“I don’t believe in God.”
The words landed sharp and certain. The young man spoke them to a woman in her 70s—a stranger beside him on a packed flight—the moment she cracked open a religious textbook to prepare for a test.
The woman, Jacqua Brown Williams, paused. Just long enough to breathe. Just long enough to listen.
She knew—deep in her bones—that a divine assignment had just landed in her lap. So she prayed. Not out loud. Not with flourish.
“I whispered to God from my soul: Help me present and defend you in this moment. Help me.”
What followed was pivotal.
A Conversation That Drew People In
Jacqua has known God for as long as she can remember. As a child, she even dreamed of being a missionary.
But lately, everything had been shifting. As a Capstone student in The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) through World Impact, she was nearing the end of a rigorous 16-course theological curriculum—wading through scholarly texts, wrestling with Scripture, and walking with God in a deeper, more profound, way.
And now, here she was. On a flight. Beside a stranger. On the brink of a moment that would test everything she’d been learning.
She took a breath, steadied herself, and answered him with the clarity and conviction forming inside her.
“I truly understand how you feel,” she told the young man. “There are many things that happen to us in life that make us ask the question, where is God? I could tell you a lot of theological and biblical things about God. But who but God could teach man how to take a plane full of people, luggage, and fuel to a cruising altitude of 37,000 feet? Who but God could keep us safely cruising at 37,000 feet? Who but God could take me from Dallas to St. Louis, wheels up, wheels down in 73 minutes?”
She was lighting up inside; smiling as she spoke. And the words, to her amazement, kept tumbling out.
“Who but God could put me in this seat on this flight just to have this conversation with you? I see God in all of this. I see God in the sky as I look out the window. I see God in your life right now.”
Miraculously, the conversation didn’t end with her words. It opened something. It drew the young man in. It even caught the attention of passengers nearby—people leaning in without meaning to, listening as two strangers talked openly about God at 37,000 feet.
And the conversation didn’t stop when the wheels touched down.
What God Can Do Through World Impact Training
“We left the plane talking. We walked to baggage claim talking about God. We picked up our luggage, and we were still talking about God,” she said.
Before they parted ways, something unexpected happened.
“We left each other saying these words. ‘I’ll never forget you as long as I live.’ We both said that to each other.”
Strangers, yet not strangers at all by the end. And still—no introductions. No exchanged names.
“The amazing part is neither of us ever introduced ourselves formally. I have no idea what that young man’s name is. And he doesn’t know my name.”
In her mind, that moment defined who they were:
“We are simply the young man on the plane, not believing God, and the woman on the plane who used her knowledge of God and combined it in her heart with the God she knows to be the salt and light that young man needed.”
That entire exchange, she knew, was not an accident. It was fruit. Formation. The kind of boldness that comes from being trained and transformed.
“This is what Capstone will do for you. This is what Cornerstone will do for you.”
It wasn’t exaggeration. It wasn’t theory. It was her lived experience speaking.
“You’ll be able to sit next to someone who expressly wants to let you know that they do not believe in God. And it allows you to take your heart and your knowledge and combine them— for a moment assigned by God—to give you the courage to say to yourself, ‘I can now defend God wherever I am, to whomever may ask me a question.’”
A Boldness Formed By Church-Based Seminary
Jacqua, for years, longed to be this bold. Even as a child, her heart burned for God. She loved every part of church life—singing in choir, eventually leading choir, teaching Sunday School, soaking in Scripture. And the desire went deeper than weekly routines.
“Since I was 8 years old, I have wanted to tell the world about Jesus by being a missionary. I wanted to go to any corner of the world that had not yet come into the full knowledge of who Jesus is.”
That calling never left her. She majored in music at a Christian college. She dreamed of seminary. But in the 1970s, surrounded by peers who were drifting from the church in the midst of cultural upheaval, her voice faltered. She went quiet when she longed to speak. She yearned for conviction she didn’t yet know how to access.
And then she found TUMI.
In 2019—after 48 years of longing—her hope finally found a home. She enrolled in TUMI’s Capstone program at a Dallas, Texas church, stepping into the seminary training she had prayed for since childhood. It wasn’t glamorous. And it wasn’t easy.
Then the pandemic hit. Classes halted. Campuses closed. The world shut down. But her calling did not.
Philippians 1:6 became her anchor: He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.
She clung to that promise when everything else felt uncertain.
It didn’t take long for her mentors and instructors to gather students online. Zoom sessions replaced in-person classes. It wasn’t seamless. It wasn’t polished. But it was enough. It was God’s provision in a season of quarantine and confusion.
Through those cobbled-together screens, through prayer and persistence, through the steady guidance of her teachers, Jacqua kept going. Module by module. Class by class. Year by year. By 2024, she had completed all sixteen Capstone courses.
In June 2025, she graduated—with joy that spilled over, with gratitude that stretched decades deep.
And now? Now everything has come full circle. Because TUMI’s next chapter is about to begin.
Mentoring Others Now Online Through TUMI
In early Spring 2026, TUMI will launch a brand-new online learning model—streamlined, accessible to anyone, anywhere. No more patchwork Zoom workarounds. No more barriers of distance or schedule. This is seminary-level training built for today’s world.
And Jacqua will be part of it. Not as a student. But as a mentor and as a facilitator. The little girl who longed to tell the world about Jesus. The college student who went quiet. The woman who finally found her voice—now trained, tested, and set ablaze. She will help form the next generation of leaders. She will help multiply the very boldness God built in her.
She will sit with students—online, anywhere in the world—and say with confidence:
“My prayer is that I see you stand one day, graduating full and filled with theology, the knowledge of the working person of Jesus Christ, the history of the biblical story of God, and the ability to explain it effectively and fervently to all those who have yet to believe.”
Read next: Shaun Estrada’s Story: Multiplying Leaders
Learn more about how you can apply for seminary-level online training through TUMI at World Impact.
Learn more about World Impact Training Offerings here.
