all excited and ready to go! Karen Nicholas who heads all mission trips from the church, met with us at the airport to pray over us and give us words of encouragement. One of my teammates did run into a little issue with security, but she eventually got through and made it onto the plane. Plane ride was good....sat between Alex K. and Dave so needless to say, there were a lot of laughs! I did open my envelope from Scott, and there were 8 sealed cards....one marked for each day of my trip! How very sweet and thoughtful!
Once we landed, we took a bus and then the subway to our hotel...my very first subway ride! After we checked into our hotel (in Union Square), we met up with members from Communitas (a church plant from Kensington) for lunch at Cosi and then we broke up into groups for a walking tour of the city which included Ground Zero, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Wall Street, and more. The team met back up for dinner at Carneghi Deli. They have the largest sandwiches I have ever seen anywhere! After dinner, we went to Central Park for some devotionals and Life Token stories. Life tokens were something each of us brought on the trip that signifies a part of our life which, after sharing the story behind that life token, helps the team to better know one another. We then, on our own time, would release our life token sometime during the trip (leave it in NY somewhere...throw it into river, bury it, etc). Each night, a few of us would share our Life Token story.
After our time in Central Park and during one of our stops in the subway station, we met a gentleman named Peter, who prayed for our group. It was very touching and we were already feeling the love of NYC. Then we walked the area of Times Square at night....wow....the streets are just packed! I can't even begin to imagine what its like here on New Years Eve! While hanging out in the area near where the ball drops, we overheard some "Happy Birthday" wishes going on at a table near us. So all 17 of us walked up to the table and we all sang happy birthday to a stranger and their family! They were thrilled! And so were we! Although the main purpose of our trip was to serve the needy/homeless, we also wanted to simply bring smiles to others faces...whether they were someone in need or not :)
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