About Yeovil Vineyard
Our History
More than 25 years ago, God spoke to Leonie in the middle of the night, calling her to a place called Yeovil. It seemed inconceivable that a single woman from South Africa could plant a church half way across the world, but Leonie believed and waited on God to fulfil His promise.
Having been greatly influenced by the ministry of Brent Rue, Leonie went on to spend a formative time at the Vineyard School of Ministry (VSOM) with the Desert Vineyard in California. At the time Desert Vineyard was still meeting at the Antelope Valley Fairground in Lancaster.
They got exposed to the teachings of a wide range of pastors and teachers, both in the Vineyard and without. They also had the opportunity to visit and get involved in the compassion ministry at Anaheim Vineyard, which had a big impact on them.
View from the Vineyard Ranch
The view from the Vineyard Ranch was spectacular, ovelooking the Antelope Valley towards the Tehachapi mountains. This was truly a place where you could draw near to God and be inspired by godly people and passionate students.
Realizing that the time was coming to make preparation to head for England, Hendrik & Leonie returned to South Africa to start making preparations for the move. During their time back in South Africa, they did an internship with Costa Mitchell and were involved in a church plant in Melville, which later became the Hillside Vineyard Church.
What followed was a difficult and testing time with changing jobs, selling and buying houses, and getting to a place where they had a suitable space in which to welcome people. They finally began meeting as a small group in June 2009. The small group grew and they began to prepare the group to be the nucleus of the church plant.
In April 2010, the fledgling church began meeting in a pub for Sunday evening services.It was a really great time and unchurched people loved it. The services grew until they could not fit into the space anymore, when the decision was made to start morning services. God led the church to start meeting in the Café area of the Octagon theatre, starting in April 2011. This was another amazing chapter in the history of the church, as we began gathering families for the first time and had to begin a children's ministry.
The original small group of budding church planters have slowly transformed into a leadership team of about 30 people. We sent out our first church plant to Italy at the end of 2015 and set up the Italy Partnership to plant more churches in Italy!
Our new venue is Westfield Academy, which provides fantastic facilities and much larger. We now have a cafeteria for catering and the Young Vineyard classrooms have their own block. Additionally, we have 10 times more parking than before!
If you are hungry for God and want your life to be different, this may well be the church for you!
