Monday, April 25, 2005

Interesting Week

Well it was a different week at Metro Ministries. One of Pastor Bill girls died. She had AIDS since she was born and was 14 when she died. We were all invited to attend the funeral, so I went. It is times like this that remind me why we do what we do. Sunday School is not just fun and games. It is life and death. Pastor Bill flew in Friday morning for the funeral and flew back out that afternoon. It was not the first funeral he has had to do for a child but you could tell it still affects him.

Friday was rainy so we did not have as many people as we did last week, but we still has 155 people. That is pretty good for a rain day.

Saturday we had a good bus ride. The kids were quiter than I have seen them this year.

Well I am ready for another fun filled week.
Bryan

Friday, April 22, 2005

God Is Good

Wow. It is before seven in the morning. I got up really early this morning to spend a couple of hours with the Lord. This is the first time He has really woke me up like that before, or at least its the first time I was willing to drag myself out of bed for it. Man, it's amazing what God can do in your heart if you let Him.

Basking in His Presence
Bryan

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Mills Lane Ain't Got Nothing On Me

(Mills Lane is a boxing referee)

Had a fight outside my bus yesterday. Two 11-12 year old girls were arguing about something, so I wouldn't let them on the bus. Then one of their brothers bothered the other girl so she slapped him. Then his sister jumped on her and it took three of us to break it up and to pry her fingers from the other girls hair. Then on the bus their little brothers started fighting, to protect their sisters' honor or something like that. This kind of behavior boggles me. But when talking to the parents its no wonder why they think fighting is the only way to solve problems. Our bus captain told one of the moms about what had happened. She told her daughter that it was "all right" and they would go to her school and she could beat her up. We try to do the best we can for these kids but when they have God's truth for 1 or 2 hours a week and garbage the rest of the time it's difficult to see the truth.

But I had a good morning today. I helped in preschool kids church. On Sunday kids can only come to church if their parents come, so there are not the huge numbers of kids like we see on Saturday. We had about 10 four, five, and six year olds. I spent most of the time buddied up with Marcus. This kid is energy with legs. It was difficult to get him to do anything unless you were patient and talked to him directly. So he sat with me through the whole class. But he did very well during praise and worship. Except he broke a maraca because he was tapping them together. And he did start making up his own words to "Hear I am to Worship," But over all he did well.

Having a blast with the Lord
Bryan

Saturday, April 16, 2005

260 WOW

We had so many kids at my site today. We had over 190 kids at John Adams houses and about 30 kids at Cauldwell houses. Plus a total of 40 parents at both sites, for a grand total of 260. God is so good. Each week we try to have a theme to attract more kids. This week was super hero week. We encouraged the kids to dress up like super heros and raffled off The Incredibles DVD. I believe that this was a huge draw. But it was really hard to control nearly 200 hundred kids on a sidewalk. I know its called Sidewalk Sunday School, but in reality it is usually held in a park or school basketball court. So please pray for favor for a new location. There is a park nearby and a school that will work, but we need permision for both. Anyway I am getting tired and it is time for bed. I just was so excited about what God is doing at John Adams that I just had to share it with you all.

Excited that the Lord is my Light
Bryan

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Driving Adventures

I drove today for the first time in NYC. It went just fine. Although, I did see things we don't usually see in AZ. Delivery trucks double parked, pot hols galore, and TOll Booths. Well, later Bryan

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Let's Try It Again

I'm going to try to post these pictures again.

This is me 25 feet up in the air.

Everybody in the dinig hall at the ropes course.

These are all the guys of the internship at a birthday party.

I posted this earlier but had to take it off because the website that was hosting it changed the name of the picture. This is us Blitzin the first weekend we were here. Blitzing is when you take a whole bunch of flyers and pass them out to everybody.

This is at a games workshop. I'm the one on the left.

Here a re a couple of pics of kids in preschool.

Aren't they PRECIOUS!!

Anyway, if you were hoping for a picture of me eating a fish, I was told it did not turn out. But I'll try to find another one.

Goodbye for now

Bryan

Monday, April 11, 2005

Something's Fishy

Yesterday I did something I had never done before. I swallowed a live goldfish. I was in the preschool sunday school and they were playing a game which involved grabbing goldfish with your hand and putting them in a jar. They decided that here should be a volunteer from each side to swallow their teams goldfish if their team lost. Unfortunately I was volunteered and my team lost. But, he didn't grab any goldfish, so they only made me eat one. Down the hatch. Someone said they got a good picture of it. I will post it as soon as he uploads his pictures. That will probably be tomorrow. SO other then my free seafood dinner I had a good week. I had about the same number of kids at my sidewalk site as I had last week, 165. It went really well. On Saturday I had a little lesson on submitting to authority. The staff member who is in charge of one of the buses I ride on Saturday was out of town. This wouldn't have been too much of a problem except that he didn't line up a replacement driver. So at the time we were supposed to go get our kids we didn't have anyone to drive the bus. So the director of transportation said since arrangements weren't properly made we wouldn't be able to pick up the route. This means that 60 kids waiting to be picked up would not get a ride to Sunday School. This really bothered me. But his concern was that he didn't want interns on a route if they couldn't control the kids and didn't know the route. Also, he doesn't have also of direct contact with interns so he has to assume that we all know nothing because he doesn't know us. He then came and talked to me and explained that one time they sent out an intern and they ended up in New Jersey. So he asked me if I thought I could handle the route. I explained that there were actually two interns on the bus and that we had directions for the route. He then asked again if we could handle the route, and I told him yes. He allowed us to take the route with another staff member driving. Because of this we left almost 40 minutes late, so we were told to pick up as many kids as we could and head back to the church at 4:00pm. We managed to pick up 45 kids and get back to the church kind of on time. We were the second to the last bus to come in. So this taught me patience and submission. I half considered jumping in a bus and driving the route myself, but of course that would have been criminal so I had to accept what the person in authority decided even if I didn't necessarily agree with it. That is not easy. I also realized how long somethings take to happen in a large busy organization. We told the transportation department at noon that we didn't have a bus driver, at 2:45pm we were supposed to leave, and at 3:25 it was finally resolved. Anyway it was a good learning experience.

Doing My Best to please HIM,
Bryan

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Busy Busy Busy

Wow, it's been over a week since I've updated. I have so much to write, I don't know if I want to stay up and do it. But a stitch in time saves nine.

Thursday I did visitation at John Adams Houses. I was able to throw a football with a couple of 11 and 12 year old boys. They were actually impressed by the way I throw the ball. If you know me you know that nobody is usually impressed with my performance in sports related activities. This made me wonder if an adult male has ever taken the time to throw a football with them. It's amazing to me how easy it is for people to lack certain types of relationships in a city that is so large. This is why visitation is so important. it shows them that someone cares in a world where no one does.

On Friday we had 50 more kids this week than we had last week. I am so excited to see what God is going to do in John Adams Houses.

On Monday we went to a high ropes course in Connecticut. They have a thirty foot high "leap of faith" and a twenty-five foot high "Catwalk". The leap is basically a free jump with a rope and harness. The catwalk was a log suspended in the air. I was able to do both but the hard part was climbing up to them. We also had a low ropes course with trust fall, spider web,etc...

Tuesday was the official kickoff for the youth meetings this semester. There were about 400 teenagers in the auditorium. Pastor Bill Wilson was the guest speaker. I was amazed how much authority he commanded over these kids. He spoke about pottery. He illustrated the steps to make a pot.

1. Start with raw material
2. Mold it
3. Smooth the edges
4. GO through the fire

He talked about how if we want to become what God wants us to become we must be willing to let God change us, and we must survive trials. He also talked about the potter's field. It is basically a graveyard for pots that didn't make it. Either they were unwilling to be molded or they cracked in the fire. We are like clay in the potter's hand. We must be willing to be molded. And we must be withstand the fires in our life. Anyway it was powerful to see so many urban teens together in one place hearing the word of God.

Growing in Him
Bryan
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