"Amazing Grace"

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found,

Was blind but now, I see.

- John Newton

Teach me your way, O Lord; lead me in a straight path.

Psalm 27:11

Be faithful in the small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

~ Blessed Mother Teresa

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

John 14:27

God's Promise

Yesterday we got a lot of rain throughout the course of the day. Just before supper the rain stopped, the clouds opened , the sun started to shine and the most beautiful rainbow came out right through our woods.

I was reminded once again of God's promise to Noah and his sons that "never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth."

8. God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons,

9. I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come,

10. and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth.

11. And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.

12. And this, God said, "is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come"

13. I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

14. When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds,

15. I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things.

16. When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things.'

17. That, God told Noah, 'is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth.'

Genesis 9: 9-17

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me."

Erma Bombeck

New York Mission Post!!

April 27, 2010. New York, NY.

This year’s Holy Week missions had a strong Manhattan contingent, with 50 young women, 10 young men, and about a dozen families involved in various service projects around the Big Apple.

The mission, running from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning, was based out of Old St Patrick’s Cathedral in SoHo. During the mission, the youth reached out to the people of the district, inviting them to the church for the Easter liturgies. At the same time, they engaged in various corporal works of mercy in conjunction with some of New York’s charitable organizations.

Caroline and I

The service projects started on Friday morning with Meals on Wheels, as we youth teamed up to deliver meals to the elderly, staying to socialize and spend some time when they could.

Meanwhile, another group helped prepare and serve lunch at a center for the elderly.

A few of us- posing

Holy Thursday - washing of the feet

Talking to a lady on the streets

Preaching

In the evening, we participated in a Midnight Run from 10 pm to 1 am. A Midnight Run is an evening delivery of essential clothing and toiletries to homeless people throughout the city. The missionaries had been preparing in the months prior to the mission with a clothing and toiletries drive, collecting items as diverse as underwear, socks, rain ponchos, sweaters, jackets, pants, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and more.

Before we started our deliveries, two former homeless people came and gave all the missionaries a talk to help them understand what they would be experiencing, sharing their own stories of how they came to be homeless.

One of them had graduated from college and worked for the Pentagon and the Air Force. He had a family, a wife, and a house in DC. But when his wife died, he mentally broke down. He forgot to pay his bills and go to work. Before too long, he found himself on the street. One of New York’s programs for homeless people helped him to start getting back on his feet again, although he still lives in a shelter.

The other speaker shared how his drug addiction had lost him his job and landed him on the street for 16 years. It took him a long time to recognize that he had an addiction and start detoxing, but he finally did it.

One of the co-workers that Caroline has worked with in the past year and her cousin who came down for the mission :)

Sleeping

The kitchen "crew" serving lunch at the center for the elderly

Walking down the streets in NY


Saturday in Harlem

On Saturday, the missionaries headed over to the Children’s Day Society in Harlem. There, they organized five stations of games for the kids: basketball, steal the bacon, Easter egg decoration, musical chairs, and dodge ball. The kids switched off from one station to the other until they had their fill of games.

The games were followed by a cookout and an Easter egg hunt. One missionary spent the whole day with the same three girls, bonding

“The kids really liked the personal attention from the missionaries,” observed Caroline, noting that the boys started shooting hoops and playing pickup basketball with the young men, while some of the young women found themselves surrounded by a small posse of little girls.

Friends

Easter Eggs!

Some of the things in this post is from a great newspaper article that was written about the mission.

It is hard to put into words what a blessing the mission was to me. I think many of us there saw God working miracles in the lives of those on the street and the people who were helping on the mission. It re-emphasized to me that the smallest gesture can make a change in someones life. In closing I want to share with you two quotes that help me summarize my experience in NY city.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.

-Mother Teresa

God bless you, Erin

Psalm 23

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

IT STARTS WITH ASH WEDNESDAY.....

Lent lasts 40 days from Ash Wednesday until Holy Thursday. The Lenten journey begins with ashes, a solemn reminder of life's limits, as we hear "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return". Ash Wednesday calls us to repent of our sins and to return to communion with Christ, in preparation for the joy of His Easter resurrection.

What does this mean for my Lenten journey?

A few days ago I posted one of my favorite chapters in the Bible~ 1 Corinthians 13. Through Lent I like to spend more time in prayer and at church. I also like to read many scriptures that remind me of Christ and His great sacrifice. His great love for us.

I will be sharing some of my favorite scriptures throughout Lent and after Holy week.

God Bless you all!

1 Corinthians 13


Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

"You have to believe in happiness,
Or happiness never comes...
Oh, that's the reason a bird can sing-
On his darkest day he believes in Spring."

D. Malloch