Christ's Vineyard CRC

Dear Friends in Christ,

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (I John 3:1) We praise the Lord that he loves us and that we know for a fact he has everything under control. The past year was a year of ministry expansions, most notably "My Brother's Kitchen" and the relationship with Lampstand Ministries. "My Brother's Kitchen" is a collaborative ministry, bringing together suburban and urban people to serve a meal to the community and eat together. It has brought people together in a tremendous way to not only serve the needy but get to know them as well. The Saturday dinners were twice a month a year ago and have increased to every Saturday (11:00-1:00) with various churches taking turns helping.

Our relationship with Lampstand Ministries and its pastor, Chris Langkamp, has been extremely beneficial, continues to grow, and we work together on distributing food from Trader Joe's, Panera Bread, and other sources to families and ministries.

Christ's Vineyard continues to network in various other ways and host serve groups. Trinity Western University in British Columbia sends a group for a week in February every year, and one participant said:

"I have been taught what it means to be a servant, not through our work in Chicago but through witnessing the work of the servants already there. This trip is unique in that we strive to be servants to the servants and to give rest to those who never get it. We went into this trip knowing that God's work would be done, but we didn’t know exactly how. Out of nowhere our host was a principal for a Christian school, and 5 teachers were sick the 1st day we were there. So for the entire week we had half the team filling in for teachers, and the rest cleaning up a flood and tutoring.

I also saw how Juan dealt with his job, working with him in the church and in other ministries. Even though our work sometimes seemed petty, he was also grateful because it gave him a chance to get much more accomplished than would have been done for a long time. Through working with these people that were always serving I learned just how much the inner city ministries need our help and that the work they do is phenomenal. God definitely is working through these people."

We are honored to be a part of God's plan and His family. THANK YOU for investing in Christ's Vineyard – Be blessed! The most important fact in 2011... I AM A CHILD OF GOD!

His servant,

Juan Flores & family