God is our Redeemer. We’ve been looking at Joseph’s life and how God redeemed his life in amazing ways. He can work through our difficult situations and redeem them!
What a joy to be with the kids upstairs @ WCV; to see their smiles and feel their energy.
Matthew 19:14 “God’s kingdom is made up of people like these.” – Jesus
Your Board of Directors have a responsibility to keep all WCV adherents updated on our Financial results and position.
We recognize that our finances are supplied by the Lord through the faithful support of our community. Thank you for your generous and sacrificial giving.
“Some trust in Chariots , and some in horses
But we trust in the name of the Lord our God “Psalm 20:7
For the nine months ending September 30, 2016 we see a deficit of $33,662.
This is a result of a shortfall of income over the expenses we incurred. This amount includes the $13,280 buffer surplus from 2015 that needs to be replenished by year-end.
We need $172,000 of income in the last three months to meet our income budget of $442,000.
The Staff and BOD encourage everyone to prayerfully consider your part in the finances of WCV and let the Holy Spirit guide you in your giving decisions this month.
Thank you for walking through this challenge with us as leaders.
Your Board of Directors
The Vineyard School of Justice 2016-2017 has begun! We are excited about the five students God has brought us this year: Karen Merkel-Kopp, Doreen Daniels, Eric Robertson, Dominic Mwaura, and Ray Sanford. Dominic and Ray will be with us for the fall semester as they completed the spring semester last year; the other three will be with us for the entire school year.
We are also thrilled to have Natalie Hamm and Tara Glowacki involved this year. Natalie will be serving as a leader in the school after being a leadership intern last year. And as part of her theological studies, Tara will spend some of her time as a practicum student in WCV with the school.
The Vineyard School of Justice is a unique, six month program designed to foster a passion for loving God and loving your neighbour (especially those society deems “least”). The school facilitates a unique environment where those who are street-involved and those who are not, come together, learn side by side, and encounter Jesus and his kingdom of justice.
Please pray for our school and especially our students in their journey over the next few months.
For more information:
Vineyard School of Justice
School Facebook Page
Recently the Vineyard International Executive, led by John and Eleanor Mumford, met with His Holiness Pope Francis in a historic moment at the Vatican. This is a continued sign of the increased unity amongst the body of Christ around the world and points towards the way in which God is moving his sovereign hand amongst His church for His glory. Noel Isaacs was part of this contingent. Below are a few of his thoughts and what stood out to him about the meetings and Francis’ responses to a few questions he was asked.
Never forget the poor. You can never understand the gospel without the poor. Jesus came to the poor, the needy, the Sick! We need to understand the poor in order to understand the Gospel. In raising awareness for the poor, you quickly get accused being a Communist. But it is not about Communism or Capitalism, but about the Reign of God (which equals the Kingdom of God). The poor need our attention, our love, and our care – only through them can we understand the Gospel.
Serving two masters:
The Bible says you cannot serve to masters. The problem is not the money in itself, but loosing your heart to the money: “The devil comes through your pocket”. There are three, we might say, main ways in which the devil tries to gain our hearts. The first is money, the second is vanity, the third is pride. When the church thinks she has become rich, that moment is the beginning of her downfall. The true treasure of the Church is not the buildings, not what we might call property, but the Spirit, the poor, our hearts….
It might sound foolish, but there is a poverty of the rich man: It is him who thinks he can save himself with money, who thinks he can have everything through money and possessions, but is never filled and satisfied.
It’s all about unity. The Pope had spoken in his liturgy that very morning about the Holy Spirit, partially out of Galatians.
There are three ways we can regard or react to the Holy Spirit:
1) to ignore the Holy Spirit (you stupid Galatians! Galatians 3.1ff), which, according to the holy father is simply stupid (stupido)!!
2) to grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4.30) by not giving him room to work, by keeping him to yourself and stay inward focused.
3) to give Him room to work through us. We should be as a ship with its sails set high to catch the wind (he made a gesture to underline his words by raising his hands).
Walk forward together and journey together. This implies going forward and being in motion. It involves working in practical ways together, to pray together and for each other and to care for the poor (we might say, do ministry) together.
We serve and minister WITH the poor, not TO the poor. The standard is what we find in Matthew 25. After all, this is how Jesus says that we will be “judged”.
We’re embarking on a new series entitled, “Why On Earth?: David, calling and the pursuit of God”. No matter where we are in life we all need to grapple with the big questions like: Why on earth am I here? What’s my calling? What kind of person has God called me to become? And, how can I figure it out or get more clarity on it?
These are some of the questions we’re going to be exploring together as we look to David’s life for some guidance. We’ll let his story be our guide in this process of pursuing God’s will for our lives – of gaining clarity on some of those big questions. We’ll trace the ups and downs of his failures and successes and glean what we can to apply to our 21st century lives. We are also going to be looking to a few others along the way who will help us contextualize God’s invitations for us today. In particular, the 16th century’s St. Teresa of Avila and her “Interior Castle” and the “7 Stages” of our own Vineyard founder, John Wimber.
Our hope is that through this series, God would clarify his calling for each of us, and encourage us on our journeys as we follow Jesus throughout our lives. For some of us, it will be a journey of self discovery. For others, we’ll gain new insights on our calling as we already understand it. Ultimately, as we see God’s heart for David, we’ll be able to also see his heart for us and those around us. Fredrick Buechner stumbled 
upon some wisdom when he wrote, “the place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (in Wishful Thinking: a theological ABC). We pray that each person in WCV would find that sweet spot, and that we’d be a people “after God’s heart” (1 Sam 13:14, Acts 13:22).
This past weekend we had an impromptu pop-up garden stand! Jessie Penner had a whole bunch of extra produce that she shared with any and all who happened to leave by the South doors (and we’re also sharing with those in Drop-in this week too). Thanks Jessie!
This week Noel Isaacs, who is the founder of Dakhbari Sangati and Senior Pastor of Kathmandu Dakhbari Sangati and Director Of Himalayan Region Vineyard Churches, will be travelling to the Vatican in Rome to meet with His Holiness Pope Francis. He is going at the invitation of Cardinal Kurt Koch, the president of the Pontifical Council For Promoting Christian Unity. This is an exciting opportunity! Pray for God’s blessing for Noel and the other Vineyard leaders from around the world who will also be travelling together.
