Hello to everyone! I and the team of 6 of us are approaching our 3rd week here in Bronx, NYC! It's been going so fast already! This coming weekend we are attending a retreat in a cabin in PA for 4 days. I'm excited to have the chance to reflect and connect even more with each other, and with God, in our Honduras and India teams.
Over these past 3 weeks we have served with a few different ministries. World Vision being one of them, which is a national and international supply organization who helps a tremendous amount of small outreaches with clothes, office supplies, building supplies and much more! There we do a various amount of tasks such as sorting clothes, cleaning the warehouse, organizing things etc.
We also help out with the Bowery Mission in Manhattan. The Bowery Mission is a ministry that reaches out to between 60-90 men at a time over a six month time period when they are given counseling, love, a good working experience and most of all, a second chance. As well as that ministry, the Bowery also feeds the community 3 times a day and gives and serves in whatever way they can!
We also help with an after school program in which we tutor grades kindergarten up to 5th grade. At this after school program we play with the kids at a nearby park and then proceed to help them with their homework in their individualized classrooms (I work with the first graders). I believe my favorite part of all is when we have worship time with them at the end of the day! I’m amazed by the awareness these children have of Jesus and how they love to worship him and pray to him. As you know, they live in inner city homes, and it is very evident in their behavior as well as their responses to us as a group coming from mostly rural areas. Precious and innocent these kids are, and every day I find myself realizing why Jesus told us to have faith like a child and be like them.
We also work with a breakfast ministry on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the Fellowship Chapel Brethren in Christ Church basement. That ministry is smaller, but it is in my opinion the most stretching project of all for me. Learning to work with difficult people and learning to love people at the hardest times have been in the agenda, and I'm finding a joy in it because I know the Lord is teaching me and showing me his ways in how to handle things and accept the things I cannot change.
Every Monday and Tuesday we learn and listen from various mentors. They have been excellent and have brought the view of many topics in the Christian belief into light, and helped us evaluate what we believe. Our speakers so far have pulled us, and our thinking, out of the average thinking box. I'm highly encouraged each week to continue to search out God's will and his ultimate truths.
It has been so much fun, and I am thoroughly enjoying the difference in the culture and the different people we come across. Living here lets you live outside the "me" bubble, the one that selfishness dwells and ignorance thrives in. But you can't ignore the problems of others when you are surrounded by them. So for the next 7-8 more weeks I hope not only to acknowledge the people, but somehow give what I can to help the people and show them Christ’s love! ~Holly Salyards~
