October 2026 Missions Update
THE TRAINER FAMILY - MISSIONARIES TO BROOKLYN NYC
Hello from the Trainers…
Welcome from the Trainer family - Stephen & Carrie, plus Ryan (17), Liam (13), Sean (10), Audrey (6), and Nathan (4)! We're missionaries making disciples in Brooklyn's Coney Island and Brownsville neighborhoods. These newsletters are our way of keeping you close to what God is doing here. Thank you for being part of this with us!
We lead Graffiti Ministries Brooklyn, and our ministry model is best described as “meet the need first,” coming alongside people with practical help like our free GED program. These acts of service and the relationships they bring allow people to see and hear the gospel.
GED Updates…
A new semester in Brownsville
Our flagship ministry is a free GED program we offer in both Brooklyn communities we serve. Most of our neighbors don't have a high school diploma - nearly half in Coney Island, and closer to two-thirds in Brownsville. Through our Learning Center, we first meet the need by offering free GED classes with no age limits and no minimum reading level, because meeting people where they are is where everything starts. From the classroom, relationships grow into first steps of faith. Alpha courses, Bible studies, and house churches take our students from a practical need met to a life transformed by the gospel.
Coney Island needs a new classroom
We have news from Coney Island and a prayer request. After several years of hosting our free GED class, PS 90 can no longer give us classroom space.
Nothing went wrong between the school and us - far from it. New class-size legislation in New York City means the building needs every room for its own students. We are thankful for the years they made room for us, and we want a good year for them!
It does leave our Coney Island students without a place to meet. Some of them have been with us a long time. Others were on the waiting list, ready to start this fall. We have offered every one of them a seat in our Brownsville class, and a few will make that trip. For many, Brownsville is simply too far from home. We have 42 new Coney Island students ready to start class as soon as we have a meeting place!
Here is how you can pray:
For a new meeting space in Coney Island
For our returning students, that this gap would not cost them the ground they have gained
For the men and women on the waiting list who are ready to begin
For our staff and volunteers as they carry the searching, the calls, and the waiting
For PS 90, for a full and fruitful year
Our fall semester is underway in Brownsville! On October 1st we welcomed a new class of students at our Brownsville orientation. Seats were filled from the waiting list we built over the last semester and throughout the summer. Would you pray for each of these men and women as they begin working toward their diploma? Also, many of these will come to know Jesus as a result of this program!
Graffiti Partners on the Mission Field!
In July, a team from South Carolina went with us to a local laundromat in Brownsville and paid for everyone's laundry for an hour and a half! When people asked why we were doing this, we told them we just want them to know God sees them and loves them. It's one of our favorite ways to meet the need first.
One of the leaders on this trip served with us last year and was excited to share that his church has started a regular laundromat servant evangelism project back in South Carolina!
This summer, two of our teams spent time praying over the public schools of Brownsville. Over the past ten years, we have mobilized more than 1,200 volunteers onto our Coney Island campus, and we are praying for the same kind of open door in Brownsville.
It appears God has opened a door! Recently, a district superintendent here in Brooklyn responded to our outreach and offered to help us pursue a new school partnership. We are now in conversation with Riverdale Avenue Community School, just a few blocks from where our Brownsville GED program meets. Please pray for the upcoming conversations!
Biblical Community
This summer we sat down for a celebration meal with both our Coney Island and Brownsville Graffiti Groups.
The fellowship we experienced around the table is why we work full-time to provide a GED program in two Brooklyn communities. It's also why we enroll fewer students than some might expect. We welcomed 90 people into new student orientations this past school year, and we're proud of that number. Could we have enrolled more? Yes. But go much beyond that, and we lose the ability to have relationships like these. We're helping as many people as we can toward their diploma, while keeping discipleship the priority.
“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.”
We need your help, so we can keep meeting the need first…
We LOVE these opportunities to tell you all about the radical life changes we continually see here in Brooklyn! Through outreach, education, and discipleship, people in some of the hardest parts of our nation’s largest city are finding hope and meeting Jesus.
It’s not nearly as fun to talk about the finances required, but the truth is, that is a big part of the reality as well. It would be impossible for us to serve our communities without you.
Did you know that Graffiti Ministries Brooklyn receives no denominational or missions agency funding?
Everything we do, every GED class, every Bible study, every meal shared around a table, happens because individuals, families, and churches choose to partner with us. That's it. There's no safety net and nothing behind the curtain.
Over the past two years, we've lost a significant number of monthly donors through normal life changes. This is perfectly natural as people face moves, job transitions, and new seasons of life. That's the reality of partnership-funded ministry: attrition is constant, and right now we're in a season where we need to rebuild.
We're praying for new monthly partners across these giving levels:
We are so grateful for several new partners since our last newsletter!
The update graphic above reflects the remaining need…
A lot of people feel that because they can’t give huge amounts, they can’t make a difference, but that’s not true at all!
The vast majority of our current partners give $100 a month or less, and every dollar goes directly to the work. If what you can give feels small to you, let us tell you - it isn't. God has a long track record of taking what we think is too little and multiplying it in ways we never saw coming. Any gift matters and together they make big life changes possible!
If you would like to become a new monthly (or one-time) partner, or renew your past partnership, you can find all the details on giving by card or check right here:
Let’s Stay in Touch!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this quarter’s ministry newsletter! We send these out just four times per year to avoid crowding your inbox, but we do have plenty to share in between as well. Please follow us on our socials below, and if you are not already, subscribe to this newsletter to make sure it lands in your inbox next quarter!
