Members of the Times Square Church came from the far reaches, Kenya to Puerto Rico, Trinidad to Tobago, Barcelona to Brooklyn, no matter what part of the globe they originated, they had one thing in common, to serve God.
     The non-denominational church of 103 nationalities, based in New York City in the center of Times Square, drove sixteen hours to the hollows of Kentucky, specifically to Mount Vernon, to work with volunteers and staff of the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) in construction of a home for a participant family in CAP’s Housing program.
     “One of the most interesting revelations about this project, has been learning the importance of standards, rulers, measurements and how you must follow guidelines in order for the foundation to set straight and the construction to be stable, it’s also like that with faith, you must stay in the boundaries, follow the rules and remain in the borders of the Bibical teaching.” commented Gail Shelby, a resident of Manhattan and first time construction worker.
     The group of multi-lingual, multi-cultural New Yorkers, set up camp with the Faith Harvest Fellowship, in Mount Vernon, a relatively new church that opened their arms to the band of eager servants.
     Faith Harvest Fellowship is led by Rev. Mike Bryant, a former social worker and police officer, who founded his church on the basis of serving the down-trodden, overlooked, indigent and forgotten. His ministry serves various areas of the community, such as: prison outreach at the local jail; a women’s group; men’s group; cell ministry and a number of other programs just getting launched. In an interesting parallel, Times Square Church is similar to Faith Harvest in that Times Square Church was founded by David Wilkerson in looking to reach out to runaways, drug addicts and the street population of NYC’s Times Square area.
     “It was really a blessing and God-send for Rev. Bryant to offer their church facility and support to this group of volunteers.” stated Sherry Allen, manager of CAP’s volunteer houses. “It is CAP’s hope that more churches will come to participate in aiding those church groups who come to offer help and assistance to our community.”
     Christian Appalachian Project, is a non-profit, inter-denominational service organization, which seeks to help the people of Appalachia help themselves, through education, crisis intervention and community development.