Jan and I heeded God's call to establish a church on the first Sunday of October 2009.  Little did we know, but God had been grooming us for this call for many years.  The thought had never crossed our minds through the 40 years of itinerate evangelism and after ministering in 47 nations around the world, God stopped us in our tracks with that heart stirring call.  After much prayer, advice from spiritual people that we valued their council, and a release to those who we felt we were accountable to, HARVEST CHAPEL of VENICE was launched.  We have just celebrated our third anniversary and we are still amazed at the people God has hand picked to be a part of the church family.  God has given us people from every walk of life and from so many denominational backgrounds.  After traveling and ministering in every kind of church and denomination, we had discovered that there were people in all of them that loved God and one thing in our lives that was missing was a loving church family.  All we had known for our entire ministry was, travel, set up, minister, tear down, travel and continue on the move, saying "Hello" and "Good bye" to the greatest people on the face of the earth.

Over the last twenty years we did notice a major change in the church, and that is in every kind and type of church.  It had dawned on the leadership of the "CHURCH" that the congregations were aging and the younger generation was not attracted to the church.  So, leaders decided to RE-FOCUS and target the youth.  That was a noble quest, but the Pendulum of Change swung so far to the young people that the older congregation (who had been faithful, visionary and had sacrificed for years to build the building) were told that if they didn't like the new direction of the church they could leave.  So many were broken hearted and felt betrayed.  Sure, while some were against any change most were open to including an outreach to the younger generation.  However, the new direction did not include any form of worship, music or reverence that the faithful seniors had grown to love.  We notice that so many 50 plus saint of God received no consideration and many just stop going to church at all.  Our vision was an Interdenominational Heritage Church for ALL AGES and we have experienced a steady growth over these three wonderful years.

I have said all that to let the many friends we have made all across the nation, that our travels are limited now as we have taken on pastoring the church.  Yes, we still do ministry periodically and especially in close proximity to our home here in Venice, Florida.  Although we do miss seeing and ministering in all of the great open doors offer to us through the years, we know we are directly in the center of God's will for us at Harvest Chapel.  So, to all the amazing people we have met and love throughout our itinerate years, please know that you are in our hearts and in our thoughts.  When you can, please stay in touch with us at your conveyance.  Our e-mail address has not changed: phil@philenloe.com or jan@philenloe.com.  God bless.