To that someone special

Monday: Traffic Signs of God

Stepping down from the bus my heart accelerated. Questions filled my mind. Where do we go? What do we say? How do Tyler and I hear the lord amidst all of the noise of New York? Following the traffic signs was the only logical thing we could think of. Yes, we followed the walk signs. If the signal flashed a red hand we turned towards the direction of an illuminated human figure. Eventually walked to and through time square. Along the way we passed Times Square Church. The signals pointed Tyler and I away from the building. This was very hard for me. But for some reason we felt like we should fallow the signs. Eventually we walked all the way to Central Park. At this point we had no idea what we were doing. I felt emotional. We had no place to stay and not yet had we found a lead. From the get go we were looking for a bench to pray. Near Central Park we found a bus stop with a bench. At this point we sat and prayed. Tyler felt like we should walk to 42nd street. We were at 59th street we decided to walk back. Half way there Tyler was feeling like we needed to go to 47th. I knew that St. Patrick’s Cathedral was near 47th. We found ourselves in awe of the cathedrals structure. Tyler and I assumed it would be hard to find what we were looking for in such a touristy church. Outside the church we re-read the passage. Mathew reminded us that we were to inquire the city’s people to find a worthy man. Perhaps we should stop looking for the traffics signs of God and ask the people of New York. Long story short… First we went to a catholic church near the UN. Joanne led us to Harold at the Franciscan Friary across Manhattan. Both helped our moral by encouraging us. Neither offered a place to stay. We weren’t giving up yet. It started to get dark. Instead of going to a hostel for the night we decided to try Times Square church. We said a brief prayer as we approached the doors of Times Square Church. The inside was dark. The doors were locked. As I pulled my hand from the doorknob a women spoke from behind. She said service is at seven on Tuesdays. No one in NYC had approached us until this point. Somehow I knew she was our guardian angel. Tyler and I told her what we were doing and she was excited. Her name was Denise. She works in ministry in NYC. Again, she was our angel. She led us to the St. Paul Mission. Ray answered. He told us that they were full of volunteers. Denise lives near the Salvation Army. We walked by her apartment on the way there. Just before we got to the Salvation Army we ran into a friend of Denise’s. His name is Bradford. Bradford was hosting is life long friend from Canada, Sean. Denise and Bradford worked in ministry together. She asked if had any ideas from us. Bradford suggested the Bowery Mission. He also mentioned that he was going to The Haven later that evening. The Haven is a place for the arts community that strives to reflect Jesus in the Culture. There was one problem however. We had no place to stay. The Salvation Army had nothing for us. At that moment Denise offered us her couch. Tyler and I felt awkward staying with a female. However, this did allow us the freedom to go the Haven. We hoped to find a place to stay with a guy there. We were so excited that we had an offer! In order to celebrate we were going to buy some food and a metro ticket to get to the Haven Service. We never bought food but we did ride the metro a few stops to the church. (In retrospect we could of walked) We felt the Lord’s love so much at this point. So many times during the day we thought of giving up. I felt like crying in defeat at moments. Now we were in a church with young professional artist from NYC. We were joining in with them in celebration of the lord. If we didn’t find a place to stay we could go back to Denise’s. We called this period of time our spiritual rejuvenation. Before the service we met Bradford and his friend Sean. He introduced us to Caleb. Caleb was to become our new host for the evening. They invited us into their small group that evening. We sang our hearts out that evening. Never have a felt so happy. I felt like I could accomplish anything at that moment. There was a full band to lead the celebration. For the evening’s inspiration James Macklin of the Bowery Mission spoke. He is a former junky turned homeless, turned head of communications. He was very motivating. We then entered the small group time. Tyler and I joined Caleb, Bradford, Sean, Jenn, Ethan, and a few others. The topic of discussion was relevance. How much relevance are we going to give God in our lives? We left the Haven with Caleb. Our destination became Brooklyn. Before getting on the Subway we walked with Arlan, Jenn and Caleb to Whole Foods and Caleb bought some chicken. Arlan, Caleb and a bunch of other friends moved to New York over the past two years. They are from various places in the south. They decide as a group that they were going to move to the heart of culture, New York. If their ministry could work here it would spread like anything else does from the City. For now they all live near each other and have intentional relationships. Caleb is married and has a baby boy. His wife cooked us a pasta dish and we all had great conversation. In the middle of the dinner Chris knocked on the door. He is a friend of Caleb and rooms with Arlan. He was just robbed by a hoodlum with a knife. The kid put the knife to Chris’s neck. The way that Caleb treated the situation was a sign of the amazing community the group of friends are forming. Tyler and I slept in the living room that evening. Their dog Cooper kept us company. We both went to bed nourished by food and amazing witness of Christ we had during the days events.