Reflections: Day 3

Alan Raudenbush
This week has been a very busy week. It has been very taxing physically, mentally and spiritually. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, and despite many close encounters with speeding vehicles we are all still alive and well. Everyone is becoming closer regardless of troubles that face us, and I am growing stronger every day.
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Blessing. That is really all I have to say about this trip. Okay, we all know that’s not all I’m going to say… so here it goes. My eyes have truly been opened in the 4 days that we have been on the road and in NYC. For some reason a few words keep coming to my mind over and over and over again. Even as I was praying tonight these words kept replaying in my mind: Patience, selfishness, money, God. I know what it is that God is dealing with for my personal life and what these words mean to me in my experience here in New York. I’ve been challenged greatly in each of those things and plenty more. This being my first missions trip and first experience here in NYC I assumed that it was going to be a real experience, but I never thought that it would be this personal. I don’t think I realized any of this until this evening sitting around the table and talking about our personal experiences, but it has truly been a blessing. I cannot wait to see what God has for the rest of this trip, for Me, for my new and old friends, and for this city and country. Hope all is well back in Morgantown or wherever you may be!!!! GOD BLESS!!!! ----Katy Whitehair
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This year’s experience has been different and deeper than last year. We are investigating our faith and being challenged with everything we do, in and out of service activities. God has been asking me to look at my motives and to make sure that everything that I do is done unto Him. I think that is very cool because Cindy and I deliberated between a few verses to be the theme printed on our team t-shirts and Matthew 28 ended up being the choice. God is also showing us the meaning of compassion, unconditional love, and selflessness.

Something that has been coming up for the people here is that we feel like hypocrites because of the dichotomy between what we do during service and what we do when we see someone begging on the street. During service, we know that our purpose is to serve the homeless and care for them; however, when we see someone begging on the street, we just keep walking and try to avoid eye contact. One of the things that has been great this year is that we went out in small groups to deliver left-over food to people on the streets. This really helped to hit these thoughts and help us find a balance between our feelings.

OH! One more very important thing…I got engaged yesterday on top of the Empire State Building! SMILES!!!!!!

Mandy Vance
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