Houston, TX and Norman, OK

On Monday, I arrived in Houston, Texas, and headed to Memorial High School. Once I arrived, I helped the Theater Department pack up the food from their “Trick or Treat so Kids Can Eat” food drive.

Recently, I came across a great organization called “A Million Thanks”, which asks people to write letters to the men and women serving in our military and makes sure that the letters arrive safely. On Tuesday, I started writing my own letters to our service members. After about an hour of writing, I went back to the high school to help deliver the food to the local food bank. After dropping off the food, I headed home to continue writing letters. Later that night, I was treated to a Tex-Mex dinner!

Wednesday morning, I gathered up my letters and headed to downtown Houston to drop them off at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which is a designated “A Million Thanks” drop-off location. Park, drop the letters off, drive to Oklahoma. That was the plan. Once I got downtown, I spent 15 minutes trying to find the Cathedral. Once I found it, I parked, and just to be safe, I put some quarters in the electronic meter… which swiftly spit them out, again, and again, and again. Figuring that the meter was broken, I went to the closest meter to try again. No luck. After trying four meters, the final score was Houston Parking Meters: 4 Me: 0. Down but not defeated, I called the Cathedral office only to find out that the letters were to be dropped off at a nearby building rather than the Cathedral. After playing hide-and-seek with the new destination for another 15 minutes, I eventually found it. The good news is that it had a parking lot! The bad news is that the parking lot fence was literally an arm’s length away from where I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to use the parking meters… After dropping the letters off, I started my six hour drive to Norman, Oklahoma. Once I arrived, I continued to plan then headed to bed early.

On Thursday, one of the FOCUS missionaries and I went to Food and Shelter, an organization that is feeding those in need and working to end homelessness in Cleveland County. We got there as people were finishing up their lunches, then stuck around to help clean up the cafeteria and kitchen. Once we finished cleaning, we had a chance to talk to one of the ladies in charge. She told us about how every time she has needed something to help her better serve those in need, she has gotten it. She needed eggs one day and a truck full of eggs showed up that same day! She has never been short of eggs since then! She wanted to extend service to include Sundays, and within a half hour of having that thought, a man walked in, gave her a hug, and told her that he would like to cook breakfast every Sunday! When she starting working there, she was an atheist. She is an atheist no more!

After finishing up at Food and Shelter, I headed to Mass and stayed afterwards for a men’s Bible study. On Friday, after thanking the FOCUS missionaries, I left Norman and headed north towards Atchison, Kansas!

Thank you to the Morgans for hosting me. Thank you to everyone in the Memorial High School Theater Department for orchestrating the food drive. Thank you to “A Million Thanks” for helping to put a smile on the faces of our service members. Thank to Chris for hosting me and to the rest of the FOCUS missionaries for the work that you do. Thank you to everyone at Food and Shelter who is actively working to end homelessness. And thank you to all of you who continue to support me and pray for me!