Hospitality at South by Southwest in Austin Texas

Experimental deer vibes ventura ep indie rock experimental indie instrumental progressive rock San Antonio http://deervibes.bandcamp.com/ It was a busy spring break week.  We were running a free day camp for 34 kids in our neighborhood ranging in age from 4 to 15.  We were hosting a group of high school and middle school students and a “mystery ramble” from Floral Heights UMC in Wichita Falls, Texas. They spent Monday with us helping us in mission and learning more about urban living and generational poverty. They were a great presence on campus and it was good to host them and we were busy! It was South by Southwest which meant our friend Ronnie, the cabdriver was crazy busy and was not able to help us with campus hospitality.  We are also aware that, during South by Southwest, we have to be more mindful than ever of radical hospitality. We have a bunch of people from out of town in our city and we have an opportunity to really extend the love of Christ to people that are far from home and trying to connect to their larger dream. In the midst of all the activity  we noticed a van pulling a trailer that landed in our driveway. This isn’t too unusual but from the look of the trailer we were fairly certain that they were likely to be SXSW folks.  Despite the fact that we were busy beyond belief, despite the fact that there was so much going on, the pastor walked over to them, introduced herself, welcomed them to the church campus and asked to hear their story.  They told about being from San Antonio.  They told about playing at the festival. They told about their van quitting but they were grateful that it was running for the moment.  She listened then welcomed them again and said if they needed anything to make sure and let her know. Then she rushed off to teach Bible Study. At the end of Bible Study she found the same group of musicians totally deflated as they had gotten additional news that their lodging had fallen through.  She offered to let them stay in the Chapel. She knew she could do that because the church is a place where we are practicing radical hospitality. Even when it’s difficult or weird we are in the practice of offering radical hospitality.  That doesn’t mean we don’t have boundaries -- we do.  And we also have a firm understanding that this is God’s space and we are just in charge of sharing it. And they were so generous that they gave us a copy of their music... beautiful, incredible, wonderful music. And they said we had permission to use their music in worship.  (If you’d like to find them go to bandcamp.com and search on “Deer Vibes.”  If you’d like to find out more about what radical hospitality looks like you can check us out at www.parkerlane.org.