Summer is Here

So this Sunday at Forefront, the AC wasn't on when we got there. It was like 75 degrees at 6am when I left my apartment to be there for setup, and a heat advisory was in affect for the day. So we turned on the AC, and it did not much. Remember, we meet in a theater with a tall ceiling. We were pretty hot doing setup, but got it all done earlier than usual. Yes! we thought, now we can get breakfast sandwiches in the nice cool corner deli. But no, their AC was not on either (but the breakfast sandwiches as always wonderful). So back the the warm Blender Theater.
I think everyone had in the back of their minds the idea that it would be cool by the time the first service started. Wrong. The programs were thicker because of life group info, so they made pretty good fans. At the end of 1st service, Jacob and a few others went to Walgreens, bought up some bottled water and ice and passed them out as people left and came in for the 2nd service. I must have drank at least 3 as well as a bit of OJ.
Usually when there's a heat wave, you hear about fights breaking out. The atmosphere at Forefront was different. People joked about it, dealt with it, and kept going.
After church, we had some reorganizing to do of all our supplies, so a bunch of people stayed after in the heat to reorganize and eat hot pizza. It was great. By the time I left for the train, I was completely drained. When I got off the train in Brooklyn, I had to get yet another drink - Gatorade. I took a wonderful cold shower and relaxed. Ahh, what fun! God is good!
Ya know, millions of Christians worship every week with no AC at all and they're fine. So I guess we got a glimpse of what it's like for them, as well as what it was like for Christians in New York 1900.

Life Group

So Forefront has life groups three times a year. Out spring one just finished. We were looking at the gospel of John. It was pretty different since we did the entire book in about 9 weeks. We were having to do like 3 chapters at a time to get all the way through at times. But we got to see the big themes in John, like Life, Divinity, Love, Truth, stuff like that. Anyway, for our last meeting we did some artistic reflection. We had paints, playdoh, and I played a song I had written on my guitar the week earlier. It was all pretty awesome. Kevin, who is a music connoisseur played some sweet "artistic" music he had on his ipod as we created our art.
Here is Katie and her fish. This is one of the fist caught by the boy to feed the 5000.
Here is Carrie's pic reflecting the Life that Jesus gives.

Here we kind of took a picture too late and Kevin was taking his playdo masterpiece apart...

Here's my picture. I just wanted to paint, so I started splattering and dripping paint on the paper. It looked cool, so I ran with it. I decided that it's the blood of Christ on the road to the cross.

Afterward, we went to a bar close by to hang out and eat hushpuppies! Yeah!

All in all, it was a great group. Some are moving away :( but the rest of us will hopefully stick together during the Summer as we look at the book of Proverbs.

The Mets

So it's either the Mets or the Yankees. You've got to pick one right? I'm not sure it's the same as Chicago with the Cubs and the White Sox where you must pick one and be against the other. It's definitely not real heated in New York. But at this point, when people ask, I always say I'm a Mets fan more than a Yankees fan. Why you ask? Well, it all goes back to my childhood.....not. A few experiences. Comparing the fan base, Mets fans were much more excited and supportive of their team at the first game I went to (granted I sat in pretty bad bleachers at the Yankees game I went to). Then there's the sense of just jumping on the bandwagon of the Yankees, since they are iconic of New York City. Then there's ARod and his fickleness (will he stay with the Yankees or not? How many more millions does he need?).
If you know me well, you know that I've never been a hard-core fan of any team anywhere. So who knows if being a Mets fan will stick? And yes, I did have to do some wikipedia searches to make sure that some info in the post was correct if that tells you anything.
So a few weeks ago, Forefront had a volunteer appreciation and Caren got a bunch of us decent tickets to the Mets Braves game (Mets won by 1, yes!). So here's my boyish picture at Shea Stadium. It was so cold that day!

The Past Month

As you can see below (previous post), it's been a while. February was a pretty eventful month I guess. I started a new job for one thing. This past week was three weeks. I'm an administrative assistant at the Jews for Jesus office in Manhattan. Josh, the branch director was one of the speakers for two of the Ozark classes. After he taught the second class, we got to talk a little, and he half-jokingly asked if I wanted to do some "administrative grunt work" when he heard I was in search of work. I answered a quick Yes! A few weeks later I had an interview. I learned later that he was not seriously considering hiring someone until that conversation. So, I'm learning the ropes of the office and eventually I'll be his assistant. It's definitely not what I envisioned myself doing, but it's where God has led me. I thought I would get a job where I could be around lots of unChristian people, but I guess I get to share the gospel in a different way to people when they call the J4J office. So, I'm thankful for work and a paycheck.
Last weekend, an Ozark class also came out. They were here just from Friday to Monday. It was an "Introduction to Church Planting" class, and I got to be with them all weekend. They were a great group, and we had some great teachers. I am so thankful that God led me to be involved with this. I've been learning stuff and have had church planting on my mind more and more. Pretty sweet.
Life Groups also started this month. I'm leading one that's studying the Gospel of John. The three meetings we've had have been great so far. There's about 11 of us altogether (though not everyone has shown up at the same time). Though we're meeting in the Forefront office, everyone has felt comfortable. I've tried to make it as homey as possible. The group is kind of backwards from what I thought it would be though. I kind of envisioned having some people who weren't Christians, but everyone is. I also thought it would be super focused on study and not so much on relationships, but people have been staying after group for a whole hour just talking. That's OK with me.

Learning from the Monks

I think that if I was born in the middle ages, I would be a monk in a monastery. I know they had their flaws. I'm not so much attracted to the simple life, but the focused one. Being a part of an entire community where everyone is seeking one kind of life together. When I look at American society, I often hate it. Each person must fight alone - against everyone else for the mighty dollar, or whatever else the individual wants. However, I know that every culture and society is imperfect with its flaws. But what about the church? Shouldn't it be the best society/culture - a different people living within a people? American/Western Christianity is still so individualistic to me. It's believers getting together as individuals - not as a community together focused on one kind of life together. That's what I want. That's the kind of church I look and strive towards.
And so here I am writing about it on my own, personal blog. Ironic?