Lenten Meditation: Call and Character

Wendy Harris | April 10

Here’s how Wendy Harris sees it when she’s working with children at the St Paul’s School: “My journey is to guide children by trying to teach them right from wrong but still letting them do what they think is best for them even if it’s wrong,” Harris said, “it’s just being there. I love how the children give you a hug and call your name. Children give you joy when you are sad.”

It's been 28 years since “Miss Wendy” arrived at St Paul’s School. Her mother was a teacher and church organist. Harris had spent time in various other jobs and childcare capacities and started substitute teaching at the school. But it didn’t take long for folks to realize they had someone special. Now on a floating schedule three days a week, including helping with kids during Sunday services, Harris is one of the most recognizable faces at the school and the church. 

“I love this place. All the ministers have been good over the years. This is a very loving place. I love to come to work,” Harris said. “Every morning, I pray before I come that I can be the person to be with these children, to make them feel loved and to let them know I’m here if they need me. If I have problems at home, I make sure I leave them outside the door before I walk in. I think that helps me too.”

 Married more than 50 years, Harris is both a grandmother and a great-grandmotherwho has faced tough times along with the good. Those around Miss Wendy knowthey are loved, lucky and cared for.

We offer this prayer:

Heavenly Father, you sent your own Son into this world. We thank you for the life of all children entrusted to our care. Help us remember that we are all your children, and so to love and nurture them, that they may attain to that full stature intended for them in your eternal kingdom; for the sake of your dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

—Adapted from the Book of Common Prayer

Joshua Rodkey | April 3

You can often find Joshua Rodkey handling the technical work for the Ordinary Life Sunday School Class. Or, you can find him helping with the St Paul’s UMC Wonderful Volunteers group, providing hospitality to members and visitors at various occasions. Or you can find him finishing his senior year at Houston’s Lamar High School and getting ready to go to Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas.

A third generation St Paul’s member, Joshua was baptized as an infant at St Paul’s and confirmed here six years ago. “There was kind of a chunk of time before confirmation that I wasn’t all that active,” Joshua said. “But I did all the confirmation classes and those led me to a lot of youth involvement. My first youth mission trip was in the summer of ’21. I really enjoyed it.”

While at a “back to school” event a few summers ago, a friend mentioned Ordinary Life needing volunteers for AV work. “I felt even more at home in Ordinary Life.” The Ordinary Life class is a popular Sunday School class at St Paul’s, with members drawn from all ages and backgrounds.

Joshua was soon approached about becoming part of St Paul’s hospitality ministry. “Hospitality is a value I have, and I really like that work,” Joshua said.

Joshua’s roles, including service on the church’s Missions Council, encouraged him to enroll in the Lay Servant Ministry classes offered by the Texas Annual Conference. In a few weeks, he’ll have his certification as a Lay Servant. “I think that’s the right path for me. I’m excited to see where this takes me.”

And soon, he’ll be off to Southwestern, a UMC affiliated school north of Austin. He’ll be studying computational mathematics at one of the top liberal arts schools in the Southwest and has already checked out First UMC of Georgetown “I’ll be part of two congregations,” Joshuasaid. Soon, you’ll find Joshua Rodkey in several roles there, too.

I, the Lord of wind and flame; I will tend the poor and lame; I will set a feast for them; my hand will save.

Here I am Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night; I will go, Lord, if you lead me; I will hold your people in my heart.

—"Here I am Lord” Dan Schutte, UMC Hymnal #593

State Rep. Ann Johnson | March 27

For State Rep. Ann Johnson, now in her third session of the Texas Legislature, grace is a big part of how she gets her work done. “Grace is meeting people where they are,” Ann said. “This Lent, I’m taking the approach to be more in tune. There is so much division.” 

Johnson, a Democrat, got a compliment of sorts a few weeks back. “One of my colleagues told me ‘Nice work.’ I asked what they were talking about. One of the very conservative Republicans said I was someone they could work with, but they’d been told all Democrats were bad people.” That compliment was around Johnson’s ongoing work on dementia treatment, including funding for Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and ALS research. “Those issues cross political boundaries and can be a place where we work together.”

The youngest of six, Johnson comes from a political family. Her father, Jake, served in the Texas House and her mother served as a judge. But it was the neighbors “ReeRee” and “Papa Joe” who first got her involved in church. “ReeReewas a saint,” Ann recalls, “She was someone I knew who had no judgment of others.”

As she grew, her sister Jennifer had found St. Paul’s. “So, I followed big sister there,” Ann said with a laugh. “I loved the church, the music, the building.” Jennifer worked with Tiffin Wilisford in the St. Paul’s youth program and soon Ann was active there too. “I did mission trips with the youth.” Ann also learned the importance of physical touch in tough times. “I’ll still find myself rubbing my thumb on my arm to find calm.”

Calm can be in short supply in the Texas Legislature. The work keeps coming and the regular session doesn’t end until May. A while back, Ann’s mother gave her something she’d found. “It was the Bible ReeRee gave me. A kid’s Bible, but it’s very special.”

“But the gospel doesn't need a coalition devoted to keeping the wrong people out. It needs a family of sinners, saved by grace, committed to tearing down the walls, throwing open the doors, and shouting, "Welcome! There's bread and wine. Come eat with us and talk." This isn't a kingdom for the worthy; it's a kingdom for the hungry.”

—Rachel Held Evans

Larry Blair | March 20

Larry Blair looks for the people on the margins around St. Paul’s UMC, trying to find ways ways he can help. His faith journey has always been a part of his life. He attended Pepperdine University, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, a fairly conservative branch of Christianity (unlike the United Church of Christ which is much more liberal). “We attended the Church of Christ, but my brother, who is gay, never felt welcome there.” Larry met his wife, Carolyn, at Pepperdine (a marriage going strong after 55 years). Both are native Texans, he from near Lubbock and she was born in Fort Worth.

A career spent in California (with a 7-year stint in England) led to retirement and looking around for what was next. “Our daughter had moved to Houston, so we did too 7 years ago. We love St. Paul’s. Our daughter sings the choir, and our granddaughter is also singing with the Trebles, Choral Scholars and sometimes with the St. Paul’s Choir,” Larry said.

Service is a big part of Larry’s life. He’s one of the first people many folks see when they enter worship as he’s usually ushering at the 11 a.m. service. Active in Rotary Club, Larry also brought the Rotarians’ “Project Turkey” to St. Paul’s after asking Dr. Jeff McDonald if the church would be interested. “He said ‘absolutely’ pretty quickly,” Larry said with a laugh.  

Larry recently attended the funeral for a friend at a Houston church. “In the homily, the pastor said, ‘God is good, we should be good too.’ I think there are many ways to put your gifts to work. We aren’t all the same. There is a spot for everybody at St. Paul’s. We have a heritage from the people who came before us. We are standing on their shoulders, and we need to provide that for future generations.”

…O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

—Conclusion of the Prayer of St Francis

Pat Pearson | March 13

A member of St. Paul’s for more than 20 years, Pat Pearson was drawn to the church like so many others: our architecture. 

“My husband was on assignment in Perth, Australia,” Pat said, “he’d go to the office and I’d walk around the city. One day, I passed by the Cathedral of the Church of England. It was a beautiful building and I stopped in. I met the Dean, and he was the nicest person. He invited me to come back for a worship service and to stay afterwards for tea.” 

She and her husband were members of a Methodist church in the Houston suburbs, but when they returned from Australia, she told him, “We need to find a Church of England in Houston.” A trip to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston provided what she was looking for—across the street. “We saw St. Paul’s. This was the place.” 

Pat’s commitment to the life of St. Paul’s is legendary. “God gives us gifts, different gifts at different times when we need them. If you have a gift, you use it. When it comes to hospitality at church, I’ve always believed that you treat people the way you want to be treated.” 

We are also entering her ideal time in the church calendar. “Lent is my favorite liturgical season of the year. Without Lent, which leads to Easter…well I don’t know that we’d be here! The Easter vigil is my absolute favorite service of the year (this year on April 19). From humble beginnings comes a glorious service.” 

Her Lenten discipline includes reading books that, “center me. I often repeat books that I’ve read in previous years. There’s so much meaning to this season.” 

We offer this prayer: 

“Almighty God, who has promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in thy Son’s name: We beseech thee mercifully to incline thine ear to us who have now made our prayers and supplications to thee; and grant that those things which we have asked faithfully according to thy will, may be obtained effectually, to the relief of our necessity, to the setting forth of thy glory through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  

—Adapted from the Great Litany, Book of Common Prayer, the Church of England 

Mark Keplinger | March 6

Mark Keplinger’s work in the church has been a big part of his life since he was a child. Raised in a United Methodist household, Mark is a Houston native who grew up in Denver and went to school at Tulane University.
 
“When I was a kid, I’d sometimes sneak out of Sunday School classes, which were during the church service, and go to the service,” Mark said. He also spent time with his Denver church group in volunteer projects and confirmation activities.
 
After graduating from Tulane, Mark took a year with the Jesuits. His time at Tulane helped him feel his call to discipleship more directly. “I spent time in campus ministries at Tulane.” While Tulane is a secular school, it was there Mark heard about the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Mark signed up and spent a year in Alaska.
 
“It was a good opportunity to give back to the community and to give back to God,” Mark said. “We lived very simply like St Ignatius taught. It was a year of living a prayer.” Mark especially remembers a Maundy Thursday service with a Dominican order in Anchorage. “It was an amazing service. The whole (Jesuit) experience deepened my spirituality. It was living out a mission. I kind of gave up a year on the linear path to do something special.”
 
Now back in Houston and a student at the University of Houston Law Center, Mark is finding a home in the activities at St Paul’s.
 
“I want to use my law degree to do good works,” Mark said, “I’ll be given a very powerful tool in the law. The law is something that is very secular, but I want to reach out and ask, ‘how can I help you?’ There’s also a Christian legal society on campus that I’ve become active with. Taking it forward, this will be a unique privileged, powerful position. How do I put God into that? I don’t have a lot of answers yet.”
 
Prayer:
May it please the supreme and divine Goodness to give us all abundant grace ever to know his most holy will and perfectly to fulfill it.
—St. Ignatius of Loyola