Can you believe it? It’s been two decades since the Vine Community Church started to worship in Cherry. In the past twenty years there have been over 960 Sunday services, more than 4320 songs sung, and countless prayers sent up and thanks given.
Started in 2004 by Rev. Veronica, her husband Dave and a small group of Christians from other local churches, the Vine’s first meeting was on 21st March 2004 at the Cherry Willingham and Reepham Village Hall. For the first few years after that, the Vine alternated its meetings between Cherry Willingham and Fiskerton Village Halls before moving to the library building in 2015.
As well as being a vibrant place to worship and explore life with Jesus, making a positive impact on the community has been at the heart of the Vine. Even before the church started to meet in Cherry, we were busy providing youth and children’s work at the Secondary School. This theme has continued with the Vine funding a school’s worker for a number of years and now running activities for primary and secondary age children in the form of That Saturday Thing (TST) for 5-11 year olds and That Tuesday Thing (TTT), our youth drop-in.
Our community focus isn’t solely on the younger generation. For the last decade, Assist, our service providing 1-2-1 support, wellbeing, and specialist dementia groups, has been open to anyone in need. Since October 2013 Assist has been a lifeline for over 1007 people including 220 people living with dementia (or caring for someone living with dementia), more than 737 people who have received 1-2-1 support and over 50 people who have attended or continue to attend the well-being group.
The most amazing part of this story is that although organised by the Vine the majority of the 60 Assist volunteers, the 30 additional volunteers who stepped up during lockdown and the 31 plus volunteers who have helped run the library are not from the Vine but are made up of other Christians from a range of churches in the area as well as members of the local community.
Jenny and I took the reins of the Vine a little over five years ago, and we are thrilled to be part of this church, the family of nearby churches and the wider Cherry community.
Join us in raising a cheer for the Vine’s 20th Birthday! 🎉
