Well the past couple of weeks have been really busy.

We spent this past weekend in the Bronx, NY. This was quite a unique adventure as it was Halloween weekend. In the Bronx, Halloween is considered the biggest holiday of the year. It tends to be the week that most gangs to their initiations. During the week leading up to Halloween there were 20 stabbings in the Bronx all directed at females. So, on Friday night (the day we arrived) we had to be in the house by 5pm and were not allowed out until the next morning. We heard that Halloween evening 4 more stabbings occured somewhat close to the place we were living.

We had the opportunity to help out in a few soup kitchens and homeless shelters. Our team (Shaun, Jenny, Gina, Leo) got to pray with an older gentleman in the streets that we met, named Freddie. He wanted us to pray for forgiveness in his life. He had AIDS and was living in an AIDS shelter.

On Saturday evening we had a cookout on the streets and invited anybody we could find to come and join us. We grilled hotdogs, had popcorn, cookies and lemonade and we handed them out to anyone who was willing to join us. I (Shaun) got to play soccer with a couple of young boys on the streets which was really cool. Jenny, did most of the grilling and showed a new side, by being very outgoing and aggressive in inviting many people to come and join us for the picnic.

On Sunday evening we went to Manhattan. We arrived at the Rockafeller Center and it was so beautiful there. We saw the skating rink and the buildings were decorated in red, white and blue for the elections. We walked down Broadway, visited a Toys-R-Us that had a ferris wheel inside and we visited a huge M&M store. We walked down to Time Square and then down to the Empire State building. Then we took the subway to the site of the World Trade Center. It was a great evening!

This past week we had, "World Awareness Week" here at the center. We were without running water, electricity and we ate foods from all across the globe. At one point we ate 6 straight meals of rice! We were so excited for this morning as we were able to take nice hot showers.

Well I guess that's all for now. We'll try to keep you updated as we go.