So our time in New Zealand is coming to an end. For the last
two weeks and some change we ran a holiday “camp” for the local youth in
Manukau. What a blessing this
month has been. I have so many stories I wish I could share with you all but as
time and attention spans are short I will share with yo
u what made this
ministry amazing. This month our
mission was to love: plain and simple.
And loving kids is what I was made to do. If anything sums up what the last two weeks looked like for
me it would be these two adorable little maori kids named Christian and Casius
screaming. “Hey, mista, mista!”
(Hey, mister, mister) Every
day it was, “Mista, mista watch me do this” or “Mista, mista pick me up” or
“Mista, mista come over here.” For
an entire month our team was able to share with them God’s love. For an entire month I was able to be a
kid again.
God could not have given us a better start to the World
Race. The people and the children
here are amazing, full of energy, heaps of fun, and boy can they dance! (I’m not going to lie, I picked up a
few dance moves) But as we prepare to depart for Australia, I have been
thinking about how God has moved, and what He has taught my team and I this
last month.
At first I was a bit discouraged. Our time in New Zealand was fairly structured. Each day when
we woke we knew more or less the plan for that day. Don’t get me wrong, we still took the opportunity to
pray and ask the Lord to lead us and to help us l
ove the Kiwi’s we would meet
that day, but if you know me, you know just how unstructured I am. I felt as if I was missing God. That
everyday I woke and lived the day on my own strength missing every opportunity
to hear God and be obedient to what He needed me to do.
But as always hindsight is twenty-twenty. Our last Sunday in NZ we were given the
privilege of running the Sunday morning service at Redeemer Church where we
were volunteering at. That morning
we had close to 100 people show up for church. (To put it in perspective, normally during holiday Redeemer
has 30-40 people in their congregation.) Many of them were the kids we had been
working with over the last two weeks and for many of them it was the first time
in a long time they had been to church.
Better yet, some of the children’s parents even came and it was
definitely the first time they had been into the church. But by far my favorite story from that day was seeing and
hearing about a man named Neil who came to church for the second time in his
life that day. Neil is the leader
of the Black Power gang in Auckland, NZ.
He is a big man and a powerful man. Neil has influence throughout the community; most of the
children in the neighborhoods look up to him and listen we he speaks. Well on Sunday, Neil sat and listened
to my teammate John preach the Gospel.
Afterwards, Neil approached John and confessed that God was working in
his life. That God was calling him to change: to be a positive influence in his
community. Neil was already a
leader in the community, so if God would grasp his heart, Neil could be a
powerful light to his dark community. 
It was encouraging to see that our team was able to be a
part of what could be a historic turning point for the life of a gangster and
for a town called Manukau. Though
I feel as if I might have missed some opportunities, it was good to see that
God works in spite of me, and that His grace covers me. In my weakness, He is
strong. My God is a sovereign God,
and I am grateful for that.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have
peace. In this world you will have trouble, But take heart! I have overcome the
world.”
-John 16:33
