By 8:30, we were back in Reading (a 30-minute drive from our base) and went to the Fairview Christian School gym to take down the stage, chairs, and decorations from last night’s Christmas program.
After everything was cleaned up, we drove to the church and met Marcus Fox, pastor at Fairview Mennonite Church. He oriented us for the project of picking up trash. He explained that over the years, picking up trash has helped them stay connected to the townspeople and its leaders.
We broke into groups of four and Marcus told us which streets each group is responsible for. The morning was foggy and pleasant to be walking up and down the sidewalks. Not many people were out, but several stuck their heads out of their doors and thanked us for picking up trash.
We finished soon after 12 and headed to the school. We walked up the street to the corner store where Arlan is friends with the Dominican proprietor. We had fun finding ethnic drinks, snacks, and empanadas with various fillings, and took our food to the school to eat. Anyone for soursop juice? Aloe vera drink? Plantain chips? Giant avocadoes? Fresh mango? It was a great quick trip into the Dominican Republic!
We came back to our house by 2:00 and people took naps, walked, played with children, and did laundry.
By 6:00, six former FB students arrived with food for supper. We had a lovely evening of good food and conversation.
We ate breakfast and loaded up in our two vans by 7:20 then headed for Reading. By 8:00, we arrived at Fairview Mennonite School and met the administrator, Arlan King. He was our guide and took us to the gym to hear the school practice for their Christmas program. The school has a strong singing culture, and we loved listening to the 150 students as they rehearsed.
Arlan led us on a tour throughout the four-story school building. From there, the men headed to the church where they hung insulation and organized the Fairview Church shop.
Caleb’s mask got a work out.
Meanwhile, the ladies scattered throughout the classrooms and helped tutor students where needed.
Carla helped collect lunch money from the first and second graders.
They served us delicious empinadas for lunch, then we went back to various jobs. The women cleaned bathrooms or helped with art classes until 3:00. School dismissed then, the men returned, and we met with Marcus Fox. He gave us a presentation of the church, school, and outreaches, and gave many stories of their experiences since his parents moved into the city 52 years ago.
Two men guided us up the mountain to the famous Reading landmark: the pagoda. We arrived just in time to see a perfect, beautiful sunset.
Back at The Welcoming Place, we made supper and enjoyed a relaxing evening catching up on journals and talking. The ladies even had time to make a quick trip to the MCC thrift store and Walmart before 9:00.
We started the day with a quiet morning. After breakfast, Ryan led in devotions with the group and then we had an hour to scatter for solitude and reflection. We circled up again and Patrick led a debrief where everyone shared something that they learned or observed on the trip so far.
Soon after 11:00, we headed for Blessings of Hope in Leola. They immediately ushered us upstairs for a luncheon where we got to meet the founders of the ministry, Aaron and Dave, and heard their stories and passion for service.
They served us a substantial lunch and crafted lattes. While we ate, we got to talk with the ministry founders, Dave and Aaron.Dave gave us a presentation of the ministry, shared the backstory and the ways the COVID crisis has exponentially increased their reach.Dave showed us around their current 44,000 square feet, and where they have plans to build a 22,000 square foot addition.
At 1:00, we were guided to various posts along the box production line. We joined a group of 50-60 people on the line and in two hours we packed 1,500 grocery boxes that will go to neighboring states. Our experience at Blessings of Hope was a beautiful one of seeing what vision and passion can do. Several men wanted to use the resources around them to help the less fortunate. They used what they had–immense amounts of food that would have been discarded, and ministries who needed food and storage space–and brought the needs and the resources together.
Around 5:00 we headed into Lancaster City to explore the shops that were open late. Students were given the assignment to try a new food and engage in conversation with someone they don’t know. It was a beautiful evening to be out, and the streets were festive and relatively empty, so we didn’t have many chances to talk with people.
Some of us enjoyed take-out Vietnamese food. Here, Caleb feeds Eloise with his chopsticks. This group was brave enough to try goat curry.
This morning, after breakfast and devotions, the men drove to City Gates in Lancaster, and the women went to City Gates in Ephrata. These are ministries that get to know homeless people by offering a warm place, coffee, soup, and prayer. The City Gates organization aims to suit each place to fit the needs of the local town, so Ephrata offers different activities and services than Lancaster does. They also have branches in Lititz and Columbia.
The men set up a coffee bar, and enjoyed serving soup and having conversations with people who dropped by.The women set up coloring pages and painting projects and played with Rose who toddled around. The ladies enjoyed meeting people who dropped by. We served them soup, bread, and cookies, and had great conversations!
After taco salad back at our home base, we joined the kids clubs team from Pleasant Valley church in Ephrata. We piled into a caravan of three vans and caroled on porches and sidewalks for the children and families who come to kids club. We made around ten stops, caroled, and gave the cookie boxes our ladies had prepared.
The church had an big snack ready for us when we got back, and the students played a game of volleyball in the school gym before calling it a day.
Caleb takes his turn to describe how the lenses he wears color his world.The group debriefs a communication activity.A team bakes cookies for their project tomorrow.
We started at 7:00 this morning in the meeting room with Matt. We are grateful for a meeting room on the same campus as where we’re staying, and we have the place to ourselves! Matt taught us about the skills necessary for healthy teams, such as trust, communication, and leadership. The tool he teaches uses the DISC assessment, which gives us a common vocabulary and helps us understand each other better. It also gives us material for ongoing conversations with each other.
We broke several times for breaks, snacks, and brunch, and were finished at 4:30 so Matt could go back to his home in NYC tonight yet.
Some of the men grilled chicken for supper, and several ladies worked together to make the rest of supper. After supper, Patrick led the group in dreaming about the kind of world we long for, and what we can do to reach those dreams.
After debriefing and dishes, teams worked together to prepare their projects for tomorrow. It was a restful evening of preparation and conversation.
We arrived at The Welcoming Place between 3:00 and 5:00 and settled into the place that will be our base for the next two week. We love the simple decor themed on Middle Eastern and European culture. We enjoyed taco soup and salad, washed dishes, and headed for a meeting room down the path from the house.
From 6:30 to 9:30, we sat with Matt King from Elmherst, New York, who introduced to us to foundational concepts of team building and understanding cultures. He coached us in role playing activities where we tried hard to learn the aspects of the foreign cultures we encountered. We learned that personality, spiritual gifts, and past experiences shape us and influence the way we contribute to a team. Identifying and understanding those elements in others helps us value them instead of dismiss them as irrelevant or annoying.
We had fresh cookies and tea before calling it the first day.
This morning we packed up and loaded the trailer for our journey back to western Pennsylvania. We pulled out shortly after 8:00 AM.
By approximately 10:00 we had finally cleared the stop and go traffic and the bridges out of NYC. We had a good day of traveling and arrived safely back in Guys Mills around 5:00 PM.
We had supper and a final debriefing at the Strickler farm. For debriefing, students were asked to finish the sentence “On this trip, I learned…”.
I don’t think that any of us will ever be quite the same after the last 8 days. We have lots of challenging and good experiences to process and discuss. Many thanks for your prayers and interest in our trip.
This post concludes the 2018 FB Ministry Tour blog.
Today was Homeless Day in Manhattan. After the customary breakfast, singing and a devotional, the group split into our smaller travel groups and boarded the Metro for Central Park in Manhattan. Central Park is no ordinary park! It covers 843 acres and gets about 40 million visitors per year.
Central Park is an amazing breath of nature in the middle of a concrete jungle! It is a wonderful space for New Yorkers to get out of doors.
Students were given approximately 90 minutes upon arrival in Central Park for solo time–time for reflection and journaling. We then convened for lunch in the Great Hill section of the park and a 2 hour debriefing/reflection time for the entire week.
We also took the opportunity to capture a group photo.
Then it was homeless time! We divided into approximately 6 or 8 groups and divided up the pile of blankets that were brought along for distribution. The groups then went their separate ways in search of homeless people. Some groups wandered through the park. Here are Amber and Alisha pausing by the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir.
Eventually, most of the groups who started out in Central Park began to realize that late afternoon was not a good time to find homeless people in the park. This is the time when the panhandling business is booming and the sleeping areas in the park were largely vacant. As groups migrated below the park into the region of Times Square the contacts with homeless people picked up significantly.
The goal was to distribute blankets and then, if possible, find a homeless person to take out for supper. Groups met with a range of experiences from one group’s first homeless contact with lady named Shirley sitting on her suitcase under Trump Tower–a group member noted that it was quite special to speak of Jesus in that place, to another group wheeling an elderly man in his wheelchair off to the local fast food restaurant for supper. While we encountered a spectrum of fascinating stories (sometimes with conflicting elements) from homeless folks which we knew may or may not have been true–we enjoyed the opportunity to show that we cared and to show the love of Christ.
Another group dropped into lower Manhattan and visited the Bowery Mission. We delivered our blankets to them and discovered that the evening service (prior to supper) was about to begin (note the sleeping “parishioner” in the background).
The rousing service began with about 35 in attendance and ended with closer to 70. The spectrum of homeless present and the powerful way that the pastor addressed the group provided a wonderful window into the homeless experience.
The groups converged back in Brooklyn around 7:30 for ice cream dessert and to share stories from the afternoon/evening. Our time in NYC is winding down and we plan to head back to our little village of Guys Mills tomorrow.
This morning I looked out the window toward the street (through 3 layers of bars or fence) and saw an older lady, rooting through the curbside trash apparently looking for metals and anything else of value. I believe that I encountered her yesterday morning a block or two away. I admire her industriousness.
In New York City trash is serious business. On the way to breakfast, Josiah and I encountered 2 Sanitation Enforcement Officers in the space of about 3 blocks. A person could let their imagination run with the possibilities for a person dressed in a police-like uniform and armed with blue gloves unleashing their observational powers on the mounds of household trash piled on the sidewalk. I asked Rich Swartz about the “Garbage Police” and he informed me that they can write expensive tickets for a host of reasons including: not properly segregating recyclables, trash cans lacking lids, cardboard boxes that are being disposed of not being in bags, and can be influenced by a generally trashy area in the front of a house or the prevailing mood of the Sanitation Enforcement Officer. Rich promptly began rearranging his trash and picking up litter as he told me these things. He also told how the neighborhood children like to borrow (permanently) trash can lids as sleds in the winter time…and how the lack of a lid can translate to a $100 fine.
Today was Jewish Day! We were oriented to the Jewish faith by a local resident. We learned that there are over 800,000 Jews just here in the borough of Brooklyn.
We are here during a special time in the Jewish Calendar. Sunday through Tuesday were the days of Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah kicks of the 10 Days of Awe (Repentance) which end with the very solemn holy day of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. During the first 9 days of Awe, the “books” from the last year are opened and Jews are to consider their deeds…and to repent and make wrongs right from the last year. On Yom Kippur the “books” are closed and ones fate is sealed for the past year. Following the Days of Awe a much happier time comes during Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles.
After orientation we divided into 5 groups and headed out to the three major Jewish enclaves in Brooklyn (Crown Heights, Borough Park and Williamsburg). Look at these seasoned subway riders!
A highlight during the Days of Awe is the practice of Kapparot. This is a ceremony in which certain groups of strict Jews atone for their sins by transferring their sins to a chicken which is subsequently slaughtered on the morning of Yom Kippur. This is quite a spectacle with streets closed off in the Williamsburg area for stacks of chicken crates and crowds of people who purchase a chicken, wave the chicken around their head while reading/reciting this prayer (presumably in Hebrew) “This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This rooster (hen) will go to its death, while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace.” The person being atoned for bends forward to read the prayer off of a paper on the table while they or a helper wave the chicken around their head. At the conclusion of the prayer, the “atonee” gently kicks the chicken in the head (you can see the elderly lady doing this near the end of the second video at the far end of the table). The chicken is then returned to a second set of cages for slaughter and distribution to the poor on Yom Kippur. Take a look!
Another interesting practice going on now is the preparations for Sukkot (the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles). Families are buying the temporary (typically bamboo-roofed structures in which they will be spending time during this feast. Some people go to Home Depot…in Williamsburg you can go to “Sukkah Depot!”
If you look closely you can even see Sukkah’s being constructed on the balconies of high rises.
A nearly omnipresent object on the right side of the doorway in the homes and businesses of Williamsburg was the Mezuzah which contains the Shema Yisrael prayer (Hear O Israel, the LORD our God…). It is customary for Jews to touch the mezuzah as they pass through doorways.
The teams reconvened in Prospect Park for a pizza supper and debriefing. Our leftover pizza was given to a group of “Rastafarian–looking” men who were convened nearby and who greatly appreciated the pizza.
Due to rain, a number of team members being sick, and near universal exhaustion the evening plans to go to the Highline in Manhattan were canceled and we headed home early arriving at home base around 7:00 PM.
Today marked a significant shift in our tour. For numerous members of the group, this felt like perhaps the first day that conversations with strangers and ministry started to flow naturally. It was a day in which many group members felt a new level of camaraderie with their teammates. It was a day in which the routine of spending 1-2 hours of time on the train at the beginning and end of the day along with significant jaunts on the train throughout the day began to feel normal. The men began the tour as navigators through the labyrinth of subway stations, train numbers/letters and directions and the transfers from train to train as we traverse the city. Increasingly ladies are becoming involved in and (at times) leading navigation through the metro system. Finally, today was a day in which fatigue hit the group in a widespread way as day after day of traversing by foot and rail from morning till night is beginning to take it’s toll. Overall, though, it was a great day!
Today was Hindu Day. This morning we headed north to the Woodside and Jackson Heights neighborhoods of Queens. Our team worked today under the direction of Urban Nations Outreach (UNO). One group left early this morning to assist with English language classes at UNO. The remaining group followed a bit later and a number of folks from the second group made a side excursion to Calvary Cemetery.
We also discovered a ghost in the graveyard…
…or it could have been Richard in a raincoat.
We arrived at UNO and found our comrades busily handing out flyers to recruit new students for free English classes.
While the neighborhood included plenty of Hindus, it really was a cornucopia of Asian/Middle Eastern cultures. We discovered that many inhabitants were the product of hospitality cultures and their friendliness was remarkable. Additionally, it was quite obvious that this culture greatly appreciated the modesty of our ladies and was visibly drawn to them. In many cases throughout the day, we were accosted by them instead of needing to start conversation on our own volition.
Students generally found that passing out flyers for free English classes was much easier than trying to distribute tracts.
After completing a competitive Scavenger Hunt in the neighborhood to encourage interactions with the people and culture, students were welcomed to UNO’s 2nd floor facility.
We were oriented to the Hindu religion and then set out via rail and bus for The Hindu Temple Society of North America located in Flushing.
We discovered that the temple congregation was in a 9 day festival to it’s primary diety, Lord Ganesha. Great white tents were set up outside the temple. We removed our shoes and socks under the tent and then padded our way over wet concrete, past the holy plants offered for sale (we were informed that we were not allowed to touch them and that Hindus could take this plant home and pray to it), past the coconut breaking area and into the temple. Photography of the deities was not permitted, however, the temple was filled with idols that were revered by the worshippers. Our tour guide informed us that a certain chant (perhaps 30 words long) would be recited 400,000 times in the 9 day festival as a great gift to the universe. We watched partially clothed priests busily making preparations for the evening activities. Our tour guide informed us that the idol in that part of the building was sleeping and that the chanting and considerably sized fire that would be launched later in the evening would wake him up. Our guide informed us that the temple needed to be cleansed every few years and that the process involved bringing a live cow or elephant into the temple and offering prayers to it. We learned about the attributes of the patron god of the temple and then watched a priest chanting and pouring milk and water over a god and worshipers circling the deities and giving their respect. It tugged at our hearts to watch children being led to give obeisance to these metal images by their parents. It was a sobering time.
Time fails me to tell of the person that got hit on the street by UNO, the Middle Eastern man who found us on the street and would like to send his son to Winter Term or my experience of inquiring about the availability of goats at a live meat market and due to language barrier difficulties…instead nearly having a chicken slaughtered and cleaned for (very) fresh eating. Fortunately, my increasingly urgent protestations stopped the process and resulted in the large rooster being re-deposited into his cage with his head still intact by a rather disgruntled poultry salesman.
We split into groups for supper and found our way to ethnic restaurants in the neighborhood. As my group blundered our way into a Pakistani restaurant and tried to figure out procedures, we were accosted by a Pakistani man who told us he loved Jesus. He insisted on buying our entire group cups of chai tea. We gratefully thanked him and made our way to the dining area. Soon he showed up and began conversing with the wait staff. I was hoping that we had not somehow offended him and made my way over to invite him to join us at our table. Soon thereafter, he came and informed us that he had purchased our entire meal and left a cash tip (nearly $100 in all). We were dumbfounded by his generosity and kindness. If anyone needs diamonds (real ones) or a high end watch, you can find his shop across the street from UNO.
We found our way to Hart Playground (a park) for debriefing before separating into travel groups for the train ride home.
Please pray for us as we turn our attention “kal” to a group that is known for being one of the least hospitable people groups toward strangers in the city.
