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Portland Seminary student Joff Williams serves as senior director for spiritual formation with the Mercy Ships organization as he pursues his doctorate.    

Joff Williams recalls the day his life changed forever. He and his wife were attending a friend’s wedding in northern Idaho. What he recalls isn’t so much the wedding itself, but the person they chatted with at the event.

“We were the worst wedding guests,” he laughs. “We weren’t there for the cutting of the cake. We weren’t there for the dancing. We spent all of our time sitting on a porch talking to this guy about his organization, his experiences living abroad, and the challenges of raising a family overseas.”

“This guy” was Dr. Gary Parker, the emeritus chief medical officer for Mercy Ships, an international Christian charity that operates the largest non-governmental hospital ships in the world, specializing in providing hope and healing in Africa. What he had to say changed the trajectory of the couple’s lives.

“We got in our car at the end of the day and said, “You know what? People don’t wait until later in life to do this,” says Williams, a student in Portland Seminary’s Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives program. “We can go now and give the best, most energetic parts of our lives to this mission, and we can take our family with us. That’s when I realized there are jobs out there that align with my type of work and my experience. And I was willing to do whatever they needed.”

Embarking on a Life-Changing Journey

Shortly after the encounter, Williams and his wife Kari, a nurse, applied to join the organization. After working at Mercy Ships’ headquarters in Texas for six years, Williams assumed the role of managing director of the Global Mercy, the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, for service in Senegal, The Gambia and Sierra Leone.

“It’s something we had talked about doing, but we saw it as something we’d do much later in our lives, maybe after we had a family, after the kids left home,” he says. “But we came to this realization that we need to be open and willing for whatever God has for us. He had other plans in mind.”

Ultimately, after three years abroad, Williams’ path led him to Portland Seminary, where he found “his people” – a global community of Christ followers who collectively have a love for the church and pursue God’s calling in a wide range of professions, from pastors and business leaders to counselors and social workers.

Williams enrolled in the seminary’s Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives program this year, with the hope of learning from like-minded people who represent diverse faith traditions and backgrounds.

“I wasn’t interested in just getting another title or degree,” he says. “I wanted to find a group out there that is studying the things I want to study, so I began exploring programs globally. When I discovered what Portland Seminary was offering in this degree, my heart just leaped. 

“I was like, ‘These are my people. This is the type of group I want to be with, learn from and share with.’ It continues for me that trajectory of all of life being missional and following Jesus, wherever that takes you. And, for me, that has never been the traditional pastoral-type roles, but has been applying a pastoral approach to work and to business.”

Navigating Diverse Cultures

Indeed, Williams seemed destined to serve overseas. The son of missionaries who served in Zimbabwe with the Salvation Army, he comes by his love of other cultures and the global church naturally. 

In fact, he discovered that returning home after a stint abroad can be jarring.

“I had a case of reverse culture shock upon returning to my native United Kingdom,” he says of his experiences as a young man. “It was difficult to reintegrate after living in a country where my dad was doing frequent funerals as the AIDS epidemic raged on. I was exposed to the rest of the world and how it works at an early age, and it forever shaped my perspective.”

Williams’ connection to the Salvation Army led him to Spokane, Washington, at the invitation of his older brother Daniel, who was involved with the organization, which ran summer camps in the area.

“We had kids from all sorts of backgrounds, but the vast majority of them came from low-income, low-socioeconomic families,” he recalls. “Just to get these kids out of rough urban environments and get them out in nature for a week – see them change and see some of those barriers and hostilities drop – was great. You can’t solve everything in a week, but it gives them a chance to breathe.”

His visits to Spokane changed his life in a more profound way: It was there he met Kari, who shared his passion for wanting to follow God’s call and be a vessel for good in the world. 

Serving the Global Church

Today, after three years abroad with Mercy Ships, the couple is back in the states, where he now serves as senior director for spiritual formation with the Mercy Ships organization while earning his doctorate.

“I have always wanted to be in ministry, but I think it’s important that we consider all of ourselves as Christians and as followers of Jesus,” he says. “He gives us things to do that I consider ministries, whether they get called that or not. And he puts us in different places and equips us for different things.”

Ultimately, he is finding purpose in being a part of a global church that seeks to honor Christ.

“When I think about my calling these past few years, I get this image from Scripture where people from the north, south, east and west – every tribe and tongue – are together at the table in heaven,” he says. “I get this image of what it means for God’s church globally – to be together in love of Jesus and in service of our God in all sorts of different settings, all sorts of different environments.

“I love the global church. It’s my passion. And this program puts me around people who are investing their lives into it as well. Being around other leaders who are putting their lives’ energy and effort and investment into seeing the church thrive – committed to seeing God’s glory revealed in the kingdom of heaven as we follow Jesus together – is what I get excited about when I get out of bed every day.”