the fifth one about nyc: the spirit

greetings from the end of a looooooong evening. tonight was indescribable, but i’m sure some thing will be said in a future post. tonight’s devotion was spirit-filled and illustrated the movement of the spirit that paul describes when he says in romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

the following two posts were written before the spirit-filled events of the evening devotion, and no one had the chance to blog anything tonight. hopefully tomorrow will include some reflection upon tonight’s devotion.

Erica Chatham (10th grade)

Thursday was fun, but it was also very difficult. The Staten Island team split into different groups; some went to a Moravian church to sort clothes and to put them in boxes and others went to the soup kitchen. I, on the other hand, went somewhere totally different. Stephen, the Stovalls, and I went across from the church that we are staying at and went to the Hospitality House. It had stories of apartments for the clients staying there. We were given a big job. We were told to dust the whole lobby. Sure that sounds easy, but when we got there, everything was covered with dust, dirt and what seemed like mold. So instead of dusting, we ended up washing everything. We grabbed a ladder, buckets of water, and wash rags to get started. I am extremely short so it was difficult to reach high places like the pipes and the exit signs. We were so determined to get the job done that we hardly took any breaks. When we finally finished it was after twelve and the four of us were the first ones back to the church. We had our lunch and took showers early, because we were covered in dust and dirt. It might have been a hard and serious job, but there were plenty of jokes for us to laugh at and that is what was enjoyable. When we left it was cleaner and a little bit brighter. The color of the lobby was a dirt white color and I hope that they paint it a dark blue, because it would match some of the weird lights in the lobby.

Tyler Hinshaw (9th grade)

Today, my group of Sara, Patrick, Ian, Niki, the Tellers, and I went to the Bronx. We worked at the Food Bank of New York. To get there we had to ride the ferry, the subway, and a bus. We had a short orientation to Food Bank using videos. Our job was to sort water, vinegar, bleach, and other similar liquids into boxes and only have a certain weight of the product in each box. Then we taped the boxes shut, labeled them, and put them in stacks. Four people (Patrick, Sara, Niki, and Ian/me) put the products into the boxes, taped them, and sorted them. The other three people got the products out of the original boxes they were in and put them on a long counter for the others. In the end, we sorted 4,183 lbs of liquids, which equaled about 3,217 meals. We finished at 12:30, so we got to leave earlier than we thought. Since we had extra time, we went to Chinatown and Little Italy. All of us teens got I <3 NY shirts for $3! After walking around for a while, we went back to YSOP for our final meeting, where we filled out evaluations and talked about our week. For dinner, we had pasta. A group from Michigan and the leaders from PH joined us. Now we are cleaning up, and soon we will begin our shareholder letters. Tomorrow is our free day. Can’t wait!

 

the one about meredith

many of you are now aware that one of my GOOTH members is in the hospital awaiting surgery. meredith was taken to the hospital on tuesday evening, and after a battery of tests, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, surrounded by a cyst. her mother, penny, sent an email to friends and family this morning describing the current situation:

The good news is she is fine right now, just some headaches periodically. And the other good news is that all indications are that the tumor is benign, probably a craniopharyngioma (for those of you who need more information).

The bad news is that the tumor is located deep her brain between her pituitary gland and her optic nerve. The tumor itself is very small but a characteristic of these tumors is that cysts grow off of them and that is what has happened to her and that is what is causing her symptoms now.

The goal of surgery is to drain the cyst to relieve the pressure on her brain to get rid of the headaches and to get rid of the tumor so that it doesn’t “grow” any more cysts. The hard part of that is getting the tumor out without damaging surrounding structures (ie. the pituitary gland and the optic nerve).

the family is “hanging in there right now” by the grace of God and the support of friends and family. through prayer, words, and acts of encouragement, their “spirits are good,” according to penny.

after visiting with meredith several times, it seems hard to believe that she has a brain tumor and will be having a craniotomy tomorrow. one wouldn’t know that she has this tumor in her head by her outward appearance. she is fully alert, fully competent, fully dressed, and unhooked from all the monitors. so many of her friends came to visit today. she said it was like an all-day party. she is the life of the floor. when a couple of her friends came in late this afternoon, all they had to say at the nurses’ station was, “we’re looking for m-” before the nurses pointed over their shoulder and said, “that’s her room.” all the nurses know who meredith is. she has so many people praying for her and offering encouragement…in the midst of this major surgery, God has placed her among a thousand angels to look after her and lift her up on their wings.

please pray for meredith and her parents and sister. because of meredith’s current pre-surgical state, it is difficult to grasp that this is a life-changing event. while the prognosis and hope are that meredith will fully recover from the surgery, this is still a big event in her young life that will forever mark a period of struggle. she is currently a member of our confirmation class and will miss joining the church with her fellow confirmands this sunday. but i know that this event will not keep her from completing her confirmation journey and joining the church at a later date. her class has pledged to stand with her on her confirmation date in the future as a sign of their solidarity with her in faith.

i am so glad to have her as a part of GOOTH and of the confirmation class. she is a bright, sharp, quick youth with a thirst for learning and a faith that is ever-growing. i know this surgery will mark a moment of struggle in her life, but i also am confident that she will grow in faith as a result of it. both at GOOTH and in confirmation class, we have talked about how our faith journeys are made up not only of “mountain-top” and other high experiences, but also of the deep valleys and struggles of our lives. it is in our doubts and our fears that our trust and confidences are built up.

please join me and our church family in praying for meredith and her family. as penny also said in her email:

Again, the power of Christian love in a crisis is a miraculous thing. In my 24 years taking care of people in crisis, I have seen it so many times and now have the opportunity to experience it. While I would rather my family not have to go through this and with everything in me wish that my Meredith didn’t have to go through this, I know that God will grow us all and one day perhaps we can look back on this day and see the lesson learned.