Tuesday

We started the day with worship at 8am and were on our way by 9:15am. Today we went to the park which is a slightly different format. We arrived at the park around 10am by the time we found the correct subway and such. It took us 10-15 minutes  to walk the park and gather up the strength to approach someone. In the parks we walked around and approached people sitting or standing and asked them if they would be willing to participate in a survey about four world view questions. Half said yes and about half said no. Most people were kind and some just didn’t want to be bothered. There were many people talking or with ear buds in or engaged in their phone and we tried to find people just sitting but eventually we started to interrupted and ask politely. 

I found the conversations to be much deeper today than they were yesterday. It was evident that most people hadn’t taken the time to think through these questions possibly at any time in their life.

The four questions were:

1) How did it all begin?

2) What went wrong?

3) Is there any hope?

4) What will the future hold?

If people seemed lost we gave a list of possible answers. Most people you could tell hadn’t thought a ton about it. We had every answer from Big Bang, asteroids and aliens to creation. People thought that government may help or education. Some people thought that people imposing their beliefs on others was the issue. Some people thought we were reincarnated. The list of possible answers goes on. We asked about 40 people to take the survey and 18 answered and we were able to share the gospel 9 times. I was partnered with someone other than Adam today but it’s interesting to see someone else’s style of doing things and get to know more about them.

A couple people stood out to me today. One of the first people we talked to today was very sweet and very open to the conversation. We saw her much later in the day at a different place in the park and it became evident that she was homeless. There was a couple times this happened and one lady was talking about how she was hungry and as I was reflecting I wish I would have bought her something to eat but it didn’t even dawn on me until we walked away that she was homeless. Homeless in NYC doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. Some people are very put together and clean but simply do not have a place to live. Our tip off became if they were there all day and if they had bags with them and several bags at that.

Another gentleman that stood out to me listened to the gospel but then asked why his friend with a wife and kids was going to die because he had terminal cancer and I was able to share that Believers are not exempt from pain and suffering. I shared with him that my husband had MS and that I had miscarried a baby and lost my mom and although those things were very sad that I had a hope in Jesus and that I had a peace.  We also asked his friends name so that we could be in prayer for him. 

Overall it was a good day.

Praise:

– The weather was just perfect, not too hot, not too cold.

– We were able to step out of our comfort zone and speak with several people.

Prayers:

– I am having a lot of troubles sleeping and struggled throughout the day. 

– Prayers when we have conversations that we can look for ways to transition to the gospel in a way that truly connects with the person.

– Even more boldness and being able to step out each and every time rather than let someone pass by.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement.

Jessica