Bringing the Joy of Christmas to the Green River Gorge Community:

Our prayer is that the love and power of God will be there to touch people's hearts and bring the “Reason for the Season” to a people who are otherwise forgotten at Christmas.

Nestled in a forest of tall evergreens four miles outside of the City of Black Diamond is a campground, known as the Green River Gorge Resort, where residents reside year round. For many, homelessness is just one step away. However, in an effort to show God’s love in a practical way by bringing light, joy, and hope into their lives, each Christmas Mountain Vineyard Christian Fellowship hosts an outdoor Christmas party with all the trimmings.

For many of the residents living in the RV trailer park, located approximately 4 miles outside of Black Diamond, the party is the only Christmas they had. It is held outside rain, snow, shine or - in the Christmas 2006 case - power outage, and begins with the transformation of the park’s empty outdoor field into a “tent city” that is filled with all sorts of goodies including used clothes, live music, hot drinks and food. There is also a big bonfire to keep everyone toasty warm.

Then biggest part of the event takes place with Mountain Vineyard serving all of the residents a classy hot Christmas lunch consisting of ham, turkey, rolls, potatoes, fruit, green beans and pies - catered by Mountain Vineyard Christian Fellowship member Julie Wallsinger, who is also the Deli Manager at Emerald Downs. Topping off the day of celebration are gifts that are provided to all the children along with gift bags for the adults that include propane gift certificates in order to help keep residents warm during the cold winter months. For us participating in the event, seeing the joy and excitement on the kid’s faces as they look over all of the presents is the highlight of the day. Christmas really has come to their home, and they have not been forgotten.

What originally started out as a once a year event has grown over the years as relationships have developed. In a continuing effort to keep in touch with residents throughout the year, we bring blessings of thanksgiving dinners, host a Back-to-School Barbeque with school back packs filled with school supplies for each of the children, and have held a “Spring Fling” to help fix resident’s trailers, do auto repairs, re-roof the community bathroom and any other general maintenance of the facility as needed.

When we first began making our way out to the park to see what help we could be to the community, residents were unsure of the motivation behind our visits. However, over the years a great relationship between members and residents has grown to the point that residents realize that God has many ways of expressing His love even through the simplest of practical ways. This past Christmas in 2007, we experienced a new level of joining together of Mountain Vineyard and Green River Gorge Resort, as we all worked together to put on the party, including an impromptu dog show by one of the residents and his canine friend.

If you would like to be a part of this ministry, please Contact Karen Evans at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you would like to become involved.