January 31, 2025
Hello Grace Vineyard Family and Friends,
It’s Friday night, just after 9:00pm as I write this weeks’ Weekly Update. I hope you all had a great week. Today I spent most of my hours either driving to Los Angeles International Airport, waiting inside, or driving home. That part isn’t super fun, but what is fun is that I got to be reunited with my friend Damas Kamfwa.
Damas is the national director of the Vineyard churches in Zambia, Africa and he’s in the U.S. for a Vineyard conference in Texas starting Monday. It’s not very often that one of our Zambian friends gets to come to the U.S. so we couldn’t let this opportunity get by us. He added a stop in California so he could to spend a couple days with us and speak at our church on Sunday. Here we are making a stop at In-N-Out on our way home from the airport. His first In-N-Out burger, and he loved it of course. I can’t wait for him to meet all of you, and for you to meet him. When he asked me if I had any particular topic I wanted him to preach on, I asked him to seek the Lord and give us what he hears from the Holy Spirit. So I can’t tell you the topic, but I can tell you it’s going to be great. Damas is the real deal!
Last week we finished off our “Enlarging Our Hearts” month with a great service. Mauricio Villamizar brought a message giving us 4 practical steps from Jesus’ life for cultivating a missions heart. Definitely worth listening again, so here it is on our YouTube channel:
Please don’t forget that last year’s Missions commitments are complete. So if you were part of our missions program last year we hope you’ll continue again this year, and let us know by filling out this quick form: 2025 Grace Missions Pledge Form . And if you weren’t part of our Missions program last year, we REALLY hope you’ll join us this year. Every year we hope to grow Grace Missions, and that only happens when more people join us, and when those who already have joined us increase their commitments. Please pray about it and see what the Lord would encourage you to do.
Night of Worship with CJ Orndorff
CJ’s in town! CJ Orndorff has been a great friend of Grace Vineyard for many years, and before we even planted Grace Vineyard about 30 years ago, CJ’s family and my family were already close friends – I’m talking friends before Kim and I were even married, so we go back about 35 years now! CJ leads a prison ministry called 2nd Chance Outreach Ministries, and several people from our worship band frequently tour with him. He’s an outstanding Musician and singer and worshipper and evangelist. He happens to be in town this week, so we are thrilled to host him for a night of worship Sunday night, February 2nd, at 6pm. I hope you will make plans to join us!
Superbowl Party February 9th
A week from Sunday is the Superbowl! We’re going to open up the big red curtains and watch the game on the giant screen. Every Super Bowl Party needs to have Super Bowl food, and that’s where all of us come in. Bring your favorite party food – pizza, chicken, taquitos, sliders, 7 layer dip, chips and salsa, guacamole…that should get your party food juices flowing. For more info, or to just let us know what you’re going to be bringing, please contact Steve Rogers at 760-500-4324. We’ll get things going at 3pm (I’m pretty sure kick-off is at 3:30).
Valentine’s Outreach at The Navigation Center
On Friday, February 14th, we’re going to put on another event for the guests at the Oceanside branch of the San Diego Rescue Mission, aka The Navigation Center. Venita Ibarra will be doing sign ups at a table in the lobby this Sunday. This is a super easy way to join the mission of Jesus locally. At an event like this we typically provide food, music, prayer, friendship, kindness, and love to people who have found themselves in a difficult place in life. See Venita at the table in the lobby this Sunday for all the details, and to sign up. You could also contact here via voice or text at .
Baptism February 23, During Sunday Service
We are planning on having baptisms during our Sunday morning service on February 23. (The water will be heated, in case your wondering!) If you are a follower of Jesus, but have not yet been baptized, this is for you.
Acts 2:36-38
36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
Talk to pastor Steve Rogers to sign up. You can reach him at srogers@gracevcf.org or 760-500-4324
Men’s Retreat March 14-16
Men, we are going to have a Men’s Retreat at Palomar Christian Conference Center on Palomar Mountain March 14-16.
We’ve booked the coolest retreat center in San Diego. The photo above is from Palomar Christian Conference Center’s webpage, and show’s somebody on the zip line. There’s also skeet shooting with shot guns, horseback riding, hiking trails, rifle range, archery, paintball, the best food of any retreat center (really!) and more. And it’s in a beautiful mountain retreat. If you’ve never been, check out their webpage at palomar.camp. And that’s just the location. We’ll also have amazing times of worship, teaching, prayer. Our men’s retreats at PCCC have always been awesome, and I’m so glad we’ll be returning in the Spring. They having 2 styles of housing accommodations – dorm rooms and hotel style. We’ve been able to drop the prices a bit, so now, the Dorm Rooms will cost $225, and the Hotel Style rooms will cost $280. This will include all the food for the weekend too. See Snake for more more information. You can contact him via text at (760) 622-4572, email him at rertel777@gmail.com , or better yet, find him on Sunday morning. And to make it easy to pay, our church office will let us pay monthly – if you are just starting this week, you can pay $40/week starting this Sunday, you’ll be able to pay for the entire registration by the first week in March. (That’s 6 weeks, so you’d save $240 by March 9…you get the idea). When you put money in the offering or give online, just put “Men’s Retreat” on the memo line of your check, or on the offering envelope, or in the online giving where you can specify what the payment is for. This is going to be an AWESOME Spring! Christian Twombly will be at a sign up table this Sunday to answer all your questions and sign you up.
Blessings and love to each of you,
Ron Ohst
Tithes and Offerings Online
THANKS for taking ownership in the life and ministry of Grace Vineyard! And thanks to all of you who are stepping into a lifestyle of generosity with your tithes and offerings. It really does take all of us doing our part with the income God has entrusted to us for His church. If you’d like to give your tithe or offering online, click the donate button below.