A Tale Of Two Cities Part I (originally sent Apr07)

Hi people! I hope everyone is doing good? I just wanted to share with you my journal from my latest trip to Texas! Hope you enjoy it!

Live and Direct from Houston Texas!

Up until now I had never been beyond the East coast of the United States of America. NY, NJ and DC were the limits of my sojourns in the land of stars and stripes. But my world was about to get bigger – a whole lot bigger! I got home from work on Thursday night knowing that despite not having packed and not having had time to really plan my trip, I had to be on a plane at Gatwick at 10am on Friday morning…such was my exhaustion from yet another whirlwind week at work that I went to bed half packed, setting my alarm to get me up at 5am to finish packing and make my way to the airport.

I lazily dragged myself out of bed at the sound of my alarm to get ready, but despite my unprepared-ness, I had a distinct lack of any sense of urgency. At 5.30am I sat and watched Creflo Dollar, as I leisurely threw clothes which I deemed holiday worthy into my suitcase. Creflo, the senior pastor of World Changers Church in Atlanta, was one of many preachers on the Christian TV networks that I had become familiar with. Another was Marcus Witt, senior pastor of the Spanish congregation of Lakewood Church in Houston, and the sheer magnificence of their church building meant that it was top on the list of sites I had to see when I arrived in Houston. Anyway, it wasn’t until the clock was approaching 7am that I hurriedly decided to stop deciding what to pack in the realization that I could miss my flight if I kept dillydallying…I got on the DLR at about 7.15 to start making my way to Gatwick Airport. Luckily for me, it took barely an hour and a half to get to Gatwick, I was there before 9am and boarded the plane without being in a mad rush not to miss it (thank goodness for online checkin).

The flight was pretty cool, I hadn’t been on a flight ten hours long before but the time flew by as I used it to catch up on movies that I hadn’t seen yet. I saw three movies in all including the new(ish) Bond (why did I even bother?) and Stranger than Fiction (interesting concept). The highlight of the flight was passing over the glaciered landscape of Greenland….the pilot interrupted the in-flight entertainment to announce to the passengers to take a look at the awesome scenery of Greenland as we passed over this mass expanse of rocky white ice. As I marvelled at the view, I wondered how populous this massive island could be, and indeed whose bright idea it was to call it “Green”. Anyway wikipedia tells me that it’s the third biggest island in the world and the country with the lowest population density, but don’t hold me to that, you know you can never really trust wiki sometimes…

10 hours later, at about 3pm local time, we landed in Dallas, where I had a 3 hour stop over before taking a connecting flight to Houston. What struck me immediately apart from the cowboy hats, trousers and boots being brandished by some men who were obviously arriving back home, I couldn’t help but notice the deep sense of Latin American culture in the air. It seemed that every other person was Hispanic and catching even just a hint of Spanish was like music to my ears. As I stood in the queue waiting to go through customs, I excitedly looked forward to arriving in Houston, quietly hoping I would experience more of the same flavour over there (and I wasn’t to be disappointed either!).

So after the three hour stopover in Dallas, I boarded the plane to take me to Houston. It was already 7pm local time, so by this time I was quite knackered. My body was saying 2am and I barely realised when we took off. I awoke as the plane started it’s descent to Houston. On arrival at George Bush International Airport, I was met by a friend who I had met a few years before on an internet site called Naijaryders (NR). He went by the name of LK (Louis Khan – not from mortal kombat, it’s an anagram of his Nigerian name). NR was an online forum where Nigerians in diaspora could go and network and chat with others like them across the US and other parts of the world. I met LK back in 2002 when the forum had its inaugural reunion in DC at memorial day weekend – I was one of two “UK Ryders” that graced the event. Many of us were able to form friendships that would transcend the realms of internet space and make a longer lasting impact in each of our lives. And this was the case here – with just a phone call from London, LK and E.I., his housemate who also used to frequent NR, were inviting me to stay at their home for the duration of my stay in Houston! And did these guys look after me or what? I was given a cell phone to use throughout my time there and I almost didn’t pay for a single meal in five days!

On Friday night, after LK had picked me up from the airport, we went directly to a home fellowship that he attends. Although we got there late, it was refreshing to see Christians meeting together in the same way in an entirely different part of the world. While we are sleeping in London, there is a bunch of young men and women in Houston (and elsewhere) meeting to fellowship together in Jesus’ name. After the meeting ended, I met a few other ex-NR members who I had previously only known by screen names and many other nice young ladies and gentlemen. Quite a few of them including LK were members of Dominion Chapel, the main parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Houston. After the fellowship, I tagged along with LK and a few others for a more intimate meeting the 24 hour IHOP (International house of pancakes!). This meeting was to discuss ideas and the direction they had for Jesus House Houston, a church plant from Dominion Chapel that this young group of people had been called to be a part of.

The following day, Dominion Chapel’s singles ministry was having a careers event, so I went with E.I. as he was giving a speech at the event to the students who were in attendance. There was also a panel of more senior professionals, some of whom I was able to meet during the midway interval. The Dominion Chapel building was very nice and the set up of the church reminded me of our very own Jesus House. As you can imagine, what had really struck me about my hosts LK and E.I. on this trip was how much we had all spiritually matured in similar ways since our playful Naijaryder days despite having led totally separate lives. It’s ironic that before I landed in Houston, LK was worried that he’d have to take me out clubbing when that wasn’t really his scene anymore, while I was also worried about what he had in mind when he said “he’d show me a good time”. I also had the pleasure of meeting Pastor Bayo Fatugba, the head Pastor at Dominion Chapel. He is a delightfully pleasant man and I had the honour of having lunch with him and his team a few days later. I learnt that he had practised law for about ten years before he went into ministry full time to do what had really always been his passion – to serve God. After the careers event, I went with LK for a birthday party at a bowling alley, where I was able to meet even more “Naija Houstonians”. As the evening approached and night fell, I realised that my body was still on UK time – we got home sometime after midnight and I crashed straight away.

The next day was Sunday, so that meant church and my long awaited visit to Lakewood Church. Luckily for me, E.I. attended Lakewood so I went with him. We got there slightly after 11am and I jumped out of the car to get good seats while he went to park. I soon found that saying you’re from London can get you very far and I soon found myself sitting very near the front despite that area already being “full”. To give you an idea of how big Lakewood is, 42,000 people attended it’s opening service in 2003 when they took over the Compaq Centre from the Houston Rockets after they moved to their new arena following the 2002-03 basketball season. That’s more than 1% of the total population of Houston! In London, you’d have over 100,000 members if you had 1% of the population in your congregation. In which case, even taking over the new Wembley stadium wouldn’t be able to hold you all. And the Compaq Centre really is a magnificent building – as you can imagine it was the home of a team that was back to back NBA champions in the mid-nineties (a team which included MVP Hakeem Olajuwon). Having watched Lakewood on TV, I had always thought that it looked like a stadium of some sort, and it turns out that I was right! Currently, about 30,000 people attend their Sunday services.

In the absence of head Pastor Joel Osteen, Pastor Marcos Witt took both the English and Spanish services. A very energetic and witty man (no pun intended!), this was the first time I had heard him preach in English (his sermons on TV are in Spanish). And he preached about fear and how to overcome it. Apparently, the number one fear people have in life is not death, it is the fear of speaking in public speaking. Of over 500 known phobias listed, he mentioned some of the wackier ones like nudophobia (the fear of nudity) and panophobia (the fear of everything!). E.I. left after the main service, but I stayed behind to catch the Spanish service. In between I went to pick up a copy of Marcus Witt’s newly released book “How to overcome your fears”. However when I went to get the book signed there was a very long queue which they had closed off and I was told to return the following week. Once again, I used the “I’m from London” card and when I explained that I wasn’t going to be there the following week I was allowed to join the end of the queue and get the book signed. After the Spanish service, I went to peruse in the Lakewood bookstore until LK came to pick me up. As the evening wound down, we set off to rent a car for my remaining few days in Houston (I was flying to Dallas on Wednesday evening). As the week was about to start, LK and E.I. would both be at work so using a hired car was going to be the only way I would get around.

The final few days I spent in Houston were great. Soulbrotha, another young guy who was also a member of Naijaryders came by the house on Monday morning and we chatted for a few hours catching up on old times. He’s an up and coming Christian rap artist and was just about to drop his debut album the following weekend. I hadn’t met him in person until this trip, so it was great putting a face and real character to the internet persona (people are rarely how you imagine them to be when you’ve only chatted with them online!). After he left, I lounged for a while and it was late afternoon when I decided to eventually venture out on the roads of Houston to get myself to the Galleria shopping mall. Driving on the grand six-lane interstate highways was an exhilarating experience. The roads are big, the cars are big, and it was a stress-free driving experience – very different from the hassle of driving in a country where the roads are so small that one always has to think three steps ahead to give way to oncoming traffic. Being mobile greatly enhanced my enjoyment of this trip - I was able to meet and have lunch with friends, family friends and even Pastor Bayo. And ofcourse, I was able to do all the shopping that I wanted! On Tuesday evening, we met up with some other guys at a sports bar at the Galleria, where among other things, they were planning Soulbrotha’s album release party. It was another great evening and a fitting way to spend my last evening with these Houstonians before I left for Dallas. On Wednesday, I returned to Lakewood to pick up some of the books I had seen on Sunday. In the evening, LK took both E.I. and I to the airport to catch different flights, but this wasn’t before I had managed to leave my suit at their house – I had to get them to overnight it to me in Dallas.

It wasn’t until much later when I was back in London that I was asked if I visited NASA – you know, the guys that say “Houston, we have a problem!” in the movies. Well, I guess that gives me something to return to Houston to see, but there certainly weren’t any problems this time around – I’d had a fantastic five days, but it was time to experience a new city, the home of the Mavericks and the Cowboys! And there was a small matter of a men’s conference and retreat hosted by TD Jakes scheduled for the coming days. There was much to look forward to!