Author: Pastor Trudy Tucker

  • TEN YEARS FAITHFUL!

    TEN 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 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

  • CROSSOVER

    CROSSOVER

    Preparing to deliver the message on New Year’s Eve night at our church, the Lord woke me up at our usual 5:00am meeting time, a few weeks earlier with one word… CROSSOVER!

    Those who know me, know, that I love to locate myself in the Word and in this case, I had to LOCATE US as we as a church would be crossing over together!

    As I searched my mind, the Lord directed my attention to the children of Israel who had to CROSSOVER… Not one but two enormous bodies of water, both impassable and impossible and it was straight to the book of Exodus 14, where Moses lead the children of Israel through the Red Sea and to the book of Joshua 3, where Joshua lead the children of Israel through the Jordan River.

    Reading through both accounts, what stood out to me was both crossings were directed by God, however their situations were different and God used 2 unique methods to have the children of Israel CROSSOVER these bodies of water – both on dry ground. 

    At the time of the crossing of the Red Sea, the children of Israel were hemmed in. They had just been released from being enslaved by Pharaoh in Egypt, only to have Pharaoh later decide that he had made a mistake and is now along with his armies, pursuing them to take them back. Pharaoh in the rear, the Red Sea in front, there was no where to turn.  Lead by Moses, God had him stretch out his hand and raise his staff and the waters parted, stacked up on both sides and the children of Israel CROSSED OVER on dry ground.

    After 40 years of wondering in the wilderness, the generation that experienced crossing through the Red Sea, including Moses, had now died.  Joshua and Caleb were the only two of that previous generation.  Joshua is now the God appointed leader of a whole new generation, who had only heard stories of the parting of the Red Sea. They have the privilege of preparation. They are now about to enter the Promise Land, which God had promised their forefathers.  God instructs Joshua, to have the priest go into the river before the people carrying the Ark of the Covenant (which housed the presence of God) into the water and the water began to recede. Again, cut off and stacked up, they CROSSED OVER on dry ground.

    Symbolic, I felt, of us crossing over from 2025 into a New Year 2026.  The Lord impressed upon my heart to prepare. We may have escaped in the past and Lord may have delivered us from our enemies but now is the time to PREPARE FOR THE PROMISE.  

    Now, I recognise that we are all in different stages of our walk with God.  We may have just started our faith walk, where we’ve just experienced deliverance from some impossible situations but as we mature it is imperative that we learn to hear the voice of God and like both Moses and Joshua, we must be obedient and follow or carry out the instructions that we have been given… even if unpopular.

    PREPARE FOR THE PROMISE

    1. For 2026, LET US MAKE UP OUR MINDS TO BE OBEDIENT TO GOD. 
      Let’s develop a “WHATEVER YOU SAY MY LORD!!” attitude and character that no longer bucks against the instructions of God and tries to go its own way.
    2. For 2026, LET US PREPARE TO ENTER THE NEXT SEASON GOD HAS FOR US. 
      Crossing over this calendar year may find some of us mid-season in what God is doing in our lives. Galations 6:9 (KJV) says “9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”  Joshua 3:5 (NIV) says “5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” In other words, get ready. 
    1. For 2026, LET’S MAKE A MOVE.
      Let us choose faith over fear. When we’ve gotten that clarity and direction from God and the presence of God is with us… MAKE THE MOVE!  We don’t know exactly how it’s going to happen but we can trust him.  Exodus 14:15 (NIV) “15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”  Joshua 3:3 (NIV) “3 giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it.”
    2. For 2026, WE’RE CROSSING OVER ON DRY GROUND! 
      Exodus 14:21-22 (NIV) “21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”  Joshua 3:15-17 (NIV) “15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” 

      Dry ground symbolizes, miraculous provision, stability, security, protection. Our God has got us!
    1. For 2026, the Lord specifically said… “WHEN YOU CROSSOVER, REMEMBER ME!”
      In, Exodus 14:29 (NIV) “29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” However, by Exodus Chapter 15 they grumbled. Chapter 16 they grumbled, Chapter 17 they grumbled by Chapter 32, we see them worshipping false idols and proclaiming that they were the ones who delivered them. Exodus 32:4 (NIV) “4Then they said, “These are your gods,[b] Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

      God instructed Joshua differently however.  He was more specific as if hoping they had learned the lessons from the misfortunes of the past generation. Joshua 4:1-3 (NIV) “1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

      Joshua 4:21-24 (NIV) “21 He (Joshua) said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’23  For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

    In closing, I want you to know that Moses, who died without entering the Promise Land, did have the opportunity to enter many years prior however the Lord refused to go with him. Moses in turn refused to go because the Lord was not going.  Moses’ response in Exodus 33:15-17 (NIV) “15Then Moses said to Him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” 17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

    SOME POINTS TO PONDER

    “I have many challenges for you this year!” says the Lord.

    Important to note is that as I speak, I am also speaking to myself.

    What stones will you set up in 2026? 

    Your stones are your markers, your praise reports, your points of “Hallelujah”, your testimonies of what God has done. Will you remember to set up your stones? 

    Will your children or friends ask you “What do these stones mean?”

    Will you have an answer?

    Will they even see that you have stones?

    Will the Lord declare at the end of 2026, after you have CROSSED OVER… that He is pleased with you and that He knows you by name?

    Kind regards,

    Pastor Trudy Tucker

    #IAmThePreachersWife