In honor of #TBT and Graffiti 2’s 10 year anniversary celebration weekend, we are sharing a blog post from the first few weeks of Graffiti 2.
September 8, 2005
Greetings,
This morning as I walked the street on my rutty and cracked concrete path, my stroll was frequently (and gladly) interrupted by the sounds of young voices. “Hey, Andrew!,” “That’s the guy that helped with the sports camp,” “Can you play ball with me after school?,” “When is the after school program starting?,” all questions and comments coming from back-pack toting, uniform clad students off to their first day of school; all to whom two weeks ago, I was a stranger. As I planted myself at P.S. 30 (a public school in our neighborhood) to hand out pencils and fliers announcing upcoming programs, I looked across the street at the basketball courts in People’s Park, and fondly recalled the events of last week.
Combating many arrows which Satan shot their direction, Myrna Gregory and the mission team which she led helped introduce Graffiti 2 Community Ministries to the Motthaven neighborhood of the South Bronx in New York City. Utilizing the Upward Basketball model of sports camps, the mission team daily worked to share the message of God’s love to over 90 children. Ninety children who I now know, and know me. Some of these children now have the message of God’s love painted across their heart because the work of this team and Upward Basketball Ministries led these children to make a commitment to Christ. The benefit of these camps for me as a newcomer to the neighborhood has been invaluable and will enable me to seek the peace of the neighborhood and the city for which God has called me to minister.
Graffiti 2 Community Ministries is a new ministry and future church plant of East 7th Baptist Church/”Graffiti.” Located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, East 7th Baptist Church sought to reach out to another neighborhood with the tangible message of God’s love. Finding this location in the South Bronx, programs are currently beginning this fall. Our first consistent ministry to the neighborhood will be an after-school program for 1st-6th grade children. Focusing on homework tutoring but eventually expanding to music and sports programs, the priority will be to show unconditional love to all whom we encounter. Most of these children’s lives have been ravaged by the societal ailments that exist within the concrete jungles they call their neighborhoods. Just this week, one of the girls that attended our basketball camps, was shot and killed, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (her name was NaNa, and you can be praying for her family including two brothers, A.J. and Aryan).
Frequently encouraged by Mother Teresa’s words, she once said, “I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.” I pray that for myself, and saw that exemplified in the lives of those from Mississippi who helped to write the message of God’s love, not on walls, but on the lives of children.