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Houston
This month we’re heading on over to Houston! Be sure to visit our opportunities page for more information about serving with us in the “Space City.”
News from the Houston City Director
New Ministry Highlight: The Beacon
One of our new ministry sites this year is The Beacon, an outreach ministry of the Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal) in downtown Houston. Located in the newly built John S. Dunn Outreach Center, the Beacon serves between 400 – 500 homeless every Saturday, Sunday and Monday. One of the only service facilities open on the weekends, they offer a hot lunch (with several choices on the serving line!), hot showers (in five nice, private dressing & shower rooms), laundry (with loaner ‘scrubs’ so everything can be washed), and clothing distribution. One distinctive of the Beacon is that everyone wears a nametag—volunteers, staff and clients. Just this small effort provides significant dignity for the homeless as they are welcomed and served on a first-name basis.
Our CSM serving groups may serve in any number of areas, but we are most often in the kitchen, preparing and serving lunch; in the clothing center, sorting and distributing clothes that fit each individual; or in the laundry room, washing, drying and returning clothes to their owners neatly folded. We established a relationship with the Beacon staff before they opened in January 2007 and a beautiful partnership has developed, thanks to our energetic serving teams and the effectiveness of the Beacon staff in utilizing volunteers. This site quickly became a favorite of both our groups and our staff.
Read more about when the Beacon first opened in this Houston Chronicle article.
And my single favorite moment from this summer is captured in a reflection from Rachel Burke, one of our City Hosts from this summer, who often served at the Beacon:
A beautiful thing happened at the end of our time serving at the Beacon. Pastor Jim had all the volunteers and clients hold hands to pray for the food that the clients were about to eat. Homeless men and women, volunteers, and clergy filled the room, and so instead of trying to form a nice circle around the room, people just took the hands of others that were closest to them. I was at the end of a long line of volunteers, my left hand holding the hand of one of the girls in my group. On my right side were two homeless people, a man and a woman, each of whom were also at the end of a long web of people, leaving the three of us unsure of what to do with our three “available” hands. It looked like in the end one of us would have to be left out of the chain. Instead of leaving it like that, I took the hand of the woman and then together we grasped the hand of the man, so that the three of our hands were all holding on together. When I looked down at our jumble of hands, I realized the beauty that God had orchestrated in this seemingly trivial situation. In my left hand was the hand of a volunteer from my group, a young Chinese girl. What I saw to my right was a black hand, a white hand, and a brown hand all holding tightly to one another. I looked up at the black woman and Hispanic man, they were bowing their heads in solemn prayer. But looking back down at all of our hands, both to my right and to my left, I thought that only through Christ could this happen. Only through Christ could it be so real, so powerful, so beautiful. Only through the Body of Christ could we forget our divisions, our differences, our colors and be One, have One Father, have One Passion. I don’t think I will ever forget that image.
– Paul Randall, CSM Houston City Director
See more pictures from the summer at CSM Houston!
Local Resources
Local News Links
- 2 Years Later: Thousands Of Evacuees Call Houston Home August 29, 2007
- Helping Hard-core Homeless August 22, 2007
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