Weekly Update 07-20-2024

July 20, 2024

Hello Grace Vineyard Family and Friends.

It’s time for a Grace Vineyard Weekly Update, Africa Edition! Disclaimer – I am very pressed for time, so sorry in advance for typos and perhaps less than perfect photographs!

Hello from Zambia.  I just wanted to send a quick note to say we arrived in Lusaka on Wednesday morning!  Here’s some photos: from the upper left, going clockwise- Reuniting with my son Mika; Delivering Medical supplies to the staff at the Hope Medical Clinic; Special lunch with Matt and Sharon Evan’s son Morris (on Matt’s left), Katongo, and Ted Lawler; Mika, Memory, and Morris (some of the very first Breath of Heaven children, now all grown up), a group photo with most of the children and their house mothers; and (diagonally) Matt, Mika, Ron, Elvis, Morris, and Sharon.

This is a video clip of the House Mothers greeting us when we arrived at Breath of Heaven Children’s Village.

I thought you’d be interested in what we’re doing here, so here’s a quick run down: Next week Matt will be doing a Q&A in a tech class at the secondary school, Sharon will be doing some music lessons at the Breath of Heaven Academy with the students next week, Sharon has a special gift to bless each of the house mothers that she will be delivering and then bringing prayer ministry to them, Matt and Sharon will be gathering with the kids tonight (Saturday) for a special movie night.  I will be leaving for Bridgepoint Vineyard church this afternoon; I’ll stay with Pastor Siseho Minyoi and his family tonight and preach at his church Sunday morning.  Next week I’ll be flying to a city in the North called Ndola with one of the young men I met 2 trips ago when I spoke at the Zambia Vineyard National Conference, meeting another young man and Damas Kamfwa (national director of Vineyard Zambia), and we will be driving to 3 different areas where we will hold schools of ministry for leaders in the Vineyard churches plus put on evangelistic outreaches and give away food in each of the regions.  We’ll have lots of prayer opportunity when we do the outreach.  Thank you to all who contributed the money to put on these schools and outreaches!

That’s all for now about our trip; I’m sure I’ll be telling you more in the future. And just know that there’s a lot more going on in personal interactions with the approximately 100 orphans living here and a very large staff.

Sunday’s Message with Charissa Ohst “Patience in the Lord”

I’m very excited to introduce a special young speaker to you this Sunday.  My daughter Charissa Ohst will be bringing a message she has called “Patience in the Lord”.  She’ll be telling you a little about her journey combined with some  Biblical teaching.  I asked her to give me a 1-2 sentence blurb about the message and she said, “Based on some personal experience, this is a message aimed towards long-time believers who may be facing some stagnant moments in their faith. According to scripture, we are to be patient, not praying for signs and quick results, but instead discipling those around us in their potentially long, gradual journeys of faith.”  Expect to be inspired and equpped both for your own journey in the Lord and for the journeys of those around you for whom you are praying and caring in the Lord. If you are not able to be with us in person this Sunday, you can always join online via the Zoom app with this info:  Zoom Meeting ID  153 112 432, Passcode 684814. You may also join us on Facebook Live at facebook.com/gracevcf.

Here’s a few things that I want to remind you of again that are coming up in our life together:

True Valor Men’s Conference

Here’s something cool for the men to put on their calendars.  On August 23-24 we are joining with Men from all over North County for a Men’s Conference at Oceanside Calvary Chapel.  If you don’t know, we live in a county that has unusual levels of unity and relationship amongst churches.  In fact I was just with a pastor from New York who is working with a multi-church outreach we are planning for July, and he mentioned how unique it is here in San Diego.  So men, we’re going to get together with men from churches all over our county for a conference designed to help us confront the deadliest manslayers of our times.  Here’s the details from the webpage for the conference: