Prayer Meeting Schedule
Dear Church Family,
The Thursday evening prayer meeting that Mitch leads is being moved to Saturday evening for the duration of the high school football season. It will still be at 6:00 pm.
Your Servant
Randy
Scholarship
Dear Church Family,
I understand that some would like to participate in putting a kid through our new school but may not be able to afford a full tuition. Our finance committee is setting up a scholarship fund where your partial tuition payments can be combined with others to make a full scholarship. If you are wanting to be a part of this, just designate your contribution with the words School or Tuition. The finance committee will see that it gets to the right place.
Your servant
Randy
Clean Up On Aisle Four!
Dear Church Family,
Because of COVID and other things God is doing in our city, we have new people visiting and considering joining our congregation. Here are the general comments I hear from them.
- I love the worship service
- I think this is the church God is leading me to.
- I just wish the people here would talk to me.
Ouch!. That is a little hard for me to accept about us but sadly it is true. I have observed it myself.
Now if you are thinking, "Huh. We need to do a better job at this. I wonder who is failing here." It is probably you. You see, we don't have people designated as greeters like other churches because I want to avoid as much hypocrisy as possible. I don't want to give people the impression we are friendly if we indeed are not.
Now I can see we are very friendly to the people we know. There are big hellos and smiles and hugs and laughter and "good to see ya's" to our friends. But nothing for the stranger. That can actually make it worse for a visitor. It intensifies the feeling of being an outsider. This can not stand as it is now. We need to clean this up in His House Immediately.
What if Jesus sends an angel in disguise to see if someone will say hello? I wouldn't want to be in the church that got a bad report from that Angel. I wonder if that is how the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelations got started.
So, here is what I intend to implement to try to fix it.
- Every member of our church is hereby promoted to the office of official Vista Hills Greeter.
- Training.
- On Sunday, look around the sanctuary to see if there is someone there you don't know.
- Walk up to just outside six feet of that person with a smile and say, "Hi. My name is _________. What is your name? Well, it is nice to meet you Bob. Welcome to Vista Hills. Would you like to sit with us?
- They probably won't sit with you but at least they will have been asked.
- Inspection- I will be coming to you to ask you to introduce me to any people I don't recognize. I want to make absolutely sure I get to meet any angel God sends to our worship service. Please be ready with their name to say something like, "Bob this is our pastor. He wanted to meet you."
Let's all get a mop and clean this up, please. We need to be in truth a place that is welcoming to strangers. We are not that place at this moment. Again, if you think I am talking to someone else I am not. You are the one I have in mind. And I remain, as always,
Your Servant
Randy
Even More Fresh Produce!
Dear Church Family,
We received 36 boxes of produce today. Please let me know how many boxes you would like for yourself or your neighbors so I can save one for you. I need to know by 7 Pm please.
Your Servant
Randy
More Fresh Produce
Dear Church Family,
We received another shipment of produce. This week it looks fresher. Please let me know how many boxes you can take for yourself and for your neighbors today or tomorrow.
Your Servant
Randy
Fresh Produce Available
Dear Church Family,
We received another pallet of boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables. Each box contains strawberries, oranges, lettuce, baby carrots, potatoes, celery, cabbage, pears, and apples. We need to get this food into folks refrigerator today or tomorrow before they over-ripen. Please let me know if and when you can pick up a box for yourselves and however many other boxes you could give to a neighbor. Keep in mind, this is a surplus that needs a good home. You are helping by eating it. Use the money you save on produce for something else.
Your Servant
Randy
4th of July Retreat
Hello Church Family,
It dawns on me that we are a little less than a month away from July 4th and hopefully our Mountain Retreat. I verified with Molly at Sacramento Camp and Conference Center that they can host us Fourth of July weekend (with a few restrictions) so I'm in planning mode.
The cost is as follows:
- For a couple in Forrest Lodge + 6 meals = $343.00
- Individual in Forrest Lodge + 6 meals = $223.50
- Children age 5-19 staying with parents adds $22/night/child
- Children age 5-12 adds $6.00 per meal
- Tent camping is $5.00/night/person
- RV camping is $25/night
The activities that are currently being offered are: Horseback Tour, Wagon Tour, ATV Tour, Mt. Scooter Tour, Guided Hikes Tour, Low Ropes, Archery, Trap Shooting, and .22 Caliber Long Rifles. At the present time the gym, weight room and the game room are all closed and the Camp is unable to provide horseshoes or balls of any kind for outdoor activities. In other words, we're going to have to bring our own toys! Until the end of June, the State of New Mexico is requiring masks be worn except for when eating, drinking and exercising. However, the Camp is only requiring masks while doing facilitated activities. Some or all of this could change by the time we are there but it's best to plan accordingly.
Look forward to hearing from you,
Grae
Church Retreat Update
Dear Church Family,
Some of you have asked me about our Retreat. First, New Mexico has been locked down tighter then we have. I’ve kept in touch with Molly at the Camp but making any definite plans has not been possible. At this writing they are locked down until at least the end of May. That makes it difficult to plan a Retreat in less than a week. So this is what I’m considering at this time and welcome your input.
The 4th of July weekend is available at this time. It’s a three-day weekend so some will already have Friday off. It’s the time when we as a country we celebrate our freedom and we could also celebrate being out from under this lock down! Normally I wouldn’t even consider the 4th as a possibility but under the circumstances I feel this is a wonderful and appropriate way to celebrate. And who better to celebrate with than those who are our family!
Please pray about this and please, please let me know your thoughts as I will have to begin working on this pretty quickly if it’s a go. Every one of you matter in what we do as a church family. Love and miss you...
Grae
Church Schedule Update
Dear Church Family,
We will be returning to our normal Sunday School, Spanish and English Service Schedule beginning this Sunday. We will not be able to return to our normal Wednesday evening activities yet but will continue with the 6:30 service like we did last night.
The video of the message from last night is now up on our website.
Remember there is a prayer meeting tonight and tomorrow at 6:00 pm
Your Servant,
Randy
Randy
Reminder: Church Vote
Dear Church Family,
Just a reminder we will be casting ballots this Sunday on whether or not to invite the Christian school to share our building. We will be voting anonymously. If you would like to vote but are unable to attend the worship service this Sunday, please contact Irene Sarabia. She will tell you how you can cast an absentee ballot while still remaining anonymous.
Your Servant
Randy
Church News - 05/04/2020
Dear Church Family,
- We had our first service in the sanctuary since the stay at home order of March 16th. We had 21 in the first service and 15 in the second. We are able to seat around 40 at a time with CDC recommended social-distancing between families. It was good to get together again.
- The elders presented the plan to provide facilities to a local Christian School. North Loop Christian Academy was closed by its parent church. The staff and faculty decided to continue the school under a new name but needed a place in which to operate. The Elders of Vista Hills have been meeting and praying about whether or not this has been given to us by The Lord to do. The elders met the teachers of the school and invited them to look over our building to see how it might work. It seemed obvious to the school administration, school teachers, and church elders that this was God's doing. The school voted unanimously that this was where they would like to open if the church felt led to invite them. The elders voted unanimously to invite them if the church membership also overwhelmingly agreed this was God's will. Following is some of the information I presented to those in attendance that leads us to believe God is leading us in this.
- Our Food Pantry/Clothing closet Ministry has been drastically cut back as we no longer will be cooperating with El Pasoans Fighting Hunger.
- Our Middle Door Ministry has changed to a referral and appointment process as young ladies have no longer been coming in a walk-in manner
- Our building is basically unused and empty Monday through Friday.
- The school would be able to pay any increase in our utilities, provide their own maintenance, and still be able to provide a quality Christian education for less than half the going rate in El Paso. In a word, they will be able to minister to those in a lower income level which fits well with Vista Hills' vision.
- The teachers have been hurt by the sudden closing of their school. Our invitation would bring immediate healing to those hurt hearts. They will see that there is a church that wants them and agrees with their view of the importance of educating children in conjunction with the Gospel.
- K.O.G City has been built but unused as very few of church children are able to come on Wednesday evenings. The faculty of the school became very excited about the prospect of using K.O.G City to minister to the younger school children during the weekly chapel services.
The elders are recommending the church vote to invite this school into our facilities. We will vote during the worship service next Sunday with a Yes or No ballot. It will be a secret ballot with Yes meaning we will share our facilities with the school and No signifying we will not share our building with them. Please call Gene, Todd, or myself if you would like to discuss this before the vote next week. Please pray God reveal His will to all of us.
- We will have a brief worship service this Wednesday in the Sanctuary and will continue with our two services on Sunday unless new directives are issued by the Governor or President
Your Servant
Randy