BACKGROUND

For years, Christians have prayed to reach the nations, and today God has brought the nations to us. As one of the largest centers of immigration in the United States, Minneapolis is a melting pot of culture, religion and language.

* More than 225,825 people involved in world religions meeting in 174 different temples, mosques, synagogues, or groups.
* The largest Hmong, Somali, and Ethiopian concentration of any U.S. city.
* One of the largest growing Hispanic populations in the U.S.
* The second largest Tibetan Buddhist population in the U.S.
* A growth of more than 105% in world religion worship sites over the past 5 years.
* 13,000 international students.
* 136 different language groups

Although the reasons bringing people to this country vary from a pursuit of education, employment, asylum and beyond, they all come to this nation seek a life of freedom and seeking hope. As Christians, we can offer true freedom and the only Hope. Global Harvest exists to present the redemptive message of Jesus Christ in a dynamic and relevant way that crosses all cultural and linguistic barriers.

THE DREAM

The preparation for the fulfillment of this vision began in 1996, when Pastor Earnest first came to the United States. He came with this word from the Lord: "Son, I will give you the land that you step foot on."

Initial observation of the United States was that there was great division and segregation between people of different nationalities, but while in college he was exposed to different cultures and saw the unity Christ can bring. He began to understand that God called Abraham that through him the nations of the world might be blessed, and likewise God was calling him that he might bless the nations.

In 2003 as he was driving through the Twin Cities, Pastor Earnest had a vision of people from every nation, tribe and tongue coming together to worship the Lord in unity, and immediately a story came to mind. When God gave the Israelites instructions to worship it was to replicate the worship that was in heaven. Pastor Earnest heard God say, "Son, I want this to be a rehearsal of heaven, I want to see My church experience this unity between denominations, language and ethnic group, among color, culture, caste and class today." And not in the regions beyond; God was calling him to be a missionary in "Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria," and the Twin Cities was his Jerusalem - it was where God placed him.

He began to pray about it. Soon after, during early morning prayer with church leaders, Pastor Clarence St. Johns, Minnesota District Superintendent of Assemblies of God, approached Pastor Earnest and shared that God had put on his heart a desire that a leader would be raised up who would reach the international community in the Twin Cities, a confirmation of what had been placed on Pastor Earnest's heart. Because Crossroads Church in Prior Lake was a mother church to him while in college, they began to support this vision and the calling God had placed on him, and after much prayer and consultation with pastoral leaders, a handful of people began meeting together at Crossroads Church on January 31, 2004.

In May 2004, he resigned his job at Minnesota Teen Challenge in order to give himself fully to the ministry God had called him to. That morning as he knelt down to pray he asked God what he was to do with the responsibility given to him. Why did God call him here and what did He want him to do? The passage in Isaiah 43 was impressed on his heart and he turned to read it. There, he saw that God was calling people from north and south, east and west. "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth-- everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf. All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble." (vv 5-9)

The first goal was to build a strong team and then go to the area of the community God desired us to be in. We were praying that God would give us a place where nations could meet together and a key location seemed to be the International Airport and Bloomington area because of the growing Hispanic, Muslim, African and Asian community. Pastor Earnest and Bob Frankhauser met with Pastor Jerry Strandquist, senior pastor of Cedar Valley Church in Bloomington. Pastor Strandquist was excited about the vision and encouraged us in fulfilling the responsibility to reach those God put in our lives today, also offering us the use of part of their church for our services.

On April 29, 2006, our first service was held at Cedar Valley Church in Bloomington, meanwhile, God was refining the vision we had: to reach the nations in the Twin Cities community (including Americans), preaching the gospel without compromise, bringing unity among diversity, and doing incarnational ministry among the people group God has given us. We believe that if we are to effectively present the gospel it must be in a culturally and ethnically relevant way, according to language and background, and so on September 10, 2006 we started a Tamil service alongside our international service, the first Tamil church in Minnesota. At the same time we started working among the Hispanic families in our community, of whom many of the children attend our services. Our goals for this year are to concentrate our efforts on the Hispanic families we are building relationships with, moving beyond evangelism to true discipleship and mentoring. We desire to begin Spanish services in the near future among many other things, but we are taking this land the Lord has promised for our inheritance one step at a time.