Live from Central Park, NY

Last night we got to attend the final of a series of outdoor concerts by the NY Philharmonic Orchestra in Central Park in New York City. We went as a guest of our friend and NY Phil viola player Peter. He even picked us up, drove us, and dropped us up.

My wife said that the evening was a combination of a couple of her favorite things: wonderful classical music and nature. The backdrop of a beautiful green park and NYC skyscrapers was amazing. I had to pinch myself every couple of minutes to make sure that this was really happening.

We got to see Peter's daughter Anne, who spent a couple of months in Paris with us last autumn. We finally met her fiancé Ben as well.

We got to sit next to Pastor Dave and Grace. He was interim pastor of our church in NJ 7 years ago and his daughter Chris was in the youth group 23 years ago when I started working with it. They now work with Master Media, a ministry that influences some of those decision makers in the entertainment industry and with some of the TV networks. Like la Fonderie, it's a high impact industry in that it works with those who influence culture.

Yesterday was an encouraging day. I started out praying with Dave and Dennis, a couple of guys my age from the church. During our prayer time, the Lord impressed on my spirit the Isaiah 43:19 text that takes about "new things." I shared this with Barbara (the VBS coordinator) and she was able to encourage the workers with this text as she went around.

It's funny how I was planning to not be overly involved at this VBS. But it hasn't worked out this way. I was finally able to send out the first prayer communique last evening just before we left for the concert. Strangely, the wifi at the house wasn't working yesterday afternoon, which made it harder to send. Also strange was that the e-mail at church yesterday morning was down, so we couldn't send the prayer sheet last night. It's a good reminder to pray for spiritual protection even over the technical things, like computers.