Megan Bloemker is a missionary serving with ACTION Zambia. She is from Dixon, Illinois and before leaving for Zambia she resided in Chicago. She has a B.M. degree is Voice Performance with an emphasis in opera. Megan served as a teen with Teen Missions International on two separate occasions, the first in 1988 to Gibraltar on an evangelism team and again in 1990 on a construction team to Zimbabwe. This is where a seed was planted in her heart for Africa and the work being done there. Upon returning to the US she completed her education and quickly jumped into the working world. After ten years as a bridal consultant she went on another missions trip to Honduras with World Gospel Outreach. It was on that trip that the Lord reignited her heart for missions. She came back from that trip and asked the Lord to show her how she could be used for his service.
In 2002, Doug Nichols went to her parent’s church in Illinois and spoke on orphans in Zambia. Megan’s mother went over to Zambia to serve as a “Rockin’ Grandma” at several orphanages in the capital of Zambia, Lusaka. It was on her second trip to Lusaka where Megan’s mom Bette met a small orphan girl named Catherine. Catherine’s mother died during her premature birth. Catherine, weighing only 1.2 kilos and being 7 inches long, survived and was living at the orphanage where Bette was serving. Catherine could not walk or sit up at 12 months. Bette worked with her and helped her with her motor functions. As this was happening, God was opening Bette’s heart for this little girl. In September of 2003 Megan’s mother and father went to Zambia and completed the first international adoption between the USA and Zambia. Bette and Bob were both 61 at the time of Catherine’s adoption. That fall, Glenn and Liese Ripley were returning to the US for their first home assignment and Megan was able to share her heart with them. Glenn encouraged Megan to take some time and head to Africa. 14 years later and on New Years Day 2004, Megan was back in Africa. During her one month stay in Lusaka, Megan searched her heart to see if this is where God was calling her. During that trip, she visited a remote compound village called Venter Compound. Sitting on bricks in a small mud church and holding a small baby, Megan listened to the pastor preach on Jonah and his disobedience to follow God’s call on his life. At that moment Megan knew that it was now a matter of obeying Christ and following the call he placed on her. She returned from that trip and applied to serve with ACTION.
In December 2004, Megan had all of her funds raised to go to Zambia, but went to the doctor for a very small problem. While at the doctors’ office, she told the doctor that she had a pulsing in her ear. An MRI was ordered and on January 16th, one week before she was to leave for Zambia, she was in the hospital for a simple operation. During the surgery things went terribly wrong and her chest had to be cracked open. In the end, an overnight procedure turned into a weeklong stay in the hospital and by God’s grace and protection, Megan postponed her travel plans to Zambia by only 7 days and arrived in Lusaka again on January 31, 2006 to serve full time with ACTION Zambia.
Megan’s main area of ministry is serving with the Next Gen team. She disciples teachers and trains them in Christian education. She also oversees the ACTION Zambia feeding program and coordinates visiting short term teams.
In her spare time, Megan enjoys assisting individuals called to adopt Zambian children. She feels that adoption is the best way Christians can express Christ’s love for them in a physical and very real way.
Visit her blog at Meg in Zambia.