This last week has been filled with special blessings. We’ve had a number of guests and visitors at the mission. Even now as I write on this Sunday evening, one of my guests is packing his bags in preparation to head home tomorrow. I’ve really enjoyed having Willie visit for the last week and help with the food runs and music. His guitar playing was absolutely incredible. The variation in the strumming pattern, while including picking really added to the music while he was here. We also had a delightful friend of the ministry named David come and spend a couple weeks with us. He worked with driving and doing food pickups, which was a huge blessing. His work enabled me to go home for Christmas without leaving the NYGM staff in a bind, and it also enabled Brad and Galen to go out of town for a few days, early this week. I know they really enjoyed getting out into the wilderness and spending some time in the mountains.

In addition to Willie and David, my brother Peter was able to come to NYC with me for a few days. It was good to have him here to be able to see the city and the ministry that God has enabled me to be a part of. Shadrach is another friend that has come and is helping out during his Christmas break. He’s a student from Uganda, and is here in the US doing his formal theological training. His goal is to return to Uganda and help his father continue to plant churches.

Christopher Love, a former NYGM intern has come back to visit us for 10 days as well. He was able to have a special part in our services today. It was evident that he has been greatly missed and dearly loved. God has clearly given him a special gift to connect with people, as well as the ability to use just the right word at any occasion. He participated through prayer and testimony in today’s service. It’s a joy to have him back with us for about 10 days.

This coming week we have the privilege of bringing on a spring intern, Josh Durnell. He’s a graduating senior at The Kings College, a private, liberal arts, Christian college, located in the financial district here in Manhattan. Josh is going to be helping us with food pickups, recruiting, and other things around here. He really has a heart for discipleship, and loves connecting with people and helping them along on their way to Christ. I look forward to having his as my roommate for the next several months!

In addition to these, we’ve had several other guests come and visit over the last week or so.

With New Years falling on a Thursday this week, we had our regular food pantry service, however very very few people attended. I didn’t get the exact count, but if I had to guess, I’d say there were around 30 or 40 people in attendance. Those who came picked a great day to come, because we had an abundance of meat, and were able to give each person that came numerous pieces of meat. I was in the back room, supervising the food distribution, and I’d conservatively say each person got between five and ten frozen items. Normally each person only receives one package of meat. In fact, we had so much meat that we gave out all of that meat, and still had our three chest freezers completely full. It was such that we had to call a partner ministry the next day, to have them take several boxes so that we would have space to be able to receive more meat, in preparation for future pickups.

Just by way of reminder and clarification, we have regular food pickups each day at 10 am and midnight. Then during the day we typically have two more pickups. They are early and late in the afternoon, ranging from 12-2 and 5-7. Then we have our pantry services each Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I preach on Tuesdays, Galen preaches Thursdays, and Pastor Bill preaches the Saturday outreach service, as well as on Sunday.