China and Beyond.....

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9

Hello All of My Dear Brothers and Sisters In Christ,

  So much has happened since I last sent you an update. I had a trip to China, prayed through God’s will for the future, and have exciting new developments that can only have come from the Lord. He is so good! I don’t know where to begin but I guess in order of occurrence works best, so here goes….

  In September my Dad and I went to spend 2 weeks in China at the ministry, Evergreen, I told you about in my last update. The time was wonderful and we were able to be a blessing and be blessed in our time there. I was able to get a good look at the ministry there as well as the nursing work. The staff were incredibly good and God is doing amazing things in their work. After our work we were even able to spend 2 days in Beijing doing some sightseeing and debriefing.

  Since this was a trip of decision I spent a great deal of time both on and off the trip praying, fasting, seeking God and seeking godly counsel to determine if Evergreen or China were His next step for me. After I wrestled with the question and asking God to show me His will I believe, unexpectedly, that God is telling me “no” not only to Evergreen but also to China.

  My immediate reaction was: “what?”, “not China?”, “How can that be since I’ve invested so much time and effort into pursuing work there?” God however, was very good and patiently brought me back to the list of “must-haves” that He had laid for my future ministry in February 2012:

1.) must be working with unreached/unengaged

2.) Evangelism/Discipleship/Church Planting

3.)Word of God as the Truth and Standard

4.)Transformational development/Holistic work

Evergreen does most of these but is not working with the unengaged as the areas Evergreen is centered in is almost fully reached.

  You are probably asking as I did, “now what God?” Well, God was faithfully working behind the scenes between last year and this year to prepare and open a possible door that will let me work with the unreached and unengaged using hands-on nursing with the other “must-haves” of my list.

  A couple of months before I was in China I was told of an opportunity to work as a nurse at a clinic in Papua New Guinea ( or “PNG” as it’s nicknamed) that supports translation work with Wycliffe Bible Translators. When I got back and God had changed the game plan I took another look at this opportunity. As China and Indonesia were the last remaining countries on my list of countries I’ve been praying through for 2 years (and PNG is separated from Indonesia by a mere political line) I felt that this position and shift might be of God. As I prayed I had a sense of peace about PNG that I had not felt about China and so I decided to move forward with this opportunity.

  This position with Wycliffe would allow me to use hands-on nursing (something I feel very strongly needs to be part of my work), will allow me to serve both the people of Papua and missionaries working to translate the Bible, and it will allow me to support the work of getting the Word of God into the hands of the over 200 languages that do not yet have a complete Bible in their heart language that they can understand. Wycliffe also works to provide literacy training, holistic transformation and to facilitate evangelism/discipleship missions to come in once translation is complete so strong churches can be planted.

  So, what this new direction means is this:

1.) I will not be going to China at this time as I believe God has closed that door to me

2.) I will be applying for long-term service with Wycliffe to start working in PNG by a goal date of January 2015

  I know to some this may seem like an unusual shift and very sudden but I believe God has been working  this in my heart since 2012 when he put Indonesia back on my list, sent me to Papua and knit my heart and my passion to the unreached tribes of the South Pacific. I look forward to the next steps of this journey and I thank God that you are walking with me in this amazing race to the nations!

Prayer Needs:

•Application process (due Nov. 30th)

•Building Long-term support quickly

•Spiritual growth and strengthening

    Christ Follower,

         Megan R.

P.S. Sorry this is so late in coming everybody. I've had major issues with my blog and only just recently have been able to get them fixed. Thanks for your patience. :)