Love with Boots On: Missions Trip to Brooklyn

written by Gary and Sherry Goodson

During Spring Break, thirteen people headed up to Brooklyn, New York to help at Bay Ridge Baptist Church.

You may ask, “Why would someone want to spend almost a week away from their family, use up a whole week of vacation, and be in Brooklyn—a city that you wouldn’t necessarily consider the safest place to be?”

Well, the short answer is that we love the Lord! We also love serving the Lord by using our God-given talents to benefit the body of Christ. And let’s not forget that we love the Bluemling family!

Our Missions for the Master group took to heart a recent message from Pastor Vradenburgh. As you might say—this trip was “love in action“!

Most of our mornings began at 8:00 o’clock with a quick breakfast and prayer. Then work began non-stop until lunch at noon and resumed until 6:00 o’clock for dinner.

There was a wide variety of things we were able to do:

• walls were painted, ranging from 10 to 30 feet high
• window and door trim was repaired and then painted
• bookshelves were built for Thomas’s extensive library
• meals were prepared for the entire work crew
• concrete floors were stripped and painted with epoxy
• English Ivy was ripped out—filling an entire truck!
• three sides of the church were re-landscaped
• ongoing witnessing to those walking by and stopping at our book/tracts/information table
• some were even able to give their testimonies to a group of teens that stopped by
• and we got to listen to the constant sirens of the police going up and down the street in this “very safe neighborhood”

Clearly though, the Lord blessed this trip!

“We have been blessed not only to have the facility renovated with such high quality work, but more than that, we have witnessed a living example of Colossians 3:23: ‘And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord…’. Thank you Friendship Baptist Church for your example and for your love!”

Pastor Thomas Bluemling

Pastor Bluemling’s prayer is that our love in action—or you could say “love with boots on”—will impact his congregation to jump in and serve even more faithfully at Bay Ridge.

We had wonderful worship services Wednesday night sharing how God was working in our personal lives and then again in the Sunday morning service. A few in our group gave testimonies of their salvation before Thomas preached.

There were several praises, including but not limited to: no injuries, safe travels to and from, and the opportunity to meet with brothers and sisters in Christ and have sweet fellowship with them. We also had surprise visits from John Soemer early in the week and from Lance and Tammy Holland who spent the last day working alongside us!

It was wonderful to be a blessing and to be blessed by serving our Lord.

We invite you to “strap on your boots” and join in the hard work and abundant blessings of the next Missions for the Master opportunity!