NYC Q & A

Our little family is on the road again. On some respects, I'm tired of travel and being displaced and I long to hunker down, enjoy Fall in my favourite city, and get to know my Montreal neighbours better. And I believe those desires are all right and good and I will do them in October! But in other respects, I'm a jumble of excitement. The new and undiscovered is calling our name, and it doesn't hurt that this time, it's in Manhattan, NY!

I've mentioned before that we're off to NYC, but I thought I'd give you a bit more information in case you're wondering.

Why are we going to NYC? What organization/network/church is this with?

Brad is participating in the International Intensive, hosted by Redeemer City to City, a fantastic urban church-planting organization funded and lead by Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. We've been heavily influenced by Redeemer's lead pastor, Tim Keller, for quite some time now and are beyond excited for the opportunity to be taught and trained how to plant a great church in a great city by some of the people who started the city-planting movement.

Are we ALL going? Where are we staying?

Yes! Me and the kids get to come along for the ride! We are renting a teenie tiny two bedroom apartment (that is bonkers expensive) on the Upper West Side, but Redeemer City to City as well as our denomination are making that possible. Only 14 people in the world are participating in this, and Brad is the only other planter coming from North America! It's 5 weeks of pure opportunity, but it's going to be a heavy schedule and hefty on me as Brad will be beyond busy and unable to help me as much as he usually does.

What will me and the kids do?

Who knows!? I've found some great sources for things to do with kids in NYC, and other than that we'll be exploring all the great city has to offer. Brad will be extremely busy and our apartment will be small (have I mentioned that?) so it will be a lot of solo days with Lily and Oli, out of the apartment. It will have it's challenges but I'm also so looking forward to the adventure :)

What's next?

The International Intensive is in many ways a kick start to us planting a French church in our neighbourhood, The Plateau. We have already been gathering a core group, but after the Intensive, we'll start meeting together. Redeemer is a Presbyterian church but Redeemer City to City plants churches of many denominations. We'll be planting a Baptist church.