A Queens Valentine

For the last few weeks, I've made mention of the weather here with great license. Typically, I don't engage in discussions on the weather typically relegated to the teller line at the bank, but this bears some mention.

The first half of January was unusually warm and produced no snow. From mid-January until last week, we were hit with an acrtic blast of dry cold air and it was too cold for snow (for the benefit of some of my readers who might not know this, it can actually get too cold for snow). Valentine's day 2007 hits on a Wednesday and we get clobbered with a mid-winter nor'easter leaving cars and roads covered with a wintry coctail of snow and ice that not only made it difficult to get around, it made life just a bit more sluggish, utilitarian and, well, dirty.

Fortunately my home group Bible study which typically meets on Wednesday night, was rescheduled for Monday night. Although I had planned to make some copies at Staples Wednesday night, 14 copies of a single sheet of study questions made facing the elements an option from which I bowed out.

I mention the weather not as a way of complaining but rather as a way to describe yet another challenge faced by a church plant in New York City. As a new church, much of our ministry is decentralized. We meet for Sunday worship in a public school auditorium, we have yet to rent office space for administrative purposes, our ministries meet in homes and restaurant back rooms, and the cell phone and e-mail are prime communication outlets. The weather effects our ability to get around and icing conditions on the subway, disabled vehicles on the Grand Central Parkway, and that ever so ginger walk down an ice-covered sidewalk all play roles in the level of participation we find in our ministries and outreach programs. Yet we move forward by God's grace.

We remain undaunted by outside distractions at Ascension Church. When God is building His Kingdom, what's a big winter storm going to do to get in the way? We may rely on rock salt to melt the physical ice in Queens, but it's only the Gospel that can melt the spiritual ice.