We are excited to finally announce and introduce Lindsay Williford, our Marketing & Communications Manager here at GRACE! Lindsay joined the GRACE team last October, bringing with her a passion for serving others and love for creative thinking and all things design.
Born and raised in west Texas, her family moved to Coppell in ’94 where she graduated high school in ’99. She then studied marketing at Texas A&M University, having a propensity to also study everything from winemaking to retail floristry to art history, journalism, and architecture there (which, unfortunately, also means not strictly adhering to her degree plan). Moving back to the Dallas area near her family in 2005, she studied interior design at the Art Institute of Dallas. In the fall of 2015, she enrolled at the University of North Texas to complete the last bit of her bachelor degree, graduating in May ’16.
The past five years have been the most fulfilling and enriched, reconnecting her with former and new passions and goals, and finally seeing ambitions realized. Volunteering and service work are not merely influential and meaningful, but of high priority in her day-to-day life. Cornerstone Baptist Church in downtown Dallas, a sister church of her church home, Valley Ranch Baptist Church, runs – among many other crucial ministries – The Kitchen and Clothes Closet, where she was reintroduced to her heart for serving others.
Lindsay traveled with a mission team from Valley Ranch Baptist in ’17 to Peru. There the mission team worked alongside several missionaries and church planters in different regions, helping facilitate “Christmas Stores” within poverty-stricken areas. Then in ’18, she joined another mission team traveling to Mumbai, India, where the team worked with the organization YouCanFreeUs, ministering and loving on young girls rescued from the very real and prevalent horrors of modern-day slavery – sex trafficking. The team witnessed the still thriving evil first-hand as, for ways orchestrated and protected only by God, they were permitted to enter – led by the local missionaries who have managed to build baffling relationships with brothel owners – an active slave brothel in one of Mumbai’s red-light districts.
She is thankful for the home she found at GRACE, doing the things she loves, with and for people that are easy to love, focused on a mission of the most high calling – to love. Lindsay enjoys her many responsibilities here at GRACE, from graphic design to writing articles, but particularly feels blessed meeting and interviewing members of the GRACE family – clients, volunteers, and staff alike.
“Some of the most rewarding moments so far have been receiving calls from individuals who have graciously shared with me their stories, allowing me to share those stories with our GRACE family and entrusting me to put it all into words. When those individuals take the time to personally call me, thanking me after reading their article for the way their hearts and stories were shared, I feel further confirmation I am exactly where God wants me.”
Lindsay recently became engaged in May to then boyfriend, Dani, while visiting where he grew up in Vienna, Austria. She has no intention of slowing down on traveling the world, but is tremendously grateful for her place – right here, right now – surrounded by the best friends, the best family (including her four nieces) and the best job. GRACE is so very proud to have her on our Development Team, and we ask you to join us in giving her a warm welcome!
