Over Mardi Gras break, I traveled with 82 of my closest friends to Austin, Texas, for our college ministry trip called Awaken. At Awaken, we encountered the presence of God together, shared the Gospel with many of Austin's residents, hosted a carnival in a middle school parking lot, ate lots of kosher food (as well as food from the world-famous Congress Street) and even had a '90s dance party. It was a trip that I would never forget for the rest of my life.

My favorite part about the trip was the carnival. As I mentioned earlier, we hosted the carnival at Dobie Middle School, which is the same location where Antioch Austin has church services. Just a couple of hours before the carnival, we were all passing out fliers and doing ministry time in the neighborhoods surrounding Dobie. I was with my friend Joe David, and we spotted a group of neighborhood kids playing in the front yard. When we handed them fliers, their faces absolutely lit up like Christmas trees.

"We're definitely going to go to the carnival!" one the the girls said. Just a few minutes later, they were all running around the neighborhood handing out our fliers to other children. The neighborhood that they lived in, which was to the right of Dobie, mainly housed families with lower incomes. There was even an apartment complex down the street that had a majority of refugee families. We did ministry in that apartment complex as well. There weren't a lot of areas that were kid-friendly. If there were kid-friendly areas, like parks and playgrounds, they were more likely further down the street.

But here we were at the carnival. We had two inflatables, jump ropes, hula hoops, sidewalk chalk, lots of pizza, cotton candy and awesome music. My friend Cecilia shared her testimony of following Jesus, and my other friend Adrian translated her testimony in Spanish. Another one of my friends, Jonah, shared the Gospel and how to give your life to Jesus. I was sitting next to the same girl that got excited over the carnival, and she gave her life to Jesus right on the spot. It was truly an incredible moment. Even though we've known each other for less than two hours, we hugged for an eternity. "I am so happy and so proud of you!" I exclaimed to the little girl. "Me too," the little girl replied.

I think the photo above perfectly describes about my feelings for Austin. I'm in love with this city. I'm in love with its people. I'm in love with the way that God is shifting hearts inside of the residents of Austin. His love for Austin is just as vast and deep as His love for Baton Rouge, and for pretty much every other city on this planet. God is doing a wonderful work in the city of Austin, and I'm just blessed that I was a part of it.