About Us
Greeting to you in Christ. Our “About Us” story isn’t really about Jack & Carol Scott, it's more about what God is doing in us and through us for His glory.
We were married in 1973. We have four boys and eleven grandchildren. We currently live in Frisco, Texas but have lived in a dozen states over the years.
Our story is of our journey in Christ and continues to unfold. It began in June of 1981. That was the year we attended a small church in Southern California and we responded, together, to an alter call. We have been serving the Lord ever since.
As the kids were growing up, we were involved with Christian Education ministries. Starting with Sunday School teaching, evolving into curriculum writers and CE consultants and then moving into Cursillo Renewal Ministries, Kairos Prison Ministries, Small Group Ministries, Adult Education and Stephen Ministry. Jack was blessed to have a good career in Information Technology that allowed Carol to be a stay-at-home mom through most of those years.
As the boys "left home", Carol spent more time with Care Giving ministries, like Nursing Home visitations and Hospice Volunteer work. Her training as a Stephen Minister equipped her to work with the elderly, sick, infirm and dying. Her gift of caring for the poor in spirit and intercessory prayer continued to develop, by God's grace. With just the two of us now, Carol encouraged Jack to get more serious in his woodworking hobby. He needed something less stressful than his job and a way to be creative. He purchased his first scroll saw in 1995 and began developing his carpenter skills by making wooden crosses for Carol to use in her ministry and for church ministries.
In 2000, we moved from California to Oklahoma to Texas as part of the relocation of a grocery industry technical services company. Jack was responsible to deliver supply chain industry solutions and participate in a Senior Management role in that organization. The company was sold in 2002 and we were in the middle of an IT business downturn in Texas.
In the meanwhile, Carol was involved in her hospice care ministry in North Dallas. She came home one evening to find Jack making sawdust in "the shop". She tapped me on the shoulder (I was wearing my ear-muffs) and asked if we could talk for a few minutes. She looked distressed and sad. I asked her how her day went. She began describing her day and how frustrated she was about having difficulty connecting with a few extreme case patients. In the midst of her teary eyed description of the events of the day she just blurted out ... "we need to make a wooden cross that is easy for those debilitated hands to hold". She reached out her hand toward me and showed me how a hand looks when crippled with arthritis or atrophy from age. I grabbed her hand and then asked her to wait a few minutes while I cut out something as an example. I took a piece of scrap Bubinga Wood and drew a simple cross about 4 inches tall. I then adjusted the angle and width of each of the four "ends" of the cross. I took the roughly drawn cross to the scroll saw and cut out the piece. I then went to the workbench and grabbed a few tools to develop the shape and make it smooth. Thirty minutes later the first version of The HoldingCross was born.
I handed it to Carol and asked her to place it in her hand as if she was one of her patients. She began to cry. It fit perfectly and gently in her hand. Her tears turned into a smile and then laughter as we took turns rejoicing and praising the Lord. The cross was so smooth. The Bubinga looked so beautiful. What we had been inspired to create was beautiful. Carol told me to make 20 of them right away. She called them HoldingCrosses – to fit perfectly in the hand.
And so, The HoldingCross was born in Frisco, Texas in May of 2001.
In 2001 and 2002, Carol kept Jack busy making HoldingCrosses. There were her Hospice patients, then the Nursing Home ministry, then Hospital visitations, then Women’s Retreat and Small Group. We made several thousand and gave them to the Body of Christ for prayer and for ministry use during this time.
Jack’s corporate position was winding down. He had his resume and the search firms in play but there was no prospect in sight. He was also becoming increasingly busy making HoldingCrosses. As people saw one, they wanted one for their friend or relative too. As we prayed about our finances and future, we prayed about what to do with The HoldingCross.
One day after Bible Study, a dear friend mentioned that she needed more HoldingCrosses and wanted to pay for them. “Why don’t you make them for sale”, she said. She continued, “You know, God could bless more people by selling them than you can by giving them away!”
Carol and I had been praying about this for some time. We couldn’t continue to fund the woodworking hobby without a job. It was getting expensive to buy the different woods and all of the supplies needed for the quality we wanted. As we considered what we would call this new adventure, we went to the internet to look for a domain name for a website. Our first choice was HoldingCross.com. It was available. We did several internet searches as well as trademark and copyright searches and found nothing with that name, design or description. We acquired the domain name, established our trademark and copyright and began developing the website.
And so the website for HoldingCross.com was born in May 2002.
Since then, we have made and distributed over 300,000 HoldingCrosses across the country and the world. We are blessed beyond measure as we work with The HoldingCross. We consider ourselves just carpenters with a Jewish carpenter boss.
To God Be the Glory.
Jack & Carol Scott
p.s. we relocated from Frisco, Texas to Palestine, Texas in February of 2021.