One of the very first events my family attended at Holy Spirit was the July 4th patriotic sing-a-long in 2018! Sometimes that seems like yesterday and at other times, so long ago! What a marvelous introduction to such a wonderful spirit-filled place! Tony and I were invigorated by the music but even more so by the church community. People were welcoming, friendly and encouraging. That event was the beginning of our transition to Holy Spirit, and we are so grateful!

We started to attend Holy Spirit in the spring of 2018. We came after being enthusiastically recruited by the one and only Annie Condon via our oldest daughter, Alexandra, who was new to HSES. Annie and Alexandra instantly bonded over matching pairs of Paw Patrol shoes (apparently a big deal to preschoolers). Alexandra came home one day and let us know that Annie had invited her to church and she absolutely begged us to go to church one Sunday. At the time, we did not have a church home and decided to just “check it out.” The peace we felt at Holy Spirit was immediate and unlike anything Jordan and I have ever felt at a church before. During one of our first Sundays, I remember Sarah quoting her dear mother, saying, “We take you to church every Sunday so you have something to fall back on when life gets hard.” This quote stuck with me, but I wouldn’t realize its full impact for some time.

While it is still a bit more than a week away, I wanted to write a few words about Father’s Day. I am lucky to be a father of three – Paul, Ben, and Hannah, ages 27, 25, and 21. While Evelyn and I have had a wonderful 30 years of marriage, I can’t imagine my life without the “kids.”

Greetings friends! My name is Allison Nieto and I’m happily serving my 3rd year on the vestry. My husband, Rudy, and I have 2 kids ages 17 and 7. Our 3 dogs complete our family and provide us with endless love and entertainment!

When asked what brought us to HSEC the simplest answer is geography. Five years ago when we were preparing to move from Atlanta to Houston we contracted on a house 2 blocks from the church and counted our blessings that an Episcopal church was so close to our new home. Rudy and I both grew up Episcopalian, met in the church while we were at LSU, and have always found comfort in the consistency of worship no matter where we are living. We were committed to Holy Spirit before even meeting a single person. Little did we know that we would end up in a different house but our commitment to Holy Spirit didn’t waiver especially after meeting so many friendly faces. Just two weeks after moving in Harvey hit. One of the only silver linings that came from those horrible weeks and months is that we solidified our relationships and formed new friendships over the common bond of helping our neighbors and fellow parishioners recover.

One of the wonderful things about our culture is that we have designated days of the year to, if we are paying attention, show our gratefulness. Thanksgiving Day is the obvious leader in this category. We could also call out Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Veteran’s Day as times to express our appreciation for our parents and for those serving in our armed forces.

This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day, where we should show our appreciation and respect for the men and women of our military that have given their lives to preserve our freedom and help our country. Thank you and God bless every one of you!

While Josh is on sabbatical, your vestry members will be supplying Spirit Shot messages, so please allow me to be one of the first to welcome The Rev. Erin Jean Warde to Holy Spirit. She’ll be subbing for Josh through his sabbatical. I hope that you’ll help to give her a Holy Spirit welcome as only this parish can.

I hope our Holy Spirit teachers are feeling the love today! It is teacher appreciation week and Holy Spirit volunteers and school board members provided a wonderful breakfast for them this morning. At school Sunday this past weekend, I shared that becoming the rector of a church with a school entailed a whole new year-end routine.

With Easter Sunday celebrated and School Sunday coming this weekend, it has been a bit startling to realize how soon my sabbatical will be beginning. There is a chance I’ve also been in a little bit of denial because I am going to miss seeing you all. My final Sunday will be May 15th and I will return on Sunday August 21st (this is the standard required time in the Diocese of Texas). The intent of a sabbatical can be well understood by looking at our related religious term, Sabbath. This is a period of intentional rest, renewal, and reimagining. We have experienced a great deal at Holy Spirit in my 9 years, much of which was wonderfully routine like weekly worship, Sunday school, baptisms, weddings, concerts, feasts, trips, and more. We have also shared some significant experiences like our listening campaign, capital campaign, building project, the formation of new priests, and on the more difficult side, Hurricane Harvey and Covid. Friends, this is a good moment to make space to reenter the fall with new vision and energy.