What happens at missionary orientation?

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I think I will start talking about orientation by showing you some pictures!

In front of the UN, which is only about 2 blocks from the Church Center.  The wind wasn't blowing enough so you can't tell, but that's the South African flag behind me!

Where the magic happens

We got to spend a whole day at the Church Center, and we even met Bishop Katherine!

We spent a day at Holy Cross Monastery.  There is another order of Holy Cross in Grahamstown, South Africa, and I intend to visit!

The altar at the monastery.  We attended three of the daily prayer services.  They were lovely, but my voice was not made for chanting.

There was some awesome stained glass at the monastery.

This is what a chapter room looks like!

It's easy to see why people come to Holy Cross for reflection and study.  It's both stunning and peaceful.

On our free day in NYC, I went to the 9/11 memorial.

Inside Trinity Wall Street, more gorgeous stained glass

Fellow YASCers inside Trinity

The church in Terrytown, NY, where we went on Sunday.  They did a special English/Spanish combined service that was really awesome.

We spent another whole day in the city visiting places of worship from different traditions.  This historic synagogue is literally in the middle of Chinatown!

St. Peter's Catholic Church

St. Paul's Chapel is literally right across the street from Ground Zero.  It was remarkably untouched when the towers fell, and in the months following 9/11 it became a place for rescue workers to eat and rest.  It is also a makeshift memorial.

This was on the wall at St. Paul's.  The words of the prayer are, "May it be pleasing before Thee, Lord our God and God of our Fathers; To abolish wars and shedding of blood from the world; And to extend peace great and wondrous through the world; No more shall nation lift up sword unto nation - and no more shall they learn war; Only let all the dwellers on earth recognize and know the very truth; That we have not come to this world for the sake of strife and division (God forbid); Not for the sake of hatred and envy, provocation and shedding of blood (God forbid); Only we have come to the world to recognize and know Thee; Be Thou Blessed Forever.... May the Scripture be fulfilled, as it is written:  And I will give peace in the land; And you shall lie down with none to make you tremble; And I will cause evil beasts to cease from the land; And the sword shall not pass through your land."

St. Paul's

Park 51, the 'Ground Zero mosque'.  That's actually not what Park 51 is, and I will write more on this later.

We had a 'find your way in New York City' day, when we basically went to different neighborhoods and asked the people we met what it was like to live or work there.  Here is some of my group at the subway in Harlem.

I had to put a picture of Tom and Dianne in here.  These two are current missionaries in El Salvador.  They are awesome people doing great work.  They're also two of the biggest practical jokers I've ever met!

Hannah, Julie, and I ran together most mornings.  Thanks, girls, for being my running buddies!

This is Emily.  She is going to Cape Town, so she will be the closest YASCer to me!  She may not know it yet, but we're about to be BFFs.

I hope these pictures are a good start to explaining what the last two weeks have been like for me.  I will write another post in a few days that explains more about what I learned from all of this.  But now, let me share a short video that our cross cultural tutor, Chris, shared with us.  This, more than anything I can write, explains what I hope my experience will be like:  it's full of joy, laughter, and people just being themselves, no matter where they are in the world.