blessings for us
welcome rocky!
Running across the flat ground of Houston (not the steps of the Philly art museum) is Rocky! On Wednesday we welcomed Rocky as he joined the UMCOR team. Rocky is now our construction manager in the Houston area, running volunteer groups and repairing homes that received mostly wind damage from Hurricane Ike. Now UMCOR has staff spread over the whole greater Houston area: Sandy in Galveston, Susan and Monty in San Leon, and Rocky in Houston. Alan is working with Rocky to show him the ropes. It is an exciting time to expand our ministry and reach more people who need help. Rocky has a lot of experience working with Habitat. I think Sandy is a bit jealous that Rocky is now the oldest staff member.
He sure doesn’t seem it though. Can’t wait to see him at work! Please keep Rocky in your prayers as he starts this new ministry!
Tuesday and Wednesday a group of Mennonites worked at Primera. They were awesome and fast. The guys cut and glued down the carpet in the sanctuary. Two of the younger guys finished the sheetrock in the bathrooms. Meanwhile many of the young ladies sanded, mudded, and taped the walls. Some of the girls looked like they powdered their faces from so much spackle dust; they were so white! They are serious about sanding for sure. It is incredible to watch them work. They do such a great job and move so quickly also. We are so grateful to finally have the carpet down in the sanctuary instead of just sitting in the entry way in a huge roll. I think it looks great!
primera church christmas party
Sunday at our house after church we hosted our church Christmas party. We had a lot of fun, even though some of the members couldn’t make it. It is challenging to try and communicate with those who speak mostly Spanish- really tough trying to convey the menu.
It is the first big group we had in our house, and I was delighted to cook and serve them. (Well- mostly delighted since we were exhausted from Fiesta de Chili and spent most of Saturday night and Sunday morning preparing. Thankfully there was time to nap on Sunday afternoon). Many members of the congregation brought housewarming gifts- how generous! By the way, Aldo was also there but the picture of him and Tim playing PSP didn’t come out.
You may not believe this… but I decorated our huge cactus this year instead of a real tree. Because we are going to be away for Christmas, it didn’t seem worth the money to buy a tree. Before Tim and I got married, he always decorated the cactus at his house, which I thought was a pathetic bachelor tradition that needed to go. Yet, it was strangely fitting to decorate the cactus now that we live in Texas. Of course, I could only use really light weight ornaments, but at least it is decorated. So some of my favorite ornaments that my parents collected for me over the years made it into the nativity scene. A bit unconventional maybe but it works!
schwartz family christmas tree?
dickens on the strand
Last weekend, Tim and I took Sunday afternoon to attend Dickens on The Strand. It is a yearly Galveston tradition, a Victorian era festival on the first weekend of December. We had a great time attending events such as the Queen’s Parade and Victorian Bed Race. The bed race had 3 entrants, where teams of 5 decorated a victorian bed, raced them down two city blocks, and stopped to change pajamas in the middle. So silly! Many attendees dressed in Victorian costume. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone all dressed up. The oddest costumes we saw were pirates (not quite sure why) and a Confederate soldier. It would have been fun to dress up, but it is too frivolous an expense, I think. I also enjoyed listening to the bagpipers play. It struck me that some people were dressed as beggars. You don’t have to look too many blocks from the festival to find people who are really hurting and not just playing at it. It’s funny how your perspective changes. Last year, I would have just thought that was a fun idea, but seeing real need has changed that. Still, I was able to mostly relax and have fun. (Sometimes I get caught up in the busyness and forget to!). Another funny thing at the festival was a roped off area full of real snow, and also fake soap snow fell during the parade. I guess that’s the best you can do for snow in this climate! At the end of the queen’s parade rode a bunch of outlaws on horseback (I’m not sure how that fits either!). What a fun experience though and an opportunity to get away for a bit. We enjoyed it!
Sermon: “Observations from Fiesta de Chili”
Text: John 3:16
To listen, click here:
To download, click here: Observations from Chili Fest 12-13-09
Special music for the service:
special music by Brother Robbins
fiesta de chili!
Fiesta de Chili was a lot of fun! Lucy, Dolores, and Mrs. Rojas arrived early to set up the meal and heat the food. Almost the entire congregation was there serving.
Here are some of the highlights:
- We served about 100 people in the building over a 2 hour period. Some came from previously advertising it, but many were walk-ins from being waved in, seeing the sign, or receiving a special invitation from Tim and I as we drove around the community during the event, inviting people off the streets.
- I was impressed to see some of the members of the congregation visiting with those who came to the event. They went to each table and chatted with the guests.
- I was surprised that Tim saw one of the guests reading a Christian tract outside after the lunch. I am not a big fan of them and think they are mostly ineffective, but who knows? Maybe something will come of it. I remember that God is much bigger than my preconceptions.
- Several ladies from Primera Hitchcock and Texas City came to help serve chili and brought even more food to give out. What a blessing!
- After Chili Fest was over, Tim and I loaded up the extra chili in the back of the pick up truck. Along with our new friends Lauren and Ian who do disaster recovery with the Alamo school, we gave out chili to the communities on the north side of Broadway. It was amazing how many people came to the truck and gratefully accepted our bowl of chili. We really feel God multiplied the chili to feed all those we were supposed to encounter that day. We had a huge pot, but when we started to get low, we just mixed in some more beans and we had just enough. I think we fed somewhere from 30 to 50 people and we had a lot of fun!
- It was a good start for the congregation- to be able to reach out and serve the community a free meal that is much needed in Galveston. I pray that God would continue to bless all those we served and use us to draw people closer to him, even in small ways.
You may remember Frances- she is the homeowner who attended last week’s Thursday night worship service. Friday, I delivered paint to her house where a group of Mennonites were working. They are an extremely fast group of workers. I was amazed to see how great the house looked. All the sheetrock is up, and while I was there, they were finishing taping and floating. They were hoping to start painting that afternoon. The group is awesome, and they are here until next Thursday. I’m looking forward to seeing how much they can accomplish. One of the Mennonite groups even wrote some nice words on the windows in dry erase marker. They are making a big difference on all the homes they are working on, but I really appreciate seeing Frances’ home come together.
Frances is incredibly blessed to have such wonderful people working in her home!























































