June 27 (1:02 am New York time)

The day is finally over! It was soo long! Throughout the day my eyes would just start shutting. I suppose the reason for that is I barely slept for 2 days and all I ate was some junk food on the train; 1 peice of pizza also. Anyway, we did our first outreach; it was at a theater for this fashion show. It turned out to be pretty cool.
"In the beginning" (Genesis 3:7)
"Ancient Days" (Isaiah 51:9)
"Renaissance" ((Psalm 45:6)
"Colonial" (Galatians 5:1)
"Early American" (1 Peter 3:3)
"Newsies" ((2 Corin 3:17)
The roaring 1920's" (Luke 21:34)
"1930's, the age of Individualism" (Pslam 33:15)
"1940s Wartime" (Matthew 24:6)
"1950s Elvis" (1 Samuel 15:23)
"1950s All shook up" (Eccelesiastes 1:9)
"Moonriver" (Colossians 3:12)
"Surfing into the 60's" (Proverbs 14 :13-14)
"Motown" (Ephisians 4:3)
"Protest" (Roamns 1:28)
"1970s Disco Craze" (Judges 17:6)
"1980'2 MTV and VH1" (Romans 10:3)
"1980s Dynasty" (Luke 12:15)
"Spiritual Warfare" (Ephesians 6:10 and 12)
"1990s" (Timothy 4:12)
"The Millenium" (Proverbs 31:25)
"The Bride" (Isaiah 61:10)
So that was all pretty cool. Im really excited to see how God is going to use these experiences to help me grow in my walk with Him. Im still pretty nervous about talking to the firefighters, especially one on one.


June 27 (12:33 am New York Time)

We started off today by going to the Harvest Christian Fellowship Church. We sang about 10 songs (You are so Good to me, Pour out my heart, I life my eyes up, O Magnify the Lord, Jesus be the center, Hallelujah [your love is amazing], Come now is the time to worship, open the eyes of my heart Lord, Empty me, Light the fire, and You are my all.) Next, this guest speaker from California gave the sermon ans it was such a blessing. The message was just so true; it was about profit/gain. Eternal gain or temporary gain. Obviously this is so cool because thats a major thing Im going to have to look out for this week. Like, do I want to have eternal gain through this trip by seeking God the whole time, or temporary gain, like doing wordly things -time square- and trying to have a vacation. My walk in Time Square was really hard because I saw a billboard for Nip/Tuck with Julian McMahon huge in the center of it. Also I saw the TRL building. The craziest things were in the streets too. Like, we saw a small section of the street marked off for filming of a movie or music video. I didnt ask what it was for because I can see so blatantly how the devil was attacking me today. Probably the worst thing I saw was when this mid twenty year old guy walked up to me holding up a cardboard sign and a jar. It read "Please help me to get money for a _____ reduction" (Im sure you guys can figure out what was in the blank, if not...your so lucky in your innocence) If someone did that in Chicago they would get in trouble! Thats another thing. This trip so far has really made me appreciate Chicago. The smell. The driving. The friendliness. I love Chicago. Uh, and not to mention that this week just happened to be gay pride week and today was the parade. Ive seen hookers walking around, gays and lesbians, cross dressers. Just culture shock I guess. At first it made me feel dirty, but I know we need to walk in the dark and be the light. The most thing Im struggling with now is the wordly temptations, frusteration with Crystal, and praying aloud. They keep asking me to lead us in prayer and I keep saying no! It sort of makes me feel like a failure but Im really trying. My eyes burn. My feet hurt and my back is kinda sore. But its cool. We have a new NYC original on our team. Kumar. He seems really nice but I havent gotten to spend much time with him at all. We split into two groups. Chap, Tony, Brian, Erik, Crystal, Christen, me and Annette) Then Jason, Kuman, Julia, Jill, Jackie, Charisse, Eric, and Jacqueline. MY group went to some fire houses and they were all really nice people. Russel B. and Ed N. were the two we got to talk to most. They said they love the Yankees. Police are the enemies. And the pay stinks but they love their job. At the next one this young man gave Crystal some of his meat balls. (Erik and Brian tried some too). The thing was she kept saying "Uhh. Im so hungry..that smells so good..uhh.. im so hungry" over and over and finally the guy offered her some. Hehe, it was so funny. I personally thought it was rude but they were very hospitable and nice people. The coolest thing to me is seeing how each station sets up their 9/11 memorial. The day overall went good and at this point I just need to pray. Im struggling with praying out loud a lot and frusteration with Crystal still.. She seems to be snapping at me but nobody else, and they wont notice either. Oh well, its fine. Tomorrow is going to be a long day so I gotta' get some sleep.