A Good Day
Today was a pretty good day. I woke up around 9am and after about a good half-hour of figuring out how I would dress myself, I was ready to head out to New York with Marcos. The plan was that we would visit a Medieval museum uptown and then take the subway to Soho and shop. In the midst of all the travels we would have some awesome opportunities to take photos and try new things with our cameras. After taking my Digital Photography class this semester, I really feel comfortable with all of the things my DSLR can do and I've gotten so much better at switching around the Manual settings for any lighting situation. Marcos got to learn from the semi-pro (myself) this afternoon. I'm obviously gassed up.
We left around 10am to catch the Hamilton train station. Since our train was scheduled to arrive at 10:30, it's only right that we got there at 10:35 and couldn't get any parking. We ended up on the roof. At any rate, we got to New York and got food as soon as we got there. We ate at a Chinese buffet and talked about the importance of missions. I always had questions about the spiritual validity of missions and what they were about exactly. Of course I know that missions are important and make sense. However, I never fully understood the point of short-term missions beyond building things and other volunteer work. I had always heard stories of Christian friends who went out for 3 weeks to some country, met foreigners, and at the end of the trip a handful of them would commit themselves of Christ. I always wondered, "well what now? Do you still talk to them? Exchange emails?" I never understood why you would enter someone's life, share with them the life-saving truth, and then leave their life right when they believed it. The great commission says "Now go and make disciples of the world," not "Now go and make converts of the world." Making someone a disciple is so much more different; they see you when you're not a holy-serving American visitor. They see you when you're sad, frustrated, and not so patient. You're committed to love. It's hard, but it grows you.
Marcos and I chatted and he shed some light on the fact that short-term missions aren't useless in terms of sharing the truth. He pointed out that these people who come to Christ are plugged into a church and a network of some sort usually. I should've figured that out. God does use that and I'm sure he uses people for short terms just as much as long term. My spiritual mentor from high school was used to bring me to where I am when I was in high school. We don't keep in touch anymore but what he did isn't undone. I still grow. So in a way I feel like I was partially wrong. I'm still not completely sure where I stand (what's new?). But it will all work itself out later I suppose. I love having those types of conversations with Marcos. All we ever do is work life out. I feel like I'm actually closer to somewhere from talking about that.
After food, we took the subway to 190th. We passed through a nice, scenic park and took some photos before arriving at the Museum. It had awesome Christian imagery and sculptures. I loved a lot of the pieces there. Luckily, photography was allowed, so I could document every good moment of it. There were some beautiful gardens and fountains that I got shots of.
After the museum frolicking, we took the subway to Soho where I visited a new store called Uniqlo. It's a japanese clothing store that just started opening up in America. The two founders are a Japanese guy and some European lady who team up with hundreds of fresh international artists to pump out graphic tees. Each t-shirt is done by a different artist and there is a specific section dedicated to manga artists. The walls, beams, floor, and ceiling are all made out of manga pages and the t-shirts are really funky. And the best part is that they are affordable! I had heard a thing or two about it by mouth but actually got to visit it and I was blown away. The architecture is beautiful. The walls are decorated with t-shirts in the most unique way. And under each rack of t-shirts, it has the corresponding manga title! It's my kinda style. I got like 3 t-shirts and I'm definitely going back.
After all of that jazz, we were on the search for a sneaker store. Marcos needed new sneakers and we went through three stores to find them. He found these green dunks that they had to deliver to him from an external warehouse. They were originally $100, were on sale that day for $75, and since he had to wait 20 minutes for the shoes to get delivered to the store, he got them for $65. Sweet deal. After that, we left. I ate a painfully overpriced and undercooked pretzel dog and came back to my quiet dorm room.
All in all, Today was a good day. Marcos is a great brother.
We left around 10am to catch the Hamilton train station. Since our train was scheduled to arrive at 10:30, it's only right that we got there at 10:35 and couldn't get any parking. We ended up on the roof. At any rate, we got to New York and got food as soon as we got there. We ate at a Chinese buffet and talked about the importance of missions. I always had questions about the spiritual validity of missions and what they were about exactly. Of course I know that missions are important and make sense. However, I never fully understood the point of short-term missions beyond building things and other volunteer work. I had always heard stories of Christian friends who went out for 3 weeks to some country, met foreigners, and at the end of the trip a handful of them would commit themselves of Christ. I always wondered, "well what now? Do you still talk to them? Exchange emails?" I never understood why you would enter someone's life, share with them the life-saving truth, and then leave their life right when they believed it. The great commission says "Now go and make disciples of the world," not "Now go and make converts of the world." Making someone a disciple is so much more different; they see you when you're not a holy-serving American visitor. They see you when you're sad, frustrated, and not so patient. You're committed to love. It's hard, but it grows you.
Marcos and I chatted and he shed some light on the fact that short-term missions aren't useless in terms of sharing the truth. He pointed out that these people who come to Christ are plugged into a church and a network of some sort usually. I should've figured that out. God does use that and I'm sure he uses people for short terms just as much as long term. My spiritual mentor from high school was used to bring me to where I am when I was in high school. We don't keep in touch anymore but what he did isn't undone. I still grow. So in a way I feel like I was partially wrong. I'm still not completely sure where I stand (what's new?). But it will all work itself out later I suppose. I love having those types of conversations with Marcos. All we ever do is work life out. I feel like I'm actually closer to somewhere from talking about that.
After food, we took the subway to 190th. We passed through a nice, scenic park and took some photos before arriving at the Museum. It had awesome Christian imagery and sculptures. I loved a lot of the pieces there. Luckily, photography was allowed, so I could document every good moment of it. There were some beautiful gardens and fountains that I got shots of.
After the museum frolicking, we took the subway to Soho where I visited a new store called Uniqlo. It's a japanese clothing store that just started opening up in America. The two founders are a Japanese guy and some European lady who team up with hundreds of fresh international artists to pump out graphic tees. Each t-shirt is done by a different artist and there is a specific section dedicated to manga artists. The walls, beams, floor, and ceiling are all made out of manga pages and the t-shirts are really funky. And the best part is that they are affordable! I had heard a thing or two about it by mouth but actually got to visit it and I was blown away. The architecture is beautiful. The walls are decorated with t-shirts in the most unique way. And under each rack of t-shirts, it has the corresponding manga title! It's my kinda style. I got like 3 t-shirts and I'm definitely going back.
After all of that jazz, we were on the search for a sneaker store. Marcos needed new sneakers and we went through three stores to find them. He found these green dunks that they had to deliver to him from an external warehouse. They were originally $100, were on sale that day for $75, and since he had to wait 20 minutes for the shoes to get delivered to the store, he got them for $65. Sweet deal. After that, we left. I ate a painfully overpriced and undercooked pretzel dog and came back to my quiet dorm room.
All in all, Today was a good day. Marcos is a great brother.
posted by Satchell Drakes at
8:30 PM
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