Resources For The Community
Over the past years we have grown a group of people who are serving our community under the name Vineyard Community Center of Arizona. We have a weekly food box and and an annual Christmas present distribution center called RE:STORE Nonprofit. Through the Vineyard Center we also have free guitar, dance, art and finance classes as well as an addiction support recovery group.
We serve in two local low-income apartment complexes doing monthly potlucks and have a good group of people who serve the homeless in a nearby city. And under the banner of the Vineyard Center we run a coffee shop open Thursday through Saturday that gives out free drinks: lattes, cappuccinos, americanos, you name it.
Twice a year now we have run a highly successful art festival in our downtown area where we moved into a nearly abandoned retail strip. We have worked with local businesses to bring people into their community and we’ve partnered with the local government and chamber of commerce to let many groups of people use our facility.
Serving In Practical Ways
Now, here is where it gets really cool. We received a call last week from a man who lived in a city 88 miles away, asking to help his friend who had been a well-paid pilot but was now out of a job. The pilot lived in our city. I asked the man how he got the number of AMADEO Church and the Vineyard Center. He said he called the Chamber of Commerce, asking for someone in town there who could help his friend’s family. And they said, “If you want help, the place we tell people to go to is AMADEO Church and the Vineyard Center.”
Within a few hours his friend’s family had Christmas presents for all their kids, food boxes and someone to visit their home and pray for them.
[bctt tweet=”In a few hours they had Christmas presents for their kids, food boxes & someone to pray for them.” quote=”Within a few hours his friend’s family had Christmas presents for all their kids, food boxes and someone to visit their home and pray for them.”]
The same thing happened with the owner of Chik-Fil-A. They had done a promotion to get people to buy sandwiches to distribute to people in need. I got a text the first week of January that said, “Can you help us? We need a place to give out 2,000 free chicken sandwiches and 2,500 nugget trays.”
Just this week, a lady walked into our coffee shop with her five kids, four of them autistic and one with Asperger’s syndrome, all of them ages 15 through 22. She said they were ready to serve and get job skills at the coffee shop. By the end of the night, they were making our coffee shop’s famous Caramel Mocha Lattes and Mint Mocha Lattes. The next day the whole family was in church.
These are just a few of the beautiful things God is doing in our community as people “do the stuff” of the kingdom, loving and serving one another in practical ways.
