The dates are set!

July 14-19, 2008
9am-12pm
Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor

“Kids Service”
July 20, 2008
9:30am & 11am (yes, both!!!)

As we plan for Camp Creation, (which is coming up fast!) I am reminded how fun it was last year. I will update with what workshops will be offered as soon as they are finalized. In the meantime, enjoy this blurb I found by Jamie Bott last year…

During the week of July 9th, 2007 the Ann Arbor Vineyard hosted a program called Camp Creation, an artsy twist on the traditional Vacation Bible School. Each morning, 35 students, grades first through eighth, arrived, eager to unleash the creative abilities God had given them. For the first hour of camp, the students broke into workshops, attending one of six classes offered: jewelry, cooking, banner making, book publishing, photography, and dance. Each day, they continued to build on the skills they had learned, ultimately creating outstanding products at the end of the week. After the fist session, students came together to hear testimonies from professional artists of how God has led them to use their gifts for Him. The students were excited to participate in the dance and singing and impressed by the art others brought with them to share. Finally, the day finished off with two large groups: a drama team and choir. Each of these classes, along with the dance class, were not only learning skills, but also participated in the worship celebration on Sunday, July15th. As the week came to a close, excitement for the Sunday celebration built. The culmination on Sunday was incredible. Beginning with a video showing the kids working and having fun throughout the week, the kids then led the church in worship through short dramas, songs, dance, and a beautiful photography slide show. At the close of the service, the congregation was invited to visit the gallery that displayed all of the classes’ art, including delicious refreshments provided by the cooking class. It was phenomenal to see what the kids created and how they used these gifts to worship and serve the Lord during the week. We hope to expand and improve upon this program this summer!

“There are only few topics more important than money.” Many would agree with this statement at once but even those who hesitate would have to admit that they spend much time with this topic (earning money, thinking about money, spending money, worrying about money) and that money causes much grief (stress in personal lives and conflicts in marriages). What does this mean for us Christians and our lifestyles? What role does money play in a life that honors God?

In the class ‘Biblical Financial Principles’ we start with the cultural myths about money (‘debt is expected and unavoidable’, ‘things bring happiness’, and ‘a little more money will solve all your problems’) and reflect on what the Bible says about earning, giving, saving, debt and spending. The class is designed to help discover the peace and contentment that comes from managing the financial resources according to God’s purposes and principles by becoming a diligent earner, generous giver, wise saver, cautious debtor, and a prudent consumer.

There are several reasons why I like this class:

• The class is for everyone – for those who do financially well, for those who are struggling, and for everyone in between.
• Teaching and atmosphere are non-threatening. Personal financial information remains private.
• The teaching is biblically sound.
• Although the material is prepared for Christians, also non-Christians can apply the same principles.
• The content is very relevant to our daily lives.
• The class participants do not only learn biblical financial principles in theory but they are applying these during the class. They leave the class with a Spending Plan in their hand based on their own financial goals.

For the 8 hour class we use Willow Creek’s ‘Good $ense Budget Course’ as material. The first class was offered in January 2008, the next one will be offered in April (3 Saturday nights).

On Friday, January 11th, the C20S ministry hosted a College Overnight event. The event was partnered with InterVarsity ministries at the University of Michigan. The theme of the event was radical hospitality and working towards the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. Our goal with event was two-fold: 1) introduce the students the Vineyard and how we display radical hospitality to the community and 2) train students in how to interact with people of different backgrounds. Students were shown the NOOMA video “Dust” where Rob Bell speaks about us being the disciples the Lord calls us to be…something Ken touched on in his sermon today. Our discussion on radical hospitality focused on Ephesians 3:1-13 and 4:1-14. Chapter 3 was discussed during our large group time and Chapter 4 was discussed when we broke into small groups. Before small groups convened, Garrett Stratton, Dave Paladino, and I gave testimonies to the students about how the Vineyard is expressing radical hospitality through the Single Moms, 313, and Homeless ministries. The students were also challenged to understand that each of us has a story that could change their perspective on some of the beliefs they hold about society. During the small group time, students also got the chance to learn how to communicate with people from different backgrounds without offending them. There was also time for students to receive prayer in the Prayer Station. After the teaching portion of the evening, the students were allowed to sleep, watch the movie “Crash”, or simply hang out and get to know one another. Most of us chose to get some sleep for a few hours. The morning time was primarily spent eating breakfast and wrapping up the event.

Approximately 100 students expressed interest in attending the event of which 60 participated. Students represented U of M, EMU, WCC, InterVarsity, Michigan Gospel Choir, and Vineyard. All racial backgrounds were represented, which fostered unity as the night progressed with all of us recognizing we are one under Him. I would like to personally thank Garrett Stratton, Tyrone Kelcey, Daniel Wang, and Jen Paladino from the Vineyard who volunteered their evening to help us pull off this event. Thanks also to Carole Metzger and Sara Wolfgram who volunteered from InterVarsity. I don’t think we could’ve had the success we did without them. At the conclusion of the event, we invited to students to come back to Vineyard on a Sunday to experience one of our celebrations. Five students attended the 9:30am service and enjoyed the experience. I pray that more make their way back to the Vineyard.

Will this kind of event be done again? Based on the success of the weekend, the answer is most likely and we’re looking to the month of September when new students are looking for a church home.

Peace Always

This is a little difficult to write because of the magnitude and the amount of God’s tangible presence on this trip makes words on paper so inadequate. Two days before I left, I attended a see-off prayer meeting at Shasha’s, and that opened the flood gates to His interaction with me - so much so that now that I am back, it feels like I am slowly going deaf. I left in late September for a 3 week Habitat for Humanity house building project in the Akumsa region of Ghana on the west coast of Africa. I picked this organization because they are a Christian organization, but they don’t require any certain denomination or even profession of faith – which gives my favorite mix of willing people with good hearts. They have a simple goal: to eliminate poverty housing here and throughout the world and to build bridges with other cultures - to minister by doing. Millard Fuller the founder calls it, “the Theology of the Hammer.” On this trip I watched as God took this willing group of Christians from all backgrounds, agnostics, and seekers of all ages and formed us. We were teachers, store managers, a middle-aged couple who meet when she was in the Peace Corps and he was in the Army, retirees down through late-20’s post college adults: God’s wonderful mix. In 3 days we were a make-shift family, in five days, I feel we were the functioning body of Christ.

While I was there, I referred to our trip as my “reverse mission” trip. The country we went to was 86% Christian. The businesses all had bible verses or quotes in the names (like “Jesus Saved Me Goods”, “God’s time cellular phones” and Sarah’s favorite, “Peace, Love and Fast Food”), and all the people had either traditional tribal names or names from the Bible… and they knew the names and their meaning. I knew I was in for something when we pulled into the guest house near the airport the first morning, and there was a purple banner for the “Agape’ church meeting” out over the entrance. People steamed in all morning wearing all white outside my window and I could hear the music as I rested on my bed. Our team of 17 gathered in this Guest House in Accra for a day then drove inland 10 hours to a village in central Ghana outside Nkoranza. When our bus drove into the village late that second night the kids poured out of the houses into the street cheering. I remember seeing one boy, about 4 years old, so excited he fell down on the ground and was rolling around laughing as we drove by. In two weeks, we worked with local people and the homeowners to build two houses: one for a man named Dan and his wife and kids who were living in a single room in his family’s small home. The other was for a widow named Madam Comfort and her son.

I cannot possibly recount all of the things that happened on this trip: the morning devotionals, the Ghanaian people’s unyielding hope in the face of hardship, and the sweet “still small voice” of God coming through circumstance, our surroundings, and the people around us. It was a visceral mix of tragedy and beauty. At the guest house one evening, a wealthy businessman named Joshua and his son Gabrielle told me about the farmers in the countryside who, facing insurmountable debt, would soak a tomato in herbicide and eat it to “save themselves from disgrace.” On our way to weekend R&R in the beautiful Cape Coast, our bus passed a middle-aged man walking naked with disheveled hair talking to himself in front of a dirt car lot with BMW’s parked in it. We saw an orphanage where children discarded to die in the countryside were saved and grew up on the fringe of society. It was not far from a school we visited where the children were learning chemistry and environmental stewardship in 3rd and 4th school. And kids whose parents could not yet afford school uniforms would hang out all day by the school just to listen. A country rich with Gold struggling to keep its young generation from leaving their failing family farms and taking up the banner of Western desire in the cities, where they would shell trinkets at the stoplights in the streets.

One night that last weekend on R&R, Cojo drove several of us to the Coconut Grove resort for a drink. I had been longing to see the ocean. Anja came with us. In her 20’s, she had lost her husband to the same long illness that robbed my early 20s from me. This was one of many God-appointed friendships and it was healing for us both. When our group got there, we were lead to an open air restaurant pavilion. It was on the edge of a sandy beach, 15 feet from the ocean. We all took off our shoes and stood in the warm surf. With live music playing and the colorful people, it looked straight out of some 40’s movie about Africa. It began to sprinkle. Several of the others went back in the pavilion. Mike and Ruth, the middle aged couple that met when she was in the Peace Corps and he was in the Army, were dancing to the live band playing Frank Sinatra. Anja and I and Cojo stood on the beach several feet apart, staring out at the night. We were barefoot in the surf, drinking the scene. She was in a green velvet dress that she just bought; it looked straight out of the 1800’s. (Funny to think that a few years ago, she had a purple Mohawk). It was pitch black except for the light from the pavilion behind us. It began to rain hard. The lightning over the water flashed in the darkness. It was the only thing that separated the ocean from the sky in the distance. As it flashed and the rain cooled me off, I felt chills. Mike and Ruth dipped and twirled to the music and the sound of voices and laughing floated out over the sand to meet me. In that instant my heart just melted, I was being kissed by God.

I can tell you that God and I have a running argument about what I am capable of and who I really am. It involves a simple few statements from him, and a consistent and self-deprecating set of excuses from me explaining why that cannot be right. He took this opportunity to show me that I can simply no longer believe the lies I tell myself when I sell myself short. He spoke right to my soul and gave me a picture of who I really was meant to be.

You might not think that not speaking English is a justice issue, but the more I talk with immigrants and international students, the more my eyes have opened. Every Monday night, an English as a Second Language (ESL) conversation group meets at the church. It’s one of a handful that meet throughout the city in association with the local nonprofit, Washtenaw Literacy, and a number of Vineyard attenders volunteer as tutors.

One woman who comes for tutoring is a doctor of internal medicine in Taiwan, but she can’t practice here because she can’t pass the exams due to her language skills. I’ve been getting to know a woman from Eastern Europe who had business and electronics technical training, but here she works 55 hours a week in a sewing shop for minimal pay (though she talks constantly about how grateful she is to be in the United States, regardless of the poor job situation). Another woman was a nurse in Japan, but her English skills keep her from getting a job in Michigan. Others just talk about how lonely it is to live in a culture where you can’t communicate well with the people around you. We’re building wonderful friendships and learning about other cultures, as well as our own.

We’ve been hosting this group for four months, and have already had people from 18 different countries attend, of all religious and cultural backgrounds: Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Shintos, Catholics, etc. It’s so much fun! Esther Brunssen is doing an outstanding job administrating it (with Alli Park as her assistant), and Jaana Terhune’s taken a lead in teaching. On average, we have about 8-12 learners and 5-8 tutors each week. Washtenaw Literacy said it usually takes well over a year to have such an established group, so we feel blessed to be thriving so soon.

We’ve had people from the following countries: Yemen, Algeria, China, Vietnam, Japan, Ukraine, India, Korea, Peru, Brazil, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Romania, Kenya, Poland, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and Finland. If you’re interested in tutoring, Washtenaw Literacy trains our tutors for free, and we’d love to have you join us.

Phil and I are both Michiganders and Wolverines through and through. Phil graduated from UM in 2004, and we were married that fall. After our son Ocean was born, I found a great online community of mothers in the Charlotte area, where we had moved. Ocean and I blindly joined a play group with three other moms who were using cloth diapers, making their own non-toxic cleaning products and recycling EVERYTHING. They also love Jesus, and we became good friends very quickly. Through our interactions I started to learn about stewardship and caring for the earth and realized that I was pretty clueless about what poor shape the earth is in and how my habits and choices were contributing to the problem. I fully believe that, while I thought I was simply joining a play group, God actually led me to this group of women in order to open my eyes to the beauty of creation, and to give me practical ways to make positive changes in my own life.

The more I learned, the more I shared with Phil and a passion for natural living began to arise within. Phil and I searched the scriptures and pored over books, and with each new discovery this love for creation became more deeply rooted in us.

In 2006 we moved back to Ann Arbor. After having led the 20’s Ministry at our church in Charlotte we decided we were just going to have a time of rest for a few months before diving into anything up here. But the weekend we moved back Ken had begun his Creation Care series. We couldn’t believe it. And we couldn’t resist the urge to get involved in something we are so passionate about. With the Holy Spirit’s nudging and Ken’s blessing we began Green Vineyard, a small group for those who desire to learn more about God’s heart for the earth and how we can take a practical, active role in protecting and caring for it. The group has been meeting regularly since May and we are currently working on several “greening” projects that will eventually be open to the church as a whole.

Contributed by Cassie Brabbs. Interested in learning more about Green Vineyard? Contact Phil Brabbs.

Thursday evening Mike and I miscommunicated and had a problem with the coverage of our students at the celebration. I left campus to have dinner with some students, but had to return abruptly, so I didn’t really get to eat much that evening. After the evening session on Thursday, which focused on loving our enemies, I was starving and decided to pick up some Chinese on the way back to our host family. We found a decent place near our host home. I ordered the Sesame Chicken and Mike and our home mom got the Sweet and Sour Chicken. Midway through the week, we discovered that Chelsea and the students staying with her were only two blocks from our host family, so we started picking them up and dropping them off in the evening. I dropped Mike off at Asian One, took the girls out for Ice Cream at McDonalds and then dropped them off.

Friday morning I had breakfast with Sammy D, and Roger Webb both are Vineyard youth pastors in Indy. It was a quick breakfast because I got tipped off the night before that I might be called to the stage to participate in the youth pastor games. Alton Alexander called my wife the night before to get her help, but I ruined the surprise because I checked my email. We use Vonage for our phone service and after a message is left, Vonage sends you an email with the voicemail attached, so I listened and told Maria when I called that morning.

The morning session was given by Mat and focused on our calling, easily one of the better talks of the week. Though I hope Pete and Alton don’t this entry. Mat focused on Mark 8:33-37 and Luke 9:57-62. It was quick, to the point and encouraging. After the morning session we participated in the prayer experience. We learned about the plight of kids who live in Nigeria and got to do some object lessons to make us aware of their daily struggles. After the prayer experience, we watched a Nooma video (008) which focused on Dust and at the end the leader of the session wanted to sprinkle the kids in the ‘Dust of God’, I politely asked, “what if kids don’t want any dust?” and he ignored my question, just walked right pass me. I was shocked by his response, or better yet, lack therefore, so I pressed him for an answer, to which he replied, “everyone is getting sprinkled with dust.” WOW! Just like God to force himself on us. Undeterred, I asked again, and again he ignored me. Shocked by this response again, I pressed in more, and said, “I would appreciate an answer to my question” to which he responded in an angry and gruff voice, that students how didn’t want any dust, could sit with me and wait until the end. So, that’s what a student and I did. Actually, this student thanked me for making space for him. We waited patiently and freely left the room without dust. WOW! It is surprising that adults (especially teachers) don’t see the value in allowing students to be themselves, and offer them choices. I’ve found when I give our students choices (limited) they respond well. Sometimes, I’m annoying when it comes to things like this, and actually I’m fairly unapologetic about it too, I feel like students haven’t found their voice, and when they are around pushy adults they need others to speak on their behalf and give them a voice. It’s hard to speak up for yourself, especially when you are a 13 year old boy, and I feel it’s my responsibility in my care for them, to give them a voice. It seems that God gives us choices, but maybe I’m wrong.

After the prayer experience, we had lunch and headed to a retirement community where we hung out with the residents, playing games, playing music, and chatting. Baptisms were on the docket for the evening session, and it was refreshing that this year, there wasn’t a big push to get baptized. It’s funny, a student actually made that comment to me on Thursday evening.

Looking back on our time in Cincinnati, I’m glad that I was there, I’m glad that I could spend the week with our students, learning, sharing, serving and praying together. My only prayer for the week was that God would meet us, and that’s exactly what he did. He showed up in powerful ways, in simple ways, and in surprising ways. At the end of the week, I realized that I’m where I’m suppose to be, doing what I’m suppose to be doing. A friend of mine, Jason, describes this as fulfillment.

Check out the photos from our outreach via daily photo blog.

Thursday morning started off well enough. I had breakfast at IHOP and caught up on my previous SOS blog entries. I arrived at the church a bit past 9:45am and missed several of our students who participated in the morning games and stories. Robin Bryant, the wife of Pete, was leading our morning devotion on the story of the Good Samaritan and later transitioned to the five love languages. During the morning session Allison and Slade from our group participated in the re-telling of the story of the Good Samaritan, and Allison even created a cheer for her role.

After the morning session, we received our instructions for our outreaches for the day. We started the morning painting an elementary school in Norwood (the same neighborhood of the D’Vine Vineyard church planted by Brooke and Aaron Wright). We arrived on-time and got started right away. We were painting the lockers on the third floor and quickly finished our tasks and started to paint the hallways and stairwells on the first and second floors. We finished that tasks and soon discovered that we weren’t getting lunch. So, Aaron crossed the street and ordered us 10 pizzas. We had lunch with the Syracuse Vineyard and then boarded the bus to go to our water give-away. We arrived at our intersection (which was under construction) started distributed our 30 cases of water (900 bottles) we finished giving out our water in about an hour. During the outreach, Grace had a great experience sharing a bottle of water with a driver. During these outreaches we often have individuals who are overwhelm by these simple acts of kindness. Grace had one of these experiences. She started by offering a bottle of water to a stranger, who wondered aloud why she was out today handing out water. Grace explained that it was a simple act of God’s love and kindness and overwhelmed by Grace’s explanation the guy started crying in his car. It’s amazing to me how God uses the thin spaces in our lives to speak to us. Imagine how powerful an expression of God’s unconditional love for us this must have been for this guy on this particular day. Our prayer during the week was for God to meet us. I didn’t expect God to meet others.

After the outreach I had dinner with Grace, Allison, and Joe at the Cracker Barrel. It was a good time and we chatted about the Vineyard and why we exist as a church movement and how we reach people who have had a hard time connecting with traditional churches. We also talked about ministry time (our expectation that God would hear and respond to our requests) and worship and our approach to these items and how they may differ from other churches.

At dinner one of the students asked, “how do I know that God is speaking to me?” Students are desperate to hear from God and join God at work in the world. But they don’t know how to get started or what it means for God to speak to them. While I didn’t have a complete answer to their question, I offered my experiences of hearing from God and how they might get started. I’m excited because Amy will tackle this very issue during her teaching at Cloud 9 this fall. So, during the evening session or just after it, I felt like God was inviting me to invite Grace, Allison, and Joe to ask God to speak to them. They were open and I had them write down whatever they sensed or heard. After hearing from each of them we prayed about what they received and it was awesome to see how God showed up during each of the prayer times. This encouraged me to actually schedule and run the survival weekend I’ve been thinking about. So, back in April I decided to put something together for the spiritual disciplines and so I developed this survival guide for students. After sharing the guide with the leaders and Maria, I had an idea that this might be a great thing to do for a couple day get-away.

Check out the photos from our outreach via our daily photo blog

Wednesday morning started off with the youth pastors being subjected to silly youth group games. During this session, they selected four unlucky youth pastors to play a game where they had to guess a song title and artist from a 30 second clip. They had to use eggs as a buzzer and crack the eggs on their heads in order to buzz in and give the answer. Of course, our students are excited about the possibility of me having to go up and embarrass myself, but that’s not going to happen.

After the morning session, we got our instructions for our outreaches for the day. They scheduled us for two outreaches: a blitz outreach and a car wash. The blitz outreach was to wash windshields at a gas station in the Monore community. So, the idea with these outreaches is the students do outreaches for local churches in and around the greater Cincinnati area. Yesterday we were serving in the Monore community where Andy Ransdall planted a new church, the Life Point Vineyard. It’s actually a great idea, the local church gets the benefit of students serving in their communities and the students get a taste of what it means to serve others. Between our blitz outreach and the car wash we stopped for lunch at the Tim Anderson’s house and had an opportunity to swim.

After lunch we headed out for car wash at a local strip mall. We setup our car wash at a tire repair store and washed about a dozen cars. All of our students had an opportunity to serve either by rinsing, washing, drying or inviting cars to the outreach. I’m discovering that there’s a fine balance between letting the kids be themselves and expecting them to understand the importance of what they are doing. I’m not d that they all see the value of what they are doing. I’m not sure they have connected the dots with these outreaches and the power they have to touch people with God’s love. I think part of the challenge is most of our students are wrestling with what it means to be relationship with God, and what that relationship requires from them. At the blitz outreach, the most responsive people where the moms. Anytime we washed the windshield of a mini-van, you could see the appreciation.

After the outreach, I had dinner with Matt McCoy, the student worship leader at Vineyard Community Church of Cincinnati. It was good catching up with Matt and finding out what’s going on in his life and ministry. I met Matt four years ago when I traveled to Syracuse, IN to audition him and his band to lead worship at Cloud 9. I think we gave Matt and his band their first big break, allowing them to lead worship at Cloud 9, and it’s been awesome seeing how God has been using Matt.

Pete Bryant, the Director of Student Ministries at Vineyard Community Church of Cincinnati led the evening session. Continuing our discussion of ‘I’m Third’, Pete taught from John 13:3-8. At some point his talk transitioned and focused on whether or not we are to love ourselves and therefore receive love. The main theme that emerged from this transition was that we are in the midst of a battle with the adversary who wants to sideline us and prevent us from hearing the truth. He then laid out the tools that we could use to protect ourselves from the adversary and receive God’s truth in our lives. He encouraged us to Capture our thoughts and submit them to God (2 Corinthians 10:5). He encouraged us to Submit ourselves to God and resist the devil (James 4:7). And finally he encouraged us to Renew our minds by focusing on the promising that we find in the bible.

Several of our students are being stretched this week. At the beginning of the week we prayed for God to meet us this week. God is meeting several students, drawing them into new life, and revealing himself. Our question and our request this week is that God would show us how he is at work, and give us the strength to join him.

Check out the photos from our outreach via our daily photo blog

After the main session Mike and I made sure all the students made it to their host families. We followed our host mom to her house and got our selves settled. I was able to get about six hours of sleep before we had get up and head to the church for an 8am morning meeting.

The morning session was led by Sean Michael Murphy and he taught the students about God’s heart for lost people. His main texts were Luke 15, Matthew 18:23-20. He used a bunch of golf analogies…

Yesterday, we head into Cincinnati to host a block party (a party for an entire neighborhood) with about 90 students serving. We setup around 11:30am welcomed our guest at 12:30pm and ended the party around 2pm. After the party we head back to the church for group time, and free time, dinner, and games.

The evening session was led by Alton Alexander and was focused on the awe of God. A number of students responded to the prayer ministry calls.

Check out the photos from our outreach via our daily photo blog.

I hope you enjoy the photos!