Crossing the Pond 🇬🇧

I am truly gobsmacked to be writing these words: I'm hopping a plane to London town!

Blimey, how did this happen, Meg? Well, I would love to tell you a little story. (If you just want to read about what I'll be doing, skip down a few paragraphs!) It's October 2019. I had begun my journey with 10,000 Fathers Worship School just that September, and I was learning to experience the voice of God in ways I had been missing for some time. One Sunday in worship with my Iron City Church family, we sang O Praise the Name (Anástasis), and the Father spoke to me so personally with a sweet whisper in my ear. Tears ran down my face as we sang...

O praise the name of the Lord our God

O praise His name forevermore

For endless days we will sing Your praise

Oh Lord, oh Lord our God

He said to me, and he says to you today, "You will be with me for endless days. You are going to be there with all the angels and saints." Leading up to this moment, I had recently discovered the occupancy of depression in my life. My mind had built up walls that kept me from believing with confidence, but this word from the Lord (along with counseling, praise God for good counselors) marked the Lord's grace to bring me out of the dark place I had been.

What does all this have to do with London? Long story short, I found myself able to explore dreams for my life in a way I never had before. And my list of dreams showed a common theme: the motherland. I studied abroad in London in 2012 (shout out to the BGB fam) and since then have harbored a dream to get back there. So, a list of dreams in my journal sparked a search for new opportunities.

Fast forward to 2020 and a summer where the world had shut down (lol hey coronavirus). Not the best time to think about moving abroad, right? Welp, I started applying for opportunities, and the Lord sweetly provided me with an offer to join the team at All Saints Peckham as the Worship and Student Ministry Intern. LOOK AT GOD.

So here I go! Starting this October, I'll be living in Peckham working to support the worship ministry at All Saints and connecting with university students in the area to hopefully help them find a home in the community of faith. I am truly honored to join this incredible team in ministry, and I am so confident that the Lord will go before me and use my feeble efforts for his glory in Peckham and beyond.

This is no small life move, and I covet your prayers for this venture. I am praying that I will be marked by joy in this season, so would you pray that for me as well? Here are a few other practical ways to pray for me now:

• Pray that I would find community quickly and form deep, life-giving relationships

• Intercede for me to fight against imposter syndrome and any discouragement I may face - let my confidence be in the Lord instead of grasping for success

• Pray for the community of All Saints Peckham, that now and as I join them, we would not grow weary in doing good and that we would rest in the finished work of Christ

Let me say it another way: To each soul who is reading this, from Waco to Birmingham and beyond, I love you, and I want and n e e d to stay connected with you. I will have a UK phone number for all things FaceTime and iMessage in addition to the other methods (Marco Polo, WhatsApp, and of course not above an Instagram DM conversation). No matter how lovely my life appears, I'm never far from staring out the window longingly missing someone or some season of life (can I get an amen from my Enneagram Fours?). You, friend, have the power to stop me from being a perpetual emo kid (just kidding, I should do that, but help a sister out).

That's all for now, but let me encourage you with a blog post benediction: May you fully embrace the way God is smiling at you right now. One day he will dance with his people, you and me, and all of this life will be but a vapor. I can only hope this step in my life will bring a little more color and a little more of the sound of music (just not the Carrie Underwood version) to the world.

Cheerio!!