Houston Mission Trip 9-(4-5)-05
George
R.
Brown
Convention Center
, Reliant Center, & Astrodome
Friday-Saturday
The idea to go to
Houston
came about as a result from hearing my mother’s report
of the activity in
Houston
with all of the incoming refugees from
New Orleans
. My
mother’s call came early Friday morning.
I was at the church by ten and before lunch time
the pastor and I had agreed on a plan of action—who
should be called, and how the trip would be funded.
I made the calls that night.
Before I went to bed, I had three commitments to
go. Before
noon the next day, there were eight people leaving from
Fredericksburg
. By
Saturday night, I had spent two days on the phone in an
attempt to find out information about volunteer
opportunities. Every
person with whom I spoke gave me a conflicting report.
Some people said that they were taking
volunteers, just show up.
Some said that they weren’t taking anyone.
Some said that we could talk to the refugees,
others contradicted.
We decided that we would just show up.
With one hundred thousand refugees in the greater
Houston
area, it would be hard not to find anyone to talk to.
Sunday
We came to church prepared to leave directly to
Houston
. The
prayers that morning were for access to the centers,
opportunities to talk to people, and for souls to be
saved. I
held a meeting after church with the volunteers.
It sounded like this: “Here is what we know…
we don’t know anything.”
Not quite like that, but close.
After a brief introduction to the situation in
Houston
and the conflicting reports we left bound for
Houston
.
Anchor
Baptist
Church
, on the west end of town, sponsored a dinner for us,
and I should add that they also housed the members of
our team overnight.
We thought that the best way to ensure that we
would get into a shelter would be to go to the most
recent opening, which happened to be the
George
R.
Brown
Convention Center
. We arrived
after dark. We
were under the impression that we would not be able to
witness to people at any Red Cross shelter—while this
may be the truth, we were not stopped at any point.
Due to this thought, we decided that we would try
to get in a side door so as to go unnoticed, however,
all doors were guarded and we were forced to try the
volunteer line. This
line was enormous and it did not appear that we would
get into the building in time to be effective that
night. Instead
we opted to work outside with the many refugees who were
standing around. “We,”
that is with the exception of two of our crew.
Curtis and Ian Littman—father and son—were
able to slip through a side door right in front of a
National Guard Soldier.
Here was their plan:
Curtis had a pack of three by five cards which he
held up as he and his son walked through the doors in a
very official manner and said “office supplies.”
The guard waved them both through as though they
were supposed to be there.
For the rest of us there was evangelism on the
open street, which turned out to be providential.
We had been walking up and down the side walk
talking to people one-on-one.
We noticed a group of men standing in the median.
These men were talking and moving about as though
there was a drug deal going down.
We went out there and began doing some of our
tricks for them. Once
we had their attention, we began to add the gospel
stories to our tricks.
They were glued to everything that we said.
I put David Lucas on the spot about half way
through one of my tricks and he picked up the ball and
began to tell the men what Christ had done for him.
By the end of the show I gave an invitation right
there on the street.
I led the men who were willing in giving their
life to Christ. Janet,
the lone woman in the crew, walked up to one of the men
as he was walking off from the meeting.
She was able to talk to him and he committed his
life to Christ as well.
We left the GRB in time to arrive at our host
homes at a slightly polite hour.
Monday
We left the Katy area at ten in the morning.
It took just as long to get from the loop to the
Reliant
Center
—a distance of only a few miles—as it did to get
from Katy to the south loop; there were just so many
volunteers. The
system works like this:
Volunteers go to the Reliant center.
They sign in at the volunteer desk before going
through a short orientation which is mostly common sense
street smarts. Volunteers
are now ready to be given assignments on first come
first serve basis, as the need arises.
This whole process can take an hour or two
depending on the number of volunteers and on need.
After sign-in, orientation, and assignment, the
volunteers are walked across the street into the
Astrodome.
When we walked up to the doors of the
Reliant
Center
, we were denied access.
The volunteers at the door told us that they were
full and that we should try back the next day, or even
during the next week.
This was unacceptable to us.
We had driven approximately four hundred miles
round trip and weren’t about to take no for an answer.
After a moment of discussing our options with the
group, we looked up and noticed Ian and Curt inside the
center. The
line for the volunteers was backed up to a series of
glass doors. We
had thought that they had slipped through one of the
other glass doors (Actually they used a similar
“office supplies” line and were able to get in).
We tried one of the doors and it was open.
Within thirty minutes of being denied access, we
were inside the
Reliant
Center
eating and talking with refugees.
After you get in the first door, you must go
upstairs to a row of tables and sign up.
The volunteers who work the table don’t know
who is supposed to be there and who isn’t.
Thus, we were quickly signed up are received
orange “volunteer” bracelets.
These bracelets were our ticked to get into the
dome and they gave us access to move around.
On Monday a friend of mine who had been there the
night before had met us and suggested a way to get in
faster than waiting for an assignment.
We decided that we would attempt to “merge”
with a group of volunteers on assignment as they crossed
the street to be let into the Astrodome.
The volunteers were divided into two sorts,
“medical” and “other”.
Our group was non-medical but we had merged with
a medical group. Coincidentally
Oprah Winfrey, Sen. Barack Obama, and Jesse Jackson were
entering the Astrodome at the same time which made
security and little different.
The group of volunteers was not allowed to enter
at the same time as the dignitaries; security didn’t
want a sea of people crowding them.
But when the door was opened to us, the entrance
had to be made quickly, so quickly that the woman who
was supposed to be verifying access to the Astrodome
didn’t even check us but just waved us through.
Once inside, we were free to walk around; we had access
to every area. Two
of our members stayed in
Reliant
Center
. Ian was
under eighteen and couldn’t get a volunteer bracelet.
However, he was already inside
Reliant
Center
—although he probably wasn’t supposed to be
there—and had access to the refugees, so he and his
father stayed there.
Another member decided to go through the holding
patterns, and when he was given his assignment, the
assignment was to visit with people.
As for the rest of us, we were inside the
Astrodome thanks to the diversion run for us by the
celebrities. There
were four people with me now as we walked along the
various levels of the Astrodome.
Two of our members—Janet and David—were also
walking around talking and praying with folks. My
group was doing rope tricks and passing out tracts and
Bibles. There
were many people who would tell us, “this is the first
time I have smiled since I have been here.”
It was easy to get people’s attention with the
tricks and then talk to them about Christ and pass out
literature. We
had a case of Bibles that we passed out like candy.
These people left their homes with only the shirt
on their backs. There
were many religious people, and many who had become
religious as a result of the storm.
These people longed to have a Bible that they
could read. Some
of them had already been given a Bible, but it was a
small print “shirt pocket” New Testament.
Most of the elderly had lost their glasses and
either didn’t have any or had a pair that was given to
them but wasn’t their prescription.
Our Bibles were full size, and they appreciated
the larger print. Many
times, Gene and I would draw quite a crowd.
I am sure that this sort of thing was not
allowed, much less handing out religious literature.
At one point we had a crowd of about twenty-five.
Gene opened up and began preaching.
The crowd listened intently as he told them of
their sin and of God’s provision.
Gene and I probably did our tricks one hundred
times and there was an average of five people watching
in each group. The
children were usually the easiest way to the parents.
Some of the parents acted indifferent till all of
the kids were crowded around us and they had seen us
fool their eyes. Of
all the people with whom we spoke, not one turned us
away or acted angry with us for talking about Christ!
We had made arrangements with our group to meet
between the Astrodome and
Reliant
Center
. There was
quite a large crowd hanging out under the shade of the
trees and there were lots of people walking between the
two facilities intersecting with this group.
Our plan was to utilize this intersection and do
a few
last street
meetings. At
the appointed time, we all met there and began our last
evangelistic effort.
We ended up having enough time to do two
meetings. At
the latter meeting a man from the previous meeting that
Gene led inside the dome was present and listening
intently. His
name was Chewbacka—yes, as in the Star
Wars “Chewy”.
Once the meeting was over I caught up to him as
he walked away. He
and I began discussing the points of Christianity.
He was fully convinced of all of them and of his
need for Jesus but would not place his faith in Christ.
I gave him Gene's card since Gene lives in the
Houston
area and I truly hope he will call Gene.
Shortly after the close of our street meetings we
were loaded back into the cars and headed back to
Fredericksburg
Many people wonder what just a few people can do in such
a short amount of time.
During the short eight hours that we were at the
three refugee centers our team of nine passed out a case
of Bibles and every piece of literature which we
brought, talked to over 1,200 people, and six people
made professions of faith.
To God be the Glory!
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