Recently, I had the special opportunity to visit Austin, Texas only a few weeks after our very own Gracepoint Austin team departed from California to start a church there. My friend Grace Kim (Kairos One, Berkeley) and I had the responsibility of taking Corrie to her new home since she had stayed back to attend the FTS Retreat. Three and a half hours later, we landed on Texas soil. We were picked up by Sunny and Sarah and the kiddos – Nayo, Nico, and Karis, and we headed off to the UT-Austin campus for a tour. Only a five minute drive from campus was Sunny and Manny’s house – a duplex right next to John and Kelly’s (from Waypoint Community Church in Davis & my old youth teachers!). Grace and I spent the day helping Sunny with things around the house and Sarah with the UT-Austin Koinonia picture board – decorated not with blue and gold as we’re used to, but a burnt-orange hue and a longhorn, of course!
The next day, Thursday, we started our day with DT and Prayer Band (for both Taiwan and Austin) next door at Kelly’s. Afterwards, Margaret and Kelly headed off to work, Sunny and Grace went on an outing with the kids, and I got to spend time with Sarah going Ikea shopping to buy curtains and other things to spice up the sanctuary of the Episcopal Center they use for Friday nights (imagine green curtains!). That evening, Sunny, Grace, and I went on a prayer walk through the campus, and my heart really went out for the students there and our Austin church members who are laboring for the gospel to be known there. We also got to go to the dining commons and met some students. Here’s Grace and me – we were neither UT students (or students of any kind!) nor were we Austin residents! Yet, we were welcomed so warmly by a sweet sophomore girl we met who engaged us in conversation throughout the whole meal. And guess what? She thought we were college freshmen! : )
It was so good to physically see right before me the campus, the students, the city, and our Austin team members in their homes and in action because it really made the prayer requests and the updates I hear or read that much more concrete and personal. Now, as I pray for UT-Austin and our church there, I have in my mind and heart a clear picture and it helps me pray all the more specifically and earnestly. Though the trip was really short (and we both really wanted to stay a bit longer!), I’m so thankful for the opportunity I had to be there, doing life together for those terse two and a half days, along side them. That week’s DT passage in Philippians 1:27 came alive as I was convicted that whether we are in Berkeley or in Austin, indeed we strive to “stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.” Go Longhorns! : )