It's Saturday morning, and I feel like I've been in a blender for two weeks. We spent the past week developing language acquisition skills (PILAT). The material is excellent. Although to watch from a distance you'd think we were learning to speak to babies. We sounded like the old Police tune, do,do,do,dah,dah,dah. Tricia keeps reminding me to "Keep * the * Coca * Cola * in the * Cold * Can." It's been great fun. However, to go from 8:30 in the morning till 5:30 in the afternoon really wears you out. Add to that the fact that we're are working several days a week in our assigned church plants around the city, along with the additional requirements to journal, do cultural interviews and ethnographic observations weekly. There's hardly time to relax.
But last night the four of us hoped on the R to Times Square. Wonder is the best word I can use to describe my being when we popped out of the subway station on Broadway in the middle of Times Square. There were throngs of people everywhere, going in every direction. Giant LED billboards mounted to the facades of every building, glistening in brilliant hues of cherry red, cobalt blue and emerald green. The cacophony of sounds; of cabs honking their horns and of the sirens from ambulances. It really is very, very cool!
The kids wanted to get a few t-shirts, so we stopped at the MTV store. Not my favorite, but the shirts they selected were in good taste. We then headed east toward 5th Ave. and stopped at a pizza joint for some refueling. After that, we headed up 5th toward the famous glass Apple store (see photo of the store above). As we were approaching the store, there again were throngs of people around the entrance . It wasn't to be this night. The new 3G iphone debuted Friday, and there were thousands of people waiting in line to get in. We'll have to return another day.
A brisk hike back to the R and in less than a half an hour we were back in Astoria. Back home. I fixed the Choralier website for my friend Jay Forrest. And then, quite tired from the days activities, fell asleep.
We'll be working on team building this coming week. Continue to pray that God will expose the hardness and idolatry in our hearts, but be gracious and merciful to us as He does so.
In Christ,
Michael