College Blog

This year our Valley Bible Soccer Camp attracted nearly 250 kids (approx. 60% not from our church or unchurched) from Kindergarten to 8th grade.  It was a surprising increase from last year’s 160 or so kids.  Our coaching staff has expanded as well, praise God!  The only reason we were able to conduct a camp with that many kids was because of every single person who was involved.  

From the Soccer Camp Director, Thank You.  

Thank you to those who opened your homes, pools, schedules, etc.  

Thank you to those who let their children come to play soccer with us all and make it a fun environment for other kids from the community to come.  

Thank you to the leadership who put their heads and hearts together to plan for success even though we had some obstacles along the way.  

Thank you for your prayers, especially.  

Since soccer camp, not only the kids have come into contact with others from our church and have come into our church for our services, but also the parents, siblings, and even some coaches.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Remember what it means to have “Life in the Body”? There are many areas of need in our church as we grow in size and as our influence in this world expands.  Let’s start from the inside and work out…

If you would like to serve in the ROCK group in a certain way and would like to know different opportunities, then let me know.  We currently need some help with our Outreach ministry (AVC campus evangelism, Park evangelism, etc.) in the ROCK group and it would be a blessing if you were interested.  

If you feel like you might be gifted, somewhat, at teaching God’s Word, then join me and about 7 other guys to learn how to handle God’s Word more rightly as we discuss certain important teaching and interpretation principles.  The class is called the Introductory Teaching Class and it is on Friday mornings at the church at 9am.  

If you would like to serve in the ROCK group’s Music ministry, we have potential opportunities for expansion Friday nights and possibly Sunday mornings (depending on amount of feedback).  

If you have a particular burden for Women’s ministry and would like to employ that in the context of the ROCK group, then please talk with Kathy, Camille, Sharyn, or Aliza to see how best you can serve the girls in this way.  

If you would like to help with the annual Valley Bible Soccer Camp that is a few weeks away, then please contact me immediately.  We have plenty of kids coming (projected 150+) so imagine the amount of leaders we need, even if you don’t play soccer :).  

If you would like to help out with Vacation Bible School that is a couple of weeks away, then contact the church quickly and let Kim Taylor know your interest.  

If you would like to be involved in Missions at Valley Bible Church, then please be in prayer about your part.  Please contact me if you would like to explore ways you can serve in the Japan and Mexico Ministries.  

I know that if you move in any way towards a ministry (”when each part working properly”-Eph. 4:16), then it will absolutely bless that ministry leader, and that ministry will grow, and the church will be “built up in love”.  It will be a burden lifted, as if you came alongside of them and offered to carry their cross with them.  

Remember, you are needed in the body for the vitality and liveliness of the body.  Like 1 Cor. 12:22 says, “the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.”  And in verse 27, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”  

First Peter 4:10, 11 say, “As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies–in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.  To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.”

Paul Dusing and Ryan Lazarony are getting baptized on June 28th at 1pm at the Moes’ house.  Afterwards there will be a reception and swimming.  

Come one, come all!  Let’s join together and witness the testimonies of these two young men to follow Christ with their life.  

Matthew 28:19 says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  This is a great chance to fulfill the Great Commission from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  

If there is ANYONE else who is interested in getting baptized, please consider this opportunity and talk with a ROCK group leader.  These are always beautiful times to gather and celebrate our association with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Well, we just had our College Group Summer Retreat and it was a treat!  Between sunny days at the Oceanside beach, the Wild Animal Park, beach soccer, swimming against the rip tide, exciting games of all sorts inside, and weaving seven cars in and out of San Diego freeway traffic, we had a blast!  

We spent hours together pouring over the Word of God as it pertains to Spiritual Gifts and Service in the Body of Christ.  And we had plenty of great conversations afterwards in small groups and just informally.  Hopefully, we are ready to hit the summer hard as “Servants of the Most High.”  

Ask anyone on the trip and they will tell you that the highlight for us all was witnessing Caitlin Enomoto, Eryn Hagen’s friend, put her faith in Christ!  The girls on this trip were praying together and putting their hope in Christ that Caitlin might receive eternal life and that God might be glorified.  

It was the last night before we had to leave when Caitlin made a commitment to follow Christ.  During which, our small groups were meeting and several of them were praying at that very moment that God would indeed reveal Himself to her and begin a good work in her.  Our small group, in the 15 passenger van outside, was just wrapping up as we heard cheering inside the house.  We looked in as saw several girls in the group embracing Caitlin with joy and tears.  

Luke 15:4-7 says, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents then over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

And Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego take first prize for this year’s college softball team names!   All the names were thrown into the fire and these were the only ones that stood the test.  Daniel chapter 3 is one of the most worshipful passages in Scripture, as far as responses to the Great and Mighty Deeds of the Most High God who delivers those who serve Him and Him alone.  Please, take some time to read through this chapter and be amazed at Who God is in relationship to His servants.  This year’s motto, whether we win or lose, will be “Servants of the Most High.”  

In the busyness of the school semester, I can’t seem to remember or quite figure out this thought–that there is no dichotomy between whether I spend time with the Lord before, or whether I spend time throughout the longer and more stressful days.  

He is in all and through all and all is done for Him (Col. 1:16, 17).  But at the same time, Christ had deliberate times where it was only Him and His Father, and no distractions (Mark 1:35).  I often feel a sense of guilt when I busy myself at the expense of those cherished experiences of silence and solitude.  I feel like I will really get in some good time with my Savior when the days get longer or when the work load gets thinner.  However, this thinking is fallacious, foolish, and outright selfish.  

Maurice Roberts writes in his book, The Thought of God, “The scholar at his books persuades himself that he is too busy to spend an hour each morning in secret devotions.  The pastor feels he cannot devote time to the cultivation of his soul because he has too many letters to reply to or even sermons to prepare…In these crafty ways does the devil lead God’s people by a staircase which winds ever downwards.  But let us recall in the midst of our busy life that we may do ourselves and the cause of God great harm by our neglect of the soul” (p. 64).  

I was reading this book at a particularly difficult and stressful point in the semester and it was clear that I had been altogether busying myself with work and neglecting God in the midst of it all.  Let us all return to our knees when we feel like we can’t afford to stop moving.  We must be quick to provide time for our Savior.  We must schedule the events of our day around our scheduled time with God.  And we must never forget that He hasn’t left us as we go throughout the days, busy or not.  

Either we fall to pray, or else we will fall as prey to the deadly downward spiral of the devil’s crafty ways.

That’s right! God has been answering some serious prayer lately. The pastor of the church in Mexicali’s name is Pastor Daniel Vazquez. He came up to visit a church, called The First Fundamental Bible Church, that has been supporting them in these first few years of their church’s life. The church is about 4 years old and up to 125 members now. This is exciting church growth, and a seemingly choice time to get involved in supporting the work of the Kingdom down there in Mexicali.

Mauricio Rivas, who heads up VBC’s Mexico Ministry, called Pastor Vazquez the other day and they were really able to connect. There is a date set for our first visit, May 31st and June 1st. The Pastor mentioned how one of us should be prepared to preach that Sunday morning when we come down so we can relieve him and bless the congregation. He also mentioned how we could stay the night in a Biblical Institute that his father-in-law has built nearby his house.

Please continue to pray, Valley. Pray that our time is rich in Christ-centered fellowship; focused on Biblical, pastoral, and ecclesiastical (church/church leadership) discussions that are profitable; and that all would be done in worshipful service unto our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Gracias, y hasta la vista.

Alright everyone, its that time of year again.  You sit there with a few of your friends/teammates and throw out an endless amount of potential softball team names and usually never come up with one that is legitimately funny, cute, or clever.  It is harder still when you have a very narrow sense of humor (that only your family laughs at) or a deadened sense of creativity (that you can’t broaden even if you ramble on and on into the wee hours of the early morning).  

Below I will post some potential team names for this year’s three college team names.  Please, post replies to give ideas.

1. Ro, Sham, Bo (because last year’s names were Rock, Paper, Scissors)

2. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

3. Nubes, Pones, and Gamers

4. SoftLOLers, LOLer Sk8rs, and LOLipop Outs

Please, post some potential team names. As you can tell, we are in dyer need. These are just to wet your already salivating appetite, I’m sure.

This Sunday after church, Ryan Lazarony was born-again!  He had been coming to Valley Bible for a few weeks now and each time knew that Dale was “making the Word very clear to him.”  A friend of his purchased him an NASB MacArthur Study Bible last week and Ryan poured through its pages trying to “make sense of it all.”  Ryan was not brought up with any religious affiliation in the home, other than a consuming devotion to soccer.  But now that Ryan is in his fourth year at UCLA, God began softening his heart to a life-altering transformation.  

He began asking people he knew at Valley about certain things that he didn’t understand in Scripture.  And his rationale was that because he couldn’t understand some very important issues about the Word of God, he didn’t think he could be considered a believer.  He was convinced that the only way he would ever “believe” in the harder things of the Word to understand with the natural mind (ie. the veracity of the truth, Who Jesus is and what He said and did, etc.), he must have some key questions answered.  That was his mission: to figure out that which was confusing him; to question the Word of God until it fit into His mind.     However, on April 20th, 2008, God proved to Ryan that a relationship with Jesus Christ was the answer to all his questions and the end to questioning Who Jesus Christ claims to be.  

Once we began talking over lunch, Ryan pulled his new Bible out and opened it and turned to a fresh page in his spiral-bound notebook to take notes.  He was determined and had a flurry of questions.  Every Scripture passage that I spoke to him about, he wrote down and turned to in order to check it.  It didn’t take long for the expectation in his mind about Christianity, or “religious living,” to be shot through and destroyed by the simple truth of the Gospel.  

The Word of Life sat there before Him as he searched the Scriptures.  His disposition changed, his questions became fewer, he began to cry.  The Word of God was verse by verse breaking down the walls in his heart, and the seed of the Gospel was for the first time taking root.  He looked me in the eyes and said, “I finally understand.  It’s so simple.”  After a few moments of evaluating why he had always thought the way he did, he said, “I still have questions, but I don’t question anymore.”  Basically what he was saying, and went on to say, was that he trusts God now, and that he knows God has all the answers and they are only unlocked when Christ comes in and renews his mind.  

We talked more about the Word and how it brings Life each day to those who have eyes of faith.  He completely understood the simplicity of the gospel. He understood the truth–that he could not save himself, no matter how hard he tried to wrap his arms around it.  He told me afterwards that the turning point in his mind was when he heard that through a relationship with Christ, God was wrapping His arms around him and would never let go.  This was the point of his surrender; of trying to reach his mind around the Infinite Source of all Wisdom, Knowledge and Understanding.  We both sat there, feeling quite overwhelmed.  He then echoed me in saying how eager he is to go and tell…”everyone” about what has happened.  

Please pray for Ryan as he takes his first spiritual steps in life.  And be sure to join with him in celebration of New Life in Christ Jesus, Our Great Intercessor!

This year will be Valley Bible’s 4th year running our very own Soccer Camp.  The reason why it developed in the beginning was because there were so many soccer players in our church, younger and older.  Some of them, beginning in AYSO and/or club soccer, went on to play college soccer and receive training at nearly semi-professional levels.  Some of them have played on the Lancaster Rattlers semi-semi-professional team :).

The thing is…soccer can just remain a game.  Soccer players can just go wherever they want to play.  And soccer can be over, just like that.  In a matter of a torn ACL (tendon in the knee infamous for tearing and ending careers), another major injury (accidental overweightedness), or age, you can be quite limited to just talking about how fun it used to be to play.  But a few of those committed soccer players have also made the more important commitment to play for a greater cause.  Instead of seeking self-glorification, having fun, making friends, fulfilling the desire to compete, or trying to go pro, some of those players are using soccer for reaching out to the lost.  Soccer has become a vehicle to the desired end that God would be glorified through the proclamation of His Son’s life, death, and resurrection.  This soccer camp is just another way to bring the lost to an understanding of what Jesus Christ has done for them.  Shame on all of us if life goes by and we don’t at least begin to mention Christ on and off the field.  I’ve played in hundreds of soccer games–that’s tens-of-thousands of minutes, in official matches.  And I’ve seen millions of soccer players across the US and across the world devoting their lives to “the game.”  And my heart is grieved over those multitudes because they are “like sheep without a shepherd,” just like I once was.  It is about time to “teach them many things,” like our Good Shepherd did when he came upon the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee and saw “a great crowd” (Mark 6:34).  

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We must have a Christlike compassion for the lost, or else they will just keep “playing the game” and never see the Greater Cause–to come to life in Christ and in doing so, bring glory to God.

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