Three-time Bounce participant commits to ministry

When walking through a season of doubts and questions, Morgan Breeden from First Baptist Church in Cuero recognized God was on the move in her life.

“I was [thinking], ‘I’m going through a really hard time in my faith right now, [but] I feel like the Lord is going to use this for something big in the future,’” said Breeden, a high school senior thinking back on her middle school years.

When she was in the sixth grade, she attended a youth event her homeschool convention hosted. She heard from representatives from Teen Missions International, a missions organization that helps launch youth into lifetime missions involvement by training, discipling and mobilizing them to share the gospel around the world.

Breeden said she was “enamored by the thought of missions” and burdened by the awareness there are “people who have never heard the gospel in other countries.”

“I was never able to get over that. And so, [missions] was just always on my mind—to go on mission trips and do ministry and be missional where I am,” she said.

‘I think I’m called to ministry’

Later, as a high school sophomore in 2023, Breeden thought she needed to look to the future and consider “actual career opportunities.”

But that summer at youth camp, she felt God calling her to something different.

“The whole week was focused on Isaiah chapter six, which is ‘Here I am, send me,’” Breeden explained.

Near the end of the week at camp, the camp pastor extended a call for students to commit to full-time Christian service.

She later recalled thinking: “I’m not going to stand up and go, because I’m not sure. But I think God is calling me to this. But I need some time to pray about this.”

Into the next year, the Lord continued knocking on the door of her heart. In early 2024, God gave Breeden the desire to start a Bible study with her friends for girls in their age group.

“[It] was something that I saw as a need, and the Lord had put on my heart to do,” she said.

After being involved in the Bible study a few months, she recalled washing dishes in the kitchen and began reflecting on how God was at work in her life.

“I was thinking about everything that’s been going on, and all these desires [the Lord] had put on my heart, and all these things that I felt he was leading me to, and I was just like, ‘I think I’m called to ministry,’” Breeden said.

Then, a fire was ignited in her heart, and she began sharing her call to ministry with people who affirmed her call, saying, “Yeah, I totally see that for you.”

“So, I had those like inward confirmations from the Holy Spirit, and then I had outward confirmations from people around me,” she said.

Significant role of Bounce

Her freshman year of high school, Breeden was introduced to Bounce, a Texas Baptists ministry that mobilizes students by engaging them in challenging mission service and inspiring times of worship.

Bounce played “a big role” in her call to ministry.

“[Bounce] was my first mission trip I’d ever gone on, and so it definitely instilled in me a love for missions,” Breeden said. “I loved this, and I love serving at church, and I feel most fulfilled when I’m serving. … It just took a couple years for me to put the pieces together.”

On her second Bounce trip in 2024, her junior year of high school, she recognized the call God put on her life.

This year during spring break, she was able to return and “share the news” in an interview with CW39 Houston.

“Going back this year was a no-brainer,” Breeden said. “I just love it.”

Over three years of Bounce, she said, God taught her service “doesn’t have to be this huge grand gesture” to “make a difference in someone’s life.”

“After Bounce, I just come back renewed,” she said. “[Bounce] puts it in perspective again for me every year, to just look for those opportunities [to serve] no matter how big or how small it is … to honor the Lord and worship him.”

Seeing ‘the change that happens’

Breeden said “serving and pouring out during the day” and then coming back in the evening to worship with her co-laborers and be “poured into at night” is what made Bounce so special.

She said her favorite part of Bounce is seeing “the change that happens” in other students’ lives as they serve the community.

“I’ve seen students accept Christ at Bounce and go home entirely changed. So, I would say just getting to serve there and then seeing how the Lord transforms the students that I go with and myself … would be my favorite part,” Breeden said.

She has since said “yes” to her call to ministry, and her peers seem to view her as a leader. She experienced this over spring break as a fellow student at First Baptist in Cuero confided in her about her relationship with the Lord and “some challenges she’s facing.”

“We probably got to talk for like 20 minutes, and it meant a lot to me to be that person that she came to and to get to share with her things that I’ve learned or that I know and get to encourage her and help her in that way,” Breeden said. “That was really impactful for me.”

Since embracing her call to ministry, Breeden said, she’s gained further confirmation and has been “growing in my relationship with the Lord and dependence on him.”

 “I think that’s only going to continue, because the more responsibility I have, like in a ministry role, the more I’m going to have to be dependent on him and just rely on him for strength, because it is not coming from me,” Breeden said.

Breeden encouraged those discerning a call to full-time ministry to look for “inward and outward confirmations.”

“Look for internal confirmations from the Holy Spirit and be prayerful and be mindful of the desires that the Lord put on your heart,” Breeden said.

“Then secondly, look for outward confirmations from trusted people around you, whether that’s your parents or your youth pastor or some friends who are rooted in their relationships with the Lord.”