Mainland church welcomes new pastor, piano

TEXAS CITY — Texas City’s St. George’s Episcopal Church, 510 13th Ave. N., recently has been twice blessed — first with a new pastor, then with a refurbished piano. Both arrived here in serendipitous ways.

“I did not grow up with church leadership in mind,” the Rev. Robin Reeves said. “Even as a young child, I delighted making up songs as I discovered God’s amazing beauty and the detail of his creation on the walks I would take. Originally, I planned to be an artist, but I ended up as a marketing major — after all, it was both practical and creative.”

While promoting Houston’s St. Luke’s Hospital, she found that what she liked best about her job was asking questions and uncovering needs — factors that turned out to be good preparation for her current career.

“All that time, my secret desire was to become an opera singer because I love the way they put all of themselves into their singing, but I have now discovered leading worship is in some ways similar — we pour out who we are so that we can be filled again by God’s spirit,” Reeves said.

Certain about her call to ministry, she didn’t know much about Texas City when she was invited to interview at St. George’s.

“Once I met the good-hearted people of St. George’s Episcopal Church and mysteriously experienced love welling up within me during my interview, I was once again caught by surprise by God,” she said. “Coming here turned out to be like coming home.”

She still has marketing in her blood, though. For months, she teased the congregation about a new “baby” that was destined for their church.

Presented with a gigantic pink bow, the surprise turned out not to be an infant, but a baby grand piano, and that constitutes the second blessing for one of Texas City’s oldest churches.

The 6-foot grand piano brought its own history, but it wasn’t opera — more like honky-tonk. The instrument had been purchased by a popular bar on The Strand, all but destroyed by Hurricane Ike, sold for a song, then lovingly restored and donated by congregant, piano tuner and restoration expert Nick Nelson (whose wife, Georgeann Strong, is the church pianist).

“It was pretty nasty and beat up when we bought it,” Nelson said. “The soundboard and everything else were covered with mold, and it was no small undertaking to restore it.”

All the wood parts of the damaged piano had swollen. Mold colonies had multiplied for months as it was warehoused, post-hurricane, in an unairconditioned space.

Like Reeves, Nelson didn’t set out to be a piano repairman. He originally worked for the University of Texas Medical Branch and only arrived at his second career after campuswide layoffs a few years ago.

After gallons of bleach and weeks of work, Nelson had the 2005 model Kawai ready for Reeves to bless it for their congregation’s use.

Reeves will face less pleasant post-Ike effects, but Strong believes she will do well here.

“Our new pastor is very friendly and earnest, and she’s determined to make our church come alive,” Strong said.