Recently I traveled to New York City, with a group of college students for a spring break service project. I grew up on Long Island, so the city was no stranger to me, but none of the students had ever been there before, so I knew it would be rather overwhelming for most of them. I chose passages from Jeremiah and Lamentations for our week, and this is one of the 1st that we went over:
Jeremiah 29:7 English Standard Version (ESV)
7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
The Israelites were far from home and not by their own choice, but still God tells them to pray to the Lord for this foreign city, “for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” The students were thinking about what they would see and experience in the “city that never sleeps” (which proved true as sirens went past the ministry building where we slept in Brooklyn all night long). The subways, the crowded streets, Broadway, the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Plaza, the NYC Public Library, Time Square, Carlo’s Bakery—all of the wonderful and not so wonderful things that make up New York City.
They could hardly wait!
I wanted them to think outside of their own heads just as the Israelites had to do while away from their homeland. Some of the students had disabilities, the invisible kind such as learning problems and depression. In addition what they would take away from New York, what would or could they bring to the city and its inhabitants? What could they give of themselves? And what would they take away?
The students soon learned that they could depend on each other for strength and encouragement in low moments, and also for cheers and fun in the high moments. One student, who has ADHD and learning disabilities, found her visual memory invaluable in matching up dish patterns and toys; she actually found all of the pieces for a large car jumper seat toy that many of the rest of us had thought to throw out, because all of the parts weren’t there ☺ Another student with sensory issues found her limits in riding in a standing room only subway squished with two guys chatting casually about unsavory things. On return to the church house, she wanted nothing more than to sit down with me and her fellow students for devotions, to clear her mind and remind herself of God’s control.
Our service project for the week involved helping the congregation of Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatbush_Reformed_Dutch_Church_Complex) set up its Spring Rummage sale, one of their major fund raisers for the year. The students set up the tables, hauled donations out of their storage room, sorted, organized, and put things on hangers. The building that one of the students called our “home base” (she didn’t want to call it ‘home’!) was the church ministry house, built in the 1920’s. There was a main floor, an upstairs and a basement, with two sets of tiny bathrooms on each floor, and the kitchen and showers in the basement. The women slept in class room spaces upstairs, the men in a large storage room on the main floor. Suffice it to say that we were all well outside of any kind of comfort zone before we even stepped outside of the big wide doors!
Whether working in the church house cleaning, shoveling snow, working on the rummage sale, or out on the streets of Brooklyn helping a delivery van get unstuck from an unseasonable snow ditch (one thing students from Michigan could bring to the city!), the students showed the love of Christ to each other and everyone they met, and learned a new confidence in themselves and their abilities.
This brings me to the close of this story, but not its theme. I think that we would all do well to consider the words of the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
What can we bring to our circumstances? To our neighborhoods? To our churches?
And what will we take away?
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