Elizabeth Leon spent the two days before church on Sunday crying because her daughter Timarra Roth, stationed in South Carolina with the Air Force, wouldn’t be home for Christmas. But a few minutes into the Dec. 23 service at The Dalles Christian Vineyard Fellowship, Leon was crying again, for an entirely different reason: she was holding Timarra in a tight embrace, the culmination of a surprise visit long in the making.

Robert Friel likes to joke that anybody with a tattoo is automatically a member of his church. He and his wife, Marlene, started The Dalles Vineyard Christian Fellowship out of their home in September 2010. Their ministry is aimed at those who are unchurched, and, without trying, they seem to draw people who are in recovery from addiction.