I wanted to report in from Lancaster Vineyard Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  We had a great time participating in Advent Conspiracy again this year.

This year we collected $1200 which will be distributed 50% to Living Water, Intl and 50% to Love146.

I think people in our church grabbed hold of the concept of spending less in a greater way this year than last.  We had a number of stories of people making Christmas simpler in order to Worship Fully.

We had some great examples of people giving relationally this year.  My favorite was a woman who was brand new in our congregation as we were kicking off Advent Conspiracy this year, chose to ask her neighbors what their favorite charities were and instead of giving them gifts, she gave donations to those agencies in their names.  It was a great discussion starter.

It really seemed that people tried to spend more time at home focused on family this year and making memories.

Overall, I think this year had a deepening effect on our people of recognizing the plight of many throughout the world and how for so little we could change lives for so many.  I think this was
highlighted in the fact that we just brought our [adopted] daughter home from Ethiopia in September.  Our church had walked through that process with us for over a year, and now they knew someone who had been affected greatly by poverty, so this year Advent Conspiracy was a bit more personal for them...they had a face and a name to put with the poverty.

We also had about 20 people from the church participate in writing a daily devotional for families to read together daily, mostly centered around the Advent Conspiracy concepts.

It was a great time for us again this year.  Thank you for providing this wonderful opportunity to restore meaning to Christmas!

Jerry Shannon-Pastor
Lancaster Vineyard Church