2019-2020
3rd Pastoral & Church Anniversary Celebration
June 28, 2020
To God be the glory for the great things He has done! As we celebrate another year as a church family, I would like to take the time to thank you for your love and commitment to the work of ministry. Throughout the year when we were able to come together, you labored faithfully Sunday after Sunday. As your pastor, I commend you for your work at the homeless shelter, your selfless giving of food and clothes during our participation in the Adopt-a-Family Program, and your willingness to travel with and support your Pastor when we ministered at other churches.
While I can only say thank you for your service, one day the Lord will reward you. As believers, we should all long to hear our Savior say, "well done, my good and faithful servant". 2020 has been a challenging year, but God has been faithful. Although we might be in different locations on the 28th, we can still worship and rejoice. So let us lift up our voices, raise our hands and give all glorify and honor to God who has kept us individually and collectively, because "unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain." (Psalm 127:1)
Faithfully Serving Him,
Pastor Bobby R. Smallwood
Special Guest: Rev. Garfield Cross, III
Abundant Live Christian Fellowship
Mountain View, California
Rev. Cross is the retired pastor of Heart’s Delight Baptist Church in Catlett, Virginia. He currently resides in San Jose, California with the lovely Ethel Rollins Cross. He and his wife Ethel lead Disciples of Care Ministries and serve at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship. Pastor Cross continues to serve the Christian Way Baptist Church (Falls Church, Virginia) through their telephone bible study.
He also serves the CityTeam Men’s Recovery Shelter in San Jose, California, providing chapel preaching and teaching twice a week.
Pastor Cross and family spent forty three years in the DC Metro area, spending twenty three years as members of the Oakland Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia where they served in the Deacon and Deaconess Ministry respectively.
Pastor Cross completed his undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, Virginia) and his Master of Arts degree in Biblical Counseling at Capital Bible Seminary, Lanham, Maryland. He is a graduate of the Lott Cary Pastoral Excellence Program, a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors and the Black African-American Christian Counselors. Currently, he serves as President of Disciples Of Care, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to the ministry of Biblical Counseling, Project Consulting, and International Missions. Pastor Cross is a missions-minded pastor with service in Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa, Jamaica, and Guyana.
He was licensed in November, 1997 and ordained April, 2002 by Pastor Tyrone Queen at the Oakland Baptist Church.
He celebrates 48 years of marriage to the lovely Ethel Rollins Cross, a native of Portsmouth, Virginia, a graduate of Norfolk State University and a retired Senior Executive of the US Patent and Trademark Office. They have two wonderful children, four lovely grandchildren, and one on the way!
“For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
(2 Corinthians 2:15)