Refelecting
Hi COTC,
Can y'all believe it's July already and that the Coelho's are over halfway through their sabbatical? I was blessed by Peter's enews to the church last week and while bittersweet, what a joy it was to send the del Rio family off to Oregon and reflect on their time at COTC. I realized last week, that we are halfway through 2022 and SO much has happened at COTC already. Oftentimes, I snap photos on Sundays to use for the enews, our social media, etc. As I was looking through my camera this week, it allowed me to reflect on how the Lord has been working at COTC. In the busyness of our everyday lives, it can be easy to miss what's happening, so I thought I'd share with y'all a few of the things I've been reflecting on.
On February 28th, we closed on our property. Thanks be to God! We're still getting to know the space, it's kind of like making a new friend, learning their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. Looking ahead, we will officially kick off our capital campaign to work toward paying down the mortgage on 10/6.
At the end of February, we also celebrated COTC's sixth birthday!
In April, we added two new staff members to our team. Briana, took over the role of director of children's formation and Kellie joined as our parish admin. In May/June, Reid took over leading our youth and Daniel stepped on as COTC's first ever intern.
With adding two new staff, we said goodbye to Sarah Robinson and her husband, Garrett who moved to Virginia.
We sent the Coelho's off on sabbatical. Their last Sunday was 4/24 and they'll be back with us on 8/21.
C4SO parishioners went on an exploratory trip to the US/Mexico border to learn and to serve migrants.
We celebrated baptisms 9 baptisms on April 24th and 6 on Pentecost Sunday. Praise God!
On Pentecost Sunday, we also had a potluck, the first in few years due to the pandemic. It was such a gift to see people connecting, laughing, and enjoying one another.
Our men gathered for BBQ and the women attended a worship night and we held men's and women's retreats.
Over the summer, we've had multiple guest preachers.
Creation Care Camp 2022 was a raging success with hard work from Briana and her team.
The Lord continues to bring newcomers each Sunday. We are so thankful for this and they ways in which those of you call COTC home have welcomed them. We held a newcomers lunch in early June.
Whew, that's not even close to an exhaustive list. I'm sure each of you have your own memories and praises for the year so far. I invite y'all to join me in giving thanks to God for all that he's provided COTC. Pray too, that we can, with wisdom, move forward discerning what it means to be a church in Northeast Austin for the good of our neighborhood, Austin, and the world in the name of Jesus Christ. Purchasing a building and now having a more permanent place in our neighborhood brings with it new opportunities for us to live into this vision.
Grace and peace, y'all
Kimberly+
P.S. Many of you know Krista, as she's been around COTC from the very beginning, but with her stepping on to lead music for us, I asked her to reintroduce herself to the community. We are so thankful Krista said yes to leading in this way. You can read her intro below.