As Wednesday and Thursday came, we continued serving the people of Tucson and enjoying a little down time. We spent part of Wednesday at a waterpark called Breakers as we prepared for a night of VBS. VBS brought many families within the community to Westside church for food, bounce house fun and to learn about the Armor of God. On Thursday, we had the opportunity to paint a great deal of the interior at Westside church to give it a fresh new look. We also finished putting the baptistry in place in preparation for the contractor to come and pour cement. A few of us went to Gap Ministries (they provide food and clothes for many churches who support hundreds of families in Tucson) where we sorted various items for departure to dozens of churches in Tucson. The students have been having fun while working hard and though we are all very tired, the trip thus far has been extremely rewarding. It's amazing that our intention was to come here and bless people, which is indeed happening, but we are ourselves being blessed in such a huge way. Please continue to pray for a safe and successful trip. Thank you for all of your support.
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Neil Harris Technical Arts Pastor Every kid grows up looking forward to summer. I certainly remember counting down those final days of school and looking forward to...um... the blazing heat of summer in the High Desert? Actually, I don't really remember what I was looking forward to back then except that I wouldn't have to get up and go to school each morning. So jump to the past couple weeks when as a parent I got to witness the build up of excitement as my kids approached the end of their school year and the start of their summer break. It's been fun to witness this anticipation of summer at home, and just as much fun to witness it taking place in various ministries at Victor Valley. Having the pleasure of being on staff means that these last few weeks I've been witness to an ever-increasing stream of preparations as we head into summer at the church. Summer at VVCC really kicked off a couple of weeks ago with Promotion Sunday and watching as wide-eyed and newly-minted "First Graders" walk into BASECAMP for the first time. Seeing these little one's approach the climbing wall for the first time is one of those experiences that makes being a part of the BASECAMP team extra awesome (or so I hear). Equally awesome is the thrill experienced by former "sixth graders" who on that Sunday begin their Junior High journey and experience worship with a live band and hearing the occasionally odd-ball, often funny and always challenging weekly message from Bryan and the team over in Pathway. From Promotion Sunday it's full steam ahead into Summer Jam, which as I write this blog post, we are smack dab in the midst of. Formerly referred to as VBS, this is the week that Victor Valley plays host to over 175 preschool and elementary aged children. These kids schedules are full as they will sing, play, snack, craft and actively participate in discovering valuable lessons from God's Word over the course of this week. This year's theme sees kids heading to the Summer Jam CIRCUS where under the watchful eye of our ringmaster and 90 volunteer team members they will discover what the Bible has to teach them about strength, courage, peace, direction and finding a place with God. The team has been hard at work creating an awesome environment for kids to have an awesome summer experience and I'm confident it is going to have a huge impact in the lives of our kids. Almost as soon as Summer Jam ends, we'll be right into the next major summer event as Bryan leads a team of youth and youth sponsors on a missions trip to Tucson, Arizona. The team leaves at 8 AM this coming Sunday (June 15th) and will spend the week ministering to refugees from Nepal and presenting the gospel to local children in a one day Summer Jam like event they will be leading while there. Stay tuned to this blog as beginning Tuesday and continuing through the week as we will be working with Bryan to post trip updates, sharing the experience the team is having and how you can be supporting the team in prayer.
We haven't even begun to hit on the various Summer Camp for 4th-6th graders, the MIX conference for Junior Highers, and the Move conference for High Schoolers, all of which we'll be posting updates about here on the blog. I'm particularly excited about the upcoming teaching series in which we'll be exploring what the book of Ephesians has to say about a person's identity in Christ, so we'll have a bit of a sneak preview of that as it gets closer. We'll also have some exciting news on cool new online "stuff" coming for the VVCC community, and a few more things that I think I'll keep a surprise for the time being (because aren't surprises part of the fun of summer?) We're looking forward to a great summer at Victor Valley and hope you are excited to be a part of it! Tammy Grebel It has been my pleasure and privilege of serving, teaching and loving the children of Victor Valley Christian Church. In the past 20 years (15 on staff and 5 as a volunteer), it has been my joy to worship with the children, introduce them to Jesus and watch as their faith became their own and they made decisions to be followers of Jesus. I have also been so very fortunate to be able to work with an awesome team of volunteers who have greatly enriched my life as well as the lives of our children. I am forever grateful for the hundreds of people who have served along side me and had a heart for children.
The past few years have been a time in which many life changes have occurred and milestones reached for my family. I have felt God's nudging me to move into other areas of ministry. It has been a long and prayerful journey but I am excited about the new opportunity that has opened up for me. In the weeks to come I will be transitioning from Children's Pastor to Community Pastor. I am looking forward to the challenge of helping the people of VVCC connect with one another through Life Groups and Volunteering. I am also looking forward to helping our visitors feel welcome and connected. This a a new area of ministry for me and I am looking forward to working with and building up the teams already in place at VVCC. VVCC has been a home for our family for over 20 years and we love the people here. I will always have a special place in my heart for the children here, and am confident that Shane will do an awesome job leading our BASECAMP Team. Thank you for the privilege of serving with you. By Tammy Austin Head of Sponsor Support Hope For Migori Hope for Migori's Kickoff Sunday was a huge success! Thanks to the tremendous response of the Victor Valley Christian Church community we are now sponsoring 61 orphans in Migori, Kenya!
These children will now be assured of regular meals, clothing, medicine, and an education. But perhaps even more importantly, as we have the incredible opportunity to reach out to these children, they will have someone who will be praying for them and for their caregivers on a regular basis, someone who will have established a relationship with them through which they know they are loved and cared about. To everyone who sponsored an orphan this past weekend, Thank you. Thank you for partnering with us and with Upper Hill Christian Church in Migori on this new and exciting journey. Because of you Hope for Migori is changing lives, one child at a time. By Neil Harris Technical Arts Pastor The brand new, and much improved vvcc.com is now live. We've overhauled the entire site adding cool new content (like the new welcome video on the home page) and making it easier to find what you are looking for. We've also added this cool new blog feature, which the staff and members of the Victor Valley community will be regularly posting about what is happening in the life of the church. Be sure to check out the new media page where you can listen to recent messages or click to watch videos of those messages hosted on Vimeo. This is also where you can download an MP3 of the message if you want to listen to it on the go with your iPod or MP3 player. Now there is no reason to miss a message, even when you can't be at worship on a Sunday you can still hear the weeks message at vvcc.com.
We've overhauled the entire website to make it easier to use, and easier to add content to. This means that when you visit the new vvcc.com there will be relevant, helpful and up-to-date content. Take a look at the pages highlighting our ministries, each has received a fresh new look and are now neatly organized under the "Church Life" tab. Then head over to the Events page that has been completely redesigned to make it easier to find out what is coming up for you, your family and your friends. And this is all just the beginning, over the coming months our team will be developing and launching even more new features for the site. That Welcome Video on the Home page, it's just the start of some very cool and very helpful video content being created to help someone visiting the website to know what they can expect when they visit Victor Valley. |
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