This City

I turned on the news this morning while Ed was taking all kids to the bus stop (bless him, Jesus) and was listening as they talked about Harvey Weinstein turning himself in at a NYC police precinct. I just finished watching a TV series that was based solely on NYC socialite life. In the past 2 weeks, I have had 4 Facebook friends visit NYC. Another show I watch just had a reunion in NYC. As I walked to a mom event in the city last week, I walked down Fifth Avenue past Trump Tower and the armed guards and once again reminded that not only does our current president own the building, he has made his home there for as long as anyone can remember. I heard from a friend in another city that when her parents came to visit, they met in NYC because this is where their family wanted to visit. I have friends, or know people, who do everything from working for the United Nations for their country (Indonesia) to working for the Manhattan District Attorney, to designing the main gown/costume for Elsa on Broadway, to working with sex trafficking victims at a medical clinic, to owning a food cart that made an appearance on “Good Morning America.” I am reminded daily of the influence that NYC has in our culture, our country, and the world.

We just finished our first full year on campus, our first full year solely on the Queens team, and we are begun our second summer mission here in NYC. As I spent some time this week reflecting on all of this, I was hit was an overwhelming feeling of gratefulness. It still feels unreal at times that we really live here, that we sold most everything we own and downsized into a small apartment, and that God provided for us to live and invest in this city that is so influential. While there are for sure lots of things about living here that are super, duper hard, overall, I am super thankful.

I am thankful for an amazing staff team who feels like family and who are a blast to do life and ministry with (how can we be apart for 2+ months this summer?!?). I am thankful that we have seen God do really cool things in ministry this year – a year that has been full of learning, trying new things, failing, succeeding, learning some more, frustrating moments, and then moments where we see God’s hand oh so clearly. I am so thankful for ministry partners who have been faithful to give, encourage, pray for, and invest in what God is doing here in NYC. I am thankful for an amazing church where we feel encouraged, challenged, poured into, empowered, and where our kids LOVE to go and learn about Jesus. I am thankful that this church was a significant part in Kinsley coming to faith and getting baptized this year. When I think about how lonely I felt even a year ago, I am thankful for friendships with people of all different backgrounds and cultures, and for a few of these friendships which have gone deep and have allowed me to be loved and known. I am thankful for a few of my friends who don’t live here but because of the distance, we have had to become even more intentional with each other and I feel like I know them better and am more connected with them now than ever before.

I am thankful for lots of adventures we have had as a family this year and the experiences our kids have gotten to have that they would not have had if we lived somewhere else. I am thankful for great conversations I have been able to have with friends who don’t know Jesus and that God has challenged me by placing me in a place where I can count on two hands the number or believers I know (outside of our church) and would need 10 hands to count the number of non-believers I know. I am so very thankful for how God has grown me in understanding and relating to people of different cultures and backgrounds – wow, it would take me all day to elaborate on this. I am thankful that Ed and I’s marriage is stronger here than it has been before and I think our location has a lot to do with that. I am thankful for the immense ways the Lord has sanctified me, taught me so much about myself and others, and drawn me closer to Him – again, so much I could elaborate on here.

Again, I could probably list as many hard things as good things, but today, and for this week, I am choosing to be thankful. I don’t know if we will be in NYC for 4 more years, or forever, but I do know that God 100% knew what He was doing moving us here.

Our staff for the NYC Summer Mission arrived Tuesday, wide-eyed and not really sure what to expect spending the summer in this city that never sleeps. We spent Wednesday and Thursday casting vision for reaching this city, spending time getting to know each other, walking through our schedule that we will jump into next week, and spending significant time in prayer for our students and the campuses we will be working with. The students arrive today and then things will be off and running. Pray that not only is God glorified and His name made known here in NYC, but pray that they fall in love with this city as much as we have.

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