Week 3 - Father Heart of God and NYC

To say this week has been transforming would be an understatement. This week has been nothing short of life changing starting from day one.
The day after I got home from the hospital I awoke to Brenda on my bed. She shook me gently, "Amy, Amy honey do you want to come to class today?"
"What time is it...?" I manage to mumble still asleep.
"9:30am." She replies. My eyes flicker open.
"What time does class start?" I asked. "9:00." She tells me she really thinks I should be there today, that it's important and if I can manage, I really should go. I get out of bed, throw on a sweater and tights, inhale some cereal and coffee and she drives me down to St. Paul's Episcopal where we're having our classes for the next 3 months. What do I walk into? Father Heart of God week. For those in the "know" Father Heart of God week is INTENSE. It's the time where you dig up and release old hurts, giving them to Christ so you can move forward in your journey with him as a group. It humbles you, and it exhausts you too. After listening to Jeff Pratt speak for 5 minutes, I was already in tears. No holds barred, he launched right in and I was a dripping pool 3 hours later.
The next day was even worse. This was the practical day. We were given a series of questions that you were to pray over and answer according to what you thought God was telling you. After we all sat in a circle and shared what we felt God wanted us to move forward from. Now, this was tough. Out of 6 students it took over 3 hours to get through all of us. By the end of the class (which started at 9am and ended at 3 without lunch) we were all so emotionally drained it was hard to keep your eyes open. We shuffled back to the house, inhaled our lunch and passed out. But one thing was sure, we were all officially a group, joined together in our brokenness and love for God.

On Friday one of my fellow students Brandon and I decided to go on a spontaneous trip to NYC for the weekend and after the last couple days it was evident a break was needed. A friend of his (Kirt) is a professional fashion photographer, lives in upper Manhattan and absolutely loves to give tours of his city. Perfect, we'd be up in a couple hours! We hopped on the train and got into the city shortly after 6:30pm. The doors out to NYC from Grand Central led us into a fervent sight. Skyscrapers, taxis, flashing billboards, honking and the people. It was everything I had envisioned and more. We started walking towards Times Square. The streets were packed with people, news stands, random tables stocked with knock offs, folks trying to get you into their bike carriages, people selling comedy tickets, homeless covered in cardboard, all amidst this flashing city of steel and glass and lights. Times Square itself had so many people it felt like the entire population of Winnipeg was there. We made our way down to Central Park and walked through Strawberry fields before heading down to the Subway. Now, I'm an easily amused person. You don't need to take me to the Ritz, just sit me on a New York subway and I'm tickled pink. It was awesome. We got down to Kurt's and a plethora of gay men helped me choose the right outfit for the evening; we were going to a private celeb photographer's party. An hour later (and I was one of the first one's ready...) we were back on the subway and then walking down to a beautiful hotel. Which floor? The penthouse of course. "Look unimpressed, look unimpressed, look unimpressed..." I chanted like a mantra in my head. It's harder then it sounds. Once upstairs we sat at the hosts table in a room lined with windows with the most breathtaking view of the city. Directors, actors, photographers, they were all there. It was all surreal. After a while we left and hung out at a pub down the street. It was really nice to breathe, laugh and hang out with some really great folks. New Yorkers. And how hospitable.

The following day we grabbed coffee and walked for hours in Central Park. You would need an entire day to walk the whole thing, but we did some damage. After we came out and walked all through 5th avenue and by the time it was getting dark, my feet were about to fall off. That night we hopped on a train home and I slept like a baby. We saw so much and yet so little. There were so many places I wanted to go that I didn't get the chance to; ground zero, the Met, the Brooklyn bridge. You truly need a couple weeks to see everything, and even then that's a far cry.

Sunday was a day to relax. I spent most of it pouring over all the photos I took of the city. We ate a splendid meal of chicken spaghetti (you're going to laugh but I've never had chicken in spaghetti before!) and then headed over to Ricci's house for smores by a fire. (Ricci is one of the staff who has 3 beautiful children and an even more beautiful home where some of the students live.) At 9 we made our way down to Christ Church to witness one of the most amazing services I've ever seen. It's called Compline and it's only twenty minutes of prayer sung to plainsong and early polyphony. To clarify, Compline is derived from Latin meaning the completion of the day. This word was first used in this sense by Saint Benedict. And so the whole service is sung in a candle lit church so silent it's loud. In that time, there was no doubt in my mind of Christ, in fact I felt him there beside me, sitting quietly with his head down and eyes closed, enjoying the voices of the people who love him.

Today is the start of a new week of classes called Mere Christianity taught by Brenda Lewis. But that is for the next post!