He, who knew no sin, became sin

We are reading Search For Significance and had a discussion about it tonight.  Here is the quote that started some cool thoughts "Only if we understand the horror of coming under the wrath of a holy God for our sins will we appreciate what Christ did on the cross.  Every day our minds should be overwhelmed by thankfulness for what He did on our behalf."
I never really spent much time thinking on this subject.  Jesus who was perfect took on all the sins of the world, past, present, and future.  He didn't just take mine and yours, He took everyones, all the billions and billions of people that ever lived and ever will live!  And on top of that God can't stand sin, so imagine how He was feeling when His Son who knew no sin became the sin of the world... And when the soldier stabbed His side blood and water flowed out.  Bonnie said that she has herd doctors say that is the sign of a massive heart attack, which means the heart explodes.  Our sins busted Jesus' heart, literally!....
I am pretty amazed right now.  After hearing that how can I not thank and worship my AMAZING God!

On a side note, I forgot to give you my mailing address yesterday when I posted, so here it is.  It is always fun to get mail. :)
Emily Stoner
c/o Priority 1 Ministries/UDC
490 E. 181st ST., Apt 4A
Bronx, NY 10457

Our Schedule

Dear Friends and Family,

     After being in the Bronx for over a week I am finally writing a letter for you. It seems like I have been here way longer than one week because we are doing so much. I think my ten weeks here are going to go by way too fast.

      Our weekly schedule looks something like this:
Monday & Tuesday – mentoring/training with special speakers (pastors, missionaries)
Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday morning – breakfast ministry at Fellowship Chapel Brethren In Christ Church (where we attend)
Tuesday afternoon – conversational Spanish training
Wednesday & Thursday – helping with an after school program at Manhattan Bible Church/Academy
Thursday 1:00-3:00 – Packing food for the food distribution at Manhattan Bible Church
Friday – World Vision, working in the warehouse/store organizing and stocking shelves
Sunday – Sunday School & church at Fellowship Cha

      We have lots of other random things we do through out the week. We are reading a couple of books, so we spend a lot of time reading. Some of the books are: On Being a Missionary, The Search for Significance, Victory over the Darkness, and Celebration of Discipline. That is some but not all!

      Last Monday and Tuesday Mike Holland and Carlos did out training. The main focus was on prayer. We did a drama that really helped me understand the importance of prayer and reminded me that it really does make a difference. There is a battle in the spiritual realm and every time we pray we are helping God’s angels in that battle. We all know that battles can last a long time, so we shouldn’t give up on prayer so quickly. We may be getting really close to victory, but then we stop praying because we think it is taking too long. There are lots of miracles waiting to happen; we just have to ask for them. We then practiced praying in some ways that I had never done before. It was pretty awesome!

     The after school program is interesting. The first day was kind of hard because we were not sure what we were supposed to be doing, but the second day went better. We take all of the older kids to the park for the first hour and then back to the school for homework. I help in the class of 4th graders, which consists of helping them with any questions they have and then checking their work, without an answer key! I sure hope I do it right! I never would have thought I would be helping in a school class room! That’s a place I didn’t see myself, but I guess God had other ideas. :)

      I am really enjoying getting to know everyone on our team. They are all really cool and we have fun together.

      We are getting used to the public transportation, too. I enjoy it, but there are a lot of numbers and letters to remember.

      A couple things you can be praying for:
-Unity as a team (We are doing really well, but pray that it continues.)
-Courage to talk to people we don’t know and bring up spiritual conversations
-All the people we interact with, that God would be working in their hearts
-That our team will be able to learn Spanish really quickly
-That I (and our team) would depend solely on God for our strength
-Finances (I still need about $2,300)

Thank you for all your prayers!
Emily Joy

In the Bronx

Hi All,
It has been a really good 2 days.  So far I love the city.  I don't think I will want to leave in 10 weeks. haha  But it will then be time to move on to Honduras.

Church was long but good today.  Something that stuck out to me was "sometimes by God's grace, God can use non Christians to point out the faults in Christians.  If a non Christian does something good or is the answer to someones prayer God should still get the glory for that".
After church we got the instructions for breakfast ministry on Tuesday.  It was a lot to take in and try to remember, but I think we will be able to do it. :)

This afternoon we went to the festival in Little Italy (and no it is not a restaurant here, it is a part of the Bronx).  It was the first time the 5 of us were out alone.  It rained the whole time we were there and it was lots of fun. :)

You can continue to pray for the people we will be interacting with later this week.  My prayer is that God will start to work on their hearts now and we can help to keep it going.

Thanks for your prayers!
Emily Joy

My faith is growing

Today was a good day. I got to spend lots of time with my family.


I have now raised $4,099 of support. This means I only need $6,401 more!

Tomorrow is my last Sunday at Pathway for a while. I am surely going to miss it. Katie and I are going to be commissioned. I have a feeling that this is going to be a hard day, happy but also sad…

My faith is definitely growing.