Troops on the Ground

At the Memorial Day Parade on Metropolitan Ave. in Forest Hills, Ascension Church pounded the pavement to hand out postcards and other church info to the people lining the street. It was a beautiful day (though a tad humid), and we may have generated some interest in some of our church's programs like VBS and next week's DaVinci Code discussion.

These events are always a platform for the local polititians to press the flesh. Mayor Bloomberg walked at the head of the parade and there was at least one senator and congressman there as well (others may have been there, but I didn't see them). If the people's representatives can make their presence known, why not the Kingdom's representatives?

I preached this Sunday and missed an opportunity. Memorial Day is a day when we remember those who died for the sake of our freedom. Didn't Jesus do that? Of course, he also resurrected and ascended, but the sermonic opportunities for a tie-in only hit me at the parade... after I preached.

Wow! It's June already. That means our summer plans are in full swing and it will be a busy one. In a couple of weeks I'm taking the boys from our youth program to a Six Flags amusement park. When I was a kid, there were two amusement parks in Queens; Adventurer's Inn and Rockaways' Playland, both of which have been torn down. I suppose we could have planned for Coney Island, but from the very beginning of our planning, all the buzz was for Six Flags. Oh well. If I had it my way, I'd prefer a park with subway access. Coney Island, of course, is a subway hub. The nearest station to Adventurer's Inn was an unreasonable walk. Playland had, and still has, a stop. The station still says "Playland," though the park was demolished in the late 1980s.

We are also trying to nail down a few things for VBS and some other summer ministries. Please keep all this in your prayers as we enthusiastically and creatively look ahead.