Holy Spirit Youth at Missionpalooza
Holy Spirit Youth had a transformational week in Galveston last week. Six missioners from Holy Spirit joined youth/adults from eight other churches in the Diocese of Texas for Missionpalooza. Trinity Episcopal Church in Galveston was our host church and on Sunday provided all the missioners with a Hamburger and Hot dog Dinner followed by Eucharist in their historic church. Fr. Jimmy Abbott started off the Eucharist talking about the history of Trinity Church dating back to 1841 , when Texas was just a Republic. We learned stories about how the church to this day has a cannon ball in one of its walls from the Battle of Galveston during the Civil War, about the 1900 storm and what Hurricane Ike did to the church. We finished the week with a soul food dinner hosted by St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church and then enjoyed sunset Eucharist on the beach.
Our missioners were split up into 6 work crews for the week and worked with three different mission partners. Here is some brief information about our three mission partners last week.
St. Vincent’s House - They are an Episcopal organization who offers programs such as a food pantry, take-along snack packs, shower and laundry ministry to the homeless, comprehensive case management setting families and individuals on a path to self-sustainability, financial literacy, free clinics for speech, occupational and physical therapy, general medicine and multiple specialty clinics for chronic and acute care. Our missioners worked in the food bank, painted several murals around the facility and repainted the playground equipment.
Mosaic In Action - While Mosaic in Action is primarily known for their disaster response (Recovery) work, that is only 1/4 of what they have to offer. In "blue sky" times, Mosaic in Action provides residents with critical home repairs (Resiliency), disaster preparedness materials (Resources), and a network of trustworthy volunteers (Relationships). Some of our missioners traveled to the Angleton area daily scraping and painting houses for those who fall in between the cracks of getting government assistance and being able to fix their homes themselves. They all worked super hard in this Texas heat and did a great job.
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church - They were Texas’s First African American Episcopal Church. Saint Augustine Episcopal Church was organized in 1884 to minister to black Anglicans from the British West Indies. It is the oldest historically African American parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. The church was originally located at 22nd and Broadway and moved to the present location in 1940. Our missioners cleaned up the outside of the church by trimming trees and bushes, power washed the whole church building and cleaned up their community garden.
Thank you for all of your prayers and support of our youth! I have personally witnessed how God worked with these missioners this week and know they have come back changed. We appreciate you taking stock in our youth and know that you had/have our back!
Suzy Spencer
Director of Family Ministry, School Chaplain