In an unexpected career twist, Meg Loney, once known as the drummer for the folk-rock band Wildwood Kin, has shifted her focus to helping at-risk youth. At 28, Meg has embraced her role at YMCA Exeter, a Christian charity dedicated to supporting young individuals facing homelessness.
Meg’s journey to this point was not a straightforward path. Her early years were marked by a departure from her religious upbringing after her parents’ separation and a subsequent turn to drugs and truancy. By 17, she found herself in a challenging period after ending a toxic relationship, feeling isolated and mistrustful. “Everyone was just using each other to get money for drugs. I felt like I had hit rock bottom,” she recalls.
An unplanned encounter with the book Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig sparked a significant change in her life. “I’ve always loved to read. I’ll read anything,” Meg says. “There was a book lying in our house that my Dad was reading. I think I’d run out of anything else to read, so I picked it up and started reading it.”
The stories within the book rekindled her belief in change through faith, prompting her to revisit her old youth Bible. “As I began to read, I found there was life in the Bible and it was relevant,” she explains. “I began to feel a sense of peace that I just didn’t understand.”
This renewed faith led her to join her father at a 24/7 prayer meeting, where she experienced a pivotal moment. “I remember getting to the 24/7 prayer room and walking in,” she says. “People were lying on the floor. Some people were crying. Others were playing tambourines. It looked like the house parties I was used to, but no one was on drugs, instead, there was this overwhelming sense of love and peace.”
During this meeting, a group of elderly women prayed for her and shared prophetic words about her future in music. “They had never met me before and there was no way they could have known anything about me,” Meg remarks. “But they started prophesying that I would make music that would go out to the nations. Something in my spirit resonated with their words.”
Following this experience, Meg gradually distanced herself from her past lifestyle and started Wildwood Kin with her cousins. The band enjoyed international success for eight years, touring across the UK, Europe, and the US.
However, during a tour in 2016, Meg faced a profound personal loss when she learned of her brother’s suicide. “It was incredibly intense and hard,” she shares. “I think the music industry is quite unforgiving to grief. I carried on for another four years in the band but began to feel more and more unsettled.”
The 2020 lockdown offered her a much-needed pause from touring, allowing her to process her grief and pursue a theology degree. This period also marked her return to Exeter, where she lived with her father and worked as a youth worker at St Basil’s Church for two years.
“I thought God was going to put me somewhere else. Ever since I was 18 I’d been saying to God that he could call me anywhere but Exeter!” she admits. However, her time at St Basil’s solidified her commitment to aiding vulnerable young people.
Her role at YMCA Exeter supports this mission, as she now dedicates herself to being a support worker, blending her ministry passion with her dedication to youth. “When I got the job, I knew it was God’s doing. Pastorally, this role is very similar to a youth worker. But I felt God clearly tell me this would be a stretching time and it definitely is,” she says.
Meg is inspired by the resilience of the young people she works with and hopes to share the transformative power of faith with them. “My testimony was finding safety in the Holy Spirit and my hope and prayer is that residents get to experience that too.”
This article was originally written by www.christiantoday.com
