90 Toombs County Magazine
While traveling and painting,
Meredith’s work has had a large
impact on young people. Expressing
God’s word for these people through
visual imagery provides hope,
blessing and encouragment.
Meredith was at Elim from early September until the end of
October. In addition to the mural for Elim, she also painted
a large, two-story silhouette painting at an orphanage, two
paintings for an outdoor adventure ministry, a painting for
a preschool in the area, and another painting for a ministry
for young girls.
Columbia
Next, Meredith traveled to Bogota, Columbia. Once
again, she partnered with Inca Link to serve a ministry
for single mothers and their children called Formavida,
which means “Forming Lives.” “This was the most beautiful
country I think I’ve ever been to,” said Meredith.
Over four weeks, she painted a mural for a nursery and
another for the entrance of a church on top of a mountain
where single moms learn to make handbags to sell. “They
also had a great after-school program for the kids.”
For this particular mural, Meredith brought together two
Bible stories to demonstrate God’s heart for these women.
“The painting was based on two instances when God
miraculously provided for two widows. (1 Kings 17; 2 Kings
4). “The key phrase I heard was, ‘On the mountain of the
Lord, it will be provided.’”
Jamaica
In March 2016, Meredith flew to Jamaica with Wesley’s
“Freshley” ministry for freshmen at UGA. “They go every
year and work with different pastors and schools to do
whatever is needed whether it’s painting, roofing, pouring
cement, or whatever the need.”
After one week, Meredith drove with the group back to
the airport and said goodbye. She rented a car and drove
two hours back to the hotel to check herself back in. She
knew she was to stay and paint a mural, but that was about
all she knew. “It was really scary and dangerous,” Meredith
confessed. But she also felt it was an act of faith to stay even
though she didn’t yet have anything more than a waterfall
for a baptismal planned for the following week and some
murals of maps for some geography classrooms at a school.
While driving to the school to work one day, she saw
it: the wall she was to paint. Only, she had already made
an appointment with another pastor. “I’d been trying to
work with different pastors at different locations the whole
time I’d been there trying to make something happen,” said
Meredith. “But everything had to go through a committee,
and the committee didn’t meet until the next month. And it
was all on Island time; nobody was in a rush. And then I saw
this wall, and I knew it was the place.”
Meredith didn’t know how she was going to tell this