Team CAYA: a promise fulfilled

Where do I even begin? In case you didn’t know, I’m in Gainesville right now! I’ve been here for about a month and will be here until the end of December. I’m currently leading & doing life with a team of 5 incredible women and we call ourselves team CAYA. That’s where this story begins. 

At the beginning of my race, if you would’ve asked “Maggie, what are you passionate about?” I would’ve sat for a long time and inevitably said something like “kids?” or a simple “I don’t know”.  This question had been asked so many times to me that I eventually just got tired of not having an answer. I sat down with the Lord and asked “what the heck am I passionate about?”. He brought to mind all the instances where I got to pour into women my age/ high school aged and how much life it brought me. He brought to mind the times I got to go sit in on small groups at my church and tell them the things God had done in my life. All the times I got to watch hope arise in young women when someone actually treated them like people who had gone through some things instead of just teenage girls who didn’t know a thing about life. And that’s when I had my answer. I’m passionate about breaking shame and bringing freedom through the hope of Jesus in the lives of young women. 

Now you have to understand, I had no idea what to do with this. All I had to go off of is what I wish I would’ve had – Someone who treated me like a real person with trauma and emotions. Someone who wouldn’t just write me off as overdramatic or naive. Someone who was real about what they had been through and healed from. Someone who walked in freedom from the bondage of shame and wanted to give that away. A group of women who was honest and encouraging and rooted in the Lord. And with all of that I said “Jesus, how can I give these things away to young women and bring you glory through that?”

Fast forward to month 4 of my race: Myanmar.

Its Christmas time and we’re in this little village in the mountains. This is the time when God gave me some big dreams and let me run wild with Him in imagining what they could turn into.  He gave me a dream of starting a women’s ministry in my very own basement. Dreams of walking with them through hard things and watching as paper chains fall to the floor and beautiful community is formed. Dreams of bringing in my friends to give testimonies of the things the Lord did in their life. Everything I’m passionate coming to life in my imagination. But then He made it real & He named it…

Come As You Are 

As the Lord sowed this huge dream my prayer was that the passion wouldn’t die out, that my heart for young women would stay burning until I saw this dream come to pass. And then Covid… Isn’t that a bit of a theme in our world right now. I came home early from the race and nothing happened. No doors opened for this ministry to begin, no one could even be in the same room. To be completely honest I was angry. I was angry because I knew this big beautiful dream was from the Lord and I felt like it just got tossed to the side. I was angry because the passion was still there but I felt like I couldn’t do anything with it. But the Lord pulled me out of that victim circle with an invitation to team lead. With a hesitant but eager heart, I said “if you’re going to Gainesville Lord, then so am I”.  

I was met with 5 beautiful and eager women. As I was praying over our team and asking the Lord what it was He wanted to speak over us I heard Him say “I want you to be a team that can Come As You Are.” I just began to weep at the sound of those words coming from Him again, it felt like hearing an old song you love for the first time in a long time. As I was telling my team what the Lord had spoke over us and a little bit of my heart and passion for young women it was about time to pick team names. I told them to sit and pray about what they wanted to be named and to decide amongst themselves, not having much of a roll in that myself.  When it came time to hear the idea, they had all decided on one name they felt best embodied who they are and always want to be as a team. 

Team CAYA (Come As You Are) 

They wanted to honor me in what the Lord had spoken and be a team that fully embodied the way Jesus allows us to come exactly how we are. Broken, bruised, hurting, joyful, exhausted. Whatever it is, He wants it. Jesus ate with the sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes. He didn’t ask them to come after they repented or changed, He invited them just as they where and loved them through the mess.

I never knew going into team leading that God would fulfill a promise I thought was long gone. But He’s just that big isn’t He? In my disappointment and anger He brought redemption through this team of women. Thank you Jesus for caring about my dreams, for never going back on your word. You’re so good to us.

Team CAYA, thank you for the way you honor and love me. You are my answered prayer. I love you & I cherish you. 

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.“ Then Jesus told them this parable ”Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts in on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Luke 15:1-7