It was the evening of St. Patrick’s Day and as I walked out of Hans & Susie’s building into some brisk weather, I felt like I was falling in love with our church all over again. Our staff had just gathered for our quarterly fellowship, a time when we get together with our families and just hang out together (no shop talk, just friendship). We decided to do a St. Patrick’s theme dinner. It was a night of great food with great friends and I was in high spirits.

Driving home, I was reflecting on what a great team of people God has given me to work with. I genuinely love these people and I know I’d be friends with them even if we didn’t work together. I don’t think our chemistry is just because we’re all so much alike. Rather I think the key is in how readily we show grace and sacrifice for one another. I think that has kept us close over the years. I’m not just saying that to be pastoral—I really see it that way.

I also started to think about how the way I feel about our staff extends to the way I feel about our leaders at Harvest. We have a team of over 60 people who are actively leading or in apprenticeship. Because we do so much together as friends, I don’t look at our leaders as ministry resources but as real people—my friends. I can live with the work being impeded for various reasons, but I get very burdened if our friendships ever sour.

Sitting here two weeks after St. Patrick’s Day writing this blog post, I can think of so many others at Harvest who are not in leadership but still such a vital part of my life. I think of all the football games, amusement park outings, hospital visits, weddings, meals, road trips, funerals, and other events we’ve shared together. I think of all the ways we’ve opened our lives to one another, sharing each other’s burdens and triumphs. One of my greatest joys about serving at Harvest is that the people here are not just my parishioners – they are my friends.

Do you see a pattern emerging here? I think what I love so much about Harvest is that this is where some of my best friends on this earth are. It’s the church I'd attend even if I weren’t a pastor here. That has always been the thing that has made my 14 years here so deeply satisfying. It’s the reason why I can honestly see myself serving and living and laughing and crying with these people for the rest of my life.

Dave Lee
Lead Pastor

...is something all of us ask everyday, especially in tough situations.

It is hard to imagine that I have been involved in women’s ministry for 3 years. I struggled with feeling accepted by women my whole life, always feeling like an outsider. So, imagine my surprise when I was approached by Jen Carlson in 2007 to join women’s ministry. But God knew why – He knew what I needed to experience and what was to happen at Harvest the next couple of years.

Leadership often involves hard work along with ups and downs, but what we tend to forget about are the many blessings that we are privileged to experience as a result of it. The biggest for me has to be the sisterhood that has developed among the women of the team. When God put the three of us together in 2007, we didn’t know what to expect. We were three different women coming from three very different places in life. I knew that there were walls built up between myself and one others and uncertainty with where I stood with the other. But now I can confidently say that I love these women with all of my heart and can’t imagine my life without them!

2007 was tough for this ministry. We felt like we were rebuilding it from the ground up. We needed a new plan that covered our goals, a budget, and a course of action for why we were going to do what we do. Who were we to do that? So, we talked every week, seriously for like at least 3 hours a call (husbands had to be annoyed) and met what felt like all the time. But it all came together as we sought the Lord through prayer and then something also happened in 2007 that changed my life altogether.

The loss of a child is something that happens everyday to so many expecting women and I thought I escaped that statistic. But for some reason God had different plans. Honestly, the struggle was hard and I did not think I would recover from it. How as His servant, could this happen? Hearing the tears from my team members, I felt their love and sharing of my pain. Their actions to protect me and help me after that will never be forgotten. I don’t know what I would have done if I were not on the team or a part of this special sisterhood during that time. As a result of this experience, God opened many doors and allowed a bond to happen with many women that wouldn’t have happened to me otherwise.

How does this connect to women’s ministry? If three women who live in totally different locations, in different stages of life, different circle of friends and different perspectives on most things can come together to not only serve Him but become One in Christ, then there is nothing God can’t do. Women will always have walls or superficial lines that may separate them from each other, but as a child of God, you are not separated from His love. That love can conquer and supersede all differences. Why should we miss out on the blessings that God has in store for us? Look around you, there are women around that may surprise you and end up being true sisters for life. That is our hope for the women of Harvest. I know now, that He used our friendship through the ministry team to remind us of who He is and what He can do, so that we may be inspired to continue to make that possible among the women of Harvest and ultimately for His children everywhere.

Jen Cho
Women's Ministry

This is a video of some footage of friends of Harvest during their recent furlough in the states. As you watch this please remember to lift up not only their family, but each of the families that HCC is partnering with around the globe.