Where to begin??? With incredible excitement and anticipation we stepped into a jammed packed worship centre at Harvest Elgin on Monday morning and it kinda felt like a family reunion. Hugs, tears and a whole lot of love were shared by many, as our huge Harvest family from all over the globe greeted one another.
Our day started with an incredible time of worship – and I mean – amazing high impact worship with 2,000 brothers and sisters all lifting high the name of Jesus together in song. Hey, I just read that we are going to be recorded as we sing the song “We’re United” together – how cool is that?
We were blessed as Pastor James began teaching us from John 1:19 about Authentic Jesus – full of grace and truth. I will never again think about grace without truth when meditating on who our Saviour truly is. I can’t wait to hear the rest of this powerful message on Wednesday.
The rest of our day consisted of attending the first two of five workshops in our desired ministry track. As our Harvest Barrie team met together over dinner, Pastor Roger invited us to share highlights from what we had learned. It was amazing to hear how people were blessed in so many ways by the strong teaching. We have team members involved in a number of different tracks – Communication, Preaching, Student Ministry, Compassion & Missions, Biblical Soul Care, Children’s Ministry, Leadership, Women’s Ministry, Elder Topics, Worship – and more. I love how we’re striving to be excellent in these areas and how willing our Harvest family is to be used by God for his glory.
We also met together as regions. So cool to see all of the leaders and people from the Canadian Region gather to share, plan and pray together...and to know that the same thing was happening throughout the campus with the other regions around the world.
The day didn’t end there! Remember when our own Pastor Todd was esteemed as ‘Senior Pastor of the Year’ in 2011? Well, he received the honour of preaching at HU 2012.
While this task may have been daunting for some, he looked right at home proclaiming the authority of God’s Word in Elgin, Illinois. It was a message we all needed to hear – but especially encouraging to those enduring difficult and dark days. In walking us through Genesis 40, we learned that;
a) no situation should trap you;
b) no injustice should crush you; and
c) no loneliness should consume you.
Wish you all could’ve been there – it was a great time for our Harvest Barrie family.
Todd presented HBF executive director, Kent Shaw, with his own Team Canada jersey, commemorating 10 Canadian church plants in 10 years.
God is at work at Harvest Bible Chapel and it’s clearly evident at Harvest University 2012. If you didn’t make it this year – plan on it next year.
P.S. Four of the Harvest Youth at HU, enjoying this incredible opportunity.
