Our son Josh is a student at The College at Southeastern. Most who know him recognize him as the drummer who travels with me in ministry. But there is so much more to Josh than that-he is one of the most thoughtful young men I have ever met regarding ministry in these interesting days. The following is a blog he wrote for his Facebook about his recent trip to NYC. I asked his permission to share it with you. Read and enjoy:
This past week, I went with other students from Southeastern to NYC. This was to be a mission trip to any of the community whom we came in contact with. Given that there are millions of people who live in that city, talking to people was a relatively easy task. We worked with the Gallery Church, a church plant in Manhattan in the Chelsea neighborhood.
Now that you have the most generalized overview, without any detail whatsoever, I will tell you why I’m writing this. I have been asked to tell you about one encounter that stood out to me, Gospel-centered of course. Most of these that you read will deal with sharing the Gospel with one of the millions of lost people in NYC. I talked to Muslim man for 40 min. or so, and I felt like he was sharing his faith with me as much as I was him. I saw the same man two days later and talked again to no avail. But I did try yet again. I could write a whole selection about this man, Mohammed.
But the individual that had the biggest impact on me was none other than the teaching pastor at Gallery, Freddy Wyatt. Freddy is a man from the south (just like me) who loves the city (just like me) and loves his wife and children very much (as I hope to love my own if God allows me to have a wife and children). Now you say, “wow Josh, you’ve met your personality twin. How great.” We may be similar in loving the same things, but he is so far ahead of me in his faithfulness to God’s call on his life.
Throughout the few talks we had, I learned that he moved his wife and 3 kids to West Harlem. Harlem has never been on the “top 10 places to live list among Christians” probably (I could be wrong). Freddy told me that he simply loved the people in NYC so much and saw a need at Gallery, working with Aaron Coe (of SendNYC).
I was so blown away this man’s apparent faithfulness, that I asked to come visit where he lived, not to become buddy buddy with the pastor at all (too many seminarians do that these days), but to have my eyes opened to how a family of five survived as church planters. Harlem was amazing. Not a bad place at all. Myself and a few others went and talked a bit with the Wyatts, while their oldest son ran non-stop around the playground. It was at this moment that I thought, “wow, I need to get over myself and do what God tells me to do, whether it means I live there or even Raleigh (even if I’ve lived there for 2/3 of my life).”
I watched Freddy truly love his wife and his kids, even if it was really subtle. They are truly happy together, all in the city working to serve the Lord. This is a family of five facing the obvious struggles of church-planting in NYC (no money, small space, no money, being a minority in that they are believers, no money, long commute to work and oh yeah, no money), but for the grace of God. Even with these struggles, all of them are so over-joyed to be there.
I close with this illustration. I watched Freddy’s oldest son run around with a huge smile on his face, oblivious to anyone judging him at all. He really loved his playground, his sticks from the playground and of course his firetruck in his room. I see that and then I see the tired faces of the adults in Harlem, never with a smile and maybe (if I’m lucky) a head nod as if to say “if i have to say hello then hello.” What has happened to us as we grow older? We lose that child-like faith. That faith is not lost in the Wyatt family.
I immediately challenged myself to be content with where God has me or where God takes me. Honestly, I don’t know where that is. But I do know I will keep in touch with the Wyatt family, in order to remind myself that a southern boy like me can go anywhere and do anything for Christ’s cause and not my own. I hope this encourages anyone who reads this and I hope it makes some sort of sense. Thank you again to Freddy Wyatt and his family.
Joshua Mark Reid
