NYC 2011 | Blog 4.

Team waiting for the Subway.

Ashley on the Subway.

A day of two's ... Two church services, two meals out, two subway excursions, two lost kids (ah, gottcha ... We only lost one!).  Our day commenced with a few on the team deciding to sleep in and forego the pancakes.  But with fiber and power bars available - no one went hungry for long.  We started with an 11 am service at the Hillsong NYC Church after a subway ride and some walking (in NY, 11 is the early service!)  Worship was as one would expect worship to be led by Hillsong United ... WOW to say the least.  The church was friendly with a capital "F" ... Very open to visitors, engaging, and even handed out PopTarts and water after worship.  Of course no Panera .... but POPTARTS!  A great word was shared out of Judges 16 and we witnessed at least a dozen people making a commitment to Jesus!  Our next decision was about transportation and lunch ... And we opted to walk the 40 blocks uptown getting a NY Deli Sandwich on the way and then attending the Times Square Church's 3:00 service.  TSC is an established church founded by Bruce Wilkerson in the mid 80's.  They own a beautiful theatre right on Times Square and there is no doubt about their influence.  The service was packed!  Worship and word are more traditional, however, no less spirit filled.  The word was preached about prayer and how prayer shows us God's heart, not the reverse as one often expects.  It was a great opportunity to see the breadth of variety in worship, word, and fellowship and while both were Jesus centered, on point and relevant - there is clearly no competition between the two (those comfortable in one or the other will absolutely prefer that one).  While Caviar was not served at TSC, let's just leave that as a comparison ... poptarts or caviar?  Finally, we rode the subway back to our temporary home ... while the subway experience is still fresh, it is clear that the game playing on board is not getting old (except for the other passengers around us who undoubtedly wish we would have boarded another car).  But at least a few around also undoubtedly smile at something we do as the gentle love and team spirit is no doubt evident.  The team is coming together and I personally can not wait to be stretched and to see the team stretched during the next three days of up close & hands on ministry.   We miss you all and wish you could be here with us.

-Bob Aman