D :: R :: G: NYC

We woke up around 8 and got ready for service. The Kingdom Hall is about a 10 minute walk down on 92nd Street in Queens. There were 9 of us out in the ministry. After the group met the brother who drove stopped by a few sisters' homes to pick them up, then we headed to the territory, which was near LaGuardia - just to the West of it.

The territory was reminiscent of door-to-door in Zurich a few years ago; each building housed about 6 apartments and you rung one bell after another at the same house. We met people from several different nationalities. We met one young man who we semi-woke up and who was leaving for Frankfurt that day. He wasn't very religious, nor interested, but he was nice and told us he had several family members who who Witnesses. We finished service around noon and then headed home to grab my camera before heading to Brooklyn Bethel.

A sign at one of the buildings

We got to Brooklyn Bethel around 130 and took a tour. The other family in our group was from Greece and the young man in their group translated for the rest of the family. The father in the group told how he had been in jail for 4 years along with other brothers in Greece years ago for his faith. Our tour guide responded to this: "Thank you." That made me smile.

Our tour guide was very nice. She was a sister named Muriel. She had been there for over 15 year, and had gone to school for dental hygiene. Hence, Reuben got talking with her a bit about that. At one point during the tour, the Greek family met up with a brother they knew in construction and building development who showed them around the construction part of the tour. Obviously, it was in Greek, so while we waited Reuben, Muriel and I sat down and talked for a bit.

While we were walking a brother walked by who caught Reuben's eye and then mine. It was Steve Grow. He and his wife were serving at Bethel for a few months.

Steve, Reuben and I

We had a great time there and I took a lot of pictures; I will post a few below.

After the tour we walked around down by the water for a bit and then got some coffee at a shop across the street from Bethel. We headed across the Bridge after and Reuben had fun joking about it as the Cloverfield filming location. Once we crossed into Manhattan we sat in a small park and people-watched and talked about how many people had approached us for directions since we had been in NYC. We contemplated giving wrong or increasingly difficult directions for fun. But that would just be evil... :-)

Around 630 we headed back to Brooklyn to the Bossert Hotel to meet up with the Lydia, Aly, Jenny and Alissa. We went out to dinner with them and 2 brothers from Bethel, one of which was a friend of the Thompson's. We ate at JOYA, a Thai place that I recognized from other peoples photographs in the past. Enjoyed some good conversation with both the guys about spiritual goals, serving in the congregation, and the lessons they had learned in their first 8 months at Bethel. After dinner we headed to the former printery buildings and crossed over to the residential floors to hang out in their room for a bit.

Unfortunately, the buses stop running at midnight and several train routes had been closed for maintenance, so by the time we got back into Queens we had to walk home from Roosevelt Ave to 99th, which took about 40 minutes. I think we finally got home at 2 am. Then I had homework to do.