A word to the wise, perhaps?

Sam Gray, pastor of New Hope Moravian Church in Miami, FL is one of our musical leaders.  He packed his portable keyboard in extra shirts to get it to New York safely.
        Here Sam is getting ready. 

Ron Sider was our keynote speaker again this morning.  Today he challenged us to become generous Christians.  Like the prophets of Scripture, he said that we need to confront social sins like poverty as much as we confront personal sins.  Both, he told us were equally condemned by the Bible.

If we claim to be God's People and don't share God's concern for the poor, are we really God's people?
Tough questions, to say the least.  They make us think!
 

A group watching a video on violence in one of the workshop sessions held just before and just after lunch today.  The workshops are to challenge us on some of the social sins that Ron talked about- discrimination, poverty, violence, abuse, the need to be globally aware and the challenge of world peace.

Then it was free time on a really beautiful day in New York City.  Many of us walked to places around the Columbia campus.  We made sure we went in groups and were always careful.

  How could they tell we were tourists????    

We then were shuttled to United Moravian 

When it came time to eat the Lovefeast we were invited to move around and share with each other.

          

  It was relaxation and visiting and then off to bed for a busy day of sightseeing in New York on Friday.  Three or four different groups will be making tours of the famous sites of the city from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island through Times Square and the Empire State Building.  While doing that we will also be looking around, challenged by today's worship and study to see where we, and others, may be overlooking needs that God is concerned about.

We all hope that you are enjoying these pictures and updates.  I don't know how much will be added with Friday's pictures since we will be in different places seeing the already over-photographed sites.  But check in on Saturday to see what might have transpired.