A heavy grey sky hovers over the city threatening rain, but gives way to a chilly June breeze. Late rush hour stakes its claim filling the air with the squeak of brakes and taxi cab horns. All around the outdoor market the clanking of tent poles against the asphalt signifies the closing of another day. Most pedestrians hurry by, eager to get somewhere, but here and there some stop to chat, maybe break for a cigarette, read a book. A lone skate boarder has found space at last to perfect his skill, and in time is joined by a companion.

Here, People Have to Struggle
Union Square Park sits dead in the middle of Broadway, looking down on The Village and Lower Manhattan. On the south side of Union Square, the park is alive, giving and taking as people flow in and out of the busy subway and mix with pedestrians. At its north end, the scene is somewhat different. Off in one corner, a group of twenty-somethings, doo-ragged, hooded, capped, or bare-headed, lays wait for seemingly nothing in particular, talking on cell phones, smoking, just hanging out. Nicky, a girl with smoke colored eye make-up, sums up the difference. "Here," she says, "People have to struggle. It's like a family. On the other side people just come to hang out." As she speaks, her eyes look a bit vacant, but she is cool, and unassuming.

As evening sets in, a band of fresh looking teenagers swarm the park at the north end and heads for the group. At an hour when most are leaving they have just arrived. The word is that they have come to preach. A snide chuckle is heard from a table where three young men in various stages of their twenties sit. The tenagers, thirty-something deep, jump right in. Some hold guitars in hand, others get ready to discuss common ground. Here, skateboard knowledge bridges the gap. Food doesn't hurt either. As they talk the teens give out brown-bagged sandwiches. They are up front and unabashed about being recognizably non-New York. "Can we talk to you? What kind of music do ya'll listen to? Do you know Kutless? Really? We're here to talk about Jesus."

They aren't afraid to talk about God
They wind their lives into the conversation. It flows easy. Though a few wave them off, they are pleasantly received. In the shadowy reaches of Union Square it seems as though no one minds talking about Jesus. The knowledge of the Bible is astronomical and scripture is quoted from quarters that may seem unlikely. Here, everyone has his or her own personal knowledge and view of Jesus, but no one shuns hearing a different view of Him, or for that matter, salvation. The conversations are deep. Everyone takes each other seriously. On both sides, questions are asked and answers are honest. At one table, Star (30), Weston (23), and Rich (29), discuss astrology and what the Bible has to say about it while smoking a creative combination of cigarette and something else. They aren't afraid to talk about God. According to Star, messengers of the gospel are everywhere. He says, he is approached daily by someone or another about Jesus. Does he mind? "No." All the same, he hangs back from the visitors preferring to discuss scripture with his buddies.

The Messengers
The teens continue to engage the group until they are called to "circle up" on the west side of the park. There, they form a human enclosure with their leaders in the middle. Among those in the center are the leaders of the Times Square Church Raven Ministry. They go out to different points of the city six nights out of seven to feed the homeless and gain someone for Christ. The teenagers are a team from a ministry called Powerhouse in Melbourne, Florida who have asked to join the Raven outreach tonight.

The circle closes in and the teams begin to pray. The temperature has dropped dramatically. A steady hum of thanks and fervent petitions rises from the group. The circle sucks itself inward as the visiting team pray for the Raven Ministry team. In New York City, simply forming a circle quickly draws a crowd. Soon, the circle becomes larger as passing strangers join in out of pure curiosity. The group turns outward to invite the new comers, and the teams continue to openly and honestly recount the events of the evening. Interestingly, it is at this juncture in the west side of the park that there seems to be of the most ardent rejection of the gospel message. In the recesses of the park, where alcohol and drugs are the constant companions of run aways and cast offs alike, Christ is welcome into the general mess of things. There, no one minds the interruption, although acceptance is never feigned.

It's Like a Black Hole
Long after the Raven team leaves the group of twenty-somethings hangs out ebbing and flowing with arrivals and departures. Some are bound for home, some for work, and others in search of something to smoke, something to drink. Seventeen year-old Veronica doesn't mind chatting while waiting to be off to work. Lending considerable insight to the demographics of the group hanging out at the rear of a small pavilion, which serves as clever cover for a fashionable restaurant, she sums it all up,"We just hang out." She's been around for two and a half years, almost the same amount of time that she has attended Washington Irving high school, which sits a stone's throw away from the park. "People come back here to get high, to chill out, have fun. It's like school, like the cafeteria. It's like a black hole. The cops can't see you smoke. Everyone out here is different. Everything kind of collides back here. It's really weird."

So where does she fit in? She defines herself as part of the nerdy crowd that prefers comic books, and tells excitedly of her success in getting tickets to see the Fantastic Four. When asked whether everyone out here smokes, she explains that some are doing coke, but she keeps her distance from the kids who are who are on dope. Why? In her words, "the people you hang out with define who you are." She sticks to cigarettes, she adds, puffing smoke rapidly into the night air.

You actually want to know who I am?
Star and Rich return with Daniel and Dio. Inside the shopping bags they hold, a familiar clank gives away the contents. They are soon busy rolling and drinking. When asked their opinion of the evening's outreach, they are generous. "They were honestly doing a good thing," says Star approvingly. Daniel goes on to tell of his encounter that night with a group of girls who talked with him. "They weren't - I'm right and you're wrong. It was so pure and innocent. You actually want to know who I am?" he asks incredulously, and then continues. "But in the back of my mind, I'm like, you're asking too many questions."

Daniel is pretty interesting. Partly because at the age of twenty-three he has already spent time "up state" in jail, but mostly because he looks like someone you might know. His counterparts observe laughingly that the bagged sandwiches given out by the Raven team remind them of jail, and of being transferred from one facility to another. Later, they do own that the sandwiches were actually good.

Dio, twenty-seven, mentions softly that he had a good conversation earlier with some of the girls in the group of teens from Florida. The girls, Danielle and Heather, had spoken earlier in the evening of meeting a guy named Dio who was so sweet." Dio, who they thought was homeless, actually has family who love and care for him, admits that he can't seem to stop making bad choices. He hopes to one day have a wife and a family. He doesn't want to live as he does forever.

Anything Can Happen
As the night draws on, some still remain. Faces may change, but the scene is the same. Someone puts forth a colorful glossy invitation to church. It is passed from hand to hand around the table. "I'm not going to come," says Daniel politely, but firmly. However, he concedes to the idea that anything can happen.

"Jesus looked at them intently and said, 'Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God" (Mark 10:27, NLT).

Raven Ministry teams have visited the north end of Union Square Park twice a month, on Wednesday evenings from 7:30-8:45PM since the summer of 2006. Powerhouse, a youth team from Melbourne, Florida, joined them for this outreach on June 12.