Michael has a long association with the Central and Southwest Central congregations. He attended Central while attending Rice University. He and Laure met when she came to Central after graduating from ACU and completing an internship with the MARK program in Bogotá, Colombia. Both became part of Southwest Central with the 1983 merger. Their marriage in 1984 was the first for the newly "merged" congregation.
Shortly after being married, Michael and Laure began a seven-year "hiatus" away from Southwest Central. They moved to Ulsan, Korea for four years, and then lived in the Corpus Christi area for three. During that time their two daughters, Sylvia and Cami, were born. All four returned to Houston in 1992.
Michael is an engineer in the offshore oil and gas business. Laure is a teacher's aide.
Michael and Laure have often been involved with the education programs at Southwest Central. Michael is a regular teacher in the adult Sunday morning classes. Both have taught Vacation Bible School and also teenagers.
Michael joined our elders in 2000. He has a strong interest in the place of the Lord's Supper in our congregational life. Given an opportunity, he might say something like this:
"Jesus wanted his disciples to eat together. The intent was -- and is -- that they come together around His Table, in spite of all factors that separate people in this world: ethnicity, economics, gender. The Scriptures use words like "all nations", "men and women", "slave and free"... yet over the centuries a joyous feast of unity became a somber and purely personal observance, in a setting where we can remain strangers. Ultimately the Lord's Table has become the Lord's Pew. I think this shift was a great loss, a detriment to our life as the Body of Christ. We have prided ourselves in "restoration", but we have a way to go in this area..."
