Megan McArthur
A New Adventure
So this is it. I am for sure doing Mission Year. I declined all offers for interviews at my student teaching school and didn’t send in any of my 13 completed applications with my resumes. Despite my mother telling me that this is a huge mistake, I know that God really wants me to give this year of my life learning to be a better follower of Him.
So many emotions are going through me at this time. I am thrilled beyond all comprehension but also scared out of my mind. I know that this year is going to involve taking so many risks and getting used to a lifestyle that I don’t even really understand. That is why I want to do it though. I want to experience God in a way that I would never be able to living in the suburbs and receiving an upper-middle class salary. I want God and nothing more, and I want to be content with whatever he gives me.
I know I won’t be in Chicago, but beyond that God could place me anywhere! I do wish that I could be closer to home though, it will be so hard to leave all of this behind. My family and friends, and the entire life that I have known thus far. I don’t know what will happen, but I just have to trust that it will be Good. Please be praying for me as I am preparing to do this.
To any other Mission Year kids out there, I will be praying for all of you as well. Lets go change our lives and change the world!
About Mission Year
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. We take teams of young people, place them in an area of need, and help them to serve people and create community. We are committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor. Learn more about our first year program…
Megan McArthur's Blog
Megan's January Newsletter / Feb 16, 09:36 PM
Camden Chronicles MissionYear Camden
Volume 1, Issue 5 January 2010
It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving. ~ Mother Theresa
Have you ever felt that you are not doing enough, not being enough, not loving enough? Seeing the difficulties of everyday life in Camden can sure induce this feeling. Everyday I wake up, go to my morning service site, go to my afternoon service site, and then travel home to work on improving our intentional community. From early in the morning until I go to sleep at night I keep trying to do more for the community I have committed to. Five months of moving at this pace has taken its toll on me. As much as I love my neighbors and students, sometimes I am very grateful for our Friday Sabbath to come. When I read this Mother Theresa quote though, I slowed down a bit to consider my “doing” in Camden. I have been doing so much, but in doing that I began to burn out on putting a lot of love into the things that I was doing. After returning from break with a sense of renewal I decided to switch service sites for two mornings a week. Instead of being with my second graders every day, now I will be working with adults with disabilities two times a week. In this position I will be doing a lot less “fancy” things than I have been. I will not be the main teacher for 15 smiling faces every morning. I will be wearing a hair net and preparing meals, spooning food into a 25 year old mans mouth, and filing paperwork that others can not find the time to get to. While the glamour has decreased, I am glad for the chance to serve in a less obvious way. I will have much less to do in this new job, but hopefully that will help me to put more love into the tasks, instead of allowing the work to distract me from the love.
I ask for your prayers as I make this new transition. I will be missing my little ones a lot, but I know I will be blessed by the new people I encounter. I know that God will not bless the people of Camden through the tasks I am doing this year, but through the love I have doing them, and I have come to see just how much love Camden really needs.How Megan Needs You to Help Her…
With the generosity that you have all shown over these past months, I have reached over a third of my fundraising goal. I currently have $4,311 in my account. While I am very excited about how many of you stepped up and gave more than I ever expected, I am still short about $8,000 of my years goal. Being the wiz of a mathematician that I am, I divided the amount of money I have left to raise by the number of people I am sending this newsletter to every month. I found that if each person would commit to donating $25 each month, I would make my goal by August. I know many of you have probably given to Haitian relief funds recently and might find your pockets steched a little tight. If this is you, I ask you to remember what Mother Theresa said, “it is not how much we give, but how much love we put into the giving.” Thank you all so much for giving me love this year.
Updates on my Team
· Anna: an acquaintance with a homeless women at her work site has recently developed into a beautiful friendship
· Ellen: has decided to attempt to raise $1,600 to bring 4 children from south Camden to her summer camp in August
· Josh: shaved his mustache, which is a very good thing. Unfortunately, he is now thinking of getting a mullet (prayers encouraged)!
· Matt: guided youth to create and formally present picture/vocal presentations that told stories of their lives at an exhibit in Camden.
· Stevie: is working to better the under-resourced high school where she volunteers by giving the students creative projects and challenge to stimulate their minds.
Moments of Joy / Feb 16, 09:34 PM
When I arrived in New Jersey I was told that there was not that much snow here. Everyone said it does not get nearly as cold, and the most snow they have ever had was about a foot. It figures that the year I come, I bring the snow along with me. It has been blizarding for the past couple of days and everything is covered in white. When the weather started up again last night I was beginning to lose the wonder of the beauty that it holds. The glittering snow was just as perfect and soft as it has always been, but it was getting to be a bit much.
I went to my room and read for a little while, and when I came out three of my teammates were sitting out the couch looking out our front window. When I joined them, I saw that four of our neighbors (new neighbors I might add) were out having a major snowball fight. As I marveled in the joy that these children were having at 11 o’clock at night I was filled with a real sense of peace. Ellen and Josh sprung up off the couch and decided to join them outside with surprise snowball attack. Stevie and I ran to get the camera and took pictures from the window. After about 5 minutes of photographing intense snow warfare, Stevie and I realized we would have way more fun if we joined them outside too.
I went and donned my boots, hat, and coat and ran outside for some snowman building. We ate the carrot that was supposed to act as a nose and threw the grape eyeballs at one another. The snow was perfect for packing and we tackled one another for almost an hour. We played red light green light, sliding style, in the deserted streets of Camden and tackle snow football. Other neighbors even came out with video cameras!
For so long I thought that building relationships with neighbors was so difficult, and really it is! It is when there are moments and experiences like this snow though that encourage me. Taking advantage of the little moments could be a huge thing! We all could have sat in the comfort of our own warm apartment sipping hot chocolate, but instead we put away all thoughts of comfort and turned to joy instead. Simple moments like last night are what my Mission Year is all about. What we are doing here is not some profound revoluntionary thing, but life. It is about not letting the sense of wonder for the world around us fade because we experience it all the time. There is so much beauty and joy to behold if we will only get out and experience it. I can’t wait until the next snowfall.
Its Christmas Time in the City... / Dec 4, 05:03 PM
Last night we had Citywide in Philly. Every Thursday evening the teams in our area (Wilmington, Philly, and Camden) get together for either training sessions or some sort of spiritual growth formation. Our city together usually brings in some super cool person to share with us or lead us in an activity. These nights are always highly enjoyable, not only because I get to see all my friends from the tri-state area, but because I usually leave with something pretty cool to dwell on. Last night was no exception to this, as our teams gathered to discuss the Christmas season… the season of advent.
I have always loved Christmas time because of the lights and the gingerbread. Christmas is a time of year when I have celebrated love and generosity, and in recent years the birth of Jesus. I have never looked deeper into the Christmas that the Israelites celebrated, because it seemed irrelevant to our Christmas. Last night however, I began to see Christmas as more than just a time for joy and love. Christmas became a time to recognize God’s faithfulness.
The Israelites had been waiting thousands and thousands of years to have some way to escape the hardships and struggles of this world. For Abraham, Moses, David and the rest of the Hebrew people their was nothing to cling to in their times of despair other than God’s promise to them that they would be delivered. When Jesus was born everything changed. The people celebrated because their time of waiting was ending. The Savior had come… the one who would mean they would be alright. God’s promise to them was fulfilled.
However, the season of waiting did not end with Jesus’ life. As I began to think about how much I am still waiting for, I began to understand what Christmas can really mean. I wait for healing for my heart and to really understand that I am loved. I wait for deliverance from my sins and addictions. I wait to be a better teacher, a better friend, a better child of God. I wait to become less selfish. Sometimes, it seems that my waiting will never end… that I might never be healed, but as I look at the Israelites and the celebration of Christmas I can be assured that my time of waiting will come to an end. God will come back and save me from myself. I don’t need to get frustrated or sad, because I know that my God is faithful. He will deliver me.
This assurance means so much to me. So, this Christmas season despite my impatience and faith that falters at best… I will put my hope in God’s promise that things will not be like this forever. The brokenness that I see everyday in the city of Camden, in my friends, and in myself will be made new. I will wait in this season for God. I will wait… and I will hope.
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Covenant Love / Oct 2, 09:32 AM
Saturday was a really exciting day for my team. Matt’s birthday was Sunday, and so for our hospitality night we invited our neighbors over for a surprise (or not so surprise) party. The house was full to the brim with kids playing with balloons and bowling pins as well as adults chatting away and making wonderful conversation.
Our first guests to arrive were Miss Joyce and Kim who immediately began comparing out apartment to their own, “You have an alcove! How come we don’t have that?” and “Oooo these windows in the hall bring in so much light… I am coming over here every morning with coffee to window watch from your place!” As they were looking out the window though, they mentioned some other things that I did not know about my town.
Disclaimer: The east side of Camden is super nice and safe compared to other places around. We border Pennsauken, Camden, and Merchantville, three very different places with very different types of lifestyles. I have never felt at danger in my neighborhood and I have grown to love everyone around me.
However, as Miss Joyce was looking around she commented on how our apartment had a supreme view for watching the call girls next door, as well as drug activity across the street. I had no idea that in my nice safe little neighborhood there was this going on right next door! Taken aback by this information, I attempted to assimilate this information with my experiences thus far. The next couple evenings the way I looked at people on the street began to change.
Then, yesterday night, it began to downpour. This torrential rain lasted only a quarter of an hour however before the sun came back into the sky, just as it was about to set. I ran outside to get a better look at the most beautiful double rainbow and sunset I had ever seen. As I stood in the out in the coolness I realized that this double rainbow was directly over the house of the call girls and the drug infested apartment complex.
It was at that moment that I remembered why God had created rainbows in the first place. The story suddenly transformed from a cheesy Sunday School tale to reality within the life of my neighbors as well as myself. God will never forsake these people that the world is so quickly to dismiss as “evil”. He does not give up on them, and neither should we. His love extends over them even when we can not see or feel this… it is still there. This is the God that I serve. The God of those rejected and broken by the world, and I will care for them and let them care for me. I will not be the one to break this covenant love.
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Jubilation / Jun 28, 04:40 PM
Living in the Jubilee House this summer has been so amazing, but I fear that it is turning me prejudice toward what I want my experience in New Jersey to be like next year. All of the folks I am living with now are spectacular people of God, and the house is such a welcoming place. People from camp (old and new) are always in and out. Last week we played hosts to the 5 Hanlon children as well, and that was super exciting. The neighborhood kids are always in and out as well, coming over to play worship music with us on the front porch.
I know however, that NJ will not be like this. Firstly, I won’t already know my housemates and spiritual backgrounds. As of now I know everyone super well and already had a relationship with them before I lived there. I feel like NJ will be super lonely for a while, and pretty overwhelming. I wont be able to go home whenever I like and I feel that the neighborhood will probably not be as safe as Genoa.
Despite all the fears though, I can not wait. It is only 2 months from yesterday til I will be moving in. I am anxious to know who will be living with me and what they are like. I also can’t wait to find out what I will be doing next year. I kinda hope it is something to do with teaching, cause I just love it so much. Whatever God decides though, is good by me :-)
So while I am waiting for this experience I will learn all I can from the Jubilee house, and attempt to live in Jubilation as well. Whatever God has in store for me is sure to be Good, and that is reason enough for celebration.
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