HOW IT ALL BEGAN
One Pastor's Vision
Reverend Wilfredo "Choco" De Jesús is Senior Pastor of New Life Covenant Church (NLC), one of the fastest growing churches in Chicago. He is endearingly known as Pastor Choco.
Since he became Senior Pastor in 2000, NLC has grown from a weekly attendance of 120 to 17,000 globally through church campuses, plants and more than 110 ministries reaching the most disenfranchised – the broken hearted, poor, homeless, prostitutes, drug addicts and gang members.
Senior Pastor Rev. Wilfredo De Jesus has been instrumental in the development of several community-based programs.
Through funds raised entirely by church members, New Life Covenant purchased a farm for the rehabilitation of the women who struggling to overcome addiction and/or prostitution. The farm, New Life for Women, opened its doors on August 4, 2002. This was not an easy task. To raise the money for the farmland, Pastor Choco along with a few other members ran from the farm to Chicago in 2002 (watch the video below). The farm is 3 hours driving distance. We ran so that women who are broken and lost could dream again. In 2007, an annex was added to the farm to accommodate more women.
The Chicago Dream Center officially incorporated and became a non-profit 501(c)3 on June 30, 2005.
The Chicago Dream Center strives to meet the practical needs of people while sharing with them faith, hope and love. In this way, our goal is to lead our community toward a new life and to give individuals the hope to dream again. We are a non-profit organization that offers faith-based, multifaceted programs and services to assist low-income, homeless and under-served individuals and families move toward self-sufficiency in Jesus name!
Chicago Dream Center ministries: Hope House for Teens Residential Program, New Life for Women Residential Program, Manna for Life Food Pantry, Bridge to Life Homeless Outreach and Rose of Sharon Street Outreach Ministry.
Outreach ministry to the prostituted, trafficked, gang members and the homeless has become our mission.