Carol Dee Meeks

We Became the Sights They Watched

A New York Mission trip in 2005---used Basketball to teach young one about Jesus

With the sun smiling behind the clouds, our group deplaned in New York City. We laughed with excitement. We pointed at things new to us on our first-time journey to The Big Apple. We finally found our way through the airport and out into the street so we could flag down a shuttle. It was strange seeing New York’s licenses’ plates everywhere.

When our children were small, on our travels, we played a game involving license plates on cars we met and cars that passed us. I would write the names of the states on paper while our boys had to tell something about that state. It passed time away. It served as a fun, learning experience. In addition, it was always interesting to see how far people traveled. Now, here we were with New York plates surrounding us.

I pondered their reactions to this if they had been able to come along.

The youngest boy yelled, “We flew over the Statue of Liberty.”

“So high up is deceiving.” The leader of our group explained. “We flew by her, not over her.”

The ride to the room in Manhattan was an adventure. We women, sit in the back, panic stricken, with the urge to pray for our safety. Even the men looked alarmed. When we reached St. John’s University, our knees were trembling, our hearts were pounding, and we gave thanks as we watched the shuttle disappear into the afternoon. It was good to be on solid ground. The taste of food sounded wonderful.

An Upward Basketball Clinic, a New York Mission trip, the Acts l:8 Challenge, was our real purpose for coming. We traveled fifty-five minutes each day to the Bronx on the subway, and we knew we were misting the Rev. Billy Graham’s seed he planted just days before we got to New York. We conducted a clinic and gave devotions three times each day. The young boys and girls listened intently. In fact, they absorbed our message like the desert’s dry, cracked, land soaks up fresh rain. It was phenomenal to watch them as they watched us.

At the park, we noticed workers along the way, stopping to watch our activity. Each day more adults stood outside the fence. They listened. They also soaked up our message. We had thirty-three decisions for Christ including some parents and the curious visitors when the clinic was over. How awesome is that?

We took a journey. We accepted the Acts l:8 challenge we studied about in the Forty Days of Community. We toured some of New York’s best sites, but we became their site. The Rev. Graham planted, we watered, just like the apostle Paul spoke of in I Corinthian’s 3:6, “I PLANTED, APOLLOS WATERED, BUT GOD GAVE THE INCREASE,” The word became the best sightseeing experience for all of us: a new path, God’s remnant.

© 8-05 Carol Dee Meeks

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