10 Years Faithful!!!
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 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 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. 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 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 the Browne’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.
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 the church, 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 is this just a show!” The feeling of FAMILY which was 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 it’s fair share of hurt but
have also experienced abundant joy. We ebb and flow, we’ve weathered
storms together. We’ve lost loved ones together but we’ve also seen many
weddings and have welcome new babies into the fold. Graduations,
promotions, new jobs, new cars, new homes. It’s all a part of who we
are… FAMILY
Family Word and Worship is here to stay.
God is… 10 years
FAITHFUL!
#IAmThePreachersWife
Pastor Trudy Tucker
