Portrait of a Servant Leader
Megan Gable
Hometown: Lebanon, Indiana
Class: Junior
Major: Music
“If you try to escape we will shoot you.” These were the words Megan Gable heard as she took place in a hostage simulation during her Pre-Field Orientation training week before going to Bosnia as a summer missionary intern. The hostage simulation lasted four hours on a dark, rainy summer night in which real guns with blanks were used for a real life effect. Megan spent a vigorous week in Pre-Field Orientation with Team Expansion during which she was trained not only in hostage simulations, but also how to discern her spiritual gifts and how to master the Bosnian language quickly.
“It was about the most intense week of my life.”
Megan Gable is a focused young woman who wanted to serve God on the mission field but at the same time, pursue her career in Music Education. She became interested in missions during high school in which she participated in numerous mission trips, two being overseas. Megan was trying to discern between her two different career interests until a Milligan professor introduced her to ethnomusicology, the study of other cultures music. At this point in her life, Megan began to realize that ethnomusicology could corporate her duel interests in music and missions. Shortly after, Team Expansion, a mission agency out of Louisville, Kentucky came to Milligan to discuss with interested students the possibilities of participating as summer interns. Megan knew this wasn't coincidence and she felt God tugging at her heart to serve in the overseas mission field for the summer.
Megan did not know what country she would serve in, how to speak another language, or how she would pay for a summer abroad. However, God answered her faith and within two short months, she was destined for Bosnia with her entire expenses already raised, and learning to speak the Bosnian language. Although still a little unsure of how she could incorporate her Music education major on the mission field, she simply followed God's voice.
“God can use me in any way. If I go to the mission field, He's going to use me.”
Megan and five other college interns made their home in Zenica, Bosnia for the summer. The team of six interns rented a house in Zenica and lived together for their stay of eight weeks. During their stay, they rotated between four area villages and taught English classes daily. Megan taught at two schools each day, with the children ranging from 8-18. At her last village she had to teach five English classes a day. Megan's English topic that she taught for the entire summer was Food and Restaurant terms. These terms are very useful to the Bosnian children because the majority of them will end up working in restaurants after they finish schooling. To help communicate with the Bosnian children and act as interpreters, a local missionary family with four children accompanied Megan and her team at the schools.
Megan's biggest challenge came with her religion because it is illegal to evangelize to children less than eighteen years of age in Bosnia. Therefore, Team Expansion has actually never been heard of in Bosnia because the mission agency is known as Peace Bridge in Bosnia, a humanitarian aid agency. To local Bosnians, Peace Bridge simply brings in American tutors to help the children master the English language. Megan couldn't talk about her Christian religion, wear a cross necklace, or go to church on Sundays because the villages were strictly Muslim.
The Muslim religion is rampant in Bosnia and Megan had to completely rely on her own faith for guidance in an unknown country. She did personal devotions and participated in a weekly devotion with her fellow interns in the safety of their summer home. While Megan couldn't vocalize her faith, she was a witness to the children through her actions and love.
Shortly before departing Bosnia at the completion of her internship, the local missionary family threw a sending off party for Megan and her team. They would sing a praise song in Bosnian and then in English. This was one of the highlights of Megan's summer.
“I could see the full Body of Christ coming together and realize that we all had that in common, even with the physical language barriers.”
Megan's internship was sponsored through the Institute for Servant Leadership, which helps students to discover their call in servant leadership and to help them discern their own vocation career through faith and service.
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