Bowery Mission

This past week I was serving with about 15 other college age people at the Bowery Mission in New York City. It was a tremendous time and I hope that this experience will drastically affect my life hereafter.

The Bowery Mission ministers in a number of ways, but the two focal points are their discipleship program and their food service. You can read about the Bowery's history here.

The men in the discipleship program there all have amazing stories to tell. One man who grew up in Guam was sexually abused at a young age and then went on to a life full of drugs and wealth as a successful artist. After a failed suicide attempt he found his way to the Bowery and went through their 6-month discipleship program. He was a great encouragement to us all and presently visits the Bowery often and is living in NYC.

I think I still need time to decompress (we worked relatively hard days in the kitchen and around the mission) and reflect on what I truly learned. It is always life-changing in some manner to have your eyes opened to the suffering, pain, death, sin, and different experiences our fellow man goes through. As I reflect on this short week, I will keep updating with my different thoughts.

Mildly unrelated, but the Bowery is home to the piano that Fanny Crosby wrote the majority of her hymns on.