Thursday, March 24, 2011

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part VI

Hartford, Connecticut
Today felt like one of our best days yet here in New England. We woke up to enough snow to make the ground pretty, but nothing was on the roads by the time we left at 10:30 - Praise God! With a good deal of rest and renewed energy for our final days here, we set off for Hartford, Connecticut. New Haven was about two hours from Providence, and Hartford is only about 45 minutes from New Haven. The short drives have allowed good opportunity to view the areas surrounding each of these cities, and have provided insights into what a church planting team would encounter while living here (aka - lots of traffic).

Upon arriving in Hartford, we met up with Russell and his wife, Cynthia. They are former IMB missionaries who are now leading a small campus church at UConn. They spent the rest of the day with us, driving us into the downtown area and guiding us on a tour of the close surrounding areas. We found that the downtown area of Hartford differs from Providence and New Haven in that it has more of an upscale look and feel, and it doesn't seem as compact as the others did. You'll find parks and "green space" in the Hartford downtown, whereas the other two cities had much more of an industrial feel. That, combined with suburban areas being closer to downtown here than at our previous stops, made Hartford feel more like Fayetteville to the group.

As we drove through town, we quickly drove through St. Joseph's College (a Catholic campus), and also spent some time at the University of Hartford. The U of H feels very much like the U of A, though on a bit of a smaller scale. Our team paired off in groups of two to prayerwalk the campus, and to seek opportunities for conversation. God graciously provided each team member with at least one of those opportunities, for which we are all very grateful.

The University of Hartford Campus
Personally, Ryan and I were quickly able to meet Sham, a Muslim student from Pakistan. He was reading a pamphlet about the Muslim faith when we met him, which provided an instant opportunity to have a spiritual conversation with him. He shared his beliefs with us openly, and then listened attentively as Ryan shared the Gospel with him as well. Sham is very intelligent and quite knowledgable about his beliefs, but he has no knowledge of the One True God. Please pray that this Truth would be revealed to him! He allowed us to pray for him before we left, and gave Ryan his phone number, so pray also that they will be able to have continued dialogue, and that he will be prompted to think about the things that were shared with him this afternoon.

From that campus, we went to Trinity College, which is a few miles away. This was founded as an Episcopalian college, although the congregational church at the time of its founding forced the college to establish that it would not impose its Episcopalian beliefs upon the students. This holds true today, but the college architecture is full of Catholic-looking symbols. The chapel itself is very beautiful on the outside, but the inside is almost Gothic in appearance and is far from a welcoming place of worship. The students here were on Spring Break, but Brant and Jennifer were able to meet a sophomore rowing student (Chris), who recently became a believer and is desperate for a place to find discipleship and growth in his walk with the Lord. He and Brant also exchanged information, so pray that a relationship can be developed there, and that Chris would find a place to worship with other believers.

Trinity College Chapel

Trinity College Campus
Beautiful architecture at Trinity College


The whole group then met with Joe Fisher, who is in the process of planting a church in the downtown area. He is currently leading a group of about 20, with plans for a more formal initial gathering on Easter Sunday. He shared more valuable information about the community as a whole, and about what church planting would look like in Hartford. From he and all others we have talked to, we have heard that the traditional southern church-planting model just would not work here. Planting a church takes relationships, time, involvement in the community, time, support from your sending church, and time. Pray that this is something that we will be able to clearly communicate to the body of UBC upon our return, as we seek how the process would look for us.
The site of Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon:
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

Tomorrow, we will spend another day, our final full day in the Northeast, with Russell and Cynthia, who have been so gracious to give up their time to host us here in Hartford. We will spend time in some outlying cities, as well as visiting the UConn campus and meeting some of the members of their church, The Bridge.

Thank you for your continued prayers!

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