Notes from New York, Part 2

For the avid observer of human behavior that I am, New York City and the surrounding locals, is nothing but the sweetest kind of fix for my particular addiction.  I'm not kidding!  It's better than any mall I've ever been to...better than W*alMart...better than Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg!  Those of you who've been to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg understand what I'm talking about.  I realize that the fact that living in close proximity to NYC would provide copious amounts of inspiration for our beloved Chronicles is not a ration reason for relocation...but brother let me tell you...I'd be stoked to give it a go!  A friend of mine says that I'd totally blend in Queens.  I think it was a compliment...I'll just believe that it was.

• A four to six block walk to our ministry HQ wasn't a very long walk.  However, when you are *blessed* with stumps for legs and the walk is being led and pace set by those with stilts, the four to six block walk begins to feel like the Bataan Death March.  I'm not exactly sure of the block count...it's hard to keep track of that when you're trying to keep track of students, unfamiliar sidewalk (stretches of it reminded me of the knee eating sidewalk in front of my grandparents' house) and making sure that everyone crosses through the intersection at the same time.
• Found it oddly humorous that one of the girls in our room felt the need to explain to me why she needed a cough drop...at 2:53 in the A of M...since I was awake and giving her the cough drop...I was...as was the rest of our room...fully aware of why she needed the cough drop. 
• Got lunch from a NY icon...the corner street cart vendor and what better...a gyro!  Street meat and it was soooooooooooooooooo good.  For $5, it was a pretty cheap lunch and saved us a bit of shoe tread.
• Our dorm was in what used to be a neighborhood hospital in Queens.  Rather odd to think about what might have happened in the various rooms throughout the building.  Some of the girlies were a bit freaked by the fact that someone might have died in the room where they were sleeping.  They seemed a little more comforted by me telling them that it could have been a room where babies were born.  It's all in how you look at it.
• Navigating the subway sans luggage is a DREAM.  Well, a little less intimidating than when you've got 30+ people, each with two or three bags, trying to navigate the subway.
• Yes...the BRIGHT yellow shirts draw attention...but they help us keep track of each other.
• Sweet tea...you have to be steeped in it to understand how much you miss it when you go somewhere that doesn't serve it as a staple.
• Remember this guy from "Starsky and Hutch?"
Well, we didn't meet him, but we met his brother at our ministry site in the Chelsea borough.  I kept looking at him as Youth Pastor was talking to him and wondering if it was REALLY him.  Turned out it wasn't...but his brother.  So there you go for a near celebrity siting.  I'd have preferred a close encounter with the lovely SJP, but I'm not sure we were doing ministry efforts in her part of town.
• The first salvation decision made was encouraged by two of our quieter girls, who were baptized about a month before the trip.  SO proud of them and their boldness.
• So the interns from The Dream Center had one of their fancy phones hooked up to the PA system and they were rocking some tunes...which, of course, made this girl dance.  All over the park...like no one was watching...even though they were...and lots of them, too...but I didn't care.  'Scuse me for living, but there are just certain songs that make my feet moved despite my best efforts to remain in control of myself.  My dancing didn't go unnoticed...one of the interns named me "Best Dancer" for the afternoon. 
• Met a deaf lady named Carmen.  Youth Pastor walked her over to me and was asking (in sign...he signs too...his mama is a retired teacher of the Deaf/Hearing Impaired)me the sign for a particular word.  I showed him and then proceeded to hijack the conversation.  Usually, my fingers FREEZE around Deaf adults.  I am intimidated...I don't want to seem ignorant or sloppy in my usage of their language.  It's like going to France with three years of high school French and being scorned for your pedestrian and crude attempts to parlez vous Francais.  Anyway, Carman and I had a wonderful conversation.  I enjoyed talking to her.  We talked about her family...children, grandchildren and great grands.  I told her about my boys.  She asked if I was pregnant.  If any other person had asked me that, I might have been offended, but understanding that there are certain things about conversational etiquette that get lost in translation from English to ASL, I just let it slide.  I told her that I wasn't pregnant, just fat...that I enjoyed eating good food.  She told me to be careful.  Ain't that a kick?
• As I'm dancing through the park, I try to get one of our other chaperons to dance with me...calling him by name..."Hey...loosen up."  His response, with complete dead pan timing, "I am loose.  I dubbed him our groups Tommy Lee Jones.

• We left our ministry site in Chelsea and headed for supper at a nearby pizza place.  SOOOO good.  Our hostess was a Muslim lady named Nossa.  We gave her a large round of applause for our supper and her attentions.  One of our girls engaged her in conversation and was able to share with us some things about Nossa.  Then one of our other girls asked Nossa if we could pray for her.  Nossa was overcome by our group and moved to tears.  She asked that we would pray that her upcoming trip home, to Egypt, would be safe and that she would be safe while she is there.  She asked that we pray for the strife and unrest that has gripped Egypt in recent months.  Before we left, she presented those same girls with small gifts.  One received a vial of rosewater perfume and the other received an icon of religious significance to Nossa.  I was so proud of the way they graciously and gratefully accepted Nossa's gifts.  To have refused them would have hurt Nossa's feelings terribly.
• One thought stuck with me from this particular day of ministry.  There are LOTS of famous people in NYC.  There are names that are known and carry great weight in that city.  But the most famous, unknown person in NYC is Jesus.