So here it is friends, tall tales and stories from my time in the biggest city on this continent. New York was an amazing time and I really enjoyed doing everything that we did there. So we arrived on the 9th and when we got there I was surprised at the area. When people talk about the ghetto in Vancouver the idea that most often comes up is East Hastings Street which is packed to the brim with people normally on drugs or homeless. But when I stepped onto Bushwich Ave in Brooklyn I was stunned to see the difference in the Vancouver ghetto and the New York ghetto. Don't get me wrong its still somewhere that you have to be careful and I would not say to go outside without a friend and wearing a Metro Ministries Tee-shirt (aka New York bulletproof). It was awesome to see the area that Metro has down in Brooklyn.
We first started in the center which is an old Jewish hospital/infirmary. So the saying that the Metro people have for that building was that it was a place where people came to die, now its a place where people give life from. After spending some days working on that building and other buildings in the area. By working I mean painting, destroying random things, and moving around about 100 boxes of food. We sat in on our first Church service. I'm going to have to say that I have never experienced anything like that before. Think of the most crazy outgoing jump up and down church...then multiply that by 10 and now you have the Metro Sunday Morning Service. It was crazy and I'm still trying to understand a lot of what was shown and said at that church.
After attending a Sunday service and chilling around on Sunday, it was time to head into Manhattan for some sightseeing and shopping. We hit up Times Square first and WOW I don't think I've ever seen so many lights before. We walked out of the M&M's store there at like 10 PM and it was still bright out because of all the lights. It was awesome being able to see a lot of the things that you only see in the movies. Times Square was an awesome experience for me but after living in Brooklyn for about a week it was weird seeing the difference that the "middle class" lives in and how blind they are to the poorer people living a 15 minute subway ride away.
After doing the whole Times Square experience we headed off the next day for visitation. Visitation is when the staff members go out to the different families around New York that have kids that attended the Yogi Bear Sunday School. the Yogi Bear Sunday School is when the staff members at Metro take their 18 yellow stage buses out to different places around New York and setup a place most likely on a street corner where about 300 kids show up to hear the good news of Christ and of course play some sweet games. Anyways the visitation program is when the staff members go out to the kids a day before Yogi Bear and just sit and talk with the families. The reason why the staff do this is because there is the idea of a constant reliance in Yogi Bear that the staff will always be there and caring for the people that want to have a part in the church. Visitation was awesome I went with Phil and Ryan Wood and we visited some really sweet kids in Ryan's area and also in Scotty T's area. When we were in Scotty's area we met a kid named Wykee who was the most awesome 4 year old boy I have ever met. He was just super excited to see us and was really waiting to go to Yogi Bear again. On visitation it was another clear indicaction that people in the richer part of New York have no idea about the poorer part and there was a big difference in the two ways of living.
After working another week of painting and Visitation we took another day to go on tours throughout New York. We visited Battery Park, The South Side Sea Port, Brookyln Banks, Ground Zero, and Central Park. All those areas were awesome but I'm only going to talk about Central Park. It was amazing to see the most talked about park in the world pretty much. Even though all the trees were not in bloom and the grass was mostly dead it was still cool to feel like your in the middle of a forest but look around a tree and see the skyscrapers of New York. Going to the Ice Rink and the Zoo were awesome too even though I didn't get to do anything on the two on them. After being in Central Park we headed off into the suburbs of New York and I got to dip my hands in the Atlantic Ocean. Finally I've seen the other end of North America.
Yeah so that was pretty much My New York Experience. I'll Post about my Ground Zero experience, which was pretty huge for me, when I get the chance to.
March 31st
We first started in the center which is an old Jewish hospital/infirmary. So the saying that the Metro people have for that building was that it was a place where people came to die, now its a place where people give life from. After spending some days working on that building and other buildings in the area. By working I mean painting, destroying random things, and moving around about 100 boxes of food. We sat in on our first Church service. I'm going to have to say that I have never experienced anything like that before. Think of the most crazy outgoing jump up and down church...then multiply that by 10 and now you have the Metro Sunday Morning Service. It was crazy and I'm still trying to understand a lot of what was shown and said at that church.
After attending a Sunday service and chilling around on Sunday, it was time to head into Manhattan for some sightseeing and shopping. We hit up Times Square first and WOW I don't think I've ever seen so many lights before. We walked out of the M&M's store there at like 10 PM and it was still bright out because of all the lights. It was awesome being able to see a lot of the things that you only see in the movies. Times Square was an awesome experience for me but after living in Brooklyn for about a week it was weird seeing the difference that the "middle class" lives in and how blind they are to the poorer people living a 15 minute subway ride away.
After doing the whole Times Square experience we headed off the next day for visitation. Visitation is when the staff members go out to the different families around New York that have kids that attended the Yogi Bear Sunday School. the Yogi Bear Sunday School is when the staff members at Metro take their 18 yellow stage buses out to different places around New York and setup a place most likely on a street corner where about 300 kids show up to hear the good news of Christ and of course play some sweet games. Anyways the visitation program is when the staff members go out to the kids a day before Yogi Bear and just sit and talk with the families. The reason why the staff do this is because there is the idea of a constant reliance in Yogi Bear that the staff will always be there and caring for the people that want to have a part in the church. Visitation was awesome I went with Phil and Ryan Wood and we visited some really sweet kids in Ryan's area and also in Scotty T's area. When we were in Scotty's area we met a kid named Wykee who was the most awesome 4 year old boy I have ever met. He was just super excited to see us and was really waiting to go to Yogi Bear again. On visitation it was another clear indicaction that people in the richer part of New York have no idea about the poorer part and there was a big difference in the two ways of living.
After working another week of painting and Visitation we took another day to go on tours throughout New York. We visited Battery Park, The South Side Sea Port, Brookyln Banks, Ground Zero, and Central Park. All those areas were awesome but I'm only going to talk about Central Park. It was amazing to see the most talked about park in the world pretty much. Even though all the trees were not in bloom and the grass was mostly dead it was still cool to feel like your in the middle of a forest but look around a tree and see the skyscrapers of New York. Going to the Ice Rink and the Zoo were awesome too even though I didn't get to do anything on the two on them. After being in Central Park we headed off into the suburbs of New York and I got to dip my hands in the Atlantic Ocean. Finally I've seen the other end of North America.
Yeah so that was pretty much My New York Experience. I'll Post about my Ground Zero experience, which was pretty huge for me, when I get the chance to.
March 31st
