june heat

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The heat did not deter the youth of St. Thomas', College Station...it made them thirsty, and I bet a few wanted that raincloud to produce and postpone their efforts, and yet they pushed through--on a mission!

Trinity by the Sea has a long history of hosting youth groups on the island for mission and for fun. St. Thomas' youth minister, Jordan Smith was down here vacationing a few months back and asked about having his group come to sleep on the parish hall floor for their mission trip. He had to look elsewhere to find showers (showers are very important on mission trips), but it has all worked out.

The they arrived Sunday evening, and were ready to work on Monday morning, earlier than I expected. Holy Spirit delayed the start time of the painting project just long enough for them to notice the disarray of the garage they would be painting. Step one: clean out the garage and power-wash the outside. Everything came out, was categorized, and replaced in a new, neat order. The primer was begun, and when it got too hot, they took a break to jump in the gulf. The next day they picked up to finish the primer and then paint the entire thing. Cleaned out, cleaned up, and painted all in two days. Wow!

Today they are off to serve at the Corpus Christi Food Pantry and tomorrow on to ARK (Animal Rehabilitation Keep.) Friday is fun day. They will head to the beach to play.

That is what the Episcopal Church looks like to me. It's not just a brand slapped on the sign so you know what you're getting. It's a family that hosts one another: church to church, diocese to diocese, state to state. I remember taking youth from Christ Church Cathedral, Houston to West Virginia for a mission trip. We stayed at two different Episcopal Churches on our travels. It was as simple as calling and saying we'd be up that way. They had a key waiting for us. This fall, we'll get to receive some Episcopal hospitality when we drive up to build a habitat house in Lockhart. Our ecclesiastical cousins will be putting us up then, too.

I grew up attending Camp Allen, the camp in the Diocese of Texas. By the time I was in High School, I had friends across the state in Houston, Austin, and of course, Brenham. The wonderful reality of our church is that we are connected to people not only across the state, and the country, but around the world. We support one another in prayer and with our mission trips. It makes good sense for St. Thomas' youth to be sleeping in our Parish Hall for their summer mission, and I'm thankful they are here. They are our cousins from across the Brazos. Maybe next summer, we'll even have showers here for them.

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