Houston: Another Week Down, Another Drop-Kick to Satan

Greetings once again from hot and humid Houston, Texas!

Sometimes I feel like the apostle Paul when I blog because I have a strong urge to come visit you and I want to encourage you as well! Haha if only. I guess I will do what I can to encourage and update you on what the Lord Jesus Christ is up to in my heart and here in the city.

So lets rewind to a week ago when my group arrived for the week. This past week my group was only here for a two day mission trip, giving me time to rest, relax and have some encounters with the Lord. I was really thankful for a two day group because If you haven't gathered from my subtle complaining tone in some of my posts, this job can be downright exhausting sometimes. But again I must insist that I still enjoy my role this summer with CSM even if I am home-sicky and tired....alot.

So back to my group last week. They were from a lutheran church, a small team of about 5 high schoolers and of course their leader. Usually group sizes are from 10 to 15ish. This group was very relaxed and had very low anxiety and tension contrary to a group of 12 7th graders that I hosted last week. I settled the group in for the partial week and we got to it. I had been praying that God would allow me to remain present with this group as I am anxious about the upcoming semester and all. It is important for me to focus on my duty here while I am still here.

My group and I had some good times at the ministry sites. We got to help teach English to ESL adult students at READ Commission, play with rowdy kids at REACH center, feed the homeless at Waystation, explore Canino's farmers market and of course the Harbor Light Salvation Army Choir concert. Good times!! Ask me for specific stories on some people I met!

It has been a particular focus for me to connect the works that we do with the work of Christ. It can be a temptation when doing service to others to focus on works and miss the whole point of being the hands and feet of Jesus. I was convicted by the Spirit of letting some of my groups get through the whole week without really deeply discussing the relationship between God, us, justice and our neighbors and so forth. At our last debrief on tuesday night I felt like God was telling me to share my testimony with my group. I haven't shared my testimony with a group thus far. I don't really know why. I guess its just long and I haven't felt the Spirit leading me to do it until that tuesday night. So I shared with my group of how I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior and of how He released me from the bondage of drugs and alcohol among other things and how I now live in freedom for Christ, that Christ now lives in me. After I finished we had some more discussion and we left for the night. It was only after reading the groups evaluations that I realized that Jesus touched a few of them with His story of my redemption. I praised and thanked God and closed the envelope and waved goodbye to another successful week.

Now I'm sure you want to know whats going on behind the scenes, in the recesses of my mind, eh? Well I'll tell you first off that as much as Jesus Christ is real so is the enemy, Satan, real. I've had send Satan some dropkicks lately...

So, confession!...I'm not particularly gifted in the area of boldness/courage. By my flesh nature I am a coward, fearful of man and a people pleaser. This presents a problem in the area of sharing the gospel with people/evangelism. You see I really do desire that the lost people in the world find new life in Jesus Christ, I really do. I cry out day and night for them and for God to allow me to take part in Him winning souls to Himself. Well turns out, God answers prayer! I'll explain in a minute. Don't think that I am a constant people pleaser and always afraid. I have definitely experienced boldness given to me by the Holy Spirit to share my faith with others. Its just that in the in between times the enemy tries to lie to me. The enemy tries to tell me all sorts of stuff to make me shrink back. I tweeted the other day that one of the number one tricks of the devil is that he lures Christians into complacency.. well I felt that temptation this week. It would be so easy to just hide behind myself and to water down the gospel to make it easier to swallow. But then I would be cheating myself of the fullness that Christ wishes to impart to me. It was not long before I remembered this verse and later reminded of it by a dear friend:

"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." - 2 Timothy 1:7

It was at this point that I entered spiritual warfare with the enemy of my soul..and it lasted for about 4 days. Lets just say there was lots of praying, seeking, rebuking, worshipping, asking and pleading. I sought the Lord on this and He has given me a new peace and comfort and really is starting to give me excitement and even a little boldness for sharing the gospel with people. I wish I had enough room to tell you more details but just know that the Lord is up to something.. and I couldn't be more excited.

Anyway last night I couldn't sleep very well. I woke up at 2am wide awake so I naturally started thinking about God and His purpose for me and what He is doing in the world and contemplating things to come. So needless to say I'm quite tired and I need to get revved for my next group that arrives at 5pm.

So if you feel led, you can pray for my boldness and for the power of the Holy Spirit to manifest in me as I journey through this narrow path of following my dear Savior Jesus Christ, whom I live and have my being. I can't wait to see you my brothers and sisters in Christ. Only 2 more weeks!!

In Christ,

Tyler

Houston: Dirty South and Finding God in the Children.

It has been almost three weeks since my last blog. Seems so long ago yet this summer is flying by. Sorry I've been a slacker at blogging..life is pretty crazy here in Houston. So rewinding to two weeks ago we had our farewell dinner with the staff. Some of you know that I am the only city host staying the entire summer. Everyone else was hired only for June. It was so hard saying goodbye to my new friends. We had a great night full of amazing sushi and affirmations. The Lord gave me a scripture to encourage each one of them and it was a pretty powerful night. I am gonna miss those people so much. The next morning, Britani and I headed off for Alma, Georgia. We had a whole week with no groups so Britani said I could come chill with her and her crazy cousins since I would have to spend a week alone at the housing. So we embarked on a 16 hour car ride to the dirty south, haha. That week was really fun. Her cousins are really fun and kinda crazy. Some of the activities we did were: having a rave party without drugs and alcohol, spent a day at fernandina beach in Florida, spending the night at migrant housing at a blueberry farm, and of course AMAZING food every meal.

That week I was really desiring more of God. I began pursuing the Lord and pursuing the knowledge of God and grace of Jesus Christ. The Lord has been calling me to remain steadfast in the Word. I'm so thankful that God has been revealing Himself to me this summer through the Word and in prayer and the people I meet.

So that was Georgia. We drove home about a week ago and I settled back in for another week of hosting. They arrived last Sunday. They were a group of middle/high schoolers from an Episcopal church in Austin, TX. I was really thrown a curveball when I asked one 17 yr. old kid if this was his first mission trip and his response was "well, i'm somewhere between an atheist and a buddhist." Whoa. This week is gonna be interesting, I thought. That night I prayed for the Lord to reveal Himself to this kid and for His love to be known to him. Seeds were planted this week in this kid and I'm so glad he came on the mission trip because he got to hear about Jesus. Our anchor site for the week was at a Boys and Girls Club.

I like the boys and girls club alot. I really connected with these two hispanic boys about 7 yrs. old. These two boys were kinda different than the rest of the kids at the club. They weren't noisy, pushy, etc.. but they were kinda quiet and more reserved. They kind of attached to me immediately. One of the boys told me that his mommy was in jail. She is my age I found out. The kid lives with his dad who is also my age. This boy is 7 and he has an 8 yr old brother. It broke my heart but then my heart was encouraged when I asked this kid if he went to church and he replied. "Yes! I like church because we get to pray and it makes me happy and they give us bibles about God." If I was the crying type this would have done me in. I was so encouraged by this cute little kid's faith. The other boy I connected with was also really quiet. He walked around sucking his thumb alot. He was 7. He would sit by me and lay his head on my shoulder or my lap. I don't know if he had a loving father figure in his life or not. These two kids were amazing. On the last day which was yesterday. I wrote each of these kids a letter in which I encouraged them to stay positive and I also basically wrote the gospel in the letter to encourage them that they are greatly loved by God. Right before they got picked up I gave them the letters and told them to read the letters when they got home. I really hated saying goodbye to these kids with the very real possibility of not seeing them ever again...

So much happened this week that if I were to write all that God has been doing in my life it would take forever to read. When I get back to wichita I would love to sit down with anyone and talk about the summer in more detail. for now I will leave you with a couple of prayer requests.. Thank you each for praying for me and for reading about my adventure in Houston. I miss you all greatly...

1. Pray for me to continue to remain steadfast in the Word. Pray that I would hear from the Lord..

2. Pray for me to stay present with the last three groups that I will host this summer. Being homesick is making me feel less present here in Houston.

That is it for now. I love you all and blessings on each of you.

In Christ,

Tyler

Houston: The Lord is good

Hello my brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to start by saying how thankful I am for each of you. I often think of you all, my support system and it brings me joy and causes me to give thanks to the Lord for your prayers and friendship. I just finished my second week hosting and my third group just arrived earlier this evening. Much has happened last week, great and powerful things. I have seen the Lord move in great and mighty ways. Let me update you all on my previous week of hosting...

So my group last week was a senior high group from Korean Central Presbyterian Church from Katy, TX. I was really excited to hang out with S. Koreans because one of my besties Jinwon Kim is from S. Korea! This group was amazing. They were mostly seniors in HS. I really connected with the leader from the church. He and I talked alot about life and he really encouraged me in many ways. I'm so thankful the Lord placed me with this group..

Our anchor site for the week was Holt House Boys and Girls Club. We went there every afternoon for five days. Most of the kids here are from single-parent families living below the poverty line. Some of these kids were really tough. My heart was heavy for many of them. Most of the time my group just played games with the kids. I particularly connected with this kid named Adam who goes to Holt House every day for 8 hours while his parent(s) are at work. I could tell this kid had trouble fitting in because he gets made fun of alot for his weight. I remember I was playing monopoly with him and a couple of kids from my group. He said that we were his best friends. Best friends? We have only played with him for 30 minutes! It made me sad that he attends the club every day but we, volunteers who had only been there for like a day, were his best friends. I'm still processing my experience at Holt House.

Some awesome things happened at Holt House. I was reading my bible on the last day there and this little 6 year old kid came up to me and said "Hey! a bible!" I said "yea! do you have a bible at home?" He said "Yea I read it all the time!" I smiled and he started reading my bible to himself...I decided to turn it to John 3:16 and I told him to read it. He read it and then someone called seconds for the snack so he ran off to get seconds. This happened right after I was getting discouraged about thinking if these kids knew Jesus... it was like the Lord was saying "my people are everywhere, even where you least expect" I saw hope in a 6 year old and it made the whole week worth it.

I did hit a low point this week. It was wednesday i think and around dinner time I started feeling like I couldn't do this any more and I felt so inadequate. I was already discouraged from something that happened earlier and it was like Satan used that to make me crumble. I knew I needed to pray immediately. I didn't really know what to pray for so I just said "Lord help me.." on the way home from dinner I felt like the He told me "Its going to be OK".. I got home and prayed for the Lord to take this from me. Me and my friend Janet decided to break into the chapel at the church we were staying at and just play worship music. It was beautiful. We took turns playing worship songs on the piano. I'm not really good at the piano so it wasn't hillsong worship but it was raw worship from my soul. I cried out to the Lord in the chapel that night. The Lord is so good that He immediately took this burden from me.

One of the coolest parts of my job is that I get to lead debriefs at night with my group. Its basically a time for the group to process all that they experienced that day. My group wasn't especially talkative but the Lord often gave me scriptures to encourage my group and it was pretty amazing..I am so humbled to be used by the Lord in this way..

Here are some highlights from this past week for you all...

1. I found this amazing coffee ship in Montrose called Agora. Really good coffee and the place looked like a huge wooden cabin/pub in the mountains. We need one of these in Wichita..

2. I have been seeking the Lord so much lately. My faith has already grown so much since being in Houston..

3. Getting to talk to my group leader Dan alot last week was a blessing. He is definitely someone I will keep in contact with after this summer. As the group was leaving he told me that if I ever come back to Houston I have a place to stay and a church to go to. How incredible..I'm so thankful for him.

4. I had the best cake ever last week. Paul's wife made it and it was a strawberry cake with pureed strawberries in the mix...so good...

5. I've been reading psalms every day. I love the way the Lord encourages me with His Word.

6. I got to talk to my boss/mentor Paul for like 30 minutes in the car while it was pouring rain one day. He's so wise and I love talking to that man every chance i get.

7. Yesterday I spent all day at the beach in Galveston. I got burned all over. It hurts but it was a good time..

Thanks for reading, my friends.

Here are some prayer requests that you can pray for if you feel led:

-Pray that I would give God all the glory for the way He works. Sometimes I try to take credit for some awesome things that happen but its all the Lord..He gets all the glory. I am just a vessel.

-Pray that I would use my free time to glorify God and to spend intentional time in the Word and in prayer.

-Pray for my energy and that the Lord would do great things with my group this week.

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and your prayers. I miss you all and can't wait to see you when I get back on Aug. 8th. I already bought my plane ticket, haha.

In Christ,

Tyler Ray

Houston: Exhausted and Blessed

Hey friends. My weekly chore for this week was to write a blog for the CSM website. What follows is my submission for it. After this paragraph I will tell you more of whats going on in my mind and my heart.

I'm sitting here thinking about how thankful I am for a couple days off between groups. We just finished our first round of hosting and it wasn't without tears, sweat and lots prayer. Our first group was from Grace Fellowship Church from Katy, TX. If you can imagine 96 middle schoolers in a tiny church building, its crazy. They arrived Sunday and we have been on the go since then. I have to be honest, I didn't think my group liked me very much at first. This was pretty much my first experience working with middle schoolers, let alone 10 8th grade girls. They were a handful and wore me out often but I always come back to Jesus at the end of the day and say "Yea that was worth it." We city hosts get the special opportunity to serve Jesus in a unique way. We get to be His hands and feet at the ministry sites as well as working along side our groups. It was really cool to see lives change and stereotypes shattered in these kids and their leaders, especially during the prayer tour. I think my favorite part about being a city host is that I get to lead a group of people who often come in not really knowing much about urban missions. Sometimes Christians (I included) settle comfortably in a suburban middle class life and never really get to see what God is doing in the cities where much pain, poverty and oppression fester. When I first came to Houston for my very first CSM trip, I saw Jesus in such a raw, beautiful way. I saw men and women dedicating their lives to setting the captives free and preaching good news to the poor in the name of Jesus. I saw Jesus in the face of a homeless man. It was in my first CSM trip that I realized that Jesus was calling me to a deeper relationship with Him and that meant that I needed to escape my comfortability. You see it is in the times when I'm sitting talking to person on the streets or a under-priveleged child that I see what it means to take up my cross and follow Jesus. Now as a city host, I get to see this transformation happen in young and old lives just like it happened to me. This week in my group we got to hang out with people living with Alzheimers and other dimensia related disorders, deliver lunches by hand to little children whose family struggles to get by, teach adults how to speak english and lots more. The week went by so fast, I can't believe it is already saturday and my next group arrives tomorrow afternoon. One night during my nightly shower I asked my self "can you do this six more times?" and I can say yes only by the grace and strength of God.

Ok so now here are some more things just for you all:

I honestly was super exhausted after this week even though it was a great experience. I struggled a bit with keeping patience with one of my leaders. After the first night I was pretty discouraged because this group leader complained alot and threw me a few curve balls that I wasn't expecting. Ask me in person when I get home. In the staff room after the first night, we all kinda just told stories about our groups. Some hosts loved their groups and some struggled a bit (like me). But the story doesn't end there. I began to see this particular leader's heart for the Lord. In all the ministry sites we visited, she and the others in my group showed me why I'm doing this job. Its not about having easy to get along with leaders, its not about how annoying middle schoolers can get, but its all about Jesus. He is still showing me what this means but i've definitely seen the Lord work in me this week. He showed me that I can't do this without Him as much as I try to sometimes.. so anyway here are the highlights of the past week..

1. I got to help a woman named Maribel learn english at READ Comission. It was a beautiful experience. She was so eager to learn.

2. I got to spend time with my boss/mentor Paul Randall who is an amazing man of God. He picked me up at one of my morning sites and we got away and grabbed some coffee and just chatted. He told me that no matter how much someone rubs me the wrong way or how annoying someone is, find the beauty in everyone. It was the Lord speaking to me through him.

3. At Sheltering Arms, there was music playing so I got to dance with some old ladies. They were so joyful and happy despite their challenges with Alzheimers..it was such a blast.

4. Found a random woman at a shelter named D, she shared her struggles with homelessness and confessed her sins while still proclaiming that Jesus is Lord of her life. She is so desperate for the Lord's direction in her life. I got to pray for her. It was a beautiful experience.

Please pray for my schedule and my free time that I would use it to be with the Lord. With this job it is so hard to get away sometimes. Pray that the Lord would teach me how to love others like He does.

Thank you all for being my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am so thankful for all of you.

Blessings,

Tyler

Houston: Crazy Training Week!!

Well friends its been a crazy two weeks here in H-Town. Yesterday we finished up our intense two week training. Here is a run-down of a basic day of training for a city host like myself. We start each morning with what we call morning prayer. We have this sheet with some liturgy on it. I've usually been disheartened with liturgy only because I remember when I was a kid it was really boring reciting the same thing every week. However, the Lord is allowing me to open my heart to it. In the middle of the recited prayers there is a time for Lectio Divina, which is a really cool way to interact with scripture. Someone reads a portion of scripture and our job is to let a word or phrase catch our attention in a way followed by silence and meditation on that word or phrase. Morning prayer has been so refreshing to me and gets my heart aligned with God's purpose for me..

After morning prayer we all pile into the van we rented and set off for a morning and afternoon of visiting many..many..many ministry sites. Since I will be in charge of navigating to all these sites at one point or another, these visits are designed to familiarize us with the site and to meet the director at the site. I must say I am so joyful to see the ways God is working in this city to fight injustice, stereotypes and poverty through these ministry sites. I can't wait to go to these sites every week to serve with my group..

After a lunch back at the housing or at a park we go to dinner! This is one of my favorite parts of CSM. Every group that comes for a mission trip gets to eat at a different ethnic restaurant every night. Every night of training we ate at one of our restaurants ranging from mediterranean to El Salvadorian to BBQ to Vietnamese and so much more. Most of you know I love food so you can feel my excitement...haha. Lets just hope I can manage to not gain 20 pounds this summer!

Here are some random highlights of the last week or so...

1. Got to hang out with people from another ministry called Mission Year. They have a house in the ghetto and are working to build community in their neighborhood. Its a beautiful ministry. Check it out.

2. We get to lead a prayer tour of Houston for our groups every week. I've been training on how to give the prayer tour which is intimidating...If you had to learn your way around Houston and be able to know pages of information you'd be scared too...haha. But I love the prayer tour. Seeing the needs of the city and also the ways God is working is just amazing.

3. Had the best bbq of my life at Thelmas BBQ in the third ward...delish.

4. Went to one our ministries called Open Door. Its a site where men recover from drug and alcohol addictions while getting discipled. I met a guy there who was applying to get into the program. He said Jesus is setting him free from his addictions. Praise the Lord for transformation!

5. Got to pray with a man on the streets who was hungry. I was led to buy him some food. Jesus says feed the hungry and give the thirsty something to drink. I am learning alot about how to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a way that is transforming my life...

6. Met another homeless man named John downtown. He approached me because he was hungry and asked me to help him out. I told him to walk with me. I asked about his life and he told me that he is a Christ follower but is depressed from being on the streets and the fact that his mother died recently. Holy Spirit allowed me to encourage him and buy him a meal. He is such a nice, genuine fellow. I introduced him to my team and we all stood in a circle, holding hands praying for John in the middle of a busy street corner. It was beautiful.

7. Got to do a prayer labyrinth. I've never done anything like this before but it was amazing.

8. Went to a Houston Astros game at Minute Maid Park.. pretty sweet facility. The Astros weren't so good though...

There is so much more that I could tell all of you. The people I've met, the crazy random things my team and I have done, the list goes on. I want to tell you all what the Lord has been doing in me recently...

I've started struggling with looking at people through my own fleshly eyes instead of through the eyes of Christ. I see this playing out in my interactions with my other team members and other random people I talk to. I have this tendency to see peoples faults and dwell on them. This causes me to think that I have it all together which is far from the truth. I started to get slightly angry at somethings I heard from people I was around and it was discouraging. I went to the Lord with this and He told me to see them as He sees them. He told me that I should not try to fix their faults but instead I should set an example for my brothers and sisters. This is requiring me to keep my thoughts, words and actions in check and making sure they are conforming to Christ. This is a painful process but the Lord is patient with me and is already working in me. I've recently started seeing people as people made in the image of God and not merely sinnners. I have a desire to pursue holiness and to let Christ refine me by the fire.

I got to spend some great time with the Lord today on my day off. The Lord ministered to me through his Word and in prayer...

Well tomorrow my first group arrives. I will be hosting a group of 8th grade girls... It should be an amazing week. I am stoked to finally host my own group. Please be praying for me. Pray for the girls to not develop crushes on me...haha. Pray that I would find time to be with the Lord among the business of hosting. Pray for my strength this week and that I would let Jesus work in and through me.

I love you all. Thanks for keeping in touch. Its gonna be a long summer.

God bless you.

Houston: Week One

So I've been in Houston, TX for about a week exactly. I got here via Greyhound bus. Thats a story for another day but it was interesting and pretty uncomfortable physically for most of the ride. The bus ride was in the night. And I didn't sleep a wink. I did get to talk to this nice old man named Biff and also chatted it up with a 3 year old named Colton. We rolled into Houston after 15 hours on the bus and I was stoked. I might be flying to Wichita instead of taking the bus. Just saying. Seeing the skyline again kinda gave me this strange feeling of being home even though Houston is not my home.

Britani Wade, Houston's associate city director for CSM picked me up and took me to the housing. Basically I live in a children's building at this church outside of Houston. The guys living quarters are HUGE. Its getting smelly already though...hmm. I was the first one there then another guy, Josh arrived. Josh is one of five other hosts this summer with me. He's a cool guy. Shortly after I met Janet, another host. Janet is really fun and super nice. Janet and I went with Paul, CSM Houston's city director, to the grocery store to buy food for our staff retreat. That night I got to chill at the housing by myself.

I am already encountering Jesus in many ways, for example we pulled up to the housing and were greeted by a friend on the streets in need of a blanket. We got him a sleeping back and he was very thankful. His name is Bob and he had a cross necklace. I asked him if he knew Jesus. He got really excited and shared his faith briefly. It was awesome.

I've told some people but if I only get one thing out of this summer experience, I want to just grow closer to Jesus Christ, the reason I'm here in Houston. I want to encounter Him in a new way and He is already answering that prayer.

I woke up the second day and got to go on a run. I'm trying to keep in running shape while here. Found a really good two mile route that I repeat for more miles.

I met the rest of the hosts finally. Our team is getting along great. After a week we have already bonded and we feel like family. We crack each other up alot which is good because I'm goofy and am blessed to work with goofy people as well. I've been praying for this summer and one prayer was that the other hosts that I would work with would become a supportive community for me and they have far surpassed that, Praise the Lord.

Now we are in the midst of training and one thing we do for our groups is called the prayer tour. We drive around the city and pray for things we see. Its beautiful. The Lord spoke to me at one of our stops where we usually discuss runaway teens, human trafficking and the relationship between the gay community and the church. While thinking about the last item and praying, the Lord told me that so often we in the church want to "fix" people. We want to transform them into something that we can tolerate then we can love them. Jesus told me to love them with His love and He will do the transforming. I'm thanking the Lord for this revelation. Love is what it is all about.

We went on a staff retreat to a farm house near College Station in the middle of nowhere. It is a beautiful farm house and located in the beautiful hill country which is great running. The best part of staff retreat was that everyone got to tell their life story. I love people's stories and I was blessed to be able to share mine as well. Another really cool thing we did was we got to spend 3 hours by ourselves with God. It was incredible.

So this is a long blog post but i'm sure I will get into my rhythm and they wont be as long. Thanks for reading and I love you all. I'm super busy in Houston so keep praying for me to find my alone time with the Lord.