Happy Friday--

It's our desire to continue communicating with y'all about Covid and precautions we are taking. In light of that, see below for a quick covid station update.

In keeping with our vision and values we are celebrating God’s goodness in Word and sacrament through these weeks. Here are a few updates or reminders related to various facets of our common life.

• With Austin Public Health continuing to have Travis County in Stage 5 we’re asking everyone who is able to wear mask during worship indoors on Sundays. Also, this week and next we’ll again have the nursery set up for children to use it with parents (the service will be streamed in the nursery room). Sprouts and Roots will be outside these next weeks, weather permitting. We hope to return to our regular Garden setup on February 6th.

• Hospitality will be outdoors during these weeks.

• While in Stage 5 the clergy person who is presiding at the table will be taking a Covid test that morning to ensure they’re negative.

• Outside of Sunday worship COTC events are being postponed or shifted online or outdoors as best we are able.

Happily, there are some indications the situation with cases and hospitalizations may improve shortly. We’re doing our best to flex with the current realities. I’m grateful for the insights we’ve received from medical professionals at COTC and the care and insight of our leadership (staff and Parish Council alike) more generally. In the meantime let us persist in prayer and worship (in person or online), and not grow weary of doing good, to the glory of God, in the name of Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This week we invited Katie Nguyen to contribute to our e-news. We're so excited about Sol Life and being able to partner with Katie and Hope Community Church in making youth group a reality. Be sure to read below for information and an update from Katie and let us too strive to be the light of Christ in East Austin and beyond.

Peter+
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Hey church family!

With school, work, and even somewhat "normal" (can we even say that anymore?) daily routines beginning to get into full swing for the Spring, I wanted to take some time to invite you into lifting up and praying for Sol Life.

The vision statement for this joint youth ministry endeavor with Hope Community Church is this: Sol Life is a diverse community of teenagers empowering one another to be the light of Christ in East Austin and beyond.

Broken down, between the leaders and communities from both COTC & Hope CC, our desire is to love teenagers well. What does that mean? That looks like giving teens at each church a place that is rooted in their local church where they feel seen and heard. It looks like training our teenagers not just how to consume a Bible study, but how to dig into the living Word of God for themselves & ask the hard questions. And it looks like equipping the teenagers of these churches, ultimately, to go into their contexts of school, sports, or whatever extracurriculars they may have equipped with Truth and confidence in who their God is.

This Sunday, at 1:15p, we have a Parent/Leader Zoom Meeting to share our upcoming plans for the Spring semester of Sol Life, hear a little bit from a couple of leaders, and answer any questions you may have. If you have teens who have been coming to Sol Life consistently, or you're completely new to the church, it's a meeting you won't want to miss as we cover a lot of important info for the Spring.

Grace & Peace,
Katie Nguyen