ConnectionNYC

Experiencing worship at ConnectionNYC in Astoria yesterday was the culmination of over a year's worth of prayers. On Spring break 2012 a team from UGA BCM joined other students from Georgia and Alabama to cover the city in prayer and ministry. Much of what we did was prayer walking areas where church planters had begun work to start new congregations. One group of UGA students was teamed up with Daniel and Larry in Astoria. On the day I visited the group they were getting a tour of the target area and praying for specific needs the two pastors had encountered in the process of working to get the church off the ground. One stop was outside of a Lutheran church where they had contracted to rent space for a Sunday Afternoon service beginning just a few months away. I took a picture of Larry in front of the church gates telling about the plans for weekly worship. Little did I know that I would be sitting in the church a little over a year later worshipping with the new congregation while one of my former students, Season Helms, led music. Little did I know that another of my students, one who was in that picture, Kyle Herring, would feel God calling him to the city, to this church, to work with Larry and Daniel, to invest his life in getting this church started.

As Season and I walked back from dinner last night after worship (and after an amazing meatball mozzarella grilled cheese at The Melt in Chelsea), she told me that she could see herself moving back to NYC at some point in the future. "I was made for a place with public transportation," she said. Season will be leaving the city in August after more than a year of living here and working with the Metro New York Baptist Association (MNYBA). When she was appointed as a summer missionary last spring she cried! She didn't want to come to New York! She didn't believe it when Kyle and I told her what a great time she would have. However, after being here for the summer Season was asked to stay on by the folks at the association. She called me again in November and told me she had decided to stay another semester. Not too far into 2013 she decided to stay even longer, at least until August before returning to the Atlanta area to go to grad school (at Georgia State or Kennesaw) to earn a degree in Counseling.

Season has made quite an impact on the city, not only working in the Associational office, but also helping to lead worship in various churches. Each week she typically leads worship in the Bronx at Graffiti 2 in the morning and often in another new church in the afternoon or evening. This small town girl from Trion, a suburb of Dalton in northwest Georgia, has become a true up-town girl with a heart for the Big Apple!