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Our Stories
In early 2005 a friend who attends Harvest told me I MUST come and see these Godly people and witness the truthful worship service. I wasn't Christian but I had grown up attendng a Presbyterian (USA) church, so I agreed to go with her. The 1st week I agreed to go, I got a call on the previous Saturday about a great party that night & cancelled going to Harvest the next day. The next week I worked the entire weekend and was horribly sick, so I had to cancel then. The next week my friend hung out with me Saturday night to make sure I would get to bed early & be up in time for the Harvest worship service. When I went to get in my car that Sunday morn, I found out my car had been stolen! Therefore I missed attending Harvest that week also.
But God, being all-knowing and full of grace, stayed with me. The next week I attended my first Harvest worship service and there during the service, in the 3rd row from the back, I felt something I can't adequately describe in words. Let it suffice to say the Holy Spirit swept through me and I was awakened to the fact that God is real. It was a uniquely awesome and at the same time, scary and humbling feeling. In my mind I asked, "Oh God, you mean you're real?", followed immediately by my sincere statement, "I'm so sorry for who I am & what I've done!"
I felt gifted with precious knowledge that Jesus is the way to God and I sought out Jim Richards, the elder who had led the worship service, to thank him for his Christ-pointing leadership. Sometime in that conversation with him I said, "Praise Jesus." and I knew something had shifted in me. Tears came to my eyes and I really didn't know why. It was the 1st time in my life I hadn't said those words in a sarcastic way - and I meant it. I felt like I'd woke up - I didn't at first call it being "reborn" - to reality and I was imbued with an unquenchable hunger to know the truth and to discover ways to be closer to God, which continues to this day.