I Left My Heart in New York City

New York flew by so fast! I feel like I blinked and we were back! Well here's a recap for you all with photos included. Enjoy!

Started off the trip by watching the team leave a day before me as I stood in a wedding.

Monica and I stayed behind and made sure Laurie was all good and married and then we peaced out and hopped on a plane to New York to meet up with the team.

We were pretty excited when we got there.

This was the view from our hotel.

The first morning we got to go check out Hillsong NYC for a Sunday service. It was pretty legit.

Hillsong NYC meets in theaters and while one service is going people line up outside the door and wrap around the building to wait to get in the next service.

Then we spent the rest of that day and the next day checking out New York and shopping.

I found the biggest Barnes and Noble I've ever seen in my life. 4 Storys!

 Of course we hit up Times Square

It was pretty crazy how many people were there just hanging out.

The next day we hopped on a ferry to go see Lady Liberty and visit Ellis Island. (you can't take knives or tasers on those btw in case you were wondering)

It was funny to see all the things in New York that you see in movies and feel like you're reliving hundreds of movies. They're really there!

We went to the 9/11 Memorial. (Which you also cannot take knives or tasers in btw)

They have these big pools where the twin towers used to be and the names of the people that died are engraved on the outside of them.

The new buildings they're building to replace them are going to be pretty aweseome

One of the most awesome things about this trip was getting to see my long lost friend Jil Smith. We have known each other since we were probably 6 years old. Our parents have been best friends since then and used to lead worship together at our church. I go waaaaaaay back with this girl and hadn't seen her since I graduated highschool with her 4 years ago. She's in New York interning with a fashion designer and doing awesome things with her life. I was so encouraged after getting to talk to her for even just the hour and half that we did.

After 2 full days of sight seeing and shopping I was very ready to get to work. We got to Metro and got settled in and everything and then they took us out on a prayer walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. It was really cool. The city is so pretty at night.

The next day we hit the ground running. We, along with a couple other teams that were there to work with Metro too, toured the facility that Metro has and heard all about what they do and then it was time to go out and invite people to the carnival we would have the next day. We walked up and down streets going door to door and talking to people, inviting them to the carnival. It was really cool to see the reputation that Metro has there with all the people that recognized the ministry by the tshirts we wore and would yell down the street "Yogi bear Sunday school! I went to that when I was a kid!"

One night we had a change of plan and decided to have our own church service. I got to lead worship. My fav:)

The carnival was a huge success.

 I taught the kids how to play Ninja.

We had a pretty great team.

We also got to do some street evangelism that was very cool. It was incredibly intimidating at first but got to have some really cool conversations.

By far the best part of this trip for me was getting to meet and hang out with some of the staff at Metro. They are incredible women and God is using them in incredible ways. I was so blessed to get to know them and I can't wait to see them again.

I've never been very sad to leave when a missions trip is over. Not that I'm sick of being there but usually by the end of a trip I'm ready to go home.

I was not ready to go home this time. I would have totally stayed if I could have. But goodbyes had to be said and we had to leave so we got in our 15 passenger vans and started the long trek back to Arkansas.

I got to drive one of the vans for some of the trip back. I was so excited. We made it back to Arkansas safe and sound, but I think I left my heart in New York City.