Parish People and Places

Hi Church!

A while back we had a regular feature in our enews called "Parish People and Places", highlighting different people and institutions in COTC and beyond in Austin. Elliot Lee, our intern at COTC, has resurrected this feature with a vision for how it might help us "participate in the stories God is weaving out of our lives." A big thanks to Elliot for his work and for the Van Allens for agreeing to be first up!

Be sure to join us this Sunday as we enter into the "little lent" of Advent and kick off a new church year! Coffee and Catechism will be at 8:45 and all are welcome for the St. Nicholas Day party following the service. As part of the celebration we are doing a mini-diaper drive for Hope Clinic patients, be sure to bring some as we follow St. Nick's example of generosity!

It wasn’t easy finding a time to interview the Van Allens. So taking the rare opportunity given to us at the Parish Retreat, I pulled them aside.

Elliot: Could you share with me your sense of what God has called you to do in life?

Paul: I want to make a ton of money on Airbnb! (laughs)

Elliot: Alright, I will put that in the COTC newsletter!

Paul: I kid… I want to see people who do not have access to the Gospel to hear and experience the Gospel, and also have faith communities planted inside of them.

Lisa: I believe I am called to raise our four kids. I also believe I am being formed for some sort of disability ministry.

Paul: To do missions, raise our children, and serve the disabled, we need money. That’s where Airbnb comes in.

Elliot: I did want to ask you about dealing with disability. Do you two mind?

Paul & Lisa: No, we don’t mind at all.

Elliot: I am wondering how you processed the disability of your children.

Paul & Lisa: It was certainly hard wading through a lot of the unknown and confusion. In God’s grace, we were able to be there for each other. Once we were told that genuine adventure involves being out of control. Something must be at risk for there to be any true adventure at all. We realized that we are the protagonists, not the author of the story we live… God is telling a story. We believe that the story God is unfolding is a lot more interesting than a simple, successful mission story in China where we lived for 11 years.

Elliot: In what ways could we, as a community, love you?

Paul & Lisa: We would love to see Layla and Henri invited more into people’s lives, like typical kids. We do wonder from time to time whether our community is really tight enough that people would be in Layla and Henri’s lives down the road or if something happened to us. They say blood is thicker than water, but we hope the water of baptism is thicker than blood.

Thanks again Elliot and the Van Allens!

In Christ,

Peter+