Lottery story: Free ice cream!
September 17, 2008
Well my card said free ice cream – give it away!! So today (Tuesday 9/16/08) I went to the small family ice cream store by my house!! No one was there when I got there so I got a sundae and sat to wait!! (The sundae was great). So a mom and her 3 kids came in I heard her say you can only have one scoop because mom doesn’t have enough money for any more!! So I got up and told the family you can all have as meny scoops as you want and that I was paying for it!! The mom was like “What?!” I told her I was doing this for her and she told me that she took the kids for ice cream to have somthin to do because she lost all her food because she had no electric for 3 days!!! She told me that no one has ever done anything like this for her and she gave me a big hug and thanked me and made her kids thank me!!!!I told her to never forget that God loves her and her family. I gave her the outreach card and left!!! That made me feel so good that I left the ice cream shop with a smile on my face and I still have it!! Please, can I have another card? That was so much fun I want to do it again!!!! Thanks for understanding that my spelling is bad but I love God and hope makes up for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (spelling corrected for ease of reading)
Mark M.
Lottery Story: Introduce yourself to a Neighbor
September 17, 2008
Assignment: Introduce yourself to a neighbor
This card motivated me to introduce myself to neighbors who moved in two houses next to several months ago. I introduced myself to Rhonda and her 2 young daughters, Katie and Kylie. Husband Paul was in the back yard with the dog. But at least I know their names now. The moved here from Williamsburg and the oldest daughter started kindergarten at Seton. I apologized for taking so long to introduce myself, that I was motivated by a sermon at my church to do so. I also suggested we get our families for dinner at the earliest convenience. Rhonda thought that was a great idea. I gave the tear off card and told her to have a great day and that I hoped the Bengals would win She was getting ready to watch the game in 15 minutes.
The experience went great and we may even have made new friends in the process. I am looking forward to additional service opportunities at the Vineyard. Today’s service really connected with my family and I. We will be getting in touch with Vineyard folks soon about how we can get further involved.
Bill C.
Creating God Space
September 6, 2008
What’s evangelism?
Much has been written, been theorized about and probably more talked about then actually done.
Recently, I spoke to a group of teens…I began by talking about a friend of mine who has been coming to the food pantry for breakfast and groceries for the past few months.
I first met him as he was waiting in line… we began to talk… As the conversation continued he told me about his wife who was a gambler. In 1987 she blew through $18,000 in savings, began to use drugs and left him with two young boys. Devastated, he went to the place where he thought he could find some encouragement and support… his church.
He told the pastor his story, how he was left with two boys under 3 and needed some help. The pastor told him, “We can’t help you now, but to come back in a month or so.” His comment, “I desperately needed help then, not in a month.” He left that day vowing, “I’ll never enter another church again.”
He then spoke of his ongoing struggle to work, feed, and care for his boys. During the summer he used a neighborhood garden to grow vegetables… fresh veggies in the summer and he canned the rest for winter. He worked hard, supported his kids, had the usual growing pains of boys becoming teenagers and developing into young men.
After, he spoke I paused, and asked him to forgive me, representing the church as a leader. I then asked if we could pray.
During the prayer, I asked God for forgiveness, and asked for grace to be to be given to his family, to bless them and for favor to rest upon them. He shook my hand and said, “Thanks, Steve.”
I then told the teens he’s now a friend… and spoke about our continued relationship.
I mentioned that evangelism consists of being a friendly open-hearted person and how important it is to gently step into another persons space.
Once stepping into a person’s relational space we create God space… where God things can happen.
To illustrate I shared another story.
Crosby, Stills and Nash came to the outdoor Fraze Pavilion for a show. My wife, and a few friends headed up to have a picnic outside the pavilion and to listen to the music. It was a great night. Good food, drinking coke, singing with the crowd and enjoying our friends.
There are always interesting people like the hula hoop lady, the bike lady, the hippy dude, dogs of all sizes and shapes, kids with mom’s and dad’s who walk by our smorgasbord. Often the people comment on our spread of some pretty amazing food, “Man that’s what we should do.”
At one point a father with a small baby girl walked by. I noticed an attached tube to help the child receive meds or food. The father evidently was besotted with his little girl. At one point he introduced the child to another baby. They made faces at each other eye to eye, laughed and giggled…the connection baby to baby was amazing to watch.
A little while later the mom walked toward us carrying the child. I mentioned to a friend, “I think we need to pray for them.” When the duo came by I asked the mom, “What’s the baby’s name.” The mom replied, “Abigail.” I laughed and said, “Our third child was supposed to be an Abigail, but she ended up being a Nathan. I have a blond, brunette and Nathan has red hair.” The mom replied, “Oh, Abigail has red hair.”
I then asked what was wrong with Abigail. She told the story of the birth, things not right with Abby’s stomach, and how she was improving but still had a long way to go. I then mentioned I and my friend were pastors of the Vineyard and asked if we could pray for Abby.
She replied, “That would be great.” We prayed general, to specific prayers for the baby and prayed for the mom. I noticed that the mom was obviously being emotionally moved as we prayed.
It was ‘a God space moment’ Crosby, Stills and Nash were presenting a great show for the crowd, we were presenting a child with a great need, to a great God. At the end of the prayer we thanked the mom for allowing us to pray with her. She in turn thanked us smiled and continued her walk.
Again, seeing a need, then intentionally stepping into a person’s relational space is where God space can be created.
God space is where faith can begin to grow.
I told the teens. “That in a nutshell… is evangelism.” Be where you are. Notice needs. Ask good questions. Listen to their story. Take note of their need as they talk. If you have a story that relates to their life share it. Offer prayer. Usually, people respond in a positive way when they sense genuine love and care… no strings attached.
People are either moving toward Jesus or away from him. Our job is to seek, with gentleness and respect, to enter into a person’s life space.
We can then nudge people who have turned away from Jesus… to turn toward Him, or to nudge those who are moving toward Him… closer.
It’s not really that complicated. It just requires seeing eyes, hearing ears, and a willingness to respond and create space where faith can begin to dwell.
I’ve discovered that God is interested in the people within my sphere of influence. Once I’ve discovered and entered into a God moment He tends to show up. In His presence, there is life. We call it serving our way into the heart… Breaking down barriers, building bridges. Creating God space.
That’s why I enjoy practicing Servant Evangelism. Serving others creates God space. Giving Gatorade to skaters at the skate park on a hot day, or offering sun screen to people at a beach, or cold water at the Dayton Air Show, or serving breakfast at our food pantry helps create God moments where His life can be shared.
* postscript…the couple and Abby walked into the Vineyard Sunday
You get more than you give
September 6, 2008
One of my highlights of this summer was Crash.To CRASH means “to collide into, and impact, with force, power and intensity” So “Crash the Community” is about colliding into, and impacting the community, with force, power and intensity, no better way to do that than to impact our broken world with the love and mercy of God
This year we had a team of 14 come over from the Mother Ship (Cincinnati Vineyard) and serve, serve, serve along side Vineyard Dungannon. We did kids club every morning, 20p car wash in which you got your car washed and then when you go to pay you get the 20p; I’d do that again for sure, We prayed for people in the streets, we held a healing service one evening, we went to a nursing home and worshiped and prayed with the residents, we gave away loads of free stuff in our communities. Man we worked the guys hard. What always gets me is when people serve, they always come back feeling that they got the best deal in the world. I have had emails from many who served during the Crash week, thanking us for letting them serve in Dungannon, many saying God changed so much in their lives. Its starting to make sense when Jesus said “to find your life, you got to give it away” We had so much fun serving and the cool thing is this, when we go, we grow and there is healing as we become wounded healers.
You wanna find your life? Give it away a little this week and see what happens.
Getting Started
September 5, 2008
My first post on this brand new site should be profound. It should be…but…well, w
e’ll see. You get what you paid for. Actually, as believers, we get what He paid for. This really wasn’t my point, but it’s not a bad one.
Getting started. I think that’s 95% of the deal. God calls us to Go. “Go and make disciples”. He calls us to get started and to “come, follow me”. It’d be great to write stuff in this blog all day, but I think God might have more for me. He might have something for you too.
So take a minute. Use that 5% of your time and energy to consider how you can love the people in your world…and then get started. Use that other 95% to impact the world around you. Times a wastin’
seriously…let’s get going
Church Has Left the Building
September 5, 2008
This is an oldie but a goodie. We designed t-shirts with this logo on it a couple of years back, and they’re still a hit. If you’d like to make your own, take the design from here to your local promotion shop. All we ask is that you send in a picture with your team reaching out wearing your new digs. 
Donut surprise
September 5, 2008
We received the following email from a lonely, choked-up worker very thankful for a simple box of donuts.
Andrea says ‘thanks’
September 5, 2008
A random call taken by the receptionist and passed along to our team who can take absolutely no credit for this act of kindness:
I received a call from Andrea today, who wanted to thank the gentleman in the “butterscotch Ford Edge” who paid for her meal at a drive thru recently. She was having a particularly rough day and the meal brightened it. She asked me to tell the man who drives that beautiful car that “Andrea says ‘thanks.’”
Soldier Gratton Sends Thanks
September 5, 2008
Dear Ms. H,
Thank you for the two boxes. I just receieved them today. I appreciate you thinking of me and I know my soldiers appreciate the snacks too. I’m glad there are people back home that haven’t forgot about us.
Thanks again,
2LT Joe Gratton
Small Group’s 1st Steps
September 5, 2008
One meeting night I surprised everyone by saying follow me to my car. As I was driving I told them tonight was our first outreach. We drove to Lowe’s and once there, everyone was assigned a duty to get everything prepared. We then gave away over 120 bottles of water and we did touch a couple of folks. One individual said he had heard of the Vineyard, and had been to “some Christmas play” and had wanted to go on a Sunday to see what it was like. He thought this might just be the catalyst to make him go.
Several weeks later I asked the group ahead of time if they wanted to do another outreach. Everyone said yes. I told them next week we are going to do a laundromat. We’ll pay for everyone’s wash (later I found out it was more than 50 cents a wash) and talk with the folks and see what happens. The night of the outreach we met in the VCC atrium and WOW! –everyone had brought something to share for the outreach! This night was already a success. What a great group, each member was really participating and preparing to share some of God’s love.
We went to the laundromat and had a little surprise. Almost everyone there was speaking Spanish. None of us speak Spanish. So it was fun to communicate and we did succeed with several folks. We paid for peoples washer, gave them a packet of Tide, even had drinks for everyone and snacks for the kids. One family had just moved here from Peru-and they wanted church info–we had a great talk with that family. Told them of the LaVina celebration. One person who did speak English said we must be “from the Vineyard-you guys are always smiling!” There were lots more encounters and we shared our “Practical gifts to show God’s love” with everyone. It was a super night for everyone including all members of our group.
Next outreach will be water and windshields-should be interesting!
Wayne
