Early Endings

DAY 6

Today was the field trip day! The challenge of the day was to safely escort ~80 kids from Inwood (the neighborhood where the program is located) to the Bronx Zoo! That trip is about 90 minutes of herding 5-14 year-olds on and off at least 10 subway platforms, innumerable head counts, street crossings, selfies with kids, megaphones, walkie-talkies, backpacks, sack lunches, and several extraneous conversations with other train passengers about who we are, why we are in the city, and what we were doing with the gaggle of chattering children.
After a long, warm day at the zoo, everyone made it back to the school safely and we closed out the day with a short lesson on the importance of giving our hearts to God.

Because this weekend is the 4th of July, most families are also taking tomorrow off, which means we expect a much smaller group of children tomorrow (apparently maybe none at all!) This news has been a bit of a surprise to us all--it meant an early goodbye between our team and the children, and truncates our window of opportunity to bond with them and share the gospel. It is also forcing us to be flexible with our plans, and do a little more flying by the seat of our pants.

As the end of our our trip draws near, we spent our evening devotional time reviewing how God has provided for the team, stretched and grown us as His children, and revealed Himself to us through the people of Washington Heights and Inwood, and blessed us with an opportunity to work with the wonderful staff of Operation Exodus.

God is good!