HOMEREACH!

Hello all,

I hope you are staying safe and encouraged through this crazy time. Due to the magnitude of coronavirus, YWAM leadership decided it was important to send students home instead of going on outreach to the nations. We are not going home to just return to normal life, we are returning home to do outreach in our own communities… homereach. They are commissioning us to press even deeper into the Lord and turn to a heart of worship and prayer like Paul did when he was put into “quarantine” in the jail cell. That jailer where Paul and Silas were being kept, found his freedom through Paul and Silas’ imprisonment/ “quarantine”. This is such a crazy time for all of us but I have faith that the Lord is going to bring freedom to so many “jailers” in our generation. So please pray for whoever those “jailers” may be in your life. Acts 16:16-40

It is so cool to look back and realize how God has been preparing my heart along with a lot of my classmates’ hearts for this time of “homereach”. As I was preparing lessons and teachings for outreach, it was hard for me to envision myself actually teaching these things in Peru. I was always thinking of places and ways that I could be sharing these things back at home. Or when I pictured myself having a quiet time, I always pictured myself in my living room just worshipping and praying. At the time, I just thought that he was preparing me for a time of being at home and doing ministry there right after outreach. Looking back, I truly believe that He was so graciously and gently preparing me for this season of homereach. I am so grateful to be serving a God that not only knows what will happen but is so gracious in preparing us in advance for the good works he calls us to do (Ephesians 2:10). He did not just throw me into this season and expect me to be okay with it. He prepared my heart for it and I am at home waiting with an expectant heart to see how the Lord will use me in this season. With that being said, I have shed many tears over this due to abruptly having to leave those that I have grown so close to in the past 3 months. I had one week of lecture phase left and was anticipating the excitement of going to Peru and within a span of 2 days, I was home.

I plan to connect with the pastors at my church and partner with organizations to do ministry. YWAM just released the guidelines for what we will need to do and complete in order to graduate our DTS in May. We’ll be expected to complete 30-40 hrs of ministry, about 5 hrs of intercession, 5 hrs of bible study, along with a few other cooperate meetings and assignments each week.  With that being said, I am planning to just focus on those things right now and not go back to work and jump back into regular life. I’m so grateful that God has positioned me to be able to serve full time during this crisis in our world.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me financially in this season. I will continue to use those funds during this two-month homereach to help focus on where the Lord has called me. Most importantly, thank you to those that have come along side me in prayed during this time. Would you continue to pray for direction and that I would continue to press in to Jesus even harder during this time. This will not be easy and I know that if this season is blanketed with prayer, it will bring fruit! Here are a few things that I need prayer for right now:

• That I would just rely on God more than I ever have before.
• That I would not fall into any temptations that were strongholds in my past.
• That ministry opportunities would open up and I would be able to use the things that I learned to help other people

I love you all so much and am so so grateful for your support. I will continue to post updates. I can’t wait to see how the Lord will use this situation for His good.

God bless you all. I am praying a blanket of protection and peace over you during this time of uncertainty and craziness!

2 Month Update

I can’t believe how fast these weeks are flying! The Lord is truly doing miraculous things in my life. I’m sorry that I haven’t been doing weekly updates but life is just so busy here. I feel like I always have something I am doing and haven’t just sat down to write an update. So I’ll just go through the past few weeks and give some highlights!

Week 5– Plumbline- Our speakers Bruce and Barbara Thompson were actually the founders of the medical DTS here in Kona. They talked about aligning our heart with God’s heart for us. The correct plumbline represents the goal or the example we have of perfect alignment with God. Like the plumbline’s absolute is gravity, our absolute should be God’s love, to keep all of our foundations in line. The enemy puts lies, takes love, and puts rejection in our hearts to disrupt the plumbline. Walls are built up from lies, but God’s truth in our hearts can set us free. For example, one of the lies the enemy tried to use to disrupt my plumbline, was that my past disqualifies me to do God’s work here and now. This is such a lie because in 1 Peter 2:9 it says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nations, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” I love this because I am just that much more qualified to do his work because I have been called out of the darkness into his miraculous and wonderful light. I have a story that will be used for the glory of God because the Lord brings light out of dark situations. (Thank you JESUS!) If you want to know more about the plumbline and how you can break down the disrupted walls of your heart and rebuild them on a firm foundation, Bruce and Barbara have written a book called “Walls of My Heart” that I highly recommend.

Week 6– Original Design- WOW! This was such a special week. The whole goal of the week was to learn our original design in Christ. How God created us to be before the enemy snuck in and fed us lies. We also learned how to see people the way God sees them. Not for who they are now but for how he created them to be. Each of us got the opportunity to be prayed over and encouraged with our original design. Some of the things that w . ere prayed over me where that I AM a voice to the voiceless, that I AM a prayer extraordinaire and worshiper, the I AM bold and brave, and that I AM a healer of many. It was such an encouraging week and so fun to see everyone get so excited about who God made them to be.

Week 7- Evangelism and Worldview- The main thing that I took away from this week is that when you do evangelism, you don’t necessarily have to preach the gospel to a person and be the one that “prays the prayer” with them. That isn’t always what a person needs. It is so important to meet them where they are in life. Mark 4:26-29 is a perfect example of this. Jesus gave the parable of the growing seed. Someone has to scatter the seed, the seed has to grow, and someone has to harvest the seed. As “the seed” is growing, you can come along side and start to disciple that person before they even surrender their life to Christ. Putting this concept into perspective really was encouraging to me because before this, the word “evangelism” was so scary because I didn’t feel like I was equipped to just go out and preach the gospel.

Week 8– Medical Week- I loved this week’s teachings so much. We went over travel medicine, taking medical history (for a clinical setting), vector transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, common dermatoses, and how we can be effective medical missionaries on the field. Dr. Gear, talked about how unity as a team is so so important when we are going out to do mercy ministry. When we are doing clinics, the way we work together and love each other as a team will be a testimony in and of itself. The world will know Jesus through our love for one another. The enemy will work so hard to disunify us as a team because he knows how important it is.

Outreach update

Outreach preparations are coming along. here are the dates and places we will be:
-March 27-April 26 ish- Arequipa
-April 26-May 11 ish- Ayacuch
-May 11-23 ish- Lima
-May 23-30ish- debrief in Kona
What we will be doing in all of these locations is TBD but we have amazing contacts in each location that will be providing things for us to be doing. I am so excited for what is to come on outreach!

Prayer requests

• Continued unity on our outreach team
• That the Lord would guild us in what we need to prepare and have ready before we leave for outreach
• Good rest because our weeks are so packed full

Fun things that have been hip happenin’.

Drove all the way up Mauna Kea in the back of a Uhaul pickup (we found out later that it was illegal) and froze our little tooshies off. It was totally worth the view though.

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Hiked 4 miles to Captian Cook. The place where Finding Nemo was inspired. Some of the best snorkeling around. It was so pretty.

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Did some adventuring around Kona. Went to Kua Bay in the morning (there are some sick waves there). Then drove to Kona Joe’s coffee farm, and then watched the sunset along the side of the road!

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We have been painting one of the buildings for our work duty and having a lot of fun while doing it!

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Drove over to the hilo side of the island and explored Waipio Valley, Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, and Rainbow Falls. All were SOOO pretty!

Week 4- THE BLOOD THAT BINDS

This week was packed full of really good foundational information. The topic was covenant, the cross, and Lordship. We had a really special speaker this week. She was one of the leader’s moms and she heard from God about 20 years ago that she would be speaking in Kona about the covenant and “The Blood That Binds”. It was so cool to listen to her testimony of having to wait for so long and not knowing when these words from God would actually happen.

My biggest take away from the week is the fact that I have the same authority and power that Jesus had when he was walking on the earth. As a kid I always thought it would be so cool to have lived in Jesus’ time because I could have seen all the healings and miracles that he did. Guess what! I don’t need to be in Jesus’ time to see miracles happen. Through a relationship with the Lord, I am able to witness healings and miracles in my lifetime. God literally wants me to be his hands and feet and I think that that is the coolest thing ever.

We also talked about how a blood covenant is made and the significance of them. We traced some of the blood covenants that God made with people in the old testament and how they all pointed to Jesus’ covenant on the cross. It was so cool to connect the dots of all the stories that I learned as a kid.

Prayer requests:

• That I would find clarity about what I will be doing after DTS.
• That I would continue to have an open heart and mind so that God can keep revealing himself to me in amazing ways.
• That I would continue to have an open heart and mind so that God can keep revealing himself to me in amazing ways.

I appreciate you all more than you would ever believe. Your prayers and support mean so much to me. Until next time -Meg

WEEK 3| Father Heart of God| Outreach

WOW! This was a crazy week.

The topic of the week was the Father Heart of God. Uncle Ben was our speaker for the week and WOW was he good?! His obedience and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit is so incredible. It makes me want to seek the Lord in literally every situation in my life. His stories and just the way he led the class made it so evident that he was leading us with a submitted heart to the Lord. Here are some of the main points he touched on:

• Jesus did not die to have a personal relationship with God; he already had perfect relationship with God. He died so we could have the same relationship with God that he does.
• In Genesis 3 when Satan approached Eve and twisted God’s words, he planted seeds of doubt in Adam and Eve’s minds. We need to very cautious of who we are listening to: the father of light or the father of lies. Ask yourself… Who told you?
• God wants us to wake up and just let him love us. Jesus not only loves us, He really really likes us! 🙂

I feel like this was such a pivotal week not only for me but the whole class. God was revealing so many things in my heart that are broken and I didn’t even know it. We as a class were able to share our hearts with one another and experience healing through bringing darkness into the light!. It was so amazing and I felt like a whole different person after the week was over. THANK YOU JESUS 🙂

OUTREACH!

I am so excited to announce that I will be heading to Peru with a team of about 15 people to share the gospel. We do not know for sure where we will be going in Peru or what we will be doing but we are trusting that the Lord will lead us every step of the way. Please be praying for unity within the team, direction on what God wants our team to do, and finances for those that are not fully funded yet.

Thank you so much for all you your prayers and support. I feel so blessed to have such a strong support system that wants to see me grow.

Love you all! -Meg

They had us do a scavenger hunt to figure out where we are going and who is on the team.

They had verses that they prayed over each of us as they placed us in our teams.

Weekend fun by the beach!

WEEK 1 & 2| Revealing Outreach Locations

I can’t believe I have already been in HAWAII for two whole weeks. It has been a complete whirlwind. I didn’t know I could feel so many emotions in such a short amount of time. But I am so thankful for how I am learning and growing!

Week one

This first week was full of excitement to learn, nervousness about the unknown, and joy through the building of lifelong friendships. The topic for the week was relationships. Most DTS’ don’t usually start with this topic because it requires a baseline of knowing the character of God but the leaders felt that the Lord was telling them that our school needed it first. Our speakers (Daniel and Midian Kalta) really hit on the importance of growing our own “tree” with fruit instead of picking the fruit from other people’s trees (our pastors, parents, leaders). Through this we will be able to experience for ourselves the power and depth of God’s love for us. Without knowing how God loves us, you can’t show others the true love of Christ.

It was so cool to see how God was speaking to me about this even before they spoke. During worship one day, I just couldn’t stop noticing how the beat of the drum just penetrated my whole body. Through this, God was revealing to me the power of his love. How his love wants to penetrate my whole body and just come over me. It was kind of a surreal time of worship for me because it was the first time I really noticed/pinpointed that God was speaking to me.

I learned and grew so much during this first week. God was revealing himself to me in ways that were so usual to me, I just didn’t know it was him.

Week two

What a fun and exciting week! The topic was Hearing Gods Voice! This was the week I was most excited for because I have always been confused how people can “hear Gods voice”. I never understood how this could happen. I thought it had to be some majestic thing of God actually speaking in an audible voice for you to hear oh so clearly. While this can happen for some people, it is not so common. God has a still small voice that can come through your thoughts, a vision, the written word of God, or even a dream. This was such a crazy realization to me. Like what? We also learned how to differentiate between the voice of the enemy, our fleshly desires, and God voice. This has been so helpful in learning how God likes to speak to me personally.

Also, during this week, our outreach locations were revealed. Cambodia, Fiji, and Peru are the three places that we get to choose from. We will be sending out three separate teams that will stay in one country for the full 2 months. They encouraged us to pray and lean into God to see where he wanted us to go. And last Thursday (Jan. 16) we wrote down where we felt the Lord was leading us toward. Our final destinations have not been revealed to us yet so you will have to stay tuned! I will update you as soon as I can.

I cannot thank you all enough for continuing to support and pray for me through this time of growth. I am so excited to continue learning and leaning into God. Love you all and God Bless!

We rented a car so we could explore the island! I love my people!

Hawaiian sunsets are THE BEST!

This is the view from church! I don’t think I could name one bad thing about this island!

I’M IN HAWAII!

WOW!

This is so surreal. I can’t even put into words how beautiful this island is. There are so many different plants and animals and crazy places to explore. I just can’t get over the fact that I get to live in God’s crazy beautiful creation for these next three months.

Travel

The trip here was actually really good! My first flight was pretty short and sweet and my second flight was supposed to be 7 ½ hours. This flight ended up being 6 ½ hrs (Thank you Jesus!) and I got to sit by another girl that is doing YWAM. This was such an answer to prayer! It was so fun talking to her and bonding over the delightful airplane food. There were also a bunch of other YWAM students on our flight as well. When we arrived at the airport (in our winter clothes) it was soooo nice outside and the airport was so cute. The bus shuttled us to the YWAM base and we all got checked in and brought to our rooms.

Living

I am in a room with 9 other amazing ladies. It’s a little tight but we are all getting used to sharing our space and giving lots of grace J. There is a bathroom connected to our room so that is nice. Everything is very open and does not have air conditioning so that will take a little getting used to but it’s not bad.

Thursday was check in day and that night they had worship night led by the Fire and Fragrance DTS. During this time of worship, they invited anyone who had pain to raise their had so they could be prayed over and I raised my hand because right before I came my back just all of a sudden started hurting. A few people laid hands on me and prayed and as they did, I felt the  pressure in my back just disappear. It was such a crazy feeling but God is so good and now my back feels sooo much better than it did. I had never experienced anything like that before and can’t believe that that is the first thing that I got to experience here! On Friday, we did a lot of orientation stuff and then that night we had a welcome ceremony led by the locals. There was lots of dancing and typical Hawaiian culture and then some crazy amazing worship. On Saturday, the whole medical DTS had a beach day which was so fun and I only got burnt a little bit J. And then Sunday morning I went to a church that is right on the ocean called Living Stones. It was so cool to worship with the sound of the waves crashing onto the rocks.

Prayer Requests

• That I would have an open heart and clear mind as classes start this next week
• That I would find time to be by myself and not feel like I always need to be doing something with somebody.
• That I will be able to stay rested with such a jam-packed schedule.

Thank you so much to everyone that is praying for me and those that have supported me financially. I can’t wait to see what God does in my life in these next few months.

Fundraising Update

WOW!

I am beyond amazed by God’s gracious provisions for my trip. He has been providing me with so many prayer and financial partners through both the letters I sent out and guests I get to serve at Cunningham’s. I have been able to share my story with so many guests that I have served and they have responded in amazing ways. I can see God working through these people that I have never met before and probably will never meet again. Being able to share my story with these people has really made work fun and rewarding.  

A few weeks ago, I was able to buy my plane tickets!! This was sooo exciting yet sooo scary. I have sealed the deal. There is no turning back. I will be leaving at 7am on January 2. Flying through Dallas and then arriving in Kona at 3:40 in the afternoon that same day. My DTS leaders will be meeting me at the airport and taking me to base.

I’ve been struggle with feeling content in my waiting this past month or so. I had so much adrenaline and excitement when I first was accepted that I couldn’t think about anything else. But since I am not taking classes, I have so much time on my hands to think about all the what ifs. What if I don’t make any friends while I’m there? What if I don’t get along with my roommates? What if my flight gets delayed and I miss a flight and don’t get to Kona on time? With this, I have been trying to focus on trusting God. I have never done anything with so many unknowns like this. I truly have to rely on him and trust that he has every single footstep planned every step of the way.

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen”

Hebrews 13:20-21

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray that I would have peace and contentment as I prepare and wait to go.
• Pray that I would stay busy to keep my mind off all the what ifs and stay focused on God’s great plan for this season of my life.
• Pray that God would continue to provide financially and through prayer partners as I prepare for my trip
• Pray that I would know what I need to bring with me for both lecture and outreach.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! For everyone that has chosen to support and love me along the way. I can’t wait to see what God will do through me in this experience. I love you all and thank you for choosing to follow along with me!

Why YWAM?

Ever since I was young, I always thought that I wanted to be a nurse. My Grandma was a nurse and I loved listening to the stories she always told me about when she worked in the hospital. I have always wanted to use nursing as a way to serve others and do good in the world. Going into college and applying for nursing school, I never had a second thought about this career path because nothing else really interested me.

I got accepted this past spring and I was so excited. My dreams were all coming together! What more could I ask for?

Well, as the summer went on, I started having a very unsettled feeling about it. Any time someone would ask if I was excited to start nursing school, all I could think of was that I was scared and didn’t feel ready. This caused me to start doubting whether this is the path I wanted to take or not.

With all the feelings of doubt, I turned to the Lord in prayer. As I was praying, I also was seeking the wisdom of my family and friends. Through lots of tears and restless nights, I came to the realization that maybe nursing school wasn’t the right path for me at this time in my life. This was honestly so hard for me to accept because it was the only thing I had ever saw for my future.

After I realized that nursing was not right for me right now, I was able to open my heart to other options. I was writing lists and just talking to people about what I could do but nothing really sparked my interest too much, until I was talking to my sister about her experience with YWAM. She was telling me everything she was learning and how her life was changing so much. I had thought about YWAM in the past but it didn’t really fit into the plan that I had for my life.

I decided that this might be something that would be beneficial for me. After looking into different discipleship training school options, I found one that has a medical focus that is in Hawaii. I think that this might be a very important step in my walk with the Lord because I will be able to deepen my relationship with Him while I see if the medical field is something that I still might want to pursue in the future.

This summer has been a big step of faith for me. I never would have imagined any of this happening but I am learning to listen to what God wants for my life and I truly believe that this is it!

Prayer Requests:

• Pray that I would keep trusting God as I raise the funds to go (I need about $10,000 in total)
• Pray that God would prepare my heart for this journey
• Pray for good health

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Proverbs 19:21

“He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.'”

Mark 16:15

Hawaii Bound!! YWAM

I’M GOING TO HAWAII!!!

Can you believe it? I get the great opportunity to attend Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in the beautiful state of Hawaii. This is something I never would have seen coming, but I serve a GREAT God that is full of surprises! 🙂 (To learn more about why I chose YWAM, keep an eye out for my next blog post called “Why YWAM?”)

What is YWAM?

Youth With a Mission is an interdenominational, cross-cultural Discipleship Training School (DTS) with the common goal of knowing God and making Him known. YWAM is found in over 180 different countries all around the world.

I will be attending a medical discipleship training school in Kona, Hawaii. This DTS is about 5 months long starting in January with two different phases. The lecture phase and the outreach phase. During the lecture phase, I will be spending three months attending classes that will help me develop a more intimate relationship with God. I will be learning and being discipled in how to live out my faith. The focus of the Medical DTS is for healing of the whole person just as Jesus did in the Gospels. We will be taught how to heal basic physical needs while creating a personal relationship that will spark spiritual healing.

During the next twoish months I will have the opportunity to go out in the mission field where I will put to use everything I learned in class. During outreach, I will visit other countries and utilize my medical skills I brought with me and learned during lecture, as well as evangelizing with everyone I meet. I will find out what county/countries I will be visiting after I get to Kona.  

What next?

If you would like to follow along with me as I embark on this incredible journey, please follow/subscribe to my blog! To learn more about how you can support me through prayer or finances, just go to the contact page and send me a message. I would love to hear from you. 🙂

I will be posting updates and prayer requests as I prepare for DTS as well as when I am there!

God Bless!

Megan