Spreading the Love

On this episode I will be talking with Christina Turner and we will be hearing some amazing stories about bringing the good new to everyone. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi! Y'all girl, it's a big heart to share God's love and truth through a family-friendly podcast for listeners of all ages. My hope is that as I grow in loving God in my neighborhood set, you'll be inspired to do the same. So let's get started. Hey guys, welcome back to Love Your Neighbor. I'm your host, Olive, and today I'll be talking with an amazing friend to me and my family, Christina Turner. Christina is so kind, loving, and through. She's part of a movement called Circuit Riders. So let's get started. So, Christina, I give you a brief introduction, but can you tell us a little bit more about yourself? Yeah, I can.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

First off, Olive, I'm really excited to be here and do this with you. Thank you. I love your podcast. Um, so like Olive said, my name is Christina. I have been with Circuit Riders for six years. Um, before that, I did missions work in Las Vegas, and before all that, I graduated from Liberty University, and before that, I grew up in New York. Nice. So I just went a little backwards, but that's my story. So, what is circuit riders and the purpose of that? So, Circuit Riders is a Christian missionary organization, and our entire goal is to see the lost saved, the state of your vibe, and train them all. So, circuit riders and of old were guys like the Salvation Army or Francis Asbury or George Whitfield, where they would ride on horseback from town to town, city to city, and they'd preach the gospel. People get saved, and then they would sometimes help those people start churches. Well, now, after they started the Great Awakening, hundreds of years later, we now as circuit riders are traveling from city to city, town to town, mostly universities and high schools, inspiring a generation to love like Jesus. But we don't go horseback riding, we use vans and trains and airplanes. Well, you have rode in on a camel, so I mean I have, you know, I did that, but I didn't ride to another city. I just rode around the pyramids.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

So when did you want to become a circuit rider and how did that passion for traveling the world start?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

That is a great question. Thank you. So I started doing missions years ago in Vegas. It was just a summer internship with Grace City School of Ministry, and when I was there and I started to see people get saved and healed and realize who Jesus was and that he loved them, I went, man, I think I'm called to do this for the rest of my life, which I had never thought before. I remember calling my mom and being like, Mom, I think I'm called to be a missionary full-time. At the time I was getting a counseling degree. She was like, finish your degree and we'll see if you still feel that way. Well, when I finished, I still felt that way. I felt like I was called to missions across the whole world. So I moved to Vegas for a few years, did missions there. That's where I got to get close with you and your family.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

But after that, in 2020, I was still in Vegas, and suddenly everyone around me felt like God was saying it was time for me to transition. And as I was telling a friend, everything I felt called to, my vision for my life, they said, you know what that sounds like? It sounds like circuit riders. Have you ever considered doing circuit riders? And I was like, no. And then after that, it felt like God just kept speaking about circuit riders, and so a few months later I joined them and now I've been with them for six years. Wow. So what was the did you travel a lot when you were a kid? Not really. My parents are incredible, and so we would go to New York City sometimes, and we would go to Pennsylvania, because I'm from Long Island, so we're kind of on an island. It's a little bit harder to get places. But that was mostly it. It was Disney, Pennsylvania, and New York City. Nice. So what was the first trip you went on as a circuit rider in your favorite one? Okay. The first one I went on would be a mix of two things. The first was our care the love tour to Las Vegas, Arizona, and New Mexico, which was really special. And then right after that, that summer, I got to go with circuit riders to Kenya. And that was my first international trip with them, which was so fun because we were doing a school to train all the local Kenyans how to preach the gospel using their voice, social media, music. It was the best two weeks. It was amazing. My favorite trip though, I feel like every trip is my favorite trip for a different reason. So this is a hard question, but I got to do a CR school or training schools in Paris a few years ago leading up to the Olympics. And it was so fun because people from all across the world came to see the Olympics, and so we got to preach the gospel to people from all different nations. And similarly, I got to go to London during the King's Coronation and preach the gospel as people came from all over Europe to see the new king get coronated. That's amazing. What has been your craziest trip you've been on? The craziest trip I've been on was probably um our trip to Burundi, Africa. That used to be the poorest nation in the world, and it's different than any other nation that I've ever been to. But while we were there, in two weeks we saw about 5,000 people give their life to Jesus. People are kind of around the street a lot there, so you could just set up a box, stand on it, start preaching the gospel, and it's like the book of Acts where people start gathering. And as they gathered, so many people responded to the gospel. That's so cool. What is one thing you've learned through all your travel? I would say that I've learned to trust God and that things are a lot more friend uh fun when you do things in friendship with God. See, you can do things for God, but really we were meant to do them with Him. It's supposed to be friendship. Yeah. And every time God has called me to go on a trip, He's provided the money, He's showed me where to go and the right people to go with, and then even when things go wrong in traveling, which they always do, something always happens. I've realized that God either has intention in it and I meet someone I was supposed to preach the gospel to, or that He's gonna carry me through it, so He's so trustworthy, and it's way more fun doing it that way with Him. What is your favorite part of being a circuit rider? My favorite part of being a circuit writer would be when we go to universities and high schools and we see people realize that they've got a purpose. See, everyone is everyone's got a calling and a purpose from God. That's what the Bible tells us. Ephesians 2 10 says everyone was made a masterpiece with a good plan. Like God has a plan for everyone's life. But I think so often people feel like I need more training, or I don't know what I'm supposed to do, or I don't have the confidence to do that. That's kind of scary. And so what we try and do is just show people you're called to be a leader, and this is how to preach the simple gospel, this is how to use the gifts you already have to do something, and watching people grow in confidence and step in to start being a part of the Great Commission is the most exciting thing ever.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Nice. If you could go back to anywhere you've gone on a vacation by yourself or with a friend, where would you go?

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Um, I would probably go back to Paris. Really? Yeah, you know, I have been to so many nations and I feel like Paris was beautiful. I thought it was gonna be overrated, yeah, but it ended up being like every building is pretty. The food was fantastic, and I never got to see the Louvre, which is an art museum. It was shut down when I went, but I desperately want to see it because I love art museums.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

That's so cool. Is there a piece of advice or wisdom you could give me or a kid my age on how to love their neighbor?

SPEAKER_00 7:03

That is a really good question. And I've said this before, but I'll say it again. You're already so good at loving people, Olive. Thank you. But my advice would be to listen. Ask good questions of people. Yeah. I think a lot of people love talking, but they don't always like listening. But when people feel loved is when they feel heard.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

So if you listen and ask good questions, people will feel loved.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Well, thank you, Christina, for being on my podcast, and thank you guys for listening to Love Your Neighbor. And remember, you can woke up Jesus into your life anytime. And remember, if you have any comments, questions, or podcast episode that you really, really enjoyed and you would like to follow up with that person, please, I'd love to hear all your comments, questions. You can uh email me and send those to me. You can find my email at the bottom of the podcast description. And my email is page, it's allagre at gmail.com. So bye, thanks.