Posts Tagged ‘World Race’

Australia

Kristen Paulick, one of the women sent on the World Race, has experienced and learned much since embarking on the World Race in January. She is on a team of 6  men and women from all over the United States. Her team members are: Amy, Erin, Drew, Nate, and Keturah (Keet). Her team will be traveling to 11 different countries in 2010 by discipling, and serving people. The first country they visited was New Zealand.

Kristen served in New Zealand during January sharing Jesus with everyone her team met while backpacking through the wilderness trails. She shared Jesus specifically with a girl named Estella. Estella is from Spain, and was ecstatic to meet Kristen because they both speak Spanish. Kristen was able to talk awhile with Estella, and give her a New Testament Bible to read.

Estella said she would use the Bible to learn English. Let’s pray God captures Estella’s heart.

In an email interview, Kristen told us about the World Race thus far:

What is one specific lesson you have learned while being on a team on the World Race?

The Holy Spirit is a real person with real things to say to our generation. God desires for us to not think about His will for our lives as much as His will for our next ten minutes. We need to be walking closely with the Holy Spirit moment by moment and listen to what he is speaking to us NOW. There are people he wants us to speak to, prophesies he wants us to bring, infirmities he wants us to heal, hope he wants us to bring NOW. But we can’t do that when we are too worried about what he may want from us a year or two or 5 from now.

Kristen worked in Australia for the month of February.

We will be working in a community center on the outskirts of Darwin working with poor Aboriginal families on welfare that come to the center for assistance. This ministry will probably be multifaceted. Some children’s ministry, prayer ministry, hospital ministry, discipleship. . . . the possibilities are limitless! So your prayers and encouragement will be greatly needed and appreciated.

What are the names of the people we can pray for?

Estela, Rupert and Reika, Robbin and David; my team: Amy, Erin, Drew, Nate, Keet, myself; Alison Ingle as she starts raising support for her World Race coming up in October and for financial support to come in for all my teammates as well.

Kristen writes as much as she can on her blog. God has blessed her with eyes to see His beauty, and the skill to write with rich detail.
Follow her, and sign up for email updates at http://kristenpaulick.theworldrace.org

Recently, we were able to get in touch with Hope Manley, who is off in New Zealand participating in the World Race. It’s pretty crazy what technology can enable us to do these days. We have a video to share with you on how Hope’s been able to share the gospel, what God has been teaching her and how we can lift her and her team up in prayer. So take a couple minutes and listen to some of the things God’s been up to in New Zealand.

You can follow Hope Manley and her team Trumpets of One by subscribing to her blog:

http://hopemanley.theworldrace.org

It’s so encouraging to hear how people are out in the world trying to love as Jesus does and the people that need Him aren’t just continents away, but our neighbors, friends and family too. Even if it takes a lifetime, I want to learn to love others as Christ has loved me. Would the world be a better place if we lived like that? Maybe. But I know I would certainly hear His name spoken more often.

A couple gals from our body of believers here, Kristen and Hope, ventured off this past January to begin the World Race. Now you may be wondering what the World Race is exactly. Well, it’s an eleven month missions trip to eleven different countries around the world, and by no means does it fall into the category of a conventional missions trip. For eleven months, you abandon the lifestyle you have grown accustomed to. You leave behind everything you know. For what? To see our mighty God at work around the world, to learn what it means to love your neighbor sacrificially, to have your heart broken for the people God loves so dearly. In the end, it’s not about us. It’s about Christ and the nations making much of Him.

Kristen and Hope are currently in New Zealand and have the opportunity to participate in some unique ministries. Kristen was dropped off at the mouth of a popular trail in the New Zealand bush and from there set out on a “tramping” excursion, a 14 day hike through the wilderness. Her goal for ministry: Listen to the voice of the Lord. Pray for divine meetings along the trail. Build relationships with the backpacking community and talk to them about The Kingdom. Tell them about all the things Jesus has for them and speak life to them, then trust the Holy Spirit to make the gospel come alive in their hearts. God used the time Kristen spent traipsing about in the New Zealand wilderness to teach her much about Himself and that there is nothing so great that God cannot overcome it. Even ourselves. So I leave you with some thoughts Kristen shared recently on her blog:

“. . . ‘Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’ And Moses said to the people, ‘Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent!”

In March 2009 the Kingdom of God began to stir within me. This feeling of, there is something more; I am not experiencing the abundant life Christ himself spoke of. It was then God began calling me out of my “Egypt”- the United States, and through the World Race this month He quite literally took me into the wilderness of New Zealand.
There were a handful of times these last two weeks when I longed for the comforts and convenience of the United States; when food rations were slim; when my feet were sore; when the wind and rain were blowing my tent over on top of me; when I was beginning to ascend my fourth steep mountain trail for the day; when I was emotional and missing my friends and family- these are the times I longed to be back in Egypt.

But it wasn’t until I was alone with him that I realized how enslaved I had been in Egypt. And each time I longed to be back there, God fought for me. He fought for my heart and he wooed me (and my attitude) back to Him. God captured my heart in a deeper way. I fell more in love with my Savior in the bush of New Zealand this month. I know that is crazy to say because I wouldn’t give up a year of my life to live in poverty and tell people about Jesus if I didn’t already love him. But Jesus wasn’t the satisfaction of my heart. He was competing for space with many smaller idols that I didn’t know I needed freedom from until he removed me from the comforts of Egypt and got me alone with him in the wilderness.

After reading Kristen’s words, I can’t help but wonder what our lives would look like if our complete satisfaction was found in Christ alone. Would we find ourselves driven to share His goodness with those around us? Would His praises ever be on our lips? Would we long to see the nations declare His greatness? What if…