‘Do not let your spiritual life go while you’re helping other people in the name of Jesus,’ a Houston minister urges his congregation.
First Place, In-depth Coverage, Associated Church Press
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
HOUSTON — This one was personal.
When I traveled to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coastto cover Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the churches I visited were new to me.
The resilient Christians who survived Katrina became special to me. However, I didn’t know them before the storm.
Hurricane Harvey is different.
In my time with The Christian Chronicle, I have made frequent trips to Houston: I have come here to report on churches — black, white and brown — joining together to show unity in Christ. I have come here to report on the model inner-city works of the Impact Houston Church of Christ. I have come here to report on a growing congregation of Vietnamese immigrants — a story I hadn’t even finished before Harvey beckoned me back to Rocket City.
This one was personal.
David Duncan, minister for the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston, is one of my best friends. We attended Oklahoma Christian University together in the 1980s. But we didn’t really become close until 1999 when we roomed together on a mission trip to Vitoria, Brazil, where David and his wife, Barbara, had spent a decade as full-time missionaries.
This column appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.
The Ross News 