Annie Armstrong Easter Offering 2026 – Week of Prayer Day 6
It was the church’s suddenly busy parking lot that first got Leon and Javon Every’s attention. “We’d been driving by it for years,” Javon says, “and nothing much ever seemed to be happening there.” Curiosity drove them to visit the new work that NAMB Missionary Troy Gause calls a “replant,” and that was just about the best decision the Every family ever made. “I always wanted us all to follow Jesus,” Javon says, “and this is how it happened.”
A GOD-SIZED STORY
MARRERO, LOUISIANA
It was the parking lot that got their attention.
Leon and Javon Every had been driving by the Baptist church on Ames Boulevard for years, but they’d never seen anything momentous happening there. It wasn’t until one morning when they noticed a suddenly packed parking lot that their curiosity got the better of them.
“Seeing all the people we’ve baptized since we replanted here—it says something to the community. It says God’s not finished with Marrero, Louisiana.” -Troy Gause
“Out of the blue,” Javon says, “we said, ‘We should go to that church.’ So the next Sunday, we went. And the rest is history.”
That new life at an old church was the result of God calling church planting missionaries Troy and Chanel Gause. They joined with the struggling congregation of what had been Ames Boulevard Baptist Church and, together, they birthed Cross Community Church to reach people like the Everys.
“The Everys were unchurched,” Troy says. “We got to know them and learned that even though they’d been together for 35 years, they weren’t married.”
“They gave us a beautiful wedding, and we kept going back every Sunday,” Javon says. “We brought our family, and seven of our kids and grandkids got saved. It’s amazing. I always wanted us all to follow Jesus, and this new church—this is how it happened.”
NAMB, AAEO, New Orleans, LA
Pray for…
- More of Leon and Javon’s family to hear the gospel and give their lives to Christ.
- God to draw more unchurched families from the surrounding community to the new church.
- Troy and Chanel to continue to faithfully represent Christ and His kingdom.