It was a week of unexpected surprises from God. Our water heater stopped working last Friday. The plumber came over on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday to first try to fix our old one but in the end we had to replace it. It was little inconvenient having to take baths by dumping water from a stock pot heated over the stove on ourselves… Japanese style… Still, We could see God’s hand in this. The conversations with the plumber, a fellow home boy from L.A., was clearly God ordained and we both felt it even though he was an atheist.  He grew up in the “barrio” and went to Garfield High School in the 70’s. He loved talking about politics, religion, etc. We got to do deep and I really enjoyed talking with him. He comes from a proud mexican family. He also studied under Jaime Escalante made famous in the movie “Stand and Deliver.” Our conversations were very deep, the Lord was prominent in much of our talk, and it was nice talking to someone who shared some history. It all culminated with him OFFERING TO TAKE ME out to lunch afterwards so we could talk some more off the clock. That kind of stuff just doesn’t happen.

For Houston Weekend some loaves and fish action happened this week…

• As of last Friday, we were short  host homes for 70 students the weekend trip to Houston. Your prayers brought in just enough host homes such that as of YESTERDAY every student AND volunteer has a home to stay in.
• As of Monday, we were short 6 cars to transport the 60 students from UTA and TCU (not to mention UT Tyler, Collin College, SMU & UTD, UT) to Houston. As of today, there are exactly enough cars to get them all there fairly comfortably.

Here is a story about a student… Kamal is a student from Saudi Arabia.

• Kamal shared on Friday night that he has really been knocked over by the warmth of the American people. He is very talkative and enjoys interaction with the Americans.
• Kamal asked if he could use our bedroom for his daily prayers on Friday night and then he asked which way is East so he could pray to Mecca
• Pray for Kamal that God will help him to see Jesus in us and that he would not outright reject Jesus but that he would stay long enough for God to impact his life… that he would not be seed dropped on the hard ground, but that the ground would be soft enough for something to grow.