Fruit of the Vine

In 1986, as a single mom Karen Kiener, (Cunningham then), put her two kids in a station wagon to hand out muffins and quarters to people going through the dumpsters. It was about that time she began to attend Christ Community Church.

A man came to her house at Christmas, and because she had a little extra money, she was able to give him a peanut butter sandwich. And from there, one thing led to another and the food pantry ministry was birthed.

Karen and Keith and Tina Mayton were the ones who oversaw packing of groceries in the basement at Lehner Rd. Mickey Johnson (Candy's husband) used to shop for them, so he was a big part of those early days. Mickey died in 1990. After that, John Moriarty took over the pantry supervision. Karen's daughter Jordan was born in 1991, so she was not involved by then.

About 14 years ago, Vineyard Columbus began a small free food pantry in the Short North. Over the next several years there were a few different locations, and a few different leaders involved but the mission remained the same: share the love and message of Christ with the hope of seeing people become converted, and provide food for hungry families and individuals. The free food pantry served about 25 to 45 families and individuals weekly, mostly on Saturday mornings. The people served were from the 43201 zip code of the Short North. The food that was served was primarily purchased through the church at the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, a division of Second Harvest. A core group of volunteers regularly served and God was honored, and the community in the Short North saw the love of Christ in the ministry there. People heard a gentle and real Gospel message and many received prayer for sickness or life issues.

About 12 years ago, Dave Keseg and Tim Kubacki, two doctors in the church, acted upon a burden from God to start a free medical clinic. A small team of nurses, prayer team volunteers, and the doctors began to serve anyone who would come through the door. From the very start and to this day a gracious and friendly gentleman named Fred Esmont has been the greeter at the door. The free clinic provided non-acute episodic care free of charge, and above all provided deliberately missional gentle evangelism and prayer. It was held on Wednesday evenings at the free food pantry. The building at that time was a small, worn-down store front at 17 West 5th Avenue, just west of High Street in the Short North. After mopping the floor and rearranging the furniture, the ministry team would pray and prepare to serve the Columbus community. A young optometrist named Barb added her service and the optometry clinic was added. Soon, a couple in the church, Del and Kay Wilhem became involved. Del and Kay were realtors and didn't have a medical background. What they did have was a deep humility and sense of calling to the Medical Clinic. They became the volunteer leaders and, along with others they helped to raise up, they spent the next 9 years stewarding the free medical clinic and its' values in Christ, helping to make it what it is today.

The first full-time pastor of Fruit of the Vine was Brian Detwiller. With his wife Beth, Brian served for about 2 years and oversaw the free food pantry and the free medical clinic. They also developed a ministry house, which existed while they served Fruit of the Vine, where some young men from the church lived.

In December 1998, the church hired Dan Franz as a ministry coordinator to oversee Fruit of the Vine for 30 hours a week. Dan was a former pastor and registered nurse who had moved with his wife Carol from the east coast to attend the VLI school. At this time Fruit of the Vine consisted of the food pantry and the medical clinic. Both of these vital ministries had a small number of dedicated volunteers. The church had a membership of 2700 and was growing.

In December, Dan adopted the motto - "Build a bridge of friendship and let Jesus walk over it" as a concise version of our mission statement. A clear set of values and boundaries were written and began to be shared before each outreach, as they are to this day. This was to insure, along with prayer, that participants in street outreach were as safe as possible. It was also to insure that our values towards those we were serving were carefully kept. Above all, it was to insure that those participating were aware that the outreaches were about Jesus and the kingdom of God and not simply about charity. In January 1999, the homeless ministry was begun. Shortly afterwards the nursing home ministry was begun. Part way through 1999, Dan was hired as the full-time pastor for Fruit of the Vine. In 2000, Fruit of the Vine's staff grew to include a pastoral intern.

Later that year, FOTV began offering outreaches specifically designed for Small Groups to participate in. This helped large numbers of Small Groups in our church begin to see themselves as having a missional component. Over the years opportunities for both Small groups and individuals grew to include nursing home ministries, prison ministry, outreaches to a homeless women's shelter, a homeless men's shelter, and a homeless family shelter. There are outreaches that bring church members into direct ministry in homeless camps every Wednesday and Saturday throughout the year. There are Small Groups for homeless and recently formerly homeless friends, and there's a Christian-based 12 step recovery meeting. There is a Habitat for Humanity outreach. There are ministry opportunities to help drive our van that brings homeless friends to church on Sunday, and a social event ministry called "Coffee and Cards" each Sunday after church at the food pantry for our homeless friends that individuals and Small Groups participate in. There's a ministry where church members make quilts for our homeless friends. There's a ministry called Bag Hunger that helps collect food for the food pantry. Regular annual events include our Christmas Dinner for the homeless held in mid-December, and a "Christmas under the Stars" Christmas Eve sleepover outreach in the homeless camps. Each of the regular outreaches holds annual Christmas events, and many hold other events during the year.

For a year and a half, Fruit of the Vine operated a half-way house called Redemption House, where as many as 5 homeless friends struggling with addictions lived. The challenges of adequate staffing ended that outreach but we have since maintained a much smaller opportunity called Barnabas House that affords an opportunity to one person at a time to live with a mentor in a 2 bedroom apartment. The prison ministry is currently ministering to as many as 30 young men at Marion Juvenile Detention center on Thursday evenings, using a small group setting where one-on-one mentoring can take place. There was a Monday Night Service held at the Food Pantry on the first three Mondays of each month for 7 years, and, after a year off, we will be starting up again on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month with a new format.

In the past 8 years the staff of Fruit of the Vine has grown to include an administrative assistant, a pastoral assistant, and pastoral interns. All of the outreaches are led by gifted and dedicated volunteer leaders who have done a wonderful job of serving both the community and the church. Two of our key leaders who grew from new volunteers to mature leaders went on to full-time missions overseas.

In February 2001, Dan began a working relationship between Vineyard Columbus and the Vineyard movement in Africa that God placed much grace upon. Fruit of the Vine began a long-term partnership with the Vineyard movement in Zambia and a weekly outreach to AIDS orphans was begun. The outreach included food and children's ministry, busing the children to church on Sunday, and sending the children to school. It has continued to this day, and has continued to expand. Two other weekly outreaches grew out of this relationship. Several years after Dan and Fruit of the Vine began working with the Vineyard movement in Africa, other leaders in Vineyard Columbus have become involved and now our church is vitally involved in 3 countries and with several STM teams a year.

Later in 2001, Dan and his team began to research moving the free food pantry and the free medical clinic to a larger location. They found a couple of old warehouses several blocks east of High Street on 5th Avenue in the Short North, and were given permission to rent and renovate them. The renovation of the free medical clinic, led by Del and Kay Wilhem, took over two years to complete. Over 75% of the materials were donated and virtually all of the labor. Volunteers came from many different churches and, though it seemed to take forever, we persevered and the result is a beautiful free medical clinic at 181 East 5th Avenue. At that time we added a dental clinic with two dental chairs. We also began a partnership with New Salem Baptist Church where they operated a counseling center in our building on Thursday nights. (After 12 years in Fruit of the Vine, during this last year the 5th Avenue Free Medical/Dental/Optometry Clinic was shifted by the church over into the new Community Center Department. This was because the church has just begun a second free medical clinic at the new community center and the idea was to consolidate leadership of both of the clinics. To this end the church created a new position called "medical clinics director" and this person is doing a great job now overseeing the clinic.)

The Free Food Pantry building has been renovated and now is used every day of the week except Fridays. The number of families served each week is about 100 and growing. Besides the 400 to 500 people served at the Pantry each month, food from the Pantry is brought regularly into a Senior Housing Development, shared with homeless friends, and distributed to needy families here at our own church.

The work of the ministry of Fruit of the Vine has and is being done by the members of Vineyard Columbus. It is a strong value in our church that "everyone gets to play." Vineyard Columbus is a wonderful church and we are very grateful for the privilege of serving under the leadership of Rich Nathan, and with a congregation that loves Jesus and is excited to enter into the adventure of serving the lost, the least, and the vulnerable in our community. Over the last 8 years Fruit of the Vine has been a bridge into urban ministry for over 1,400 members of our church and over 150 Small Groups. The history of Fruit of the Vine is still being written as we as a church continue to respond, by the grace of God, to what Jesus is speaking to us in Matthew 25:31-40 and Matthew 28:16-20. "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat" joined with, "Go into the world and make disciples of all people" are the two arms of kingdom-based mercy ministry, and with both of these arms extended together there is great credibility for the Gospel to be heard and experienced by the world around us. At Fruit of the Vine we are grateful for what God has done, and we have a grateful expectancy for what he will do.