Yesterday we went to Brooklyn. We actually started out much earlier than we’ve ever started on our own. We were out of the house by 10 am! Wow.

We rode the subway down to Brooklyn and when we emerged from the stairs, we were blasted by wind and rain. As it turns out, it was not the best day to be in Brooklyn. Hence the reason I didn’t have a lot of pictures that day (only 42 total, mostly duplicates). We had intended to walk the Brooklyn Bridge, but it was so unexpectedly cold that we, instead, visited a few stores and ended up eating at Dallas BBQ before heading off to Conway again.

Dallas BBQ was very good and they had a lunch special that we cashed in on. A lady there had Conway bags and we wanted to go there. We asked her where she’d found it and ended up going toward Fultton St, which was only two blocks away from BBQ.

We spent a bit of time in there and made our way back to the subway entrance (on the corner) and back to Manhattan. It was an…interesting ride. We were asked by a woman on the subway where we’d gone to Conway. We laughed about that since we had done the same thing to someone earlier that day, and we told the subway lady so. She started asking us directions and we told her the street, but we couldn’t get more detailed because we aren’t local.

We told her we were from Idaho and an older couple said, loudly, “Welcome to the Big Apple!” We talked with the subway lady for a bit (mostly me with JD laughing at me). We talked about work, church, orphans in India and Romania, music, etc. I seemed to be a fountain of information! She asked if we were “Interfaith” and I figured I knew what that meant.

There are a great many people here who claim to be “Interfaith” which we definitely are not. I told her that in India we work with Hindus quite a bit and we do not withhold treatment from them because they aren’t Christian…but I don’t think I said it quite right.

In the end she gave me a piece of paper that told me of her beliefs. It was quite interesting in that it was a whole page telling how she was “one” with a whole host of different people of different religions, walks of life, etc. It made me sad.

Firstly, I was saddened because it spoke nothing of there being a truth that supersedes all other truths. It spoke of being happy with mediocrity, happy with being “one”, and therefore subject to, all other faiths and religions. In short, it was a page full of nothing. No ultimate truth. Just trying to live “at peace” with others and sacrificing anything that makes life worth living. A hope of the truth that Jesus brings.

Secondly, I was unhappy with the fact that she was a minister herself. She even asked me if I was intended on becoming a minister myself. Uhm, no. I told her that I was quite content with leading people into worship. Though I’m a minister in that respect, in that I minister to people, I am no pastor nor do I intend to be.

She speaks to people and has some sort of influence over them. I don’t know the strength of her influence, but I’m sure that if she doesn’t have a lot of followers, there are quite a few more like her who do.

When we returned to the apartment, JD and I wanted to go to a movie and Anna stayed in the apartment. We went to AMC Theater and our movie was in theater 24 on the seventh floor. We had to ride escalators the entire way up. It was pretty ridiculous. And the theater was very small. But we enjoyed the movie and picked up a slice of pizza on the way home.

All in all, an interesting day in New York.

-Melissa

View photos from Day Eight >

Today: Another try at the Brooklyn Bridge and dinner at Smith House