Orchard Life is a monthly publication highlighting events going on at Orchard. In every issue, you will find Staff and Ministry articles, announcements, and much more!

11th Annual

Giant Christmas Tree Lighting

December 3   |   5-7 PM

Tree Lighting Ceremony - 6:45 PM

It's time for our Giant Christmas Tree Lighting. This event is for the community to enjoy! There are tons of fun, free activities for everyone! Click below for more details.

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Christmas Shoppe Toy Drive

Now through Dec. 7

Toy Drive

Community Christmas Shoppe provides an opportunity for families in need to select Christmas gifts for their children at no cost. Donate NEW, unwrapped toys and gifts by December 7. Collection boxes are located in the Orchard Worship Center and Admin office. Toy Suggestion List


NOVEMBER 2023

Community Christmas Shoppe

Volunteer & Toy Drive

Toy Drive now through Dec 7th

Toy Drive

Community Christmas Shoppe provides an opportunity for families in need to select Christmas gifts for their children at no cost. Donate NEW, unwrapped toys and gifts by December 7. Collection boxes are located in the Orchard Worship Center and Admin office. Toy Suggestion List

 

Volunteers Needed

Community Christmas Shoppe is a fun and festive event for the families we serve because hundreds of volunteers join in making it a success. Volunteers assist with everything from hospitality to helping families select toys, gift wrapping, entertainment, and more! And we need your help this year as we serve even more families this holiday season. Please join us in volunteering at a Christmas Shoppe in Ventura.

*Childcare is not available for the children of volunteers.
**Volunteers 12-14 years old must serve with their parent/guardian/leader for their shift. 

 

Questions? Contact

Nancy Fouquier & Keanna Sandoval 

Ventura Christmas Shoppe Chairs 

venturacs@actionvc.org


Kids Club Hosts the Seniors

(not the 12th-grade kind, the seasoned kind)

Nov 1    |  3:30-4:30 PM

Worship Center

You are enthusiastically invited to spend an afternoon hosted by our Orchard Kids!

Game, Craft, Songs, and a Bible Story

Please RSVP to Melinda Hoyt


Tour of Commemorative Air Force

Southern California Wing

Nov 11    |  1-4 PM

Carpooling from Orchard at 1 pm

Men's Event sponsored by Men's Ministry

Join us to tour the Commemorative Air Force Museum in Camarillo. We will meet at the church at 1:00 PM and carpool to the museum. For questions, contact Russ Gruhlke.


Breakfast Burritos Youth Fundraiser

Breakfast Burritos

Youth Fundraiser

Nov 5 & 12   |  On the Patio

Grab one before or after the Service

Weekend Fundraising Goal - $250

Grab your burrito and make a donation. The funds raised go to offset summer camp and mission trip fees.

 

Middle school will be at Forest Home ($700/student).

 

High School will go to Romania with IMPACT for a short-term mission trip.


Meet & Greet

Nov 12  |  11:45 am

Library

Join a few Orchard Staff members and leaders for lunch and learn more about Orchard. Ask your questions and find ways to get plugged into this wonderful community. 

 

Please register! 


Orchard Kids Fundraiser

Nov 29  |  Noon - 9 PM

Presto Pasta Ventura

Eat at Presto Pasta anytime on this day, and they will donate 20% of your total bill to Orchard Kids Summer Camp Fund.

 

Valid on dine-in or take-out. Show a printed flyer or display it on your phone at the restaurant.


OCTOBER 2023

Walking in Wholeness 

A four-week Prayer & Healing Guide

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2023 – SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2023

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

This guide is intended to be read in parts each week for four weeks. There is an introduction, a bible reading, exercises to do, and reflection questions. If you are short on time, you can just jump to the end of the section and read the summary questions.

If you want to take a deeper dive, you can read further in the suggested books.

 

You are invited to attend our Prayer and Healing Service on Thursday, October 19, 2023, at Orchard Community Church, from 6:30 – 7:30 PM, where people trained in prayer and healing will pray for your healing. You are welcome to bring others who need healing to the service.

 

May God guide and bend your perspective on all he can do to restore us to fullness of life in him.

 

I will be your God throughout your lifetime— until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you. Isaiah 46:4 (NLT)


Blaze Pizza Fundraiser

Orchard Kids Summer Camp

Oct 4  |  Noon - 9 PM

Blaze Pizza Ventura

Bring a flyer or show it on your phone before paying. Blaze Pizza will donate 20% of the proceeds from your meal back to our organization.

 

Blaze Pizza

4724 Telephone Rd.

Ventura, CA. 93003

(At the WinCo Center)


Congregational Meeting October 8 to elect new elders and deacons

Congregational Meeting

Oct 8  |   Following the Service

Worship Center

Members, please plan to stay after the service to elect the new elders and deacons to serve for a three-year term.

 

Elders: Betsy Harry, Jerry Horstmeyer, Barry Reagan, & Tom Spears.

 

Deacons: Mike Hershey, Linda McCulley, Lyle Olson, Marilyn Reeder, Linda Reynolds, & Colleen Schulze (extend term for one year)


Women's Ministry Hosts Movie Night October 13 7 pm - Return To Me

Women's Movie Night

Oct 13  |  7 PM

Worship Center

Join us as we watch this funny, beautiful rom-com, Return to Me (rated PG). Come a little early to get your seat! The movie will begin at 7 PM. Bring some snacks to share and a friend for us to meet!

Women of all ages are welcome!


Men's Fall Breakfast

Oct 14  |  8:30-10 AM

Worship Center

$10

8–8:30 AM Fellowship with coffee & bagels

8:30 - 10 AM Breakfast, Worship, & Speaker

 

Join Orchard men and enjoy breakfast and praise with long-time Orchard member Rich Smith as he shares his adventures saying "yes” to God, culminating in climbing 19,341 ft Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

 

Richard has followed Christ since early high school and has attended Orchard since 1993. Picking up from a high school mission trip, he joined Session in 2008 as the Global Missions elder and went on his first IMPACT short-term mission trip in 2009. Since then, he has represented Orchard in Uganda, Honduras, Ethiopia, Turkey, India, and now Tanzania.


Trunk or Treat Fall Festival

Oct 29  |  3 - 5 PM

Main Parking Lot

The whole family is invited to dress up & enjoy games, activities, entertainment, trunk or treating, and more!

 

Costume Parade at 4:45 PM

 

Now Accepting Candy Donations. Please drop off donations at the admin office. 

 

For questions or more information on other ways to volunteer, please contact Melinda Hoyt or Annette Walters.


SEPTEMBER 2023

Women's Bible Study

God of Covenant

Sept 6 - Feb 14  |  9:30 - 11:30 AM

Worship Center

A study of Genesis 12-50

Discover How God Orchestrates Everything for His Glory

 

There are no minor characters in the story of God. Beginning with Genesis 12, walk alongside the fathers of our faith—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—to discern Jesus in the stories of His people. Discover how God orchestrates everything for His glory and the good of His people, and see how the God of creation and covenant is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

This group meets Wednesday mornings from 9:30 - 11:30 am in the Orchard Worship Center. The morning begins with a large group worship time and then is broken out into assigned small groups.

For questions about the Wednesday morning Women's Bible Study, please contact Linda Young


Pancakes and mini golf - Sept 9 9-10:30 am

PANCAKES & MINI GOLF

Sept 9  |  9-10:30 AM

Worship Center & Main Lawn

Dads & Kids Breakfast
Preschool & elementary kids come out and have a delicious breakfast before heading out to team up to build mini golf holes around the Orchard Campus. Everyone will then play the course!


Lunch with Nita Hanson from God's Hidden Treasures - Sept 10 in the Library

Lunch with Nita Hanson God's Hidden Treasures

Sept 10  |  11:45 AM

Library or Zoom

Join us for lunch with Nita Hanson, who will give an update on Ukraine and how God's Hidden Treasures is continuing ministry to the medically disabled and reaching out to internal refugees and victims of the war.


Rincon Brewery Fundriase

Sept 13  |  5-8 PM

Rincon Brewery

4100 Telegraph Rd, Ventura, CA 93003

Join us for dinner and help raise a little cash to help off set the cost of Summer Camp for our Orchard Kids. 10% of sales of food will be donated. Make sure to tell them you're with Orchard Kids!


Meet and Greet - Sept 17 following the worship service in the library

Meet & Greet

Sept 17  |  11:45 AM

Library

Join a few Orchard Staff members and leaders for lunch and learn more about Orchard. Ask your questions and find ways to get plugged into this wonderful community. 

 

Please register


Community Movie and Dinner  - Free Event - Sept 22 7-9 pm

Free Community Movie Night & Dinner 

Sept 22  | 7-9 PM

Main Lawn

Everyone is invited to join us for dinner and a movie on the Orchard lawn. We will be serving up hot dogs and showing the Disney movie UP. 

Bring your lawn chair and or blankets and your favorite movie snacks. 
The Orchard Men’s Ministry will provide popcorn. 

 

Please register so we can make sure we have enough hot dogs!


This is a FREE community event; all are welcome, so invite a friend!


Free Shred & Ewaste Event

Sept 30  |  9 AM - 1 PM

Main Parking Lot

As a THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY, Orchard is hosting a FREE on site Paper Shred Event and E-Waste Recycling on

 

Shredrite of Oxnard will be on site to take any confidential carbon less paper, folders, staples and/or paper clips. (No plastic, binders, metal, styrofoam, glass, trash, garbage or wet materials.) Limit 2 banker boxes per vehicle. A certificate of destruction will be given on request.

E-waste recycling may include TV’s, computer monitors and Cathode Ray Tubes. (CRT’s), printers, scanners, laptops, Central Processing Units, fax and copy machines, video game consoles, computer peripherals, cell phones with battery removed, VCR and DVD players, and stereo systems (CD players, radios, etc.)


YOU'RE INVITED!

CHURCH CALENDAR

Stay up to date with all of the church happenings going on throughout the month! Make sure to check back from time to time, as we are always up to something!