Houlton Wesleyan Church members spend week in NYC

  NEW YORK — It is the final night in a long week of mission work in New York City. An elderly woman is shuffling through the Port Authority Bus Terminal in ragged clothes and pulling her belongings behind her. She settles down at a quiet part of the hallway. A few members of a Houlton-based mission team approach the woman, carrying sandwiches, water and clean-up kits. They talked with her and prayed for her.
    Seven days earlier, 37 people got on a bus in Houlton. Their purpose: drive to New York School of Urban Ministry (NYSUM) in New York City and take part in a week of mission work. After weeks of preparation, meetings and fundraisers, the time had come to get on board and make a difference in an urban setting. The team was made up of members of several churches in Houlton and consisted of 36 residents of Aroostook County, and one Canadian.
On Sunday morning the team had the opportunity to go to Brooklyn Tabernacle, a non-denominational church that went from being a tiny group of people who met in a run-down building to having a congregation of 10,000 who worship in a renovated theatre. The trek to the church was made interesting due to heavy amounts of rain. The visitors would find out later that a record was broken for total rainfall in one day in New York City.
The service was filled with emotion, thanks to a magnificent choir, a strong message from pastor Jim Cymbala, and a friendly congregation. The team was surprised when Cymbala invited all newcomers to the front of the church to be prayed over.
On the third day, the Houlton group was split into three teams — Yellow, Blue and Green — to begin the first day of ministry which included running a vacation bible school. Another team took off for the Staten Island ferry where they talked to strangers and played worship music.
The next day the teams all went to soup kitchens for the day and after supper they went to Brooklyn Tabernacle’s prayer service.
The third day of ministry involved walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. This particular ministry was different from others as members just enjoyed the sights of the Brooklyn Bridge, stopping to pray for the needs of the city. Once across the bridge the group visited the 9/11 Memorial at Saint Paul’s Chapel, and Ground Zero.
Some members took part in another ministry, visiting Goldwater Hospital on Roosevelt Island, a facility that offers rehabilitation and long-term care for patients with chronic illnesses, to talk to patients, providing them with friendly conversation and music. We formed into groups of two or three people and talked with a variety of patients.
Thursday provided the mission team with a day off to enjoy the city. They split into two groups, one visiting Coney Island, the other going to Times Square and a Broadway show.
For the final day in the city, teams conducted bible school at the Evangel Church and in evening they finished off their week at NYSUM with homeless ministry. Before heading out to the streets, my team led a worship service for everyone at NYSUM. Then we were briefed and we hopped into vans to take food and supplies to the homeless.
That night missionaries only got a few hours of sleep as we were able to minister to many homeless people. The bus arrived at NYSUM early in the morning to take the group back to Houlton. They were exhausted, from lack of sleep and the busy schedule of the previous six days, but more importantly they were all excited by the work they had done in God’s name.
Houlton Wesleyan’s mission trip to NYSUM was headed up by Pastor David Rowe and his wife Vicki. Rowe originally got the idea for the trip a few years ago from a friend who is a professor at Bethany Bible College in Sussex, N.B.
“It’s always been at the back of my mind to do something in the States by way of mission trips. We knew we had a number of people in the church who were interested in going but they were a little nervous about traveling outside of the country so they said if we ever do something like that inside the States to let them know. God was leading my heart to do it as well,” said Rowe.
According to Rowe, the purpose of the trip was twofold; to serve the people in his own country, and also to become aware of actual needs within the nation.
“We wanted to experience soup kitchens at the root of where there’s a great need. Basically partnering with other believers to help people who don’t know Christ as their savior,” he said.
David and Vicki had gone on two previous mission trips before; Mexico in 1999, and the Czech Republic in 2003.
“We did more practical things in New York City,” said Vicki. “(It was) giving food and lunches. When you had the chance to share Christ with people it was more-so meeting the basic physical needs of the people.”
Tyler Rowe is David and Vicki’s son. He led worship and participated in skits during the mission trip.
“I thought it’d be a good chance for me to help out some people who are in need and just show the love of Christ while helping provide leadership for the team in regards to music,” Tyler said.
Tyler explained where he found a special strength in himself.
It’s not always easy to stop thinking about yourself, but just seeing how happy it made people when we helped them out, you learn that you can persevere and find the strength to help others.
Ryan Tribou is a student at Houlton High School. The trip to NYSUM was his first experience with mission work.
“I went on this mission trip not for my own personal benefits, getting a week away from Houlton. I went on this mission trip to go to New York City to help people in need.”
Tribou said that handing out sandwiches and talking to the homeless had a big impact on him.
“I would most certainly do it again. I learned so much on this one mission trip for seven days and if I went for 14 days I’d probably learn a lot more. Not only that, but I would have a great opportunity to help others who are in need.”
Alicia Robertson is the daughter of Wayne Robertson, the lead pastor at Houlton Wesleyan Church. This mission trip wasn’t her first, as she has previously served in the Czech Republic, Washington D.C. and New York City. She felt that prayer played an important role in helping the team during the mission trip.
“As situations came up throughout the week I felt it was our response as a team to immediately pray and that really stood out to me,” said Robertson. “That made the whole difference in this trip. Having that spirit of prayer and going to God for anything and everything.”
Robertson noted that the need is just as important in your own town, as it is in the big city.
“We need to be humble. There are people in our community, as small as it is, that we also need to serve and love. We just need to open our eyes and go and help the least of these,” she said.
Chris Carmichael of Houlton went on the mission trip to spend time with his son and also to experience a different side of the world he hadn’t seen before.
“We have need, but we don’t have need like they have in the city. I wanted to go and show those people the mercy and love we can provide but at the same time I ended up being blessed by the people I thought we were going to bless,” said Carmichael.
Of all the ministries that Carmichael took part in over the week, he enjoyed helping at a relief bus in Harlem the best.
“We did a street ministry in Harlem and I passed out flyers with girls from my team. They walked up to total strangers and said ‘Hey are you hungry, do you need some soup.’ I watched the people come and be gracious. They thanked us for being there and enjoyed the ministry we were providing.”