Standing outside New Hope Nazarene Church in Whangarei, North Island, surrounded by a dozen people chaotically trying to find their place for a group picture, a man carrying a child walked into the parking lot and witnessed our commotion. The man offered to take our picture with a smile and we all laughed with gratitude as we were all able to capture the time students from America joined a local New Zealand church for a Sunday morning service.
After the man took our picture, he pointed at the mural my team and I had painted the day prior with multiple languages surrounding “God of all Nations” in bold. He asked, “Who knows South Indian [one of the languages written on the wall]?” Andrew Stout, one of my missionary hosts, had painted the words because he had been studying it recently.
“I did,” Stout said, approaching him with a smile.
The man’s name was Kartik. He had walked past the mural the day we painted it and returned the next day because he wanted to meet the person who shared his language. The mural had brought someone to the church.
When applying for LoveWorks, Point Loma Nazarene University’s short-term missions program, I knew I wanted to experience Pacific Island culture because I am Marshallese. New Zealand stood out among the list of beautiful countries because of the Island’s attraction, and also because media and film were listed as one of the potential outreaches we’d do. As a student studying journalism, I saw myself being able to use my passion and experience to serve God’s people and the churches there.
This three-week trip was uncertain; every day was a walk into the unknown. My 11 teammates and I were trained to “plant seeds,” to leave an impact on people by showing the love of Jesus Christ, without seeing the outcome of our interactions and conversations — the possibility of them getting to know Jesus for themselves. We didn’t see any full circle moments, any outcome of the seeds we planted, or work we did, until Kartik.
I don’t know if Kartik knew Jesus, but knowing that one of the many projects my team participated in impacted someone filled me with hope. I think that’s the beauty of mission work — serving even when you don’t know if it’ll impact someone else.
The goal of the mural was to communicate that God has no barriers — He speaks every language, knows and celebrates every culture and loves beyond comprehension. The mural was created to provide the truth that God sees you as you are. My teammates painted their languages on the wall, ranging from Hawaiian, Haitian, German, Chinese and Korean, and I painted my mom’s: Marshallese.
It’s fitting that the church’s name is New Hope because that’s what the mural gave me. I returned to the United States with a new hope that God was already ahead, working on the seeds we planted. He was working in New Zealand before we arrived, while we were there and now that we’re gone.
That’s the beauty of serving a God without barriers. I can trust that even though I may not be able to see the full circle moment, God is still working.
