Look Up... I Dare You To.

It has been two weeks now that I've been working for the church and a good two weeks it has been. The first week I was thrown into leading Ngage fully on my own, meaning myself and Ariel led worship and I also led the discussion for the youth. It was great. The Holy Spirit showed up at one point - which always rocks and we had some awesome discussion go on with the youth about grace and unfairness. At the end we had the youth fill out 'I Dare You' cards, which was an exercise for them to challenge one another to offer love to people through actions of grace. Each morning I have been sending the youth FB messages, emails and text messages with a dare, a scripture and the prayer to focus on for the Global event. I found out this week that many of them have been very diligent in reading the messages and doing the dares. If you pass by one of the youth, ask them if they have any neat stories to share.

On the other side of my job, mowing the lawn has allowed me to discover how truly beautiful this property is and how blessed as a church community we are to call this place our home. The coolest thing I discovered last week was that the tree beside the cottage is a HUGE oak tree!! I had no idea. To be honest I have not ever looked up (we miss so much by not raising our chins every-so-often), to view the whole tree. I've always just stared at its trunk and thought... "That's a big tree." By driving around on the lawn mower and cutting the grass in that area I suddenly had this opportunity to look at the tree at all angles... my goodness is it ever beautiful!! And BIG. The branches that extend from the trunk are gynormous. I think it's definitely worthwhile to take a walk back there and look up... especially while the tree is not in full bloom because you can see the amazing trunk. Oak trees are special trees. The seed they come from is an acorn... I'll tell you more about them sometime. . . :)

Vineyard goes Global

the Cambridge Vineyard will be participating in the Global Day of prayer, and its 10 Days of prior prayer of repentance.

Special Service

Sunday, May 31 10.30 at the

ARMENIAN CLUB

Dunbar Rd.

******Services will Not be at the Monastery.

For more information on the day of prayer go to, www.gdop.com or, listen to scott's message on May. 17th

Fresh Blood

Introducing Genevieve....

Many of you know her, but this summer we are happy to welcome her on staff to fill our youth position. What a great thing!! She will be doing a ton of organizing, developing and serving. Get to know her a little by reading on.....

Well, to start off my name is Genevieve Amy Pylypiw. I was born thirty-one years ago on a Good Friday afternoon on the 24th of March. I am a daughter of David and Jacqui, the eldest of my brother and sister and I have owned three cars since I was 20. So, now you know my basic stats I can give you the good stuff and tell you a bit about who I am.

I spent the first fifteen years of my life going to church and then left for ten years on my own ventures. Thankfully God was pursuing me and called me back when I was twenty-six. I was almost immediately drawn to worship and soon thereafter found myself being stretched and challenged to grow as a worship leader.

This past year I was at St. Stephen University in New Brunswick and have since received a diploma in The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies. I will be returning at the end of August to begin working on a degree in psychology. SSU has been an amazing place for me to grow and develop personally. I've been watching God open doors in areas I thought were walls of concrete, so I am excited to continue the process. It's definitely an expensive journey, but undoubtedly worth it.

About a year before I left for university I began leading worship for our youth. The more time I spent with them the more I realized I really care about them and want to be apart of these important years of their lives. So, it made me very happy to accept the summer youth-intern position with the church. I am excited to have this opportunity to join a team who are working to create a place where our youth feel they belong and have value within our community. God has great plans for our youth as a group and as individuals. My hope is that as a team we can encourage growth in our teenagers by actively engaging in hearing God's voice, as we support and guide them in understanding and knowing His love for each one of them.

Some Random Facts:

My worst subject in high school was math - I hated it.
My favourite movie is Moulin Rouge - nothing beats Ewan McGregor singing!
My favourite thing to wear is funky jewelry.
My life scripture verse is Isaiah 43:1-7 (an answer to prayer given through a good friend at our first youth retreat)
Two of my pet peeves are drivers who randomly hit their brakes - even when there is no one in front of them AND when drivers don't signal - especially on the highway - it's all about communication people!!
I take a size 9 shoe
One of my favourite authors is Don Miller
My favourite Nintendo game was the first Mario - Duck Hunt comes as a close second
I love to watch clouds and one of my new obsessions is to take pictures of them.
Coffee: 1 MILK, 1 sugar - never ever cream

Genevieves' Job is sponsored by IGNITE

furry friends

I found some folks on the property last night, thought i would share....

I love coming to work here. How many get to see these things at work??

Thoughtworks Intensive- Finances

Money, Posessions and Eternity

JUNE 5,6 2009, SARNIA

Don Rousu is a theologian, a bible scholar, a great teacher, a friend and all around good guy. His wife Ruth is a real sweety too. We are very blessed to have Don and Ruth come to us in our area. He planted the Edmonton Vineyard and they have, most of the time, enjoyed financial blessing. This will complement our last seminar with David Hick on "Healing your Financial Soul". Why another financial seminar...why not?

Are you thinking "I have all the financial resources I need to do Kingdom work", or could you use some help? This seminar has somehow just landed in our laps and I believe it is a "God thing". He is trying to get our attention and wants to speak to us on this subject.We are all too busy...but too busy doing what? I think it is time to stop, rethink, and hear what God is trying to show us. Church is not what it was 5 years ago, so let's get into God's new groove and stop lamenting about the past. I believe this seminar is a stepping stone for us to see what God is doing.

Things you should know- parking

Parking at the church, if you haven’t found out yet, can be a challenge . Not only are there not enough spots for everyone, but the traffic between services can leave you out on the road. We know this, we would love to offer a more permanent and adequate solution in the future. Till then here are some things to keep in mind…

Where to PARK
Park on the road (it will give you a great walk to prepare for worship)
Seasonally (a.k.a. summer) it is great to park on the lawn providing it hasn’t rained. But remember it is park at your own risk.
The lower parking lot (in front of the storehouse)
The upper parking lot only if room permits at the 9AM service


Don’t PARK
WARNING- don’t park in the bus stop on Elgin, you may get ticketed or towed
In the upper parking lot at 11AM. The upper parking lot has a lot of children coming to and from. Too much traffic is dangerous for our kids.
Don’t over park….don’t squeeze in- there are people parking along the shoulders of the road (especially in the upper parking lot) which isn’t great because it makes it very awkward to back in and out.


Things to consider
It is a human condition that we look for the premium, best spot to park, but that may also mean that someone with small kids, or a new person may not get a spot. Please consider parking further away and leaving spots close to the buildings for elderly, disabled people and moms with small kids.

Vision and Focus

About 6 weeks back, while away on retreat, it became clear that I was falling back into that rut of divying up my energies into many 'good' things. That's okay if you have no desire to excel at anything...but that's not the case for me. I love to sink my teeth into those things that give me energy and stick with it to its completion. The thing is...when you have your hand in so many different pots, nothing really gets done. God told me that the great was being robbed by the good...again. So I pulled out my priorities and realized again that things had to go - I had to learn to say no to some 'good' things. Funny thing is, when I did, I had more time for the 'best' and about double the energy. Something else I have noticed...I go to bed satisfied and wake up ready to grip hold of another day! I like that. What I have noticed though is that from time to time I run into people who aren't that crazy about me saying no...especially when it comes to their needs. And so with patience and love and grace...I am being tenacious with what God has called me to...and it's life-giving.

I think about our church and I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that if we could apply the same principles - saying no to the good and yes to the best. Then watch out Cambridge!!! We would see a dynamic force unleashed. Wouldn't that be nice?

Take my pulse please.....

We had a bunch of people volunteer to be a part of a vineyard canada survey in March of 09. If you wondered what a Vineyard pulse looks like.....take a look.

This is Gary Best giving the summary of results.

What Love Does

Wondering what the Vineyard is all about. Check out this video about who we are. This is produced by Vineyard Canada and gives a great introduction to our values as a movement.





There are more vidoes like this on YouTube. Check them out.

Vineyard Regional Commitments for 2009

Hey folks,
here are the regional commitments from across the country for 2009. Listen and get an insight into what is going on across the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf1FinEP_o8