No dinner potluck this Sunday/Noon BBQ potluck instead!

Hey ECVers,

This Sunday, we will NOT be having a potluck after our Sunday Gathering.

Instead, I'd love to invite you all to a potluck BBQ at our house, the 180 Colony, at noon this Sunday, 7/29.

We're really excited to introduce you to our friends, Danny and Anita Colombara, who have recently returned from living and working in Cambodia for 4 years. They worked with an organization called InnerChange( http://www.crmleaders.org/ministries/innerchange ):

Do justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8) This is our calling. This is our passion. This is our joy. We are InnerCHANGE, a Christian order among the poor within CRM. We are communities of missionaries living in poor, marginalized neighborhoods around the world – places most people want to avoid or ignore. We seek to live out the good news of Jesus among the poor, both with words and deeds.

Relationships are foundational. As we listen to people, as we interact and reflect on scripture together, collaborative neighborhood action emerges. Trust slowly develops and people open themselves to us and to God. We journey with people and, little by little, we see God at work – both in the poor and in ourselves. Our desire in InnerCHANGE is to see poor people come together as communities of followers of Christ in each place where we are present.

InnerCHANGE teams currently serve in the inner-cities of Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and London as well as in Cambodia, Romania, and Venezuela. Plans include future teams in Africa and Central America.

We neither glamorize our calling nor diminish its importance. We are moved by the life and love of Jesus, enticed by his goodness. We have sensed his call to take up our crosses and follow: knowing that as we lose our life for his sake, we will truly find it. Despite the enormity of the missionary task, we do not pursue this work with long faces. Rather, we rejoice in our opportunity to be messengers of the King as he invites all people - poor and rich alike - to his banquet table.

Come to hang out, enjoy our new lawn(although you can't step on it yet—yikes!), and meet the Colombaras.

What: potluck BBQ— pls. bring something to grill—meat, veggies, seafood, etc.
When: Sunday, June 29, 12 p.m.
Where: 180 Colony Rd., New Haven, CT 06511
Why: It's summertime! We love to potluck—it's the ECV way

STILL got questions? Call me.

Smiles,

Kathy M.

P.S. One last plug to get your support to sponsor me and Caleb on our charity bike ride this Saturday-thanks for considering it: http://www.active.com/donate/ride4love/love146team

Life with a Living God series

Sometimes it feels like God communicates with a sound like the voice of Charlie Brown's unintelligible teacher in "Peanuts."

Sometimes it feels like God is a distant, volatile Führer that it is really important not to make any more angry.

Sometimes it feels like God is best thought of as a benevolent force who runs the show but who never leads people with much clarity at all.

And sometimes, God's communication feels personal, demonstrable, profound, life-changing. What is your experience?

This summer at ECV we are going to do a five-part teaching and discussion series called "Life with a Living God." We are going to look deeply, practically, and personally at the idea that God is alive and that God is not silent.

Every meeting of the series will have worship, teaching, discussion, and most importantly, personal stories of joy and struggle on the question of what is it like to love and serve a living God who sometimes feels so close and other times feels so distant.

Personal stories will abound, as we flesh out key themes in Scripture and practice that relate to the pursuit of life lived together with a living God. These meetings will be refreshing, encouraging, and challenging. Come and join in!

THE DETAILS:

Part I: Stories and Possibilities
WHERE: The Hartley's House (808 Elm St, at Ellsworth)
WHEN: This Thursday (6/19) and next Thursday (6/26) at 7PM

Part II: Prayer and Practice
WHERE: The Saperstein’s (The Ark, 532 Norton St)
WHEN: 7/17, 7/31, 8/14 at 7PM

See you there! 

ECV Morning Prayer – Thursday Mornings

Let’s come together to spend time with God and to pray for our church and New Haven. We will begin with 15 minutes of silence, then pray out loud. Silence, psalms, spoken prayers, and such… simply time at the beginning of the day to turn our attention to God corporately. Please join us.

Where: Backyard of 86 Mansfield St (Audrey’s house - near the Yale Whale)
In case of rain, enter through the back door and meet in the 3rd floor living room.
Day: Thursdays
Time: 8:00 – 8:45 AM (We will start and end promptly to accommodate work schedules.)

International Festival of Arts and Ideas

In the never-ending saga of downtown street closings, today Temple Street will be closed for one block between Elm and Chapel (that's the block the church is on) for the International Festival of Arts and Ideas. Often if you ask nicely, the police will let you into the church parking lot... Regardless, plan on some extra travel time this afternoon (and next Sunday as well)—or ride a bike; it'll be a pedestrian-friendly situation on the Green.

Thursday: Ice Cream-Off

As announced Sunday, Elm City Vineyard Thursday Nights of Passion begin this week with an Ice Cream-Off.

Never been to an Ice Cream-Off before? Here's what you need to know:

1. If the means to make ice cream are at your disposal, make your best recipe(s) in the largest quantity your ice cream maker will take.
(We can't imagine anyone who would hear of this who wouldn't show up, so quantity and quality are both desired.) If you are bringing your own ice cream, show up a bit ahead of time so your container can be successfully disguised to insure impartial voting (see #3).

2. If you can't get the ice cream making done yourself, bring along some of your favorite made by someone else. If you switch up the containers and pretend that you made it, well, we can't really stop you, but the Lord probably can. (yikes.)

3. It's BYOB: bring your own bowl...and spoons. We fear that we may not have enough bowls and spoons to serve everyone who might turn up, and you would be really sad to stand around watching other people eat ice cream should this actually happen.

4. The -off suffix means competition. We will have a secret ballot for first, second, and third places. There may be prizes involved.

Our house is on Fountain St, at the (SW) corner of Fountain and Vista Terr in Westville.
There isn't parking on Fountain in front of our house, but you can park either on Vista Terrace--a left turn off Fountain--on the east (left) side of the street or on Pardee--a right turn off Fountain. The house number is 290.

Questions? Trash talk? Send it to Grace or Michelle.

See you there....

Sunday Gathering Parking (6/7)

Our hosts at United Church on the Green have requested that we not park at the church this Sunday to help facilitate an event that will be happening upstairs during our gathering. So, this week, please park on the street or in the Yale lot (free on the weekends) on Temple Street just north of Elm. Thanks!

Vineyard East Regional Conference

The Vineyard East Regional Conference is coming up. I've gone to the last two conferences, in 2004 and 2006 and they've been really instrumental times in getting connected to God's heart for our region and to the Vineyard movement nationally.

As is typically the case, they've got great speakers this year, including friends of ECV, Rich Nathan and Phil Strout.

They've got extensive (and excellent) children's and youth programs, so bring the kids.

What else can I say? This conference is what convinced me that the Vineyard was where I wanted to be invested for the long haul.

Registration and other info is available on the conference website. You can download a brochure as well.