Service, Mission, and a Journey
My mind occasionally wanders (except during church or while my wife is speaking). This week at work, while experts discussed ways to decrease employee attrition levels in industry, my thoughts drifted to the recent images of distant galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. My wife sent me several photos and articles; the expanse of the universe never fails to amaze, delight, and perplex. The images just pull a person away from Earth.
God Knew our Path
My wife and I first attended Holy Spirit at the end of 2018. Following the service we were immediately met by Lisa Wright, then Sarah Condon, and finally Allison Nieto. They each offered no pressure, very genuine we are here for you and would love to have you in our church quick conversations. The following weeks we met other families that offered the same genuine welcome to our church introductions. It wasn’t a hard decision to make to call Holy Spirit our church home soon after.
God Writes Straight with Crooked Lines
One of my mother’s favorite sayings is ‘God writes straight with crooked lines’. This has proven to be true time and time again. I moved to Houston in the summer of 2008 on a one-year expat contract. I had absolutely no intention of staying longer than a year, in fact, when I felt the July heat, I wondered if I’d even last 12 months. God knew otherwise, 6 weeks later I met Mark. We got engaged less than a year after meeting and married 11 months later. While engaged, we decided to buy a house. Mark’s uncle is a local realtor and he lined up 3 showings for us one Saturday afternoon on the westside of Houston. My first impression of all 3 houses was bad. Not only did they all seem like they needed a lot of work, but the location also seemed too far out west! On our way home from viewing the houses, we stopped at Kroger and while sitting in the carpark discussing the pros and cons of each house, we started to see the possibilities in one of the houses and within 30 minutes we had decided to put an offer on it. Not only did that prove to be a wise investment decision, it was our first home, the house we brought our first born, Joanie, home to and the center of so many precious memories.
Finding Balance
A sense of balance in my life… that is what I needed. Prior to joining Holy Spirit, I had been the caretaker for a lovely little woman. She was not family. She was my friend’s 93 year-old mother. My friend passed away and I took on the management of this sweet lady. We spent four years together, including every Sunday as our visiting time. While I enjoyed those years helping her, I realized after her passing I was missing balance in my life. I needed to get back to church.
July 4th Pops Concert & Social
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!
Paw Patrol and a Church Home
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.
Unconditional Love
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.”
It Started with Geography
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.
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