"If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday."
-Isaiah 58:10
May :: Feed A Friend
FAF(Feed A Friend): Sunday, May 18
MEET at the Vineyard building by 1:15pm to leave for downtown Akron's Grace Park.
FAF(Feed A Friend): Sunday, May 25
Join us at 11:15pm to head to downtown Ravenna's "Fellowship" on North Chestnut to share a meal with the homeless and poverty stricken. Bring some food to share..
We are saying this:
Here are our hands - they are yours now.
Here are our feet - they are yours too.
“You cannot be holy
except as you are engaged in making
the world a better place.
You do not become holy
by keeping yourself pure and clean
from the world but by plunging into ministry
on behalf of the world’s hurting ones.”
–John Wesley
So...
From rescuing free loaves of bread and baked goods(totalling over 4,000 since June of 2007) before they go to a dumpster and getting them to the hungry, to passing out free slices of pizza, downtown Kent, on cold winter nights, we desire to show the love of Jesus in practical and tangible ways.
As St. Francis of Asissi said, "Preach the Gospel, if necessary use words." We make it priority to do our best as followers of Jesus to serve the city of Kent and our neighboring cities from getting the homeless
into furnished apartments(A.R.M.), giving out hotdogs on halloween(halloweenie!!), and being an advocate for victims of domestic violence. It's what we GET to do.
Here is what we are eager and ready to do regularly and wholeheartedly:
A.R.M.(Anonymous Relief Mission)
www.anonrelief.org
EVERY Saturday we COLLECT furnishings
and deliver them to folks and families moving into apartments that have come out of homelessness and/or crisis situations. Please call 330.677.0722 to participate or if you have donations.
The Furniture Outreach began mid-spring of 2006 when we came across a homeless father with three children. They had lost everything due to uncontrollable circumstances.
It was a no brainer in helping out and it birthed this outreach into what it is now.
We didn't force a "ministry effort" into existence. God landed it on us.
Since then we have made 159 pick-ups involving donations and we've moved 154 families coming out of homelessness and/or crisis situations into homes/apartments.
Everything But Food Pantry
Over the past 8 years we've embraced the effort of deliveries of food to those in need. We've noticed that although food helps there are other things that struggling families have to purchase with thier already stretched paychecks. Things like shampoo, deodorant, feminine products, etc... Grab a "yellow" bag in the front entrance of the Vineyard and get shopping!!! A detailed list is inside the bag and we take these year round.
Jesus For President Here is the must-read election-year book for Christian Americans. What should Christians do when allegiances to the state clash with personal faith? Haw and Claiborne (The Irresistible Revolution) slice through politics as usual and well past the superficial layers of the culture wars with their lucid exploration of how Christians can and should relate to presidents and kings, empire and government. Their entertaining yet provocative tour of the Bible's social and economic order makes even the most abstruse Levitical laws come alive for our era. They also provide a valuable political context for Christ's life, reminding readers that Jesus did not preach the need to put God back into government—he urged his followers to live by a different set of rules altogether, to hold themselves apart as peculiar people.
The Well
contact info: Jeremy & Khio
Our friends, the Sutters, lead a ministry effort that rescues women from the sex trade industry in Bangkok, Thailand.
"The only additional thing they asked was that we remember the poor, and I was already eager to do that."
-Paul the apostle(aka: chief of sinners)
Center of Hope and Kent Social Services
Join us in serving our friends in need. Hours of volunteering at the Center and Kent Social are between 9am and 3pm Monday thru Friday.
Contact/email us at vcckent@yahoo.com for info and to see how we can get you plugged in. 330.677.0722 "Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead."
-Saint John Chrysostom
The Fellowship
A direct on-the-streets effort to aid the homeless and drug addicts in Kent and Ravenna.
Contact/email Scott Budzar at vcckent@yahoo.com for info. 330.677.0722
Invisible Children
Contact: Justin Rife via email at therifes@sbcglobal.net
"Our desire for justice for ourselves and for others often complicates the issue, builds up factions and quarrels. Worldly justice and unworldly justice are quite different things. The supernatural approach when understood is to turn the other cheek, to give up what one has, willingly, gladly, with no spirit of martyrdom, to rejoice in being the least, to be unrecognized, the slighted."
- Dorothy Day
Safer Futures Shelter
Advocates for victims of Domestic Violence Items needed for Shelter
These Donations are accepted ANYTIME. Just call or email us to set up a "drop-off".
Toilet paper / Paper towels
Over-the-counter medications
39¢ stamps for residents
Garbage bags
Bras, Underwear, Socks
Paper towels
New comforters (twin and/or double)
New / nearly new walkers for toddlers
New / nearly new Baby Strollers
Adult backpacks
Tall kitchen garbage bags
Items for Children
· Journals, diaries
· Movie tickets
· CD Walkmans
· Popular music CDs
· $5 fast food gift certificates
· Folders (for school)
· Skating passes
· Gameboys
· Playstation II non-violent games
· Gigsaw puzzles
Items for Moving Out
· Phone cards
· Bathroom towels
· Sheets
· Sets of dishes for 4
· Silverware
· Blankets, comforters
· New pots and pans
· Book bags / backpacks
· Journals
Cleaning supplies
Drinking glasses
Beds all sizes
Dressers
Coffee Pots
We are constantly working at being of service to those in need. If you are interested in learning more about VCC outreach opportunities, drop us a line and let us know what your interests are.
