CRUX in Houston: “Discover Pieces of Him”
During Spring Break 2018, the CRUX discipleship group went to Houston, TX, to volunteer for a week. CRUX is a residential cohort at North Park University, in which a group of first-year students follow Christ together by living together, taking classes together, serving in the city together, and more. As service is a key part of the program, the CRUX group decided together to assist in relief work in Houston, after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Monday, 3/12/18
Today was our first day of work which started out by demolishing a home, and at the back of my mind I was figuring out what I was going to write about for this blog post. Our day started at eight in the morning and went until late afternoon, so there were many points throughout the day I could choose to talk about. But, one event in particular stood out over the rest, which was not only having the opportunity to pray for Diana and her family who we were helping with this house demo, but also for Rose, the Friends of North Rosenberg Director, who shares in the responsibility of making this all possible. In that, we were able to see their vulnerability and share that spiritual space with them, as a few of us were able to hear Rose’s story and pray for her.
Diana’s six-year-old son Issac asked why Rose was crying in the middle of us praying for her. What made that moment memorable was how after praying, Rose decided to take the time to go back and explain to Issac why she was crying. Her response was similar to that of Psalm 16: 1-2, “Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say of the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’” So, she not only expressed how God is everything in her life and her savior, but through that she evangelized to Isaac who could remember that moment and take that with him
– Tiffany Whaley
Tuesday, 3/13/18
When asking myself how I saw God during our demolition work, one thing that points out to me is how He uses every age, race, origin, etc. to do his kingdom works. When looking around me, I saw kids from ages 7-15, NPU peers, FNR (Friends of North Rosenberg) workers, and other adults, all of whom were of varying races and yet, working together to show Christ’s love. One specific example would be just how willing the kids of the family we got to serve (Isaac and Caesar) were in helping in the process of demolition. Despite their hardships within the past couple months due to the hurricane disaster, they seem to have a servant’s mindset. Seeing our CRUX team unite with them to get one step closer to getting their family a home was something special. That is what I believe God’s Kingdom should consist of: people of all backgrounds and races being united in Christ to spread his love within this broken world we live in. – Sophie Emerson
We finished destroying a house today. The little boy who used to live there was watching pretty much the entire process. He came over to the space where his house used to be and kind of looked at it plaintively for a few minutes. Looking at him sadly stare at his old house made me a bit angry with God. It seems unfair that he would let this happen to a family (and others like them) who never really had much to begin with. How can someone who claims to love “the least of these” let hundreds of families be destroyed? – Ben Zamble
Wednesday, 3/14/18
Today we split up into groups to floor and paint one house and put sheetrock on the walls of another. I was a part of the flooring/painting team at the house of miss Ivory, an elderly woman who told us many stories of God’s work in her life. Both her brother’s and sister’s houses were completely destroyed by the flood and they lost everything. Katey and I had the privilege of praying with her after she shared her story, and I can’t wait to head back tomorrow to finish the job! – Joshua Crozier
Thursday, 3/15/18
Today I worked on installing drywall. I saw God today in the teamwork on the job site. Putting up drywall involves many steps and you have to work together to do it. We were able to get into a groove since this was the second day installing the drywall and it was such a great glimpse into the kingdom of God. We all had our strengths and abilities and had to work together to get the job done. The same is true in God’s kingdom we may not all be the arm but the body cannot function properly without the arm. Each of us has our own God-given strengths and abilities and it truly is beautiful when we are able to come together as one body to work towards the ultimate goal of building God’s kingdom here on earth.
– Allison Harvey
To read the rest of the student blog posts in the CRUX in Houston Spring Break blog series, click the links below or head back to the stories page.