As I reflected on the last 10 years of planting Family Word and Worship Church… only one word came to mind and that was FAITHFUL! God has been sooooo FAITHFUL and it was time for a new acknowledgment of this attribute of His.
Pastor Junior and I started Family Word & Worship with nothing but a Word from the Lord in our hearts. We received that Word in 2002, 12 years prior, sitting in a church in Florida… that we would return to Jamaica and God would rewrite Pastor Junior’s legacy. I look back now and the period of 12 years between the Prophetic Word and when we actually returned, were like University, preparing us for what was to come. We both served in every area of ministry – from the cleaning ministry, children’s church, administration, event planning to worship, pastoral care and evangelism.
Another Prophetic Word came in 2007. God began to share more specifics…we would go to the centre of the city and make a new sound. New Kingston we sensed would be that centre. The centre of commerce and entertainment.
You would think that when God pronounces a Word the road ahead would be easy. We were not without our share of giants to slay and prisons out of which we would need to break free. The next 7 years would be filled with trials and tribulations. We both lost our mothers and our 2nd daughter, Zoe, after a three year battle with brain cancer.
Another Prophetic Word came in 2014. This one said, that if we didn’t leave now, we would be in trouble as if we did not have enough already. In obedience to God, 2014 we packed up our family, loaded up a shipping container and I took a flight to Jamaica with three of our now four of five children, one Sunday afternoon in September. They started school the next morning, fully dressed in school uniforms, with books, school bags and lunch boxes in tow. A month prior we also dropped of our eldest in California, to begin college as a freshman at USC and Pastor Junior stayed behind to tie up loose ends.
How on earth did this happen so quickly? It was only God!!!
That October we started on the back verandah of our dear friend’s home. I think it was a Tuesday night – sixteen people total. Nine of those were well wishers who came to give support… and seven of us, family! We soon shifted to a Friday night and in June of 2015 we moved the church to New Kingston Shopping Centre and had the official launch, huge concert on November 7th, 2015. THE CENTRE OF THE CITY.
We were Word & Worship. The two things I knew Pastor Junior represented and did so well. Very well! We tried to register the name and we couldn’t. We tried True Word & Worship, they told us we had it, then we didn’t and then we tried Family… it went through! I thought it was extremely “corny” at the time but I was ok with it, so we moved ahead.
I tell our body of believers, that this is God’s church, His design and I mean it. I would say it with confidence because I knew, I was just not that smart. The name, the favour with finding locations, the ministries, the people who came. It was all Him! Case in point… little did I know, the addition of the name FAMILY is who we would really become. Time and time again, I would hear people whisper “I wonder if they are real?”, “Can people really be that nice?”, “They must be faking it.. let me go again to see if they are real or if this just a show!” The feeling of FAMILY they are feeling is truly the LOVE OF GOD was contagious and it echoed throughout the church. All glory belongs to HIM! We are part of the FAMILY OF GOD.
Families, however full of love they may be, also have problems. We are no exception. We have seen this family experience its fair share of hurt but have also experienced more than our fair share of victories and abundant joy. We ebb and flow, we’ve weathered storms together. We’ve lost loved ones together but we’ve also seen many, many new unions – weddings, unlikely friendships and we have welcome new babies into the fold. Salvations, baptisms, graduations, promotions, new jobs, new cars, new homes. It’s all a part of who we are… FAMILY.
We didn’t put ourselves here. God did. Family Word and Worship is here to stay.
God is… 10 YEARS & COUNTING – FAITHFUL!
Kind regards,
Pastor Trudy Tucker
#IAmThePreachersWife