Fall Visit to NYC

This past week Katie and I had a chance to spend Wednesday – Monday in the northeast. We had two primary goals with this trip. First, on Thursday and Friday we had our final assessment meeting with NAMB. Second, on Saturday and Sunday we spend some time in Long Island City, the area we will be planting.

NAMB ASSESSMENT

The goal of these two days is for NAMB to assess our readiness as a couple to handle the challenges that come with being a church planter, especially in NYC. These two days were invaluable to us. First and foremost, God continued to confirm our calling to plant a church in NYC and used some incredible people to speak into our lives over our time there. The assessment team of Steve Allen, David Persson, Tim Bissell, Vijay Kumar, Elliott Sneed and Rebeccah Neyhard brought a wealth of experience and expertise to the conversation. Katie and I had a chance to have some lengthy interactions with Elliott and Rebeccah. God could not have chosen two better people to intersect with our lives at this point. Each of them brought wisdom and guidance to our thought process. They each also offered some tough questions that really helped us evaluate and confirm our calling to this incredible task.

Katie and I also had the privilege of meeting three other couples that are planting churches in the Northeast. Lawrence and Xinia Otarola are planting a Spanish speaking church in New Jersey. Amoon and Ghazala Sharon will be working to minister to Muslims in the New Jersey area. Andrew and Ashley George are planting a church on the upper Eastside of Manhattan. Each of these couple were an encouragement to us and will be great friends and partners on our church planting journey. Please keep each of these couples in your prayers.

LONG ISLAND CITY VISIT

One of the other purposes behind our trip was to allow Katie to experience Long Island City (LIC) and Hunters Point first hand. This is the specific area that we are looking to plant New-City Church. We got to spend parts of two days in this area and interact with the people and culture of this unique area. We ate a meal there, walked in the parks, toured apartment buildings, rode the train, visited some merchants and just observed how this part of the city operated. There were a few observations we walked away with.

First, the reports and demographics are correct, this place is filled with families with young children. Everywhere we walked we saw families with strollers or walking with their children. LIC also offers a good bit of ethnic diversity while remaining a primarily English speaking area.

Second, there is a ton of construction going on all around LIC. The brand new Hunters Point South development that will house the new middle and high school is slated to open in the fall of 2013. Numerous high rise apartment buildings are nearing completion as well as incredible amounts of commercial retail space. This area is literally being rebuilt from the ground up. Read the article from the NY Times about this area. CLICK HERE

Third, this area is in need of a church. While walking around the area we only saw one church, an older Catholic church. We never saw even another trace of a church in the area. With the growing residential and commercial offerings LIC is projecting to have a population explosion in the next several years. Being able to establish a new church at the beginning of that explosion could allow New-City Church to have incredible impact for the Kingdom in this area.

God really used this time to confirm our calling and create a sense of excitement about ministry in LIC.

20th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Katie and I were fortunate enough to be able to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary while we were in NYC as well. We were able to spend some time enjoying the city. We saw a couple of plays and enjoyed some amazing food. We had the opportunity to visit the 9/11 memorial site. This was truly a humbling experience to be in a place were so many lives we sacrificed in a senseless terrorist attack. It was a reminder of how precious life is and how evil sin can be in our world.

Our visit to NYC was an incredibly meaningful time of remembering God’s blessings in our marriage and looking forward to what He has in store for us in the next 20 years. We are excited that in just a few months we will be calling NYC home and investing our lives in making an impact for His Kingdom!