In the Beginning…

I love Fall. Love is actually an understatement for how I feel about this season.  It’s my favorite.  I love the colors, the leaves, bonfires, football games, school supplies, and yes, pumpkin spice lattes. But my favorite thing about fall is actually that it always reminds me of my roots. Of home. Of my humble, simple beginnings.

This season Crossroads is going back to our roots, too. We are taking an 11 week look at where we can from, in our new series The Starting Point: A Journey through Genesis. I’m super excited about this series because we get to look back on how it all began. How through God’s powerful words and the dust of the earth, life as we know it was born, and it was good. We will be reminded of God’s perfect plan, how it was supposed to be, how we messed it up, and what he does to redeem it. It’s the most beautiful love story and we are a part of it. I’m excited to see what God with these next 11 weeks, and how we’ll be changed by it.

While we’re on the topic of beginnings, has the idea of adoption or foster care ever crossed your mind? Have you thought it would be a great fit for you (and your family) but weren’t quite sure where to begin? This Monday, September 15 at 6:30pm we’ll be hosting a Strengthening Families Roundtable at the Woodbury Campus. It’s an evening to ask questions about domestic and foreign adoption, foster care and other ways to help families who are in crisis. There will be a Q&A, as well as Crossroads Families who have been through the foster and/or adoption process to talk to! It’s sure to be a great night!

Finally, our mission partner, Urban Ventures is starting something new this season, too! The Urban Ventures Mobile Farmers Market will be at the Cottage Grove Campus this Sunday! What’s a mobile farmers market? It’s a full-service market that sells fresh food in neighborhoods where it’s difficult to find. If you’ve been to Growing Hope Farm, you’ve touched the food available at the Mobile Market!  This Sunday, you won’t have to go to the Farmer’s Market, it will come to you! Be sure to stop by and check out the new ways Urban Ventures is making an impact in the community, and bring some delicious food.

Fall has a lot in store of us this year! Join us this weekend was we look back on the most important beginning, as we wait in anticipation of what’s to come!

See you this weekend!

Lisa Adams,
Director of Missions and Care

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The month of August brings lots of exciting things for me. For my family , it means that we rent a cabin at the end of each August and UNPLUG for a week.  It’s my favorite thing and I just love everything about it.  For work, it means most of our fall plans are getting locked in and we can begin working on the details of events and launches. I love getting ready for the return to church and school!  This weekend, the teaching team kicks off one of the most anticipated sermon series of the year for me, Pursued.  You will hear stories about people from Crossroads who have been impacted by adoption and God’s pursuit of them. They are simply incredible.  God’s love for us is beyond anything that we can understand.  But somehow adoption gives us a glimpse.

While preparing for this series, we all wanted to make sure that there were plenty of options for each of you to participate in some missions that were serving in the area of adoption/foster care/orphan care/crisis. (That’s really a mouthful!)

• On the evening of September 15^th we are hosting a Strengthening Families Roundtable at the Woodbury campus at 6:30pm.  We are hosting an evening to discuss adoption and foster care. Information will be shared regarding domestic and foreign adoption, foster care, foster-care-to-adoption, and ways that we can help families in crisis.  There will be a Q&A time for any questions you might have. Crossroads families who have experience in these areas will also be on hand for you to speak with them. You can register HERE.
• The monthly GOment is a diaper drive that is benefiting Safe Families.   Safe Families seeks to prevent abuse and neglect and come alongside parents in crisis by placing children in volunteer homes temporarily. Through a network of host families including singles, empty nesters, families with kids in the home, and even families with both parents working, kids are being kept safe and being deflected from the foster care system. Meanwhile their parents are given tools and support to restore stability in their lives and ultimately are reunited with their children. We will be collecting diapers throughout the month of AUGUST to show our support to the families who are demonstrating hospitality and love by helping children and their families in crisis.  Diapers that are new and unopened will be accepted at the Woodbury and Cottage Grove campuses.  Sizes 3 -5 are the most needed.
• Serve His Kids  has set the dates for their fall trip to the orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico. The trip corresponds with the MEA school break and will run from Saturday October 11 to the 18^th.  There are two informational / team meetings at the Washington County Library in Woodbury.   Saturday August 16th from 10:00 AM to noon and Saturday September 27th from 10:00 AM to noon. The team will serve and share God’s love with the kids at the Pilar Orphanage in Reynosa, Mexico!  Kids, education, sports, crafts, work project and more ministries.  For more information contact Rick Ross – rickross400@msn.com; 651-442-8314.

Hopefully you made it this far because that was a ton of details!   Before I sign off, I want to leave you a couple of the Bible verses that have been on my heart and mind in preparation for this sermon series.

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Psalm 82:3

He who gives to the poor will not lack, but he who hides his eyes will have many curses. Proverbs 28:27

Learn to do good: Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. Isaiah 1:17

I am so excited to hear about how God pursues us and see how we will respond to the pursuit of others!

Happy August,

Lisa Adams
Director of Missions and Care