Annual Harvest Fest: A 20-Year Tradition and Running

Halloween arrived early this year at the Redlands Christian Center. The Christian community came together to organize their Annual Harvest Festival, a tradition that has taken place for over 20 years. The festival always takes place the Sunday before Halloween to give the community the opportunity to take their children trick-or-treating the night of Halloween. All around the church, booths offered a variety of games for children ranging from a fishing pond to pin the tail on the pumpkin. Other areas of the festival provided supplies for cookie decorating and volunteers could be found in the corner doing face painting. A small section was closed off for the food, where families could purchase affordable plates for all members of the family. Tara Fernandez, coordinator of the Children’s Ministry and the Annual Harvest Fest, says that the festival was created to give their community a fun and safe place to come together and celebrate Halloween. Fernandez hopes that through the festival they can reach out to people who don’t have a home church and invite them to become part of their church. The community that surrounds the Redlands Christian Center, according to Fernandez, is made up of mostly lower-income families. Fernandez strongly believes that these families need fun and exciting events that are free, which is why the Annual Harvest Fest is completely free except for the food. The profit from the food plates is split between the Children’s Ministry and the church’s philanthropy, an orphanage in Uganda, to which the church donates throughout the year. Fernandez said, “Last year we sent about $150 to them and we are hoping this year to make an even bigger donation to the orphanage.” At around 6:30 p.m., the games shut down and the attendees were invited into the church for a short puppet show telling the story of Lazarus being brought back from the dead by Jesus. Through the puppet shows, the Children’s Ministry hopes to teach the importance of the Gospel. Fernandez hopes that the people who enter the church can become Christians and learn that eternal life can be reached through Jesus Christ. “The point of a church is to reach people, give them hope, and show them the love of Jesus Christ,” Fernandez says. The Redlands Christian Center invites all families in the surrounding community to join “a loving church” where the love of God grows every day.