GMA Dove Awards

Chris Tomlin 

     I am so excited to get this pic with him. Thank you, Lord. We will sing "God of this City" at the Greenup county prayer walk for the National Day of Prayer on Thurs., May 7th!! I think we will change it up a bit and make it our own and start it with "God of this County."

Grand Ole Opry House

Michelle, Bobbie, Debbi, Me, and Molly

Molly got me Dove Awards tix for an early Mother's Day present (best present EVER!) and a couple of days after she bought them, Bobbie's 20 year old son, Jon Jackson, was murdered. When Molly came home for the funeral she mentioned to Debbi that we were going to the Dove's on April 23rd, and Debbi said she had it on her calander and that she also wanted to go. She was able to get seats in the same row as ours, PTL! A day later, she felt led to get a ticket for Bobbie and the seat right next to hers was still available. Well, after losing Jason on Feb. 19, 2006, in a tragic car wreck, I knew how intentionly and intently God had ministered to us. In addition to his funeral, we attended a memorial service at U.K., where the day after that service, his story and ultimately the gospel was preached on the front page of the University's school newspaper. Jason's goal was to "change the world" for Christ and he knew that the place to start was on his campus at the Univ. of Kentucky. He had just proclaimed this to a few of his CSF (Christian Student Fellowship) friends days before his death. We recognized that in his death, his story of freedom in Christ did go out. God also invited us to attend his graduation and accept his engineering diploma posthumously which we did three months after his death. I could go on but back to Bobbie for now and her grieving steps. This event would minister to her as will future events and moments that He will personally lead her through by His hand. She is doing amazingly well by God's grace and is believing Him almost nonstop. She knows that "all the days ordained for Jon were written in God's book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:17) But this is how cool God is and this is the gift that He gave her by inviting her to attend the Dove's. She was completely ministered to in her grief in so many ways. Stephen Curtis Chapman and Mary Beth and fam had also lost Maria Sue this past year. So many of the artists sang songs that inspired hope that evening and I knew Bobbie was taking it all in. At one point, the entire body of people at the Grand Ole Opry paused and prayed for the Crabb Family who had just sung in the pre-show only to find out that their two year old had fallen out of a window while they preformed. At one point she said to me, "I wonder how many other parents in this room have had to deal with the loss of a child in the past year." She is very aware of the suffering of others in her own ginormous loss. But the highlight for Bobbie came after the show when she looked down and saw Louie Giglio. She shouted out, "Louie," and made her way over to him and had an intense conversation about her murdered only child and his story. Louie gave her his email and said he wanted to know more about Jon. I didn't know this until after the awards but Bobbie had been trying to get in touch with Louie since Jon's death on Feb. 21, 2009. She felt compelled to tell his story to Louie. And how 'bout our God hookin' em up in His perfect timing!!! She had no idea that he would even be at the Dove Awards!! Turns out, he is also a song writer and has written many songs with Chris Tomlin for the Passion Conferences. Only God knows the plan for Jon's story and who it will reach for Christ. He was a mighty young man of God. I will never forget the first time I met him about five years ago outside my Sunday School classroom. His enthusiasm was unsurpassed! My whole family loved that kid. His life was far from perfect and he made tons of mistakes but He knew He was loved by God and He loved Him back. He was a classic "Israelite" in that he would turn away at times but always turned back. The good work that was begun in Jason and Jon by Christ, "will be carried on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Their stories aren't even complete yet! How cool is that?!