Weekly Update 12-13-2024

December 13, 2024

Hello Grace Vineyard Family and Friends!

I hope you had another great week in beautiful San Diego.  The evenings are starting to feel a bit like sweater weather, and I like it!  There are Christmas lights all around now, and the church is beautifully decorated, and there’s Christmas music playing everywhere…I really do enjoy the Christmas season.

While I’m mentioning Christmas, let me open this week’s Weekly Update by mentioning our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.

On December 24 we will gather at 5pm for a brand new Christmas Celebration.  Our service this year is titled “Christmas Letters” and will be themed around the “letters” we have received over the years through God’s Word, our own reflections, poems and song, all telling us the Great Christmas story.  We’ll end the evening singing “Silent Night” by Candle Light, and it is always a beautiful moment.

We’ll keep it short, aiming to finish the service by 6:00.  After the service we’ll have Christmas cookies and hot apple cider.  That’s where you come in – we need lots of people to bring a couple dozen of their favorite Christmas Cookies.  If you already know what you can bring, please text us your plans at 760-754-2974, or email us at info@gracevcf.org.  Christmas Eve at Grace Vineyard is always wonderful event to invite friends to, so spread the word.

Advent Joy

Last Sunday we talked about the first two themes of Advent: Hope and Peace.   If you missed it, you can hear that sermon right here on our YouTube channel:

This Sunday we’ll be covering the topic of Joy, and I’m joyful about letting you know I’ve asked our own Matt Evans to bring the message.  Matt is a very gifted teacher, and we are bound to be inspired as he opens the Word this weekend. Don’t miss it!

If you can’t be with us in person on Sunday, here’s the link for the Zoom channel: Zoom Meeting ID  153 112 432, Passcode 684814, and here’s where you would go for the Facebook Live channel: facebook.com/gracevcf.

Men’s Breakfast This Saturday

Men, this Saturday will be our last Men of Grace breakfast for 2024!  Join us on Saturday, December 14th, at 8am, at Ty’s Burger House, 515 Mission Ave, just around the corner from the church for a delicious breakfast that includes biscuits and gravy, eggs served country scramble style, potatoes, Orange Juice, and Coffee. We’ll worship together, and then we’ll hear an encouraging word from own Kent Franke.

Ladies Christmas Luncheon December 14

Women of Grace, This Saturday is our Women’s Christmas Luncheon, featuring Margy Hill as our guest speaker.  The menu is soup, salad and dessert.    Tickets are $15, and I’m told you can still show up and pay at the door if you haven’t already registered.  For more information, please call Jeannie Isbell 760.419.1887.

Christmas Dinner at San Diego Rescue Mission, December 21

I am very excited to let you all know that we are going to start serving at the San Diego Rescue Mission in Oceanside every month starting December 21st.  This month, we will be providing a very special Christmas Dinner.  VERY IMPORTANT: if you are planning to join us, you’ll need to sing up with the Rescue Mission beforehand by clicking on this link: https://sdrescue.vomo.org/opportunity/christmas-meal-onc.

Here’s the details for this month:  We are providing Christmas dinner at San Diego Rescue Mission at 3131 Oceanside blvd, Oceanside on December 21st.

• Check in / drop off 3:00-3:30pm
• We will be providing sides for the meal and deserts
• Hot chocolate bar
• Craft- decorating stocking’s and filling stockings with candy
• Door prizes- gift baskets
• Aprox. 55 people
• We need cups for hot chocolate
• Some more sides
• Deserts
• Monetary donations welcome
• Sign up we’ll be at the table in back
• Also to drop off any of the commitments for the above

Venita will be at a table in the lobby this Sunday to give you all the details you need and to sign you up for how you’ll participate.

Christmas Benevolence Offering

We are just a few weeks away from the end of 2024, and that means it’s time to be thinking about our end of the year generosity to all our favorite charities.  I suspect many of you like me have been getting mailings in your mailbox and emails in your inbox from the nonprofit organizations you support.  Grace Vineyard is also looking for end of the year donations for 4 specific areas.  We’ve already been receiving Christmas Benevolence donations from some of you, which is awesome!

Here are those four areas of need along with online links we can use for giving our special end of the year donations to the specific areas:

• Christmas Benevolence — helping those in need, especially single moms and widows this Christmas. Our benevolence fund is empty! Click here – Christmas Benevolence Gifts – to donate.
• Missions — Every year we invite people to commit to give monthly for one year to support our missionaries. We add up those commitments and set a budget for missions (with a reserve pad), letting our missionaries know how much they can expect to receive from us. The commitments have fallen short and our missions fund has run dry. Click here – Missions Donations – to donate to our missionaries.
• Special Building Project – our giant GRACE sign is in serious need of refurbishing.  We have a team who has spent a lot of time researching the best and most cost-effective ways to address the sign project. We have already received one large donation for the project, but we still need about $12,000 to complete the job.  Click here – Building Fund – to donate to our building fund so we can refurbish the sign.
• Taking care of our local church – this is where the tithe (giving 10% of our income) comes in.  Tithing pays for ongoing operational costs like insurance, electricity, gas, water, mortgage, staff salary (3 full time and 2 part time), office supplies, etc. Our general fund is also very low right now. To give general tithes and offerings click here – General Donations

I know many of us have been praying for the Lord’s provision, and I can tell you we’ve already seen some answers to those prayers just in the last 2 weeks, but we still need to keep pressing in to get to the goal.  Thank you for all you are doing in prayer and generosity to take care of these needs. The Lord is FAITHFUL!  He always has been, and He always will be.

Christmas Party Potluck, December 22

We’re gonna have an all church Christmas Party Potluck on Sunday night, December 22nd.  Kathy Green will be in the lobby after church to organize signups for food and drinks.  We’ll also pass around a clipboard during the service where you can sign up.  You could also text Kathy at 760-583-1779.  There’s nothing quite like sharing a meal together, especially during Christmas season!

And that’s it for this week’s Update.  May the Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love of Advent be yours in abundance!

with love and blessings,

Ron Ohst