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 <title>Vine and Branches Ministries - He is the Vine, we are the branches.</title>
 <link>http://www.lastingfruit.net</link>
 <description></description>
 <language>en</language>
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 <title>Reading Room! Spring 2010</title>
 <link>http://www.lastingfruit.net/en/node/761</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;A gift from our friends at University Baptist Church in Houston, TX has enabled us to pour the foundation of the Reading Room.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Four carpenters&amp;nbsp;from Washington, NC will arrive March 1st to frame up the entire Reading Room &amp;amp; Shelter area.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Our ministry goal is to raise the needed $6,500 to purchase their building supplies. We are currently still short of meeting that goal by $2,800.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;We trust that God is at work. He is using the talents and means of many willing hearts throughout His body to accomplish His work here in Piedras.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; March 14-30 a group of 30 servants from BayArea Church, having already raised their funds, are coming to follow through with insulating, drywalling, planting trees and landscaping on the property.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Surveying on the property and machinery grading the construction areas are currently underway.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Would you please prayerfully consider how God would use you to meet our financial goal for the Reading Room project? &lt;/p&gt;
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 <pubDate>Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:40:29 -0500</pubDate>
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 <title>Life on the Vine August 2009 Update</title>
 <link>http://www.lastingfruit.net/en/node/736</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;(SEE PHOTO ALBUM HERE&amp;nbsp;FOR PICS) &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaL17KS2Wng&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaL17KS2Wng&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;, &amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcUm2o8l1r0&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcUm2o8l1r0&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhNBTrY2Jyk&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhNBTrY2Jyk&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;Click on these links to WATCH&amp;nbsp;YOUTUBE&amp;nbsp;VIDEOS ABOUT THIS OUTREACH PROJECT&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;:&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;After four months, VICTORIA,&amp;nbsp;our Outreach Project (christian soccer league) ended in June its first tournament and team Marana-ta came out the winner in&amp;nbsp;first place. Over 250 youth participated from 19 different churches.&amp;nbsp; There were 65 &amp;quot;invited&amp;quot; youth (unreached) and of those 43 accepted Christ, are congregating and many are begining to be baptized.&amp;nbsp; Also, one of&amp;nbsp; our referees accpetd Christ and Alex had the honor of participating in his baptisim! PRAISE GOD! Several local businesses have gotten behind the league and the Mayor&#039;s office has granted us a 6 acre property in a great location in town for exclusive use by Vine and Branches Ministries and it&#039;s Outreach Project the VICTORIA soccer league! The property is being cleared and cleaned and plans are underway for the VICTORIA soccer park!&amp;nbsp; As well the city wants to work with us on our other&amp;nbsp;ministry property in El Ejido, as&amp;nbsp;they are sending out&amp;nbsp;(for free), work&amp;nbsp;vehicles cleaning and clearing this property as well in order to use it&amp;nbsp;for a home soccer field too. Demand was high to continue the league over the summer and so we enrolled the first 10 teams in a&amp;nbsp;&amp;quot;lightning&amp;quot; round before starting our Second&amp;nbsp;Tournament this September.&amp;nbsp; There are already&amp;nbsp;18 teams signed up from 23 different churches for our second tournament and the kick off ...&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
 <pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:57:02 -0400</pubDate>
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 <title>Christian Soccer League a Reality!!!</title>
 <link>http://www.lastingfruit.net/en/node/734</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;During our Opening Ceremony, a Pastor commented:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;...&amp;quot;We want to thank you for obeying the calling God has put on your heart to reach out to the youth and the churches across Piedras in this unique way.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;We have seen a notable increase&amp;nbsp;in attendance&amp;nbsp;at church by new youth and even some adults who otherwise have maintained their distance at&amp;nbsp;church.&amp;quot; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our opening Ceremony, &amp;quot;Kick off&amp;quot; for VBM&#039;s&amp;nbsp;soccer league&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Victoria&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt; was attended by over 250 players, sponsors and supporters. The Soccer League, apart from the desire to provide a healthy environment for the youth to play soccer, has the vision of&amp;nbsp;encouraging each team&amp;nbsp;to leave&amp;nbsp;spots open on their team for unsaved youth.&amp;nbsp; Many of our youth have friends and brothers who have been invited to church but don&#039;t come.&amp;nbsp; Put together a soccer game and they all are there!&amp;nbsp; As well the vision includes the opportunity to play &amp;quot;with&amp;quot; other churches (not against) and fellowship, bringing about more unity and a good testimony to those who are unsaved across our city.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Lots of youth are in church but without their parents being saved.&amp;nbsp; We pray their families and friends will attend the games to support them and experience a very different atmosphere than that which exists in other soccer leagues and games across our cities (parents fighting, drinking, etc.)&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
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 <pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:54:20 -0500</pubDate>
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 <title>January Teachers Workshops, Outreach Update</title>
 <link>http://www.lastingfruit.net/en/node/733</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;In November we had an attendance of 68&amp;nbsp;teachers, staff and administration from the David Livingstone Institute.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; This is a Christian Pre-k - Junior High School.&amp;nbsp; The conferences given by VBM focused on communication and were so very well received that we were invited back in January!&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Last week there were 83 in attendance for our workshop on Constructive Criticism, Instructive Communication, from the David Livingstone Institute.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; One comment from a teacher&amp;rsquo;s evaluation reads:&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;&amp;quot;Thank you for always, boldly including the Word of God in your conferences.&amp;nbsp; The video clips, anecdotes &amp;amp; written materials&amp;nbsp;you give&amp;nbsp;provide great examples of your points which personally inspire &amp;amp; encourage me greatly.&amp;quot; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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 <pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:50:07 -0500</pubDate>
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 <title>Rooted in Prayer</title>
 <link>http://www.lastingfruit.net/en/node/708</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong &gt;While&amp;nbsp;active in missionary service for over&amp;nbsp;17 years, in 2004 Alejandro &amp;amp; Diana Aburto began seeking the Lord&#039;s leading through prayer about beginning Vine &amp;amp; Branches Ministries in&amp;nbsp;order to&amp;nbsp;fully focus on&amp;nbsp;local relationships that could be impacted by&amp;nbsp;expanding &amp;amp; implementing&amp;nbsp;Outreach Opportunities for youth, children, teachers and parents&amp;nbsp;in Piedras Negras, Mexico. God moved on these prayers along with faithful &amp;amp; countless others as the doors to minister began to open for VBM&amp;nbsp;.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong &gt;With 3.5 acers of land acquired, the dream of a future Recreational &amp;amp; Educational Outreach Center &amp;nbsp;continues to grow!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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 <pubDate>Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:03:41 -0400</pubDate>
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 <title>Vine and Branches Ministries Areas of Focus</title>
 <link>http://www.lastingfruit.net/en/node/646</link>
 <description>&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The evangelism of children and youth is extremely important as&amp;nbsp;72 percent of Mexico&amp;rsquo;s population is&amp;nbsp;24 years of age or younger. God has given us the vision &amp;amp; challenge of establishing a much needed Children&amp;rsquo;s &amp;amp; Youth&amp;rsquo;s Outreach Center.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;Serving the Youth, Children and their families in Piedras Negras, Mexico,&amp;nbsp; Vine and Branches Ministries focus is specifically on establishing &amp;amp; implementing Outreach Programs&amp;nbsp;&amp;amp; Educational opportunities, meeting a physical need, which&amp;nbsp;serves as a doorway&amp;nbsp;to present the salvation of Jesus Christ and experience the power of developing a personal relationship with Him.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;We have purchased land&amp;nbsp;&amp;amp; will begin building&amp;nbsp;VBM&#039;s Outreach Facility, Dorm and Conference Hall on&amp;nbsp;a strategically placed property, (3.6 acres)&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;in the rural area of our city where we and many needy families we work with live.&amp;nbsp; After School, Recreational, Open Meal, Computer and Training Programs as well as Camps &amp;amp; Retreats for youth &amp;amp; children, &amp;amp; Teachers Conferences will be offered from this future facility. &lt;/p&gt;
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 <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:41:31 -0500</pubDate>
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