last one!! :/

Hi there!

It’s hard to believe that this is it. This the last blog update with me on staff at YWAM Metro New York. Two years ago, I wrote to most of you asking you to prayerfully consider support monthly. Words cannot begin to describe how thankful I am that you not only heard God speak, but you acted on what you heard in faith.

Over the last couple of months we’ve had a variety of different teams come in and do short term missions with us. Just a short recap as to what our summer has looked like up to this point, our summer started off with a camp we ran at a Korean church in Westbury for a week.  Overall that week went really really well. I know that we definitely impacted the students that were there.  The day after that camp ended, we had a 50 person team come in from Houston Texas. And they too, were with us for a week.  Again, the week went really really well, had a lot of fun getting to know them. We did a little bit of everything with them while they were here. A few of them went to Lighthouse, a few of them went to Hicksville to do Muslim ministry, and a majority of them stayed here at the base to do some base work for a day. And the rest of the time they were here, they were in the city either doing prayer stations, or working with an organization called Operation Exodus. A couple days after they left, we had a 28 person team come in from Oklahoma. They were with us for the longest; they were here for about a week and a half. They were able to do a few different things since they were for so long. They did prayer stations two or three times, they did a day or two of Muslim ministry, and they too worked with Operation Exodus, and they also worked with World Vision for a day at their warehouse in the Bronx.

After a few days to ourselves to get any office work we needed to get done, done, we had a four person team come in from New Jersey. They were originally supposed to be a little bit bigger than that, but because most of them were the first generation born here from Korea, they still had family in Korea, that they went to go visit. Anywho, the team arrived on Sunday evening. They had dinner, and then an intro to who we are, both as a base and as an organization. On Monday we had the opportunity to work with Lighthouse Mission again. And because of the size of our group, and the amount of volunteers that usually showed up to that particular location, we were able to walk up and down the line and just talk with people, see how they were doing, and pray with them if they wanted prayer for anything. On Tuesday they did prayer stations in Brooklyn. I wasn’t able to go, but from what I heard when they got back, it went really well, and they were able to talk to a lot people, and pray with a lot of people. And then that night they went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle’s prayer meeting, which I’ve been to once before, and it’s an experience in and of itself. Wednesday they had the chance to go work with World Vision in the city at the warehouse, and pretty just do whatever they needed them to do.  On Thursday we went to Brooklyn to help an organization we had never worked with before, Metro World Ministries. From the little that we learned from them, they have “interns” come in twice a year so, and work with them.  Their main ministry is side walk Sunday School, they set up a bus or a truck on the side of the road, and invite the kids in the neighborhood to join them. On Friday they were able to do prayer stations one more time, this time in Harlem. Again, they were able to talk to a lot of people, and pray with a lot of people. At this particular spot, I see this one lady all the time. She’s in a wheelchair cause she doesn’t have either of her legs, and she’s always there, always encouraging us, she’s awesome. Anyway, this particular day, I really felt like I was supposed to pray for her legs to grow back. And so when I went up to her to ask if I could, she was talking to the four people from the team, and she was telling them how she came to lose her legs, I had never heard this story before, so to me this was kind of confirmation. When she was finished telling the story, I explained what I wanted to do, and she was very open to it. Nothing happened on the street that day, but I believe that not only will God give her her legs back, but this will be an opportunity for her to share with her friends in the area about what God did for her, and He wants to do for them as well! After we finished with prayer stations, we drove to Times Square so they could walk around, and explore, and then we met up to eat dinner. After dinner we went to Times Square Church’s Friday evening Young Adult’s service, and it was awesome! It was so cool to see all these young people pretty much fill the bottom level of the sanctuary we were in, praising God. The team then left on Saturday to return home in New Jersey.

Our final team of the summer then arrived last Monday evening. There were about 13 of them from Pennsylvania, the youngest being 14 or 15 and the oldest student being about 18. Monday evening involved dinner, and orientation, nothing to exciting. Tuesday we did prayer stations in Brooklyn with the team, and then brought them to the Promenade overlooking Manhattan Island. On our way back, we stopped and ate dinner at a local restaurant. We then went to Brooklyn Tabernacle for the Tuesday night prayer meeting. And just like I remembered it, it was awesome! On Wednesday they traveled to the Bronx to work with World Vision in the warehouse. Nothing to exciting happened. A lot of them were skilled puppeteers, so on Thursday and Friday; they worked with Operation Exodus, and did puppet shows for the kids. And the kids absolutely loved it! The team left on Saturday morning to return home.

The rest of this week, and all of next week, are just normal work days. Except on Monday, we have a “fundatory day”. It’s mandatory fun, so to accomplish this, we as a staff, are going to the beach! I enjoy these “fundatory days” cause well for one, we don’t necessarily have to do any work, and two, we just get to hang out with each other and have a good time! Friday of next week is my last day! I can’t believe that it’s just about here already! It’s going to be bittersweet for sure. But more than that, it’s going to be weird adjusting to “non-communal living”

Again, I just want to take this time to thank each and every one of you, I really couldn’t have done anything had it not been for you. But more importantly, God wouldn’t have been able to do what He did, not only in me, but through me as well.

With the wind,

Mark