Special Christmas Eve Offering
It’s been our tradition over the past several years to collect a special offering on Christmas Eve and give the entire offering away to a local non-profit and a Vineyard missions partner. This year’s Christmas Offering will be given to the Rwanda Vineyard Partnership and the Stepping On Up Initiative to help combat homelessness in Duluth.
The Vineyard Church in Rwanda shares the love of Jesus in Kigali, Rwanda. They are working to plant new churches all around Rwanda and have developed a school to educate the children of their community. Last year, with the help of our gifts, they were able to build a kitchen that allows them to offer breakfast to their students. This year, funds would help with the purchase of additional land that would allow the church and school to expand and grow the number of families they can serve.
284 people were unsheltered in St. Louis County in January 2020 and the Duluth shelters are routinely at or beyond capacity. The Stepping On Up initiative is a partnership with organizations in our community (CHUM, Loaves and Fishes, Salvation Army, Life House, etc) that are working to address chronic homelessness. The project includes the Warming Center, an emergency overnight drop in center for people experiencing homelessness, that operates for the six coldest months of the year. It provided a life saving refuge for 588 people last winter! The project also includes creating hygiene facilities, providing meals and hygiene kits, developing short term housing units, and providing assistance to people in finding permanent housing and recovery.
Please join us in praying for what God would have you give to support these organizations that are doing life changing work right here in our own community and around the world.