Harvest Worship Center hosts ground breaking ceremony almost 6 years after Hurricane Michael

BAY COUNTY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – The former Harvest Worship Center was built to withstand 130-mile-an-hour winds. It was previously used as a hurricane shelter, housing 21 people when Hurricane Michael hit.

Those taking shelter all survived, but the facility did not. They said they felt the building coming apart under the force of Michael’s winds, nearly 160 miles an hour.

“We had a 400-seat sanctuary. We went down to 100 seats when the storm happened. We had four buildings on the property. Three of them were damaged beyond repair. They had to be demolished. We had one building remaining, which was our old preschool building it was damaged. We had to repair it,” Pastor John Ramsey said. They have been rebuilding ever since.

“It’s a long, tiring process. And it begins when you pick up the first piece of debris, the first stick. That’s really when you begin rebuilding so we’ve been rebuilding for six years and counting,” Ramsey said.

Monday morning the church took a huge step in that rebuilding journey, the groundbreaking ceremony for what they’re calling “The ‘H’ project.”

The church raised almost $1 million to build the new sanctuary and new preschool, the funds make up 25% of what FEMA granted them. The ‘H’ project will be completed in two phases.

“Phase one will be a new sanctuary, almost exactly the same square footage as our old sanctuary. But it’s also going to include a fellowship area so we can start our back-to-school program again. And it’ll have a new kitchen, which we’ll also use for our preschool and church events as well. It’s a multipurpose building that’s phase one,” Ramsey said.

Phase two will focus on the new school, including 15 new classrooms. Phase one is expected to be complete in 14 months.

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