Ep 14 - A Simple Yes! Matt Crosson Shares the Stories

In this Three Doves podcast episode, Matt Crosson shares his upbringing in Jacksonville, Florida, his early commitment to church, and a decisive moment at a Teen Mania conference that led him to follow Jesus and be rebaptized. He describes formative mentors who taught him prayer, silence before God, and worship, along with his growing love for music and his unexpected start as a youth pastor at 19. Matt recounts seasons of rejection while pursuing church ministry jobs, then finding renewed purpose through a decade with Ends of the Earth Cycling supporting global youth workers. He explains how that experience helped launch “Share the Stories,” where his family films and interviews ministries internationally to help them share their work, including trips to Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Ghana, where they witnessed extreme poverty and disability-focused ministry. The key here is saying YES to God.  

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome everybody to the Three Doves Podcast. I'm your host, Jason Pulowski. On today's episode, Matt Crosson shares how saying yes to God took his faith, his calling, and his camera to the nations. I'm sitting here with Matt Crosson. Matt, welcome to the Three Doves Podcast. Thank you very much. Huh? It's our pleasure. Matt, let's start off at the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

I always like to do this. Where were you born? Where did you grow up? Uh, my dad was in the Navy, so I was born in Meridian, Mississippi. Uh, but as a child we moved to Jacksonville, so I claim Jacksonville, Florida as my hometown.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

So is Jacksonville your also your football team too as well? Oh, yeah, go Jags, dude. There you go. Till we die. Tell me about your childhood there. Being seeing that your dad was in the Navy, uh, was there a lot of traveling around?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Or no, he actually got out of the Navy um when I was four years old because we had uh my brother. And so he decided he did not want to live that life. And so he uh became a postman and retired recently as in the postal service. But uh had a good childhood.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

We grew up in church. By the way, I gotta stop you for a second. That's my wife's dream is to be a postal worker, to get in that little car and retire doing driving mail. That's what she loves.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

I mean, he he loved it and uh his customers loved him. And he it was I remember as a uh young guy going to visit my dad on his route and like seeing, you know, having lunch with him or whatever. And so it was good memories there. Um, but like I said, we grew up in church. Um, as a teenager, I have kind of like the opposite story of most teenagers, praise the Lord. Like God really like grabbed hold of my life really young, and I really loved being at church, and so but there had to be some challenges. I was there, I was there like every single anytime the doors were open, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Like that was that's but there had to be some challenges still growing up in the church, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Sure, there are always challenges, um, especially as you get older. Um, your friends that you had at church, maybe they're not going to church anymore. Um maybe uh, you know, friends that experiment with different things as they get older, uh, and you realize like maybe their faith wasn't where it was. And you're just a young person, you're just trying to do your best to keep your faith. Yeah. Um, but also like it's it can be it can feel like a burden because you want to make sure your friends are still like following Jesus as well and doing the right making the right choices. What did that look like trying to keep your faith in all that? What did that look like to you? I think for me it was I just kept myself plugged in and then not in just like uh like when I say I was there, anytime the doors were open, it was like, yes, I was there for services. And church services are great. There's nothing wrong with the church service, but there's so much more that you can tap into than just going and singing and listening to someone talk. Um, so Friday nights for me as a teenager were super um forming as a teenager because that was a prayer night. And specifically what that was, it looked like me and a couple of buddies and um some adult leaders, and we would sit in a room at the church and we would listen to worship music and we would pray for other people and just a lot of FaceTime before the Lord. And that to me was more formative than any church service that I could have ever gone to, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Saying formative, when did you come into a formal relationship with Christ? When did that happen in you?

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Um, I was about 13, 14 years old, and I was at a conference, and I like I said, I'd been in church my entire life. I was baptized as a child. I remember making that decision, but I remember sitting in that conference going, I don't know if I actually decided to follow Jesus or if it was my parents or whatever. And um it was at the Steen Mania conference, and there was a giant nail on the stage, and they went through the whole crucifixion thing. Wow. And I just remember if Jesus did that for me, I can't be ashamed if everyone thinks I'm a Christian already. Like I can't be ashamed to say I want to make sure I'm following after Christ. And so I decided at that point I would follow after Christ. I got rebaptized. You know, I don't know what everyone's got different thoughts on that, but I got re-baptized just to say, hey, like this is my line in the sand, and I don't want to look back from here.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

And so that's amazing. Yeah.

unknown 4:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Now, um, once you came to Christ, was there a celebration in that? Did you do a baptism quite after, or how did that all look for you guys as a Christian family?

SPEAKER_01 5:01

I mean, I got baptized again at our church. It was pretty quick um right after that. Um, Pastor Wayne, I think, believe I believe Pastor Wayne baptized me again. And um yeah, it was a celebration. It was uh exciting.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Yeah, yeah, a lot of good memories in that probably for you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

I'm still in contact with Pastor Wayne today.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

So that's awesome. That's great. Now, what what would you say is more of the transformational leaders in your life as you were growing up? Where were some of those leaders at that really influenced where you are today?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah, I'm super fortunate to have people in my life that truly cared for me at a young age. Um, not that my I've said my parents love Jesus and they um they went to church and they brought me to church. They were faithful to do that. Um, but both of my parents worked. Um and so I spent a lot of time alone at the home with my brother. You know, as a young man, you need men in your life that will walk alongside of you. I was super fortunate to have men in my life that walked alongside me. My youth pastor, I could ride my bike to his house. It was probably about three or four miles, but I could I had permission from my parents to ride my bike in Jacksonville, Florida to their place. Um, and so he would look for ways. He's like, Matt, I need my tree pruned, or would you clean the pool or and I'll give you 20 bucks or whatever. And then afterwards it was uh, hey, how's it going? How's life going? Oh, you need a ride to Wednesday night youth group. Let me take you, uh let me bring you home. And so, um, like even like little jokes, like he's Batman and I'm Robin, like those are like the kind of relationship that we had. And it was a 30-minute drive to church, so I got a lot of time.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Very intentional, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

But he was very intentional with me, still involved in my life even now, um, at this point in my life. And so I'd say him and uh his name was Lamar, and um, I had a a children's pastor, his name was uh Mr. Chris, and he also kind of walked through my teenage years, and he was the the guy that I spent time in the prayer room with, and so he showed me what it looked like to pray and what it looked like to to truly just sit and worship the Lord and not have to be saying anything, or to sit in silence, or all of these different things. And so to have people at a form at a young age do that with you is I mean, you can't put a price tag on that. When you say sit in silence, tell me a little bit more about that. There's a difference between going to a prayer meeting and reading off a sheet, right? And saying, like, yeah, we're praying for sister so-and-so, and you know, this person's grandma and their niece, and there's nothing wrong with those kind of prayers. Um, I think God wants those kind of prayers in our lives, like he wants us to bring our needs to him. But there's another level of just this kind of waiting for the Lord and waiting on what God would have to say and being quiet before the Lord. Um, and so what that would look like in those moments, like sometimes I don't know if you ever heard the band Morning Star Worship. Do you remember them or not? Man, it's it's been a while. Yeah, they've they've been a they they've been a wall a long time ago, but they really focused in on this like cross between where music and worship could lead you to prayer. And um Wow, it was really just different. It was it I grew up in. Would you quit equivalent maybe to Bethel music today, where they kind of maybe in a Bethel way, but I feel like Bethel's probably a little more produced than Morningstar was. But like I grew up in the integrity worship like era of church, and so Morningstar like kind of slapped that in the face. We were like, we're not congregational, like we're gonna just we're playing the sacks because we're playing the sacks right now, and then you know, like, oh, it's gonna be quiet, it's gonna be quiet, you know, like yeah. Um so you kind of learn this ebb and flow. And so what we would do in these prayer meetings, and it wouldn't be uncommon to be on your face on the ground, you know, legs out behind you, and nothing going on other than just waiting and listening and being quiet. And if you fall asleep, you fall asleep. Like it's okay too, right? You know, like this idea of just being silent before the Lord and allowing the Lord to minister to your heart and allowing the Lord to speak to your heart, quieting everything down and shutting things down. And I think that that practice has been with me even uh now in my adulthood. I know it is.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

If they haven't figured it out yet, they're gonna figure it out really soon here on the podcast that you enjoy worship.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Yeah, I do enjoy worship. I do enjoy worship.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

When did the Lord place on your heart to make a joyful noise?

SPEAKER_01 9:46

I always loved music.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Child of the 80s, yeah, Christian rock band was like a big deal in the 80s. What were some of your favorite groups back in that? I just remember going to this guy's house that would babysit us, and he loved Christian rock. So I don't even know the I think it was like probably Whiteheart and Striper and maybe some Petra from the Yeah, Petra.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

I remember Petra big time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

And I just remember he'd be playing it at his house, and he had two girls, so I didn't play with the girls very often. I would just listen to this music, and I was like pretending like air guitar or whatever, like wanting to play this kind of music. And then in my late teens, I realized I was like, I just want to play the guitar so I can just have time with the Lord. I want to use this as a connection piece between me and God. And who cares if anyone ever hears this? This is okay. That it's just between me and God. And so that's a beautiful place. That that was really just what I wanted out of it, and so I started doing that, and I had a buddy um that I've been in that prayer room with, same age as me. And uh I was like, hey, let's pray, and I'm just gonna play the guitar and and we're gonna pray. Like, and so it we would just pray and I would play and we might sing a song or two. I wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination. Um you're just starting though. I was just starting, just starting reps, and then I became a youth pastor, and I had two teenagers who were musically uh they were trying their hardest to do something, and I wanted to connect with them. So I'm like, hey, let's play.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

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SPEAKER_01 11:52

With the youth pastor thing.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

When did that happen?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Uh I became a youth pastor because the church that I was at at the time, um, our youth pastor had a falling out at the church, and it was extremely hurtful at the time, and they needed someone to fill in. And I was the younger guy who was I was serving as the janitor at the time at the church because I was like, anything you need, like I'm here to serve. And like a puppet ministry in the preschool, whatever it is, like I don't care. The puppet ministry. Yeah. Uh um, and so I did that too. Um, you know, there was an opening for that, and I said, Hey, like, I'm willing. I was in college, I was young. Actually, Jessica, my wife, was a senior my very first year as being a youth pastor. She was a senior in high school. So we were not together at that time, but okay, just to clear the air.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

How old were you at the time when you became a youth pastor, though?

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Uh I think I was like 19. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Fairly young. 1920, somewhere. So just because you saw the need, you raised your hand and they're like, go for it, Matt. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

That was how I mean I had supervision, had adult supervision. Uh Lucinda actually was my supervisor, my mother-in-law. Okay. Um, and uh, she she sat in with me to make sure I I guess I didn't say anything that was too terrible. I don't know. Like, um, but we had some really good times as me and youth pastor, and those guys I was talking about, one was a drummer and one was a guitar player, and they were like, let's get, I was like, let's just get together and play. Because I was like, I like to play and you like to play, so let's play. And we'd play, and one day they were like, I think we should do this for the youth group, and you should sing. And I'm like, You guys are crazy. Like, I am not doing that. Like, I should not sing in front of everyone, and we should just keep this between the three of us. And they're like, No, they finally convinced me, and we had this, we were doing like extra services where like people would do skits and stuff like that. And I remember trying to make the youth group like uh owning their service, and we were growing, and our church was not growing at the time, like our church was dying, and our youth group was growing. It was crazy. That was just the Lord. Um, and I think it was because I was handing the reins off, you know. Anyways, so they commenced. You were basically making disciples, you were giving them ownership. Yeah, like this is your opportunity to make a difference to someone's life and your friends' lives. Wow. And that guy can use you while you're young. You don't have all you need is to say yes. Like, you know, you don't have to have a degree. Which has been a common occurrence in your life.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

That probably is a very common occurrence is you saying yes to Jesus, saying yes to the Lord in anything that He had opened up for you. You just said yes. So God's like, okay, I can open that door for you. How can we how far can we push? How far can we push? Hey, the Lord's got a good sense of humor too in all it, you know?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Yeah. So, anyways, we're uh I finally do that or whatever, and we we grow for a while there. Um worship just becomes part of who I am. Like I said, like it was never about doing it for others, it was always between me and God. Yeah. And so there's a lot to fast forward through. So but so youth pastor um for a while, then Jessica and I get married. Um that was close to 20 years ago now, that'll be the 20 years this year. And congratulations. Thank you. And so we we get married, we move into um being foster parents at a home. Wow. I'm doing worship for these foster kids on our chapel services and doing uh the youth group that they go to, they're like, hey, we need a worship leader. So I'm like, okay, sure, you know, like and um, you know, doing worship for youth group at somebody's house in their garage, you know, like it's but the thing is, is like what I love about worship is that it is transformational. And if you're singing the right stuff, you know, like if you're singing scripture, if you're singing um to the Lord, if you're truly opening up your heart to God, you can you're transformed in a way that you're not transformed in other ways. Yeah, I mean, and um there's something about the vulnerability of singing, of playing in front of somebody else, singing in the congregation and raising your hands or jumping up and down or falling on your face or whatever it is. There's something about that vulnerability. That guy goes, Oh man, Jason, I see what you're doing there and I love that. Let me pull up a chair and be in this room with you. Like, because that's what the Bible says, right? He inhabits the praise of his people. Like he comes into the room and he's like, he pulls up his. I, you know, I serve in Latin America a lot. So it's like he pulls in that like white plastic chair that you see everywhere in Latin America. Yeah. And he pulls that chair up and it's kind of like ratty or whatever, but no one cares. And he sits in that chair and he's like, Oh, Jason is singing to me, you know, and I'm so excited to listen. And so good. And when he's there, that's where like everything changes, right? Yeah. And so that's what I it's almost like a you can almost describe it as an addiction. It's this idea that though that like worship can unlock so much for people. Yeah. And it has nothing to do with me at all. Like it has nothing to do with me. That's good. And it has everything to do with with what what what God is doing.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

So people are hearing now that you grew up in a Christian home.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Uh you say yes a lot to what God wants you to do. Yeah. Um, which is great. I love it, man. I love it. I love your heart in that. Um into a youth pastor, getting married, and now they're gonna get introduced to another side. Not only do you love doing the worship side of things, but you said mission. So you're out in the mission field too, as well. And you're you're exercising the gifts that God gave you and the talents there.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Yeah. So I was um let's see, 2012-ish. Uh Justin Hanakin walks into the doors at Cross Point Church. Yeah. Um, I meet him. I'm thinking I'm gonna just have this worship pastor career. And I tell him, like, the first week I meet him, like, hey man, like, good to meet you. I'm out of here in a couple of weeks, you know. Like, that was what I thought was gonna happen. That did not happen. Okay. Um, Justin and I end up developing a friendship. He starts talking about this like bike ride thing that he wants to do.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

And in case you missed it, Justin Hanakin is on episode three and four on a three-doves podcast. So, folks, if you want to hear more about his story, uh, you can see how this circle of influence here and what God is doing in this community and how many people are being affected just by getting on a bike and riding to Key West.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

So at that spot, I meet I meet Justin, develop his a friendship with him. He's talking about bike rides. It's the second year that he's doing this bike ride, and I was at a kind of a low point because I thought I was gonna become a worship pastor. It didn't happen for me. Like I was I was getting rejections. So it was like, God, maybe I don't know like what you've called me to. Justin's talking about this bike ride. I'm like, I need to win in my life. This is not spiritual. I just want to win. Was that a dark place for you right now?

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Super dark place. Tell me a little bit if you don't mind sharing that one. Yeah, I mean how did you wrestle through that?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

The hard part with it is like when you're saying when you're used to saying yes, yeah and you're happy to say yes, but then other people say no to you when you have given your yes, what do you do with that? And um that make feel like more like rejected. Sure. Absolutely rejected. Yeah. Um it feels it can feel uh this is kind of the underside, I think, of finding a a church job. Uh maybe that might be a little on the darker side, I guess. I don't know. Um but you know, the way that the church world in America is currently, it's just like applying for any other job that you would apply for. Um, except you're just sending in your resumes in hopes that somebody contacts you. And maybe they do, maybe they don't, you know. So you and in a was a faith play in that too, right? Yeah. So you've said you've said yes and you feel like God's saying, say yes and move and do whatever, and then you're not getting any any green lights to go anywhere. Um I think I've handled that better as I've moved on because you realize it's not about you, it's it's about what God's called you to do. Um, and so you figure out um not this like bloom where you're planted just because you happen to be there, but like you put roots down in where you're supposed to be, and you say, hey, like until God like moves this pot, I'm here and I'm gonna give. Um so I've definitely learned more, and I'm still not perfect at it, but I've learned better, I'm better at it than I was then. But it was super dark. It was hard for me because I just felt, like you said, rejected. I just felt rejected and rejected by the church that I loved, right? I loved, I loved God's church.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

Well, you love God's church still to this day. I still love God's church. I mean, right. It's clear like the conversations we've had and talking, just you love what God's doing in the midst of the church and the big church too, absolutely, which takes you kind of further out, too.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Right. And so I I hop, I decided to hop on a bike and ride to Key West. It's the very first time I've ever done that, and I just needed to win. I won, I was feeling great. Um, and that triggered a 10 year um tour with Ends of the Earth Cycling. And so I did there were years where I would do three rides a year. Um, I brought my family on the rides with. Me. I finally convinced my wife to ride with me. Like it was like there was something to me about the honesty of ends of the earth cycling saying, hey, this is not about us. This is about the youth workers that are in Bulgaria or the youth workers that are in the Philippines. Or um is that when the the the switch kind of happened in your life? I think that missions had always been a part of me. I had been in Russia and I had been to El Salvador and things in college before I got married. And then when I was a family man and didn't know exactly how I could bring my kids to the world, um, this was the avenue that I felt like the Lord said, Hey, here's a way that you can play into missions and still do, you know, still live in America, still do the normal, like be a dad and all of that. And so, because I wasn't feeling like God was calling me long term to be out out of the states. Um what was it like over in Russia, though? I want to interrupt you.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

What because I mean you just threw it out there, like I went to Russia, you know.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

I'm thinking like cold, Siberia, like tell me about Russia, Novigrad and Sochi, Sochi where the Olympics were recently, okay, uh not too long ago. Um I thought Russia was awesome. I loved it. I loved the people that I got to meet there. Um as a young man, I was uh like you talk about saying yes, like uh I said yes to the pastor. So I had a week, I was working at Home Depot in college, and I had a week's vacation and coming up, and I just went to my pastor and said, Hey, can you use me for a week? Like, whatever you need, I'll do it. I'm thinking like build a wall or something. I don't paint something or whatever. I didn't know what he wanted me to do. Yeah, but he's like, okay, he's like, let me get back to you. Two days later, he's like, What do you think about going to Russia? And I'm like, Russia? He's like, Yeah, we know this evangelist over here and he'll take you. And I was like, uh I don't know how I'm gonna pay that. He's like, Well, if money wasn't an option, would you go or a hindrance? Would you go? And I was like, I mean, yeah, sure. He's like, okay, we'll ask for the time off. I tried to ask for the time off, and boss, like, no way you can get that time off. And I'm like, okay, well, I just told the church, the church prayed. And then I overheard my boss's boss tell his boss, hey, like, how else could I say no to this? We have to say yes to this. I don't know, like that for me as a young man, that was the Lord. Wow. And the church paid for our trip. Russia was amazing. Um, I got asked to preach at a church. I never preached at a church. I got asked to preach at a church. I prayed for people at the end. The pat I will we'll never forget. The pastor at the end of the service comes up to me and says, The things that you spoke over our people were the things that they needed to hear. And you prayed specific things that I have no idea how you knew that, other than that was the Lord speaking through you. I don't remember what I said to those people. And then he said, I want to bless your ministry. I'm like 18 years old. I have no ministry.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Did you did you take the guitar with you at least? No, I don't know. No, so this is straight out go on a missions trip and preach the word of Christ.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Wow. And he gave me some cash at the end of the sermon. And uh I think I bought McDonald's for the team, you know, like that was with us. And but I I remember that and I shared that story um at our church the following Sunday because that's what you did back then. Yeah. Um it was great. Yeah, those were great times. Yeah, yeah. And I shared that story, and someone was visiting the church that weekend, and she came because I was at the end uh shaking hands at the door, which is also what you did during that time. Uh, and she came up to me and she said, I want to give to your ministry. Here's fifty dollars. And I'm like, You just heard me relay this entire story that I have I don't have a ministry, like I have zero ministry, like I'm just someone that's here, you know. Like I'm just happy to be here. And she's like, No, I want to give you that money. Wow. Wow. So God's always been providing and always been telling us that He would provide. And his name is Jehovah Yaira.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah. My God, my provision, my God, my provider. Yeah. I've lived similar to what you say in that.

unknown 26:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Yeah, man, that hit me emotionally.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Yeah. Yeah, that's that's well, it's crazy. Like when when you don't know how you're gonna make a payment, yeah, and suddenly there's a five thousand dollar check in your mailbox. Like it's only God works that way.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

You can say it's coincidence, but I don't think that's I think God works in that way quite often for his children. And I think he especially, and I'm not trying to God, there's no favorites with God, we know that. But there is something special in a relationship when you're saying yes, when you're cooperating and not fighting. Yeah. God will still take care of you, don't get me wrong, but the provision might just be minimal at that time. I don't know. I've I've heard stories, that's why I'm just going by stories. I've been in places where I was in total disobedience, but yet God still provided some things and I needed it at the time. But yet the goodness of God, it says, brings men to repentance. And out of that goodness, it broke me. You experienced that as well?

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Yeah. I mean, it's a humbling thing when someone hands you something like that. Or I think you also realize, you just begin to realize that it's not about the money or the things. You start to see, like, oh, like suddenly I got a free breakfast over here. Like God's providing bread for me, or God is providing some extra time for me, or God's providing rest for me. Um, that a lot, a lot of times we take Jehovah Jira and we say provider, and in our American minds or stateside minds is that's money in the bank. Because what else what else could God provide that wouldn't be better than that? You know? Yeah. Um, but there's a wealth of things. And I think, well, you said, like, yeah, when you're saying yes, it may not be five thousand dollars. And there's been times where I needed cash and I didn't have it. And it didn't come, and that's okay. I still made it through that time because God's grace was sufficient, right? Um, and so yeah, I think it it does humble you, it does break you in different ways, um, but all on the best ones, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Hey, three doves podcast listeners. My name is Justin Hannikin, and I've been a guest on episodes three and four of this podcast. I'm here to share with you today about a tangible way that we can live out our honest faith through real stories to see lives transformed. I'm part of a group called the Million Movement, and we have a goal to see one million children sponsored by the year 2050. I had the opportunity to travel to Ethiopia in 2009 to meet my sponsored child with Food for the Hungry, and my life has never been the same since. Could you take a minute and visit www.themillion movement.com to read more about our vision? And then, if you're able to sponsor a child, you'll find a way to do so right at that link. Shoot me a DM on Instagram at the.million.movement, because I want to send you a free gift to help you on your sponsorship journey. Again, that's www.themillion movement.com. And now back to this week's episode.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

When you started doing missions, when you started traveling, um, when when the Lord started to open those doors for you, he went to a place called Ecuador. Tell me a little bit about Ecuador and that trip. Um seems like uh the kind of incidents that you guys went through.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Yeah, so we through through ends of the year cycling, after we finished through that, we've we learned how I I like to say we learned how to advocate for other people through ends of the year cycling. And so the Lord was calling our family, like it was clear to uh to Jessica and I that the Lord was calling us to put more of our money where our mouth was, kind of say, and say a bigger yes. And so we said yes to sharing other people's stories and advocating for them and giving them the resources to travel or for their stories to travel. And so what we do is we had to gain partners to do that financially, and um and then what we do is we travel all kinds of different places. So Ecuador was our first landing stop, that was close to three years ago now. Um, and we came in, all six of us completely green, just completely like, yes, Lord, here we are, you know, like everything was a new experience. You know, you're smiling through the Miami airport. No one smiles throughout the Miami airport. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

Um, and they're not smiling today with everything going on. This is not a time of smiling, it sounds like so.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

You're just you know, everything was was wonderful. Um, let me just explain, let me back the weight of the yes was here. I am. I'm I'm 45 currently, so I was 42 years old. We had a house, I had a worship pastor job in Tennessee. Um, I had then that church would have kept me on staff probably till I was 65. Like they loved me, I had a good relationship, I was writing songs, we were doing, I could do anything I wanted to do. Like it was it was a great job. Um, and then God said, This is what you're supposed to do. And so we left that behind. And so as a 40-something year old father of four, I sold the only house that I was owned or was paying for, but owned, um, moved my family. So we get into to to Ecuador, or and I've said yes, and feels like this is a really heavy yes. But everyone's happy, excited to be there. We get on the bus, I get sick, motion sickness. I do not get motion sickness. I can ride roller coasters, whatever. And it's a it feels it's a spiritual attack. I know it's a spiritual attack, and all I'm hearing is, what have you done? You have made the worst mistake of your entire life. You walked away from what you worked for and dreamed of and prayed for, and you're walking your wife and your kids, and you've you have no home, you have no, you have nothing, you have nothing to your name. Uh, to the point where like I was physically sick. Like I had to find the bathroom on the bus in Ecuador, which is not a great bus, not a great bathroom, you know, like all of that. It's hot, it's hot, right? All of that. Um, and then we get into that uh going into where we were going. And so I'm carrying all of that weight as well. And and I prayed, like as I knew it was a spiritual attack, so I started to pray and pray and pray because that's what you know, you cling to the Lord, cling to the Lord, cling to the Lord. I'm not getting any relief. And finally it was just like, hey, it's okay. You don't know the whole thing, just continue to take a step, take the next step of faith. I'm with you, you know, and I'm here with you in that. So that happens. Um again, you said yes. Yeah, continue to say yes. Yeah, um, Jessica gets sick uh on that trip.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Um, she's coughing and all of that kind of stuff. And uh Justin was with us as well at the beginning of the trip. He gets sick, but I think Justin gets sick on every trip that he goes on. So um, but you know, it's that whole like there's so many, like you could go like it's funny, like the six stories are super funny, and I can think I could probably tell it a little bit funnier, but uh for whatever reason I guess I'm feeling a little more um real on the in this moment, but it's go with it. It ends up being that where you're you're you've said yes, and man, like sometimes it's just so hard. Like, because you've said yes, and here you are just trying to do the best that you can. Um, you know, like the very first interview we were there, we're doing the best that we can for this person. We're supposed to be the professionals, you know. And here we are interviewing this woman who runs a ministry for young mothers, and she's trying to help them be uh have a support system and learn how to care for babies and learn how to be moms and be better moms than they had and get out of drugs and all the different things, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:47

That are so you're interviewing people? Yeah, so we interview people. So tell me about that more because um I'm I I think that needs to be clarified a little bit deeper. So you're taking cameras, equipment, and you're going over to the countries to interview people.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

Yeah, so we'll bring we we bring in um two cameras set up and and we spend time with the ministry and we're very intentional. Like the very first week, we don't bring out our cameras, we get to know you, get to understand you, and then we bring in a camera and film what the ministry is doing. We want to know names first before we ever shoot a lens at somebody's face. And then we do an interview with them to kind of understand what they're doing, um, and then put that together so that way they would have it as a means to share what they do with uh people around the world. And then also we're trying to share those same stories.

SPEAKER_02 35:40

Um so the missions like uh videos that we see on the church screens, a lot of times you could have produced one across, basically. Yeah, yeah. So what we're so it gets you excited. Hey, here's why you need to think and pray for Ecuador. Here's this mission, this missionary. This is what they're doing, this is the results of God's work and their heart and here. That's beautiful, man. Yeah. That's gorgeous. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

So that's so that's the heart behind what we do. So, like the we're super, you know, like the first interviewer is super excited about it. Um, and then in the middle of the interview, Jessica likes coffin, you know, a fit, you know, Google Translate doesn't work because we have no translator at the moment. And so it's just, you know, like you're trying to work through all those kind of things. So sometimes your yeses can be difficult, and then there's unexpected difficulties, and especially if you're kind of like uh a pioneer in your yes, and you're just like, hey, I'm just gonna go after it, you know, like who cares? You know, like let the chips fall where they may. Well, sometimes the chips hurt a little bit more than others, yeah. Um, but we've been learning through that process, and the Lord has been gracious to take us through Ecuador, we've been in Peru and Colombia and Costa Rica, Guatemala. Uh what gave you the idea to take the video cameras and and do that?

SPEAKER_02 36:54

What where did that come from?

SPEAKER_01 36:55

I think it was the ends of the earth cycling rides that I've been on.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

And you were recording during those times or doing the video?

SPEAKER_01 37:01

No, that so they weren't sometimes they would have video of the missionaries, and that always made me feel more connected to it, and it gave me something to show other people and talk to other people. Have you always done film? Have you always done this? Um, I was the young guy at the church when I was the youth pastor, and so when the video world hit the church, they were like, Hey, you're the young guy, you learn. Yeah. And so um, I think as a creative, I just like to create things, so it doesn't really matter what it is. If it's baking, I'll bake it. You know, like it's fine, I just like to make something. Yeah. Um, so I think that uh that's part of that um drive inside of me. Yeah, so we were blessed with the opportunity to go to Ghana last summer and met. We were originally had gotten hooked up with them because there was an orphanage for disabled children. Wow. Um, one of our partners told us about this organization. And so we went in with that as a directive. And there were the national leader that runs the orphanage, his name is Pastor William. He uh does a side ministry in the world's largest slum, Aga Blueshi. And um, basically, what if you read the history, you can actually read about this. Um and people can find this on YouTube on our YouTube page, share the stories at Share the Stories.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Yeah. Um and but the slum basically Ghana bought the world's technological trash. Yeah. That's how they made money. Yeah, that's what I heard. I had a friend who went there, yeah. And uh so they they they sold the world sells their digital garbage to Ghana, which is a travesty in and of itself, and Ghana disposes of it, uh, of it. They don't do it the best way. Um, so they burn this trash, and so they had one of the most polluted um cities, and they don't have a lot of cars. Um and so there's a slum that is built alongside this burning recycling trash kind of thing, and so um you walk over a bridge uh of a river that would run straight to the Atlantic Ocean that is full of garbage and trash. There was no water in there at the time the smell is pretty strong. In fact, I told one of our Uber drivers that we had gone there, and he goes, Did you go to any place that was pretty in Ghana? Like, because he was like, Hey, where have you been? And I was like, I went to Agabluosh. He's like, Why did you go there? You know, like um, but anyways, we walked across this bridge and walked through. We were with the kids of Pastor Williams' ministry, and they were showing us their homes. Um man, I've been to slums in the Philippines before, uh, where you walk down like an aisle and there's sanitation coming down the sidewalk kind of thing. This was worse off, like then that was a squatter village. This was worse off than that. Um, very much squatter style living, um community showering and bathroom facilities. But there's a Muslim community heavy in that area. Um, we weren't actually allowed to be there because we were foreigners, but because of the nationals we were with, we were able to walk through and we were told not to bring our cameras because we were outsiders, and so we did not bring cameras with us. But we walked through this slum uh with the kids and shook hands. My kids, my 11-year-old daughter shook hands with Muslim girls and Muslim boys who were so happy to see us. Wow. And we didn't get to share Jesus directly, like, hey, Jesus died for your sins, and like that kind of the message of the gospel. But I know we shared Jesus by shaking a hand and saying, hey, like you're seen. And and it put us in a place that we wouldn't normally be in, right? So that yes put us in a place that felt slightly uncomfortable, right? Because I'm like holding on to my daughter because I want to make sure my blonde-haired girl is not, you know, taken, but also put us in a position where we were able to see and be with people that we may not have been with. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

So that was pretty impactful for you, your family. Sure. Your wife, you guys went through this slum area. Yeah. You've been to the Philippines as well. I've been to the Philippines, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

What other places did uh God uh open up doors for the people? Uh we were in the Dominican Republic last year. Um we're in talks to be in Kenya this year. Um so yeah, I mean, I think those are all the places. I don't know. I've been to a lot of places.

SPEAKER_02 41:56

Would you say out of the experience of all the places you've been and what God's been showing you through your life, what's the one story that really gripped your heart of where you went?

SPEAKER_01 42:06

You're talking you're asking for Matt Crossing only, right? Yeah. I am okay. Um I mean that's really that's a hard question because every story matters and every person matters. So I couldn't put somebody above another thing, but there was something maybe that triggered this entire thing for me that set this in motion for my life. Um, I was in college and I went to El Salvador with Operation Christmas Child and we got to deliver boxes and shoeboxes of toys and things, and we did skits and so forth. Uh but um and that was all fun and everything. But we went to an orphanage. I had never been to an orphanage before. Um, we went to an orphanage and I got to watch kids open up boxes and get excited about toothpaste and having their own toothbrush and shampoo, whatever. And that was moving. But then we went to another section of this orphanage and there were babies, and there was it was a a kind of a long room and full of cribs, and there were two workers, and it was like babies, like two babies in per crib kind of thing, like situation. And there's no way that these ladies who love obviously love their kids, but there's no way that they were able to give the amount of time that is needed. And I remember holding this little girl, she had a cleft lip, and I held this little girl for the entire time that I was in this room because she wouldn't like let go of me kind of thing. Um and I took a picture of that little girl and I hung it in my office at the church when I was a youth pastor, and I I looked at that little girl often. Um And I thought someone needs to stand up for this because we're so uh sheltered from that knowledge in the United States. We see the wars and we see all the news and we see all of these things that Fox or CNN shows us, but we don't see this real uh little girl that I don't even know her name, you know, but the Lord knows who she is, and he sees her and he sees that lady that's loving her on occasion as best as she can. And to me, it felt like, hey, I've got to do something about that. Like more people need to know about these things, and that's what I think inspires us as share the stories to really push through and try to share Pastor Williams' story in Ghana because here's a national um who is disabled himself, and here he is not only running an orphanage for disabled children, um, but he's also bringing kids from the slums and teaching them so they can teach other kids about uh like general life skills and that Jesus loves them and like help maybe change the poverty cycle.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Um, he doesn't need, I mean, yeah, he needs finances and all that kind of stuff, but he needs people that would gloriously support him in prayer and like reach out to him and love him and care for him and maybe raise up the next um Pastor William out of that slum. And so that's the heartbeat behind this is you know, not only to give resources to those ministries, but to say, you know, Jason, like you could do this, you know, or if someone's listening to this and they're like, hey, I didn't know that happened. Well, maybe they could make a difference in somebody's life, or maybe their own neighborhood, you know, here in Cape Coral, Florida.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Going back just for a moment, yeah. You adopted children yourself. We didn't adopt you didn't adopt, no, we were foster parents. Foster parents. Yes. Uh okay. You didn't adopt the foster kids. No, no, we worked at a foster care. Okay. So working even at foster, that was that sprung about your heart for these orphans too, or is that I'd say so a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

I had a degree in sociology. Yeah. Um, and uh I wanted to use that degree to help people. Um, and so we saw that as an avenue uh to help people. And so we had eight teenage girls and 10 teenage boys at one point. We had been married for a year and a half, and my wife and I learned how to be parents very quickly through um maybe wasn't the best choice, but it was it was our choice that we did. Yeah, and um, I'm grateful for those times. But yeah, I think that that's always been something. Um when you're talking God, God is for the orphan. Like there, there's a lot of scripture about that. Um, we don't really need to even try to make the case for that. Like God is for the widows, he's for the orphan, he's for the people that um, you know, like Jesus said, the sick need the doctor, right? Like I'm going after the people that maybe the world is like, hey, who cares? Like, great, Pastor William, you keep doing what you're doing, or like this kid, I don't know. Or um, I think about like Honduras in this little squatter village that we went to, and there's the Jimmies and the Johnnies and the um, you know, that are sitting there in this uh squatter uh village on a side of a mountain that you would have like no one would ever know who that they even live there. Um they don't even know how to read and write. And so until a missionary comes over there and figures out, like, hey, like they don't even, I can't teach them the Bible, they don't even know how to read. Let me let me teach them how to read first. I could use the Bible to teach them how to read, but let me teach them how to read, give them some real like skill and love them, even though maybe you know the people that live in that situation sometimes are harder to love, you know. Like maybe they have their they have their own issues that they're dealing with, but to love somebody and to to care for them, and I think Jesus sees the Jimmies and Johnnies and he goes, Hey, like those are the people that you want that I love, and I I love a lot, you know, like and they may not ever get a stage or they may never get a crowd in front of them, yeah. But man, like I love them so much, and so you should go love them so much, and so like that's why. Like, we don't, even though our whole job is to capture it on video, I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna sit there and do Johnny's math with him and try to help him understand his math because that's what Jesus would have done, right? Jesus would have said, Hey, let me help you with this, and math ironically, you don't need to know another language to teach someone math. Um, but that's what Jesus calls us to do is to love the least of these. I think in the States we probably just don't know we're the least of these, uh, you know, um, but really like you get you realize that it's not about um, I think we talked about this a little bit in the beginning off air was this idea that we thought we were gonna go help people and then realized, oh, like they're actually showing me how I'm supposed to be living. Yeah. Um and so like you go to visit that mountain and you realize, oh like maybe your first time, maybe you feel a little guilty for the house that you live in in the States. But if you go on the regular, you realize, hey, it house is a house, it's just whatever choices you know our culture makes. But there's something uh there's a quality of life that is different, and because it's maybe folks in on family, or there's more downtime and there's more um reflection time, but really you realize like, hey, like again, an opportunity to love somebody in a way that is unique and special. And how can I bring that back to the circle here in the United States to encourage my son Levi to love people the way that we've loved people on that side of the mountain, or inspire his friends, uh like your son, Caleb, to love people the way that God loves people.

SPEAKER_02 50:38

Yeah. Amen, man. That's good. Matt, thank you for being on a Three Doves podcast today. We have the same vision here. Um you're just going out into the sticks of it, man. And it's so amazing, it's so beautiful to see God using you in your heart for these children, these people, and for the Jimmies and Johns on the side of the road. Sounds a lot like Jesus. Thanks for being on a podcast today, man. Thank you. You know, Matt's story reminds us that a simple yes to God can take you further than you ever planned and often through places you never expected. From rejection to redirection, from a bike ride to the nations, and from a camera to capturing the heart of God and people's lives. This is what it looks like to follow him fully. And maybe the takeaway today is this your yes matters. Whether it's across the world or right here at home, God is still calling people to see, to love, and to step in. Thanks for joining us on the Three Does Podcast. And if this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who needs to hear and remember God is still writing stories worth telling.