“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 Hey everyone! This is a joint update which you will be seeing more of in the near future as we (Jared and Meghan) join our lives together! We are in the middle of a crazy (and really fun) time of transition, with Jared moving back to Fresno and joining the staff at GoMission. We are also planning the GoMission Internship together and are less than two weeks out from our wedding! We would really appreciate your prayers over this time, just for grace in the midst of this big life change! One thing that we’ve found SO helpful in the hectic nature of this season, has been moments of stopping… reorienting our attention back to Jesus and His Kingdom… and remembering what all these things are about. Our prayer for you (and continually for ourselves) is that in the middle of whatever your season of life is filled with, that you would feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit to stop… pray… and refocus your eyes back on the one who is really the center of it all.
Tangible Testimonies GoMission.Church printed our very first Year in Review! It has been such a gift to hold a physical copy of written testimonies…something we can place directly into the hands of our ministry partners, pastors, and friends. I get excited about the ways God uses testimonies…the things He has done in our lives…to impact the lives of others. This past month, I’ve felt surrounded by countless testimonies from my own life and from the lives of those around me. God answered my prayers for provision and direction.God healed a family member from stage four cancer.God sent out a family to expand their ministry.God showed favor in my brother’s job and next steps.God brought peace to a friend’s life.God is teaching a friend about Sabbath rest.God provided birthday gifts and school funds for a girl in GFL God restored people to community.God moved in an entire family unit, stirring a desire to become more like Jesus.God is bringing my church into a season of learning to abide in Him (and I am so excited for the testimonies that will come from this season.) The list could go on and on. God is at work…everywhere, all the time. I need to hear these kinds of things constantly. When a testimony is written down and spoken out, it becomes tangible to the one who hears or reads it. Shared testimonies become tools, points of reference, landmarks, monuments, roads to worship…reminders to place our hope in Jesus. Just this morning, I had a conversation with a coworker about a struggle I’m facing and what the Lord is teaching me through it. She shared that she’s walking through something similar. By sharing our struggles, we invited one another into a testimony that is still unfolding, active, present, alive. God is at work in me, right now.God is at work in my coworker, right now. What a story we get to live! What a gift that we can look at our struggles and say, “God is good. God is present. God is gracious.” The work of Jesus is tangible, and we get to partner with His work by giving our testimonies away. It doesn’t need to be in a fancy book (although that is fun to have). All that is needed is a person willing to share the testimonies, past AND present! This is why I love GoMission.Church. We get to partner with ministries in giving away the story, the tangible, living breathing work of Jesus!
Happy New Year everyone! This was a very full holiday season and I am happy to be sharing some fun news with you! In December… Jared and I got engaged! I feel so incredibly blessed by the way God has brought us together. We are really looking forward to getting to do the things God has called us both to do, but as a team! This means we will be moving to Argentina, to continue to participate with what God is doing in the Vineyard churches there. In this transition, through prayer and discernment with friends and mentors, we’ve decided to take a year in Fresno after getting married at the end of April, to prepare for the move to Argentina in the summer of 2027. We don't know what everything will look like yet, but we would love if you could pray with us about both our year of preparation in Fresno and our move to Argentina. Here are some specific things you could join us in praying for in this season: - This season of engagement… preparing for marriage, Jared’s last 3 months in Mendoza, and all that comes with planning a wedding. - Our first year of marriage… direction from the Lord about priorities for that year, provision for a place to live, and preparation for the transition to Argentina. The Continuation of the Calling A few years ago, the Lord really put it on my heart to be a “bridge between missions and the Church.” When He spoke about this, I had no idea what He meant but I did know that my heart was being turned towards something that the Lord was doing. Shortly after God shared this with me, the opportunity to work at GoMission.Church came about. The whole ministry being centered around “engaging the people of God with the mission of God for the glory of God”... confirmed for me that this was the next step in what the Lord was asking me to do! Even as Jared and I prepare for this next season of life and spending our first year of marriage Fresno, my mission at GoMission.Church remains the same until we head out to Argentina. What is amazing to me, is that this whole idea around bridging missions and the Church, isn’t done or going away. If you aren’t familiar with the work Jared is currently up to, you can read about it in his updates here! In summary, the church he is currently supporting in Mendoza is a part of a wider partnership between a few different churches in Argentina and America. Jared and I have enjoyed dreaming about the potential for this bridging work to continue as we step into this church partnership together when we move to Argentina, getting to further connect people with what God is doing in other parts of the world, in His Church! I just think this is such a beautiful work of the Lord in our lives, inviting us into this marriage, where we get to participate in what God is doing! This will be a continuation, even a deepening of the things God has burdened our hearts for. I am so excited to see God move in more ways, in GoMission.Church, our marriage, the move to Argentina and all that comes after that! Thank you for partnering with me in prayer about what is on the horizon and I look forward to sharing more detail in the coming months!
At the start of this year, I had a conversation with a friend about what we were dreaming of doing in 2025. I told her that I hoped to help create some kind of publication or magazine for the Church. I didn’t know what it would look like or what the content would even be, I just had a desire to design something fun and encouraging for the Church. God has completely answered that desire! Our main project this month at GoMission.Church is putting together our end-of-year report. We’re sharing what He is doing through GoMission.Church, what He is doing in each ministry partner, and what we believe He is doing in His Kingdom at large. I am having so much fun creatively compiling testimonies, ministry snapshots, photos, and stories. It truly feels like a gift to serve the mission of God and the Church through design. As I reflect on 2025, editing this report, drawing, gathering stories, and talking with ministry leaders and supporters, my excitement for 2026 keeps growing. There is a lot we don’t know about the coming year. But honestly, we didn’t know much last year either… but as we looked to Jesus, followed Him, and said “yes,” He came. He surprised us, grew us, provided for us, and did more than we expected. Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. Hosea 6:3 We are walking into 2026 with expectancy. If we keep looking for where He is, we will find Him, and we will continue to be overwhelmed by His goodness and the beautiful things He is doing in His people and His Kingdom! We are putting out the end-of-year report at the beginning of January so keep an eye out for the PDF version in your emails soon! Here is a sneak peak:
Looking Back Around things like birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays, I really enjoy looking back to acknowledge the different things that happened, but more importantly, what God did! Last week I turned 24, so I have been thinking about where I was a year ago and how God has moved in my life, teaching me things, taking me places, and showing me more of what it looks like to be a part of His kingdom. I realized that so much of what God has been teaching me this year has come through the vessel of GoMission.Church. A couple of years ago, God put the phrase “bridge between missions and the Church” on my heart. I held onto it because it felt like something important that God was going to bring about somehow, and I didn't want to miss it if He did! Then after about a month after coming home from the mission field (last October), God set my new assignment in front of me, one where I would get to bridge missions and the church. Never would I have imagined the outworking of this word would be helping to build a missions platform like GoMission.Church. I am so, so thankful for the gift this role is and the way God has allowed me to have a part in this beautiful picture of Him bringing unity in the city around missions, and uncovering avenues for the Church to engage with what He is doing in His Kingdom. In very broad strokes, here are a few things God has been teaching me so far, through working with GoMission.Church: - Abiding in Jesus is the best possible thing I could do not only for my life, but also for everybody else. Any ministry I find myself doing and anything I have to give, flows from THAT space of delighting, depending, and resting in Jesus. - When leading people, I don’t have to have all the answers; I just need to know how to point people to Jesus (the one with all the answers). - Working together with other churches to seek the Lord, follow Him, and invite others to follow Him with us… is the MOST FUN and unifying thing! (Probably because this is how God designed us, to be a part of The Body with our brothers and sisters!) - Nothing is ever wasted with the Lord; He can use anything! - God’s provision sometimes looks different from what I would choose for myself, but it is always what I actually need. I am so very grateful for these things and for what God is doing through GoMission.Church. There is still more to come, and I am so excited to see where God continues to lead us as a team, and as The Church!
Having the Audacity to Ask One of the things we encouraged our interns to do over the course of the summer was to ask a lot of questions. (Which meant I got to join in this challenge alongside them, too!) We talked about the value of being “childlike” in our asking. Kids are naturally curious because they are figuring out the world for the first time, and there is an opportunity for them to be formed and shaped by the things they discover. As a group, we had the chance to come into ministry conversations with open hands and childlike hearts, to seek out the kingdom of God. Pastor Andy phrased the idea like this: “Kingdom curiosity leads to kingdom understanding.” Side note: Working with Pastor Andy is so fun because he asks crazy questions, with such a pure desire to see God move, and I have watched it lead to some amazing things… one example being the whole summer internship! That all came about because Pastor Andy asked, “What would it be like to invite a group of young people into what God is doing in GoMission.Church?” And…God moved! Since the end of the internship, I have found myself in multiple situations dreaming about and asking things like… “what would it be like if___?” or “what could happen in our city if we ___?” Or, I’ve been in conversations where people are telling me about things God has put in their hearts to do, and suddenly, I have multiple ministries in mind that they could potentially partner with. I share what God is doing in those ministries and then just wait. Sometimes it just isn’t for them or not for that moment. BUT SOMETIMES, they light up, are filled with excitement and faith that God is doing more than they can see. Sometimes, it is the confirmation they needed, that they aren't the only ones burning with desire to see God move in a specific area, and that it’s time to take the next step! I’m learning that this is a way I get to engage the people of God with the mission of God for the glory of God. I just get to dream with God and dream with people… because how will I know what the will of God is if I don't ask? I hope, for the rest of my life, I keep this audacious habit of asking God questions about what He is doing and “what if?” I have already seen it lead to some really fun, kingdom things, and I’m excited to see more! “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” 1 John 5:14 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
The way God works continues to surprise me! Before the GoMission Summer Internship started, I was going through all of the applications, reading about what each intern felt God was possibly wanting to teach them in the internship. The common theme I saw in most of their responses was the desire to know how to abide in Jesus. Little did I know God was going to use the whole internship as a way to teach ME what it means to abide. Abiding was a topic that I was frustrated with for a while because there wasn’t any step-by-step “plan to abide” laid out anywhere that I could find! I thought, “How am I supposed to help these young people learn this if I don’t even know how to abide?” Turns out… God said HE wanted to teach them, He wasn’t asking me to teach them… and all I had to do was pay attention to how He was trying to teach me! Leading this internship was so humbling. I was continually faced with the fact that I don’t have all the answers (nor do I need to have all the answers), and that the only thing that was required of me was to be with Jesus. God showed me, through many days of my trying to lead the internship out of my strength… that the best thing for me, any ministry that I’m a part of, and even just for the people around me, is to abide in Him. This required a lot of slowing down, admitting to the interns (and myself) that I don’t have all the answers, taking time to turn our eyes to Jesus, and listening to his voice. I am still figuring out what it looks like to abide, but I am so thankful for how God has been humbling and teaching me through the things He has asked me to do. On top of it all, getting to learn this alongside the interns was a joy, and I am so blessed by how God used the team to challenge one another to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus! Thank you for your continued prayers and partnership. God is doing SO MANY THINGS, and I feel so honored to get to be here, participating in bringing Him glory in our city!
I'm finding that GoMission.Church is becoming an open doorway for one's faith to be built, through stories of people boldly saying YES to Jesus... TODAY. Last week, I had this thought cross my mind: "Am I doing the right thing?" I know that in living a life with Jesus as a human being, this question isn't uncommon. Even still, I began to doubt the path I had taken to help run GoMission.Church. I had been comparing my life with others, seeing the things they have that I don’t. At the bottom of this comparison was a fear that God wouldn’t provide. The same day I thought about these things, I had a meeting with a woman who quit her job three weeks ago to work full-time in a ministry, with young women who have aged out of the foster care system. She told me about how the Lord provided what she needed for her in the first week. (Thank you, God!) She was so encouraged and recognized that when she stepped in faith, God was right there. In the world’s eyes, to do something so drastic like quitting your well-paying, stable job to work in a ministry where you are depending on God for your salary…. is quite foolish. In God’s eyes, it is foolish NOT to give everything and trust Him. The Lord spoke to my heart's doubt that day through the “Yes” of this faith-filled woman. There truly is nothing better I can do with my life than give my all to Jesus. The ways of God seem foolish to us… but He gives us EVERYTHING in return for the small, simple offering of our lives. I am thankful this week for this encouragement to keep saying "Yes" to Jesus and the invitation to just watch God do amazing things in His Kingdom.