This past weekend, our family went back to NYC to share in celebrating all that the Lord has done over the last 40 years at Graffiti Community Ministries/E. 7th Baptist Church. I was there as the Associate Director from 1985-1993. When I moved back to NYC in 1998, I worked at the Metro NY Baptist Association but was a fully devoted member at E. 7th Baptist Church serving in a variety of ways. I was able to be one of the speakers for the "80's" era at our Sunday worship service.
When I went there, there were few resources available for "doing missions" and you truly relied on faith in the Lord for the provision. Here is what I shared.
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When I arrived in '85, I learned quickly about some "surface" small things.....though NYC is BIG there are small things there too:
I lived in a very small apt in NYC
There was a very small storefront to do missions out of
I was asked to cook the Wednesday night meal in a very small kitchen AND a very small stove to cook on.
We had a small mission budget
At that time, there was a small group of kids to minister to
We had small amount of supplies which consisted of pretty much a typewriter, copier, crayons and paper....
Because of those "surface small things" it seemed impossible to do missions in my very "small, unexperienced mind" but over the years, I was reminded in various ways that "Nothing Is Impossible With God" as He can even use the small amount of the things we have to do GREAT THINGS.
After I arrived, one of the missionaries told me that the kids in the neighborhood were very rough and were determined to make me, and everyone else, leave town. Well, they DID made me cry(while in my very small apt, of course): they made me cry with their antics, their "colorful" vocabulary and sometimes just not showing up. They were pretty mean kids on the surface. And, well, I chose not to leave.
They soon got used to me and the others and we all began to invest in doing the small things in their lives. We called in volunteers to be partners for each of our kids, summer missionaries poured Gods love into them in many small and big ways, mission teams came and sharpened the space we had.
We called Fran Schoonmaker at Colombia's Teachers College to teach us about simple discipline and looking at their hearts and not their behaviors. They started coming more consistently. They expanded their vocabularies to more "civil" language and would actually beg us to spend more time with them. There were weekly trips on Sundays to feed them breakfast before church and field trips and sleepovers and birthday parties and even helping them figure out Math.
Graffiti Afternoon Summer Program(GASP) was started, schools and parents were visited. Tears were wiped and hugs were given generously and they were introduced to Jesus and some would become Christians and be baptized....and we as a staff learned about faithfulness and investment and commitment to a neighborhood that needed the Good News and our faith grew big and the childrens ministry grew bigger. My own small, inexperienced mind even grew a few more wrinkles.
Who knew what it would become today. God knew and He certainly has shown me that through doing the small things and sometimes even using the small physical things, great things WILL come.
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This, of course, is just one area that I was challenged in and grew in. I learned to love people just the way they are and if the Holy Spirit needed to change things in their lives, He would do that. My job was to love, to trust the provision of the Lord and to walk beside each person I met along the way. I SAW transformation in people that society would want to throw away. I saw children grow up, making different choices than their parents that would take them farther along in their journey and make a difference in this world.
More than anything, I saw that God was real and He loved this city that everyone hates and He was there all over the city, calling people to Himself.
The banquet we had on Friday night celebrated lives changed through Graffiti and how it has expanded to other places. A lot of lives that were changed were not the people in the neighborhood, but those who served the neighborhood. God used those we came to serve to change our hearts and minds and lives forever!
For more information on Graffiti Community Ministries/E. 7th Baptist Church go to:
Some of the Transformed Lives Through Graffiti!
This is Bruce. He is a new creation in Christ and has been being transformed over the last 30+ years.
3 quarters of a family who has had major transformations in various ways(the 4th is in another picture below)!
Lives transformed through music.
People who continue to be transformed through serving.
Eli-One of our kids whose life was significantly transformed in Christ.
Alex-A gifted musician who used his talents and gifts to minister and was transformed himself.
John-who was once ministered to is now ministering to others.
Pastor Taylor Field -continually transformed because of serving.
Some of these photos are courtesy of Graffiti Ministries. The rest are mine!
Lent: Day 28
