Friday Night

A couple weeks ago, after arriving in New York, Jesse and I one night sat outside on the step in front of the church building, watching people and occasionally saying hello as scores of people walked by on Bleeker Street. Most people stopped by just asking how to get to such and such street, or asking if could recommend a good bar or club near by. But one girl stopped by and seeing that we were in front of a church, was confused and asked us what we were doing. We told her that we were in the village for the summer to help the church with their project of turning the first floor into an Art Gallery and putting on other events such as jazz concerts and film discussions. She was amazed that there was a conservative bible-believing church in Greenwich Village and that two young guys would come and work with them. From there we got to know her some. We learned that she is a New York City area native, NYU graduate, very liberal and currently co-produces film trailers for Miramax films. And from there we spent the next the hour and a half discussing everything from politics and gay marriage to religion to the Da Vinci code to jazz and New York City. As it was very late into the evening she left with a promise of hanging out some time again. I had it hoped that it would be sooner then later. Friday night she had called me back, (after leaving one or two voice messages in the last two weeks), and had invited us to a party/fundraiser she was having to raise money for a play that she is producing in New York City's Fringe Festival in August. So we arrived late (after leaving a Jazz concert in the outskirts of Brooklyn), to the party. It was low key, and it was a good time to meet people and chat. There were actually two people from Minneapolis visiting their friend Michael for a couple days. Michael was originally from Minnesota and had moved to New York several years ago, and has graduated from NYU’s theatre school. I had a decent conversation with Michael about why I was in New York and that I was planning on moving here in the next year to start a church. I stated the church would be more of a living community, meeting in people’s apartments rather then in a big building and that at the right time God would provide a apartment or brownstone for the living community to reside in. I mentioned that I felt that my situation of staying in Greenwich Village for the summer for free was one act of God’s Providence among many others. And it bear witness to God’s leading me in all this, giving me assurance that at the right time God would indeed provide an adequate building for the living community. He said that all this sounded amazing to him, and he’d been interested in hearing more.

If you believe in prayer, take some time and ask God to reveal himself to Elisa and Michael, and that Jesse and I could be used by Him in this.