A walk in the park….

So the phrase “a walk in the park” usually refers to an easy task to complete. Well, that carries a bit of irony for us after our first work day in New York. We spent the better part of our day working in Flushing Meadow Park on a beautification project and I can assure you that it was not quite all that easy

After a hearty breakfast and some teaching on humility from a youth pastor named Brian Boom, we made our way across the Tappan Zee Bridge and through some authentic NYC traffic. Once we finally reached our destination we were given rakes and garbage bags and spent the better part of our morning cleaning up garbage, leaves, and other detritis along a road side within the park.

Then, after popeyes chicken in the Flushing Meadow art museum, we got back to work. This time it was with pointy sticks and more black garbage bags to clean trash from another section of the park. At the end of the work day we climbed into our vans basking in the knowledge that we had  shed some serious sweat to help others.

We then closed out the evening with a little team building time at an incredible mall, complete with temporary tattoos and rides on a ferris wheel (Why don’t Illinois’ malls have those?) and with a much needed lesson on the rules and regulations of the game “Ninja” from our very own Courtney Hoekstra.

Now it’s off to bed to recharge for day 4!

Numbers 12

Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses

¹ Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. ² “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the LORD heard this.

³ (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

⁴ At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them came out. ⁵ Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, ⁶ he said, “Listen to my words:
“When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.

⁷ But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.

⁸ With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?”