It’s not often that a teenage girl moves halfway around the globe to start her own ministry with people she’s never met. But that’s EXACTLY what Morgan Jeffries did. And she had the support of her devoted parents, too.
For Morgan, it was really kind of just that simple. God spoke. She answered. She trusted. Period. End of story.
“This is something I am constantly seeking God about,” Morgan says about her life, including her recent decision to move to Uganda. “I am constantly asking him to direct my path and where He wants me to go and what He wants me to do. Because He created me for a reason, my biggest desire is to follow the path He wants me to follow. So I know He will continue to lead me as long as I keep my heart open to whatever He wants me to do.”
Actually, experiencing God is just the best part of Morgan’s story. It has many more exciting details.
In January of 2013, Morgan began looking into orphanages in Uganda. She sensed God was leading her there, but she didn’t know where or what she was supposed to do.
“I didn’t know anyone who lived in Uganda or anyone who had ever been to Uganda,” she said. “After looking at a couple different orphanages and even contacting some of them, none of them felt like the right place or where God was leading me to go. So finally I just stopped looking and started praying and asking God to show me where He wanted me to go if He truly wanted me to go to Uganda.”
That’s when Morgan and her mom, Rebecca, came across a young girl’s blog who had stayed in Uganda for two months in 2011 with Next Generation Ministries.
Morgan contacted Next Generation Ministries but didn’t meet any of the people who worked for the ministry until she arrived in Uganda in February 2014.
Most moms might freak out about sending their daughters overseas at age 17 — alone and in a place she’d never experienced. Rebecca, however, was pleased.
She knew that Morgan wanted to go on a mission trip like this from a very young age. It’s something Rebecca and her husband, Tim, want all their children to experience someday, and she’s talked to them about her own experience in Honduras when she was younger.
“Morgan literally went over there not knowing what she was going to experience, knowing nothing of the culture, knowing no one. It was a big step of faith!,” Rebecca said. “Morgan has been on the front lines at church or other ministry opportunities to serve in any way she can. Whatever opportunity has been placed before her to serve, she has done it with all that is in her and jumps in with both feet without looking back!”
By the time she boarded the plane for the 24-hour journey to Jinja, Uganda, excitement and fear kicked in.
“I remember sitting in the plane just getting ready to take off asking myself, ‘What did I just say yes to? Why am I going here? What do I think I’m doing?’ So yes, I had those normal questions inside myself that I think everyone deals with,” Morgan said.
“But it was also a great time for me to pray and just ask God to fulfill His will in my life during my time in Uganda,” she said. “I planned to stay for nine weeks and head back to the states just two weeks before my 18th birthday. But God had other plans — plans to use my small yes for things I had no idea about. It has been amazing to see things unfold in God’s timing. There have been many challenges along the way, but it’s been an amazing journey.”
Her trip began as a “normal” mission trip — moving around with teams and working in different areas of Jinja. She served in many villages and began to learn the primary language, which is Luganda.
The first week Morgan was in Uganda, she met a baby girl and her dad among throngs of other people, but there was something about them that stuck with her. In fact, she could not stop thinking about the young girl. She even shared with the missionaries there that this little girl was on her heart and in her prayers.
Two weeks later, she learned that the man was trying to figure out what to do with his baby girl. Her mother had passed away, and he had nobody to help him care for the 18-month-old.
It turned out there was a couple in the United States who wanted to adopt her, but someone would need to care for her until the adoption is final.
“After talking, we decided that I would extend my ticket so that I could stay here for as long as I needed to and care for Grace,” Morgan said.
God was calling Morgan to stay in Uganda and be a temporary mother for Grace, the toddler who had won her heart. Again, she found support — not criticism or concern — from her family in Georgia.
“God blessed us so much by giving us Morgan as a daughter. She is truly one of my best friends and I miss the times we had together before she left,” Rebecca said. “However, when she left, my husband and I gave her back to God. We support her 100 percent in staying and opening her heart, life, and home to whomever God places in her life. We all miss her tremendously, but thanks to social media, email, and Skype we are able to stay connected almost daily with her. That has made this so much easier!”
Morgan soon learned that Grace had two older siblings who had a different dad but shared the same mom. Their father had already died, and the death of their mother made them both orphans. They were in a nearby village with extended family who weren’t really able to care for them.
Morgan asked God if He wanted her to care for them.
“After A LOT of prayer and getting advice from some different people I respect a lot. I am beginning the process of starting a children’s home here,” she said.
Right now, caring for Grace is priority — and of course, a 24/7 job for her! Grace’s siblings, who are 11 and 9, cannot be adopted as her own children, but Morgan wants to create a ministry that would be an un-orphanage. She wants a place where children who have no family can be “like family.” Additional children would be like siblings to the two she will start with.
“It is both scary and exciting to think about this possibility as well as finding out what all will be involved,” she admitted. “I know that if it truly is something God is calling me to do He will provide everything that is needed for it. He doesn’t expect me to do this on my own. This is still something that is just in the beginning process. There is still so much that I have to do, look into and pray about.”
Even though many others are critical (saying she’s too young, that she couldn’t possibly make these kinds of decisions at her age and that she should return to the states and live a “normal teenage life”), her parents are committed.
Said Morgan, “My parents have encouraged me. They also have challenged me in many ways to make sure I am following what I really feel God has put on my heart.”
For Rebecca, it’s been a beautiful transformation of her daughter that she’s enjoyed experiencing. She’s noticed how much she’s grown spiritually and in her knowledge of who she is in Christ.
“Morgan has a huge heart and love for people… especially children. She is such a hard worker and puts herself into what she does 100 percent,” Rebecca said. “She is loving, kindhearted, soft spoken and extremely easy going, yet she has this inner strength that keeps her from being moved in the wrong way.
“Morgan has always had a desire to do what is right and to follow God with her whole heart, mind and soul. All these things wrapped up into one make Morgan perfect for what God has called her to do in Uganda at this time.”
That said, she does she worry — a little — even if she has a total inner peace about what Morgan is doing there.
“I, of course, have the ‘mom’ moments. She recently got bit by a poisonous spider. I did the normal worried mom thing by continuing to ask her many times a day how it was, asking if she was putting on the medicine I sent with her just in case this happened, asking her to send pictures so I could see that it was indeed doing better,” Rebecca said. “I do worry about... her health, happiness, and physical/spiritual well-being and growth.
“However, I do not sit and worry about what she is doing in her daily life. I do not worry about the many times a week she is traveling all over the place on the back of a boda (motorcycle) in the crazy Ugandan traffic, or walking around by herself in a foreign country doing her daily shopping, building relationships with the people there and ministering when opportunities arise.
“I am so thankful that God has given such a peace in regards to Morgan’s life in Uganda.”
Morgan is currently launching her ministry. She's a missionary called to open the children's home in Uganda. Just like Amy Denney is a missionary called to launch the ministry Mighty Strong Girls. Both Morgan and Amy saw God at work, listened for His voice and said YES to His call.
Here's where you come in. God is doing great things, and we know we can humbly be part of His even greater things when we serve and give. Would you partner with us to be part of God's plan in both Uganda and with Mighty Strong Girls?
For every new Mighty Strong Girls donor who signs up to give monthly or even a one-time donation in 2014, Mighty Strong Girls will give half to Morgan's ministry to help her open her home in Uganda. Let us join together to be part of the work of the Kingdom!
To get a form so you can start giving, email amydenney@mightystronggirls.com.
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