The following is a testimony from one of our City Uprising 2009 participants in NYC. I have copied it "as is". Read it and be encouraged!
Aaron
So, I went with a group of about 23 people from Clarksville to NYC for a week to partner with The Gallery Church for City Uprising. While there, our goal was to make Christ's name known throughout the city and to just spread his love. The first couple of days were spent sightseeing and the best part about that was that I got close to so many new people from our group. I only knew the college students when we left but by the time we came back I loved all the high schoolers too! I just love meeting new people and I can't wait to get back to clarksville to see them all again. Then Sunday night was the official start of City Uprising! It kicked off with a powerful worship service then we got to meet our group for the first time. It was so exciting seeing so many people on fire for God. There were many groups that were headed out all around the city monday morning. The group I was in had three other people from my group, 2 from SC, 4 from MI, 2 from KY, and our leader from TX. We got assigned an HIV/AIDS testing center in the bronx that targeted girls ages 13-24. Let me tell you, this day was the most eye-opening for me. We split up into groups and set out in the area looking for girls in this age range. We had cards that told people about why we were there and we were trying to get as many people as possible to go get tested. So there we stood on the street corner with our backpacks, stack of cards, big smiles, and an obvious southern accent by our use of y'all. My partner and I had a slow start but slowly started making some progress. It was such an awesome feeling having people come back to you 30 minutes after sending them to get tested and having them tell you they were NEGATIVE! We worked all morning then on our lunch break we found out we had run out of test kits. I don't think anybody expected it but it really was a great thing to know that we had the turnout that we did. That night we had our worship service which was followed by a night wandering around times square with our group. We worshiped at a school near ground zero and our hotel was 3 blocks from times square. If you are at all familiar with NY then you know that's a pretty long subway ride. But there was never a boring ride for us! Day 2 we helped paint! That was such a great bonding day for our group. I learned so much about everyone and even though we had a couple mess-ups, it was still such a great time. Our last day we were back out doing testing again. This time in a different part of the bronx which brought out new people. Some who welcomed us lovingly and others who didn't. Overall, it was a great last day. Our time there went so quick and saying goodbye to everyone was sad but hopefully we will all see each other again sometime or at least keep in touch. I am one who gets really close to people really fast and I never knew I could miss everyone after only being around them 3 days. It's amazing how God works. I learned so much that week and realized how much I really do love the mission field that is our World. Whether it is outside my door or halfway around the World, I have a passion for giving up what is comfortable and going out and sharing with others the love I have received through Him. I could go on for about 5 pages about everything I saw, learned, and loved in NY, but i'll spare you those details. :)
