Monday, April 29, 2013

Tour of the world on the 7 train

A bit after 8 this morning John Ramirez arrived to begin my grand tour of the world, that is the world that has come to America and consolidated in the borough of Queens. John explained that at least four distinct cultures could easily be explored at four stops along the tracks traversed by the 7 train. After a quick cup of coffee and a bagel we began our jaunt traveling just across the river from Manhattan and meeting fellow Georgian and former Georgia Baptist Convention State Missionary Patrick Thompson at a local diner. While Patrick ate breakfast and we nibbled on some sausage and a croissant and drank another cup of coffee he told us about his work beginning to plant New City Church in this rapidly growing area. He has been there three months and has only found one church in this, the fastest growing area of New York. He talked about his dream of hosting sports camps over the summers and of having visiting collegians mingle with area residents, mostly young families of diverse ethnicity, in the park by the river so he and his wife could begin to meet them in a non-threatening place. He talked about the need for more teams of students to come help to conduct spiritual surveys and prayer walks of the area before he could even make solid plans to begin hosting services of worship. He talked about the need to have a ministry center so they would have a home base for mission groups to stay, for ongoing ministry to occur, and for the planned for church to meet for weekly worship. We even looked at a few vacant buildings that might be possibilities for such a center as we walked the neighborhood after leaving the diner. As Patrick and I walked and talked and dreamed I shared with him the names of a few students and alumni who came to mind whom I thought might be perfect to minister here. Perhaps I can bring them up soon!

After leaving Patrick we traveled farther along the 7 line and stopped in little Chinatown. Like its namesake in Manhattan all of the signage and people were Asian - in fact, there were few English words visibly or audibly evident. Even the smells reminded me of my journeys to China and Korea. This place was much less touristy than the larger and more famous version across the river. John took me to a huge food court so I could try an novel import - "bubble tea." Of the appearance of iced chai with milk, the drink had blue pea-sized beads on the bottom of the glass mingling with the ice cubes. Using a large 1/2 inch diameter straw inserted through cellophane seal on top, I followed John's example of stirring the drink, then slurping up drink and beads. The drink was much like iced chai - slightly sweet and refreshing. The beads were a textual surprise - similar to very soft, yet chewy gummies. John informed me they were actually tapioca.

As we left he food court enjoying our bubble tea, John told me that a church was being planted in this area and that students were needed to assist with the early work. He and I begin to discuss how so many students are called to foreign missions and falsely believe they have to leave the United States to work with people groups from other parts of the world. As we walked and talked we were in a place in almost identical to those I have visited in Asia, but yet only a few subway stops away from the largest American city center. Just like overseas, in this vast area of Asian culture here on American soil there are few Christian influences.

Our next stop was in "little India." Again, the smells were other worldly, heavy with curry and garlic and cumin, and the sights of men with the long beards worn by Hindu mystics and of women wearing saris. Shops along the streets sold goods imported directly from India while Patel's Market displayed fruits and vegetables that I have never even seen on the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods or at the Dekalb Farmers Market in Atlanta. I felt oddly out of place as the only white person on the street. John explained that there was one church plant in the area and another one was in the planning stages. As with the previous spots visited, students who feel called to missions or who want to make a difference in another culture are needed to come and spend time getting to know the people groups living here and helping with much of the ground work required to start a church.

Back on the train I was still the lone Gringo as we headed to an area known as Corona. As we exited the raised subway platform the sights and smells of Latin and South America greeted my senses. Our first stop was Iglesias Canaan, a church that was in the middle of a noontime service. We said hello to those at the door and in the office. John waved to the pastor who waved back mid-sentence. As we excited John explained that each church in this area catered to specific groups of Spanish speakers. I ignorantly assumed that any Spanish speaking church would be a place any Spanish speaker would attend. Just like churches back home, culture is just as important as language. While one church might house primarily Peruvians another might be comprised of Dominicans or Mexicans. I naturally began to think of all of our students at UGA who have taken many years of Spanish classes, many of whom have also studied abroad in Spain or South or Central America. How might they use their language skills, their energy, and their passion for Jesus in this area? As we went in search for an Empanada to snack on we talked about ways to begin to introduce students from UGA to the many worlds just across the river from Manhattan.

As we travelled back along the tracks on the 7 train John told me that tomorrow morning I would join the staff for their weekly meeting and we would all begin to talk about how we could possibly implement some of the ideas we discussed today. How can the MNYBA and the BCM at UGA partner together over the next 3-5 years to be a conduit for students to come to Queens NYC and to engage the world with the gospel by assisting the four areas I visited today along with ConnectionNYC?

I continued to ponder that question as Kyle Herring and I traversed the city this afternoon and evening. As an alumnus he too is vitally interested in having his more of his fellow Georgia Bulldogs join him in spreading the love of Christ across the city and potentially around the world through the new churches being planted here.



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!



Sunday, April 28, 2013

A New York Frame of Mind

I am always amazed how threads of experience keep reappearing in my life. Perhaps when in the midst of an endeavor I simply look back for connections with the past. Perhaps I want, no, need to see that life is more than a collection of disconnected experiences of happenstance. Perhaps as a student of and believer in Narrative Identity Theory I am constantly seeing plot and character connections across my life story, constantly remembering, re-telling, and even editing my memories to make meaning of the present. Perhaps any of those could be true, but I also believe that life is not mere happenstance, that somehow there is a mystical connection between all humans, that somehow God is working in small and big ways through the choices we make, experiences we have, and things we recall to bring about an ultimately good ending.

As a collegiate minister who works with incredibly intelligent and gifted students who are "working out their salvation with fear and trembling" while negotiating the expectations of professors, parents, and peers, I get a chance to see and hear amazing faith stories. Wan alumni come back to visit or when I run into them by chance at a wedding, a sporting event, a mall, or while rushing through an airport I get to hear "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would conclude. Today I'm bound for New York City to continue to build upon several seemingly disconnected story lines and relationships that have converged in this metropolis.

A few months ago I received a call from John Ramirez, an associational missionary with the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association (affectionately known as MNYBA). I first remember meeting John in the early 1990s soon after I had moved from being the campus minister for the Middle Georgia area to work as the Collegiate Missions Coordinator for the Georgia Baptist Convention. My boss and I traveled to New York and New England to plan some mission trips and John was one of the folks we met. At the time he was working in New England. Over the years I would send missionaries to work in the New England area and would communicate with John to set up those projects. When I moved back to the campus in 2000 i lost touch with John since i no longer sent missionaries there to work. we would occasionally see each other at national gatherings of campus ministers, but those are rare. Then two years ago I accompanied a team of students to New York for a spring break mission trip. Under John's direction, we worked through the association to help with a variety of mission sites and new church starts in all 5 boroughs. Several student on our team began to develop a love for the city and the ministries occurring there. It was fun to watch them begin to wrestle with a calling to move to NYC to work. Kyle Herring was one of the students on that trip. I wrote about him and his move to NYC in an earlier post. But Kyle is not the only alumni from UGA currently working in ministry in New York. When we returned from that mission trip we quickly found Season Helms, a student destined for a summer mission experience in the city over that next summer. Season not only worked over the summer, but extended her employ and stayed a whole year. She and Kyle live in the MNYBA complex.

John Ramirez's call from New York was prompted after he met two additional Georgians who were also in our campus ministry. Aaron Hursey, a current UGA student graduating this semester, contacted John about working with Kyle at Connection Church in Queens as a summer intern. He knew Kyle & Season from college and was excited about the possibility of working with them in ministry. Aaron will be moving to NYC for the summer at the end of May. Just as the details for Aaron's adventure were coming together, John and Kyle attended a meeting of folks who were working with new church starts in the city. Both were surprised to meet Trey Eitel, another grad from UGA who had moved to NYC with his wife Kaitlyn and their new baby to help with a new church in Brooklyn. Trey and Kaitlyn met at the UGA BCM while practicing for our annual dinner theater. They developed a love for NYC while on a college mission trip for senior students led by Franklin Scott. Over the past few years we have also had several other connections with churches and ministries in the city. A few years back our intern, Vaughn Calquitt planned a mission trip for us to NYC to work with her brother-in-law at Gallery, a new church in the Flat Iron district of Manhattan. We were surprised to discover that some of our alumni who lived in NYC were members there! Several students have gone back to Gallery to serve as interns since that trip.

After meeting so many UGA BCM alumni working in his city, John and the other staff marveled that God must be up to something. He called me to inquire about the possibility of formalizing some sort of partnership that could serve as a pipeline for our students to learn about the city and make connections to help with the vital church planting strategy the association has developed over the past few years. Kyle and Season knew about and encouraged the idea before John ever called me.

I am excited about this trip for lots of reasons. First, I feel like I am a part of something much bigger than myself, something that God has initiated and with which we have the privilege of being a part. Second, I get to see two of my favorite students (OK, they are all my faves) actively involved in ministry as young adults. This evening I will attend worship at Connection where Season will be leading the music while Kyle has a night off to celebrate his birthday. Third, I get to see the continuation of story lines with each of these alumni, stories that began long ago, continued while in college, were honed through leadership experiences in BCM, and which will continue to be written long into the future. I have asked each of them to take me to some of their favorite places while I'm there. Fourth, I get to be apart of setting the stage for current and future collegians from UGA to meet NYC and to possibly find a future of ministry there. Fifth, I get to be involved in God's kingdom work of salvation, healing, and redemption even if I am not the one living in NYC and doing hands on ministry there. I love helping students make connections by practicing what Wayne Oates, a former seminary professor of mine called "the ministry of introduction." Sixth, I have gotten that incredible feeling of expectation that "God is up to something" in my own life and ministry, something that I know will only come into focus for me in the future. In the past when I have had this feeling a new chapter of life has begun for me soon after - adopting our first two children, embarking on a PhD program, moving to Athens, Karlie being born, just to name a few. Seventh, I get to help with the Send Me Now collegiate summer missions program, a program I coordinated for 10 summers. Some of what I will discuss with the MNYBA staff and local church leaders is how student missionaries from Georgia can be involved with summer missions through the partnerships we form. As a summer missions venture, any students who serve in the city during May through August will do so funded and sent by Send Me Now. Eighth, I will restart the tradition of senior spring break mission trips to NYC as we make plans for next year. Ninth, (perhaps the most obvious reason) I'm going to NYC, one of the coolest places I've ever visited!