The History

Long before the conception of CrossVision in 1998, God had planted a deep desire in the hearts of Joe Lively and Glen Pierce—two laymen who were experienced short term mission trip team leaders.  Their heart’s desire was to take the experience that they had acquired over several years of active involvement in short term missions; their relationships with missionaries, pastors and churches in other countries; and most of all, the methods that Jesus Christ exemplified in Scripture and begin the ministry of CrossVision.   

Joe’s mission experience began in the mid-1980’s at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas.  God had used a trip to the Central American country of Belize to draw Joe into a deeper relationship with Himself and to reveal His plan for Joe’s life.  Joe’s heart for serving God on mission grew with each trip and Joe soon began to lead trips to Belize, Mexico, and Nicaragua.  In 1994, Joe was diagnosed with leukemia and shortly after received a bone marrow transplant.  His life and body were forever changed, but his heart to serve his Lord Jesus grew even stronger.  Though the doctors said, “stop going on mission trips to foreign countries,” Joe pressed on.  After his full recovery Joe increased the number of trips he was leading and served as the Mission’s Director of Southside Baptist Church in Tyler, and then as an assistant to the Missions Minister of Green Acres Baptist Church where he developed ministries to Cuba and Central America.  It was during this time that he founded CrossVision Ministries and served as its primary director.  Joe suffered a relapse of leukemia in 2000 and shortly afterwards received a second bone marrow transplant.  During this time, Joe coordinated four back to back teams building the Mam Indian Center and Church in Ixchiguan, Guatemala, from his hospital bed. The transplant was again successful and he soon resumed his mission work.  Joe’s immune system remained weak, however, and in 2001 he contracted an infection in his lung while serving in Honduras.  In April of 2001, Joe stepped into the permanent presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Probably the greatest testimony of Joe’s life was that even though he had experienced one of life’s hardest blows, he never stopped serving God and subsequently served in numerous countries following his diagnosis with cancer, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Belize, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Australia.  Even to the very end of his life, Joe’s greatest desire was to just serve the Lord.

In 1989, Glen Pierce and his family moved from their home in West Texas across the big state to East Texas.  Glen had begun his mission work early in the 1980’s on the Mexico border along with the Texas River Ministry and his church, Hillcrest Baptist in San Angelo, Texas.  Hillcrest, having been appointed as planting church, became responsible for planting new churches all across the ten county region known as the Concho Valley.  Glen served as a member of the missions committee and later as the chairman of the committee where he gained valuable experience in church planting and growth, as well as serving on several short term mission trips.  In 1995 after having moved to Tyler and joining Friendly Baptist Church, Glen found himself needing a fresh touch from the Lord.  God, through a friend’s encouragement and a series of events, drew Glen to serve on a mission team to Belize that just happened to be led by Joe Lively.  Joe and Glen quickly discovered that they shared many common interest—one was soul winning and another was home building.  Joe had a desire to build a home and he was ready to start.  Glen, being a carpenter and a builder, had the desire to use his knowledge to help Joe with his endeavor of building a new home. God planted them together initially to win souls for Jesus and secondly to build Joe’s house.  As their relationship grew closer they began serving together on mission trips in Guatemala and Mexico.  Seeking God’s direction through prayer and Scripture, Joe and Glen both knew God wanted them to make a greater commitment and in 1998, Joe and Glen along with Mike Hymer, Thomas Ivey, and the advice of a number of pastors developed and began the ministry of CrossVision. 

Joe served as the primary director and began to train short term team leaders and teams, equipping and assisting churches until they could do the work themselves.  Joe’s passion was contagious and he had a gift of drawing individuals out of their comfort zone and causing them to commit to serving God on the mission field. Glen and Thomas served in a support roll to Joe as well as leading teams, and Mike became the financial director.  By this time Joe and Glen had developed a team leader’s manual to assist the team leaders, but the directors of CrossVision began to discover a disturbing pattern surrounding some team members who failed to have a life changing experience while serving on the mission field.  They discovered that these individuals were for one reason or another not right with God and spent little to no time in pre-trip spiritual preparation.  The directors began to take a closer look at the methods of Jesus and discovered that He spent a year and a half preparing his disciples before He ever allowed them to go out and serve Him.  Upon this realization, the directors began preparing 31 day spiritual preparation guides and required team leaders to prepare their teams spiritually so that they would become spiritually right with God before going on mission.  This brought about a huge difference in the overall experience of teams and team leaders. Focusing teams on Jesus and the gospel—before, during, and after the trip—became the driving purpose of CrossVision and remains so today.

After Joe’s glorious home going in Heaven, Glen stepped into the roll of primary director of CrossVision Ministries.  God has added some changed lives to fill the gaps—men like Dan Ross as a director and in charge of CrossVision transportation; John Drummond as a director leading our ever expanding ministries in Florida and the eastern half of the U.S.; Misty Bridges as an advisor to women’s ministries; and Pastor Nicholas Alba as an advisor to Mexican pastors and churches.  God has continued to add churches and increase the ministry, and the directors of CrossVision are soundly committed to remain in the vine and allow Him to use this ministry where ever He chooses.