when it's undeniably Divine

For those of you that I've had a chance to directly talk to about Jocelyn and Jared's marriage, I've described it as a Fairy Tale, too good to be true.  And it continues to be so...

As I talked to Jared's family when we were there recently, his father again described to me the impression they all had when meeting Jocelyn for the first time years ago in Cambodia.  His father talked about the comments he made to his family about Jocelyn being perfect for his oldest son Jared, and said he couldn't stop thinking about that possibility.   Later of course they found out she was married and obviously gave up on the idea, but the Lord didn't.

When Joci first told me she was talking to a guy on-line that contacted her when he saw that she had adopted Trinity as a singe mom, I thought to myself "please Lord - not someone on-line", then I realized whose family he was a part of and hope again filled my heart for my daughter and grand-daughter.  Jared was interested in adoption or fostering as a single dad and wanted to know more.

It fills my heart with worship as the full understanding of the fact that all these years after our two families first met in Cambodia, God already knew our kids would spend the rest of their lives together...  and as we prepare to say goodbye to our girls 2 weeks from now,  our hearts are totally at peace despite how far God's chosen to move them.

Today as she lead us in worship I praised the Lord that we've had her here in Mansfield for most of her life.  I thanked Him that we got to watch her become a mother and how unbelievably natural she is with her daughter, and thanked Him that she's spiritually so mature and ready to be used of Him somewhere new.

This weekend was the last music package that she will plan for Crossroads and lead for one of our worship services and it was amazing!

I have loved worshipping with our daughter

Ernesto and Jocelyn delivered a powerful thematic song that stated "We all bleed the same" challenging our congregation to
avoid the sin of partiality!

Our precious, faithful team!

I'll never stop being amazed at the time our team members
give to serving at Crossroads on top of busy work schedules and life!

Set List:

Lord I Need You
From the Inside Out
Resurrecting
Broken Vessels

Video:  Guatemala Volcano Relief
Announcements including special offering for Volcano relief

Bleed The Same

Reluctant Followers: Pt. 5 The Partial Game - Mike Mahek

Exit song:  Bleed the Same

To watch our service on-line go to crossroadswired.com

weekend report

Well, not sure where to begin!  It was a weekend full of blessings, so I guess I'll write about our service first and then show you the rest of our blessings in another post.

Twice each year when there is a 5th weekend we do a Student Takeover where the students run most of the areas of the church, but this one was especially special.  This was the first time Students lead worship alone without any of our worship leaders helping them on stage.  And they were amazing!

They parked cars, welcomed everyone, worked in the Coffee House, ran cameras, video directed, ran lights helped with audio, sang and played in the band, there were students that cooked breakfast for the teams and then did all the clean up.  We even opened with our children's choir and had a child dedication lead by our Family Ministry Director, Jeanette Chase while Mike Mahek our generations pastor continued teaching in our HOME series - thematically everything supported one another beautifully.

The congregation talked about how much hope it gave them to see students loving Jesus and they talked about the encouragement it brought them, so good!  Take a look!

These were our front door greeters in their HELLO T-shirts - so good!

The first thing that greeted you was our student parking team!

Dan, Milo and Joci loved working with the kids and when I looked at
them it seriously looked like proud parents looking at their kids!
Tremendous leaders!

Our children's choir opened the service with a beautiful worship song.

Today was a special Child Dedication for us as our daughter dedicated her daughter Trinity - it was a huge blessing to see
these parents make a commitment to lead their children toward the Lord!

The adults worked to get the pastor's mic working correctly,
but - funny we were the only ones struggling with equipment!

Jocelyn lead the pre-service meeting, and let me tell you, it takes a huge amount of focus to review
each element in the services including transitions and covering all their work in prayer.

Student enjoying running one of the cameras.

Running audio is not an easy job!

Camera student #2 on Camera 1

Running the video switcher is big work!

Running the CG (character generator) requires great focus!

MacKenzie read from God's Word as part of the worship team -
and we got to celebrate her birthday with her! Not sure how
many teens would tie up a birthday to serve the Lord!

The most precious moment of the weekend for me
personally, was witnessing my daughter dedicating her
precious daughter to the Lord!

Child Dedication was the perfect fit on a weekend we were studying the family!

Our students pictured here and below have become very dependable leaders!

Students lead us well!

Pastor's son Jacob was one of our excellent drummers!

Our setlist:

One Thing Remains - Children's Choir
Child Dedication (9:00 a.m. only) - Jeanette Chase, Family Ministry Director
Announcements - Jesse Rider - High School Student Ministry independent
Alive
Glorious Day
Scripture reading - MacKenzie
When the Fight Calls
Anchor
Message:  HOME series - Mike Mahek
Exit Song - Alive

To watch our ministry on-line go to crossroadswired.com

weekend report

It was a special weekend with Angie back on the team and her husband Mike Mahek teaching!  We always love the choir so oh how we worshipped at Crossroads this past weekend!

Our setlist:

Announcements - Linnell Allred

Lean on Me/Brother
Open Up the Heavens
Have It All
Holy, Holy, Holy
Unbroken Praise
Pastoral Prayer
Message: Perspective : Mike Mahek - Generations Pastor
Exit Song: Unbroken Praise

It was good to be in the house of the Lord!

To watch our services go to crossroadswired.com

To see what other ministries used in their services go to www.theworshipcommunity.com