Merry Advent

Merry Advent Everyone,

I know it’s a little different than “Merry Christmas” but if you think about it, there is no Christmas without Christ. Seriously, if the first Christ followers did not create a way to make the birth of their savior important in their own lives then the Christmas holiday would have never existed. The word “advent” is a Latin word meaning “coming” or “arrival”. The first Christians developed the Christmas season to help remind themselves of the continuing arrival of their savior Jesus. Wow, how different is this meaning of Christmas than what it is today?

Last Sunday was the beginning of our Advent season. This advent we, as a church family, are looking to make this Christmas season the most meaningful yet. Vineyard USA has put together a Christmas devotional that will help us recapture the essence of Christmas’ long long ago. Over the 4 weeks leading up to the birth of Jesus, we are focusing on “The Light That Leads Us Home”. This series is full of Hope, Peace, Joy, & Love. This past Sunday we focused on Hope. The birth of God into our world is full of hope for everybody. True hope leads us out of the despair, leads us into promise, and leads us into more hope.

The first Christmas changed the world. I have hope that Christmas still has that power to do just this. Eight years ago I was made aware of the worlds water problem. I was convicted that Christmas has become a season of getting what you want instead of helping people get what they need. People all around the world are suffering and dying from the lack of clean drinking water. It is estimated that this Christmas season the average American will spend $700 on Christmas. This is a grand total of $465 Billion dollars. It is estimated that it would cost $20 billion to bring everybody in the world clean drinking water. Now, I share this with you to put things into perspective, not to guilt you. Every non-profit and charity is asking you for money right now. ‘Tis the season.

We as a church family have decided try and do something about this. We have no idea if this will work but we have to at least try something. We are going to Re-Gift this year. We are going to take one gift and return it. Then we are going to Re-Gift towards Water. Would you please join us in Re-Gifting for Water? Please join us as we literally change the world this Christmas Season. Please see the link below for our water campaign.

https://my.charitywater.org/jason-verduzco/regift-4-water

Finally, this last Sunday we handed out our Christmas devotional and the first of four Advent candles. If you missed last Sunday or were still out of town from your Thanksgiving holiday, these gifts will be available for you every Sunday this month. This coming Sunday we will focus on Peace. It is my prayer that you experience the gift of Jesus that transforms you from the inside out.

Advent Blessings,

Pastor Jason

A Crazy 2 Years!!!

Can you believe it? It has been 2 years since a crazy group of friends and a few kids, believing God for a destiny, moved to Spokane, WA to start a church. Two years later, we have memories that will last a lifetime! The best part is… we are just getting started.

We are all so honored to be here and share life with the men, women, and children that call Vineyard 509 their church. Hopefully you had the chance to watch the video. These people are otherworldly. Their stories will make you laugh, they will make you cry, but most of all they will reflect a God that is real and at work in His sons and daughters.

A couple things to pray for and consider:

We have 2 major events coming up within 2 weeks of each other and we really need your help. The first is our “End of the Summer” party we are throwing in our neighborhood. We are closing off our parking lot, renting some big bouncy houses, playing games, all the while eating popcorn and snow cones.

The second event is our annual “Bless our College Students” outreach. This is where we hold a big raffle where we give away a bunch of stuff that every college student needs with a Grand Prize of an Ipad.

It has been hard work over the past couple of years investing in our college students and our neighborhood. We are still a small church but we have big hearts. So, each person in our church is looking for 5 friends and/or family members to help us invest into our college students and neighbors. We have set up a special one time tax-deductible gift on our giving page for these events. The link is below. Would you consider partnering with us? We invite you to join our church in blessing and prayer for our college students and our neighborhood.

http://www.vineyard509.com/give.html

Peace & Grace to you all,

Vineyard 509

In it...

Well, here we are! Spring is now upon us. The days are longer and the weather is warmer. People in Spokane are coming out of hibernation and starting to become more active. It is crazy how the weather can dictate how people live their lives.

The Verduzco’s

Everybody is doing well. The Verduzco’s are healthy and we have settled into life here in Spokane. Jason’s job provides for the family. We are able to pay the bills and bless others. Praise the Lord! Noah will be 9 years old on April 2^nd and Felicity will turn 5 on April 6^th. Jaicee will turn 7 in August. My, my how time flies. Jesus continues to be the purpose in which we live our lives. Parenting is the single greatest and trying thing we have ever done. Hopefully our kids turn out well. Our marriage is as strong as death. We will celebrate our 14^thanniversary next month. Grandma and grandpa are coming up next month and we are headed to Catalina Island for a couple of days. We are so looking forward to our time together as husband and wife!!!

Some of you may already know this; on our honeymoon we bought a picture frame of the place that we visited. When we got home we put a picture in it from our trip. This tradition has carried on every year since. So we now have 15 picture frames with 15 pictures that capture us changing over the years. When we got married Jason was 20 and Amber was 19. We were just babies! Over the years, we look a little older and wiser. Some pictures show Amber with a baby belly and some pictures have our little ones because she was breast-feeding and they were too little to leave with family. It is awesome that someday when our grand kids come over they will be able to look at a wall of picture frames from around the world where grandma and grandpa have traveled. More importantly, they will see a journey of love!

Kao

Kao is doing well. He is looking into going back to college. He continues to be a source of great joy to our church. He always has a positive outlook and a hope that is contagious. God will continue to grow him and use him in mighty ways here in this City.

Tanya

Tanya is a Godsend to those with mental illness here in Spokane. She is literally the hands, feet, and mouth of Jesus to those that need help. She works in a profession where faith isn’t the primary driving force of life. She continues to bring a toughness and a tenacity to our church community.

Vineyard 509 Update

Our church is amazing! We have a core group of people gathering and it really is special. We have 2 unbelievable women (Cathy & Lindsey) that are leading worship for us. They are great musicians and even better human beings. We are creating a great sound and enjoy worshiping God in song. We’ve had some powerful times in singing that has produced greater faith for all those present. We also have a young college student that has just blossomed over the past year that he has been with us. I have seen him grow in his faith, character, and his manhood. He is extremely intelligent and is going to make an impact on many people in his lifetime. There are many others that are just starting to connect and we look forward to deepening all these relationships. Much more to come on this.

Partnership!

When we made the decision to go ahead and sign a 2-year lease on a building that we could not afford, we were freaking out and yet excited to see what God was going to do. We had enough money to cover the cost of the building for a few months. Well, as the savings account dwindled we saw God start to move. I was dreaming of moving our gathering to a Sunday night and I had a connection with a group of church planting pastors. One of these pastors has a church plant that is in the same stages as us and was starting to look for a space to rent but wasn’t sure how they could afford it. I told him that we were thinking about moving to an evening gathering and that if they wanted to they can have Sunday mornings for their church to gather. Amber and I got together with the pastor and his wife and a beautiful partnership has started. So, we are 2 churches in 1 location. They are an amazing couple and they have an awesome community. They are a 2^nd/3^rd generation Russian/Ukrainian community. So, it has been a blast getting to know their culture.

What’s Going On?

This past weekend we handed out 5,000 door hangers around our neighborhood for an event we are doing this Saturday in a park just blocks from our church building. We are having a BBQ and a big Easter Egg hunt. We are partnering with the other church that gathers in the building and blessing all of our neighbors. Then, the day after the BBQ we are having an Open House at our church building where we hope and pray many of our neighbors will come to meet with us as we ask questions about life, faith, and God. Then to top it all off we have an awesome Good Friday and Easter event planned. It is going to be a full week! If you want you can see more about these events you can check out our website, under the upcoming events tab.

How You Can Pray

Even though we have lots of great stuff going on we are still a small and young, fragile church. We are still a church in its infant stages and we are learning, growing, and maturing. There is a big difference between a 2 year old, a 10 year old, a 20 year old and so forth. Please pray that unity would abound. Please pray for all of our events coming up this week. Pray that the weather would be good. Pray for God to bring all those that He wants us to come in contact with. Please pray that God would break the spiritual bondage and barriers that keep people from becoming a part of either community. Please pray that our neighborhood is blessed beyond belief. Please pray for our finances so that we can pay all the bills and bless our neighbors.

A Closing Thought

The other day I stopped by the church building for something. Everything was quiet and I stopped what I was doing and paused. I took in the immensity of the present moment. You know what I am talking about. The moment that nature catches your eye. The moment you take to breathe after you watch something inspirational. The moment you take to hold a loved one that you haven’t seen in a while. It is the moment in which time from your busy life just stops. In this moment, I paused from all that I was doing and I had this thought, “This is my church.” The thought wasn’t a possessive one, as if I owned it. It was more so that God has given me such a beautiful gift and that He said, “Here son. I want you to have this. It is a gift. Enjoy it. Cherish it. Take care of it. It is precious and it means so much to me.” I don’t have the right words to express all that I felt in that moment. It was/is holy, sacred, and full this thing we call life.

I can only pray that each and every one of you is experiencing this God-bathed life.

Peace & Grace to you all!