The Journey continues...

By June we began feeling that we were to find a “home” to being meetings on Sundays. We feel drawn to a edge of the city, a suburb named Greerton. So our search began for a place to meet, a place to become the first home for Journey Vineyard. We find St. James Union Church right in the heart of the city and asked if they would be willing to rent us their place for a meeting in the afternoon. We waited... a few weeks later we received their reply. They said yes! Every other door we had knocked on had been a no, a lot of them already had second meetings happening and weren’t available. As soon as I walked through the doors of St. James, I had a sense that this was the place. The Lord has planted us exactly where He wants us, in the heart of Greerton. 

The next miracle came within 2 weeks. As we are just beginning we have absolutely no equipment and were hoping to be able to use an existing church sanctuary to delay the purchase of sound equipment. This wasn’t possible as we are using St. James Church Hall. So we needed to get our own. We had not told anyone that we now had a place to meet at this stage. I received a Facebook message from the West Auckland Vineyard asking us if we needed sound equipment! They had recently moved into a facility that had a built in system and would not be needing their gear, they asked if we would like it on permanent loan! How incredible is that?! So now we have a building and a fantastic, fully loaded sound system. 

Before we had our first official meeting at St. James’ Hall we thought we would gather as a group and serve the people of St. James’ Church by holding a working bee at their building. We cleaned and sorted and gardened and washed the outside of the building. Jobs that we know they would love to do themselves, but because most of their people are quite elderly they were unable to. It was a pleasure to serve such wonderful, faithful, veterans of faith. Below is the crew that helped that first Saturday. Such an honour to be called to plant and journey alongside...

After a few “interesting” attempts to get sound out of the sound gear, and purchasing a projector we began having live services. Our first service was on July 17, 2011. We have now had 3. We are so grateful for God’s encouragement. He knows how much we need it! J On our first Sunday we had a guest in our midst that had felt God tell her to call a friend and go to church where she was going. So she did, and came on our first Sunday. What a blessing to know that God believes in what we’re doing and would encourage us by sending one of his kids to us our first week! I love the heart of God.

There is such a sense of expectancy that God is up to something and we are invited to be a part of it. He has an amazing plan for what He is doing here and has given us a piece; we carry a piece of His Kingdom plan! It’s amazing to think that God is entrusting His Kingdom into the hands of people, you and me. What an honour... what a responsibility... and yet not heavy, as the weight of the responsibility He carries Himself. We hear Him asking us if we are willing to lay our piece down on the table with the other churches in this city and let Him reveal the picture of what He is doing to our community. There is such a strong call to unity in this city, it’s as if a heavenly shofar has been blown, a call to His churches to come together; to lay down the self-sufficiency and disunity, to come together to allow His Kingdom to reign and His glory to fall on our city. Yes Lord! We are willing...

We are working alongside other youth pastors and other Christian leaders in our city to see the power of God revealed through unity. It is such an exciting place to be. So many verse have been coming to mind in these meetings. I was reminded of two recently...

    

Psalm 133

1Behold, how good and how pleasant it is

For brethren to dwell together in unity!

2 It is like the precious oil upon the head,

Running down on the beard,

The beard of Aaron,

Running down on the edge of his garments.

3 It is like the dew of Hermon,

Descending upon the mountains of Zion;

For there the Lord  commanded the blessing —

Life forevermore.

NKJV

This one stuck out to me the most...

Genesis 11:5-7

5 But the Lord  came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. 6 "Look!" he said. "The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! 7

NLT

This one struck me because we normally view it so negatively in the light of man’s arrogance, thinking that he could possibly build something that would reach the heavens and make a name for themselves. This was a time shortly after the flood when all people still had one language. In their corruption they plotted with vanity as the goal. But the truth remains, the power of unity, the Lord said that they were united and spoke the same language, nothing they set out to do would be impossible for them! If that was true for their corrupt intentions how true could it be for the church. If we will come together we would realize we all speak the language of the Kingdom of God, if we could lay aside the divisiveness that has kept us apart and work together to bring Him glory, after this, “nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!!” The Lord commands a blessing on people working together in unity and nothing we put our hand to will be withheld. How powerful is that!?!

Journey Vineyard begins...

As Mark continued to work in Auckland 3 days a week, I held down the fort in Tauranga. Even though the travel was an unwelcome hassle each week, even there we see the hand of God as Mark was able to spend the next few months living half the week with his parents and being present with them through one of the darkest seasons of their lives. For that I am grateful.

We were still catching our breath, wondering how we were going to start a church, how do you find the first person... when girls began showing up at our house. Our girls quickly began bringing home friends who were very curious about God. Half of them have little concept of who God is as our culture has pulled itself away from its heritage. We began bringing them to youth group and have continued to see friendships develop and young people discover the love of Jesus for themselves. I am grateful the Lord is again filling our home with teenagers, I already love these kids!

We were so excited that we had some teens to encourage that we were unprepared for how fast the Lord would bring adults. Another Vineyard in the area closed down and we were asked if we would care for their people along with the few that we had connected with. So within 5 weeks of arriving in Tauranga, Journey Vineyard was birthed! We have been meeting regularly in Life Group since March and are excited to see what God is doing in our midst and also in the city.

One year later....

Wow... I can’t believe it’s been a year since I blogged!! So much has happened I hardly know where to begin...

September 2010 saw us say goodbye to our American home and family at Pathway Vineyard in Lewiston, Maine. That was hard. After only 5 years we felt as though we had been there all our lives. The community, the friendships and sense of being invited into family will be with us forever. It has marked who we are; we will never be the same because of the 5 years of being impacted by such wonderful followers of Jesus. It was one of those times in your life when you know you are exactly where you are meant to be. No man could have led us to such a place; God knew what He had in mind for our preparation for ministry and there is nowhere else we would have rather been. He poured into us so much wisdom and knowledge and ‘on the job training’ among friends who quickly became family. We are humbled that He would pour so much into us so intentionally. The ONLY reason we would leave such a place is knowing that He was asking us to return to our land and pour out here want He poured into us there. We were sent on an assignment to become equipped to plant and pastor a Vineyard Church back here in Tauranga, New Zealand.

So, with a deluge of emotions we left our Maine friends and family and returned to via Fiji, arriving in New Zealand in October.

As soon as we arrived back, Mark’s sister’s (Rhyanne) health took a turn for the worse and she began to experience severe pain from the cancer attacking her body. We spent the next 4 months praying, supporting, loving, praying, praying, praying. We sought God for healing for her, knowing, that unless God did a miracle, the cancer would claim her body, and take her from us. Although in our hearts we know that she is where she was destined to be since before the world began, her leaving so early was almost too much to bear for her friends, her family and her children. On January 20, at 1:00am her body died and her spirit was ushered into the presence of her God. A moment so pregnant with emotions all shouting at once; how could she die? God was supposed to heal her, what happens now? It wasn’t supposed to be like this. And at the same time the awareness that we were standing on holy ground, in the presence of God and his angels witnessing a supernatural transaction take place as she left our presence and entered His. She was at peace, her joy fulfilled, she knows why, she has no more questions. We were left standing there needing to walk through a season in time so heartbreaking that only God can heal. Without the anchor of knowing the goodness and trustworthiness of our Father we would be lost and overcome by the emotions that followed. But God. Our God is so faithful, His ways are so much higher than our ways, His thoughts so much higher than ours. He promises to work ALL things together for good for those called according to His purpose. We cannot see how this can be good, but we know that we can trust the One who does.

Her funeral was an incredible celebration of an incredible life. There was so much vibrancy and colour as I had the honour of leading over 500 people on a journey through the life of this most beautiful, talented, gifted, fun, loving woman of God. A few of her family and friends shared different facets of her life, ending with a video from her eldest son and her husband Ian. It was a very powerful time for all who were present.

The following day (January 26, 2011) we moved to Tauranga permanently. Bethany and Rebekah began school about a week later and we had to very quickly find a new normal, returning to the routine of life.