SWAM New York Mission Trip 2011

Welcome to the official blog for Idlewild High School Choir's SWAM New York Mission Trip. The trip will take place from June 19-25, and throughout the week we will be posting pictures, videos, and updates for friends and family to enjoy. So subscribe to the blog or continue to check your email as we embark on our journey to New York City to spread the message of God's love through our worship music and service to the community!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Monday Update


MONDAY
We woke up bright and early and had breakfast in the dining room along with a team from Indiana and Kansas. This was followed by orientation and training. As always, first days can always be a little rough...the generators that were supplied to us up here to power up our concert were defective so our tech team (who has been doing a tremendous job) had to improvise and rent a new one from a local store. One of the vans that were supposed to transport us to Coney Island broke down over the weekend so we had to do the whole commute via subway with instruments and all. A commute that was supposed to take 45 minutes ended up taking close to 2 hours. But the team remained flexible and with a positive and fun attitude through it all. They even took advantage of the opportunity and gave a little acapella mini concert to the people in the subway during the long ride. You can see some of the fun in the videos included in this blog. We finally made it to Coney Island, set up for our concert and performed/ministered for an hour and a half on the boardwalk facing the beautiful beach. We had a current stream of onlookers and people passing by. Many of them would stop and listen. We even a had a drunk crazy man try to disturb our concert and distract the audience from our message but the beach patrol took care of him. The audience welcomed our music, dramas, and dance routines very enthusiastically and we even had some people raise their hand during the gospel invitation. After the concert we ate at the legendary Nathan's Hot Dogs and returned to NYSUM. Before bedtime, as we always do in these trips, we had Big Group which is a time of debriefing and testimonies from the day. I spoke to the team about the power of words (from the book of James) and shared specific examples throughout my life of how I've been lifted up and encouraged by people's words but also how I've totally been demolished and devastated at times by reckless words...how sometimes we listen to the wrong voices and believe lies that totally handicap our lives and how we need to listen and believe instead those voices which speak truth, encouragement and hope into our lives. We concluded by exercising encouragement...I asked them to give a shout out to someone in the team who has been encouraging to them. What I thought would be a brief exercise took a life of it's own and 40 minutes later, I finally had to stop the "lovefest" because it was getting late. We gained a lot of territory for the Kingdom today and are steadily taking back what the enemy has stolen from us. I am very proud of this team...we are finally becoming one and only united is that we will succeed in our Mission. Tomorrow, noon concert at the USS Intrepid ship in Manhattan and then Brooklyn Tabernacle in the evening. Please keep us in your prayers...

Leo









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