One of the events I look forward to every year is the SoCal Harvest Crusade at Angel Stadium. First, I just want to say if you’ve never been, you should go some time. It’s free, there’s great music and for many, it’s a life-changing event. Every year thousands of people come from all over just to attend the Harvest Crusade. This year alone there were over 100,000 people that attended the three-day event. At this point, some of you might be saying, “What does this have to do with wedding photography?”. Quite frankly, everything.
The Harvest Crusades exists as an opportunity for the Gospel message to be shared. For me, it was my faith in Christ that not only changed my life but was the very thing that got me into photography. Those of you that know me, know that I fell in love with photography while on a mission trip to Haiti in 2010 after the devastating earthquake. You can read more about it on the “about me” page. But to answer the question, I got into wedding photography as a result of being on a mission trip and then practicing my photography skills at church with random people. Eventually, a couple from church asked me to do their wedding and Three16 Photography was born. It has now been 5 years since my initial love for photography began and it has been an amazing 5 years! But with that said, though I am passionate about photography I am very passionate about my faith as my relationship with Christ saved my life.
Long before I was a Christian I was an angry teenager and a proud atheist. Yet my life radically changed and through the crazy journey of life, I have found hope in Christ. With that said, I wanted to share about the ministry of the Harvest Crusades and Greg Laurie.
This year marks the 26th anniversary of the Harvest Crusade here in Southern California. Every summer there are exciting things happening in Orange County but for the last few years, I have had the blessed opportunity to help out with the Harvest Crusade. Each summer Harvest Christian Fellowship in connection with several other churches rent out Angel Stadium for three days. During those three days, there are several bands that come to play, hundreds of volunteers give of their time, and various organizations that come to show support and Gospel message preached by Greg Laurie.
At the end of each night’s message, Pastor Greg invites those who would like to come forward to accept Christ into their life. For three nights out of every summer the Angel’s outfield is not filled up with ballplayers and the roars of the crowd aren’t because of Mike Trout soaring through the air to make a catch. Rather the outfield is overflowing with people crying tears of joy, people glowing with excitement, and people coming together in unity with love as a family of Christ.
There is no requirement to come to a Harvest Crusade, it’s free and open to anyone who wants to attend. If you look around the stadium during a Harvest Crusade you’ll quickly realize that it’s a stadium full of different people. Some have heartbreaking stories of pain and suffering, others are young and haven’t experienced much life yet, others are old and are taking one day at a time, some are a part of gangs, others wealthy, there are those that are deaf, and those that blind and there are those that come as an atheist just to be in protest of what the Harvest Crusades stand for.
I can tell you, regardless of who you are, what you’ve been through, or what you are going through you will see someone on that field that you can relate to giving their life to Christ. Every year, lives are changed forever. This year I had the opportunity to photograph the Harvest Crusade as it happened. If you’d like to see the pictures from the 2015 SoCal Harvest Crusade please visit the gallery at the bottom of this blog.
LIVES FOREVER CHANGED.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
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About the Author:
Jerrick O’Connor is the owner of Three16 Photography and has 15 years of experience in the world of photography. He specializes in Weddings, Engagements, Family and Corporate photography and loves connecting small business owners with other small business owners in hopes they can benefit each other’s production. When he’s not working, you can find him spending time with his wife Josie, playing board games or just spending time with his many friends.
