The Faithwalking Blog

A personal journey of faith

Jim Herrington speaks at the Gathering of Men of Fort Bent.

In these days after the hurricane, our hearts go out to those affected by the storm, and hope those of you reading this website and your families are safe and healthy. Please be assured of our prayers for you, as we are sure of your prayers for your neighbors and friends, your community, and those in authority serving to restore services throughout greater Houston.

We are reminded of the words of Jesus: “This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other” (John 13:35 The Message) and “They will give glory to your Father in heaven when they see your good works” on their behalf (Matthew 5:16). In light of His observations, we encourage you who were less affected personally by Ike to find practical, helpful ways to ease the burden of others – in your neighborhood, at your local elementary school, or even as a team of folks going on mission to another more devastated part of the city. This is one of the most certain ways we have to demonstrate the love we have been given for our neighbors and communities.

There are many opportunities to serve in these days. Here are a couple of suggestions:

Click here to go to the KSBJ website where opportunities to volunteer are constantly updated.

Call your friends in Christ from your community, and together gather resources and drive through your neighborhood and assist those in need.

Thank you for your willingness to pray and work for the good of others!!

Note: We will soon be making a decision about whether to proceed with our Whole & Healthy Children training of Mentors scheduled for the end of this week. Please check our site over the next few days for more information.

We need your help…

After several months of preparation, we are ready! Now is the time to give ourselves for something bigger than ourselves, for the city… and its children.

Eph 2:10 tells us that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” We seek to partner with you and your congregation in these good works on behalf of at-risk children, for their sake and for the glory of God.

Volunteers willing to serve as mentors are needed! Training for mentors is required and available.

Please spread the word and recruit volunteers who will help raise a generation of Whole & Healhy Children. Print the brochures available through the link below. And make these life-changing serving opportunities, and the mentor trainings, part of your announcements in word and in print during services for the next few Sundays. We need your help … and so do our elementary school kids.

Click Here for information about Mentor Training Dates.

Click Here for brochure and more downloadable resources.

Click Here to register as volunteer (mentor, intercessor…)

Reach out to Dropouts: a short story (2)…

by Suzy Seidel

I attended the CFISD walk this morning. The team at our school (Cy-Fair High School) was very well organized and things were completed rather quickly. It was a great experience on my part and would do it again in a heartbeat. I’m not sure if anyone else from MCF attended b/c there were several school options. I hope Mark Day and Danielle were able to advocate for this through their compassion contact base too. (Randy Schroeder and I were at the same school.)

Thanks for all you do to bring events like this to our attention. Keep them coming!

Have a GREAT weekend!
Suzy

Reach out to Dropouts: a short story…

by Jim Herrington

Everyone in my household participated in the Reach Out to DropOuts walk. It was a very positive experience that reminded me again of the great needs in our city. In one of our visits we met Javier. He is the 20 years old son of Mexican immigrants. They live in a one bed room apartment in the Montrose Community and Javier is zoned to Lamar High School. We visited him on Saturday and he promised to go call the school that day to get re-enrolled.

By the time we got back to Lamar, Javier was there with a friend, getting registered. We felt deeply gratified for this one success. On Sunday, Betty and I decided to go back to Javier’s home and give him our telephone number. We wanted to offer encouragement and support for this young man. We had a 20 minute conversation in which we learned that he was out of school, in part because he had gotten in to a fight and was suspended, and in part because, he was having to work to help his parents pay their meager bills. We found Javier to be an engaging, winsom young man. He said, “Everywhere I go to find a job, when they find out I have not graduated, they won’t hire me.” This seems to have provided motivation for Javier to get back in school.

We plan to stay connected to Javier. We were impressed with him and from the visit on Sunday got a deeper awareness of the many challenges that he faces to finish his degree. We all need encouragement, support and accountability. We offered this to Javier. He took our phone number and gave us his. Soon, I hope to be able to tell you the rest of this story.

Read another story.