Let's Ride 2011 NYC Day 4 (Tuesday)

Today our theme was Building Bridges and we talked about how God has built a bridge to us in the person of Jesus, and how we need to be building bridges (relationships) with lost people to connect them to Jesus. As our discipleship adventure we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn, had lunch outside on benches in the freezing cold, them walked back. It was a tough (simply because of the cold), but good experience which lent itself well to some great conversation about what is involved in reaching the lost. Read more below...

Then this evening we had the privilege of going to the New York City Rescue Mission where we worked with Rev. Ron Panarello. Before the service began we witnessed the "Bed Lottery" at the Mission wherein they select guys to have a bed and shower for the night. Unfortunately, the men who are not selected usually end up sleeping outside in a doorway, under a box, in a dumpster, or in the subway tunnels. It was very humbling to experience. When the service began we did some group singing, Mike and Claudia led a few songs, Ron called on a number of our students to get up and share their testimonies - beginning with my 9-year-old daughter Natalia, I shared, then Ron preached, and our team prayed over the men. The best compliment we received was from Ron who said our students did a wonderful job and we had an open invitation to come and work with him anytime. I was proud of the team!