© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Wichita Church Invites Community To Offer Prayers For Houston

David J. Phillip/AP/NPR
An aerial shot of Harvey flooding in Houston. A Wichita church is inviting the community to pray and offer words of encouragement for Houston.

A Wichita pastor who formerly spent 27 years in Houston will lead an effort with other churches to assist those ravaged by Tropical Storm Harvey.

Before coming to Wichita, Senior Pastor Robert Johnson served for a decade as Senior Associate Pastor at a 15,000-member church in Houston and still has friends there.

Credit Courtesy Robert Johnson
Senior Pastor Robert Johnson spent 27 years in Houston before coming to Wichita last year.

"We’re seeing some very tough times," Johnson says. "If you're in Wichita and you have folks in Houston and you're worried about them, we are all worried about all the folks there as well as all the stuff that’s going on on a national level."

Johnson says he plans to organize a fundraiser for Houston in the coming weeks. A team from the church will head down to Texas to help communities there rebuild.

He says he's heard of a number of churches in Houston already helping out after the storm.

"They're already gathering resources, and so I'm really enheartened and encouraged by the sense of cooperation and self-sacrifice that I'm seeing for people to help each other through this horrible, horrible situation," Johnson says.

The church is inviting the community to come Wednesday night to pray and offer words of encouragement for the city of Houston. He says everyone is welcome to the open-mic-style event.

The community prayer starts at 7 p.m. at St. Mark United Methodist Church, located near 14th & Lorraine.

--

Carla Eckels is assistant news director and the host of Soulsations. Follow her on Twitter @Eckels.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Carla Eckels is Director of Organizational Culture at KMUW. She produces and hosts the R&B and gospel show Soulsations and brings stories of race and culture to The Range with the monthly segment In the Mix. Carla was inducted into The Kansas African American Museum's Trailblazers Hall of Fame in 2020 for her work in broadcast/journalism.