Survey Day 4

Sunday started with attending services at a new church plant in the Kew Gardens/Forrest Hills area of Queens. The church plant is lead by Pastor Tim Richmond. We took the subway from our hotel to the service and met the multi-ethnic congregation. Brandie sang a special during the worship service and we had lunch with the church afterwards. The church shares lunch together every Sunday afternoon as a time of fellowship.

After church, we went to Manhattan to spend some time together and see some sights (the church plant does not have an evening worship service). We visited Times Square again, Broadway and the theatre district, the garment district, the Empire State Building, Chelsea, West Village, Greenwhich Village, SoHo, Tribeca, Ground Zero, the Financial Disctrict, China Town, Little Italy, the Lower East Side, Stuyyesant Town, the U.N. building, Trump Tower, and back to Midtown East. This was a guided bus tour and it allowed us to see a lot of sights without spending a bunch of time running around in circles. This is a tour that we recommend if you ever come to the city.

Tomorrow, we will meet another area pastor and continue our bus tours. Later this week we be shown some possible apartments/houses to rent by a realtor that goes to one of the Fundamental churches in Queens. We are very excited about looking at these living spaces so we can better plan our move later this year. God is showing us some great things here in the city and we praise His name!!!






Unfortunately, our computer is acting up and we cannot upload any more pictures. We will try again tomorrow.

Survey Day 3

Today was a day that was focused on our long term survival here in New York City....apartment/house hunting. We spent the morning in Astoria with a real estate agent talking about different apartments and the amenities that we want (washer/dryer hookup, parking, etc). The pictures below are from our lunch....Uncle George's Greek Restaurant. A true taste from Greece on Broadway (not THE Broadway) in Astoria, Queens. The owner is from Thessaloniki, Greece (a northern city of about 1 million people or so) and has lived here for many years. The restaurant is a nice little space with traditional Greek music and Greek television in the background. It was a good day today.

Survey Day 2

Day 2 started with a rush. The only appointment we had was supper with the Richmond family. Pastor Tim is in the process of starting the Grace Baptist Church of Forrest Hills, Queens. We had nothing much to do, so we decided to go to Manhattan and just poke around there and then end up in Astoria. We took the "7" train to Times Square. At the station, we met a group with a tract table set up. They set at the table and hand out literature to anybody with an interest. I talked with them for a minute and found that they hand out Chick Tracts, tracts from the Fellowship Tract League, and Bibles from Bearing Precious Seed.



After arriving above ground, we immediately walked to Broadway to just look around. The following pictures are from our sightseeing day today. We ate a hot dog from a street vendor, sat in the middle of Broadway and ate our lunch, and saw some famous buildings (Rockefeller Center, the Empire State building, Radio City Music Hall etc).

After leaving Manhattan, we took the "N" train to Astoria to walk around again and scope things out. We bought some Greek cookies from an Italian bakery (I love this part of the city), at some Italian food at a Greek restaurant, and drank some more Greek coffee. After not speaking Greek consistently for several months, we have surprised ourselves at how our language is coming back to us when we are in the middle of a conversation.

The evening was spent with the Richmond family. Before we met them tonight, we contacted a couple of real estate agents and prayerfully, we will see a couple of apartments or houses tomorrow.

Survey Day 1

The day started with an appointment at Faith Baptist Church, Corona, Queens and Pastor Vincent Sawyer (the church is pictured below).


His church is on 37th Ave. and 105th St. Sounds easy enough to find, huh? Well, Brandie and I left the subway station and walked until we found 37th Dr. Not Ave. Dr. and we proceeded to walk all over 37th Dr. looking for 105th St. and the church. After some time and mounting frustration, I looked at the street sign again and saw that it read "Dr." We walked down to the next street which was 37th Rd. We started thinking, here is a drive and road....the avenue must be next! It was and we finally arrived just a couple of minutes late. We felt like we were navigating Athens again.

He invited us to the church for a q & a session. He has a wealth of information about ministry here in Queens. We ate Chinese delivered by a motorbike (like in Greece). He gave us the number of a real estate agent that is familiar with where we are wanting to live. We gave her a call and are waiting for her to call back...hopefully, we will look at a couple of apartments in the next couple of days.

After our meeting with Pastor Sawyer, we took the "F" train to Astoria. This is where the majority of the Greeks live and will probably be the focus of our ministry. Walking the streets here was like walking the streets in Athens. We were drank a frappe', Greek coffee, and a plate of assorted Greek cheeses and fruit. We also got to speak some Greek!!! This is what we've been looking forward to for several weeks!

We walked the streets and visited shops and started building some relationships (even though they are in the infantile stage). Today, we were able to answer many questions about living and ministering here. We look forward to another great day tomorrow. Please enjoy the pictures below.

Greek Pastries

Greek Newspaper

Christos made us Frappe's (Greek Iced Coffee)!

Brandie with Manhattan in the background from Astoria park.

Adam with Manhattan in the background from Astoria Park


The Queensboro Bridge

A Greek Sidewalk Cafe in Astoria, Queens

Traditional Greek Coffee, Cheese, & Fruit

A Greek Orthodox Church

Here is the inscription on this Orthodox Church: "The metamorphosis (change) of salvation." Salvation does change us (2 Corinthians 5:17) and we praise the Lord for His grace! This grace is not found in a church or anchored to a church, but in His Word. The fact that Orthodox Christians look for God's grace through their church membership motivates us to relocate here as soon as possible and reach them with the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!!!

Arrival In New York

When we arrived at the airport in Indianapolis, we learned that our flight was delayed 2 hours. This allowed us to meander around the airport through the restaurants and shops. This worked out in our favor! I wanted to watch the Champions League Finals from Rome (Man U vs. Barca)...Europe's premier football tournament. Because of our delay, I was able to find a television in the airport and I watched the first half.

After boarding the airplane, we sat for about 30 minutes before we took off. I took the picture as we were landing at La Guardia. Pastor Tim Richmond, a church planter in Queens, picked us up at the airport and drove us to the hotel. After check-in, we walked the streets around the hotel and bought a couple of slices of cheese pizza. Wow! It was delicious. Now, we're beat and getting our plans together for tomorrow.

Survey Trip: May 27 - June 4, 2009

Tomorrow, we fly from Indianapolis, Indiana to New York for one week. The purpose of this trip is to locate housing and scout neighborhoods for the church plant. Please pray for our travels (from 3:00 pm to 5:15 pm EDT) and our children (they are staying with my parents here in Indiana).

We will blog daily during the trip...with pics!