Postcards from the Edge

All home safe and sound after a wonderful week of serving the people of Houston and then following it up with a little bit of playing together at Fiesta Texas! Thank you all for your prayers and well-wishes throughout the week. It really was a phenomenal week full of great encounters with people and a lot of learning.

We have some great reflections from our students that do a great job of describing our week and touching on the significance of the ways in which we were able to interact with folks. Below, you will find those reflections. Just before that, I’ll put a brief description of the different ministries we served so that you have an easier time “speaking the language” that the kids will use as they reflect. Thanks again for all your prayers. They were most assuredly felt and were very powerful!

MINISTRY DESCRIPTIONS::::

LORD OF THE STREETS>
This episcopal church is made up mostly of homeless church members. We participated in a Bible study with five of their members about the stoning of Stephen…something that was very poignant for homeless people following Jesus. After the Bible study, we made over 400 sack lunches that would last LOTS about three days.

CROSSROADS>
This homeless outreach in the Park Place neighborhood where we stayed serves the homeless by providing a soup kitchen, clothing closet, vision clinic and various other services.  Our group served in the kitchen, gathered clothing and supplies for individual clients, and helped to process some of the ministry’s donations they had received.  This was the place in which our students were in the closest relationship to people who were most profoundly homeless.

PRAYER TOUR>
This tour of Houston helped us to better understand issues facing the poor such as the realities of government housing, gentrification, human trafficking, laws that oppress the homeless, and the double-edged sword of urban development projects.

MISION MILBY NEIGHBORHOOD DINNER>
At Mision Milby, we provided the program for this outreach for youth in the Milby neighborhood, shared a meal with the students, and spent some time just hanging out with the students and staff/volunteers that put the program on weekly.

REACH Center>
This is a ministry of NE Houston whose mission is “building individual lives through education, encouragement and hope.”  Working with “Coach” and the student leaders at Reach, our student supported the already existing programs going on such as swim day, Bible stories, basketball, etc.  You’ll hear a lot from the kids about Reach as it served as sort of our “home base” ministry that we served every day.  This provided a great opportunity for our kids to build relationships with the kids at Reach that were very meaningful.

HARBOR LIGHT SALVATION ARMY CHOIR>
This was a real treat!  Our last activity of the week with CSM was a private concert by the Harbor Light Choir.  These men are all recovering alcoholics and drug addicts that have found the hope of Jesus and sing with a passion and energy that can’t be matched.  We didn’t know what it would be like sitting in a concert where the audience was as big as the choir, but it was unbelievable!  It just took the choir pulling us up INTO THE CHOIR to break down those walls!

Okay…on to the reflections from our students!  You should be so encouraged by their hearts and their willingness to serve.  They were just awesome!

STUDENT REFLECTIONS::::

The mission trip to Houston was an amazing learning experience for me.  I learned so many things on this trip.  I really enjoyed helping those in need because it made me feel good about myself.  My favorite place was the R.E.A.C.H. Center because we really got to connect with the kids. I helped the 3 and 4 year olds and I really got to know them and I enjoyed playing with them. We went to the R.E.A.C.H. every day we were in Houston so we really got to talk and play with the kids. The kids were so sweet and you could tell they were in a loving environment.  The little kids really liked to have someone new to play with and it made me happy to see them with smiles on their faces.  You could tell they enjoyed us being there and on our last day there all the kids cried so you could tell they liked having us there with them and we knew they were going to miss them. This mission trip to Houston was tons of fun and an amazing learning experience. I am so glad I decided to go.
-Haley George

I had a really fun and exciting week in Houston. I learned a lot from our experiences and found out a lot about myself. I had expected to just work in soup kitchens and not really talk to any of the people that I helped, but I actually did a lot of talking and I took care of kids and the elderly. I was hard to work with the older kids and the elderly because the kids were already connected and did not want to be with us and the elderly we visited had Dementia. I really liked working, even though it was hard work. Everything that we did made me feel good, and it made me feel like I really was changing someone’s life or at least making it better. My favorite thing was to work in this place called Crossroads. The people there helped the homeless with most of the necessities that they needed. We got to help a lot and I liked how everyone there was so cheerful and diligent. I am so glad that I went on this mission trip and I am so glad that I learned a lot about myself and how to treat others. I know that God had put me and the others there for a reason.
-May Lee

When we were on our way to Houston is when I realized that I truly had no idea what I was getting in to. The whole ride I couldn’t help but wonder about what we might do on the mission trip, but every time any of us ever asked what was coming for us we would never get an answer. I didn’t know who I was helping or what I would be helping with, but our first morning at Lord of the Streets, a church for homeless people in Houston, opened my eyes to what we’ll be doing. Every minute of our time at Lord of the Streets I had been worrying about being out of my comfort zone. Later on, though, everything pulled itself together. The three days we worked I had the chance to help homeless and people who had struggled through poverty. What had been the biggest surprise of all during this trip is that after all the suffering of the people we helped, each one managed to stay grateful and happy because of what God had done for them. The best part about this trip for me was that at the Reach Center, a housing facility for families living in poverty, the kids I helped with became so attached to us. I’m so glad I decided to go.
-Nancy Rhone

Spending the last 3 days down in Houston was a lot of fun. I experienced almost everything from people without a home to people in poverty or just people that needed help. Being able to do this was something to definitely remember. What I saw in the homeless was that everyone had some really hard battles they had to fight threw from either the past or what is happening to them today so having a chance to help out the needy was really awesome. The Reach Center was where I had the best time. Just hanging out and learning there lifestyle was a whole new world. Even though there family was going through something tough, all the guys seemed to be enjoying themselves together. They act as if they are all brothers and getting to be part of that was really neat. Something that all of us should know is always be thankful for what you have because not many people as I saw have such a great, easy going life so just be thankful.
-Vincent Baiano

This trip was amazing. We had a lot of fun from helping to learning to just having fun. It was very good to see that no matter how little people have they can still have a strong relationship with God, because they know they are going to be rich forever in heaven. Hearing some people’s stories was very eye opening. I was very grateful to be there. I had an awesome time!
-Hayden Boldrick

The trip was awesome. On our first day of work we went to Lord of the Streets, one of the churches for the homeless of Houston, and we made 500+ sandwiches. They said that would last them until Wednesday which surprised me because I expected that to last at least a week. That afternoon we went to the R.E.A.C.H center which is a complex for families that have abusive parents and for families that can’t support themselves on their own. We went swimming but I was nervous at first because I didn’t know if they would accept us at first but they said to join a team and they started to play again. Next morning we went to Crossroads which is a shelter for the homeless which provides the necessities of life such as hygiene, shoes, clothes, undergarments, haircuts, eye doctors, stuff like that. The way that they got the stuff was they hand in their ticket to a lady at the front and the people behind the counter go and get the stuff for them. I helped go and fulfill the orders for the people. We went back the R.E.A.C.H center that afternoon. We played dodge ball with some of the older kids and then went and played some pool. On our last day of working we went to Shelter in Arms which is a home for the elderly with a form of dementia. We sang for them and played some bingo while we were there. We were at the R.E.A.C.H center again that afternoon. We play basketball and football and we swam the rest of the time. That was pretty much the layout of our work trip. I hated on the last day of the R.E.A.C.H center we started to build true friendships with the kids and then we had to leave them and we probably won’t ever see them again in our lifetimes. My favorite part of the whole trip was playing bingo with a man named Clyde. He was really funny. I’m definitely looking forward to going on this trip next year.
-Matthew Hartzoge

…at fiesta Texas. Good to get to see a great Xn band while we’re here!

Landyn was the most adventurous…rockin’ the cactus taco… “nopales.”