Jesus Revealed on Streets of NYC

Recently, I took a group of 9 people to do ministry on the streets of New York City for seven days. We saw God do some really nice things in many of the people we encountered. Essentially our strategy was to offer people prayer for any need and then take the opportunity to share the gospel.

The biggest challenge is always just getting people to stop for a moment. If you have ever been to NYC you know there is always someone trying to hand you or sell you something as you walk the sidewalks. People also tend to be running to catch the next train or bus, so you only have a few seconds to engage them in a way they will stop and talk.

We setup a table with gospel tracts with a sign that said “Prayer Station”. We also all wore red vests that had “Prayer Changes Things” written on the front. I am writing a few details here because it might give you a few ideas for doing street ministry. Each day we would go into an area and setup on a busy sidewalk. Preferably at a transportation hub where buses met a subway station. People come in huge waves as the trains and buses unload. A little chaotic but the perfect fishing ground for fishermen of men.

We would then station people in different key locations on the sidewalk away from our table. Their job was to hand out fliers letting people know there was a prayer station up ahead where someone would pray for their needs. The idea here was to funnel people towards the table so those at the table could pray and witness to them. We have found this to be a very effective method to engage people with the gospel and open up an opportunity for God’s power to be released.

Over the years I have seen God heal, deliver, and save individuals when we setup these stations. I have even seen people fall to their knees and cry out to God for forgiveness right on the streets. Once, a few years ago, we had a young man begin to shake violently as God delivered him from a drug addiction. You could feel the tangible presence of God as he began to weep openly as we stood on the sidewalk. Prayer is powerful on its own. Combine it with evangelism and you have a potent combination.

This trip we saw God touch the lives of many people. So many desperate needs among the people of New York City. There was one moment where we actually had people waiting in line for someone to pray for them. Mind you, this was not in a church building with soft music playing in the background, this was on the noisy, chaotic streets on New York City. Below, I put a few testimonies of things God did on the streets. These come from different team members and are only a few of the many people we prayed over. The top items people requested prayer for were jobs, physical problems, and prayer for family members.

“Prayed for a lady named Joyce. She was walking with a cane. She asked for prayer for her leg and back. We prayed and asked Jesus to heal her. Her pain left and she was able to walk without the cane and was in no pain.”

“Prayed for man named Vincent. He had a shoulder injury from a soccer game years ago. As he was prayed for a lady on the team felt his shoulder bones move back into alignment. The young man felt his shoulder move as well. ”

“A lady came up and said she was having a bad day and had a bad headache. We prayed for her and she felt better all over.”

“Amal came up and was very lonely and depressed. We prayed for God’s joy to overwhelm her and that she would know Jesus as a friend. She left happy knowing she was not alone.”

“A lady from Ecuador prayed to receive Jesus. She felt the strong presence of God and was in tears as God washed her clean.”

“An overwhelmed single mom with four girls needed a better living situation and a job to take care of her girls. God’s presence touched her and she left with a big smile on her face.”

“Ariana young lady with sleep Apnea asked for prayer. We prayed and felt God’s power come very strong. Ariana felt the anointing as well.”

“Prayed for an Egyptian grandmother out on the streets with no place to go. She was standing on the street with her suitcase and had recently become homeless. We were able to connect her with some people who were going to help her find safe shelter.”

“Lilianna had no concept she had sinned against God. Like many, she had an understanding she had done some things wrong, but had never been told that sin would cost her in eternity. As we spoke with her the conviction of the Holy Spirit touched her. She was dark in complexion but her face went ashen as she realized the gravity of her sin. But she was relieved when we told her Jesus already paid the price for her sins. She repented and accepted Christ.

“Chris was a 19 year old standing with some other guys against a wall. While they would not come out and say it, from all appearances these guys were in a gang. Only one of them would talk, the others just cast insults. He realized he was up to no good. As the gospel was shared with him, he said his grandmother shared the same message with him. After praying with him, as he walked away, yelled out “Chris God is answering your grandmothers prayers”. He responded, “I know“.

We prayed for so many different things throughout the week with hundreds of people, heart conditions, kidney problems, broken hearts, relationship problems, abusive situations, desperate searches for jobs, anger problems, alcohol addictions, cancer, bitterness and so much more.

The team I took were just normal everyday people who serve a supernatural God. A few on the trip had never done anything like this before, still others had only done it once before. My point being, God does not need superstar preachers to reach people. He is just looking for someone who is willing. 99.9999% of ministry should take place outside the pulpit.

Jesus said in the book of Luke

“And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Luke 10:2

This is just as true today as the day Jesus said it. The harvest fields are plentiful. NYC is considered a very hard place to evangelize but the harvest is plentiful. All over the world it is plentiful. We just have to position ourselves to reap it. We can’t sit back in our churches and expect them to come to us. We must go out to the harvest. I can’t help but wonder if we spend too much time in our churches praying for each other when there are countless people who have never been prayed for walking the streets of our cities. I am not opposed to praying for one another, we need to and should, but most church activities and services tend to be about us getting blessed as opposed to reaping the harvest. We will have an eternity to experience the blessings of God but only have a short time to reap the harvest.

Everyday we should labor for the harvest in some way. The harvest is there in the communities in which we live. A great way to engage people is just to simply ask them “Is there anything I could pray for you about?” Try it, you might be surprised at what God does!