Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part IV

We've reached the halfway point in our trip, and it's starting to show. We had another great day of meetings and ministry, but we're tired. Our day started out early, though, so it's warranted. 

We left Providence early this morning and made good time to New Haven. I was expecting one of two things of New Haven, and neither of them was true. First, I thought it would be much more of a suburban town than a big-city kind of place. Well, it's a big-city kind of place. My second option was that it would be a lot like Providence, but that's not really the case either. Both of these cities are similar in size to Fayetteville in population, but they look so different. They're very business-looking, right off of the interstate with lots of high-rise buildings. There's definitely that "inner-city" downtown feel in New Haven, really more so than in Providence.

We arrived in town early for our lunch meeting, so we spent a bit of time driving around the downtown area. It's an atmosphere that is so very unfamiliar to me, and it's hard to know how to react to it. The Yale campus is right in the middle of downtown, but it stands out significantly amongst the high-rise businesses and condos. The buildings are old, classical and full of character. It's really a beautiful little community to itself right in the middle of a big city area. 

We met for lunch with Cat, who is a Young Life coordinator here in New Haven. She is a Yale graduate and has been a resident of the area for the last four years, so she was able to give us a lot of helpful insight into the community as a whole. She expressed that the university and community don't get along well at all, outside of the fact that Yale is the largest employer in the city. Many of the students never leave campus, as our own team members experienced when asking students for simple directions within the city. She also explained the huge diversity that is experienced in the town, as you can find mansions and projects within a couple of blocks of each other. Another big thing she shared with us is that this community does not at all value community. In fact, she said it's a concept completely foreign to many of them. She said that the parents of some of her kids might be neighbors but don't know each other at all. There is a significant need to teach and encourage community living in this area.

We had another hour in between meetings, so we spread out and surveyed the downtown area as much as we could. As was explained in our meeting later, the people here will rarely make eye contact with you on the street, and will hardly ever say hello . . . even if you say hello to them. We all experienced that in our brief time there. We were able to make a couple of contacts during that time, including one woman (a lifetime New Haven resident) who just lost her job and requested prayer from our team. 

Our final meeting was with Greg, an elder at Trinity Baptist Church in New Haven, and a representative of a Christian campus organization at Yale. He shared the story of his church, which meets in the downtown area and has a congregation of 200, and gave some good insight into the best areas to consider planting a church in the future. We were blessed to pray with him for the town and for God's direction as we seek His will for that or another area with UBC. 

Tomorrow will begin early with a breakfast meeting, and will be another full day. Pray that our team can rest well again and that we can all remain healthy for the duration of the trip. Brant will be joining us tomorrow evening, so pray also for his safe travel as he drives up from the New Jersey area.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the New Haven area today, but I was able to get the pictures from previous days to post correctly, so go back and check those out!

Today's only picture...and the view from our hotel window

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part III

The outline for today's update is easy: University, Rain, Dunkin' Donuts, Scary Man, Snow, Lunch Meeting, University, Snow, Rain, Snow, Rain, Meeting, Dinner, Dessert, COLD!

Plotting out the day's plans

1. We began the morning at Johnson & Wales University, one of the top culinary schools in the country (though not only a culinary school). This is the school that Grace Harbor Church has the most relationship with, and where one of their elders serves as college ministry director. We were hoping to get to talk with several students and faculty members there, but the school is locked down pretty tight, so that wasn't really an option. The college students on our team were able to make a couple of brief connections, though, and we're grateful for that.

Johnson & Wales Campus

2. Since we couldn't get on campus and because it had started raining, Ryan and I walked over to a corner Dunkin' Donuts (there's really almost one on every corner) to get warm drinks and to spark up conversation with another customer or two. There, we met Ming, an architecture student from Taiwan. We spoke to Ming for quite a while, and quickly learned that he didn't know much about Christianity at all. Ryan brought the conversation to the Gospel, but Ming didn't seem to want to delve any further into that discussion. Please pray for this young man, who plans to return to his home country when he graduates in 2-3 years.

3. Homelessness is a huge need in this city, and that was apparent to us as we walked around downtown. In fact, right before we walked into the donut shop, a man asked us for money. We didn't give him any, and he proceeded to follow us into the donut shop and then followed us out when we left. I must admit, he scared me a bit, so we walked away quickly and tried to avoid him the rest of the morning, something I now somewhat regret. What if I was homeless? Would I want to be treated like that?

4. Before meeting up with the rest of our team again, it began to snow. It was really windy in the downcity area this morning, so the snow was blowing right at our faces. We were definitely missing the 70-degree temperatures at home!

Brown University Bears

5. For lunch, we met with Ted, who pastors another church, Downcity Church, in...well, downcity. He's a single guy living in the city, who is extremely passionate about reaching these people for Christ. He's been there for four years now and leads a congregation of about 40 members. As did our meetings yesterday, this provided yet another great time of conversation and learning about church planting. One of the key things I took from our meeting personally was that in the life of a beginning church planter, he is the go-to-guy for anyone with any issues, questions, concerns, etc. Until the church has grown enough to install deacons and elders, the church planter must be prepared to focus a lot of time and effort on the congregation.

Brown University Main Green

6. Parking is not a good option in this city, so you try to find a good spot at the beginning of the day and then walk mostly everywhere you go. From lunch, we walked (in the snow) to Brown University, about two miles or so up from the downcity area. We spent the rest of the afternoon meeting with students and staff members, surveying them for the spiritual needs of the campus and community. We found a great need for an international student ministry, as people from all of the world come to this school, but many have a hard time getting plugged in. While this campus does have a small presence from a local evangelical church, there is still much that could be done to reach these students.

7. Snow, rain, snow, rain...you know the drill.

Downcity Providence

8. We met in the campus bookstore with Tyler, who is a leading member of one of the Christian organizations on campus. He shared with us a lot about the student body, and provided a good perspective that we hadn't yet received. Tyler explained that Brown University is a constant promoter of tolerance and non-judgmental relationships, which he said allows you to present your faith on campus, although they may just be tolerant of your ideas and may not necessarily be receptive.

9. We ended the evening with a good team debrief dinner and dessert. Providence seems to have a thing with huge desserts. For those who might come to the area in the future, I recommend ordering one serving and requesting several spoons.

The First Baptist Church in America
(founded by Roger Williams)

10. Pray for us tonight as we warm up and rest. We'll be heading out early in the morning for New Haven, Connecticut. The weather looks to be better tomorrow, which we are looking forward to. We have two different meetings scheduled with campus ministry/church directors, so pray that those meetings are informative and fruitful. Thanks!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part II

The capitol building in Providence
(seen by all four angles tonight, thanks to our GPS!)

It's been a very busy day for our team today in Providence, Rhode Island. Before I give you details on that, though, I want to write about our meeting last night with a church planter.

We met Rafael H. at a local "hot-spot" restaurant in Providence last night. I think we were all a bit nervous about our first official meeting with a local church-planter, but we quickly figured out who would lead the conversation and how to engage with each other. It couldn't have been a better meeting to begin the week with. Rafael has been a church planter for more than 30 years, and has been in this area for just about as long. As a result, he had a wealth of information to give us about church-planting in Rhode Island and Connecticut. One of the first bits of info he gave us was the following:

1.6 percent of New England is evangelical. The IMB classifies anything less than 2 percent evangelized as an unreached people group.

This statistic came up again today and has really impacted us as a team. If you consider these populations to be unreached people groups, it really means that a church planter has to be considered a missionary. More on that a few words later . . .

It seemed that with any area or city that we asked Rafael about, he would answer, "Yes, that would be a very good place to plant a church. Mmhmm." There are so few churches - Biblical churches - in these cities, and the need is great.

Our study at Grace Harbor on Wisdom v. Folly
in Proverbs 9

That information was only confirmed today, as we experienced our first full day in the city. We attended worship services at Grace Harbor Baptist Church, pastored by Kevin McCay. We so enjoyed our time there with a group of about 70 brothers and sisters in Christ. Kevin and one of the church elders, Travis, shared with us that this church plant is considered the "success story" of Providence. They've been a church plant for about seven years, but it has only really taken off within the last two (which is when Kevin & Travis arrived). They meet in a board room of a downtown (or "downcity," as they call it) hotel, but the unusual atmosphere did nothing to dampen their joy in meeting to worship the Lord. Many of the members were eager to welcome us to their congregation, and shared with us their appreciation of the familial and community feel of the church. Their love for each other and for the city was very evident. We saw a special aspect of this congregation, when later in the day we were at a local coffee shop, and saw a church member sharing the Gospel with his homosexual boss, who has recently become open to hearing about the Lord. God is doing a great work in and through these people, and we were blessed to be a part of it this morning.

Downcity Providence
(and the Ghostbusters building, I hear?)

The craziest thing that happened today was by far one of those "small world" moments. As we were preparing for the beginning of services, another Spring Break college group walked in, and they happened to be from Union University in Tennessee, which is where Ryan graduated college. Leading that team was a couple that he was great friends with during school, and it was a neat treat for them to see each other three years later in Providence of all places!

After the service, we had lunch downtown with Kevin and Travis, who shared more about their work and answered many of our questions about church-planting in the area. They restated many of the things we heard from Rafael, but also provided new insights, such as information about specific campuses, other churches in the area,etc. They were the ones to really bring out the idea of sending a missionary rather than a church planter, and shared with us what that means for the church back home.

"Church planting is a marathon; not a sprint. The church needs to look their man in the eyes and say, 'You're our guy. We're completely behind you and trust you to do the job well. We're committed to you and to the city for the long haul. It will probably take 7-10 years, but we're in it for that long. Unless you come and tell us that the Lord is moving you or the church plant elsewhere, we're there."

That really stood out to our team tonight, especially as we studied together in 2 Corinthians 4. "Therefore, we do not lose heart." Church planting is not an easy task, especially in the northeast, but it needs to be done. Wherever the Lord leads us, we as a church body at UBC will have to make this much more than a passing interest, but a long-time committed endeavor.

Our home at Providence College?

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, specially Providence College, where we were able to interview several different individuals for our community survey. We're excited to begin gathering a lot of information, and enjoy debriefing on each of those conversations together at the end of every day.

Providence College - Catholic Chapel

Please continue to pray for us. Travel in these cities is hard on our own with only a cantankerous GPS to get us around. Pray that the forecasted light snow for tomorrow would remain light. Pray that we would find the right areas to survey tomorrow (our last full day in Providence) and that God would lead us to the right people to talk to. Pray that each member of our team would understand and embrace our specific roles, and that we would work well together as we go. Pray that God would begin to give us clear discernment as to where He might lead us to plant a church, and that we would be prepared to communicate that effectively to those at UBC. Once again, pray for the unreached people groups of Providence, New Haven and Hartford!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part I

Our bulging suitcases

Almost a year ago, Ryan began developing a prospectus for church planting at UBC. What began as an idea written down on paper has now grown into an adventure for Ryan, myself and four others in the northeastern United States. During Spring Break, we will be spending time in Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut. During our eight days in those towns, we will meet with local church planters, pastors and campus leaders to get a scope for the current evangelical presence in these specific areas. We will also spend time walking the streets, driving the neighborhoods and hopefully sparking conversations with local members of the community, with a desire that what we see and hear will give a clear picture of the spiritual needs of focused areas of these three cities. Our prayer is that God will use that information to help us clearly identify whether He would have UBC plant a church in the near future in one of these areas. 

Five of the six members of our team drove to Tulsa yesterday. Brant, our sixth member, will be joining us on Wednesday - an event Ryan is ready for considering right now he is the only male representative on the team! We had a 6:00am flight out of Tulsa this morning, and were blessed with the hospitality of Trey & Kristen Richardson and her parents, who provided us with a home for the night near the airport. The alarm clock woke us up at 3:45am, which was WAY too early, but it was nice to arrive in Rhode Island early in the day. After getting on the plane headed to Detroit, it took me about 45 minutes to get adjusted to the idea of being 20,000 feet in the air (this happens EVERY time I get on a plane), but thankfully our flights were smooth and the weather was great, with the exception of 32-degree temperatures on the breezeway in Detroit. 

Speaking of weather, pray that it's favorable for us this week as we drive from city to city. There's a chance of slight snow on two or three of the days, and we would hate for that to interfere with any of our meetings or time in the city. If it does snow, though, Ryan and I are prepared. We were the only ones to bring a carry-on bag AND a checked bag, probably because we brought so many sweaters, heavy coats and scarves. :-)

Mission Trip Multi-Tasking 

After finally getting our fancy rental Yukon (we're high-rolling it this week!), we made it to our hotel, which is actually in Massachusetts. The hotel itself is not so high-rolling, but it fit the budget and is quite comfortable when you're living off of four hours of sleep. We made it just in time to watch the last part of the first half of Kentucky's basketball game, and then found lunch in time to see the end of the second half. We're now checking up on our brackets to find out who to cheer for in the rest of the games this afternoon. 

Our first church-planter meeting is tonight, so we're all getting rested up for that before dinner. We're all excited to get into the "meat" of the week and to see how God works in our team, in our individual lives and in the future of our church. He is definitely at work in each of these three cities, and it is our desire to see what part He might have us play in that as He continues to bring glory to Himself through these people and in these places. 

Please pray to that end with us this week - pray for protection as we travel; pray for the Gospel to be evident in our words, our actions and on our faces; pray for unity and fellowship within our team; pray for us to ask the right questions of those that we meet; pray for divine appointments; pray for clear vision and direction; pray for Hartford, Providence and New Haven!

As a complete side note, here are a couple of observations about the Northeast (and/or areas between there and Fayetteville):

- Lake Erie is much bigger than the lakes around Fayetteville.
- Traffic is way too congested. Going for a "short drive down this road" is not an option.
- It's still exciting to see a Walmart, even when you've lived next to one your whole life.
- There is an Indian Pow Wow happening in the conference room of our hotel. The Blue Cloud Moon Tribe is fun to watch.
- The Providence airport REALLY likes the moving sidewalks. Twenty minutes of them just to get a rental car.

nothing hidden

I'm becoming more and more grateful for people like John & Angela Mueller who are willing to bare their lives in order to better prepare Ryan and myself for marriage. We had another counseling session last night, and it's just so good to have someone tell you point-blank specific things that will inevitably cause struggle and difficulty in marriage, but to look you in the eyes and give Godly encouragement and wisdom for those times as well. We talked about submission and leadership last night, along with needs, roles, etc., within the marriage. As I mentioned in my last post, it's so refreshing to go through this ahead of time and to see the weight of the commitment we're making now rather than wondering what in the world happened later.

a heavy heart

It's been crazy the last week or two learning what goes into readying oneself for marriage, or rather, a couple readying itself for marriage. As we've delved head-first into pre-marital counseling materials, we've learned a lot about ourselves and about what we're getting ourselves into. The best thing, though, is realizing that it's God Who is getting us into it - it's not about us or for us really. It's about Him. Realizing that is easy. It's living it out that gets hard.

So many things that we thought we had worked out already...like how we do the laundry, who manages the budget, how we handle birth control, where we spend holidays...suddenly aren't as easy because it's not just about what works well for us, but what God has called us to. We haven't found that there is any big problem with that either between us as a couple or between us and the Lord, but there's still a new level of thought that has to be involved in every decision. And it just so happens that all of that thinking can make a man and a woman tired and cranky. It's a challenge, but I'm so very grateful that we're dealing with it now rather than going into marriage thinking it's going to be a piece of cake (although there will be cake, and lots of it, involved in the first day of our marriage).

We haven't written our vows yet, but we've been talking about them. They seem to become weightier each day, and I mean that in a good way. I can't imagine standing before God and declaring these vows that mean almost nothing to me because I don't understand them. Just as I'm daily learning more and more about what my covenant with Christ means, I want to daily grow in my knowledge of what my covenant with Ryan means. It gives the term a "heavy heart" a whole new meaning, and I love it.

the holiness talk

I'll just ignore the white elephant in the blog. You know, the fact that it's been more than a month since I posted even though I committed to put my words out there publicly more often than that. It's that looming statement that I'm choosing to ignore and not even bring up. I've been busy.

It's funny. I find myself surprised that there was still so much to do "wedding-wise" even after mentally planning so much ahead of time, but everyone else hears that we're done planning with 80 days to go and thinks we're way ahead of schedule. Personally, I would have liked to have been done a month ago. Really, though, I'm enjoying it, so I'd probably be bored if there wasn't so much to do.

Enough with the wedding talk, though. I'm not that kind of blogger. I've been processing a lot after a summer of mission trips, and especially as we really dive into marriage counseling (promise, that's the last wedding reference). I'm realizing just how dreadfully far away from holiness I am. At times, I'm so overwhelmed by my own sinfulness, I wonder how a saved person can feel that much guilt. I am convinced that God has saved me, but my sin seems so big, and the reality of what it deserves is deadly. More than guilt, though, I think I'm daily increasing in the realization of God's grace in my life. The more I learn about who God is and what He has done and continues to do in my life, the more I see the depth of who I am - which is nothing. The fact that God looks at me now and sees Jesus Christ is incredible. It's that kind of awakening that is drawing me more and more to the Lord and that is creating within me a deepening desire for holiness.