Vineyard 509: Month 5 & 6

The Making of a Community

Here we are, we have lived in Spokane for a little over 5 months now and things are heating up. Not really, it is stinking cold here. Last week when Redding hit the low 20’s over night, our high here in Spokane was 12. Yes, 12 degrees! (Yes, I said high) Our low was negative 5. Sorry, I have no jokes for negative 5 because negative 5 is no joking matter. Although, Redding has had more snow for the month of December (until today) than Spokane has. LOL. But our snow season is just starting.

While our temperatures are dropping outside, our community is just beginning to heat up. The picture above is the making of a beautiful community known as Vineyard 509. We are seeking Jesus together, we are worshipping, we are praying for one another, we are reaching out to others. More importantly, we are asking the question of God, “What are you doing?” As our church continues to pursue God together, we are being shaped and formed into the image and likeness of God.

We continue to reach out to people, share meals with them, serve our neighbors, connect with college students, partner with other ministries in the city. It is all really good stuff. I could go on and on. We truly have done an amazing job at involving ourselves in our new city. I explained to our church planting team when we first arrived that we would have a season in the “wilderness” just like Jesus had before he started his ministry. This season would be filled with watching, waiting, praying, fasting, building up, and prepping for what is ahead. Well, I believe that our wilderness time is wrapping up.

As we head into the new year, we are filled with anticipation of what is to come. Let’s just say it is power evangelism or bust. Please be praying for wild and crazy Godly stories to come our way. We are praying for miracles, signs and wonders, but mostly for the transformational presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yeah baby! Come Lord Jesus Come. Holy cow, I’m getting so excited.

In the mean time we pray that each one of you has an impactful Advent. For those of you that might not know, Advent is the coming of the Christ. When we willing put our lives on pause and recognize that God birthed himself into his creation we can see the magnitude of this moment. God is no longer far away. God is here, he is near, he is with us. He is in our working, our playing, our hurting, our sleeping. He is in our sin, he is in our dreams, he is in our passions, he is in our needs. God is with us and God is for us. So, may this season be a reminder for all of us how close God really is.

Merry Christmas,

Vineyard 509

Kao and Jason played football on Thanksgiving morning with the kids from Youth For Christ. It was about 40 degrees at the time of this picture but when we showed up at 9am it was 26 degrees!

This picture is of our son hunting a turkey on Thanksgiving Day. There was a pack of wild turkeys walking by so he decided to grab an air soft gun and a knife to get us a turkey :)

Our first Thanksgiving dinner in Spokane. We missed our family dearly but we had much to be thankful for.

We got our first Christmas tree in one of the Spokane National forest. The permits here are only $5 but the forests in Northern CA are much better.

Just some pictures of our drive from getting our tree.

Baby it's cold out side.

On our way back from getting our tree we witnessed a pick up truck loose control, slide into the on coming lane, and get t-boned. Everyone was alright but shaken up.