Lay-Mobilizer Impact – Part II
By Bill MacLeod
Last Month we be brought you the story of Jeff Reed (“Ordinary Lay-Mobilizer – Remarkable Impact”) who, with his wife, had started the “GO Group” which has been raising up and sending out college students from the Portland-Vancouver area since 2012. When they could not go on the field themselves, they took that burden/passion and channeled it into this mobilizing effort. The ‘push-back’ they received from spiritual realms included job loss; seasons of under-employment; the unexpected and tragic deaths of their parents, his brother, and eventually Jeff’s wife Lori – all within a span of six years. But how did these circumstances impact their two kids’ lives? Today, both Tim and Megan Reed are on the mission field. Megan is a missionary nurse serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Papua, Indonesia. This is her story…
Bill: How did you initially “hear” the Lord’s call on your life?
Megan: At seven years old I felt very strongly that God was calling me to be a medical missionary in Asia. I grew up in a very missional family and I think the strong focus on sharing the good news of Jesus no matter where you are had a significant impact on my life.
B: How did life’s hard situations impact you and your thinking and faith?
M: I once heard a sermon that said that God uses the hard things in our lives to mold us and to take our weak hearted, soft will to follow God and strengthen and harden it until you have an iron resolve to follow God regardless of the circumstances. The hardest situation came a mere five months after I finally left the USA for my first mission assignment. I got a call from my Dad to tell me that my Mom had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. I really wrestled with what to do. I had worked hard to get to the mission field and now I was contemplating going back to the USA only a few months into my first assignment. Hard experiences have helped me to draw closer to God, to realize just how little strength I have and how much I need to depend on God’s strength in order to do anything. God’s grace and perseverance deepened my faith because God is faithful, loving, gracious and good in the midst of, in spite of, and because of hard things. He wastes nothing.
B: Did your career choice (nursing) come out of your early family experiences?
M: I have always loved people, loved science, loved to help and to help others especially. I think these combined to motivate my career choice. That, and I always felt God called me to medical missions, I just later narrowed down the branch of medicine based on my personality and preferences.
B: What did you see in or learn from your parents during these formative years?
M: Humility, perseverance, prioritization of a walk with God and sharing the good news about Jesus no matter where you are and no matter what your “job” is. I saw deep love for God in their lives and an intentionality about keeping their faith integrated with their life.
B: Was the vision always clear for you, or did you doubt His direction during any of the time growing up, etc.?
M: God’s call on my life was always clear and always like a fire shut up in my bones. I did go through a season where I was going through the motions of Christianity, but I wasn’t really walking with God. God used and redeemed that and has used it many times to help me to share the good news with people who have grown up religious but have never had a real walk with God. They can relate to my story.
B: How did your Mom’s passing impact your trajectory in the past, present, and looking to the future?
M: My Mom’s passing both did and did not have a profound impact on my overall trajectory. I actually struggled quite a bit in the decision to come back from the mission field after only being overseas for 5 months. I had worked for almost 20 years to get to the mission field and now I had to go back. However, her death has opened up doors of relationship because those I serve have suffered a lot of loss, especially of close loved ones, and it gives a common bond and a common platform. It has given me more compassion but also more drive to share the gospel with a more concrete reality of the fragility and brevity of life.
B: Do you have any advice for others who may be wrestling with God’s call to missions on their lives?
M: If you are wrestling with God’s call to missions on your life, I would say this: learn to be more impressed with your God than your circumstances. God will guide you, but first you must really know him, not about him, and you must know his Word. Out of this will flow so many things you need, to follow his call on your life. It will help you stay grounded in sound theology in times of suffering and testing, it will help you survive and thrive in the hard and dry seasons, and it will help you return to the right source – Christ – when you are overwhelmed. God is faithful to guide. All you must do is intentionally walk with him and he will guide your footsteps. One of my favorite verses is, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps.” If you don’t quit, you can’t fail. Put the boat in the water, God will shut doors, but he will also get you through hard times.
If you, or someone you know, is interested in attending the GO Group, email GoGroupPDX@gmail.com to find out the location! Please let others know of this opportunity to meet and pray together.
