New York: Thirsty for truth

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Living in the Big Apple has been a life-changing experience. Intentionality here is a must.  

alexandra granda130Alexandra GrandaServing alongside Global Gates and reaching out to unreached people groups has been an incredible learning experience. We have been serving the South Asian community in different ways. Interns volunteer in a community center and provide free English classes, computer classes, citizenship classes and programs for children.

We also serve the community by cleaning up streets and public parks every weekday. The response from South Asian locals has been amazing. We have seen people express their gratitude, and that allows us to connect them to the gospel. 

Each week, we train mission teams coming to New York City to work with the unreached and ask them to go out in the streets to share the greatest news this world has in the most diverse borough of the United States. Jesus gives us the task to finish the Great Commission in Matthew 28 to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 

granda boto hicks425Alexandra Granda, intern Cullen Hicks and Boto Joseph, missionary to Queens.Every day, God reminds me he is sovereign over every situation. We have been knocking on doors of people from Bangladeshi, Nepali and other Asian communities. We recently met Fred, a man from a Communist country, and we were able to pray for him and his family. He is a successful businessman who is living in the States two more years. To the eyes of society, he seems like a happy, financially stable man, but his heart was still shaken by our prayer. With tears in his eyes, he said: “I know I don’t know who God is. … But I know there is a God.” 

We find people like Fred every day. As each day ends, I come to the conclusion people are truly thirsty to find the truth. In recent days, we were able to experience God’s grace to the unreached when we handed five Bibles: One in English, one in Spanish and three in Bengali. Before this, I never had given a Bible to someone who knows nothing about the book I open every day. So, discipleship and following up with these people has been a personal challenge. 

God is great. Through him, we have seen great things happening in the streets of New York City. 

Alexandra Granda, a campus missionary from the University of Texas Pan-American, is serving with Go Now Missions in New York City.


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