Been A While

So I guess its been a while since I posted anything so here's an update on the life of Bryan.

I have a new position at Metro Ministries. I am now a Sidewalk Sunday School Divisional leader. This means that I am responsible for one of our 17 Sidewalk Sunday School teams. This includes lesson planning, supervision of staff and interns, and supervision of Sidewalk Sunday School sites. It has been a big step for me but I know if I keep God in first place everything will be all right. SO I am still in Division 16 which is our China Town/ Lower east side Division. But we have a lot of new faces this semester. Our divisional Leader from last semester is now on the leadership team and is only with us one day a week. I also have another part time staff member with us from Taiwan who also works in our Won By One department and one full time staff member who is new to our team. To help out our staff we also have 3 interns 2 from Germany and one from Washington State. SO we are looking forward to a great semester. And in case you were wondering I didn't perish in the snow storm we had in NYC a couple months ago but I did have a close encounter of the tree kind when I was sledding in Central Park. I hope to post some snow pics soon.

Until next time
Serving enthusiastically
Bryan

I Thought This Was Supposed To Be Break Time

Well it’s been an exciting week for me here in NYC. For the first part of the week I was sorting office supplies that were donated to the ministry. We had over 700 boxes to sort and catalogue. Although it sounds tedious it was fun because you never knew what might be in the next box. We got everything you could find in an office supply store: pens, pencils, hi-lighters, notebooks, staplers, glue, finger paint, notepads, picture paper, even paper shredders. So we will be able to use it for our book bag project in the summer and also save some money on office supplies.

Thursday and Friday we had divisional leader training. They are training us to lead the Sidewalk Sunday School teams, which we call divisions. But instead of going through a leadership book we are learning to be leaders by studying the way Christ led. We have to bring a concordance to class and we often look up scriptures that explain how Christ led. An example of this would be when Jesus calmed the storm. The disciples were freaking out and Jesus was sleeping. When they woke up he basically said chill out its just a storm we can deal with it. As a leader it's our job is to be calm and cool and under control even when something isn’t going right and our team is flipping out. The classes have been very good so far.

Thursday night I went to see Stomp. Stomp is an unusual stage show. It's somewhere between a musical a tap dance recital and a percussion concert. You come into the theater and there are metal objects and barrels all over the walls of the stage. The show begins with one guy coming on stage sweeping. He then begins to tap his broom to a rhythm. He is the joined by seven other performers and they continue making rhythmic noises for an hour and forty-five minutes using their hands feet and various objects including lighters, buckets sand garbage cans, barrels and even kitchen sinks. One sequence included rubber tubes that were different lengths so they made different pitched sounds, much like a bell choir. It was a really cool intense show, if you ever get a chance to see it would be worth the money especially if you are into percussion.

Saturday we took an outing to a very large mall an hour outside the city. I was told that it is the fourth largest mall in the USA. It was fun and relaxing to get to every town USA for a while. I found a store that where everything was $7.98. I bought a coat there. I also went and saw Glory Road while we were there. I highly recommend it. It was a great film.

Monday I was able to take out the child I sponsor through our Won-By-One program. We went to Times Square and saw Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and then went to Red Lobster. It was a lot of fun. Most of the kids we minister to rarely if ever get a chance to see a movie in the theater or eat at a sit down restaurant.

Well it’s been a full week.

This week shouldn’t be as action packed I am still hoping it will be fun and educational.

Serving enthusiastically,
Bryan

I Got A Computer!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right! I am Making this entry from my very own laptop computer from my very own bedroom in New York City. Hopefully this means more updates and more frequent pictures.

Well, that's it for now. I just wanted everyone to know that I am Wired.

Hallelujah.
Bryan

Camp Pictures Finally

Ok for those of you who are on the edge of your seat to see the camp pictures Ive been promising for 4 months, Here you go.

This is my cabin from the first week of Camp.

Here we are Lined up in front of the chapel. We would do this before every activity.

The Slip in slide is fun.

The kids caught some fish and so did I.

After Losing a game I had to eat a live Gold Fish

Yummy!!

I Hope you enjoyed these pics. I will post some more pics of this year very soon.

Christmas Is Over Already and 2006 Is Coming Our Way

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I was able to spend it in AZ with my family. First Christmas in three years all three Sweeney boys were home for Christmas.

Speaking of which we are having an open house at the Sweeney Home From 7-9 on Friday 30 Dec. If you or anyone you know would like to come let us know.

Well Sidewalk Sunday School is done for the year. We had a great time handing out Christmas presents to all of the children and of course preaching the Gospel to them. We also had an opportunity to minister in the schools last week. However we had to present a "Religious free" program. Well we did our best. We also handed out Christmas stockings to the kids at these assemblies. These stockings are filled by Christian groups all over the country so some of them contain religious saying like Jesus is the Reason. So we had to make sure we didn't give any of these out. It was a pain. Anyway its great PR for the ministry and we still teach a positive Christ centered lesson even if we can't "Preach".

Anyway Christmas was Great.
Celebrating the Birth of the King
Bryan

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's Christmas time in the City. We had our first snow of the winter this weekend and more is on the way tonight. This week we are giving Christmas Stockings to every child that comes to Sunday School. This works out to be a total of about thirty thousand stockings. I wrote out the number because I didn't want you to think I typed an extra zero. Well anyway Sidewalk Sunday school when its 30 degrees outside with wind is something I've never had to do before, but seeing all those kids with the stockings is worth it. These stockings are really cool. Most of them are hand sown and filled by churches and individuals all around the country. This makes every child's stocking unique. I will try to post some stocking pictures soon. If you want to make and fill stockings for next year let me know and I'll get you the info. For those of you who are wondering, I will be back in AZ on the 24 of Dec and returning to NY Jan 4. I am looking forward to seeing everyone and hope to do a presentation in our church to let everyone know what's going on at the biggest Sunday School in the country.

Until then
Serving the Lord Enthusiastically
Bryan

Thanksgiving

Well I survived my first Thanksgiving in NY. I decided to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I couldn't bear the thought of missing the most famous parade in the world when it was going on less than thirty minutes away. So I bundled up at five thirty in the morning to meet someone who was going to the parade. But I never saw her so I waited untill someone else I knew was going and met her outside her apartment. She was curious as to why I was standing outside her door at six o'clock in the morning. I told her that I was waitring for someone to go to the parade with, so I went with her and her friend. We had a great time. We were in a good group of people. There was one Grandma with her two grandsons from South Carolina who was apparently quite wealthy. She said she thought The Rainbow room would be a good place to have Thanksgiving, and they went to Tavern on The Green the night before. These are two of the most expensive restaurants in NYC. Her grandkids were standing at the front of the crowd she was at the back and we were somewhere in the middle. We were passing messages up to her Grandsons like put your scarf over you ears. When the Charlie Brown Balloon went by a lady behind me had no idea what the football was for. People are funny. But I did see the Beach Boys, Leanne Rhymes, Jeff Corwin, and a whole bunch of other people that where supposed to be famous but I had no idea who they where. But it was fun. We are gearing up for the Christmas Season. We have the Christmas coloring contest this week, Christmas Stockings next week and Christmas presents the week after that. I am excited to get into the Christmas spirit.

Pressing on,
Bryan

Pumpkins Are Heavy

I came to the startling conclusion this week that pumpkins are heavy. Our promotion this week was Hallelujah candy which was a paper bag filled with various types of candy. But we also had about forty pumpkins to give out at each of our Sunday School sites. Bagging and transporting them was hard. It made me wonder how they gave out a pumpkin to every kid until this year. We got the pumpkins from a farmer in Iowa who grew them just for us. But it was fun. My site had about 40 kids which is the most I have had all semester so I just have to keep looking for more ways to attract more kids.

On Tuesday it was raining really hard so we did door to door Sunday School. We took a bag of our Hallelujah candy and went through the roster of kids who have attended Sidewalk in the past and gave them their own private Sunday School sessions. It was a lot of fun.

One apartment we went to had a grandmother and her 4 and 6 year old grand kids. She was upset because they were moving out of state, so we got a chance to pray with her. Another strange thing in the buildings we were in was that the outside door of the elevators didn't slide open with the elevator door but swung out. It was weird. Has anyone else seen elevator doors like this?

Speaking of raining, it has also gotten quite cold this week, with highs in the fifties. I am just wondering what this desert dawg is going to do when it is 25 degrees. Brrrrrrr

Well thats it for now

Serving Him In the Rain
Bryan

Back In The Swing Of Things

Well, we have completed the first two weeks of Sidewalk Sunday School. It has been great. Our team is meshing well, and we couldn't have asked for better interns. They are Kyle from Canada, Matthias from Germany, and Nicole from Switzerland. They all jump in and help wherever needed and are doing great with the teaching.

The first week we had a group from Seattle go out with us all week. The leader of the group has been a close partner with the China Town division for a few years. He treated us all to a nice Malaysian dinner Saturday night. It was really great.

On Thursday I went and visited all my Sunday school kids, like I do every Thursday. I knocked on the door of a young teenager and his older brother answered. He said he would go get him. The young man came to the door and asked me to take him off the list. He said he was a little to old for "Yogi Bear". I told him he was never too old for God and that he should find a good church or youth group and I invited him to our youth program. I wanted him to know he could never outgrow God even if Sunday School was no longer interesting. I also spoke to another young man who wants to be a worker. I told him he needed to come every week, and he showed up on Friday. I am excited to see if he continues to be faithful. The funniest thing I saw this week on visitation was a 4 or 5 year old boy who came to the door completely naked. He was as unashamed as Adam and Eve before the fall. He excitedly showed me his game boy. The most interesting thing about this was that his mom was not the least bit fazed or embarrassed about his nudity. It is a different world here.

On Saturday it rained all day. So the parks where we usually do Sunday School on Saturday were completely empty. So we set up canopies next to where the kids get out of Saturday School, and did short Sunday School lessons. One of the spots we picked happened to be right in front of a store front Buddhist Temple. Where else can you do Sidewalk Sunday School? In front of a Buddhist temple. China Town Rocks!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I am doing well and am looking forward to what God has planned for the rest of the semester.

Going Forward
Bryan

Looks Like I Am A New Yorker Now

Hi everybody. I haven't updated in quite some time and for now don't expect frequent updates because I do not have easy access to a computer. But I hope to get one soon and updates will be more frequent.

Well anyway, I am back in NY. I have been here for about a month now. I did summer camps in August which are always a blast. I will post more about camp and some pictures soon.

(Editor's note: a Sidewalk Sunday School division is basically a Sidewalk Sunday School team that consists of a truck, 3-5 staf members, and 3-4 interns).

We are now getting ready to start Sidewalk Sunday school which will begin in two weeks. I will be in Division 16. That is the division in Lower Manhattan which includes a couple of sites in China Town. It truly is a unique division. Some of our flyers are even printed in both Chinese and English. The divisional leader for this division left last semester so we have a new divisional leader to this division. Her name is Simone and she has been at Metro for five years and has been a divisional leader in the Bronx for most of that time. But they only want her in Div 16 for 1 semester in which time I will be a divisional leader in training with the intention of turning the divisional leader position over to me in the spring. I am really excited about the new challenges and opportunities this will bring so please be praying for me as I embark on new adventures.

Serving HIM alone Bryan

Finished

Well, my internship at Metro Ministries is officially over. I am coming home to AZ tomorrow.

Man, the last couple of weeks have been great. We had a lot of people come out to Sidewalk Sunday School. I had over 200 people on my site all three of the last three weeks. My second site has been having 60-75 kids. At the beginning of the semester we only had about 15 kids.

God is so Good. I have been offered an invitation to join the staff of Metro. I will be returning to NY in August for the summer camps.

Well, I will see you all in Phoenix.

Continuing the race
Bryan

Pictures

Here are some more pictures like I promised

Here I am teaching an object lesson about being led by God

Here I am teaching the four reasoms we come to Sunday School. I think I got my helpers attention.

Here is another member of our team, Jen, teaching the story with my worker, Charlie.

Here we are at my second site singing songs.

This is me at visitation at John Adams Houses.

This is Charlie doing visitation.

This is Charlie and his brother one of his sisters and a cousin.

My protege.

Good Night for now.

Crazy Week

This has been the craziest week yet here at Metro.

Our Intern training is coming to an end so all our major assignments were turned in today so that they have time to grade them and return them to us in the next three and a half weeks. The main project was what they called a ministry portfolio. This included a scrapbook with pictures of the ministry, a written schedule for a typical week, part of a Sunday School lesson and five interviews with staff members. SO I was up late the last two nights finishing everything. ALso we had a skills test this week. We have to teach half of a Sunday school lesson to the instructors for a grade. it is also my week to help clean up all the dinner mess and set things up for breakfast. So it has been a very busy couple of days.

Yesterday was a bad day for the transportation department at Metro. One of the sidewalk Sunday School trucks had an electrical fire and completely burnt up. It is absolutely unusable. The truck that my division uses for Sunday school also had major damage. The stage wasn't secured and it fell out while My divisional leader was driving to our second SUnday School site. It caused fender damage to two cars and the truck my cost more to repair than it would to buy a new truck. So we are without a truck for the rest of the semester, and have to use a van. Today I basically had the morning off because I had all my projects done, but ended up spending the morning hauling stuff from our truck to the office and organizing it so we can use it in the truck.

Plus while we were driving home from the bronx today the bridge we use to get from the Bronx to Brooklyn was at a stand still. so we had to take a less direct route and ended up getting to church 45 minutes late. And in all the chaos that happened this week I forgot that it was one of the two wednesdays this semester that I was supposed to be in kids church. But not only did I forget but so did four of the other five people that were supposed to be there, so we got called in to the intern directors apartment and basically got our butts chewed.

Anyway this week was rough but last week wasn't so bad. It rained alot on wednesday so we set up our canopies and did several short Sunday school sessions. We even took a few kids into the truck for the lesson because it was raining so hard. THis was actually really cool. We sat the kids on our steps inside the truck. there were about six or seven kids. Then we taught the lesson. One of our props was a picture we drew of a truck about to run over a baby. ANd we said would you give your life to save this baby, Jesus gave his life to save you. A five year old girl noticed that there was not a driver in the truck we drew. When I asked if this truck were about to run over this baby what would you do, she said the trucks not moving there isn't a driver. Its amazing what some kids will notice.

It rained all week except Friday, so my site was the largest in our division last week we had about 230 kids total. God is so good. TO give you an idea of what I am doing here I am including a copy of my schedule in a typical weekTUESDAY
7:30 Intern Praise and
worship
8:00 Intern Class
9:00 Prepare truck for
the week
11:45 Lunch
1:00 Off to Patterson
houses for Sidewalk
6:30 Evening off

Wednesday
8:30 Prayer meeting
9:45 Intern class
11:45 Lunch
1:00 Off to Saint Mary’s
Park for Sidewalk
7:00 Church

THURSDAY
8:00 Intern class
9:00 Prepare lesson for
the following week
11:45 Lunch
1:00 Off to John Adam’s
houses for visitation
6:30 Virus Youth Church

FRIDAY
8:30 Staff Meeting with
Pastor Bill Wilson
11:00 Set up for Indoor
Sunday School
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Off to John Adams
Houses for Sidewalk
7:00 Rehearsal for Indoor Sunday School

SATURDAY
8:30 Morning rally
945 First session
1:00 Second session
4:15 Third session

SUNDAY
9:30 First Service
12:30 Second Service
3:30 Ride to The Bronx
for Church Set up
6:00 Bronx Service

MONDAY
DAY OFF!!!!
TUESDAY
7:30 Intern Praise and
worship
8:00 Intern Class
9:00 Prepare truck for
the week
11:45 Lunch
1:00 Off to Patterson
houses for Sidewalk
6:30 Evening off

Wednesday
8:30 Prayer meeting
9:45 Intern class
11:45 Lunch
1:00 Off to Saint Mary’s
Park for Sidewalk
7:00 Church

THURSDAY
8:00 Intern class
9:00 Prepare lesson for
the following week
11:45 Lunch
1:00 Off to John Adam’s
houses for visitation
6:30 Virus Youth Church

FRIDAY
8:30 Staff Meeting with
Pastor Bill Wilson
11:00 Set up for Indoor
Sunday School
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Off to John Adams
Houses for Sidewalk
7:00 Rehearsal for Indoor Sunday School

SATURDAY
8:30 Morning rally
945 First session
1:00 Second session
4:15 Third session

SUNDAY
9:30 First Service
12:30 Second Service
3:30 Ride to The Bronx
for Church Set up
6:00 Bronx Service

MONDAY
DAY OFF!!!!

Yes, I Am Still Alive

Hi everybody I know I have not updated for a week and a half and I promised you pictures so here is my remedy for both problems.

Things are going great here in NY. Nothing unusually spectacular happened this week so I will get a chance to update you on the regularly spectacular things I have been doing.

I have gotten a chance to lead worship a few times here. I have led in the Bronx youth service on Sunday for the past three weeks, and I led the Intern praise and worship session on Tuesday. My guitar skills are not up to the point where I can lead with my Guitar but I am doing pretty well with guitar accompaniment. On the same lines I was able to sing on stage in the middweek service at metro. This is the single largest service at metro because Saturday and Sunday services are split. But the two guys that usually sing on Wednesday were gone unexpectedly last week so the two girls that lead asked if I would join them about five minutes before praise and worship. I had sang on that stage in a group of eight or more but it was quite differant with only three of us and me being thw only guy. But it was Great.

John Adams is going great. We had over 230 between my two sites last week. I also signed up 5 kids for our Won by One child sponsorship program. you can read more about the program at http://www.metroministries.com/ .

ANd now the moment we have all been waiting for; my pictures.

This is me on the bus on saturday. This is the CRAZY BUS

These are our bus workers; Porcia, Takira, and Kadeem.

On of our kids eagerly getting of the bus for Sunday School.

I have crossing guard duty for one of the saturday Sunday School sessions.

It is my job to keep the we ones safe.

We went to Madison Square Garden for the Circus.

Here we are clowning around.

This is me with Niasia, my mom's Won-by-One Sponsored Child.

These are the only chicks that will pay me any attention.

And finnally a few pictures I took when Jeremiah and I took Sierra, Sarah, and Michele to TheLion King at Gammage Auditorium before I left Az.

I will post more pictures in the next couple of weeks. I have a scrapbook project that is required so I have taken and collected close to 100 pictures. I will never post all of them but i will post the best and most of you will porbably see the scrap book when I am back in Az.

Goodnight for now.

Bryan

Wow, What A Week

We had an extra busy week here at Metro Ministries.

On Tuesday we went to Paterson Houses. If you remember this is where we got a ticket last week from the Parks Department police. Well, since we couldn't take the truck into the park we decided to have Sunday School on the sidewalk. A priest from the Catholic church across the street didn't want us there. He told our divisional leader that it was his sidewalk and that we had to leave. We told him we wouldn't leave, so he called the police. So the NYPD came and totally backed us up. They told the priest that they didn't understand why he was so upset. They said that it was just a different way to share the gospel. They even offered to hold a parking spot for us in future weeks.

It was Mother's Day week here as well. This is among the busiest weeks of the year. On monday there was a Mother-Daughter banquet for the ladies that come to church. I was able to help out with the food.

On Thursday morning they had a staff ladies breakfast. Since the ladies were having a breakfast the guys had a bring your own breakfast meeting, in order to take advantage of the guest speaker, Helen Trowbridge. It was fun. Considering the ratio of women to men in Sidewalk Sunday school is about two to one, it was a very different atmosphere without the ladies.

On Thursday evening we had Mom's Night Out. This is an opportunity to invite women who have never been to church to a dinner at the church. There were about three hundred ladies there. But with 300 ladies comes about 400 children. So I helped out in the preschool area. We had over seventy 3-6 year-olds in one room. But it was fun, crazy, but fun.

My site on Friday finally came back up after a week of rain and spring break. We had about 230 between the two sites. God is so good. I am going to post more pics this week so be looking.

Pressing on toward the goal,
Bryan

Half Way Mark

It is hard to believe, but I am half way through my internship at Metro. We are having a special breakfast on Wednesday to commemorate this event. So this week was not short of surprises as usual.

On Tuesday we were asked by a parks representative to leave a basketball court we were planing on having sidewalk Sunday School on. She asked to see our permit and said, "Can't you see right here it says 'No vehicles'" So we packed the truck up. While we were packing up, a couple of girls were yelling at her saying things like "You get out of here" "Where's your permit." Part of me was like "Go girls Go" but the responsible adult part of me told them to stop, and that they were being disrespectful. So we parked away from the basketball court in a sort of drive way. The park police came and gave us a ticket. They said 500 feet from the park is still the park. Frustrating. So, we have to find a new location on Tuesdays, or do Sidewalk without the truck.

Anyway, on Friday we had a guest speaker at our weekly staff meeting. His name is Ray Bevin, and he is from Wales. He also used to be in a rock band. Kind of funny. He sang "Have I told You Lately that I Love You." Not only did he sing great but he was also very funny.

We also had a guest speaker for the kids on Saturday. His name is Kurt Zastrow. He is a very skilled ventriloquist. He had the kids laughing and laughing. It was great.

Well I'm ready for another great week.

Going Strong In Him,
Bryan

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

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

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

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