Cross Night Friday, December 03, 2010

Almost every Thursday night, the young people of Jeffersonville gather together at VGR. Some sit around and fellowship the entire evening, while others are glued to a game of chess or scrabble. Then again the line at the ping-pong and Foosball tables never seem to go down. But we had something a little different for them to do on one particular Thursday.

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A few months ago, a couple thousand wooden cross pieces showed up at VGR's back dock. Somebody had to put them together, and there are only six of us in the YF department. This gave Brother Joseph a great idea. "Let the kids do it Thursday night! What will take us days, they'll have done in 30 minutes." We quickly agreed! We'll call it "Cross Night."

When the next Thursday evening rolled around, everyone wondered why all the white paper and pieces of wood in the mailroom. They were quick to find out. But as Brother Joseph said, it didn't seem to take them more than half an hour to match every piece into a beautiful cross.

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These weren't just any wooden crosses they were putting together, as we explained. Some time ago, the roof of Brother Branham's home at 208 Ewing Lane in Jeffersonville, Indiana was redone. During the process the roofing planks were replaced and a brother salvaged the planks and made these little crosses out of them. Brother Branham had a small cross hanging in his car that he looked at when he saw immorally dressed women on the streets. In the sermon: “A Deceived Church By The World”, he said:

The other day, Friday, wife and I was going to the store. I don't mean to harp on this. But as we went down the street, I just kept turning my head one way for the other: naked women. I promised God when I was a blind man, if He'd heal my eyes I'd look at the thing was right. I keep a little cross hanging in my car. When I see such as that, I look at the cross and say, "O God, that's my Refuge," as I looked at the cross. 59-0628M

The wood was cut into two matching sizes, and we simply glued the pieces together to make the crosses. Now they were bound for a special destination. Upon seeing the little crosses, Brother Joseph felt to send them to those youth in South Africa who had signed up in Young Foundations and attended a youth banquet we recently hosted, as a little encouragement for them to look to the cross in times of trouble and testing. For "Surely Christ is our Anchor, our hope, and our resting place."

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A few months later, another five thousand wooden cross pieces showed up at our back docks. Guess what happened? Thursday night will be another "Cross Night!"