What a difference a year makes

I think it's been exactly a year to the day since the first time I came out to Church in the Park. It's changed a lot since then; both it's format, and the people that come. The other day, I was for some reason brought back to that time. I don't know know if it was the weather, or something someone said, or something I saw, but it was an effect like when a particular perfume arouses strong memories of the one who wore it. God showed me amazing things then, and brought about totally unexpected changes in my life from that point on. In my reminiscing, I found myself longing for that time and discounting what citp is now. It's good to remember what God has done, but when that brought about feelings of discontent about where we are now, I realized I also need to remember that the way I think things should go is not the way God may want them to go. In the last couple months, attendance from both students and homeless has gone down. Somehow word got out among both parties that we weren't going out there anymore. We can't have any food at all anymore. We can't use the nice picnic tables by Miller Outdoor Theater anymore. There's been a couple times where we haven't found any homeless guys, and we ended having a bible study with a couple of students. In those times I felt despondent, and I realize I may be coming across in such a way in this post, but I know that no matter how much adversity we meet that God can still bring the time out there to His glory. No, we don't have 60 guys, a dozen students, and a full meal every week like we did a year ago; but it was never about all that in the first place. It was about coming together as the body of Christ. Every week--even this last week in the freezing rain--God is bringing a few together for fellowship and a bible study, and showing us that He is good and worthy of our praise. Yes, it's good to look back and see what God has done, but if in doing so we discourage ourselves and get into a funk concerning our present situation, we need to do as Paul did and "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ." To think that we have peaked in our walk with God is not biblical, and sets a limit on God where there is none. God has much more in store.

Now, just to be clear, this is not a eulogy for citp. We are still going out there every week. I don't know how long we will continue. Church in the Park has always been a week to week deal. It's been in God's hands and will continue week to week for as long as He desires. With obligations for school increasing before my time at Rice ends, I will have to step down my involvement some, but I hope that other students will continue it. I have always felt a sense being accepted and belonging at citp; more so than I have at any church I have gone to on Sunday. I've told a few people that in a time when I got discouraged and thought citp was dead, it felt like I was going through a break-up. It may sound lame, but citp is very dear to me and an important part of my life as girls with whom I was in relationships with have been in the past. I pray that I don't try to force something that shouldn't be, but I see God working out there every week, and bringing people out there against all odds. One of the things that I think has kept people coming out is that we have been consistent in showing up every week since Chruch in the Park has started, whether there's rain, sleet or snow (I know it doesn't snow in Houston but we would still show up if it did). So come on out.

If you are a student, and would like to be involed, I encourage you to also come out to Church in the Park at Palmer. It meets at 8AM on Saturday at Palmer church. I realize it's tough to wake up on a Saturday morning, but if you really want to come and that's all that stopping you, set your phone on loud and I will call you repeatedly until you wake up. You can roll outside in your pjs 5 minutes before it starts, and I will even pick you up and drive you the whopping 300 feet over to the church. Don't worry about how you look. I show up every week groggy with bed head :) It would good to have more students for the fellowship time. The one on one time with these guys is invaluable. Conversations you think are meaningless can have a great affect. There was a time in my life when I almost walked away from God for what I thought would be for good, but before I did someone walked up to me, said hello, introduced herself, and wished me a good day. I was totally turned around by that; by someone just being kind when I really needed it. God can and will use you in wonderful ways you could never imagine. I have seen God do many great things at Church in the Park, and I know He can continue to do more. If He decides not to continue it, then so be it; we will see Him work elsewhere. If He does continue it though, I look forward to seeing what the next year brings.

-Sean

two things

first:
dec. 9. mark your calendars. that saturday will be the first church service for the homeless community at palmer episcopal church. mark muller, a houstonian who has been going out to the park the past couple years to hang out with some of the homeless there, has felt a call to start up a church service geared toward the homeless community. he presented his idea to palmer, and they accepted his proposal not long ago. the Lord has really been orchestrating this; it's all falling into place.

i met mark a couple months ago through frank jones, a math prof at rice, who had heard about citp. mark has a great heart of compassion and obedience, and he is very commited to this new citpp (church in the park at palmer). the service will be at 8 am on saturdays and will consist of some worship, preaching, and prayer. there will be a small breakfast (like coffee and danishes) at the end. he's still looking for people to get involved in planning/playing instruments/helping out.

palmer is the ideal place for this. every homeless person in houston knows about the "waystation," which is what palmer calls its weekday morning breakfast for the homeless (it serves a couple hundred people every weekday). this is clearly not another breakfast on that scale, which will have to be made pretty clear up front, but that will be realized quickly.

perfect timing also. because:

second:
the park is kicking us out. it doesn't seem as if they should have the right to pick and choose who hangs out in the park, but they are pretty clear about not wanting us there. park rangers stopped by tonight and talked to sean and basically told him that no organizations can meet regularly in the park. they also said that the guy in charge of the park actually just doesn't want any homeless people at all near the park. (but it's a public park! for everyone, right?) anyway, we're meeting with that guy on thursday, hopefully, and we'll see what happens. the Lord will have to soften his heart if we are to continue having Bible study in the park, because it doesn't seem like this man will budge. it's definitely in the Lord's hands now, which is a good place to be. :)

we'll see where He takes it from here!

Blessings Abound

The past 3 weeks have been going well. Last week we had the Christ the King Prebyterian church join us with some middle and high school students. They came out with us this past summer also. Emmett was the only homeless guy that was there last week, but it still went really well. The people from the church had to leave early and Emmett left right after the study so the group from Rice were the only ones left. We had an awesome time of prayer. It's an amazing blessing having such a wonderful group Christian friends on campus. I was a little concerned that Emmett was the only guy in the park to show up, but the body of Christ can glorfying God no matter who we have gathered.

This week Jason gave an excellent talk on consecration. It got me thinking about the majesty of God and the importance of honoring Him; things I sometimes brush off and take for granted. We had Robert, Dave and Emmett with us. Robert was planning on going back to work with the carnival, but that fell through. Both he and Robert felt very blessed by the fact that God had given them another day. It reminds me of the perspective I should have when I'm not feeling content with all the amazing things God has blessed me with that I don't deserve.

Something really cool happened while we were talking after. Robert was telling a story of how he was mean to a lady that was riding the ride he was controlling at a carnival. Where I think a lot of people would have laughed it off and said "oh well, crazy homeless guy", none of us did. Stephen and Kathleen told him in a gentle way that it wasn't right. He tried to justify it, but I think it got him thinking about his attitude. I saw in it a sincere love that those who participate in church in the park have for the guys out there. It was also refreshing to see Christians set apart from the world; to see them as the saints they are. God is faithful and is still doing amazing things in church in the park.

-Sean

God's still working in Hermann

So the past three meetings in Hermann have gone really well. We show up and go through the park to round people up and we come across a lot of the same people every week. Most of them are happy to come to the study. Spider, Ali, Tony and Dave have been regular attenders. I mentioned faithfulness in my talk a couple weeks ago, and I was really convicted when I wasn't faithful to Tony. He made a simple request of me: can you get a blanket? I told him I would by the next week, and I didn't. I did eventually get him one, but it made me think of how willing I am to spend so much money on a pair of sunglasses, or insanely-high-thread-count sheets, or a drink at a bar, and I still found it difficult to stop by the store and get a $13 blanket. I not saying that we shouldn't have nice things, but its important to be faithful to someone who really needs something, and who you've committed to, before you think about all the stuff you want and don't necessarily need. It's a simple truth, but it can be forgotten, as was the case with me.

I've really enjoyed the time we spend just talking to the guys before and after the study. They don't feel obligated to be there because of food (not that everyone was like that before), but they want to be there for the company; because they see us as our friends. This past week it was just Erin, Jason and I out there and Dave asked about everyone else. He told me to let them know that he was thinking about then, and that he was keeping them in his prayers. He said he's been coming for almost a year and he likes to think of us as friends. He said it in a shy manner that showed his words were truly heartfelt. He was also very encouraging to me last week. I talked on Ephasians 1 and wondered if anyone got anything out of it. Kathleen told me that he said in the small groups that something I said made him think of all the ways God had blessed him in the past week. Knowing that God spoke at least one thing to one person assured me that our time out there was well worth it.

Please pray for Robert, who was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer.

This week Jason gave a great talk on Jeremiah 1; how God gave Jeremiah purpose and endowed him to live the life He expected him to live. I enjoyed watching the guys there get into it and relate to what was being said. I really liked hearing them all get into the song "This Little Light of Mine." We actually had more homeless there than students. I don't say this to emphasize the small number of students, but to underscore the number of guys we have coming after six weeks of not serving food. While small, we are a church, equipping the saints to go out and preach the Gospel, and live a life that glorifies God.

-Sean

Emancipation

Hey everyone,
I wanted to write a bit about Emancipation. Right now, things seem to be in a bit of a decline. Fewer people are coming, and most of the ones who do just want to fight. However, here's my hope: other people are stepping up and not only taking leadership, but also questioning the norms and agreeing that there is something not entirely right about going someplace, eating, and then going back to our nice warm homes. I also received hope in hearing that people think of this act as a "spiritual discipline" (it's so true!) and that they are disquieted by it, too (I'm so glad I'm not going crazy here.). We're also going to start putting in something we haven't for awhile: prayer. You really need a spot off site to do this, and we're going to start praying at Taft afterwards, which is so good. I'm also going to put their names on this blog so they can write in, too.
Look forward to updates!
-Ziggy

Fresh perspective

I'm so happy we changed formats.

I'll be honest, I thought that not serving dinner would be the death of Church in the Park. Instead, when I went last night, there was more life there than I've seen in a long time. This is a good example of why trusting God is better than trusting your instincts, as well as an amazing ressurection story (because I thought Citp was dead). Granted, we had to go looking for folks, but compared to transporting food and maintaining order, heck, that's no sacrifice at all. I also had a realization about the things I've been thinking about. People loved to ask me about the "justice" aspect of Church in the Park, which seems kind of a silly question to me. Who cares about the "justice" aspect if people are hungry? What's so "unjust" about dinner. However, last night cleared things up in my head.

I ran into Tom, and he was drunk. I have never in my life seen Tom drunk, and this was a little disconcerting. He asked if we could talk and I told him sure, and we talked about 20 feet from everyone (rules are rules). At first he thought I was angry, which of course couldn't have been further from the truth, and after I convinced him that wasn't the case and that Jesus saves him on belief, not works, he felt better. He told me quite a few things, about how he loves us, and how he thinks of us as his best friends. But then he told me something I didn't believe: that we were the first persons to "care" what his name was. Now, granted he wasn't in top form, but that hit me. What is the big deal with learning a name? Then I remembered:

Earlier that week, my boss and his boss took myself and my fellow service guys out to lunch. Driving back, there was a man asking for change at the corner. My boss' boss explained to us "youngin's" about the racket the man was doing, about how he was picked up and planted there by a guy in an SUV every morning. I asked what's the big deal, Charlie needed to get to work, too, and the intersection was a long way from anywhere good to sleep. Conversation went dead, and my boss turned to me and said, "Wait, you know that guy personally?"

And that's the justice of citp. What crime is so awful that you don't deserve to have your name known by anyone? What crime is so awful that you don't deserve to be known at all? God calls us all by name, and this is the great equalizer of humanity: that no one in God's Kingdom is so low that they do not deserve to have their name known by God. Isa 45:3 says "3 I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. 4 For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. " Jesus continuously told us about His name, and the power of it. To deny someone a name is to deny them the ability to become a son or daughter of God.

Cool, huh?

Tuesday was amazing, and I want to give props to Jason, I love watching him speak because he loves what he's speaking about so much that he lost in it. Good job guys, God has remade Church in the Park and you sat through the rebirth, and it is wonderful.

-Ziggy

thoughts from the summer

here are some comments from the students of the center for student missions who came each week over the summer:


Ken and Sam - I thank you!

Wow! What commitment! Even when the police came to shut us down, they stayed positive and looked to the Lord for help. They are an amazing ministry and I hope it continues.

I met a couple people at church in the park that seriously humbled me.

Church at the Park made me happy to have so little in commone but yet have Jesus as a common ground. Thank you for all you do!

I got to share the gospel with this guy at church in the park. It was awesome. I'll never forget him.

Sam - you are awesome and incredibly strong. I love you and will keep praying for you. Good luck! God Bless!

You guys have a huge heart and a great idea to serve. Thank you.

Leader of Church in the Park - I think that this is a great program and it encouraged me to go back and talk to more people. Keep it up.

They allowed me to see a very inspiring vision on the homeless. I would like to thank them all. They really changed my view. I learned a new way to work with the homeless--in a good way.

"Love is not love till it's given away"--Tom Thanks, Tom!



praise the Lord for this partnership with CSM and for His grace over us this past summer and as we move into the new school year!

- sarah

Seeing the Power of God

So this was our first time doing Church in the Park under the new format, where we no longer serve dinner, and have a more structured service. It was an awesome night. We went out and there was nobody by the tables we had been meeting at the last few weeks. We split up into three groups and wandered through the park to gather up any of the homeless we recongnized. My group didn't see anyone, and another group said they saw some, but they weren't interested in coming. But God didn't let the story end there. We were gathered back by the theater, and just as we were going to start the study with just Rice students, two guys walked up. Then three more. Then three more. That's more people we had in the last two weeks combined when we were bringing a full meal out for everyone. I was in a bible study the other day and someone talked about the power of God; how some people's first thought is the Red Sea being parted or fireballs coming down from the sky or Samson's super strength. What is even a greater marvel is His ability to raise us from the dead and glorify us and keep us in His presence for eternity. Given enough time, humans could probably figure out how to part a sea, but we will never be able raise people from the dead as He does. So what does this have to do with Church in the Park? Another thing we will never be able to do is speak to people's hearts to get them to want to know God more. Only His Spirit can do that, and bring people together in a park to worship God, and I am awed by it.

We sang several songs and had a study on wisdom. Judy played guitar and Stephen led the study out on Proverbs 3. Afterward, I prayed with Spider and Jerome, two guys I hadn't met before. They both randomly started talking to me about not worrying about the future and trusting God with it, which was something I really needed to hear. They really have no idea what's going to happen day to day, and it was really encouraging to hear how that they give every day to God. It was such a blessing to just talk with them; not pity or patronize them, but just be friends and fellowship with them.

After the prayer time we had snacks and talked. The food was definitely not a main focus, as we had hoped. Everyone saw it as just a snack. I talked to Scott, who just went out on the streets, and came to citp for the first time a couple weeks ago. He's having a lot of trouble with his mother-in-law and wife. Please pray for him. All the guys who came said they would be back next week. I forgot to mention it in last week's post, but Gary, who was drunk and depressed whenever he came, got a job in Austin. Praise God for that, and for the wonderful fellowship he brought together this week for His glory.

-Sean