My First Hospital Visit in NYC

Of all the things I thought I would be doing in my first few weeks in NYC, visiting someone in the hospital wasn't one of them. But this afternoon I got a call from a friend who has a friend who has a relative in the hospital here in NYC. As I was taking the subway up to New York Presbyterian Hospital I thought back on how God has really changed my perspective on these types of visits.


When I was first getting started in ministry, I viewed hospital visits as a necessary evil. A part of the job I didn't really want to do, but had to do. However, God begin to teach me just how important this aspect of ministry is.

One day while making hospital visits in Albany, Georgia I was doing what I normally did, stop in, say hello, ask how they are doing and then pray for them and leave. A 5 minute visit was a long one for me. But this one day, an elderly lady asked me to stay and talk. She even offered me a chair, except the chair was her bedside toilet. Begrudgingly, I sat down and for the next hour God did a work in my life. I quickly realized that these visits were the highlight of this lady's day. The rest of her day was spent alone in an empty room. She had no family, no friends that were able to visit and no hope of leaving. In that hour, she shared with me about memories she had of her childhood, memories of her family and things that were concerning her right now. She never complained, she never wanted anything from me except for some companionship during a difficult time.

I left that room in tears. I was broken over the attitude I had toward hospital visitation for so many years. My heart was broken for this lady and thought that she would spend the rest of her day alone. I had gone from thinking how quickly can I get out of this room to thinking when can I come back. God had showed me a side of TRUE ministry that I hadn't seen before. It is easy to get caught up in the planning of events and services, the excitement of teaching and preaching to crowds, and the dreams of doing something big for God. But that day, God reminded me that true worship and true ministry is when we minister to the least of these.

The following day, even though it wasn't my day for hospital visitation, I decided to stop by and visit this lady of the way home. I wanted to give her another hour of my day. I got to her floor, walked down the hallway and into her room to find an empty room with a perfectly made up bed. Even my make shift chair was gone. I checked with the nurse and found out that she had passed away in her sleep the previous night. My heart broke with sadness. But God quickly reminded me of the reward she was experiencing at that moment. As I walked back out of the hospital I realized that I walked in that day thinking I was going to give that sweet lady something, but I now knew that she was the one that had given me an incredible gift, the gift of a better understanding of what it means to be a minister of the Gospel!

As my subway ride was approaching it's destination tonight, I was reminded that as exciting as it may be to plant a church in NYC and to dream the big dreams of what God could do, there is really nothing more important than ministering to the one that is need at that very moment. So it was with joy that I entered the hospital tonight and took the elevator to the ICU unit on the fourth floor. I realized that as busy as I have been making plans, God was giving me an opportunity tonight to be His hands, His feet, and show His love. I made a new friend tonight, his name is Paul. He was not able to speak to me, he was barely able to nod his head up and down to acknowledge an answer to my questions. But I had the privilege of praying for him tonight and spending a few minutes sitting with him. As I was leaving the nurse thanked me for coming and shared that I was the only visitor that had been to visit Paul.

Please pray for my new friend Paul. I plan to visit with him again. He is not doing well. And please pray that God continues to remind me of the true nature of our calling to this city and that He will continue to put opportunities to be the Gospel to the individuals of this city!

Read More

A Number of Firsts!

The Long Island City Pier behind our apartment

Well today we got to experience our first snow in NYC! What would have shut down Atlanta for days and caused a run on bread and milk, barely registered a blip here in the city. A couple of inches of snow does nothing here but get your feet wet and cold if you don't have the right snow boots (mine haven't arrived from Amazon yet!).

This previous week we have also had a number of NYC firsts for our family as well. PJ and Natalie both had their first meetings with their prospective schools. Natalie has been accepted to attend Evangel Christian School. Evangel is located about 2 miles from us and easily accessible by subway. It is the largest Christian school in NYC, yet is only has about 500 students in pre-k through high school. Natalie will be one of 25 seventh graders at the school. She is really looking forward to starting classes on Tuesday. She was even excited about getting her uniform!

Frank Sinatra School of the Arts

PJ had an audition with the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts on Friday. It was an answer to prayer that he even got a mid-term audition. Prior to our move the correspondence we had received from the school had not made us hopeful that they would have any seats available and that he would even get to audition. However, God continues to open doors. The Tuesday after we arrived I sent his updated grades and information to the school again. The called me the next day to schedule his audition. We won't know the results of the audition until Tuesday.

We also have had a lot of first time guests at our apartment. Over the last couple of weeks we have had Jon and Bonnie Carr, Trey and Caitlan Eitel, Christy Dyer, and Jason and Jerri Jasper over for dinner. We have three other couples scheduled to come over next week. God has been so faithful to bring new friendships into our lives. Each of these individuals has been such an encouragement to us and has really connected our families. The Jasper's have three teenagers, so it was great for PJ and Natalie to have some kids their age to hang our with. Having five teenagers in the house last night brought back a lot of youth ministry memories!

Pray for me this week as I have a couple of important meetings scheduled. I'm meeting with the "I Have A Dream" Foundation here in Long Island City. They are an organization that does a lot of outreach to under serviced teenagers in this area. We are talking about how our church and teams coming up to serve with us might partner with them. I'm also scheduled to meet with a group called Mythic Bridge. They are considering me to serve on their board of directors. This organization is one that reaches out to under serviced youth all across this city and helps them connect through creative arts. While this is not a Christian organization, it would be a great opportunity for me to connect with the community here as a whole.

Thanks again for your prayers and support! Below are some more pictures of the snow and a recent trip to Times Square that PJ took:

Read More

A Partner in the City

One of the great things that the North American Mission Board does with new church plants in the city is to partner you with an existing church for support and counsel. Our partner church is Graffiti Church in the East Village. We are so excited to be partnering with them. God couldn't have teamed us with a better church in terms of common vision and expertise.

Through this partnership I'll be spending some of my time learning about ministry in the city with Graffiti. I will also be developing new relationships in the area we are living. So in many ways I'm getting some great mentoring and then getting to immediately practice what I'm learning in my context. One of the things that Katie and I are excited about with this partnership is that the pastor at Graffiti, Taylor Field, and his wife Susan have raised two children in the city. Both of their kids are in their mid-twenties and where born and raised in NYC. We are so excited to be able to learn from their years of wisdom about raining teenagers in this city. PJ has already met one of their sons, Owen, and has hit it off very well.

We are also excited that our kids are getting to immediately plug into ministry. This past Sunday, Natalie sang with the worship team and PJ is already helping with the sound and video. And it only took a week before they asked Katie to serve in the preschool area! We love feeling connected to a body of Christ in the city. It gives us a spiritual home while we build a new one in our area!

Pray for us this week as we have a number of dinners scheduled with some new friends we have made here in the city. It is our prayer to use our new home to show God's hospitality to everyone!

Read More

We're Home!

View from the plane arriving in NYC

On Friday evening January 11th, all four of us finally arrived in New York City. I came up on Tuesday to start getting the apartment ready and to meet our movers. Katie, PJ and Natalie all arrived Friday evening. It is such a surreal feeling to think that the journey that we have been planning for over the last year has now begun!

The day after I moved in I received a call from a new friend, Kareem. He is an associate pastor at our partner church here in the city. His first words to me were, "Welcome Home!" I so appreciated that greeting because that has been the prayer of our hearts over the last couple of months. We have asked the Lord to not only make NYC our physical home, but also our emotional, relational and spiritual home. And I can tell you that He is answering that prayer.

The ride home in traffic

Our first weekend here in the city was filled with new experiences. Even though we didn't bring a car with us, I rented on to go pick up Katie, the kids, the dog and 9 bags of luggage. But I can tell you, after one experience of driving in NYC traffic, I am so excited to know that I do not own a car in this city. We also got to our first glimpse of the weekend subway experience. We made a trip to Ikea to finish some home shopping. It took us 2 hours to get home because certain subway lines weren't running or were running in weird patterns!

But even in spite of the many new things we are experiencing, God is truly making our apartment, our neighborhood and this city feel like home! Thank you so much for your prayers and partnership. It is such an encouragement to know that we have so many people praying for us daily! I've included a few pictures of our new apartment below.

Read More