For I Am About to Do Something New: Ashley Palmer
For your sakes I will send an army against Babylon,
forcing the Babylonians to flee in those ships they are so proud of.
I am the LORD, your Holy One,
Israel’s Creator and King.
I am the LORD, who opened a way through the waters,
making a dry path through the sea.
I called forth the mighty army of Egypt
with all its chariots and horses.
I drew them beneath the waves, and they drowned
their lives snuffed out like a smoldering candlewick.
But forget all that—
it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.
The wild animals in the fields will thank me.
the jackals and owls, too,
for giving them water in the desert.
Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland
so my chosen people can be refreshed.
I have made Israel for myself,
and they will someday honor me before the whole world.
(Isaiah 43:14-23, NLT)
Here at ACF, we’re starting a sermon series on the Book of Exodus, building to God’s deliverance of Israel at Passover and the Red Sea. So the Exodus story is fresh right now in a way it isn’t always, but like the people of Israel and Judah during Isaiah’s time, I was taught the story so young that I don’t remember learning it. Somewhere between VeggieTales and Sunday School, I imagine. Every year around Easter, I like to watch the beautifully animated Prince of Egypt, which I did last year at one of Adam’s movie nights surrounded by other folks on the discipleship team as we heard murmurings of change that was about to take place at our ministry.
In the first paragraph here, God addresses His people with their current very physical and existential problem, the Babylonian invasion, by harking back to the greatest of His works of deliverance so far. He is the same God who parted the Red Sea, the same God who delivered the people of Israel from enslavement in the most powerful nation at that time.
But forget all that. It is nothing compared to what He will do. For He is about to do something new. He has already begun. Can’t you see it?
We Christians know that in the celebration of the Passover every year, the people of Israel prepared for the final Passover lamb, Jesus Christ. By Isaiah’s time, nearly everything was set into motion—God had already begun, and Isaiah prophesied the coming Messiah and the Kingdom of God at hand.
Every Tuesday at 7pm and every Sunday at 5pm, we gather in the wood-hewn chapel next to Ruston’s railroad tracks to praise the God who has done all this, and we welcome what He is doing next.
At the halfway point of the school year and the start of a new one, God has done so much that’s new this year. A new name, for one, and a new ministry called ACFresh (starting as four weeks of freshman-specific talks and small groups) that has built beautiful friendships, both between the upperclassmen and the freshmen, and between the freshmen themselves. Two of those freshmen, Dori and Darius, now help lead us in worship on Tuesdays. The others are often found between classes studying or laughing in the building. Caleb and Austin, both current interns who are called into ministry as pastors, have gotten to preach at various churches this year, and CJ, a senior who’s called to be a missionary doctor, went on not one but two mission trips this summer, and you can see the light in his eyes when he talks about it.
As for me, ACF is a river in a dry wasteland. Not to say that my life is otherwise a desert or anything; God’s blessed me in a lot of ways. So let me explain.
Four years ago, in my first senior year during my first conversation with him ever, our pastor Ryan remarked that it was surprising how long young Christians can exist without a community of believers. At that time, while I still attended the church of my baptism every Sunday (I still do, and I know those worship services and my family are what kept my faith alive during that time), I had no connection to anyone my age who was a practicing Christian, other than a friend I’d met completely by chance at orientation and kept up with. I wasn’t really praying or reading the Bible or talking about God except in sometimes combative discussions about religion with my computer science friends—the first true friend group I’d ever had, and I love them and still keep up with them, but they didn’t share my beliefs and hopes. My roots were deep, but if I’m being honest, the surface leaves were brown, parched, and in need of pruning.
I’d come around Wesley/ACF a couple times: to a writing group my freshman year and a small group my sophomore year, and occasionally to Tuesday night worship. Then the pandemic happened and I dropped off going to any church stuff other than Sunday service and a couch-to-5k group at the church of my baptism. But my first senior year, my sister Jamie started at Tech, and I told her if she wanted to make friends, go to the Wesley. They’ll make sure you have friends. That’s what I’d experienced, even though I didn’t take that offer of friendship at the time, mainly because I already had more friends than I’d ever had. I saw church as somewhere you needed to go to get your faith watered, and somewhere you could make friends if you wanted to or needed more, but I didn’t see those things as at all intertwined.
Then my computer science friends graduated and I was still at Tech, finishing my second undergraduate degree. I decided I’d take the Wesley folks up on that offer of friendship, now that it was convenient for me and I was in need of more friends, and because I’d seen Jamie grow in some really good ways, and I was curious about that.
Interestingly, God didn’t immediately give me the deep friendships I’ve seen other people find here, the deep friendships I have here now. I think everyone saw me as “Jamie’s sister” and maybe a little intimidating, as I have a tendency to be pretty loud about my opinions. What I did find was the scriptural depth that I already knew I craved, and an acknowledgement of the real brokenness of the world that I always yearn for in church, and an unrelenting hope that God has been working ever since the Fall to fix what was broken, to proclaim the forgiveness of sins and a new life from what was dead. So I stuck around for that, because it was the truest expression of the roots of my faith. The foundations laid as a child in worship and what I knew to be true of my parents’ small group. The faith I’d known as a teenager in flashes at Weekend of the CROSS, at Mountain TOP, at Ceta Canyon. I’d seen God before, and I saw Him here.
But the friendships came later. Adam and Austin are like brothers to me now, but I got off on the wrong foot with both of them, and the only reason we’re as close as we are is that I led a community group with Adam last year and Austin this year, and through our planning meetings, we ended up talking about literally everything under the sun. My other close friends were less rocky at the beginning, but the real fruit of friendship wasn’t borne until last year and this year.
I’ve come to realize that God is the water in the desert of a fallen world. And God is here at ACF, doing new things every day. The people here, flawed and wonderful people who bear the Holy Spirit, are also bearers of the water in the desert. The reason people flourish at ACF is that the water isn’t just given on Sundays. It’s all the time, with friends who are trying to love you as God loves you.
Ashley Palmer (a LA Tech graduate of Computer Science and English) is a huge blessing to our ministry. As she continues to live in Ruston, she works as a remote Software Developer for Praeses, LLC in Shreveport. She is also a fantasy novelist currently editing her first novel: Among the Skies. In addition to writing, Ashley enjoys making attractive websites and apps, digital art, reading, and good food. She is kind, knowledgeable, and devoted to her relationship with the Lord. She is also a member of our ACF Discipleship Team. We love her and are thankful to have her in our community!