If you attend any of the Easter weekend services at Heritage Christian Church you may be in for a surprise. No, the Easter Bunny is not going to make an appearance with chocolate eggs and marshmallow “Peeps” and there won’t be an Easter Egg Hunt. But you may see something a little unusual.
Starting with their Saturday Night service April 15th and continuing through the following weekend, a few members of Heritage will be accessorizing their Easter outfits with tool belts. Yes, tool belts. Members of Heritage’s summer missions team heading for Mexico this June and July will be building a replica of the houses Heritage builds in Reynosa and Juarez, Mexico.
The house that Heritage provides through a partnership with Tennessee-based Mission Discovery is what most of us would consider nothing more than a tool shed. “Last year when we opened the door to let the family see their new home they were overwhelmed with gratitude and tears,” said Scott Marchman, who was on last year’s team. “The joy over their new house just pierced my heart and I had to walk away to compose myself. What I used to think was a nice house changed at that moment because what I consider a tool shed was beyond their wildest dreams as a home.”
Members of both the Reynosa and Juarez mission teams participate at their own expense and by fund-raising events. “At Heritage our mission is to ‘Win, Build, and Send servants for Jesus Christ,’” states Senior Minister Greg Marksberry. “We encourage our members to contribute to the cause of Christ by meeting the needs of others in a variety of ways. Here in Fayette County we have different needs that we meet. In Mexico, we build houses.”
The house that will be built over Easter and the following weekend will be part of a prayer walk that circles the lake on Heritage’s property. Once completed, the prayer walk will be open to the community. It will feature different prayer stations along the path and at the “missions station” the house will represent those less fortunate than us and a time to ask God what we can do to help them.
When asked why Easter weekend was chosen to build the house, Executive Minister Dr. Jim Sloderbeck replied, “A lot of people visit churches for the first time on Easter and we thought this was the best way to let our guests know what we are all about. We certainly don’t want them to think we dress up and wear ties every Sunday around here, but we are most certainly committed to serving.”
Heritage’s Easter weekend services begin Saturday April 15th at 6:30 p.m. and continue on Sunday at 9 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. For more information, call 770-716-5768 or visit www.heritagechristian.org