Praying For Victims

Pastor helps flock deal with attacks

     Wes Morgan’s love for plaid is about more than fashion - it’s about his love for people and God.
     The new pastor of First Christian Church in Conroe said the plaid patterns on the shirts he loves to wear are similar to God’s desire to make something out of different people.
    "God can take any and all of us and put us together to make something beautiful," he said. "It’s not about one kind of people. God wants all kinds of people."
     Morgan, who has been with the church almost three weeks, said he loves Conroe so far. He moved to the area with his wife Peg after 16 years at First Christian Church in Texas City.
     One of Morgan’s first duties with the church has been responding to the needs of people concerned and upset about Tuesday’s attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
     "My cell phone and my office phone rang all day with people needing to talk and wanting prayer and comfort," he said.
     Morgan said prayer is needed for the people who committed the acts of terror. Though many people do not understand this, he said, these people need God and his love.
     "We need to r e m e m b e r God’s love for these people," he said. "They probably need his love more than we do because they do not. know him."
      Although terrorist attacks are meant to provoke fear and anger, Morgan said, people should have no fear because God is still involved.
     "Evil will not defeat God’s love. He will work through people and circumstances to bring us to new places in our lives," he said. "We will be better people in spite of and because of this."
     A prayer service was held Wednesday evening at the church, located at 3500 Loop 336 W., to remember those involved in Tuesday’s events.
     Morgan understands that the people who attacked America need God. He served as chaplain at a federal prison in Kentucky and learned that people aren’t really that different from one another.
     "I learned I really wasn’t very different from people there, I had just made different choices," he said. "The wonderful thing about God is that he gives us chances. God is love and grace and wants us all to be apart of him."
     Morgan’s decision to become a minister began at the age of 20. Because his focus in high school was lettering in six sports, he did not have the grades to get into college.
     He knew God was calling him into the ministr3ç so he wanted to obey God even through hard times.
     "I told God, ‘Whatever you want me to do, provide a way and I’ll do it.’ I took it, but it was quite a change for me," he said.
      He got a break, and with a registration fee of $10, scholarships and hard work, he had all A’s by mid-term.
     Morgan said he thought he would stay at Texas City permanently, but he felt God’s call to Conroe. He and his wife began to pray, thinking they were praying for something to happen in Texas City. It turned out, however, that God wanted them in Conroe.
     "It became evident that God wanted us here," he said.
     Morgan’s focus for his new church is to spread the love of God.
     My goal is to share the love of God in as many different ways to as many people as we can. I want to help people discover their own gifts and use them to serve God and others."
     He plans to help spread’ that love by becoming involved with the community and the church. He has already started visiting with church members in their homes to see what n needs to be implemented and strengthened.
     He has also been involved in the past with organizations such as Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions clubs. He has earned numerous awards and recognitions also.
     Morgan’s wife teaches fifth grade at Reeves Intermediate School in Conroe. Their daughter Lizanne lives with her husband and three children in Spring and their son David lives in Houston with his wife.