First, let me start this post by saying this: I apologize for complete lack of diligence in posting frequently. Not that gobs of people are hanging on my every word, but I intended this blog to be a place where I could share my thoughts about the things I encounter in my day-to-day walk.
All this being said, given my five month hiatus from posting, which I will deem “creative space”, a lot has happened in my life. For one, I’ve been in the home-stretch of my Junior year at college and even more recently, have registered for my Senior year of my undergraduate degree. This is not only a bit mind-numbing, but also is something that I’m not fully able to wrap my mind around at this moment, even as I type, in late April. I am so excited, though, to the life ahead that God has laid out for me, which I will speak about later. Christ has continued to show me that he has the power and the patience to work with me and allow me to do mighty things when I follow his lead, and for this, I am extremely grateful.
In an update piggy-backing off my last post, which was in November, there is a huge update on the status of bringing home my beautiful sister, Halle. If you read my last post, you’ll know that my family is in the midst of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. Just a week or so ago, she celebrated her 7th birthday and although we were not able to have here home for this occasion, only a couple weeks prior to her birthday, my parents were able to travel and meet her for the first time, in lieu of our court date. Due to the success of this trip, Halle is now legally a Williams. In the weeks following this event, which we now find ourselves in, the US Embassy is in the process of clearing her for US citizenship, and we hope to have her here in her “forever home” sometime in June. This process has been extremely frustrating, and, at times, even maddening. But as I said, my family has really looked to Christ to give us the patience that we need to persevere for Halle’s sake, and for His glory.
But perhaps the most unexpected news comes concerning my summer employment. For the past few years, either between college semesters, or in high school, I have worked in various restaurants, cleaning spills from some absent-minded parent’s child, yelling in Spanish with the cooks, or planning my escape. As this summer steadily drew near, I fretted over the seemingly foregone conclusion that I would be doing this yet again, or finding some other part-time job to scratch up a few dollars.
In early February, I found myself serving as a small-group leader for a group of 7th grade boys for a weekend retreat put on by the church I serve at here in Jackson, only a couple minutes from my university. If I were to be completely transparent, I would say that I wasn’t all that excited for the weekend, as hanging out with a bunch of teenagers for a weekend didn’t sound all that appealing amongst all the other responsibilities I had at the time. Before I go on with the story, I’ll go ahead and say that I was utterly stunned and blessed by those guys over the weekend, and learned many more things from them than they possibly did from me, so you don’t read the rest of this post with a disposition to think I’m hypocritical.
I walked into a room of other twenty-somethings, for a meeting that was intended to be a quasi-orientation for the weekend, where we would meet the speaker, the worship band, and cover any particulars on how to keep the kids from killing one another. As I usually do, I had on my flannel and my Boston Red Sox hat. Upon entering the room, I hear a voice say, “Go Sox.” Of course, given my love for the team, I turn and I see the youth pastor standing next to a guy I had never met. The youth pastor, John, waved me over and said “Jordan, this is Jay, he’s the speaker for the weekend.” Pleasantries ensued and Jay and I exchanged testimonies and information, as die-hard Sox fans will do. Jay told me that he was the pastor of a Baptist church in Sudbury, Massachusetts, roughly 25 minutes outside the downtown Boston area. If you are unaware of the evangelical scope of the greater New England area, I’ll just tell you, it’s a very rough place to do evangelism in, especially Baptist evangelism. This is due to the long-standing Catholic culture that has deep roots in the area.
As Jay and I talked more over the few days of the weekend retreat, the conversation came up where he asked what I planned on doing with my life. Upon telling him that I was planning to go into the ministry, his face scrunched up. Looking back on this, I hope it wasn’t because I smelled bad or because he didn’t see me in that vocation. He looked back at me and said, “what are you planning on doing this summer?” As I mentioned earlier, I relayed to him the fact that I would most likely be waiting tables or working in some kind of retail. The fact that I was able to tell him AND hold down my Chick-fil-a was a miracle, as I was really dreading the summer ahead.
The following conversation ensued:
“Have you considered any internships?”
“Yes, but until I get offered one, it doesn’t do me much good.”
“You drive?”
“Yeah, pretty well, actually.”
“Could you drive to Boston?”
“Well…y–yeah, I suppose, are you inviting me to go to a game or something? I mean I could just fly there.”
“No, I’m asking you to come work for me this summer as an intern, you’re gonna need your car.”
Upon hearing this, I was not only stunned, but I also tried to say “yes” as slowly as possible so as not to sound like the desperate guy asked to the Sadie-Hawkins dance by the cute girl in the 7th grade. “Yeah! Absolutely I’ll come.”–Dang it Jordan, you seemed too desperate–Over the next hour or so, Jay and I talked about the particulars of the internship, including what I’d be doing, who I’d be working with, etc. And then he said the magic words, “You’ll be paid.” Now, while money isn’t the most important thing to me in terms of the internship, it definitely doesn’t hurt.
This situation truly showed me the power that Christ has to show us the plans he has for us, even in the face of our own hesitation and doubts. As I half-heartedly entered his church to serve his people, instead of him allowing my predisposition to affect my weekend, he instead showed me that he had a greater plan to unfold with regards to my own life. Ever since that weekend, I have been much more aware to allowing myself to be open to the circumstances that God has been in my life, so I don’t miss any opportunities that he might have for me.
So, on top of all that has happened during my 5 month “creative space” hiatus, I will now be serving as a pastoral intern at First Baptist Church of Sudbury Massachusetts. Specifically, I will be leading the church’s worship services, as well as working with mission teams from across the country that come to Boston to serve the communities in and around the city. My hope is that I am able to not only lead the church at Sudbury well in worship, but to serve God well in the things that he would have me do in Sudbury, Boston, and the greater New England area for the summer.
So to wrap up this, I’m sure, long-awaited post, I covet your prayers and thoughts as I travel to Boston for the summer. It’s a place I’m not entirely familiar with, with people I don’t know. But there are a couple things I’m sure of: the seafood is great, the baseball is greater, and my God is the greatest.
Mind the gap 