Kick off Picnic, TV Commercial, Pet-Lovers

I just had to put this picture up this week because they were shooting an American Express TV Commercial in my neighborhood this week. Be on the lookout for an upcoming AmEx spot set in the 1970s (I saw their outfits) and know that it was shot in Kew Gardens, Queens, in Jack Raplee's neighborhood. Television and movie filming is quite common in New York City, but it always draws a crowd of curious observers and of course Geeks like me who take pictures, not of the actors, but of the equipment.

I've been planning to run a picture of Michael, our organizing pastor, on my blog for quite some time, so I had his wife take a picture of him and me at our church plant kick-off picnic this past weekend. I think the fact that his wife took the picture would explain the pucker. He usually looks a little less kissy.

This is a picture of the group who came to the picnic. It was a small representation of our actual launch community, but it was a good showing nonetheless. If you click on the picture, you can see me in the middle of the picture and Michael and Roseanne on the right at the end. He's not puckering in this picture.

These are more pictures from the kick-off picnic. The last picture is of Brian Fee playing Bocci with his daughter. I mention Brian for the benefit of the seminary geeks who are reading this blog. Yes, Brian Fee is in fact the son of Gordon Fee, a man whose texts were read with great enthusiasm by me and others at RTS and other evangelical seminaries around the country.
Don't worry about our church plant. This is not our banner but when I saw it hanging in front of a church in my neighborhood, I couldn't resist taking a picture of it. As most of you know by now, our church plant will be an evangelical, gospel-driven church, not given to strange traditions or rituals.

Lastly, Reyn said last week that he thought I sounded a little like Tom Brokaw. Hmm. Perhaps one of us missed his calling. Maybe he was supposed to plant a church in New York City and I was supposed to be a major news anchor. Curious isn't it.

Our church plant prayer list:
Our small groups are taking shape. I have three groups, so my work is cut out for me. I also am heading up the youth program at the church which begins in two weeks. Our rehearsal services begin next Sunday and our launch date should fall around Thanksgiving as Michael's ordination is Nov. 13. I am also currently trying to coordinate an interview on a Christian radio station in Connecticut sometime in the near future. This interview, along with some additional fundraising activity should also help my financial support picture, but I'm still a bit shy.

If you have been considering support for my work here (One-time, quarterly, monthly, whatever), please make checks out to Redeemer Presbyterian Church and write my name on the memo line. Send the checks to my home address (so I can keep accurate records) at 83-44 Lefferts Blvd. Apt. 3C; Kew Gardens, NY 11415. Take care this week and may God continue to bless you.

A REal GOod Neighborhood & Some Family Business

As I've said before, the purpose of this blog is to generate interest and excitement for our ministry in Queens as well as to provide updates on what we are doing as the church plant moves forward. Although our church will be in Forest Hills, we are hoping to reach the surrounding neighborhoods as well. To that end, I profiled Kew Gardens (where I live) a few entries ago. This week, we'll explore Rego Park.

The story of Rego Park is essentially a snapshot of Queens, all the way down to origin of the name Rego Park.
In 1925, the Real Good Construction Company purchased a large plot of land between Elmhurst and Forest Hills. The inhabbitants of the area were largely Chinese immigrant farmers who sold their fruits and vegetables to merchants in Chinatown.
As the company developed the area, it was naturally promoted as a REal GOod place to live. Hence, Rego Park.

Although there are several homes like these (typically Queens-like), that conjure up images of Archie and Edith around the piano singing "Those Were the Days," there is a fair share of the general rows and rows of apartment buildings; the dream of the Real Good Company, realized.


Rego Park is located at the convergence of Queens Blvd., Woodhaven Blvd., and the Long Island Expressway. Additionally, the New York City Subway runs beneath Queens Blvd., making Rego Park a central location in which to live and commute. Once development began, the neighborhood saw a growth in Italian, Irish, Romanian, Albanian, and German immigrants. Since the 197os, the area has become increasingly multi-ethnic including a growth in the Chinese population. I hope the new Chinese settlers aren't here in response to a delayed telegram from their ancestors telling them how rich the soil was here for planting.
Queens Blvd. is perhaps the most intimidating road in Queens. It averages a width of 200 ft., with six lanes of express traffic, and two lanes for local access. It's like a superhighway with traffic lights and intersections. It muscles its way from Sunnyside to Jamaica with force, sometimes even deadly force. The New York Daily News has labeled Queens Blvd. "The Boulevard of Death," because of the volume of pedestrian casualties in recent years.

The Long Island Expressway provides additional car and truck access to Rego Park, though most commuters would not necessarily label it "efficient," commuting.

Woodhaven Blvd., a road with only slightly less moxie than Queens Blvd. also gives residents in Rego Park a means to reach other parts of Queens. In this picture, looking across Woodhaven Blvd., the Italian restaurant on the left has clearly grown large enough to move into what used to be the Drake Theater (click on photo to enlarge). I think the Drake was still there when I left for Mississippi though I'm not positive.
There were no multiplex theaters when I was growing up and the Drake, like most others, was a single-feature movie house. When we went to the movies, we never went one place frequently, rather, we went several places occasionally. I'm sure I went to the Drake more than once, though I know I was there at least once because I distinctly remember seeing Hal Lindsey's The Late, Great Planet Earth there when I was in grade school. It scared the life out of me at the time, though my theology has developed significantly since then. Other things scare me now.

This is the Rego Park Recreation Center. Many neighborhoods in Queens have recreation centers, but this one is unique, not only because it offers boxing, but because it is in a building called the Lost Battalion Hall.
It is named in honor of the "Lost Battalion," a band of 600 men from the 77th New York Regiment who became isolated during the battle of Argonne in WWI. They refused to surrender, though they had no food, shelter, limited water and communicated exclusively by carrier pigeon. Between Oct. 2 and Oct. 7, 1918, the battalion lost more than 400 of its original 600 soldiers. The regiment was lead by Major Charles Whittlesey, who committed suicide on Nov. 29, 1921.

This is Lefrak Tower. In fact, the name Lefrak is commonly seen in various locations in Rego Park. Harry LeFrak developed the first commercial tower in Rego Park and established the Lefrak Organization who took the development ball in Queens and ran with it. In the mid-1960s, under the direction of Harry's son Sam, the company made its biggest mark on the Queens landscape. Building on 40 acres of land North of the Long Island Expressway, Lefrak City contains 20 apartment buildings, 18 stories each for a total of 5,000 apartments and is home to more than 14,000 people. At the time of its development, Sam LeFrak said, "I produce an apartment every 16 minutes."
Today, the Lefrak Organization has been listed by Business Week magazine as one of the top 50 family-owned companies in the U.S. with an estimated value of $3.8 billion.

Speaking of family business, one of the nice things about living and working in New York is my proximity to family. My sister Jane, her husband Trevor and their two sons, Tyler (3) and Zachary(1) live in Old Saybrook, CT and I paid a visit last weekend. I didn't have much opportunity to visit them when I was in seminary in Mississippi. I can visit more often now.

PRAYER CONCERNS: Please keep our church plant in your prayers. Our launch date is swiftly approaching. I ask also for continued prayers for my fundraising efforts (I'm still short on the funds I need). Most urgently, though, I ask for prayer for my Brother-in-Law Alex, who had a heart attack last year and has had continued heart trouble since that time. He's a reasonably young man. Keep my sister, Charlene (his wife) in your prayers as well as she helps him though his medical procedures and assists him along the way.

Not Much This Week

Well, other than the fact that Michael, our organizing pastor passed his ordination exams and is set for an actual ordination on November 13.

This is one small step in the long series of baby steps we are taking as the Church Plant continues to take shape.

This week, Michael is traveling on a fundraising trip for the church plant, so I'll be here in New York continuing the several projects on which I've been working (youth curriculum, small group stuff, website stuff, evangelistic programs, etc.) I hope that when he returns, I will be able to accurately report to him on all these things so I don't look like I've been dead weight in the early part of the Fellows program.

Now that Michael's ordination procedure is behind us, things should begin to snowball until our launch in November. Please pray for each of us involved in the church plant, Michael, me and the whole launch community, that we would remain dilligent and focussed as the days draw closer for the start of the church.

There is one additional note of praise this week. My fellow Fellow Reyn, announced today that he and his wife Esther are expecting their first child. The baby is due April 1, which Reyn thinks is funny. His wife, however isn't thrilled about having an April Fool's baby. In any event, it was a happy announcement and we're all excited.

A Little More Context and Update











It wouldn't be a Queens website without some pictures of the Unisphere. This monument was built for the 1964 World's Fair by the United States Steel Corp. to symbolize the work of the nations of the world to accomplish peace. More than 40 years later, that's still something of a pipe dream. Today the Unisphere is generally recognized as a symbol of Queens. Given the current ethnic make-up of the Borough, I can't think of a better concept.











The first picture here is of the hospital where I was born. Jamaica isn't just an island in the Caribbean, it's a neighborhood in Queens. It was originally simply known as Jamaica Hospital. The words "Medical Center," were added later so no one would confuse it for something else, like a theater or baseball stadium.
The next is a picture of the house where I grew up on 78th Street in Woodhaven. For about half of my childhood, it was yellow and brown and paneled in the original wood with which it was built. This became too much maintenance, and we installed the current blue aluminum siding seen in this picture. I don't know the current residents so there will be no plaque commemorating this as my boyhood home. My mother,however, would have never hung such ugly drapes in the porch window.
The third picture is of the Woodhaven Baptist Church on 80th Street where I was baptized when I was about six years old. I may be a Presbyterian now, but we were Baptists until I was eight.

This picture appears here because I need to explain some things to some people. This is a picture of Le Cordon Bleu, a catering hall on Jamaica Ave. in Woodhaven. My sister Jane and I worked here one summer when we were in college. One of the managers, Tony, was a large man who's typical tone of voice was something of a yell. Tony never called me by my given name, preferring to call me "Glasses." I told this story to my friend Scott Lowe in seminary a few years ago and he has gotten a lot of milage out of it. So much milage, in fact, that people I know through my association with Scott generally know me only by this unfortunate nickname rather than my real name. Thank you, Scott. I love you, Brother.










These are scenes from the Austin Street fair in Forest Hills this past weekend. Michael and I were there with some others from the church plant community. It was a great opportunity to meet and greet... and eat.




Finally, for the past few weeks, all eyes of the sporting world were on Queens. The U.S. Open brings tennis greats from all over the world to the borough and is an opportunity for Queens to shine for the world. Now, if olny the Mets would pick up their game and bring the World Series back to Queens and take it out of the Bronx for a change.

Anyway, Michael is in the final stages of his ordination and the church plant is on the verge of starting up. Small groups should start next week. I'll be running Friday, Saturday, and Monday night groups. I'm also trying to coordinate with the other two PCA churches in Queens (Astoria and Flushing) on joint youth programs. This will not only broaden our youth ministry, but should strengthen our relationships with the other churches.

I have also been attempting to coordinate how our church plant will help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Even though we are not yet an actual church, Redeemer has been in touch with PCA pastors Mo Leverett and Jeffrey Lancaster in New Orleans, and I have contacted David Skinner, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Biloxi, MS. We hope to work through denomination aide to help those in need, many of whom have lost everything they have. I am glad, my friends in Jackson, Meridian, and Leakesville came out okay and with minimal damage. My friend Sam in Jackson described the scene there as "like a bad Stephen King movie." That helps bring a little perspective, I guess. Please continue to pray for the Gulf Coast region and for our efforts for relief.

Starting in October, our church plant will begin "rehearsal" worship services. These are real worship services, but they are only for our launch community. These will enable us to get comfortable worshipping together as a new church and will help us to work out any "kinks" before we officially launch in November.

Well, I've been here more than a month and the bills are finally arriving in the mail. They remind me that I still need to raise significant funds. For those of you who are excited about our ministry here in Queens, I encourage you to consider financial support. If you do, make checks out to Redeemer Presbyterian Church and put my name on the memo line. Send them to me at 83-44 Lefferts Blvd. Apt. 3C; Kew Gardens, NY 11415.

This blog is designed to generate interest and enthusiasm for our church planting ministry here in Forest Hills. To that end, I do not plan to ever run pictures of Manhattan on this website. If you absoultely must have a picture of the Empire State Building, give me your address and I'll send you a postcard.

Odds & Ends

Some of you reading this blog may have received a letter from my parents encouraging you to partner with our ministry financially. I'm thankful to them for doing that because I do, in fact, still need several financial partners on board to reach my fundraising goal.

The problem with this letter from my parents, however, is with my mailing address. Please take note that my zip code is not 11715. It's 11415. This means, if you want to contribute to my fundraising efforts and are excited about our ministry here in Queens, please make checks out to Redeemer Presbyterian Church, put my name on the memo line, and mail them to me at 83-44 Lefferts Blvd. Apt. 3C, Kew Gardens, NY 11415.

I am currently attempting to contact several of my friends in southern Mississippi and Louisianna. I know of two PCA pastors who have escaped with their families, but have withstood significant losses. Please pray for the victims of the hurricane.