Lives Will Be Changed
When you partner with Street2Street, lives will be changed. But be prepared that the first life to be changed will be yours.
"My ideas and views of people living in these communities have been shattered this week."
Pastor Dwight from Manheim Brethren in Christ Church led his youth group to serve for a week in New York City. They made their way from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Crown Heights, Brooklyn to meet the Street2Street team at Calvary Community Church.
40 teenagers from farmland America walking the streets of Crown Heights, a neighborhood infamous for gang violence, riots, and poverty. Their mission: invite the community kids to City Fest, a block party where Street2Street partners with NYSUM–the New York School of Urban Ministry–to reach kids in need of hope.
The team from Lancaster took to their job with enthusiasm, as you would expect. They handed out countless flyers, shared the Gospel, and prayed for those in the community. They went to bodegas, barber shops, and playgrounds to tell everyone.
Basketball tournament. Food Truck. Games. Prayer Station. Activities. Free.
You’re invited!
I watched the team as they blanketed the neighborhood and engaged strangers, and even when they arrived at a local park to find kids playing basketball.
Pastor Dwight made his way towards me, a glint in his eye. “Hey! I know we’re supposed to be handing out flyers, but can I play basketball with those kids?”
I smiled, and waved an inviting hand toward the court. “Of course! You know, that’s how Street2Street started!”
A guy from a different state, a different culture, a different life–an entirely different world, really–eager to find a way to connect with these kids in New York.
Race, culture, social economic differences, and age, we all know, can create a chasm.
But basketball? That levels the playing field.
I watched as Dwight and his youth group played basketball with kids from the neighborhood.
It didn’t matter that some rode a tractor to school and some rode the subway. In basketball, it doesn’t matter who you are at all.
Dwight and his team finished playing basketball that day and invited their new friends to our upcoming event.
On the day of City Fest, kids who were invited brought their friends, families stopped by, and attendance tripled from the year prior.
Those Pennsylvania volunteers made it a priority to talk to every person who came. Lancaster might not have much in common with New York City, but these kids understood a universal truth: kids everywhere are in need of love, connection, and a Savior.
"My ideas and views of people living in these communities have been shattered this week." Dwight echoed the remarks of his students, who were amazed and inspired by the simplicity of the connection they made with kids through basketball.
