"I'm the New Mr Rogers, Welcome to My Neighborhood"

http://www.syrogers.com/ This man changed my life---more later....

Part of the campus track! This is in the subway before we had sould food in Harlem.

My friends Joel and Kevin demonstrate putting syrup on chicken and waffles.

Satan knows we are here. The good thing is that God does too and He wins out.

Example:

We were heading back to Brooklyn College on Thursday morning to do our daily ministry. This time, we joined with the arts track so we had some more people in our group. We all stepped on the subway and a few seconds after the door closed, a man started yelling at our group. We had not said anything before he set off. It was very strange because he had not been yelling at the other people in the subway car. He only looked at us when he spoke and yelled about how we Christians were all liars and that he knew Jesus Christ. This went on for about 15 minutes before we decided to switch cars. As soon as we stepped off the train, he stopped yelling. If that was not a demon, I don't know what was. We tried not to be phased by it so that we could continue to do work.

On a lighter note, someone prayed to receive Christ yesterday at Brooklyn College! It is really amazing because this campus has apparently been met with intense spiritual warfare in the past (I can't rememer if I told you that already). It is only through prayer and the Holy Spirit that we have seen as much growth as we have. Keep the prayers up!

Ok, now...to Sy Rogers. WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW. On Wednesday, we had a six hour talk by a pastor named Sy Rogers. This man has an amazing testimony. If I tried to type out all that I learned, it would take me three days. This man just gets it. The main overview of his talk was about nine biological, psychological, and spiritual reasons why we sin and then nine redemptive qualities. He encompassed so much! Even though the theme of the talk was on sexual sin, it covered pretty much any sin that you could think of. I felt like this talk was so vital for my friends, collegues, and myself at this point in our lives. At some point, I will type up some more that I learned. Check him out at www.syrogers.com or on youtube. God definitely blessed us with this man.

Tonight we are getting some free frozen yogurt and going to a baseball game. Fun Fun!

Talk to you soon!

Revelation

Hello all!!!


We have now been here a full two weeks! I love it here so much!!!

Exciting news as well: In just my team alone, three people have been lead to Christ in the past week! I'm not sure how many overall, but it is an immense blessing to have even one person.

Sunday evening, we went back to Redeemer Presbyterian church for the evening service. It was fantastic! We learned about David and how God chose him by looking at his heart and not his appearance. This fact is something I have known intellectually but never really committed it to heart so it was good to be reminded of it. I know appearance is so especially evaluated these days and I have definitely felt pressure to look a certain way. At the same time, it is so freeing to realize that God will use me no matter what I look like. Remind me later to tell you what God did when I thought I looked my worst :)

After that, I was able to have an extended time by myself with God in our apartment and really just talk things out with Him, asking Him questions and asking for enlightenment. I have mentioned all along to you about various things I have been struggling with. One in particular has been my identity. For some reason, when I came here, I realized how much I didn't know about myself (likes, dislikes, even if I was existing). The only thing I was sure about was Jesus. There are worse things I think! haha But anyway, I asked God to reveal to me why I was here and if I could just know Him and know His presence and His grace.

The next day, I woke up with a peace that I haven't really felt before and since then have been super passionate for God. I was really excited to get to Brooklyn College and talk to people. I first spoke with this guy who was super intellectual and believed in unbelief. Those kind of people are my favorite people to talk to because I like to challenge what they think they know. He wasn't close to accepting the Gospel but I think got closer than he was. Following this, I spoke for a long long time with a girl who was an Orthodox Jew. It was fascinating finding out about all of her customs and things that she has been taught to believe. Hopefully we will get to hang out later.

We had a Monday Night Meeting with worship and a lesson about dying to self. It was fantastic! Following this, we went to our favorite place in the city: YOGURTLAND!!!!!!! Think about 16 flavors of frozen yogurt with any topping you can dream of. yeah...it's that good.

Today was a mentally challenging day. I have a fantastic girl discipling me who is challenging me to extreme degrees. It is exactly what I needed. My team went to Laguardia Community College for the first time and at first had a little trouble getting in. Once there, a girl and I spoke to a Chinese girl for almost two hours! We shared the Gospel with her and several times she expressed that she wanted to accept it but she still had reservations. It was so hard because we wanted it for her so badly and she was soooooooooooooo close but had to leave for a test. Please continue to pray for her if you would.

Well, tis time to sleep! I do appreciate your reading! Thank you very much for it!

Until we meet again!
<3

Lately...

Greetings! I thought I would include some more pictures for this entry. The good news is that I can finally get to the internet through my computer!

Here is what has been going on the past couple of days:

Here are some of the ladies as we got ready for the New York City Ballet! They performed "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It was so beautiful!
These are my three fabulous roommates and me as we are hanging out on top of an apartment building.
We decided to go to see a comedian at Central Park last night. This was on our way over.
Here I am with my beautiful international friend! I get to spend every Friday with her and get to know her better.
Here she is with her friend that joined us. They knew each other in Beijing!
One of my friends and I hanging out with our new buddy! We went to a park that just opened a week ago in the meatpacking district. The park is all above ground.

We start back with ministry on Monday and I'm getting pumped about it. It was nice to have a couple days off to rest and get back on board.

Talk to you soon!

:)

YAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!

"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Luke 15:10

God is rejoicing in Heaven today!!!!

One of the members of my team helped lead someone to Christ today!!! He was our first at Brooklyn College and I think second for the overall team!

Everyone, this is super exciting!

Oki doki, so, I will update you on the current happenings. When last we left off, my group was at St Francis (this was on Tuesday). We were not able to get on campus but had some great conversations with students outside of the school just asking them about what the school was like. We then used this ministry tool called "Soularium" which contains a series of postcard sized photographs. We use this to ask people which pictures describe their lives and God. Two adults became very interested and came up within five minutes of each other to participate (we didn't even have to ask!) Though they didn't accept Christ, it still got them thinking. It was really cool because it was the first time I had done this with adults.

Yesterday and today we were back at Brooklyn College. I spoke with two girls yesterday, one who was Chinese and one who was Jewish. My friend and I shared the Gospel with both of them and spent the rest of the time just asking about their background and how it compared with Christianity. It was really cool to see the Chinese girl almost make the decision to follow Christ. She got so close but was not really ready. Please pray that we would continue to be a light to her! Today I faced a little more hardship with the first girl I talked to. She was not interested at all and left during our conversation. It was good though that we were able to talk. I then spoke with a Christian guy who said he may be interested in joining a ministry if we start one on his campus. That was very encouraging!

What I love is that God works in spite of me. I felt like I had hit a roadblock spiritually today and didn't talk to as many people I could have. It was annoying but thankfully temporary. I was, however, able to pray for the rest of my team as they went off talking to people. While I was praying for God to do something BOLD at Brooklyn, my friend came up and told me someone accepted Christ!!!! It made the whole day so much better. God is definitely planning something good for that school.

I have had a blast getting to know the girls on this project. We all get along very very well and I feel like I could definitely form lasting friendships with them. A few of us went to a brilliant restaurant called "Don't Tell Mama" last night and had a great time. We even got free desserts and found out that one of the servers had gone on a summer project a couple years ago.

I highly recommend the book The Prodigal God by Tim Keller. AMAZING. We are reading it for Bible study and it is great. Buy it now :)

God is really working on me with this project. I feel kind of like I have been knocked of my rocker...but this is not a bad thing. It is hard facing how much I need to change but a blessing that it is being exposed to me. I had an intense Bible Study and Discipleship on Tuesday that really made me evaluate everything I think and am. I hardcore cried for the first time in forever hahaha, but it felt soooo good. My discipler is AMAZING and I love her very much. I know I will not come out of this project the same way I went in. Thank goodness for that.

Interesting side note: A girl told me a talked with an almost British accent when I talk normally. I laughed. That is so cool.

Peace out <3>

Hello hello!

So much to tell and so little time!

I'll give you a brief rundown of what all we have been up to since we last talked.

On Saturday, we had the day free! One of my roommates and I decided to sleep in. It was sooo nice to get some sleep! We then met with another girl and toured around the city on our own. We wanted to use that day as a chance to get to know the subway system better and to visit famous sites around the city. We first stopped by the Metropolitan Opera House and Julliard. After walking the wrong direction for a bit, we found Central Park and took a nice (and rainy!) stroll through the park. We ran into some very strange but very interesting performers! We then took the subway up to Cafe Lalo where "You've Got Mail" was filmed and had dinner there. Finally, we went to Washington Square park where I had a great conversation with an artist. He said he was the only Christian painter that he new of in the area. I wanted to support him so I bought a really cool (and more expensive than I would have liked) piece called "The Path to Christ."

Sunday morning we went to Redeemer Church at Hunter College and got to here from Tim Keller. It was amazing! He talked about Hannah and her participation in the salvation of the world by bearing children. It really showed the importance of working for God. Following this, we briefly visited the Puerto Rican Day Parade! It was really exciting! To further participate in international events, we went back to the main office to meet our international buddies! They were mainly from China. We will be hanging out with them on Fridays in order to get to know them and their culture and they will learn the same from us. I had a great time talking to all of the international students and saw how neat it was that the nations are all among us here in New York!

Monday morning began our campus ministry! It was so excited to finally get to the whole reason we are here. My group (about 8 people) has Brooklyn College as our "home" campus. We went around speaking to the students and getting information about the college. We found out a lot and even got contacts for one of the very few Christian ministries on campus. We will go to this campus a couple times a week in order to initiate spiritual conversations with the students and help them the best we can. Please pray for my team on this college as it is possible to experience some strong spiritual warfare. As for now, I feel really good about what God will do on the campus. Once we returned home from the campus, we had a worship service and it was great to praise God for all he has done! I even got to share a testimony of what God has done for myself and my family through you, the supporters!

Today, we had a lot of success at another school, St Francis. I will go into more detail later for I have to leave now! Let me tell you, living with three other girls and one bathroom and one computer has taught me about patience and persistence....

Much love to all and more to come! Check out my pictures on facebook if you get the chance!

<3

Visual Aid!

Hello all!
Things are WONDERFUL here in New York! God is working in big ways and is rocking this city!

I finally borrowed a flash drive so I can put up some pictures. Hopefully tonight I can go into more detail about what all has been going on lately but here is a little taste in picture form!

Here is the room that we meet in when we get together as a team. This was right after our "Monday Night Meeting (MnM).

This was the first time we met together as a "campus track." We are coloring and putting words on apples to describe ourselves.

This is the view from our window in our apartment!

A couple of the girls and me at the Puerto Rican Day Parade


More to come!

I Think It Is Fitting That I Go To A City That Never Sleeps

Does God ever sleep?

I don't see how He could, especially when there is a city that never sleeps. Not that He needs to sleep really...He is God after all.

Today, we saw sunshine for the first time!


The past few days have been fantastic! No longer overwhelming as they were. I'm still rather tired but definitely seeing this place now as somewhere I could definitely live, at the very least for the five weeks I am here. I have really wanted to live in New York since I was younger. The problem was that I didn't really have a purpose in living here. Now that I am working for God, it is sooo much better and I can see the city through different eyes. Interestingly, some of its prior intrigue has worn off. I compare it to watching a Disney movie. When you are young, the movie is so colorful, magical, and big. When you are older, you catch all of the cultural references and appreciate it in different ways.

Yesterday was a whirlwind day! We first were trained in evangelism and learned about the importance of cross-cultural interaction. After lunch, we hiked over to our main office in order to get to know each other as a team and find out more of what we will be doing. I'm really excied about getting on the various campuses and "decoding" them. We learned today that we would also be able to go around and do prayer walks for the campuses and speaking with the students. This will help Campus Crusade set up various ministries. We will start on Monday.

After our meeting yesterday, we went to Little Italy for a campus track dinner. It was great! Then a group of us went to the Brooklyn Bridge. Though foggy, it was still beautiful at night. Three of us then left to go to Times Square and experience the rush of people getting out from their Broadway plays.

Today, we got to have an extended time with God in the morning before starting the activities of the day. I went with two of my roommates (first to get coffee - it has now become our tradition haha) and then to a cathedral to have our quiet time. It was a beautiful place to get in a good long time with the LORD.

We then went to the main office to discuss Questioning Evangelism with the "epic track." They are ministering to Asian Americans. It was great to get to bond with them. Following this, we all went to the Museum of Modern Art. I was a bit confused by some of the artwork...let's just say modern artists have very interesting ideas of what counts as art.

Thank you for reading! I know this was a long one! Just wanted to hold you over for awhile. Not sure when I will get back :)

I'm really feeling a lot better about being here and my purpose here. Please continue to pray for the team as we start or mission work on Monday

Peace <3

Planes, Taxis, and Subways

This is bigger than I thought...

The good thing is that God is also bigger than I thought. Thankfully :)

It has been a thrilling and exhausting couple of days! I had a smooth flight from Charlotte to JFK after a 5 hour delay due to weather. Once I finally got here, I took a cab into the city for a whopping $60! New Yorkers sure are expensive!

We have fortunately been able to hang out with all of the "tracks." As you know, I am on the "campus track" which has around 17 students. The other tracks include the "arts track," "inner city track," and "epic track." I'll explain about those later. We have had a good amount of time mixing with all of the groups. Everyone that I have met is so kind and I look forward to fellowship and teamwork with them. I'll admit, it was a bit overwhelming walking in late to a group of around 70 people! We have done a lot of orientation to the city and went exploring yesterday. We got to see Times Square, the subway system, and the top of the Rockerfeller Center. We are all super tired!

Right now I ask that you pray for my team and myself against doubt, against mistrust, and against unbelief. I had a strong bout of those yesterday morning but thankfully God reminded me why I was here and who He is. I just need to remain diligent.

We are about to find out exactly what we will be doing on the campuses this summer! I'm excited to learn!

Talk to you soon!
<3

Airport Time

Im still currently in the airport after many delays! New York storms must be crazy! But this has been a good time to reflect and get some good Bible reading in :)

Still not sure how much internet access I will get, especially at first (I didn't bring a cable so I might have to buy one there).

I'm super excited to meet the team! Just a few hours away....

Pre-trip Ponderings

“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.”
Philippians 1:27-28

Wow- Only a day away! I’ve been doing a lot of reading/thinking in preparation for the trip and wanted to share some of my observations with you. I also am a HUGE HUGE HUGE procrastinator and am putting off packing…

We had a visiting pastor today at our home church and something he said (in reference to a quote from another pastor) really stuck out to me. He said, “It is not how high you jump, it is how far you walk when you land.” I really feel like this applies to the project and evangelism in general. I would love to get some of your input on what this means for you personally in relation to God.

For me, this quote along with the study of the Great Commission (Matt 28: 16-20) we have been doing in church the past few weeks, really affirms my decision to go on this project. I can’t just sit around and do nothing. I won’t. God is too good. The support I have received from all of you definitely shows me that God wants me in NYC, will use me there, and that you all can share in the glorious things He does.

My prayer is that you will feel the same passion I do. That being said, I’m nervous…haha but that seems natural.

The team and I have been reading this book called Questioning Evangelism by Randy Newman in preparation for the trip. It examines an alternative approach toward evangelism by highlighting the importance of asking questions to who you are speaking with instead of having completely pre-set answers. The author also attempts to answer some of the tough questions Christians get asked. I highly recommend it for those interested in evangelism. I was thinking about using part of it for my Bible study next year as well.

I have also been reading a book my Pastor at home lent me (Thank you Pastor Matt!) It is called Out of the Saltshaker & into the World by Rebecca Manley Pippert. I also find this book to be fantastic! It speaks on living an evangelistic lifestyle and details some of the author’s personal experiences in evangelizing.

If you get the chance, please read those!

Thank you for reading all this! I hope to update you pretty soon after I get to New York!

Please pray for the team that everyone will get there safely.

I love you all!
~Malia

A Week Away!

We are currently a little less than a week away from NYC! Hopefully I'll be able to update you all a pretty good amount as we go along. Thank you so much for reading this blog and for your support. Please continue to pray for the team! Yay!

In Him,
Malia <3