Chapter
34

Jackson loved the story of Noah. It especially touched him because he just loved the beauty of God’s creation. He loved everything from the animals to the bugs. As FBC was growing, the new campus was greatly increasing the size of the building space we had. The preschool wing was 150 feet long with a hallway extending its length right down the center. That meant that with a wall on each side of the hallway there was a total of 300 feet of blank wall and doorways. That is the length of a football field. Our amazing small group had an idea of how to cover that hallway. A sweet friend named Suzie is an artist that specialized in drawing murals for children’s nurseries in the area. Suzie and her husband were part of our small group. Suzie went down the entire length of the hallway from beginning to end. There in pencil, she drew the outline of her inspiration of the animals gathering to board Noah’s Ark. She then would write out the name of a particular color to be painted in a part of the sketch. We basically had one very talented artist and dozens of other willing people doing painting by numbers. The area around each doorway would be dominated by a specific animal. That preschool class would end up being the “Hippos” or the “Monkeys” or the “Pigs.” It was an awesome way to direct newcomers to a particular classroom. As you walked down the hall, the entire Bible story of Noah was written out over the bulkhead beams traversing the hallway. At the end of the hallway was the end of Noah’s journey complete with a rainbow. Right next to the rainbow…… a pair of lizards.

 

That small group class was so good to us. They loved us in such amazing and practical ways. They prayed so fervently for us. They sent us so many handwritten letters of encouragement. One particular letter early on came from our friend, Cindy Rush. Cindy had been touched by hearing Jackson sing, “I Love You, Lord,” at the funeral and had shared that story with her brother who is a pastor. Her brother told her to listen to a newly released song by Steven Curtis Chapman called “With Hope.” Later, Cindy sent us an extremely sweet letter and a CD of that song. It very much touched our heart. The song was incredible, and I listened to it over and over.

 

As the new church campus was about to be opened, Elna and I approached Waylon about us organizing a Contemporary Christian concert to kick off the opening of the new campus. We reached out to a concert promoter who helped us to work out the details of the agreement with an artist. The artist that we pursued to have at that concert was Steven Curtis Chapman. Work was in place and contracts were presented. Everything was going great, and then it wasn’t. Steven Curtis Chapman had a scheduling issue that prevented him from coming to our church. It was a big disappointment. There was no way to get around it. That door was closed.

 

Two days later, we got another call from the promoter. He said, “I’m not sure if you’re interested because I know you had your heart set on Steven Curtis Chapman, but I do have another group that is available and can 100% do the event. Are you interested?”

 

We asked, “Who is the group?”

 

His answer, “Philips, Craig, and Dean.”

 

:) Thank you, God.

 

 

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It was an amazing concert. They hadn’t sung their song, “Will You Love Jesus More” in a very long time, but they ended their concert that night by coming back on stage and singing it. They also had a clear evangelical message in their concert leading people to the full knowledge of who Jesus is and that He wants to be our Savior. At one point, the crowd was asked to close our eyes and pray. They told us about what God had done for us. They told us of how humanity had fallen away from Him because of our sin. We were separated from God, but He loved us so much that He made a way that our sins could be forgiven, and our relationship with God could be made right forever. They told us of how Jesus was perfect and never sinned. He was God’s one and only son and that He had come into the world to save the world. Even though He had never sinned, He would pay the price for our sin. The price of sin was death. Death had to occur. But God loved us so much, that He sent His son to die for us. This was His perfect gift that made a way for us to have our relationship restored with God. They told us that even though Jesus had died for our sins, that death could not hold Him. Jesus had conquered death. Jesus was alive and well today. He wanted us to follow Him. They asked the crowd that night if anyone would want to accept God’s amazing gift of Grace and follow Jesus. My eyes were closed, and my head was bowed. Alex was on my left in between Elna and me. We all held hands in worship. With our eyes closed, we were asked to raise our hand if we wanted to accept God’s gift of Grace and to follow Jesus. Alex let go of my hand and then lifted hers up into the air high above her head. I opened my eyes, and Elna did too. Our daughter was following Jesus. God is so Good.

 

John 3:16 New International Version

 

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.