Molly

Beauty from Ashes: Redemption in All Things

I have spent most of the summers of my life in the Appalachian Mountains, worshiping under the stars, by the river at my favorite place on earth: Camp Dickenson. I met Jesus at camp, I grew with Jesus at camp, and He’s taught me some pretty important life lessons as I walked out most of my childhood and teenage years at camp.

So it should really come as no surprise to me that as I ponder the frustrations I feel about all the negativity, injustice, and anger at the world, the church, and humanity in general, truths that God placed in my heart at camp would come back to me.

The last summer I spent there, we used the song “Beautiful Things” by Gungor during our worship time quite a bit:

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around Hope is springing up from this old ground Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make me new, you are making me new.

These words speak to me on so many levels. God is redeeming my life and using every moment to bring glory to Him. God is redeeming the world. He is growing a garden in the ground of its chaos. He makes beautiful things out of dust. We were created from dust, and Christ deemed us so beautiful that He came to earth to redeem us. In Isaiah 61 the prophet speaks of Christ restoring us with a crown of beauty instead of ashes. Those He redeems will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated.

God is not only redeeming our personal lives and the sin, shame, and guilt that come with living in the world, but He is using our redemption to change the world. He makes beautiful things out of the dust. We are crowned with beauty and in turn, rebuilding the ancient ruins and the places long devastated.

I like to think those long devastated places are both a physical and metaphorical representation of both the strife in our world but also the ruin in our own personal life experiences, relationships, and daily walk. It’s easy for us to focus on the ashes but ignore that we have been crowned with beauty. It’s easy to see all that’s lost, but ignore the parts that have been found. It’s easy to forget that out of chaos life is being found in Him.

He is making all things new.

Molly Williams
Crossroads Urban Center, Salt Lake City, UT
US-2, Class 2013
Advance # 3021854

The Adventure Begins Now

Mission

As the deadline for applications for Generation Transformation approaches, The Book of Fellows will be featuring stories and interviews from young adult missionaries that hope to help others discern applying for the program. Below is the first one in our new series. Enjoy!

I can still remember standing under the mango trees in Nueva Vida, Nicaragua, hearing God calling me to make the most of this life I have been given. A call to move from short-term missions and into a life of long-term service. I knew then that I didn’t want to look back through photos in ten years at the people and circumstances that had grabbed my heart, and realize that I had done nothing more than file that call to action away into just another Facebook photo album.

Erma Bombeck once said, “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and I could say, “I used everything you gave me.” That’s how I felt when I decided to pursue a call into mission service with the GMF (Global Mission Fellows) program of the United Methodist Church. I have some good friends from my home church and we all like to talk about how we want to be world changers. I was in a place in my life where I decided to stop imagining how awesome pursing that title would be, and just do it.

The GMF program placed me in Salt Lake City, Utah, with Crossroads Urban Center. We operate the largest emergency food pantry in the state, a free and low cost thrift store, as well as several community organizing and advocacy groups that work towards creating a better life for low income Utahns. Every day is a new adventure. From working with clients in our food pantry, to meeting one on one with the Governor of Utah to talk about policies that could change the life of the poor, I have been stretched and grown way outside my comfort zone.

Some days it is exactly like I imagined it would be, other times I see God’s hand in pushing me towards the uncomfortable moments that come with changing the world. Poverty in the US looks different than it did in the impoverished communities I served in Nicaragua. And while it looks different, God still hurts for the people of our country, and has called the Church to step up and continue carrying the banner of the Acts 2 church.

Every day is a new story. A father of three who just lost a job due to downsizing, someone with a mental illness and no way of getting medical care, a homeless veteran who served our country and still has trouble qualifying for services. These issues make people feel uncomfortable, but this is reality, and I have been called to step up and work towards a solution.

If you feel like God has called you to more than dreaming about what a changed world looks like, then consider walking down this journey that my classmates and I embarked on a little over a year ago with the GMF program. Stop dreaming and grab some tools. There is plenty to be done and plenty of room in the family.

Molly Williams
Crossroads Urban Center, Salt Lake City, UT
US-2, Class 2013
Advance # 3021854

Interested in becoming part of the Generation Transformation program, or want more information? Please click here. The deadline for early applications is October 15.
Have more questions about Molly’s journey? Leave them in the comment section below!

Redefining Missionary: What About the US?

Mission

Missionary. When you hear that word, what do you think of? My guess is that most people picture someone in another country, probably a third world country, doing some kind of relief work or evangelism. I say this because I could say the same thing for me, until recently. However, God called me into something a little different when I said yes to mission service.

I walked into this call expecting to go somewhere overseas and fulfill this picture in my head of “missionary.” However, in spite of my plan, God made His own. I ended up entering into the GMF US-2 program, and was placed in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a little hard to get excited at first, because people would ask me where I was headed and I could always see them deflate a bit when I told them I was going to Utah. It did not seem like quite the adventure, staying in the country for two years.

So where does missions in the US fit in to this definition we have of “missionary?” I think that if one really considers the concept, it’s a no brainer. We deal with issues of poverty right here in the US. Sure, it doesn’t look the same here as it does in the third world. I completely agree with that. But I have met hungry people: A father who was grieving that his daughter had to stay home from school because he had only been able to feed her tea and crackers for a week, homeless veterans, families who worked but couldn’t quite make ends meet. I have heard plenty of stories of communities in rural areas without access to clean water and medical care. And I know for a fact that there are plenty of Americans who need to know about Jesus.

In Acts 1, before He ascended to Heaven, He left His disciples with this:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

A lot of people may see this as a call to go to the “ends of the earth.” I see it as that and so much more. I see a call to start right where you are and let God lead.

God calls missionaries from everywhere to everywhere. From Virginia to Salt Lake City, from North Carolina to the Philippines, from Arkansas to Miami, from Texas to South Korea…God has a bigger plan for our lives than we will ever know. He is moving in our communities in powerful ways no matter where we are. So whether you are called to Jerusalem or to the ends of the earth, God is already there waiting for you to join Him on an incredible adventure. I challenge you to rethink your definition of missionary. It becomes so much more powerful and beautiful when we realize its full potential.

Molly Williams
Crossroads Urban Center, Salt Lake City, UT
US-2, Class 2013
Advance # 3021854