An unforgettable day that has touched the lives of many has now come to pass. Most of you know that we have been planning a coordinated effort of multiple crosses to be carried at one time in the city of Gulf Shores. That effort has now been accomplished by the sovereign nature of God and by the obedience of His people. On September 5th, 2009, nine crosses were carried at one time and in close proximity of each other along the beach of Gulf Shores, Alabama. Over 700 gospel tracts were handed out, close to 1000 people were spoken to about the love of Jesus, and thousands witnessed the mighty hand of God as the crosses were humbly carried in unity by a body of believers.
The vision of having multiple crosses carried in a line through this city was given to me by the Lord in the early part of the summer. I captured the picture given to me by God and knew that it would make a magnificent statement of faith, hope, and unity for not only this city, but for anyone that became aware of the event. It has proved to not only serve as a marked event for others, but it has also confirmed a calling that God gave us for this ministry. For us to be able to experience God's voice, vision, and calling has been a moving journey, but the fulfillment of those things and the confirmation of the follow through has left us in a satisfaction of peaceful placement that has become a foundation for our faith.
The vision of the crosses being carried at one time was an unlikely event that would occur this summer, and therefore I did not overtly try to coordinate it's coming to pass. As the summer progressed, I continued to pray about it and left the arrangement of the event in the hand of God. As always, God was working things out behind the scenes and out of my sight.
One particular evening when I was carrying the cross alone, I was stopped by four men. They were from the northern part of Alabama and were here on a fishing trip. They were so excited to see me that they began to share with me that two of them carry crosses in their home town and they asked to carry my cross for a while that evening. As I graciously let them, they shared the love of Christ with several people for about thirty minutes that evening. As we parted ways, we exchanged phone numbers and expected to contact each other again.
The following Sunday morning I received a phone call from one of the men. The brief time that we spent together had inspired them to put together a missions trip for their church in the month of September. A group of men in their church were going to come to Gulf Shores and share the gospel through evangelism on the street. At that time I shared with the caller the vision the Lord had given me about having the crosses carried simultaneously through this city. That is where the vision began to take form and through that conversation the "Walk a 'Cross' Gulf Shores" was birthed.
As the following weeks moved forward, the number of men involved grew greater. Soon I learned that they would be carrying six crosses and have approximately twelve men to assist. Since the phone conversation that Sunday morning I too had begun to look for people to carry the cross from this area and others. As I began to recruit support and cross walkers from here, I received an overwhelming response of desires to assist. The only set back was that it was going to be on labor day weekend and many of the locals leave this area on those days due to the vast amount of people coming to this beach for that weekend. The end result of actual assistance from this area was that we would have two additional crosses (not including mine) and three churches willing to assist with materials needed for the cross walkers. One of the churches provided a meal for the crew on Friday night and we provided the place for them to sleep.
Saturday morning we all arose ramped up to go and carry our crosses for the Lord. As we awoke it was pouring down rain and each of us prayed for the weather to clear up. Obviously the Lord timed the rain for the morning so that we would have smooth sailing throughout the rest of the day.
As the day carried on the cross walkers were greatly encouraged by the uplifting response they had from people. I have received many comments from them and others that have encouraged my soul as well. It was a beautiful thing to learn that many people were prayed with and for, several said that they saw people with tears streaming down their faces from the magnificent sight. One of the first time cross walkers had been desiring to carry one for a long time and was thrilled to finally be able to project his faith in such a way. One of the men from north Alabama has decided to begin to carry a cross in his own neighborhood and share God's love because of this event. Another cross walker said that he has carried his cross in over fifty cities and has been doing this for years. He stated that he has never witnessed an anointed event such as this. He said that in all of the places he has carried his cross, he has never seen such a moving response by people.
I cannot personally express to you the joy that I feel having been able to be used by God to coordinate such an event. I want to thank the people and the churches that assisted us in this. I want to thank Gulf Way Assemblies of God for providing a meal for the guys and the hours of assistance Brandon (Associate Pastor) gave to me. I want to thank 1st Baptist Church of Gulf Shores and Christian Life Church of Orange Beach for offering materials and assistance. I want to thank Pastor Rickie Williams and Prividence Hill Missionary Baptist Church of Collinsville, Alabama for coordinating their efforts to join us on their missions trip. I want to thank Eric and Russ from this area for helping with the crosses on that day. I thank Jeremy and Steve for providing materials and building a cross for us. I want to thank the Gulf Coast House of Prayer for their generous prayers and encouragement. Thank all of you far beyond the boundaries of Gulf Shores that have prayed for us, have supported us, and have blessed us. As you can see there were many people involved in making this event happen. I pray that all of you are blessed beyond your expectations. There were many behind the scenes people that helped us and prayed for us. We pray for blessing upon them. Praise God most of all for the unmistakable way that he coordinates His body, His army to reach out to this world of hopelessness and desperation.
Rest assured that this is only the beginning for us and this ministry. We are already coordinating plans for something even bigger in the coming months that will not only split the seams of Gulf Shores, but will expand throughout the country. I believe that as this ministry expands it will spread throughout the world. Call me an optimist if you must, but I just believe that one man's obedience to the will of the Father can change the entire world. I believe that I can be that person, and so can you. We all change the world in one way or another. Let make that change for His glory.
Thank you for sharing in our glory of the Father. Thank you for all of your support. Thank you for all of your prayers. We have been blessed beyond what words can tell. Once again I will be updating frequently. We have a lot to share with all of you concerning our current circumstances and future plans. Just know that we are going to continue to move forward in this ministry as well as expand our footprint of sharing God's love and victorious power with others. May God be with all of you.
Keep the FAITH!! Forgiven by GRACE!! Spread the WORD!!
Barry.
