We just returned from New York City and
wanted to report in as soon as we could. God moved greatly, beyond our telling!
For the testimony of Christ we felt 
we should try to paint for you some of the
picture we saw while there. We have included only a fraction of the story and
hope to include more in our upcoming Fieldnotes newsletter. As so often is the
case, the fraction we included proved to be more than anticipated. We apologize
ahead of time if we are too verbose.
We wanted to thank each of you for standing with us in prayer, love, and support. What God is doing through the Ezekiel Sticks is His alone and we simply count it a privilege to be a part of what He is doing.
An Explosion of Love
By Dave
Anderson
On our second day in New York City (May 29, 2002), we gathered in one of the motel rooms to prayerfully consider the direction the Lord would have us to walk with the Ezekiel sticks. The Lord helped us to know that we were to take the "sticks" in a direction in which we had never gone. We were to take them up Broadway to Times Square. In our previous two trips we had never felt led to go this way, but on this day there was a definite leading to go. After spending some time together just enjoying the Presence of the Lord, we went to the streets with the anticipation that God was on Mission and that we were His vessels for the moment.
As we, 32 pilgrims, began our
trek up Broadway it was marvelous to see the curiosity of the hundreds, nay,
thousands of people whom we passed. For some of them the sight of 32 people
carrying walking sticks in New York City was just too much for them and they had
to ask, "What is it about these sticks?" or "Are you selling those sticks?" As
each one approached us it was like an "explosion of love" that came from our
hearts to theirs. It was our delight to share that these sticks were a symbol of
a desire upon the heart of God that the people of our nation both recognize and
share with others that we are one nation united under one God, and that we are
called to "stick" together. Making our way towards Times Square we were stopped
over and over by these curious passers by, and one by one many received both the
message and the stick as the symbol it was meant to be. On this journey one of
our men had an experience where he sensed God saying that we were about to
meet someone. Of course there were thousands of people we were meeting, but
this word was indicative of a Divine encounter. Shortly after this word from God
another came indicating that the one we were to meet was very near. Our
whole group stopped. We were basically standing single file against the
buildings and just watching the people pass by. Suddenly, one of our group saw a
woman coming toward us. The Holy Spirit seemed to say, "This is the one"! As she
passed by her eye caught the Ezekiel sticks, and her curiosity could be
contained no longer. She stopped and spoke to one of our teenage girls, who
shared the simple story of the sticks. The Lady began to cry, kissed the young
girl on the cheek, took the message and a stick and went off down the street.
Shortly, she returned with the word that she was the leader of a large Christian
organization, and that she was scheduled to speak that afternoon, and now she
knew what her subject would be (the message of the Ezekiel Sticks).
We moved across the corner to a different location just a few feet away. Some of our group saw a Starbucks coffee shop and needed a break, so the rest of us waited on the corner across the street from a construction sight where a 50 story building was being erected. Two of our men started communicating with some of the steel workers with hand gestures. It soon became apparent that the steel workers wanted a stick. After some conversation with the boss, and an explanation of the "sticks", and, yes, giving him one, he suggested that his men would be down in 20 minutes for lunch and he had gotten word that they all wanted sticks. We had the glorious opportunity of sharing the message of Christ’s love through the sticks with those 75 men and each of them took a stick, along with the message. We learned that one of their co-workers had fallen to his death just days before. Several of us met the boss, whose name was Chris. He was a 40 year old man with a wife and children, and a big responsibility for the safety and well being of all those men. As three of our men shared with him it became evident that his heart had been prepared by the Lord. One of the men asked if he might like to know Jesus. He said, " I guess it would take a long time to get to know the Lord." The brother said, "Oh Chris. It will only take a minute." He said, "Really!" He bowed his head with his co-workers around him and invited the King of the universe to become the Lord of his life. The Lord had said earlier, "You are about to meet someone." Boy was He ever right!