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.