When 3 Months Turns Into 11

I was fairly certain that God was calling me to be a team leader for January of 2019 over a year ago. He placed a desire on my heart while I was still on the field with my first squad, to return to the field later on with a new squad. And that decision, in an of itself, was extremely hard.

What about family? What about a more stable career? What about all of these other logical decisions that honestly make so much more sense in my human mind?

Well, I returned home from my first race, contacted our squad mentor, Stephanie, about my interest, and after having a phone interview with her, honestly began to look for a job or for any other type of work that I could be doing. Why? Because fear crept in and even after a year of learning what trusting God looks like, I still struggled to let go of my own plans and my own agenda.

But then doors began closing. and closing. And opening, then closing immediately. Every time I tried to move on my own, I was met with that good ole’ proverbial brick wall.

And then, in October, Stephanie got back with me and asked if I was willing to team lead for three months on the field and come to training, which would take place about two weeks from my decision.

After hearing a clear yes from the Lord and after being provided funds immediately for a plane ticket to Georgia for training (literally the same day I said yes), two weeks later I found myself back at the Adventures in Missions office, this time, with an entirely new squad.

And upon meeting these 14 men and women, I knew immediately that I made the right decision. The Lord did so many cool things during those few weeks and spoke to me so much during my time with them. And every doubt I had about leaving with them left pretty much upon their arrival. I can’t explain it. I just knew. Or rather, Holy Spirit knew.

In fact, I felt so strongly to go that I was hit with another thought during my time there: What if I stayed with this squad for longer than three months?

And as soon as the thought came, I brushed it off.

There is NO WAY, God. They are awesome, but another full 11 months? I’m not that crazy.

So, flash forward to January. I’m with my team. I’m with the squad. I’m loving every second. But the thought of staying kept coming back to me. It kept coming and coming. And it got to the point that I could no longer brush it off. Clearly, I needed to pray into this (admittedly, it should have been the first step)

And the Lord provided answers almost immediately. As my teammates would talk, they would “mistakenly” begin talking about month 7 or 8 as if I would be there. This happened multiple times. Then, conversations would come about and the subject would come up of whether or not I would be interested in staying. These happened, but they were easy to brush off. So the Lord gave me a vision during our girl’s night.

My sweet teammate, Molly, began to pray over myself and my co-leaders, Emily and Leah. As she was praying, she said something along the lines of each of us running after Jesus. It was then that the Lord gave me a vision of myself running after Jesus. At first, it was just Jesus. Then, after a few moments, Jesus was all of a sudden standing in the middle of the entire squad. Not just my team. The entire squad.

And I felt Him say that in this next season, running after Him looked like running after this squad.

So, instead of sending Stephanie information about my flight home, I sent her an email explaining what God had placed on my heart.

We talked. The entire leadership team prayed over the decision. And as Stephanie and I prayed about how long the Lord would want me to stay, we both felt that I was to stay with this squad for the full 11 months.

Rather than coming home in April from China, I will now be going forward with the squad to Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and the Middle East.

I am so incredibly excited to continue on with this group. God has already taught me so much in the short amount of time that I’ve been back on the field, and I have seen so much growth in myself and in the people around me.

However, in order to continue on with this squad, I am fundraising $12000 for field expenses, and $800 for personal expenses for the entire rest of the year. Will you partner with me to continue on with the squad for the rest of this year?

I will be updating this blog every week and I have a newsletter that I try to send out bi-weekly that will have more detailed information about what we do in each country. Message me your email if you would like to be added to one or both of these email updates!

Finally, And most importantly, I am asking for prayer. Please pray for my squad, pray for my team, pray for the countries we enter into, and pray for deeper intimacy with the Father. Pray that we would be kingdom-minded every day, not just on days with set schedules. And Pray for our family and friends at home, for those relationships to grow even in the physical distance.

Thank you everyone for your support and for reading! If you would like to donate to my field expenses, click the donate bar at the top of my blog. If you would like to donate to my personal expenses, you can either Venmo me at @Meghan-Murray12 or you can message me personally about sending funds in a different way.

Y’all are the best! It is always so encouraging to see family and friends comment on my blogs and follow along on my journey! Please message me if you have prayer needs as well!

Much Love,
Meghan