Here at CSM Houston, each summer takes on a personality all its own. I’m always excited to see how our staff and groups will interact with each other and the city to make their own unique impact. Although each year I anticipate this “new feel,” the summer of 2008 has seemed particularly special. Our six summer staff members have surprised me almost on a daily basis with stories of the incredible – nearly tangible – ways in which they are encountering God in the city. From a Tennessee youth group winning the heart (and friendship) of a rather hardened BBQ restaurant owner in the Third Ward to one of our staff ladies giving away her shoes to a homeless woman she met over breakfast, I cannot help but smile when I’m around this bunch. God has formed among them a genuine sense of love, authenticity and compassion that has created a unified family that serves, laughs, and cries together. How refreshing! I’m reminded of a passage in Acts that describes this type of community:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)
It’s amazing to me how much more powerfully we bring the Kingdom to earth when we’re unified. I’ve seen not only a deep personal transformation in our staff members because of this, but our groups and sites have also been profoundly affected. What a joy it is to know that this type of community can still exist today. I consider it a great gift to be a part of something so exceptional and extraordinary!
-Megan Breed, CSM Houston Associate City Director
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