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07.20.06 - Thursday Update

The Breif: Times Square, Grace Plaza Rush Hour Outreach, Times Square Lights, Veniero’s Desserts

We had our outreach over the dinner hour, so we went by Time Square before heading over to Grace Plaza. We had time to visit just a couple of stores while we were there. We spent some time in Toys R Us watching the giant Ferris wheel. Some of our team was so enthralled with the magician doing demonstrations that they came out of the store with a $35 magic set. (No, 35 is not a typo) The girl’s downfall was the Hershey’s store. We had to round them up several times to pull them away from the aroma chocolate. It was a fun time.

After our walk through Time Square, we headed over to Grace Plaza for our outreach. We spent almost 2 hours doing an outdoor outreach on the corner of 43rd and 7 Ave. We were there from 4:45 – 6:30 over the dinner hour and thousands of people crossed right in front of where we were singing to get to the Subway, go home from work or stop at the stoplight right in front from us. We went through our music package twice and shared the gospel over the sound system 2 times. We sang several songs as a group and then several of the guys read passages of Scripture and Randall gave his testimony. Jon preached after our first time through the music and then a summer intern that is working with the Jones’s preached the second time. Many of us were able to talk to people individually about their souls. Today we saw more visible defiance towards the gospel than on Tuesday during our outreach at Battery Park because we were singing on the sidewalk very close to where people were walking by. We could see people rolling eyes, but because we were so close to the road, we could also see car drivers roll down their windows to listen while they were at the stop light. People walking by would leave the crowd to stop and listen. Singing in the open air is an incredible experience. You see people from all walks of life stopping to listen to the message of the gospel in song.

We also took the replica of the Ark of the Covenant with us because this is a heavily populated Jewish area. Sharing the gospel with Jewish people was a new experience for many on our team. They did a great job in explaining the message of the Ark and then also sharing the gospel from the Old Testament.

After dinner, we went back to Time Square to see the night lights and then headed back by our favorite pastry shop, Veniero’s. It was our last chance to get Canoli’s and other Italian desserts. We all savored the taste of pastries in NYC one last time!