From Middle School and Back Again: Morgan's Journey Sowing Seeds of Change

When Morgan Miller started college, God answered a prayer she had been praying since sixth grade. 

Middle School is when Morgan felt the peace and presence of God for the first time, and knew she wanted to follow Jesus with her whole life. She didn’t have much Christian community among her peers, so she tried to read through the Bible on her own, starting at the beginning. But by the time she got to Leviticus, she was definitely losing steam. 

Her mom advised her to pray for understanding, and Morgan did. “I prayed, ‘God help me to understand this. I want to know you more,’” she remembers. “And it’s crazy—God didn’t answer that prayer right at that moment, but he answered it when I went to college.”

Morgan remembers going to the Jubilee conference for the first time. “I thought, ‘Wow. I’m not alone.’” Surrounded by thousands of college students who also longed to know and follow Jesus, she felt her world open up. And Jubilee, along with the patient discipleship of her CCO campus staff, also opened the Scriptures to Morgan. 

“Being able to sum up the Bible into four parts—Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration— blew my mind completely.” 

Morgan’s love for God and her commitment to sharing the Gospel with her peers grew during her four years in college. She returned to Jubilee, served as a student leader, and participated in the leadership-focused Ocean City Beach Project. When it was time to graduate, Morgan took the CCO’s vision to heart. 

“I was like, ‘The CCO says they’re transforming college students to transform the world, and that's what I want to go and do. I want to transform my workplace.’”

Morgan graduated with a degree in Physical Education and began applying for teaching jobs, eventually landing at Carmichaels Junior/Senior High School in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania. Her aim was to teach and love her students well, to pray that God would show her things she wouldn’t otherwise see, and to eventually help some students start a Christian club.

Early on, in order to get to know her health class better, Morgan passed out a survey. “It was just like, ‘Tell me about yourself. What do you like? What don’t you like? How can I make the classroom more comfortable for you?’” she remembers. A student named Emma  wrote about Jesus, and Morgan was amazed. “She was in seventh grade then, and this kid was wise beyond her years.”

Morgan and Emma began to build a relationship, and Morgan asked Emma if she wanted to start a Christian Club at Carmichaels. Emma was excited, other student leaders stepped up, and the club grew steadily that year, from 15 mostly middle school students to an average of 25 middle and high school members. 

Near the end of the school year, the students asked if their club, called “Merciful Mikes," could have an all-day retreat. Morgan was nervous to ask the administration because the retreat would take place on a school day, but they were 100% supportive. 

“We brought in guest speakers and pizza,” Morgan says. “We had games and prayer time, and it was great.” The club continued to grow, and as they planned their next retreat, both Emma and Morgan had new ideas.

Emma’s idea was to set up a table full of free books to help her peers grow in their faith beyond the retreat. So the students asked churches and individuals to donate books, teachers donated journals for the kids to take notes, and the book table began to fill. 

Meanwhile, Morgan decided to give the kids the biblical framework that had meant so much to  her in college. She approached potential speakers from local churches and let them pick one topic to cover in their session—Creation, Fall, Redemption, or Restoration. 

And so, at the end of the spring semester, as more than 50 middle and high school students gathered in the school’s gym, Morgan marveled, “It’s just like a mini-Jubilee we’ve got going on here!” 

The momentum of the retreat carried into this fall as Merciful Mikes grew so much that they moved from the health classroom to the auditorium. The club is currently praying about inviting other schools to join them for this year’s gathering. 

Morgan is grateful and a bit in awe of what God is doing. As a reminder, she keeps a Christmas card on her fridge. In it, Emma wrote, “You have made a difference in so many lives and have changed the culture of our school… I’m so grateful for you taking me under your wing and helping me grow in Christ through my high school years.” 

And when she reads it, Morgan knows that her own middle school prayers have been answered in ways she could never have imagined. Her involvement as a CCO student leader in college shapes her leadership today, and she knows who to thank.

“Look at God,” she says, shaking her head. “Look at God.”

from the CCO's On Campus magazine, Fall 2023