Good morning Vineyard One Family!

God is with us.

I wear a necklace made out of patterned beads in Morse Code that spell out the words to Joshua 1:9 – This is my command – be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. 

These are words that were spoken and prayed over me when I was ordained to become a pastor. These are words that have stuck with me for years – especially when times have seemed most difficult. I need the reminder that God is with me always.

God is with us right now – in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic. Deuteronomy 31:6 says the same as Joshua:  Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Since God is with us, we do not need to fear anything – not man, not virus – nothing. Instead, we know that “there is no fear in love – God’s perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). Because of God’s presence and love for us, we need not fear, but instead we have freedom to act in love to those around us. Now is our time to show those around us, especially those who are afraid and those who are most vulnerable, that God loves them and God is with them through this.

So out of love for our neighbors at PS 132, we will not meet at the school tomorrow for worship. We don’t want to bring anything into the school and we don’t want anything that has been brought to the school to come to us. That’s just not the loving thing to do – for us to put the children at the school at risk – or to put our Vineyard One family at risk.

(Side note: most of the advice we are getting is that it is wise for smaller churches like ours to meet rather than cancel. Now is the time when we need to be together and to worship our God. It’s only our brothers and sisters in churches over 100 people who should cancel their services. However, since the school is not a place that we own and have strict control over, and since there are hundreds of children in the cafeteria every day, and since it has been shown that the coronavirus can survive on hard surfaces for up to 3 days, it just is not wise nor loving to put people at unnecessary risk at this time, even for a small church like ours. If anyone wants to read the articles that I have read that lead me to this conclusion, please contact me directly and I’ll share with you.)

Therefore, tomorrow at 10:30 am, we will meet by Zoom video call! We are a manageable size so that we can meet together online and share together in worship and prayer. If you need instructions for how to join a Zoom call, they will be provided at the end of this email. If you know how to use Zoom, then simply join with this link tomorrow morning at 10:30 am.

Zoom link:  https://us04web.zoom.us/j/9983878948

For our Zoom church tomorrow, someone has already contacted me to share Psalm 91 as a good word for our church right now. Maybe you want to read and meditate on that Psalm today? Or maybe God is leading you to some different scriptures? Please come prepared to share the scriptures that God is speaking to you or the ones that he may be sharing with our church.

For today, I would encourage us all to

get some rest – take a nap,

wash your hands,

enjoy some time outside in the beautiful sunshine that we have,

wash your hands,

avoid crowds,

wash your hands,

spend some time catching up on your bible reading (for those that might have fallen behind),

wash your hands,

call your mom and tell her that you love her,

wash your hands,

check in with a neighbor who might be struggling,

are your hands clean?

remember to sneeze & cough into your sleeve,

hey! how about those clean hands of yours!,

look for opportunities to pray and to speak words of peace to others,

wash your hands,

limit the news that you take in

and wash your hands.

We’ve been talking about the story of God in the bible on Sundays. Again and again we have seen God say:  I will bless you and you will be a blessing. Vineyard One family, this is a word for us right now. God has blessed us with his loving presence, now let’s go be a blessing to those around us!

God is with us.

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Ryan

 

Zoom Instructions:

On your phone or tablet, download Zoom from the App store or the Play store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zoom-cloud-meetings/id546505307

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.zoom.videomeetings&hl=en_US

Open the app

Click on “Join” (located at the top of the screen)

Enter the meeting ID:  998-387-8948 (in the field at the top of the screen)

Select Join Audio (located in the lower left corner of the screen)

 

On your laptop or desktop computer

https://youtu.be/UAa3MADuvsg

https://zoom.us/download

Click on the link:  https://us04web.zoom.us/j/9983878948

When prompted, download the Zoom application