Contributed by Katherine Jones Megan Caddell is a woman on a mission. Given that she’s the World Vision Child Ambassador Team Lead, you might assume that her mission is to get as many kids sponsored as possible. But you would assume wrong. Because while that, of course, is something she desires and believes in deeply, her mission is something other: to give Child Ambassadors every tool she can muster so that we may live out the calling God has given us. “I want to work with Child Ambassadors to give you what you need to fulfill your calling,” she says. “To me, there’s no greater people or mission. There’s nothing better for me.” Megan’s aim is born out of experience as she knows firsthand what it means to live a life of calling. A vision for her future began taking form when she was a teen as she planned her high school prom. “I love moving people toward a goal,” she says. “In college, I designed my own minor in Event Planning. Once out of college, I worked for one of the top planning firms in Seattle. But there I was planning events for people who already had everything. Then I went to church one day and my pastor challenged us: Be a blessing in a world of oppression.” That challenge hit its mark. Megan quit her prestigious Seattle job and went to Africa for a season. While there, she found herself praying a very specific prayer: “It was, ‘Lord, break my heart for the things that break yours.’ And I was like, Who said that? Because that didn’t sound like me, but I knew I meant it. It wasn’t until years later that I learned I’d prayed [World Vision founder] Bob Pierce’s famous prayer.” In Africa, God did break Megan’s heart for those suffering in the AIDS crisis. And soon after her return to the U.S., she signed on with World Vision. That was eight years ago, and her commitment to World Vision and its global impact has only increased. “I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I care about the work World Vision does in the world more than anything. I read State Department emails for fun because I care about international foreign policy.” Any Child Ambassador who has ever been in the same room with Megan has witnessed firsthand her gregarious personality in action. Is she really the extrovert she seems? “Oh, yes!” She laughs. “For better or worse. I was a cheerleader in high school, and now I’m a cheerleader for my job. On our recent Vision Trip to Nicaragua, we, of course, had a mix of introverts and extroverts. We had to be intentional about giving the more introverted ones a way to show us when they’d had enough. But me? I don’t get peopled out.” Which makes her a brilliant fit for this job that requires constant, intentional, energetic interaction with people. Interaction that isn’t limited to those she leads, but to her sponsored kids as well. These include a boy in Swaziland and a recent addition, a boy she met in Nicaragua. “One day we were visiting a school,” she says, “and there was a boy who was one of the best readers, who was mentoring others. I found out he was not sponsored and spent the rest of my time there being with him as much as possible. I was so excited to see his great, great, great potential as a leader -- his potential to go places.” That’s the same kind of potential she seeks out in the Child Ambassadors she works with, and
what inspires her to throw all her energies into her job. “Let me help you,” she says. She goes on to say that while she’s traveled to three countries with World Vision, she doesn’t have any great desire to keep adding to her destination list. “I already believe in World Vision’s model and their mission. I don’t need to see it in action. My most remarkable moment in Nicaragua was when the World Vision staff there realized who these women with me were—the Child Ambassadors—and what they are capable of. That was a turning point for the staff as they began asking, ‘What can we do to make sure these Child Ambassadors have all they need?’” Because the corollary is plain. When Child Ambassadors are empowered and equipped, when we have the tools that help us tell compelling stories with up-to-date information at our fingertips, we are able to fulfill our own mission: matching sponsors with children. “My role,” Megan says, “is to help CAs live out their faith. For me, it’s a lot less about where I want to go next, and more about who can I take on those trips. Which Child Ambassadors can I take with me so that they may live out their potential? This is my question, and it’s my great, blessed pleasure to help facilitate that."
Monty Price
10/5/2017 12:52:48 pm
I am planning to be at the Conference in Tennessee next week. This will be my second trip to Nashville this year. I would like to have more information about the Conference that is coming up soon within this coming week? I have already paid for my Greyhound Bus ticket to Nashville and would like to know what financially I am responsible for during the World Vision Child Ambassador Conference? Also, I am a college student and would like to know if it would be alright to have documentation that I was at the Conference and receive CEU Credits for the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky as a Social Work Student? This would be my first Child Ambassador Conference and I would be looking forward in being there. Have a nice day. 859-687-0835 10/15/2018 07:52:14 pm
I had a great time in Seattle, Washington. Please send me a hundred children packets and I will see how many children I can have sponsored by the next Child Ambassador Conference. Also, awhile back I volunteered at Quest Church in Lexington, Kentucky at the Big Daddy Weave Concert and would like to make sure that I will have credit for this and my volunteer hours recorded. Please research this and now I am sponsoring 3 children. Have a nice day. Also, for now on I would like to be called Brittanie Price, but for legal purposes Carroll Montague Price, Jr. Have a nice day. Comments are closed.
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