Grace Vineyard Update 11-20-2020
Hi Grace Vineyard and Friends,
It’s yet another beautiful day in Oceanside. I am SO thankful I get to live here. Earlier today I sent a video message to everybody for whom we have a cell number. If you’d like to watch it, here it is:
Worship at 10am Outdoors and Online This Sunday
Please Note The New Time
We’ve said it lots of times this year – we are staying FLEXIBLE. Since San Diego County is in the “Purple” tier for Covid-19 restrictions, indoor gatherings are prohibited. We are definitely having some great times of worship and fellowship online with Zoom, but a number of us are hungry for in-person connection and worship, so we’re going to have another outdoor church service this Sunday in the parking lot behind our building. We’re starting at 10am – since the weather has gotten a bit cooler (like around 10 degrees cooler) we decided to give the sun another half hour to warm things up for us, so we’re starting at 10am instead of 9:30am. We’ll also be on zoom and facebook live as usual. Here’s the info you need:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/153112432?pwd=WlJjbWZNeHo0NXBKM0VvbDkrYXV2QT09
Meeting ID: 153 112 432
Passcode: 684814
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,153112432#
Or just watch on Facebook Live at facebook.com\gracevcf (but with Zoom you get to interact with the rest of us, so I recommend zoom for online church).
For your convenience, here are the lyrics for the songs we plan to sing for worship on Sunday: Lyrics for 11-22-2020
Ladies Face to Face TONIGHT
Ladies – you have a lot going on this week. Tonight is an IN PERSON Face to Face outdoors in Shannon Frye’s beautiful backyard, 2044 Chestnut Ave, Carlsbad, at 7pm. We recommend you dress warmly. And if you’d like a hot drink, please stop by your favorite coffee or tea spot and bring what you’d like (County Health Dept tells us not to give out food or drink at church gatherings to reduce the risk of viral spread). Ammee Huzil will be with you leading worship, and Kim Ohst will be bringing a message on “Possessing Our Promised Land”. If you need to stay home, you can join the rest of the ladies via Zoom. Here’s the info: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85263847104?pwd=Vk9HdlkxamNBY2J5M3c1QUQ3a25pdz09 Meeting ID: 852 6384 7104 Passcode: 093488, One tap mobile +16699009128,,85263847104# Contact Kim at 760-519-4558 if you need more info.
Ladies Walk
We’ll have a ladies walk this Saturday 11/21 at Guajome Park at 9am. We’ll meet at the main entrance on Guajome Lake Road (off Hwy 76). When you turn into the park, the entrance is the first right. Free parking is past the entrance on the left side and on Old Ranch Road. Otherwise, parking doesn’t open until 9:30. Please let Kathy Green know if you plan to attend 760.583.1779.
Blankets, Blankets, Blankets
Please bring clean blankets to the church in a plastic bag. You can bring them this Sunday or during the week – due to the pandemic, our doors are usually locked, but somebody is often at the building, so please call 760-754-2974 to arrange a time to drop off your clean blankets. Around Thanksgiving Michael Aplikowsky will be leading us in delivering the blankets to folks in need, especially our neighbors who are living out of doors presently. We will be showing Jesus’ love in a very practical way, and can anticipate that many of our blanket-gifts will turn into “Holy Hello’s”. Contact Michael with any questions at 760-473-9177.
Partners in the Harvest – Time to Renew your Annual Pledge
This has been a GREAT Missions Month. Every year around this time we focus our hearts together on Jesus’ Great Commission and Global Missions. One of the hidden blessings of the Covid-19 pandemic is that we’ve connected via video with a much wider audience than we normally would, so we’ve had guest speakers from far away places, and they have been Great! Mark Fields, Jenny and Josue Hernandez, and Rand Tucker have all sent video messages to our congregation. If you’ve missed them (or would like to listen again), we’ve posted them all on our Missions webpage at gracevcf.org/missions. Now, each of us has a small but really important task — we need to renew our Grace Missions Pledges. Here’s how it works: We financially support our missionaries through a faith pledge program. Every October-November we invite you to commit to supporting the work of missions for the following year. We then use those commitments to make our Grace Missions commitment to each of our missionaries so that they can plan their year. Our goal is that 100% of people who call Grace Vineyard their home will make a financial commitment. That may sound like a lofty goal, but it is actually completely doable – everybody can afford something. So whether you give $1 per month or $100 per month, or more, please make a commitment and let us know so we can let our missionaries know. Please submit your pledges to Grace Vineyard Missions for 2021 by clicking on this link: 2020-2021 Missions Pledge. Thank you! And note, even if you were a missions supporter in 2020 and you plan on continuing your missions giving with no changes, we still need you to submit a new pledge for 2021.
A Helping Hand
Next Thursday is Thanksgiving! For probably most of us, that means gathering with family and friends for a feast! But for some amongst us who have had a very difficult financial struggle this year, this is an especially hard time. In the coming weeks, we’ll probably do a more official fundraiser for giving to hurting families in the holiday season (connected with “Giving Tuesday”), but if you’re already thinking you’d like to donate some money for families who need a helping hand in time for Thanksgiving, you can just write “benevolence” in the note section of your online giving when you click the donate button at the end of this letter. You are a generous congregation, and it’s really beautiful how big your hearts are!
Well, that’s it for this email update. See you Sunday either online or in the parking lot….at 10 AM! Looking forward to worshiping Jesus with you all.
With love and blessings,
Ron Ohst
Tithes and Offerings Online
Thank you for your generosity and faithfulness! We could not do what we do without you. We believe God has chosen to meet the material needs of His church through the tithes and offerings of His people. (Tithe means literally 1/10 or 10% of our income). We encourage everybody to be committed to a church family, and if Grace Vineyard is where you are committed, we’ve provided this online tool for you; click on the “donate” button below to get started. (Note: if you’re giving an offering for the building fund or the benevolence fund in addition to your tithe, please mention that in the notes section after you land on our paypal page). THANKS for taking ownership in the life and ministry of Grace Vineyard – it takes all of us!