When Buster and Jean Voss tell someone that they are “spreading the gospel one cross at a time” or “spreading the love of Jesus one cross at a time,” they don’t mean it in an abstract sense.
It started when Buster’s father went to the Midwest on a missions trip in the late 1970s. He came back with two small crosses — one for Buster’s mother and one for Buster.
In 2006, a woodworker friend asked if he could use Buster’s as a pattern to make crosses himself.
“Well, I asked him if he would teach me how to make them. He said he would, so I started working with him over at his workshop,” Buster said.
Jean was still working full time and couldn’t help much but by 2007, Buster really felt God’s call to focus on making the crosses.
“We would make a bunch, and we would maybe give a few to the church. We’d stand out and give them to newcomers. [Buster] would carry them around and just hand them out to people. That’s kind of how it began,” Jean said.
After Jean retired, they increased their time and resources to make more crosses.
Becoming a team
It was still a small-scale operation. But then Buster became so sick that there was a chance he wouldn’t make it. His doctor challenged him to get well so he could make 100 crosses. After moving to Margaret to be closer to family, they found new doctors.
“Not only was he healed, but it opened up an entirely new ministry for us with crosses. We became a team,” Jean said.
They began giving them to Vacation Bible School programs and soon became overwhelmed with so many potential recipients. They started specifically praying about where to share them and say God told them to concentrate on missionaries and Operation Christmas Child boxes. Their crosses have been distributed in Guatemala, South America, Africa, Europe, India and New Guinea.
Many members of their church — NorthPark Baptist in Trussville — know about the cross ministry and love to share their story.
Buster also has personally challenged himself to give a cross to every person in Birmingham. Though far from that goal, amazing stories have already come from the effort.
“We got such an incredible response from people who received the crosses that it just encouraged us and affirmed that God was blessing it, and it gave us a reason to keep on going,” Jean said.
Needed reminder
Buster keeps a dozen or so in his pocket at all times, ready to give them away. They give them to people in restaurants, grocery stores, doctor’s offices and anywhere else they may go. Doctors have asked if they could put some in a jar for patients.
Once, at a restaurant, they felt led to give one to a waitress.
“Buster handed her a cross, and she just looked at us and held it really tight. She got tears in her eyes and she said, ‘I needed this today. I needed to be reminded that I wasn’t alone. I’ve been trying to figure out how to pay for my school and my house and all the other things. I just needed to be reminded that I wasn’t alone,’” Jean remembered.
Another time the couple went out to eat. As they were getting in their car, they saw a man adjacent to them and gave him a cross. The man started crying and said, “Thank you so much. Please pray for me. I have a brain tumor. It means so much if you would just pray for me.” Buster and Jean have been praying for him ever since.
But the most amazing account had to do with missing a turn on the way home.
‘All to His glory’
“We were coming back from the Springville Walmart. Never have I done this since or before. We were saying that we probably should go by Publix on our way home,” Jean said.
However, knowing they would have to go out of the way, they decided to simply go home.
“We were just talking away and all of a sudden, I looked around and said, ‘Buster, where’s our turn?’ I realized that I passed right by our turn,” Jean recounted.
Because Publix was no longer out of the way, they went by there and got what they needed. Then when checking out, they gave a cross to the cashier.
“The lady said, ‘Oh, do you have another one? Our manager just lost a close family member and she’s really, really upset. Do you think you could give another one for her?
“I thought, ‘Lord, we never miss our cut-off, and we didn’t even know we had missed it until we had gone too far.’ Of course, we gave the manager a cross and told her we’d pray for her. It’s things like that that blow my mind and make me so grateful to God that He has allowed us to do this,” Jean said.
Though they have received a lot of positive responses from the receivers of the 8,000-plus crosses they have made, they never want this ministry to be about them.
“God has provided equipment, supplies, time. It is all to His glory,” Buster said.
“He has opened all the doors,” Jean said. “It really is by God’s grace, to give us purpose. When you are retired sometimes you think you have no purpose left. This gave us a purpose and God blessed it.
“He really is a loving, committed and personal God.”
To find out more, email Buster and Jean at onecrossatatime@gmail.com.
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