It's no secret to those close to me that I don't like to venture far from home when I don't have to. So when I made the move all by myself from suburban Moorestown, NJ to Houston, TX, it was a big deal. I had just finished graduate school and accepted a full-time position as organist and worship coordinator of a large, Houston-area church. Not long after moving here, my now-wife Grace and I got engaged and she moved to Houston to be with me. We got married a year later and things were going pretty well. However, just a [...]

I have been involved in the life of the church since May of 1959, most notably in our woodshop and as an outreach volunteer on mission trips. Starting in 1986 with a trip to Jamaica, I have been on 24 St. Luke’s sponsored mission trips in a variety of countries over almost 30 years. My professional training as a nurse was utilized during many of the trips, but I was called into service to do anything that needed doing like installing siding, carrying wheelbarrows of rocks and painting. One thing that was immediately apparent anywhere we traveled was that though [...]

St. Luke’s PM Pals grew out of an experience five volunteers had at a program called Night OWLS at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas. I decided to volunteer at Night OWLS because I was new to Dallas as a recent college graduate, and I was looking to meet people and thought I would “get out of my comfort zone” and volunteer with children with special needs. I quickly grew to love the program and the children. After several former Night OWLS’ volunteers moved to Houston for different reasons, Natalie Kubik called us up and asked if we wanted [...]

Over two years ago, The Story Houston sent over an army of people to volunteer to muck out our house after we flooded during Hurricane Harvey. From the moment the water entered our home, we knew that our lives were forever changed. At the time, we saw God at work through the people who helped us and lifted us up. But God didn’t want to just use this event to teach us about true gratitude, humbleness, and how inconsequential our material things really are. Oh no. His plans for our entire family were bigger than we ever imagined. On day [...]