Ok … I must admit, the concept of The World Race sounds very appealing, interesting, and exciting. Who wouldn’t be just a little bit curious to hear from people who have decided to abandon everything that is comfortable to them, everything they know and desire, to follow God’s leading for 11 months while traveling the world. It sounds like an amazing adventure full of crazy miracles and eye opening revelations. It sounds like the perfect opportunity to live like Jesus did: casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, making new disciples and the like.
To be honest, that’s the main reason that I signed up for the race. Placed before me was a chance to experience a huge God in a way that I never have before, and I jumped at it! So, I wasn’t surprised when Meg, a guy that I met at New Life New Glory Church in San José, Costa Rica, asked me what amazing things had I seen and experienced so far on the race. What DID surprise me was my response, or lack thereof.
I blanked.
For what seemed like much longer than a short pause for reflection, I had nothing to say. I’ve been a World Racer for over two month, I’ve traveled to 3 different countries, I’ve met and ministered to countless number of people, I’ve shared my testimony and prepared sermons/lesson plans/and devotionals, but still I was speechless. Eventually, after the amount of time permitted before a moment of silence becomes awkward had passed, I quickly gave him an answer about how I really love the way people worship in Central America.
[What??! The worship? Seriously, Kristina … You couldn’t think of anything better than that?!]
Not that my worship experiences here haven’t been amazing, because they have been. I’ve definitely gone to deeper levels in how I understand and engage in worship, but what about the miracles? What about the cool stuff that we read in the bible? That’s what people want to see and hear when they ask me to talk about my World Race experiences. That’s what I want to say when I talk about my World Race experiences!
Admittedly, I did not take this to God. I just wanted to forget the moment and store it away with my other regrettable memories, never to be considered again. However, God, being pretty great at discerning hearts, wasn’t ready to store it away just yet. He wanted to answer my concern about not witnessing Him as I’d expected and answer Meg’s question about what the race has shown me so far. So randomly during church this morning, I sensed the Lord speaking to me.
“Do you see what I see?”
“Huh?? What are you talking about?”
“Do you see what I see?”
“I see the pastor. I see the heads of people sitting in front of me. I see the notification light on my phone blinking. {{Ooooo, I wonder if anyone liked my Facebook status!}}”
“You only see with natural eyes. I am greater than you can even imagine and I am working even when you don’t see it. Let me show you!”
And just like that, in the middle of church service, God began bringing to my memory all of the amazing things that I’ve seen and been a part of over the past 2 1/2 months of this race. And now, I want to share them with you!
- 8 children voluntarily accepted Christ during a Vacation Bible School in Bethel, Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. It was the most beautiful thing to see these tiny children, all under 10 yrs of age, raise their hands when asked who wants to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Lord & Savior. I’m so happy that I got to be a part of it!
- One of my team members, Lynn, received healing in her eye after spending an entire afternoon looking for an eye doctor in Heredia, Costa Rica. After many failed attempts in finding a doctor who could see her, she and Sha’terika prayed over her eye. The next day her eye was no longer in pain! It had been bothering her for 2 weeks before praying!
- My team is growing strong in our identities as God’s chosen and beloved. I see a great change in all of us when I look at how we operate now versus when the race first began. We are actively and intentionally choosing to accept God’s truth while fighting the devil’s lies.
- I can’t neglect the worship. It has been AMAZING this month and God has really been revealing His heart in regards to worship to me. Some people never get this and I am so thankful that I get to sense God’s presence through worship in ways that I never have before.
- PEANUT BUTTER!!! God is showing me how involved He is in the seemingly small things. This month we haven’t been able to buy peanut butter because you basically have to give your right foot for it! Our team LOOOOOOVES peanut butter and I have specifically missed it so much. Another mission team from Pennsylvania was working with the same ministry as us this week, and on their last day here they gave us a bin of goodies that they didn’t need or use during their stay. This bin included left over shampoo, conditioner, body wash, UNO cards, hacky sack balls, coffee creamer, wheat bread, goldfish snacks, and most importantly PEANUT BUTTER! Ughhhhhhh, God is just so stinkin awesome!
- I am growing spiritually through understanding God’s word like I never have before. Not only am I receiving deeper revelation, but I actually ENJOY reading it! God is showing me new stuff all the time and the icing on the cake is that I get to share with my team.
- More about worship. … But I was blessed with the opportunity to praise dance on multiple occasions in Nicaragua. In an environment where I thought I fell short because of my inability to speak the language, God allowed me to speak to Him and others through dance and motion, a language that breaks all barriers.
- I shared my testimony to complete strangers in downtown Quiché, Guatamela. This was one of the first times that our teams were asked to share testimonies publicly. Everyone, including myself, was reluctant to volunteer. Somehow I built up enough courage to offer and even I was amazed at how easy it was for me to talk about how God’s love has impacted my life. After sharing my testimony we prayed for people who requested prayer for various things ranging from healing to recommitting their lives to Christ. Such a beautiful moment!
- I witnessed young people lead evangelism, prayer, bible studies and worship boldly and mightily in their villages. All done out of a genuine love for the people in their community and with a genuine love that only God can give. I was challenged in multiple ways by a group of teenagers in Nicaragua. I’ll never forget them!
- God has spoken to me twice through complete strangers in Costa Rica. The first time was after a worship night at New Life New Glory where a young lady named Michelle came to tell me that God said He is watching over, He is with me forever, and that I can rest in knowing that I will see Him face to face in Heaven. {{Ok, I gotta be honest, that one blew my mind!!}} The 2nd time was from one of my 7th graders, Sara, at Glory Christian School. Sara also attends Zoe church, which is the church that we racers also attend on Sundays. Before I met Sara at school she saw me at church. After spending time with her and the other high school girls during the week at school, she felt comfortable enough with me to tell me that God had given her a message for me when she saw me at the church on Sunday but she was too nervous to tell me because she didn’t know me. She told me that it didn’t matter what my past looks like because God has shown me His salvation and is walking with me daily now. She also gave me the scripture Psalm 50:23 to read. After meditating on that, as well as the entire chapter of Psalm 50, God revealed more to me about maintaining a posture of thanks. I am blown away by the fact that God spoke to me twice over a 3 day period, from 2 different people, and both messages mentioned God’s presence in my life.
So much has happened in the past 10 weeks. Things that I probably would not experience or appreciate if I weren’t on The World Race. The enemy wants me to get discouraged and believe that my time on the race is in vain. He wants me to question God’s ability to move like He did in the bible. He wants me to doubt God’s concern for and presence in my life. However, God wants me to know that He is here and He is showing Himself to me all of the time, but I need to learn to look beyond what I can see with my natural eyes only. All of the really cool things happen in the spirit realm anyway.
My challenge for you is to begin looking for ways in which God is moving in your life every day. Do you see what God sees??
