As we went over our weekly schedule Monday afternoon, our leaders purposefully skipped our plans for Saturday telling us that we had a surprise. Little did we know, it was going to be a day full of faith in the heart of New York City.
Our leaders prayed about it, and felt like the Lord wanted us to accomplish the following things:
Individually share our testimony, the gospel, give an accurate word of knowledge, prophesy over someone, and heal a sick person. Corporately we were to street preach, do some sort of artistic performance, get recorded on some type of video/media, get food for free to feed the homeless, prophesy and pray over a business and the owner, and somehow get a bike for free to give to someone.
Sounds pretty ridiculous, right? Better yet, our leaders were not coming. Instead, they put me and my teammate Ben in charge. They gave us a train ticket, $5, and said they'd pick us up in the city in 8 hours. So off we went, and our adventures began as soon as we got on the train. The Lord began to speak to me to this woman a row back and over, so before our stop I made my way over to her seat to begin to talk with her. I told her all about how the Lord sees her, and a few more personal things that she was going through. She looked at me with this awed expression, seemingly confused as to how I would know that. I explained to her that God knows her, which is why He told me those things. Unfortunately our train arrived, but I was able to share God's love with a total stranger. A few other of our team got to share the gospel with people on the train as well!
When we got to NYC, we were heading towards time square when we spotted a psychic stand on the side of the road. Ben instantly knew he was supposed to talk to her. So he went up and started telling her about herself, her family, and how much the Lord wanted to bring her out of her struggles. She starred at him extremely confused and replied, "uh.. okay get outta here kid. I'm supposed to be the one reading you, not you reading me!" Ben then shared the love of God with her before leaving! -- As we continued walking towards time square, Kayla was singing something to herself like usual when Lauren stopped and said, "we should sing on the red steps in the center of time square!" We all stopped and looked at her like she was crazy, but then decided - what the heck! So we figured out what songs and decided that Kayla would street preach right after. Now for those of you who don't know, the red steps are the back of TKTS, a discount ticket booth that hundreds of people line up for every day. It is the very center of time square, where everyone comes to take pictures. We climbed up the steps and just began to worship God. As we were singing, I opened my eyes and saw that all the people in the line to the left were turning to listen, as was the school of high school students to our right. We had been nervous that no one would be able to hear us in such a loud and busy city, but it was as if God hit the "mute-button" on NYC as soon as we started singing! As we were worshipping, I then noticed some super model walking towards the steps with a whole camera crew behind her, video taping with huge microphones and everything. She walked up the steps to right beside us, but her videographer didn't follow. He kept his camera and microphone on us. =) As we finished, Kayla began to tell everyone that we were just a bunch of kids in love with Jesus and how much He loved them too. It was so amazing!
After sharing God's love in time square, we headed towards central park. On the way we prayed for a few people, Lauren shared her testimony in a guitar shop, and a few other things I can't fully remember. We were walking through this huge shopping strip with stands all down the road when I suddenly felt like we were supposed to ask these businesses if we could have free food to feed the homeless. So we split up and started asking. Kayla and I walked up to one and I explained to the owner that we were christian missionaries who were looking for food to be donated for us to fee the homeless. He then told us he was Jewish, and we freaked out! We got to tell him all about how we are always praying and interceding for Jerusalem and about his inheritance in Jesus! We then got to pray over his business and the owner himself. It was unbelievable! He also agreed to give us free food! We found about 3 businesses that would donate food, so we said we'd come back towards dusk.
As we continued on towards central park Pascale and I walked right past a guy with a sign that read "Shalom Bike Rentals"... we looked at each other and started smiling and said, "we have to talk to him!" So we turned around and he began to ask us if we wanted to rent a bike. I replied, "um.. no, weird story actually. We're a bunch of Christian missionaries from Hawaii and this morning the Lord told us that we were going to meet someone with bikes who would be willing to give us one for free so that we could give it to someone in need." He didn't speak much english, but luckily Pascale spoke both of his languages: french and some african language! She talked to him and found out he was muslim. She got to share the gospel with him and talk to him about the bible for quite some time. He then told us that his boss was a few blocks up and to ask him about the bike. So when we got to them and told them the story, they said the boss was actually a few blocks over but to come back later.
After we went to central park and prayed for people, we made our way back towards the bike boss. I don't know how, but the gift of faith came on me so strong and I just knew we were going to get a bike! (as crazy as it may seem to get a free bike in nyc) - The guys saw me and were seemingly surprised that I actually came back. They walked me, Ben, and Pascale across the street to a van with a bunch of bikes in it, and pointed out the boss. (or so I thought). I again told the story of how the Lord told us to give a bike to someone in need and that we'd get it for free. He replied, "well, I'm technically not the owner, but I'm in charge for today... hold on a sec." He talked to someone and then turned back to me .. "you can have a bike." - I couldn't believe it! I thought it would be a small crappy run-down bike, but it was a legit black and red bike, full size! We thanked and prayed over each employee and walked down the street with our free bike! We then headed off to go collect our free food...
We prayed about who God wanted us to give the bike to and some people got an older man and some got a teenage boy. So we walked around looking for people to give the food to first. God led us to these sweet old ladies and an elderly man. We had full on hot meals! Not just a bag of corn! When we gave them the food they were soooo thankful! One of the ladies didn't speak english, but I got to talk to her in spanish and share my testimony with her as well as pray together! It was incredible! But after that, we still had a whole box of corn in the husks left and a bike. Everyone we asked didn't want the corn, which was getting annoying. Then Joel said he felt like God said whoever accepts the corn is who we're supposed to give the bike to. We stumbled upon a basketball court and felt like this 14 year old boy was definitely the one. But Ben and Joel were convinced that we had to stick with the corn word. So they walked across the court and offered the kid corn. He looked at them like they were crazy and said no. We were like, "well of course they aren't going to want corn! They're playing basketball!" but they were just like .. well then he's not the guy.
We had about 15 minutes until we were being picked up and we still had a box of corn and a bike. We were wondering where in the world we were going to find this guy when an older man came up and said, "hey, how much you want that bike for?" We all stopped and stared at him because we weren't expecting someone to approach us! We looked wide-eyed at Joel who was holding the corn, and he goes, "uh... you want some corn?" and the guy responds, "can I have the corn and the bike?" and we were like, "YES!! You actually can!" He looked so confused, but we explained the whole story to him. He then told us how he had surgery to remove his intestinal cancer a few weeks ago and had been looking for a bike because it hurts to walk around a lot. But he didn't have a lot of money so was hoping he could buy it off us kids for cheap. He showed us the scar and everything from the surgery, and told us how earlier that day someone had given him free water with the ten commandments attached to it. We got to share the gospel with him and how God was showing him that He would provide! Then we all got to pray for the healing of his cancer.
As Felix walked off with his box of corn and new bike, we heard him yell across the street to his friend, "HEY! I just got a free bike!" with total excitement in his voice. It made all of us smile SO big!
(The girls and Felix with his bike and corn!)
Basically, it was the coolest day ever. We got to see God's faithfulness and how He always provides. God could send His spirit to times square and everyone would proclaim that He is King. But this Saturday, God just wanted to bless Felix and a few homeless people. Our God never forgets the individual. He is so kind, that He will even give His child a bike who wants one. Thats the God I'm in love with...
