Sunday May 22, 2011

Several from our group were supposed to attend Park Slope Baptist Church that morning, but after talking with John Ramirez on Friday evening, we were released from that plan. Every single one of us agreed that we were uncomfortable at the church and did not feel it was where we were supposed to be.
Therefore, that morning led to Seth Smith, James Leezer, Jared Doyle, and I traveling to Hillsong Church at 17 Irving Place. This church is a plant from the original Hillsong in Australia and Joel Houston, the son of Brian Houston (starter of Hillsong Australia), presented the message that day! The church was held in either an old bar or dance club (or both). This seemed to be common, seeing as real estate is so hard to come by (and extremely expensive) in New York City! The music was intense and incredible and the people were extremely friendly and welcoming!
After church ended, we headed back to the Upper West Side and stopped at 71 Café for lunch. I ordered Manhattan clam chowder, and when I glanced down at it, I thought it was vegetable soup because it was red instead of white. So Jared took it back to the counter, and they informed us that Manhattan and New England clam chowder are different. Who knew?! It turned out to be delicious, but nothing quite compares to New England clam chowder :)
We headed back to our housing to relax until our next engagement at 5 PM. During our free time, we watched yet another movie (thanks to Netflix online streaming) and simply relaxed.
At 5 PM, Katy Aleshire, Dani Bothe, Jared Doyle, and I made our way to the chapel area on the first floor of the MNYBA building for a prayer meeting with the Russian Church group. Only three people showed up for the meeting (they are still in the very preliminary stages of setting up their church), but it does not say where 500 are gathered in His name…only two or more!
Slova, the leader, played his guitar and sang a few songs. Most he sang one verse in English so we could sing along and another in Russian. It was beautiful! Then the four of us told our testimonies (they were all very similar actually) and Slova began the praying. Before heading out (they had to be out by 6 PM), we tried some of the Russian food they brought. It was interesting and one of my favorites was made from sunflower seeds. I love trying new food!
Around 6:30, Jared and I set out for Central Park with the intention of finding food along the way. We walked through the park and found ourselves on the Upper East Side on 58th Street. On the Upper East Side, we found a really interesting Apple (Mac computers, etc) store. The majority of the store was underground. The only thing on top was a big glass square with the Apple emblem and an entrance with stairs and an elevator heading down. Naturally, we had to go in. It was a really neat store, but we did not stay long.
Once back out on the street, we began our trek downtown towards Time Square (42nd Street). Along the way we grabbed supper (gyros), saw Gucci, Armani, and Prada stores, gasped at the outlandish prices of things, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
The only thing we did at Times Square before heading back to the MNYBA building was buy candy at Toys R Us. We picked our choice and set on our way back, happily enjoying our purchase.