Day Two; Or, Bright Lights

Today we saw the city. It was my first time walking the streets of New York and I was really looking forward to it. The purpose of the walk was to pray for the city. We teamed up and started walking the Brooklyn Bridge two by two. When we got to the midpoint of the bridge, the group came together and we prayed that God would brake the chains of the people in New York; we prayed especially for those women that are victims of the sex trade in the city.

To me, this prayer walk was significant because of the fact that, for the past several months, I had been thinking a lot about international sex trafficking and what I should do to fight it. I had been debating going to law school for the purpose of helping bring justice to those who buy and sell human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation. This experience was a kind of confirmation for me.

Another reason this prayer walk was significant was the fact that Dr. Lyons had been teaching from Psalms 107 that very morning and the following words struck me: "He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces" (Psalms 107:14 New King James Version). Those words became my prayer for the city, and this prayer was echoed by other members of the team as well.

In addition to the prayer walk and the visit to ground zero, we did what every person should do when they go to New York City: New York Pizza, baby! And boy was that stuff good! Oh, and I forgot to mention in the last post that the night before, after we reached out to the homeless, we went to a street vendor for kabobs. They were the best kabobs I have ever tasted, and that is no exaggeration!

That day we also went to the launch of Hillsong NYC! It was off the chain! First we waited in line for a while--the line was really long. But we got into the second service (the second of three, that is). The music was very loud, but after a while I got used to it. Even though I did not know the words to most of the songs, they were really easy to pick up. All in all, it was a great experience and I would not mind going back to that church if I were ever back in NYC. Did I mention that the lights were REALLY bright.

Those were not the only bright lights that we would see that night. After we left Hillsong NYC, we went out to Times Square. A lot of what we did is a blur to me right now, but I do remember going to a four (or was it five?) floor Forever 21. That was kinda interesting. Can I just say that I am so glad I did not bring my debit card for this one. I don't exactly remember, but I think we went back to NYSUM after that. That was a great day!