Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Easter this year

I want to begin by telling everyone thank you that had any part of preparing for Easter at Crossroads.

Those who developed and created the concept of 'the frame'; our amazing musicians and vocalists; talented technical teams hidden behind sound and lighting boards and in the video booth; the brave people that shared their story so others could 'hang up' their sin struggles; the friends that came and hung up 4,000 cards and laid down pens and 4,000 more cards under chairs; the delicious food lovingly prepared and donated so all the people serving 2 services on Saturday didn't have to worry about eating ahead of time; a creative Pastor interested in developing the message to support a different way of telling the precious Easter story; volunteers instructing attendees where to go and what to do inside the building and outside; volunteers cleaning between services trying to make everyone's experience excellent; and an amazing children's staff and volunteers giving up their seats to care for children and make sure they also had a excellent God-filled experience with us.

I wanted you all to know that all of your work was rewarded by multiple people who accepted Jesus and will spend eternity with you in heaven - so thank you for all the work that went into this past weekend by all of you!  Praise Him!!!

Staff taking time out from programming to add higher
legs to our runway!

Arnie and Ron getting the new screen in place.

Precious friends serving and making my life easier!

No one has an excuse not to serve, even a 1 year old
helped me carry our newly painted frames into Crossroads!
Long before our services come together - the design work happens!
We're always working on the 'next thing' in the middle of current projects.

Pastor Dave did an outstanding job explaining the real meaning of Easter and what it means to each of us!


I loved this song withe Biblical footage - way to go Kym!

Amazing praise team.

Tammy was such a brave girl to share her story - other people are already talking
to her about their own experiences with abuse!

My amazing new friends backstage with me, waiting to tell their stories.
These people are some of our Celebrate Recovery service leaders each Friday night such strong
people willing to face their struggles and put God first in their lives!

The drum feature was a hit!

Everyone's cards were private and completely unknown to us who wrote what
but as I removed the cards from one of the services, I remembered that
I saw a very small boy lifted up by his mom hang a card in this area of the room.
I assumed this was his card based on the spelling of 'anger'.  THIS was my
favorite card - precious!

Our Children's ministry is so amazing - and Jeanette Chase made these
among many other cute treats for our Children's workers!
Darren - our faithful drummer extraordinaire!

In the middle of any project we still try to make room for family time!

egg making at Grandmas



















Easter morning before attending church.

Neighborhood park!

Sunday afternoon Easter egg hunt at Grandma Gatton's

Something from the Children's Ministry that turns tongues blue!

Birthday celebration a must!

Mother and Daughter enjoying the party!
It's interesting how personally our families' frames have changed this year...no new pictures to frame of my dad goofing around with great-grandbabies and posing with us kids as well as other unexpected changes.

Time changes what's in the frames in our homes but even more important than any of that is what Pastor Dave challenged us with, what are we holding on to in our lives?  What's in the frame of our lives?  Is Christ the center of our personal portrait?  An on-going challenge for sure not just at Easter but an everyday challenge.