TOWANDA, Pa., (BRN) – During the summer and fall of 2023 Harvest House Community Fellowship used Evangelism Grant Funds for the following events and efforts:

Mini-Park VBS, July 1, 8, and 9: We targeted three surrounding community parks in Ulster, Hornbrook and Towanda, Pennsylvania. After canvassing the community door-to-door with invites we hosted a two hour mini VBS event in the park for all who came. During the event we offered free hotdogs, chips and drinks. We had a Bible based craft activity and recreation game supporting this year’s VBS theme. We also led singing of praise and worship and presented a Bible lesson with a gospel presentation. At each event, we then invited the kids and families to our traditional full VBS at our church. We averaged 15 kids at each park event and saw some of the kids from each park come to our formal VBS at the church.

During July, Harvest House Community Fellowship in Towanda, Pa., hosted VBS for children in their community.

VBS, July 16 – 19: This year we hosted VBS in July and had a record number of volunteers and kids in attendance. We had 35 kids which is a recent record for us. On the last night we had a parent performance and fellowship BBQ. At the conclusion of the kids’ performance, the gospel was shared to approximately 100 parents and adults in attendance. Based on this we had two children repent and believe the gospel and were baptized three  weeks later!

Community Cookouts, June 16, July 28, and August 25: We committed to targeting a segment of Towanda where two of our member families live. We invited over 50 households to three cookouts in June, July and August. We provided free food, drink and entertainment for kids. During these events, we averaged 10 community members and their families that attended. There were different families that came to each event. Our goal for these was to get to know our neighbors, love our neighbors through hospitality and build relationships with them to leverage gospel conversations.

Throughout the summer, volunteers from Harvest House Community Fellowship served their community and offered prayer at various festivals and events.

Riverfest, August 17 – 19: This is a large three day town festival in Towanda, Pennsylvania. We used the grant funds to provide the following: A 20-foot tent booth with free coffee, hot chocolate, bottled water and baked goods. We had a table with Christ centered literature targeting Christians and lost people alike, and we had a section for Good Person Tests (way of the master).

We provided free face painting, kids games and prizes. We had members of our praise team playing and singing praise and worship music. Best of all, a mission team from Turkey Creek Baptist Church came and operated the hospitality portions of our booth. This allowed hundreds of Gospel conversations by Harvest House members and dozens of prayer interactions. We saw immediate fruit as two new families came to that Sunday’s worship service and one family has continued to attend!

Pumpkin Roll, Oct. 21: This is a small community event where vendors are present and the day is capped with a “soap box derby,” but with small pumpkins instead of cars. We offered a smaller version of our Riverfest offerings with the addition of fresh apple cider and hot spiced cider.

Fruit witnessed from these efforts:

1. New families coming to Harvest House Community Fellowship
2. Two adult baptisms and two children baptisms
3. An increased participation from our congregation in hospitality and outreach ministries
4. Community members who have given testimonies of how special our events are because we are “building community” in ways that have not been done before

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!