Skip to main content

"I Will Go, God Send Me": Margo's Macedonian Adventure

When God says go, Margo Nolan goes.

The former Oak Ridge Baptist Church member lives her life with a focus on impacting eternity.  The latest evidence?  She felt God calling her to move to Hagerstown, Maryland.

So what did Margo do?

She moved.

“This is it, this is where I’m supposed to be,” Margo says of her new community, where she works with Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous to bring hope and healing to those incarcerated at the jail, the detention center, and the rehab centers of Hagerstown.

Margo has a track record of going where God sends her.  Before selling her home and taking a rather literal leap of faith by trusting God and moving hours away to pursue her latest adventure, Margo was a striking example of how much God can use just one person to work the PEACE plan here at Oak Ridge.  Over the years at ORBC, Margo has completed mission work in China and Peru, volunteered down the street four days a week in a Bennett Middle School classroom, helped lead Celebrate Recovery at HALO, and most recently, traveled to Macedonia to begin laying the groundwork for establishing Celebrate Recovery ministries in four churches.

Margo—and the rest of the Macedonia team—learned about the opportunity to go on mission in Macedonia by connecting with the ORBC's Macedonia Partnership Community at one of Oak Ridge’s PEACE Gatherings—the meetings that take place at ORBC for members to find out about ways to get involved here in the community as well as all over the globe.

In Macedonia, Margo visited with four different churches to discuss strategies for beginning Celebrate Recovery ministries with pastors.  The programs meet a very real need—out of 196 countries in the world, Macedonia ranks #35 per capita when it comes to the percentage of the population that abuses heroin.  This statistic is even more shocking when you understand how small Macedonia is.  There are just over two million people there (compared to over 323 million in America).

“I hope that going there, we lit a spark,” Margo says. 

On one occasion, Margo spoke to a crowd of about twenty-five.  Her audience?  Family members of addicts.

“I gave my testimony, I said everything I could say.  I gave my testimony.  I hope and pray that someone heard.

“It’s a really hard place.  I’m praying for these people.  I know from working in China for ten years, that breakthroughs can be made.

“Things can change, they can, and I hope that they do.”

In America, admitting to addiction comes with a stigma, with a certain amount of shame.  In Macedonia, that experience is heightened.  Margo relays a common concern she heard over and over again from family members of addicts:

“We don’t want the neighbors to know.”

The people of Macedonia desperately need hope.  According to Margo, “They say they are Christian, but nobody goes to church.  There’s no seats in them, and nobody goes.  There’s no active Christianity going on except for in the few evangelical churches. The people there are scared of them—they think they are cults.  So suggesting to the pastors that they start a Celebrate Recovery program and getting them to get addicts to go out into the [church] building was very difficult.”

Nevertheless, we know that God works all things for the good of those who are called according to his purpose.

Says Margo, “I hope I left a seed.  I think they get it now.”


To learn about future opportunities to go on mission in Macedonia as well as other ways to get involved through the PEACE plan, email- peace@orbc.net or keep an eye out for the next PEACE Gathering.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ORBC's Danny Guzman Shares Faith with Entire Freshman Class at Wi-Hi

It's not often that public schools open their doors to Christian speakers, allowing them to freely share their faith. But that's exactly what happened when Wicomico High School invited Danny Guzman of ORBC’s “The Landing” to speak to the entire freshman class last month.  In response to the rising opioid crisis in our area, Wi-Hi hosted a symposium designed to assist students in making wise choices.  Themed, "Be a Hero," the focus was on drug awareness, and Danny represented The Landing and ORBC as one of several presenters. Danny shared that he was approached by one of Wi-Hi's teachers, Amanda Ault, a fellow ORBCer who is active in our Wi-Hi School Partnership.  Amanda asked if Danny would like to be involved at her school’s symposium when she learned about The Landing, ORBC’s recovery program that exists to give students age 12-17 a safe space to find freedom and victory over hurts, hang-ups, and habits. Amanda and Danny first connected at...
Post a Comment
Read more

PEACE in Action

Ordinary People. Empowered by God. Doing What Jesus Did. Wherever They Are.  These are the words members of Oak Ridge Baptist Church live by when they engage in the PEACE Plan—our church-wide commitment to Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation.  More than words, however, the PEACE Plan in Action is about showing the love of Jesus in tangible ways in and beyond our community. PEACE in Action has been busy lately:  over the summer, one especially notable project was a completely member-led and organized remodeling project for Ms. Sharon, one of ORBC’s own whose name came up when member Danny Guzman turned to our church family with a goal: “I’m looking for someone who could use a real blessing.”   Two different people approached Danny to direct him toward Ms. Sharon, of whom Danny said, “She is such an awesome lady, and her need was great.” In the midst of a battl...
Post a Comment
Read more

PEACE in Action is Back!

After a brief hiatus over the holidays, PEACE in Action is back in full force this February. For those of you who haven't heard, PEACE in Action "is when we go out into the community, and we do random acts of kindness," says project coordinator Danny Guzman.  The third Saturday of every month, a group of volunteers meets at Oak Ridge Baptist and then hits the road to bless a community member in need. This month's project is for someone who lives just minutes from the church, someone who is especially deserving.  According to Danny, on Saturday, February 16th, the PEACE in Action team will give back to an upstanding "senior citizen in our community, who has been a cornerstone in our community for so long.   Her name is Nancy MacDonald, Mama Mac.  She was a teacher at Bennett High.  She used to be the lacrosse coach.  And so she spent a lot of time pouring into students, for most of her life, actually.  But a couple years back, she had a major st...
Post a Comment
Read more