Harvest City Church in Regina, Saskatchewan

Into His Harvest

Into His Harvest is a training school commissioned to make Christlike, servant-leader disciples, by training them in God's truth and love. (See Ephesians 4:11-16.)

By applying the truth of God's Word - the Bible - in the atmosphere of His love, we are to lead participants into such an intimate, abiding relationship with Jesus Christ and such strong, loving relationships with one another that others to whom He sends us are also drawn close to Him.

To learn more about what Into His Harvest has to offer, please visit the Into His Harvest web site.

2010 Mission Team Blog ... watch for updates

L.A. Team #2... (Apr. 13)

Sorry that we haven't been able to send many updates. We have been keeping very busy and haven't had many chances or the internet access to send them.

We have really enjoyed our time here working with the dream center. It has been going by very quickly and our days have been quite full. Friday night we had the opportunity to go back to Skid Row (downtown LA where there are approx 10,000 homeless) and we were able to walk the streets handing out flavored water, beef sticks, invitations to church while sharing the love of Jesus. Following that outreach we went out again at 10:30pm to Hollywood Blvd to do street evangelism. The crowd we encountered there was a mixed group: tourists, homeless, the wealthy, and others from all walks of life. We spent a number of hours praying for people on the street. It seemed as though some would just come up to us and want to chat. Every morning in our team devotions, we have been asking God to show us people he wants us to speak to. That morning God had showed a member of our team a picture of a guy sitting on the street with a dog and his guitar. Sure enough this very same guy was sitting on Holywood blvd with a girl. This was a very powerful ministry opportunity as we ministered to these individuals through the prophetic and prayer. The girl accepted Christ that night!! The team really enjoyed ministering that night despite getting back close to 2am.

Saturday we helped with Adopt a Block. Many teams are sent to different areas in the city to clean up the area, hand out food and other items, and to minister to families and kids. Our team joined the group going to Jordan Downs, one of the projects in Waats. The team enjoyed playing with the kids, playing bball, and meeting families in the park or door to door.

Saturday late afternoon, we had some down time and headed back out at 1045pm for another late night to Santa Monica Blvd. We visited a few spots where we were able to minister to many homosexuals and trans-gendered individuals. This was an eye opening experience and we had many good conversations on the street. We were able to pray with some and had some great divine appointments where the holy spirit ministered through the team and touched lives.

Sunday after church we had some time off as a team and Monday there are no outreaches that take place at the Dream Center. We headed to Disney Land and hung out for the day with one of the Dream Center interns. He was a great guide as he's a disney junky and been there over 90 times.

This morning (Tuesday) we have been loading a food truck that will going out this afternoon. We will be helping out with the food distribution this afternoon. Tomorrow morning we will be heading on the road to make it home by Saturday. We feel like although our time has been short here that is was very full. The team is quite tired but still going strong. Thank you for your prayers.

See you back in Regina.

Surrey Update #3... (Apr. 13)

Hi again from Surrey. We have had a busy weekend. Friday afternoon the team split up and combed the area handing out flyers for FIC's free carwash and hotdogs and also to invite youth and young adults to the RECONNECT rally on Saturday evening. Friday night we joined in the Arabic service held at FIC and then were forced to eat again; a smorgasbord of ethnic food. The team enjoyed the worship even though we couldn't understand it and we continue to meet some really cool people. It seems they all have very interesting and often heart wrenching stories.

Saturday was busy getting the car wash set up and preparing for Reconnect. That afternoon, joined by their college and career, we washed 38 cars and gave away a lot of hotdogs and drinks. Thankfully we had sunshine unlike most of the days here that have been cold and dreary. The people that have said BC is nice lied to us... give us Saskatchewan, we are freezing! Saturday evening a large group of young people showed up for the rally and our IHH team put on most of the program. Aaron and Kim MC'd the evening and we had testimonies from Candy and Ryland and a short talk done by Lyle and Darlene. The evening went well with many youth responding by coming up for prayer by the Team. A few unsaved Muslim young men showed up because Ida and Aleah met them on the street and told them we were having a party at the church that night. One guy stuck around and was very interested in what was being spoken.

Sunday morning at FIC went well with the Team doing Sunday school in the second service with about 30 kids ranging in age from 3-13. Darlene and Lyle spoke in both services and had a good response to the message. Lyle managed to make sense and Darlene actually felt comfortable... Thank you for your prayers!! We went out for a quick dinner and then headed to White Rock and stared at the ocean and mountains for 30 minutes and then had to turn back around to be forced to eat again at another generous hosts home. We are overwhelmed by the hospitality in this church. We headed right after that to Nightshift again, after an unfortunate incident with the GPS and two bridges later... we helped serve the supper meal and hand out clothes to the homeless again. To finish off the day we stopped for bubble tea and then dropped off our weary campers for a quick sleep.

Today we were on the road at 7am to head to New Westminster Union Gospel Mission to do a short service where Lizzy, Aleah and Ryland did a couple worship songs and Ida shared her testimony- it was very good. We served breakfast and lunch to over 160 homeless people. We sorted supplies, cleaned and chatted it up. This kind of work is exhausting. Candy is off mop duty tomorrow, but Aaron still needs some bathroom cleaning experience. We spent a few hours in downtown Vancouver today, but most of us were too tired to do too much shopping. Parking is very expensive in downtown Vancouver especially when you don't read the signs and your vehicles end up in the hands of the city... In the evening we are helping do a kids program at FIC called Awana- the team will be doing Character Connex and helping with their weekly program. The team is doing well with just a few bumps along the way. God has His way of bringing things to the surface during a mission trip and the team is doing a great job supporting each other when those things come up. Keep praying for strength for us but also for breakthrough in our hearts- God always has a plan for us individually while doing missions to change our heart in some way. We also need help to stay focused these last few days, we are starting to peeter out...tonight will be an early night!

Tuesday we will visit Union Gospel Mission in the East Hastings area in Vancouver[the poorest postal code in Canada] in the morning and then head to China Town for supper and then back for College and Career that night.

Wed. we return to Nightshift and the Friendship Center to help out their ministries and in the evening we will be leading the FIC prayer meeting with a prophetic focus. We need help to finish strong. Bernard is heading to Zambia tomorrow, but we were glad he stuck around this week for us. Tim and very pregnant Ashley have been hanging out with us and helping alongside us, which has been great fun. It was especially great hearing Tim laugh during our sermon on Sunday- a friendly face from home.

Miss all you Reginians, be home soon!

Team Surrey

Surrey Update #2... (Apr. 9)

Day 4 here in Surrey... Hello from the IHH mission Team. The last few days have been busy for us as you would expect. On Wednesday the team visited Night watch - a ministry to the homeless here in surrey. We sorted through a hundred donated bags of clothes, cleaned and helped organize supplies. We aren't hardcore though as we did have to stop for a Tim's mid-afternoon... sorry Gary. In the evening we helped with the meal they serve to the homeless every night; we served soup, sandwiches and deserts. We had interesting chats with the different people that live on the streets here. Yesterday[Thursday] some of the team returned to night watch for more clothing distribution and office cleanup. The rest of us visited the Middle Eastern Friendship center; a ministry to immigrants that helps them with a variety of things including learning English and Arabic. People can come there to visit and have coffee and meet people. The team did some cleaning for the center and visited with some people. The couple that started this ministry came from Kuwait and were miraculously saved and brought to Canada. In the evening we visited the seniors bible study group here at FIC. This group of feisty seniors will give anybody a run for their money- we were blessed by amazing Indian and Filipino food and some good laughs. This morning we spent talking English with some moms here in the area with the newly started ESL ministry here at FIC. We had a great time interacting with them and sharing our personal stories. Lyle actually learned some English.

The Team is doing so well here. Gary, I am giving them all 10 out of 10 so far; yes it is true. I have only had to speak to Aaron because he wouldn't stop eating spicy samosas even though he was looking a little green around the gills. We are being treated well here, eating more than our present clothing will be able to contain. Ryland says he hasn't stopped feeling full since he got here- diddo that Ryland!

In between events we are taking time to pray for individuals here at FIC. The team is in great prophetic form- you would be proud Gary! Today we will be handing out flyers inviting the community to the free car wash tomorrow, and preparing for the Reconnect evening tomorrow night for the youth and young adults- please pray for us as we speak for this event- a number of us will be sharing and we need to know what God wants to do to minister to the group. We may have some unsaved there. Tonight we will join the Arabic Service held here at FIC and Lyle will be going with Bernard to a men's conference. Sunday I am preaching and Lyle will also be sharing. Please pray for us; we want to minister to brokenness in the service through what we are sharing, talking about how "what we believe" is so critical to how we live our lives.

Lyle and I are very blessed by this group of students. They are facing their fears of speaking, prophecying, and meeting new people. With a little prodding they are stepping up. We are having a great time here, Thank you Bernard and FIC for having us!

Darlene Reves
Team Surrey
We Believe 2010

L.A. Team Update #1... (Apr. 9)

Hey everybody,

Forgive the short update, but we have been too busy to get to a computer with internet and I'm having to do this over my blackberry. So my typing speed is down from 10 to 2 fingers.

We had a great trip up. No problems at the border and no problems with the vehicle. We spent the first night with the lifelinks church from Helena Montana and thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality. Stayed in a huge house with many dead animals on the walls...just like every other house in Montana:)

We arrived at the Dream Center on Wed. in time to join them on their Santa Monica beach outreach (I know...tough). It's estimated that there are over 100,000 homeless on the streets of LA. We invited some of them to a spot where we handed out food, blankets, candy and bags. The team had many opportunities to talk with the people there, pray for the sick, and minister as they were lead.

The next day we spent the morning with the Dream Center disciples - a 1 to 3 year program that takes willing participants off of the streets and gives them a chance to get their lives sorted out...especially their spiritual lives as the program is intense. Many success stories of redemption and restoration. They get up at 5 and do custodial work around the Dream Centre campus and surrounding area. We went with some of them and helped them clean up the neighborhood.

That afternoon didn't go according to plan as we missed our group at Venice beach by 30 seconds and couldn't find them again...it's a big beach. We ended up just doing our own outreach and found some people to pray for and talk to. The afternoon continued to go off schedule as we experienced 5 o'clock traffic in LA. 1 hour and 45 minutes later we had missed supper and the bus outreach that picks up people for Thursday night service. We did make the service however and enjoyed a great sermon on having total trust. A popular Christian artist Britt Nicole and top ten American idol star Michael something (sorry missed last season...the country guy) were there helping with worship and put on a mini concert after. It was fun.

This morning we headed out to skid row which is the poorest part of LA. We invited people out to a lunch that we are leaving to serve in about 10 minutes. We will be involved there tonight in some street outreach and then doing the same in Hollywood after that.

I just caught wind that Bill Johnson is speaking right by us as well and some of us may head out to catch that as it should be a good time.

Our trip slows down after adopt a block and a red light outreach on sat as there's not much to do around here on Sunday and Mondays.

The team is getting in there - serving their hearts out, ministering to people and having fun doing it.

Appreciate your prayers and support.

We'll probably update you again soon.

Surrey Update #1... (Apr. 8)

Well ... it's day one of mission trip to Surrey, B.C. and we all made it here safely!! The flight was good. Aleah had some issues with her ears and Kim with her stomach, but other than that everything went smoothly. Aaron was very excited for his first plane ride and for the majority of the time he did a play by play commentary!!

We had a couple issues with the GPS but we made it to the church with not too many complications! GPS is amazing and it saved us from many unnecessary headaches, well except for Darlene who continues to argue with hers. Fleetwood International Church (FIC), pastored by our own Bernard Mukwavi, was very excited to meet us. FIC is what Bernard calls a bapticostal church, which is predominately Filipino. The church was originally a Filipino church but has since become very multi-cultural. For all of us IHH alumni who were in class with Bernard ... well he is living what he talked to us about in cross cultural class. The world has come to FIC and we are getting a cross cultural experience for sure. April (our main contact) was here to greet us with a huge smile as soon as we pulled up. After being fed an amazing meal, we quickly went over our schedule for the next two weeks.

Darlene, Ashley Symons, Candy and Sean went out to stock pile food for the two weeks, while Lyle, Kim, Aleah, Aaron, Lizzie, Ida and Ryland stayed at the church to help plan the youth event for this coming weekend.

It is a little overwhelming to try and remember all the names of the people we have met in the last 24 hours, but we feel so blessed to be part of the church family for the next two weeks.

After a short break and then another amazing meal cooked for us, we met up with the College & Career group. This group is made up of adults from 18-35. There worship team was amazing and seemed to be very on fire for God. Lyle did a talk on prophesy and how he has heard from God. He also got a quick testimony from each team member as to how they hear from God. Darlene headed up an activation teaching the group how to prophesy for each other by just simply writing out a prayer for a partner and then changing it to a prophecy. The team worked alongside them to help them with it.

Lyle ended up picking out two of the adults from the group to be prophesied over. They were really impacted and as a whole, the group is feeling very inspired to continue to expand their prophetic abilities. April told us later that the 2 people we picked out to minister to would have been two of their young adults that she would have picked for us the pray over and we were, "bang on" in what the team spoke and prayed over them. This was a huge encouragement to us as a team on our first day. We have a big youth and young adult night this Saturday and they are now looking forward to what god is going to do then, pray for us!

Once the night was over, the students were picked up by their billets for a much needed sleep. It seems like everyone here lives in mansions. The houses are all very beautiful and the families are very friendly. We count ourselves so blessed to be staying with such amazing families.

Ida came down with pneumonia in one lung right before we left on the trip but after praying for her yesterday, she is beginning to feel better. Please just continue to pray for her health and for the health of the whole group.

Thank you for blessing us with your continued prayer and stay tuned for day 2!!

IHH Students are off... (Apr. 7)

Hello all, just letting you know that both of the IHH mission teams have left.

The L.A. team left early in the morning on Easter Monday and should be somewhere in Utah right now. They are expected to reach L.A. today so please continue to pray for safe journey mercies.

Also, the Surrey team left for their flight yesterday morning and are going to be busy ministering at Bernard Mukwavi's church today. Please also pray as one of the team members is battling with pnemonia.

Thanks everyone for your prayers and I will continue to send updates regularly.

Blessings,

Shannon