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