Blog Archives: January 2017 — December 2017

We made it! Out of the ashes we will rise! After exactly 8 months, we have completed all of our construction! We rededicated our beautifully rebuilt sanctuary on July 9th and we got to thank everyone for all their help! Everyone from our Rebuild Committee, to the firefighters, to all those who donated to HPC after the fire, to all those who prayed for our recovery! Thank you! Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee came and presented us with a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol in honor of our Grand Reopening. It was a beautiful and exciting ...

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Jesus tells us that we are not to hide our lights under a bushel basket, or a bucket, or a laundry hamper under the bed; but we are to display it for all to see-out on the nightstand, or even the kitchen table. Light cannot be hidden, just like a city on a hill cannot be hidden. At times, we feel like our own little lights may not be very bright, ...

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Amen! Pastor Lindsay

You have no doubt heard “April showers bring May flowers,” but I’m wondering if we should change that saying around here to “April showers bring Many construction delays.” It is inevitable during a construction project that there will be lots of setbacks. It’s pouring rain even as I write this. We will not get back to worshipping in our Sanctuary by Easter, and that is ok. God is good and his timing is perfect. The Letter of James says, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of ...

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” The new lighting is being installed in the sanctuary! Without light, we wouldn’t be able to see during our service. Jesus tells us that we are supposed to be light in the world. He gives us his light to reflect....

We finally got our new A/C unit installed! This means the construction process can move swiftly from here on out because we can control how fast things like tile, cure. Here in south Texas you can’t meet in a building in the summer without A/C, you need a cool breeze. This reminds me of Jesus’ teaching about the Spirit, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Following the Spirit, Jesus says, is like following ...

Nothing goes 100% right in construction all the time- items get behind schedule, there are rain delays and people delays, reworking of plans, materials get broken. It just happens; that’s the world we live in. If you’ve spent any time in the world then you know that it is broken and fallen, and far from perfect. But that’s the world we live in- we don’t give up, we figure out how to respond to it. Throughout this process, I have been proud of how the committee, builders, and contractors consistently respond to the mishaps, all the little ...

On Sunday we talked about how the foundation you choose to build on is important. (You can always check out the most recent sermon under the Worship tab.) Would you rather build your house on a rock, or on the sand? What about when hurricane season comes? A more stable foundation increases the longevity of a building. There’s a reason they have to keep fixing the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You mess up the foundation and you are guaranteed to run into further problems down the line. Since a foundation must bear the load of everything that will be ...

When it comes to construction, or any new project, there is always something to learn! Most recently, the rebuild committee has learned about EIFS which stands for Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems. EIFS is what now covers the surface of the exterior wall where the fire wall used to be. As the name implies, part of its purpose is to insulate. It provides excellent energy conservation and better thermal control than brick, stucco, or cement. It is fade resistant and won’t crack, yet is flexible enough to absorb building movement, which is ...

One of the new main features you will see when you walk back into the sanctuary is a beautiful wall that has been added to extend our narthex area. It provides a commons area for gathering, hospitality, and  fellowship. While a new wall is a big addition, it makes our sanctuary more closely resemble the original tent of meeting- the tabernacle, the earliest structure where the presence of God meet with humanity. The original plans for the tabernacle, and later Solomon’s temple which was designed to be a permanent tabernacle, contained a ...

When the burned part of our Christian education wing was torn down, almost all of the visible wounds from the fire disappeared. One part where you could still see the damage was in the charred shingles that hung over the fire wall. I think they look like wings and reminded me of the protection that God provided Heights Presbyterian during the fire which could have been so much worse. That part of the roof is fixed now, but let it always remind us of Psalm 91 and God’s gracious shelter. “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High ...

  When we think about the story of Noah’s Ark, we often remember the detail that it rained for forty days and forty nights. Sometimes we forget that Noah and his family were not able to get off the boat right after it stopped raining everything but cats and dogs. They had to wait another 150 days for the water to uncover the tops of the mountains, and then a couple more months after that till they were able to set foot on dry ground. In the Bible, 40 is used to denote a very, very long time. Jesus faced 40 days of temptation in the ...

The firewall came down this week and it was hard to see it go. The firewall was a cinder block wall which separated the Christian Education part of the building from the bell tower and Sanctuary. It is what stopped the fire from destroying the whole building and let us be able to renovate a sanctuary that only suffered minor smoke and water damage. I’ve grown fond of it being around because of what it did for our church. When the wall came down you could see straight into all the classrooms and all the way down to the wooden framing. If it ...

As Christmas wishes were being exchanged among staff, building committee members, contractors and workers, this word of Christmas blessing came to us from the president of the company who is overseeing it all: “Somehow, it seems clear that God has this church, right in the palm of His hands. The challenges just keep coming, but by His grace and the incredible tenacity and passion of His people, the challenges are faced and solved, one at a time. There is something magical, mystical and majestic moving through this. Could it be the Holy ...

Anyone who has been through a construction project knows that there are always surprises. We’ve had a few- a water main break and the inevitable slow downs that come with building projects. But in construction, as in life, if you look for them, there are also good surprises! We would like to share one with you. As one of the walls was being removed upstairs in the youth corner, we got a glimpse into the attic of the sanctuary and found stunningly exquisite work in the beams and roof that comprised the sanctuary built in 1953. They took as ...

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone- whether they are a member of the church or a member of the community- say, “I watched the church burn.” It is usually said with teary eyes and a feeling of immovable sadness. This is one of the scars that was left on the firewall after it was all said and done. To me, it looks like a flame. And every time I see it, it reminds me of these comments and what it must have felt like to watch something you have come to know and love so deeply succumb to fire. When Jesus rose from the grave, he ...

“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare...For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” For every other weekend of our lives in 1995, my brother and I came with our Dad and one of his ...