New York!

So at the end of every year of Kaleo the group splits up in to different teams and ventures off to different missions trips around the world. These trips can last from anywhere from 2-3 weeks and this year the locations were India, New York, and Vancouver. Before this year even started I knew that I was going to New York, and I must say... it was absolutely amazing!
We worked with an organization called "Metro Ministries" that was founded by a man named Bill Wilson. The organization focuses primarily on the children of New York that are found in rough neighborhoods and broken families. There are about 50 staff that run the ministry and they own a few buildings in the Brooklyn area including a church which they call the "Metro Church". The ministry in itself has 3 main components. In their attempts to reach out to the children of New York, they have set up their main function of what they call "Sidewalk Sunday School". This is a Sunday school that was designed to be completely mobile. The organization owns around 18 yellow trucks in which they use to go out to different parts of the city and set up a Sunday School in local parks and street corners. Once they get to a site, one side of the truck folds down into a platform which acts as a stage and a set that is re- designed creatively every week. This particular way of holding Sunday School has reached numbers of over 20 000 kids ever week. Another aspect of the ministry is their weekly visitation. Each staff member is responsible for one area of New York where they will go to atleast once a week and visit all of the children in that particular area that attend the Sunday School. This is what in a sense keeps the ministry on its feet because this is what builds relationships and trust between the staff and the kids and families. It was really neat being able to work with this ministry. We weren't able to see the actual Sidewalk Sunday School because the semester for that hadn't started yet but we were able to go on visitation with different staff members at least once while we were there. Most of the work we did there mainly consisted of handy jobs like gardening, painting, a little demo and organizing that took place in different parts of their main center and a few staff-owned apartments. It was good knowing that we were helping the staff by taking work that they would normally have to do themselves off their hands.



Brooklyn was not exactly what I thought it would be like. The culture there is so different than anything I've ever experienced. I mean sure its not like a foreign country culture, but its still quite a bit different. The ghetto isn't exactly the same as the Suburbia type communities I grew up in. The people there live a lot differently and have their own priorities. The kids there were super rad! They have so much attitude and put up a tough external shell but really most of them are pretty broken inside. At first it was hard to understand their actions but the more and more I was around them it all started to make sense, especially when I got the chance to go on visitation with one of the Metro staff. I got to see a lot of where the kids actually lived and spent most of their time, and it was a surprising sight. From that experience I learned that its not impossible to find 3rd world conditions in the heart of a major 1st world North American City. Most of these kids lived in the projects (government housing) and the living conditions there were pretty awful, like we are talking dirty, cockroach infested urine smelling tiny apartments that can sometimes hold 8-10 kids in an apartment. It was pretty eye opening. It didn't make much sense when I saw families living in houses with empty fridges and mattresses on the floor and yet they all seemed to have super nice cars sitting outside, big screen T'V's and pretty mch every one of them wore fancy new sneakers. Thats just way that culture works though I guess.

While I was there God seemed to teach me a lot about my character, through both the work that we did, and from being around the team and the Metro staff. And we all know that growth doesnt come with out hardship, and I can tell you that my trip wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, but I wouldn't have wanted it that way anyway, other wise I might as well have called that trip a vacation. All I can say is, God is good, and he is still chipping away at my character.

Some of our trip seemed a little like a vacation though. We spent a few days seeing the sights of New York and touring around a little bit. I can't say I didn't mind that too much, although going from one extreme society level to another in one day was pretty crazy. Its weird going from project buildings and poverty in Brooklyn and taking the subway a couple blocks and ending up in the richest part of downtown Manhattan. We got to see some famous places like Time Square, the SOHO district, Rucker Park, The Brooklyn Bridge, Jones Beach, Wall Street, Ground Zero and we got a pretty good view of the Statue of Liberty. My favorite sight seeing memory though would have to be going to the rooftop of the Metro Center during one of our last nights there. Being up there you could see a 360 view of the city. It was windy and cold... but the spectacular view was totally worth it.

All in all, our trip was pretty sweet. I got to see God work in some pretty cool ways through that ministry. It was awesome to be able to help out and serve the staff and the community there, and from what we have been told we were quite a blessing to them. I can't say that I love that city, I'm still not a city person, but I fell in love with the people of Brooklyn, and some of them I am pretty sure I will never forget.