KC Hearts on Fire in NYC

For those of you who don't know me my name is Prisca Kendagor, one of the young adults here at Metro. I recently went to New York city to do street evangelism with Campus Crusade for Christ. These are a few pictures that I took there and following are my reflections about the trip.

First off I want to start by apologizing for this taking so long. I know a lot of people donated money, and I don't want it to seem like I am ungrateful. If it weren't for your donations and prayers I would have never gone to New York, and done some of the amazing things there.

After such a great trip it's hard to figure out what exactly I can say. The bus ride wasn't that bad but the stops were the worst. When you're in a deep sleep on a bus at 3:00am all you want to do is sleep. The last thing you want to do is get off because its a rest stop. We did notice though that as we got closer and closer to New York from KC the bus stops got nicer, and nicer, and nicer... it was interesting. Well once we got to New York, the first thing I saw was a billboard for a Broadway play. That was very exciting for me because I'm a theatre major. We got off the bus, and within 5 minutes this homeless guy comes up to me and Jenny and just takes our bags saying "Oh I'll get that for you mam? Where are you going?" I almost protested, but he just took it, and starts leading us to the cabs!! I was in shock! Chris and Fred got on either side of him in case he tried to make a run ( I was especially worried because my luggage was on wheels). The homeless guy thanked us for trusting him because he knows there are weirdo's out there who would steal our luggage ... I wanted to say "you just walked up to us and took our luggage!" We get to the front, and sure enough the guy says "now of course you're going to tip your server. I'll go take a smoke break, and I'll be back in a minute for the money" ... that con artist. I had to admit I was impressed though, he was smart. He came back, and I gave him a couple dollars, and that was that. That was our first experience in New York.

We all met up (there were eight of us from Johnson County Community College, and 25 from KU) and stayed at the Broadway Hostel. The people from Johnson County were me, Kate, Mollie, Lisa, and Jason. Two guys from KCK named Fred and Chris also travelled with us. After a full day of training on everything New York (the people, the subway, etc.) we were ready to evangelize. A special evangelism tool we used was "Soularium." It's a really cool conversation starter, with pictures and questions. If you see me at church and you have 10 minutes to spare ask me to do it for you some time. Any way it ended up working wonders for us. Tuesday we went all over the city to the different colleges ( I thought KC had lots of colleges) and did street evangelism there. Our group went to Columbia University, New York Tech, and Julliard which you know I loved! Columbia I think was our best place. Among the many people me and Jenny talked to, there were these two gay men (I'm pretty sure they were a couple.) I really sensed abrasiveness and fear from these guys. One of the questions we asked them was "When it comes to religion what have you tried?" one of them laughed and said, "to avoid it." They said they had come from Michigan to New York because they weren't really "welcome" back home. It wasn't till after we talked did they ask us where we were from, and we said Kansas and that we were with Campus Crusade. Needless to say they were surprised, because...well were being were like Christ. We didn't scream at them or anything, we just listened to their story. It's amazing what a simple thing like listening will do for an unbeliever. They didn't except Jesus as their Lord and savior right there, nor did they have a need to repent from their life style, but I know that a seed was planted there, and I only pray that someday they will understand the love of God, not the wrath of Him.

A few days later we went to a community college on Long Island called Suffolk County Community College. We met the leaders of their Campus Crusade group, and we all hit it off right away. It was really cool to talk to somebody who understands the struggles of leading a Christian group at a community college. We shared our stories, and life goals and dreams. The leaders were Ryan (worship leader), and Matt (president.) We plan on staying in touch with them down the road, and hope to keep the relationship between our two schools going (like sister churches.) So after we finished our talking we went off to do evangelism. Here's the thing, this school was kind of small, and there were ten of us evangelising here. Me and Kate where partners that day, we're actually the two main leaders of our Crusade at JCCC. We decided that it wasn't our place to talk to people, but simply to prayer walk so we did. The first thing we saw was a pamphlet for a group called "Soul Sisters" they examined many parts of spirituality, religion, and magic...so basically witchcraft. I right away felt the spiritual battle going on in this group (so much I had to drop the pamphlet), and we started praying for the women on the campus. The spirit of competition, that they didn't feel they needed to prove themselves with the men on the campus. We also prayed for the spirit of depression, and sexuality of course. We left the pamphlet there and moved on. We later prayed for the rest of the group ... that their evangelism go smoothly and that there be no abrasiveness and awkwardness and that we would see fruit from our efforts. Me and Kate were beginning to wonder if it was ok that we just prayer walked, and if there was even a point. I personally felt that it was really our role, as the "big sisters" (some of them called us mothers) of the group set the foundation with prayer, and let the new leaders take what God had prepared for them, and oh did they!!

By the end of the day all the prayers me and Kate prayed where answered. People were in tears ... the Holy Spirit moved so much. Lisa and Jason are two of the students from Johnson County. Jason is a leader in training and will take over Crusade next fall when me and Kate leave. They both told us about this girl named Lindsey who was very upset and was screaming in the middle of the cafeteria. They went to talk to her and found out that day she had just come back from the ER because she had tried to kill herself. She had anger issues, and depression and was upset because her ex-boyfriend was flirting with another girl. All these issues. Well long story short Lisa and Jason did Soularium with her and she was very interested in knowing the Lord, and going to Crusade at Suffolk. In fact it was only convenient that she was there that day, because she didn't plan on being there to begin with. She was just visiting. Lisa is currently doing a phone bible study with her, and according to Matt at Suffolk she did show up to the Crusade up there. And Lindsey's story was only one of many story's of that sort. There were at least 5 or 6 students who were either interested in knowing the Lord, or reconnecting with Him, and none of them had any idea that Campus Crusade was at their school. Did I mention that me and Kate prayed that the Suffolk Campus Crusade would double in size? I e-mailed Matt after I got back and he said they did have some new faces.

We also fed the homeless on Coney Island on Thursday, and it was just really encouraging to see people who had next to nothing, but still had the joy of the Lord in there heart. They had a few of us share our testimony at their church (including yours truly). It was just really good.

All in all the trip was amazing! I learned a lot, and I really saw God's vision for the campuses in the City. For me personally it was definitely a growing experience. This year my biggest struggle has been learning to dream again and believing in the vision God has given me for my life. Thoughts like "I'm not worthy of these dreams I have." and "They're just fantasy's I was silly to let myself believe they would come true" or worse "I'm a screw up, I can't do this." The hardest thing for a dreamer is watching your dreams get crushed. God used New York to light a fire in my heart again, and telling me "I made you a dreamer, it's ok to dream." When we went to Julliard I found out they have a playwrighting program there, and they only accept four playwrights a year, but everything including room, board, and tuition is payed for. I grabbed a pamphlet, and thought about applying. Kate saw the serious look of doubt on my face and yelled at me. "Prisca you're going to apply!!" "ok Kate I'll think..." "No!! You are going to apply!!" Haha, so I've decided once I'm done with the first four years of university, I'll apply to the playwrighting school at Julliard. It was nice to be in New York on Broadway and Time Square, and to be able to once again see the possibility of my plays in those play houses. The possibility of my name on one of those billboards/megavideo things. The possibility of people coming to the Lord because they saw a piece of work that I wrote on Broadway. Since I've been back it's still been kind of a struggle (I recently auditioned for two shows and didn't make either of them. That'll be my 6th show this year I've haven't made this year), but I'm asking God to help me understand. It's a struggle, but it'll be worth it in the end...I'm sure.

So there you go that's what happened in New York, it was amazing...and I want to go back!! Once again thanks to all of you who gave financially and prayerfully.

Much Love
God Bless,
Prisca