Riverside, California – News

BY PEP FERNANDEZ / STAFF WRITER

Published: Aug. 14, 2014 Updated: 6:12 p.m.

Harvest Christian Fellowship Church in Riverside sent a team of 17 church members to provide a vacation Bible school and hundreds of shoes to many of the orphans in Haiti, and to assist in the construction of a new compound for the Cross to Light Bible Training Center.

The 2010 earthquake that rocked the nation of Haiti continues to have lingering effects on the people who call it home. Food, clean water and even shoes are not readily found as the country rebounds from the devastating natural disaster four years later.

Harvest Christian Fellowship Church in Riverside sent a team of 17 church members to not only provide a vacation Bible school and hundreds of shoes to many of the orphans in Haiti, but to also assist in the construction of a new compound for the Cross to Light Bible Training Center.

“The mission was simple: show and share the gospel of Jesus Christ through compassion, giving, holding, hugging, loving, and proclaiming,” said Ryan McGinnis, who was the team leader for the Harvest group that made the trip to Haiti from July 26 to Aug. 4.

The new compound features solar panels that will provide electricity and water to its neighbors, and an aquaponics system, which allows tilapia fish to grow as well as fertilize surrounding plants on the property, according to church member Wesley Lockhart.

The Harvest Church members spent a majority of their time in Port-au-Prince, but a trip to a prison three hours outside of the city was a life-changing experience for Lockhart.

“The prison was the poorest place I have ever been, 50 to 80 men in a single cell, sitting back-to-back, with no room to lay down, to rest or get up to exercise,” said Lockhart, who was among those to see the installation of industrial fans to circulate airflow in the prison. “The entire prison began to cheer, as though their favorite team had just scored a touchdown. It was a humbling experience. These people whom society had largely forgotten were so blessed by something that was so simple.”

The money to purchase the fans were raised during the “For the Least of These” concert held in Riverside at Orange Terrace Community Park on July 12.

Harvest Church routinely sends members to Haiti with another trip already slated for October. According to McGinnis, who is a ministry assistant in the College Ministry, the church sends somewhere between three to four teams to Haiti each year in addition to its trips to other countries.

“We also have teams planned to go to the Philippines and Mexico along with any other disaster-stricken locations that God places on our heart,” said McGinnis.