HOUSTON, TX — During one of the worst winter storm on record, churches across Texas have opened their doors to people needing shelter. Houston’s Lakewood church, pastored by Joel Osteen, has provided a warm place to stay and a hot meal to over 1,000 people since the storm began.

Joel Osteen, Pastor:

We were blessed this week to open our church as a shelter to take care of our fellow Houstonians. We helped a lot of people stay warm, eat good meals, and assisted them through this difficult storm.

Woman in shelter:

My power went out. water went out. So I was at home scared to death. Didn’t know what to do. Called several people and places. Nothing was open. No gas stations, and called 311. And 311 provided a cab and brought me over to Lakewood Church, and so I’ve been here since yesterday. It’s awesome that they’re helping, they’re providing, you know, and they’re opening up their doors to everyone, to anyone and everyone.

Lakewood Worker:

Well we’ve had a lot of people come in. Obviously no power, maybe no water, and we’ve been really blessed to like you say, just provide a warm center to come in and get warm. A lot of people are trying to check the news, find out if their power is back on. So we say, hey, stay as long as you need to, and we just like coffee and some food and just basically a place to stay safe while that storm is kind of going on right now.

Victoria Osteen, Pastor’s Wife:

And thank you to the City of Houston, for providing 350 more beds for us here. We’ve got to get through this. We’ve got to be strong, though, we’re going to go strong, we’re going to power like we always have. This city’s strong and we’re going to make it!

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