August 24, 2023
Hello Grace Vineyard and Friends of Grace Vineyard,
Today I’m writing to you from the desk of a Courtyard Marriot Hotel near Azusa Pacific University. Kim, Charissa, and I are here tonight so we can be ready in the morning for move in day. Charissa is moving into grad student housing where she’ll live until she graduates with a masters degree in education and a California teaching certificate in December, 2024. After that she’ll be able to pursue her goal of teaching High School English. Tomorrow morning, after we finish the move-in process, Kim and I will skidaddle over to Palm Desert to be with hundreds of other couples (several from Grace Vineyard) for the annual Marriage Getaway in La Quinta. We won’t be able to be with you all on Sunday morning, but we have a VERY SPECIAL TREAT….
Eddie and Bethany Roach along with 2 of their children, Annajak and Miles, are in town, and they will be bringing the Word Sunday morning. Eddie and Bethany are a dynamic couple leading an amazing ministry in Cambodia, and are our first full time missionaries to be sent out from Grace Vineyard. If you haven’t met them yet, you are going to LOVE Sunday Morning! But back to the first sentence of this paragraph: I said “2 of their children” because as you can see in the photo, they are excited to announce that they have a new daughter, Ching Ching Ray Roach! She’s been a part of their family for the last year, but now she is officially adopted and everyone could not be happier! Eddie and Bethany will absolutely captivate your hearts as you hear their stories on Sunday!
Back to Africa
Here’s a few pictures with just some of the hundreds of our brothers and sisters in Zambia that we have grown to love! I’m flying to Zambia on Tuesday with a small team of Traci Blagg (shown in the picture at the Hope Medical Clinic) and Alyssa Schoonmaker, another Physician’s Assistant like Traci. We three have a very full schedule for the next 2 weeks! As I said, we leave from LAX on Tuesday and we land in Lusaka, Zambia on Thursday, August 31st (long travel time plus Zambia is 9 hours ahead of us) and go directly to Breath of Heaven Children’s Village. Traci and Alyssa will be doing a lot of work in our new Medical Clinic, and all of us will be spending all the hours we can with the approximately 100 orphans who live at Breath of Heaven, not to mention the many, many staff members we have grown to love over the years. On September 6th, our Zambian son Mika (sitting to my right in the photo above) and Katongo, the Breath of Heaven Worship Center pastor will fly with me to the city of Ndola where I will be teaching at a school of ministry for the Vineyards of Zambia. We fly back to Lusaka on the 11th, and board our return flight to LAX on September 12th. I’ve still got a bit of prep to do for the class I’ll be teaching at the school of ministry, and packing for an international trip as soon as we return Sunday from the Marriage Getaway, so I really could use your prayers support right now. Prayer absolutely changes things! By the way, be sure to check out bofheaven.org to learn more about the amazing ministry that introduced us to Zambia.
Jesus Walk This Saturday
This Saturday, August 26th, we are doing another Jesus Walk! Everybody will meet at the parking structure in downtown Oceanside at the corner of Seagaze and Cleveland Saturday morning at 10am. From there we’ll walk North toward the pier along the strand, and play it completely by ear. We hope to have one or more of our guitar playing worship people walking with the team so we will sing some worship songs along the way. We’ll encounter people and cross the “chicken line” and have some “holy hello’s”, some great conversations, some opportunities to share with people, some opportunities to pray with people…we’ll get to live out what we’ve been talking about on Sundays in our “Witness” series. (Full disclosure, I said “We’ll walk”, etc, but I won’t be able to go with you since I’ll be at the Marriage Getaway on Saturday.) Once again I must urge you pray, because this Jesus Walk could look like a story right out of the Gospels or the book of Acts if the Kingdom of God breaks in powerfully, so pray the prayer Jesus taught us, “Your Kingdom Come! You’re will be done on earth as in heaven.”
By the way, for those of us who are a bit scared when it comes to doing things like this, just know that when you are in a group of people who are doing it with you, it is about 1000 times easier. Seriously. I have been doing things like this on and off since I was 19 years old, and I still get a little bit nervous some times. Especially if I’m by myself. But when I’m’ in a group of fellow believers like the awesome people in this photo, my nervousness flies out the window and I feel strong and courageous. I hope a bunch of us will join Mark Newell on this adventure. If you have a question, reach out to Mark with a text or call at 760) 715-1611.
2 New Small Groups Beginning Soon
I also want to tell you again to be on the look out for 2 new small groups starting soon. One will be led by Christian Twombly, on Friday nights, meeting in the Upper Room (our youth building, officially at 104 N. Freeman St, but actually the same building as our theater, enter at the glass door between the main theater and the children’s ministry area). This one is for everybody including families with children – the Upper Room has a main room and a game room, so there’s a natural place to watch the little ones should the need arise. We don’t have the exact launch date, but it’s coming soon, and you can get more info by contacting Christian at (760) 622-4945.
The second is a young adult group for people age 18-25 (if you’re 26, they’d let you join, so don’t sweat it). This one’s gonna be led by Bryce Ohst on Thursday nights at Treina and Mason Nash’s house in Vista. It will start in the next few weeks. For more info, contact Bryce at (760) 216-9038. If you know any young adults, would you please tell them about this group? Please be praying for both of these new groups: Bryce starts college life at Mira Costa next week, and he’s hoping to meet some new friends that he will invite to the group, and Christian is hoping to welcome some new families with children.
And with that, I’ll sign off for today and get back to preparing for our Zambia trip.
If anyone is like me this weekend and cannot make it to church in person on Sunday, you can join the service online with Zoom using this info: Zoom Meeting ID 153 112 432, Passcode 684814. You may also join us on Facebook Live at facebook.com/gracevcf.
Just click on the link above to join us on your phone, computer, or other device.
With love and blessings to each of you,
Ron Ohst
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