GCVDC CALENDAR OF EVENTS

March 2017 www.goldcoastviadecristo.org A Message from Our Lay Director ~~ GCVDC CALENDAR OF EVENTS ********** Men s #94 March 23-26, 2017 Trinity Lutheran Church Delray Beach, FL ******* Wives Meeting March 24, 2017 7:00 PM Advent Lutheran Church, Fellowship Hall, Boca Raton, FL ******** Women s #94 April 20-23, 2017 Faith Lutheran Church North Palm Beach, FL ******* Pot Luck Ultreya Saturday, May 6, 2017 Trinity Lutheran Church Delray Beach, FL Set up is at 5:30 Ultreya Begins 6:00 PM As I sit down to write this article, I am wondering where to start, who to thank first. I m going to start with the Secretariat - past members and the newly elected members. Magdala Ray, our outgoing Lay Director, what can I say but a big thank you for sharing your leadership, knowledge and love, and trying to train me; it hasn t been an easy job. She has been serving our VDC community the past four years and now is moving on to be our NLS Rep for the next two years. You will be hearing a lot more from her about the National Gathering coming up in West Palm Beach in 2018. Our outgoing members Susie Dowd (Secretary), Andrea Taylor (Music Rep), and Donna Threnhauser (Pre VDC rep) served our community well, so when you see them make sure to give them a big, warm thank you. Now, for the newly elected members of our Secretariat: Kevin Janies, as the incoming ALD, is going to be a real blessing for our community, bringing us into the tech world! Addie Bruening is our new Secretary, Jennifer Kent serves as the Pre VDC Rep and Janet Cunningham is our Music Rep. Recently, the Secretariat voted to add a new position Sponsorship Rep and we welcomed Debbie Janies to that new, vital position. Many thanks go out to these wonderful people for accepting God s call to serve us all on the Secretariat. Please keep the whole Secretariat in your prayers for the coming year. We are now in full swing with both the Men s and Women s #94 with meetings and preparing for their weekends. The Men s will be on March 23-26 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Delray Beach, and the Women s will take place on April 20-23 at Faith Lutheran Church in North Palm Beach. The Ultreya for #94 will be May 6 th at Trinity Lutheran Church in Delray Beach. Please keep both team and candidates in your prayers. We just had our Servant Leaders School and I was very pleased to see how well attended it was. For you old timers who feel you don t really need to attend, we have added some new sessions, Sponsorship and Chapel Cha, so come on back and see what it s all about. For those of you who are new to the VDC community, please know that we look over the attendees to assist us in selecting future team members. As I mentioned above, sponsorship is so important. Without sponsors, we don t have a weekend. Remember last year when the Secretariat was looking at having only one weekend a year? We have found that many of the hundreds of people who have experienced this wonderful weekend are not sponsoring. So let s sponsor someone: look in your church, your family, at work, and in your community. Time is running out for #94, and weekend #95 is in the fall, so let s sponsor a candidate and pass on this exceptional experience to others. Bob Brauer Lay Director

From the Assistant Lay Director Back in September 2001, my life was forever changed by VDC, and my wife Debbie also experienced a life-altering three days at her VDC weekend. That time at a Gold Coast Via de Cristo weekend put us on a different fork in the road on our journey with the Lord. We understood more about grace, how much God loves us, and about servant leadership. Over the years, we have come to know so many of you on a deeper level and we have served alongside so many that we now call friends. We have both served in a variety of positions and we have been blessed to have served as rector and rectora. Currently, I have accepted the position of Assistant Lay Director, serving under Bob Brauer and Magdala Ray. It is another opportunity for me to serve the community that has been a life changing blessing to Debbie and me. We have sponsored numerous candidates over the years. Some are still serving in the movement now, some are leading in their churches and some we have lost touch with. It seems that over the years, as we continued to serve on teams and volunteer on weekends, we were no longer intentional about sponsoring people. We know that the weekends are for the candidates to train them to be servant leaders in their churches and communities. We had lost sight of part of what our involvement should be. According to Matthew 28, our call is to make disciples. In order to do that, we had to be more intentional about developing relationships with other people. We had to make more friends, get to know them over time and work toward sponsorship. Over the past 3 years, we have sought out a number of young married couples and younger singles at the OneHope ministry with whom we work and serve. We feel that as a mentoring couple, we have much to share with them. VDC is a part of that mentoring. A number of these cursillistas have already served on teams and are sponsoring other people. We both feel that we need to stay intentional about looking for people to mentor and sponsor, and that we need to continue to cultivate younger people to participate in the movement. We do need to train up the next generation to take the reins of the VDC movement from those of us who are experienced. Without candidates, we can t have weekends, we don t raise up leaders for churches, and we don t help the movement grow and stay healthy. How about you? Are you mentoring people to help them grow? Could you get to know some younger people who could learn from your wisdom and experience? Maybe you have not sponsored anyone for a while; maybe it is time to be intentional again and disciple someone. Please pray about who God would lead you to sponsor and you will continue to be blessed by God and see Him at work. Thank you, VDC community, for your continued service to the Lord and to each other. What a blessing you are to Debbie and me and so many others. Kevin Janies Assistant Lay Director

De Colores, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, God s hand of protection was evident on Men s and Women s Weekend #93 as Hurricane Matthew made its way right between both weekends. God showed up and showed off right from the start with a beautiful rainbow over the Church for our set-up, send-off and Friday night! Men s #93 bonded right away with their unwavering commitment and transparency in sharing God s grace in their lives. A special thank you to Spiritual Directors Dave Thompson, Gary Dolphus and Ken Baker for your humor, prayers and counsel for team and candidates. We were able to pray over Pastor Ken during the passing of his father and he in turn was able to deliver a meaningful message back to the team. I thank the Rollistas and Pastors for weaving the method of Via De Cristo in the talks with heartfelt stories of God s presence in their lives through grace. Thank you to Head Cha, Josh Edelstein, for being by my side and reminding me to Let Go and Let GOD. We had the most incredible team of Chas who showed God in action with their unconditional love and service to the candidates. As our team song said We are men on whom God can depend. Thank you to Jeanne Schone and God s Army of Angels at Serenade. I thank the community for your heartfelt prayers of healing, protection and infusion of the Holy Spirit which blanketed the weekend. The team and candidates were amazed at the amount of participation in the dining room and a special thank you to our head cook Bill Steffen, the kitchen crew and all the men who showed up to serve meals. The candidates experienced God s presence through laughter, joy, tears and more laughter from skits about their Captain and Head of Security at Publix. It was their heartfelt sharing at closing that showed we were successful in answering the question How do I live the Ideal of a Life in Grace and connect my head to my heart? It was truly God s blessing and honor to serve as your Rector for Men s #93. I still pinch myself with amazement of God s opportunity to have served. To God be the Glory, Mark Robillard, Rector, Men s #93 Happy New Year! Here we are with a new year and new opportunities for God to do His work in us through His amazing and actual grace. Again, Gold Coast will offer Men s and Women s Weekends in both the Spring and Fall; don t miss this opportunity to sponsor that person who will benefit from a more defined relationship with God. Look around church, find those who volunteer, teach or serve in various capacities; these people are already servant leaders in ministry, some of them just aren t aware of it in those terms. Ask God in prayer to open your eyes to the people around you and your reunion group who would benefit from a weekend, and don t hesitate to invite them to your reunion group meeting to allow them to grow accustomed to the Via De Cristo method of accountability and renewal. People are far more likely to feel comfortable and participate in what they know something about and have friends involved with. Allow God to work through you to give another person the gift you have been given. So often I hear people who have had the privilege of making a weekend speak of how it changed their lives ; here is your opportunity to invite a friend to a life giving and changing event. Pastor Dave Rankin Senior Spiritual Director

Proverbs 3: 5-6 says: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. God gave this scripture for Women s #93 and He fulfilled it in every aspect of the weekend. The team He called showed that trust in our Father and in each other. As we gathered for weekly meetings and shared our hearts, trust was the glue that held us together as one. Every member of the team was essential to doing the work of the Lord as we prepared to minister to our new sisters in Christ. The candidates God sent were such precious daughters of our Heavenly Father. He trusted us to be His vessels. I am so proud of this team and the trust the candidates showed as they so quickly followed the leading of the Holy Spirit in obedience and cooperation. There were such connections as professors and candidates joined in discussions and ministered to each other. There were endless smiles and encouraging gestures of service from each of the Chas. Our Spiritual Directors gave endlessly of themselves during our meetings and the weekend. Everywhere I looked throughout the weekend the love of Christ poured out from one to the other. The support of our community was so loving. The ladies who came to serve meals served with such love and grace. The men who came to Serenade did so with love and grace as well. Our candidates were so amazed. This was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life and I am so grateful to the Secretariat for their encouragement, to the team of Women s #93 for their unselfish devotion to this great work, and to the candidates for their trust in the Lord. Trusting in Him, Brenda Rankin Rectora, Women s #93 ************************************************************************************** *** Calling all Sponsors *** A new sponsorship class was introduced at Leaders School on Saturday, February 11 th, and it reminded me of the excitement I felt when I first made my weekend. I could not wait until I was able to sponsor my friends so that they could experience what I just experienced on my weekend. I thought of at least 5 women that I wanted to sponsor immediately. I did not know exactly how to sponsor or what to say to these women without ruining the surprises of the weekend. It seemed, as the years went by, the excitement of sponsoring faded a bit. But my love for the Via de Cristo movement stayed very much alive. I love serving on the weekends and watching new cursillistas experience the love of Christ the way I had on my weekend. For those of you who made your weekend years ago, we want to reignite that love for sponsoring candidates once again. At the Sponsorship class, I was reminded of my responsibility to let others know about this movement, not just because we need candidates (which we do) but because we want others to know how to be better leaders and to be in reunion, serve in their churches and to become a part of a community of believers that changes lives. Donna Threnhauser did a great job of answering questions about sponsorship and reviewing the responsibilities that come with the task. We all know that Sponsorship should not be taken lightly and much prayer and consideration should go into sponsoring a candidate. The answers of who, why and how to sponsor are covered in this class. So whether you are a new cursillista or have made your weekend years ago, try and attend this new sponsorship class at the next leaders school. Rekindle that desire to let others know how to experience Christ in a deeper way through a Via de Cristo weekend. Remember, talk to God about man before you talk to man about God. Make a friend, be a friend, bring your friend to Christ, and bring that friend to a Via de Cristo. Pray about sponsoring someone for the next Men s or Women s weekend. There is nothing more rewarding than knowing that you were instrumental in bringing Christ closer to your candidate through sponsorship. Debbie Janies, Sponsorship Rep

Post Via de Cristo Reunion Groups I recently became involved in the Women s Ministry group as well as the Mentoring Ministry at our new church. What I quickly discovered was how grateful I am to have a group of Tituses - aka my reunion group. I found out that in both of these ministries many do not have an ongoing group of women or men to build them up, pray for/with them, to be intentional about meeting and hold them accountable as they walk with God. This is just within my new, smaller church. Now multiply this amongst the number of churches represented in our Via de Cristo movement. So, if you are looking for a reunion group or want to add someone to your existing group, aka group of Tituses, please email me at patilbaker@gmail.com Our next Ultreya will be the Reunion Ultreya for Men s and Women s #94. It will be hosted at Trinity Lutheran Church in Delray Beach on Saturday, May 6 th, 2017 at 6:00 pm with set-up at 5:30 pm. There will be worship, sharing, food and fellowship! The following food items are always needed for each weekend: fresh fruit, boxes of raisins, mixed nuts, block cheese or string cheese, chips, crackers, hard candies and chocolate. Homemade cookies or brownies, bottled water and soda are always appreciated. Please deliver these items to the Head Cook, preferably by Friday morning. In His hands, Pati Baker Post Via de Cristo * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Servant Leaders School and Notice of Wives Meeting Servant Leaders School was held on Saturday, February 11th, at SonCoast Church. Leaders School is held twice a year and is for anyone who attended a weekend. There are three relatively new classes added to the eight class format which are Chapel Cha, Sponsorship and Tech Cha. Approximately 80 people attended, so thanks are extended to all who were there to grow in their knowledge of the movement. Special thanks to SonCoast for always allowing us to use their facility. Many thanks to the presenters for sharing their expertise to help train and make the school run smoothly. It was a blessed day. Remember the upcoming #94 Wives Meeting. The meet and greet is for the wives of the men who are candidates on #94. The wives and their sponsors meet in a comfortable, easy-going atmosphere with some of the Secretariat representatives. It is being held on Friday, March 24th, at 7:00 pm in the Fellowship Hall at Advent Lutheran Church located at 300 East Yamato Road in Boca Raton. Let us keep weekend #94 in our prayers. It is an honor serving as your Servant Leaders School Rep. Sherry Giambrone

GOLD COAST MEN S VIA de CRISTO #94 Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 March 23-26, 2017 Trinity Lutheran Church and School, Delray Beach, FL For Map to Weekend: www.goldcoastviadecristo.org Trinity Lutheran Church and School 400 N. Swinton Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33444 Church Office (561) 276-8584 Take I-95 to W Atlantic Ave. Go east (about.9 miles). Turn north on Swinton Ave. The Church is on the west side of the road. Special thanks to Pastor Vince Putnam and Trinity Lutheran Church and School for the use of their facilities for this weekend. Community Schedule of Events - WANTED PLEASE Homemade baked goods (sugar- free items, cookies, brownies, cupcakes, etc.) Fruit, soda, water (small bottles), candy, individual bags of snacks. SET UP: Wednesday, March 22nd, starts at 6:30 pm, please arrive early SEND OFF: Thursday, March 23, 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary Please bring send-off soda and bottled water. SERVE MEALS: Friday Saturday Sunday BREAKFAST 8:45 8:45 8:30 LUNCH 1:00 1:45 12:00 DINNER 7:10 7:15 SERENADE PRACTICE: Saturday, 6:30 pm Ladies, please dress for a Kings Banquet TEAR DOWN: Sunday, 6:30 am, 1:00 pm & 4:00 pm CLOSING: Sunday, 4:30 pm in the Sanctuary (will not start until tear down is complete) MAIL DEADLINE: Sunday, 11:00 am FOOD PALANCA: NEEDED FOR WEEKEND: Fruit, soda, water, candy, individual bags of chips; homemade baked goods (cookies, brownies, cupcakes, etc.) If you or your reunion group can supply dessert for a meal, please contact the head cook, Terry Pfister.

GOLD COAST WOMEN S VIA de CRISTO #94 And who knows but that you have come to your Royal Position for such a time as this? Esther 4:14 April 20-23, 2017 Faith Lutheran Church, North Palm Beach, FL For Map to Weekend: www.goldcoastviadecristo.org Faith Lutheran Church 555 Highway 1, North Palm Beach, FL 33408 (561) 848-4737 From I-95 take Northlake Blvd. exit, go east to US Hwy 1, turn left (north), go about 5 blocks, church is on the left. (Corner of Ebbtide and US 1.) Special thanks to Pastor Mark Stillman and Faith Lutheran Church for the use of their facilities for this weekend. Community Schedule of Events - WANTED PLEASE Homemade baked goods (sugar- free items, cookies, brownies, cupcakes, etc.) Fruit, soda, water (small bottles), candy, individual bags of snacks. SET UP: Wednesday, April 19th, starts at 7:00 pm, please arrive early SEND OFF: Thursday, April 20, 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary Please bring send-off soda and bottled water. SERVE MEALS: Friday Saturday Sunday BREAKFAST 8:30 8:45 8:30 LUNCH 1:00 1:45 12:00 DINNER 7:10 7:15 SERENADE PRACTICE: Saturday, 6:30 pm In the Sanctuary Men, dress in your Sunday Best TEAR DOWN: Sunday, 6:30 am, 1:00 pm & 4:00 pm CLOSING: Sunday, 4:30 pm in the Sanctuary (will not start until tear down is complete) MAIL DEADLINE: Sunday, 11:00 am FOOD PALANCA: NEEDED FOR WEEKEND: Fruit, soda, water, candy, individual bags of chips; homemade baked goods (cookies, brownies, cupcakes, etc.) If you or your reunion group can supply dessert for a meal, please contact the head cook, Beverly Schleger.

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