INDIANA, Pa., (BRN) – The Indiana Campus of Harvest Church resides in the center of the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania.
In addition to Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the town is best known for being the childhood home of well-known actor Jimmy Stewart.
Every year in November, the town hosts the “It’s a Wonderful Life Parade.” As part of the festivities, a 30-40 foot tall tree is placed in the street directly outside the entrance of the church.
Several thousand area residents gather in the town center to watch the parade, roast marshmallows and enjoy the light up night. One of the necessities that is in short order for this event is clean restrooms.
This year marked the third annual Harvest Church outreach for this community event. Church member Carina Potts assembled a team of over 30 volunteers to allow us to conduct this outreach in an excellent manner.
Harvest Church – Indiana is located on the third floor of a commercial building, so its presence is not traditional or obvious to the local community. With the permission of the landlord, we set up a tent and flat top on the patio outside the lobby entrance and served 750 hot dogs, while church members encouraged people to come inside.
Warm smiles greeted visitors in the lobby and directed them to the elevators. Once upstairs, they were again greeted by friendly faces and directed to our main room.
In the main room, visitors could use the restroom, get some popcorn, hot chocolate and cookies, sit at a table and warm up or spend a few minutes listening to “Storytime with Mimi.”
When the visitors exited the elevator on the way out, they also received a card that shared upcoming events and service information on the outside and the gospel message within the card.
Approaching the event, we faced two primary challenges.
The day before the event, the elevators were taken out of service due to a ground water issue in the shaft. The team prayed earnestly and the landlord worked overnight to correct the problem.
As a result of prayer, we believe, the inspector came back several hundred miles the next day to put the elevators back in service.
The second challenge was the weather. The temperature was in the mid-thirties and it rained all day. The local community was undeterred and still showed up in force. What could have detracted from the event actually resulted in people staying longer and allowed for more conversation.
In all, around 700 people came up the elevator that evening and every one that sat at a table was met with a smiling face ready to learn about them and share the love of Christ.
Two days later, we had four visitors from the outreach attend our worship service, including a young man named Tommy who gave his life to the Lord after the Sunday service.
Events like this continue to grow the church’s reputation within the community and results in visitors throughout the year who get to hear the gospel preached and experience the love of God through grace filled believers.
The Evangelism Grant from the BRN allowed us to reach out to the community in ways far beyond what we could do ourselves. We are excited to partner again next year and see what God brings to next year’s outreach.
Have an outreach event you would like to host, but could use a little help when it comes to the cost? Apply for a BRN Evangelism Grant today by visiting brnunited.org/grant!
