a different Christmas

 This will be a different Christmas for sure!  

My daughter's first baby arrived early so I had the privilege of being down in NC with her for the past week 1/2.  What a joy to see how amazing she and Jared are parenting this little one, already pointing him to Jesus!  I have loved every moment of it!

Being here also means I'm less involved then normal with Crossroads' Christmas.  I still have responsibilities but missing all the final meetings and tweaks to the plans.  Christmas was always one of my favorite ministry seasons although some of the pastor's I've worked with didn't particularly love it - ha ha!

It's always a magnificent thing to watch everything fall into place as God's hand touches our work and forms it into exactly what His will is.  None of us ever dreamed COVID would still be controlling much of what is happening around us by December, but alas it is.  Still, I see God's leading even in things like Pastor Dave's suggestion for live animals this year - and the fact that they have to be outside.  This removed all worry about COVID by wearing masks and being spread out from one another in the fresh air!

It gives everyone at Crossroads the opportunity to invite anyone they've been wanting to invite to church to stop by...even if it's just to see the animals!  Please use this opportunity to invite families, even if you don't think they'll stay for the service it may be Step #1 in getting them to Crossroads.  Meanwhile inside the Gospel of Jesus will be celebrated through beautiful song and God filled teaching! 

Everything we plan is intentional, everything pointing them to the Savior! We'll have people out with our animals in front of the church to welcome everyone and chat with them about Christ's birth - we just need you to help us get those people here!  We'll even have a camel!

Remember if you invite people with Elementary aged kids or younger, there will be children's services just for them at all of the 5:00 p.m. services - December 22, 23 & 24.  

Even in the ugliness of all the sickness, we can still safely worship and honor King Jesus while remaining a safe distance from one another! I'll be back from NC soon and hope to see you there!

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

my day off

Today I will be spending the day taking my mom for follow up doctor appointments.

As any thoughts arise wondering when I'm going to have time to accomplish the things in my own home that I'd love to get done, I remind myself of all the friends that would give anything to spend any kind of time with mom's who are gone.

I've had various girlfriends through the years that lost mom's at pretty early ages.  Mom's that missed their graduations, mom's that were not there when they needed boyfriend advice and mom's that weren't there for their weddings.  I can't imagine...

I've told girls in my lives more than once that I'm not a very good girl-friend because of how close I am with my mom, sister and daughter, they fill my 'girl need'.  But I realize I am in a season where I'm going to look for opportunities to serve more women - to share what I've learned from being close to my family.  To encourage and possibly help them with relationships they find themselves in.

As I get to spend a day serving my mom, I'll remember all the motherless girls I know and thank God for her and honor her anyway I can.  And I'll be even more dedicated to cherishing every minute I get.

Cherish those girls around you today - all the ladies God has placed in your lives whether they're family or not.  May we all be Proverbs 31 ladies and be used to serve others pointing them toward the Lord with our actions and our words!

my day off

These have been a remarkable few days.

From the certainty of my dad's passing, even medical professionals certain of it - to a family birthday party just a week later with dad comfortable in his own home....what a week it has been!

Dad is still very fragile - and exhausted easily - but very comfortable and for that I am more thankful then I can possibly say!  And because he's doing better right now, we headed over tonight.

We celebrated our daughter Jocelyn's birthday.

Every time another year passes I love her more.  I am SO thankful for the ability to live close by and to have such a close relationship with her.  She inspires me each time we talk and challenges me to be better and to consider new things.

She wanted to be with her grandpa tonight for her birthday, and I am praising the Lord for that opportunity!  She loves him.

It's been a roller coaster ride the past week and a half - but it was a special birthday evening for her.  An evening none of us took for granted - an evening although extremely simple - we won't soon forget!

my day off

I'm finished with all the Christmas decorating I will do this year.  It's simple - consisting mainly of twinkle lights and old items saved from years past.  I added nothing new.  I like that.

Now I sit, which I haven't done in a while and reflect on the whirlwind of the past couple of weeks.

Just days ago you heard me describe my communion with the Lord on a level that I hadn't experienced in a while - while we were on vacation.  Not because He did anything different or moved closer toward me.  But because I was available.

I came home fully rested, renewed and ready.

The blessings that I've experienced since vacation have been too numerous to count.

The ones that come to mind are my job at Crossroads - working with people I adore, and last week working with Dr. Kevin Leman.  This man is a riot while being a wealth of knowledge and accomplishment yet remaining very approachable and Godly.  I LOVED my time working with him.

Following that weekend event, we created our Christmas set design discovering things I didn't know our Environmental Projection was capable of doing and continued working on Christmas@Crossroads.

This was a very special weekend, as I got to watch the young worship adults from the Student Ministry at Crossroads lead our congregation in worship!  Knowing we have this kind of young adult base gives testimony to the fact that we have a very healthy ministry.  Of course the biggest blessing to me personally was that my son and daughter and son-in-law were part of that team.  There is perhaps no greater earthly blessing than to watch your kids serve their Lord!

And finally yesterday we celebrated Katie and Garrett's wedding.  These are both Crossroads young adults that discovered one another after being at Crossroads together for years.  What a great night it was as I watched one of the girls that I got to build into during times of single girls groups and doing ministry together!  She deserved a great guy like Garrett!

And now, on my day off, we get to meet with a beautiful lady from across the world, who is here in the states for a short time.  Tutu is one of the most giving - loving - Godly ladies I've every known.  She serves with Asia's Hope in Thailand.  She hosted our kids years ago when they served 2 weeks with her.  So we'll all get to be with her in just a couple of hours!

The Church is not a building, it's God's people serving and caring for one another.  Gathering on the weekends to learn and to fellowship with one another.

If all you do is attend a church, but your life isn't connected to what God's doing during the week through that body of believers, then you're not partaking in what God intended for His Church.

I invite you perhaps as a New Year's resolution to get involved, really involved and begin not only to serve others, but to experience God's family in it's fullest!  It will change your life...forever!

happy and sad

Is it possible to be both happy and sad at the same time?  I think I am…

I am SO happy and blessed to have our son Eric in our Christmas production this year at Crossroads!!  I told Pastor Tim today - wait until your kids become adults and they start to lead YOU in church.  It's just something that's indescribable!

At the same time I am missing our daughter and her husband more than I can possibly describe!  I don't understand why the Christmas holiday makes me so homesick for them?  Our family gets together constantly so it's not like we only do at the holidays…I guess it does hold special memories.

With my mom facing surgery this Thursday I have to remember that it's an unusual Christmas anyway. A Christmas of

Daughter

Another day is drawing to an end in Battangbam.  Surrounded by laughter and dancing and children every where I found a couple of hours to be alone with my daughter.

We shopped for household goods and gifts and talked non-stop.  We went back to where she and her hubby will live and cleaned and set up her kitchen, I was so thankful for this time together.

It seems like yesterday she was tiny, following me everywhere I went singing at the top of her lungs unafraid of what anyone might think.

She's still that way - unafraid, determined and confident.   And soon the greatest opportunity, in my opinion, of her life will begin.  To take God's message of hope and love to an unloved area of the world. An area even today bracing for political unrest and expected uprisings as the result of the latest election.

I couldn't be more proud of the calling on her and her husband's life.  I know it's of God and that He wants them there.  Even this week they've had additional job offers and opportunities they knew nothing about when they left America last week.  It takes my breath away.

We are called to raise our children to release them, not hold onto them.  I'm still learning this and will continue.

I'm watching her now across the room and can see her as a little girl again...but today I walked the dusty streets of Cambodia with a grown woman of God, a woman who can teach me far

more than I ever taught her.

creating Christmas

Tonight I stayed just a little while longer to go over a few remaining Christmas service creative details at Crossroads.  Little did I know it would be a unexpected night of deep rewarding conversation.

I had one quick technical meeting planned, but that had to wait when I ran into a friend at The Coffee House that needed to chat.  I spent time encouraging them and discussing things to come and tried to catch up since we hadn't spent much time together recently.

Next my Tech appointment arrived.  We spent time looking at the small behind-the-scenes details that we prayed would make Crossroads' Christmas weekend an extremely meaningful night and just a huge blessing to all who attend!

Finally, the best surprise of all.

Following these meetings I found myself alone in The Coffee House with my daughter, just the two of us talking until it was time to close down shop.  It's funny how you can be 'around' someone an awful lot and still not communicate as deeply as you'd like due to busyness.  An amazing ending to a busy day!

Creating Christmas always holds within it many roadblocks, usually one of our team battling illness or an unexpected difficulty, and a few disappointments of projects not coming together, but in the end all the little meetings, talks and time spent creating all come together in the Savior's hands as He accepts our work and uses it as He will.

The creative process is amazing to watch and a blessing to be a part of as we cover the services with prayerful expectations of hope returned to the hopeless and lives changed forever.

Mark your calendars for Friday - Monday, December 21 -24 @7:00 p.m.  at Crossroads

the email says it all...

It is very hard to adequately communicate the 'hands on' involvement you get to have with the  orphans when you partner with Asia's Hope as Crossroads does.  So many wonderful organizations exist that do great work - but it just cannot be very personal from way across the world.  Oh but it can be  personal!

This little email I received today from Channa - in the picture on the right - well, this says it all!  It is VERY personal!

Hello mom,

I am very happy to hear back from you! I am praying hard for you to come back in August! Please let me know if we can skype with you. You are a wonderful Mother. I think you are blessed to have Joci as your daughter- she is a wonderful Godly woman!

I am very blessed to be part of your family! Please tell daddy Ron that i say hello and miss him.

I love you and am praying for you!

Daughter Channa

She is indeed my daughter, just as Seng hong is on the left, the precious daughter we have the privilege of supporting!   - We love them and I'm saving my pennies to go back as soon as I possibly can! 

You can help support a child that needs you desperately - a child that with your help can be taught about Jesus and educated to care for themselves and their children in the future.  

Please ask the Lord what He wants your family to do as we prepare to give our offerings on Easter weekend to help build this orphanage!  Bring your offering to Crossroads on Easter or donate now to "Help Crossroads Build an Orphanage"

going too fast

Our short time with our daughter and son-in-law is going too fast! We have eaten too much, walked non-stop all day and talked continuously and we wish we could take them home with us! But soon we will be heading home without them.

Jocelyn asked me a very interesting question the first day we were here. She asked me, "do I seem different to you? Have I changed at all?" As I spend time with them the answer is definitely YES.

When we talk now it is on such equal terms, more like friends. I really like it and I am so thankful for our relationship. I am also thankful that we have Aaron as our son-in-law! What a blessing - the perfect husband for Jocelyn. God is so good!

Those of you who have small children - enjoy them thoroughly because they will leave your home very soon. Too soon!

they are someone today

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher

I saw this on someone's facebook today and loved the quote.

Do not waste your time worrying about who your child will become.

Teach them daily, enjoy each moment and dedicate them to the Lord.

They will never look just like you thought they would, they will never think the same way you think and they will never become exactly what you thought they would be.

They are someone very important today, just as they are, right where they are.

After Friday I will mostly talk to my daughter via phone or Skype. I will no longer be able to walk up to her bedroom and find her there. She will be gone. She will be married.

I am a very, very blessed mom to love the man she is marrying. I have gained a son, not lost a daughter. But I warn you...

If you spend your time waiting for what they will become, you will definitely miss who they are.

the blessing of rain

There are many sayings associated with rain. "Rain on my parade", "I love walking in the rain because then no one knows you are crying", "into each life some rain must fall", "it takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow"...

Recently I have considered rain my own personal enemy. We are a month behind with outside work in preparation for our daughters wedding. In this case, time is not an issue we have saved vacation to prepare. Rain is our enemy.

Our yard has been too wet to drive on for at least 3 weeks now. I find myself hating each rain shower more and more. Complaining to any friend who is not already bored by my griping.

...And then I stepped out of my door to leave for work today and saw the most beautiful thing, this perfect leaf with glistening rain drops laying on it. I just stared at it and it caused me to immediately give thanks to God for His ongoing provision.

The rain is not going to steel the joy of our daughter marrying the man God chose for her. Even if it's soggy, even if it gets moved inside we will celebrate their marriage and the beginning of a lifetime of love, serving God and walks in the rain...

I needed this simple reminder that God is in control, not me!

a mixture of emotion

My daughter officially grew up today.

She called bright and early this morning and announced she just got engaged!

That filled me with quite a mixture of emotions.

Thrilled for her of course! (Aaron is amazing!) but...

Sad her childhood went so quickly.

Excited that her engagement was so carefully planned out and special. One of a kind ring, and spectacular timing!

Thankful that her future husband loves her and the Lord so much!

Sad that holidays will have to be a choice between 2 families from now on. (I am selfish!)

But willing to share her because Aaron's family loves her so much too...

We are proud of our daughter, thankful she is so happy, and excited about the future. We will wait to see where God takes them as a couple and what amazing opportunities He gives them ! Today was a wonderful mixture of emotion, an ending to childhood and the beginning of an exciting future!

praying badly (on my day off)

My daughter has a person in her life at college that is causing her grief in a work setting. She was recently sharing some of the harassing this person has been doing and I could feel the hairs on the back of my motherly neck beginning to stand up.

You just don’t mess with my kids or friends.

My usual serene exterior quickly deteriorated into what some of my family not-so-lovingly refers to as a “mama-lion”.

I become quit defensive for my loved ones (understatement).

With the shock that anyone would be less than kind to my daughter weighing heavy on me, I took it to the Lord. My intentions were noble – my flesh was weak.

After two or three lines of asking for God’s help, my mind drifted off into the possibility of taking matters into my own hands.

This without a doubt is less than pleasing to the Lord. After a few minutes of thinking through the possibilities of my involvement my focus returned to what I had originally set out to do – pray.

A few lines back into my prayer I once again found myself somehow considering the idea of sending the perpetrator a letter expressing my great disappointment in his behavior. Rehearsing what I might write in great detail in my mind…finally the return of helplessness came back over me and I turned back to the Lord.

I kid you not, 5 minutes back into prayer I returned again to yet another scenario, this time picturing my self confronting them on the college campus. Now, let’s just picture that in our minds for a moment. ME confronting a college student I don’t even know – which would completely undercut my daughter’s authority, and would require that I actually be confrontational (can you say chicken?)

Anyway, by the end of the time which should have been a hallowed time of coming to my Lord asking Him to intercede, I highly doubt He was even listening. I can just picture Him leaning in to hear my prayer 3 times, and finally giving up and turning His focus toward someone else. (I know, bad theology)

Anyway – am I the only one that has trouble remaining focused in prayer?

just one day

I am blogging while waiting for my daughter to wake up so we can bake together.

I only have this one day with her before she goes to Boston for Thanksgiving. Tough, very tough!

Today we will bake our families 'secret roll recipe' - and she will share it with her boyfriends family instead of ours.

This makes me very proud in many ways - she is growing up to be an amazing woman of God - but makes me sad as well.

It is ironic that in every instance I can think of when we let something go, we also get something back. As our kids connect and network with school, ministry and friends, they make life decisions that bring other people and things into our lives. Some good, some bad. And really all we can do is pray.

Parenting used to be much easier when we could just make all the decisions! Now we try to hold our opinions until just the right time, or until they ask, more and more often not sharing them at all. Unless of course we know they are doing something obviously wrong.

So we send her off tonight with a family a year and a half ago we didn't even know and tomorrow I will be try to be thankful for kids who are growing independent of us, as it should be. Just wish they didn't have to be independent so far away!

The good news is our son will arrive with his girlfriend tomorrow night - so we get to spend time with Eric tomorrow!! Very thankful for that! I hope your loved ones are close - hold them tightly and TELL them how much you love them!

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow everyone - I won't be blogging !

she's all grown up

I had the privilege of watching my daughter lead a meeting today. Not many times I get to see in 'her' world these days - she's all grown up!

She talks more confidentially in front of large groups of people than I have every done in my entire life! (And I have no desire to either!)

She organized the group, recorded ideas for future articles, made decisions on the fly and assigned people projects convincing them they could do it! Amazing!

Wasn't it just yesterday that I taught her how to do things, and she asked me questions about everything?? Wow - kinda sad by very cool!

blogging from Asia

You can follow my son and daughter's journey through Cambodia and Thailand by going to Jocelyn's blog - CLICK HERE and Eric's blog - CLICK HERE!

Please pray for them to stay safe and well and to experience God big time! Thanks!