Interview of Christina Barnes

Episode Summary:

What began as one bold decision to travel through 11 countries in 11 months became a life-changing journey that reshaped Christina Barnes’ faith, purpose, and vision for the future.

In this episode, I sit down with Christina, Development Director at Adventures in Missions, to talk about the World Race, the unexpected path that followed, and how one year overseas opened her eyes to possibilities she never could have planned. Christina shares what it was like to step away from the path she thought she was supposed to follow, serve in communities around the world, and come home ready to build a life rooted in purpose.

We talk about faith, mentorship, resilience, generosity, taking risks, and the importance of staying with the work long enough to see it grow. Christina also shares the lessons she learned from launching a women’s ministry, pursuing the right mentors, and learning that you do not need to have your whole life mapped out before taking the next step.

This conversation is adventurous, funny, faith-filled, and such a beautiful reminder that sometimes the leap we are most afraid to take is the one that changes everything.

Insights from this episode:

• You do not have to have your entire life mapped out before taking the next step
• One bold decision can completely change the direction of your life
• The experiences that make you feel most alive often point toward your purpose
• Sometimes the people you set out to help end up changing you
• Faith can require letting go of the plan you thought you were supposed to follow
• Mentorship works best when you take initiative and ask for something specific
• Building something meaningful takes longer than most people expect
• Grit matters, but so do relationships, systems, and a willingness to keep learning
• Generosity can take many forms, including giving, serving, connecting, and opening doors
• Sometimes the leap that feels uncertain is the one that helps you discover who you are becoming

Quotes from the show:

• “Compared to a lifetime, it’s a drop in the bucket.” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast
• “Look for the common thread in the things that make you feel alive and the things that get you excited.” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast
• “If I want to learn from someone, I have to pursue them.” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast
• “The responsibility is on the person seeking the mentorship, not the mentor.” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast
• “Ask for something specific, do something with the advice, and show them that you did it. That will get you your second meeting.” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast
• “It takes a long time to get things solid, working, and sustainable.” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast
• “How do we live with a generous spirit, and how do we get after it?” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast
• “How do we help people take steps toward becoming more of who they want to be?” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast
• “This is actually my joy. This is really fun for me, and it’s blessing other people.” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast
• “When you’re doing something you love, it shows.” — Christina Barnes, InPowered Women Podcast

Episode Transcript:

Sharon Lee:
Hi, and welcome to the InPowered Women Podcast. I’m Sharon Lee with Pinnacle Strategic Advisors, and I am your host, and I’m excited to bring you my next guest today. I think I say that every time, but it’s always true. But before we get to her This episode is brought to you by Kelsey Creer and the team at The Movement Lab. Their practice is focused on helping people move, feel, and live better so that they can continue doing the things that matter most to them. They’re especially passionate about supporting women through every stage of life. Providing thoughtful care that strengthens both health and confidence. Kelsey, a big thank you to you and the entire team at The Movement Lab for supporting the InPowered Women podcast and the women we serve. So reach out to them at themovementLabCP.com. And with that… I bring you Christina Barnes!

Hey, Christina, how are you?

Christina Barnes:
Hi, Sharon, thank you so much for having me.

Sharon Lee:
Oh, I have been really, really excited about this conversation. So, you know, it’s so funny, we met… back in the fall, and we were both at a faith-driven entrepreneur, event, and it’s funny, I’m looking around…

Christina Barnes:
Of the only women there, right?

Sharon Lee:
That’s… that’s exactly I was gonna say, and I’m like, okay, we’ve got our little… our little group, and so I’m, like, rounding them up, you better, you gotta come to our table, because we’re gonna… we’re girl power, we’re gonna stick together. And it was just so funny that we met there, and just… have been buds ever since, and so you’ve got such an interesting story, and like, I think that this story needs to be told. So, tell everybody who you are, who you’re with, and a little bit about what you do.

Christina Barnes:
Yeah, so my name is Christina Barnes. I am the Development Director at Adventures in Missions. We are an international Christian mission-sending organization where we focus on raising up leaders to be the change the world needs. And I’m so excited to talk to you guys more about that, because it was a big, crazy catalyst in my own life story as I was growing up, in my young adult years. I went on a wild backpacking trip called the World Brace, 11 months, 11 countries. And that’s what brought me here to Gainesville, Georgia, to work at Adventures and Missions, and then ultimately to get connected with you, and be here.

Sharon Lee:
Nice!

Christina Barnes:
Yeah.

Sharon Lee:
And, you know, one other… Another thing I was thinking about when we first met was the fact that you were in a boot, and your husband had been, I think, in a car wreck, and had broken both legs, and here you’ve got three little kids, 2 parents, one leg, right? Did I get that right?

Christina Barnes:
One thing you can… I have… the older I get, the more certain I am that one thing you can always count on is life throwing you curveballs. Yes! Always! And yes, I met you after the most ridiculous summer, that I’ve ever experienced. So I had a scheduled knee surgery, I had torn my ACL in cheerleading in college. when I was 19, and then 20 years later, I re-tore it. At the gym. Turns out that when you get a cadaver ligament, eventually they wear out. I don’t remember that conversation when I was 19, but I’m sure that they told me. So I had that scheduled 3 weeks after, while I’m still in a boot, my husband is on… a couple hours into a guy’s weekend, and on an ATV, and they’re doing donuts. And he fell out of the ATV, put out his legs to catch himself, and fell on his legs.

So he broke both of those legs, so you’re right, we had one working leg between the two of us, and all three of my little kids, ages 3, 5, and 7, had all six of theirs! Totally fine. But it was incredible to see our community step up and rally around us. I mean, we had friends building a wheelchair ramp, up our three steps to our house, like, that weekend. and just so many meals and prayers and encouragements. It was… I mean, that was, I think, our biggest takeaway from all of that, besides the fact that life always throws you curveballs, is that, wow, like, watching your community rally around you really just warms your heart in a way that few other things can.

Sharon Lee:
Absolutely. Well, and if I’m also remembering right, not only did he break his legs, but then all of a sudden, he’s decided to do rotator cuff surgery.

Christina Barnes:
That was a grown-up decision, because we had hit our insurance max.

Sharon Lee:
Right.

Christina Barnes:
That was adulting at its finest. So yeah, we had hit our insurance max, and his shoulder had been bothering him on and off for, like, the previous year, and I was like, you know, you should get the MRI, because it’s essentially free at this point. I got the MRI, and they said, yeah, you got a torn rotator cuff and labrum, so you need surgery. So we scheduled that, and that was in October. So yeah, the second half of 2025, was… a storm.

Sharon Lee:
Right. Well, you know, and you said… Magic, actually.

Christina Barnes:
We celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary, we went to Cape Town, South Africa, which was a dream we had had for 10 years. I mean, it was… the first half of the year was just dreamy, and the second half was like…

Sharon Lee:
Crash and burn. Well, it’s funny, you were talking about how, you know, the community comes pouring out to help and all of this, and meanwhile, I find out that he’s gonna be in surgery, and I’m like, well, come to me this… to this event.

Christina Barnes:
I remember, you were, like, come to this event! I’m like, that’s the day of his surgery. You’re like, he’s in surgery? What are you gonna do?

Sharon Lee:
I’m not gonna know if you’re there or not, come on! So yeah, then you’ve got that friend. But that’s alright, that’s alright. Well, anyway, so I’m glad that all seems to be on the mend. Hopefully, years to come, everything will stay… you can just stay out of the hospital, and stay out of CAS, and…

Christina Barnes:
I used this, this phrase. In fact, I still have it sitting right here, because I had a couple of my Happy New Year’s cards that got returned, but for those of you watching on video, you can see the same picture of me and Seth in the hospital that day, and then him in his wheelchair, and then our three little kids and our family, but I used this quote on the back. A French philosopher once said, live to the point of tears. Fully alive to life’s joy and its suffering. And if any year pushed us there, it was 2025. But we’re in 2026 now! That’s right, that’s right.

Sharon Lee:
Right, so nothing, yeah, nowhere to go but up. Well, let’s talk a little bit about adventures, because you’ve definitely been on adventures, and so you mentioned a little bit about the world race.

Christina Barnes:
Yeah!

Sharon Lee:
So, let’s back up to even talk about how you even heard that that was a thing. what made you even take that leap, and all of that? And I think that, just before we even get into all that, I think the theme for today is for any young person out there that… I know when my son was getting ready to go for college, and he was, like, so stressed out thinking he had to have everything figured out. And… I’m like, nobody has it figured out, I don’t have it figured out, nobody’s got it figured out. But, you know, there’s so much pressure on kids to go, okay, you’ve got to go to college, or you’ve got to go to a technical school, and you have to do this, and you have to do this, and oh, by the way, when are you getting married, when are you going to have kids? And, you know, there’s so much pressure for people to think that they have to have life.

Totally mapped out, and the reality is. you know, even if you have it supposedly mapped out, it’s probably not going to work, but, I mean, that doesn’t leave you any breathing room to actually live life, right? So, here you are… now I can get off my soapbox, right?

Christina Barnes:
That was good!

Sharon Lee:
Well, here you are, so what was… where were you in that… in your life journey where you were going, hey, I’ve heard about this, maybe I should consider it?

Christina Barnes:
Yeah, no, that’s a good… that’s a good setup. So, I was, a serial achiever. Like, what… I gotta achieve all these things all the time, one after the other, and I went that way through school. I still wrestle with a lot of that now as an adult. But I loved school. I went right from undergrad into grad school. I did a master’s in international business. I was a study abroad junkie. I studied abroad 3 different times, in my college career, and so I knew I loved to travel, I knew I loved intercultural understanding, international, exposure. I had gotten a scholarship from Rotary International, and then started a nonprofit with my best friend from college after she got the same scholarship to help raise awareness for young people about opportunities to serve, lead, learn, and travel. And so I was all about that.

Sharon Lee:
And…

Christina Barnes:
It was 2008, and, the, economy had just tanked.

Sharon Lee:
Yeah, oh!

Christina Barnes:
And I ended up working what felt like an internship, you know, but it was actually a real job, but it was a sales job. And, I just… it was very humbling for me as a young adult that had, like, you know, been in the Business School Hall of Fame, and had all these different cords and decorative things when I graduated, and had all these different accolades. And I really feel like God was using that in my life to get my attention, to show me that my little tunnel vision that I had for the path that I had envisioned for myself, that there was actually much bigger possibilities if I was willing to kind of look around and see the world around me.

And so… it was through that humbling experience, like, I distinctly remember, because, you know, when you work a sales job. it’s up to your own, self-discipline, and so I remember being, like, home in the late morning hours, probably because I didn’t have appointments that morning. I had slept in, and I was just kind of crying out to God. I’m like, what am I doing at my parents’ house? I, you know, got this graduate degree, and I’ve got all these accolades, and this is what you have for me, God? Like, really? And… I remember God saying, like, all these years, you’ve been asking me to bless what you’ve been doing, why don’t you come see what I’m doing? And in my little context of life. I was like, oh, church. Like, that must be what I’m sensing, is like, I should go back to church, which maybe, but God used church to expose me.

I saw someone sharing their story about how they were going on this crazy missions trip, and it was… the girl was saying, you know, I used to be an addict, and so when I do things, I go all in, and, you know, I heard about this missions trip, so I’m not just gonna go for a week, I’m going for a year. And I remember sitting there going, that’s crazy. But I did write it down and kind of had it on my bulletin board, and I looked into it, and I was like, I don’t know if I… if I have a year. You know, I’ve got all these plans and these things I need to accomplish, I gotta scale my nonprofit, I’ve gotta do these different things. And I remember talking to somebody who was my age now, someone who was 40, and I was 20… about 25. And I said, I don’t know if I can spend a whole year doing that. A year just feels like so long.

And he said, compared to what? And I was like, well, I guess compared to one week, which is about how long I had done a missions trip up until that point. Right. Yeah, but compared to a lifetime? And I was like… That’s a good point. Compared to a lifetime, it’s a drop in the bucket, and so I was like, alright. So for me, that was, like, the logic that it took, and it really did open up my eyes to a whole world. a career path that I had never even considered. I didn’t even know people that were missionaries. I had never really been exposed to that, and that year overseas. really blew my mind. And then.

Sharon Lee:
Right.

Christina Barnes:
I was like, what does this have to do with anything?

Sharon Lee:
It was awesome.

Christina Barnes:
but, like, how do I build a career in this space? Like, I went to school for business, I had studied… I majored in marketing, I did a certificate in entrepreneurship and global management, and I was like, what, like, missions was fantastic, but, like, what is that… how is… how do I do that, God? Like, what is… where’s the… where’s the job for that? And I remember kind of sensing, as I was laying in a hammock in Cambodia, in month 9, you know, there was not a lot to do that month. We were in the middle of nowhere, and we had, you know, helped out with the local church, and we would pray for people, but a lot of time left to your own thoughts.

Sharon Lee:
That’s dangerous.

Christina Barnes:
Right? Well, at this point, it was really needed, and we don’t get that a lot, you know, in our day, and age, in our culture. And I remember just kind of thinking and praying, and I felt like God started to highlight to me all the different people that I had met that really stood out in my memory, and they were all entrepreneurs. people with a dream, someone who had a dream for the first private Christian school in their village. Someone who had a dream for the first bookstore in their village, someone who had a dream. And I would always find, like, gravitate towards those people, and encourage them, and brainstorm with them, and try to get them connected to ideas that would serve them and help them grow what they were building. And then I felt like God said, there’s a place for that in ministry.

Like, I just kind of sensed it, and I was like, that’s what I want to do! I want to get into! And then eventually, it was that little, seed that landed me at Adventures and Missions, helping launch our women’s ministry, which was my first job there, and I got to do that.

Sharon Lee:
Yeah, so…

Christina Barnes:
for yours.

Sharon Lee:
Let me jump in right quick, because no.

Christina Barnes:
Jeez!

Sharon Lee:
Yes, right. Number one, you… we, collectively, we think of missions as, we have all of these people that we need to help, right? And look at how all of these people that you were supposedly sent there to help ended up helping you. So, I mean, that’s such a paradigm.

Christina Barnes:
biggest, like, juxtaposition. Like, that’s the biggest bait and switch, is that you think you’re going out there, because there’s all these people that need your help, and then you realize. how much you actually needed to be helped.

And it’s… we talk about… this was something, a conversation I had with a friend of mine who is a long-term missionary in India, and we talk about poverty, and we generally think of that as a lack of financial resources, but there’s so many different kinds of poverty, and the kind of poverty that oftentimes we realize that we have is a poverty of Community, a poverty of self, a poverty of… you know, just, like, a richness of relationship and depth of connection with the world around us, and other people in the other world who don’t have money have all of that, and so it’s very eye-opening sometimes to realize, like, oh, I didn’t realize I was poor in certain ways.

Sharon Lee:
Yep. you know, you come back, my cup is full, I’m really, you know, and so… and how did… how did they end up providing all of that? Well, so also back up a little bit, because you jumped all the way to month 9 in Cambodia, but let’s… I mean, like, what all… so you said that, you know, you would… you would do different types of missions in different types of countries and all of that, so I’m curious about the types of missions that you did, kind of. Some of your top places that you went, and also, what were some of the fun that you got to do while you were.

Christina Barnes:
Yeah, so anybody who’s been on the world race gets used to reciting their countries, and so I was in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala. Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Romania, Moldova, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda. So those are my 11 countries. And I like to tell people that I’m a tapas eater. Like, if we go out to eat, I want to share food with you, I want to taste your food, I want you to taste mine, I want to order small plates. And that’s why the World Race was such a great fit for me, because I got to try out lots of different types Of service work in all different types of settings. Which, for me, was just my best life. I didn’t even know I needed.

Sharon Lee:
Exactly. And before you… well, before you left, how many of those particular countries could you have even found on a map?

Christina Barnes:
I know, yeah, no, I remember doing, like, fundraisers, like, at local businesses that I had relationships with and stuff, and, you know, putting little dots on the globe, on the, you know, the globe that I had as, like, a centerpiece. Yeah, no, you’re right, in some of these places, I didn’t even know where they were. We work often… one of our international bases is in Eswatini, and everyone’s always like, where is that?

Sharon Lee:
It sounds lovely.

Christina Barnes:
The world is big, yeah! But like you guys, you were asking, it was all types of work, so I got to work at, a special needs orphanage for little kids, I worked in anti-trafficking work in Southeast Asia, I worked, in community development in Central America, and so it was all different, all different types of work. But like I said, for me, I think, and for a lot of young adults. the interesting part is, like, looking for that common thread of the things that make you feel alive, the things that get you excited. Some of my… one of my… I remember getting into the tuk-tuk at the end of the day, one day in Thailand, and we had gone on an elephant ride,

Sharon Lee:
That’d be cool.

Christina Barnes:
And went on, bamboo rafts, which were literally pieces of bamboo that were, like, strung together and, like, almost like paddle boarding. And I remember getting in and visited a limestone waterfall. We had, like, an adventure day at the end of each of our countries, and I also went bungee jumping over the Nile River in Uganda, and we did that before breakfast with the squad, because only a few of us were crazy enough to do that. I wouldn’t do it.

Sharon Lee:
We have.

Christina Barnes:
No. I did it with a teammate, and you basically fall. I didn’t feel like I was jumping. I felt like I was falling. But similar feeling to being sky… skydiving, except for the hanging upside down at the end, I could do without that part.

Sharon Lee:
No, thank you.

Christina Barnes:
But I remember we were like, oh, we go bungee jumping before breakfast. Lots of adventure. I remember getting into the tuk-tuk at the end of the day in Thailand, and I remember thinking, this is one of the best days of my life. And then I thought, huh? This very well could be the best day of my life. I can’t think of another day, which is so sweet to have those moments, which I think, you know, now, as an adult and as somebody who really tries to create spaces of intentionality and reflection and all these things, it’s important to notice these really special, even average special days. Like, at the end of the day today, I might think to myself, today was a perfect average day. Right.

Because I’ve had the opportunity to do this, which we’ve been looking forward to for a long time, and on Tuesdays, I pick up my kids, and I get some time with them after school, and so I think it’s important for us, because life just goes so fast, to look at those moments that remind us, like, oh yeah, these are the things that fill my cup, these are the moments that I want to crystallize in my memory, and the World Race had so many of those. Which is really special.

Sharon Lee:
So, you mentioned before you left, you know, you had taken this sales job, you were a little disillusioned with that, we’re not crazy about that, so, you know, you go off on this huge adventure, and, you know, you didn’t know exactly what to expect, but you thought, okay, this is… this is… this is my jam, this is something that I could really get into, and I could really dig, and then… You get back, and you’re in your mid-20s, and one question that just popped into my head is. For your average best buds that you had been on that, you know, go-go-go mission with before, that, you know, this is all about climbing the corporate ladder, think about your 20s, that is your.

Christina Barnes:
Oh, man.

Sharon Lee:
And then you come back, and you had met these entrepreneurs, so it wasn’t like you totally checked out for a year business-wise. It was just a completely different route. So, what… what… How did your relationship change just with your peers when you came back? Did you come back at this elevated maturity level that, you know, it’s like, I just, I just see you, like, not having the same conversations with them as you did before you left.

Christina Barnes:
That is such a great question. You know, I think… I think a lot of my friends and family were looking at me sideways.

Sharon Lee:
You know.

Christina Barnes:
So, like, you’re doing what?

Sharon Lee:
Okay, buh-bye!

Christina Barnes:
Everybody I grew up with did that. Like, in my world that I live in now, everybody does this. But where I grew up, it was like, you’re going… you’re doing what? For how long? Why? You know? Right. But I’ll never forget. a friend of mine from college, not even a close friend, just someone that I, you know, would see at weddings, as people were getting married in that decade. And I saw her at a wedding, and she said, hey, I’ve been following your post, I saw what you’re doing. I think it’s cool.

Sharon Lee:
Yay!

Christina Barnes:
And then she said, you know. we’re all drinking somebody’s Kool-Aid, right? She goes, we’re all drinking somebody’s Kool-Aid, we’re all pursuing building somebody else’s dream, and you know, I think the one that you chose? That’s pretty cool. And that was it, that was the extent of the conversation, but it left me thinking, like, wow! Like, that’s kind of neat, like, if somebody’s watching my life from afar and, you know, and seeing that I am pursuing something that really makes me come alive, and maybe is generally good for the world, like, hey, it’s not too bad, you know?

Sharon Lee:
No, check, I’m making a little mark in the world, somewhere!

Christina Barnes:
It’s funny, because it’s, like, that idea that, like, we really are all… like, my very first boss at that job that I had that was more like an internship, it was… it was a corporate… it was a sales training company. And I remember telling her, like, the first day when I met her, she said, would you like to learn more about our company? I could have you come over and take a tour, da-da-da. And I said, well, you know, I’m really not interested in getting into sales. And she said, well, you’re always going to be selling something. It’s either a product, a service, or yourself.

Sharon Lee:
Amen, sister.

Christina Barnes:
Oh. Oh, yeah, you’re right. It’s kind of like that line from the other guy that was like, compared to what? How long compared to what? But these little moments, like, kind of stand out to you, and it’s true. We’re all selling or buying into something.

Sharon Lee:
100%.

Christina Barnes:
Don’t you?

Sharon Lee:
You should be always selling, you should be always learning, you know, and those.

Christina Barnes:
They’re growing today.

Sharon Lee:
Yeah, you’re never there. You’re always on that journey, and so you might as well, you know, try to fortify it along the way. So look at you, you’re quite fortified, let me Let me just tell you. But now, okay.

Christina Barnes:
Started to show it.

Sharon Lee:
Right, exactly. So you get back, you’ve had your moment in the hammock, and you’re like, okay, now I’ve got to, you know, I’ve got to take some of this entrepreneurship.

Christina Barnes:
Something greater, yeah.

Sharon Lee:
So, and then you just came out, went gangbusters, busters, and owned the world, right?

Christina Barnes:
Yeah, so I… for the first time in my life, coming off the World Race, I had a plan, which I always did. I thought I was going to marry a guy from my squad, and I thought I was going to move to Australia and do this fellowship program. I already knew I wanted to do my field work on the, you know, the Burmese border. And I got back, and the guy said, oh, you know, I really don’t think it’s the best time for me to be in a relationship, and then the fellowship application committee said, well, we’d really like for you to have more international experience, can you go back out and apply again in 3 to 5 years? And I was like… You know, I didn’t have a plan. I remembered, this guy that I had met, the founder of Adventures and Missions. my now-father-in-law. That’s a crazy…

Sharon Lee:
story, as well.

Christina Barnes:
We had mutual family friends from South Florida, where I grew up, so when I went to training camp, they said, oh, say hello to the Barnes family! And I said, okay, whoever that is. And then I got there, and they introduced, this is our founder, Seth Barnes, and I thought, oh, that’s the guy who knows my friend’s family. So I had met him in my training camp, and he said, oh, if there’s anything I can do to help you out when you get back, let me know, you know, I love helping young people figure out their next steps. And so, when the guy and the fellowship fell through, I was like, I think I’m gonna take up that guy, Seth Barnes, up on his offer. And so I sat down with him once I got back, and he said, you know, what do you want to do? Like, if you could do anything. And of course, I knew from my hammock moment.

I wanted to help people start ministries, I wanted to help people start kingdom-focused businesses, and he said, great, how’d you like to help us start our women’s ministry? And I said, oh, I don’t know anything about women’s ministry. And he said, it’s okay, I’ve got somebody else who’s got the women’s ministry background, I need somebody who’s gonna build it, you know, the nuts and bolts, the relationship building, you know, the infrastructure, building a business, building a ministry, it’s all the same. Give it 6 months, see what you think. And I was like, well, just at 11 months, I could probably do another 6. And then that’s when I said. Is there a salary or something associated with this position?

Sharon Lee:
Right.

Christina Barnes:
And he said, well, it doesn’t… the ministry doesn’t exist yet, so no, you have to raise support, which I’m now very familiar with. I actually do that for a living.

Sharon Lee:
Right?

Christina Barnes:
But he said, I said, well, is there, like, housing or something that I can live in? And he said, well, you’ll have to talk to my son. He runs our internship program, and maybe you can live in the intern housing. And I was like, okay. And so I walk over to meet my now-husband. Whose first words to me are, I’ve got 30 minutes. And I like to tell people, little did he know I was taking the rest of his life. But I did it…

Sharon Lee:
played.

Christina Barnes:
intern housing, I did end up helping launch that women’s ministry. It was the first startup that I stayed with as long as I have. But it is my… my most successful, as I look back, it has been so blessed. It has multiplied so big. Not to say that was my work, it’s the Ward’s, and also it’s my friend Betty who leads it now, but that taught me a real big lesson about sticking with things, because there had been so many other, you know, nonprofits and businesses and civic organizations and other little things that I had been a part of starting. But I always, looking back, realized I left too soon. I got impatient, and I passed off the baton to somebody else, and then a year later, I would hear that it fizzled out, and I was, like, on the advisory board, or long removed, and, like, come on, guys!

But it takes a long time to get things solid, and working, and going and sustainable.

Sharon Lee:
Right.

Christina Barnes:
So, it was an awesome experience, but also very trying for my patients.

Sharon Lee:
Well, in that management.

Christina Barnes:
in space for almost 4 years.

Sharon Lee:
So when you, so you say, okay, yes, now I have a place to live, have no money, but I’ve, you know, I’ve got some basics.

Christina Barnes:
But in your 20s, it’s kind of like, you haven’t.

Sharon Lee:
Whatever!

Christina Barnes:
Having money yet, it’s so exciting.

Sharon Lee:
Exactly.

Christina Barnes:
Fire, yeah.

Sharon Lee:
Yes, yes, just what… yes.

Christina Barnes:
I actually tell young people that a lot. I’m like, if there’s crazy dreams or things that you’re feeling drawn to, or you want to pursue, do it now. Don’t, like, you know, sign your lease, and buy a bunch of furniture, and make these commitments, and join a gym, and do all these things, because it’s so much harder to walk away from… I mean, some people do it, a lot of people do it, and never look back, but it’s just harder to walk away And go, you know, live out of a backpack. For a long period of time, is to just do that when you’re… when you’re young and you got nothing.

Sharon Lee:
even if you’re not living in a back… with a backpack for a year, making those pivots are always very hard, and you’re right, the more that you have tied down in those early years, the more you’re never going to take any of those little risks and those leaps, and all of that. But I am curious, you know, you’ve come off this year of doing all this, you weren’t really sure what you were going to do, you’re talking to your now father-in-law, and you’re, you know, you’re… In the… the… in the world of… trying to develop this ministry. So, you know, obviously there was someone that was already in place, but you had to actually get out there and build the infrastructure and the foundation of it and all of that. So, you know, with that person that comes in with no experience, essentially, you know, and, you know, you just got grit, right?

And grit is a big part of entrepreneurship, and that should not be overlooked at all. But you’ve got that, but, like. the… one of the best things that you can do to grow and scale a business is have processes. So, did you come in with an idea of how you wanted to do it? Did you wing it? Did you… did you… you know, like, how did you actually start the process and start building this?

Christina Barnes:
But we were… me and I think Betty might have been in her early 30s, but I was in my 20s between mentors, surrounding ourselves with people who had gone before us. what they were doing, and, you know, just gleaning from their expertise. We sat with a lot of older women.

Sharon Lee:
Huh?

Christina Barnes:
built businesses, who had built ministries, who had led women’s ministry. Yeah, it was just a lot of conversations, a lot of note-taking, a lot of writing things down, a lot of experimentation, and seeing what worked. I mean, we had to recruit, too. We did that particular model. It’s called Beauty for Ashes, but that model that we were starting with. We did that for about 3 years. And, we had to recruit all the girls that came through. And then after that third year, we kind of hit a tipping point where it had gained the interest and kind of the, you know, collaboration of Adventures and Missions at large, and so now Beauty for Ashes is kind of a piece of all the different programs that we offer, but at that point, it was just one thing, and so we were recruiting, we were marketing, we were… You know, soliciting donations.

We were, you know, doing the logistics, and the trip planning, and the ministry partnership, you know, all of it. Which is a great, you know, it’s like chief cook and bottle washer when you’re starting a business. So it’s smart to put yourself in that position, because then you know when you’re hiring somebody else to do it, what to have them do. But it’s very taxing while it’s happening.

Sharon Lee:
Oh yeah, oh yeah. Well, and has that changed how you would go about, thinking about mentoring others? Because I’m assuming that the mentors that you all sought were not just people within your sphere there at… yes, so these were business people out in the community, people that you knew. So, you know, that’s another takeaway, is always be meeting people and networking and finding out what they do, how they got there, and all of that. But anyway, so I get off… I’m getting off tangent. So, to think back through, how does that change your thought of bringing that next generation up?

Christina Barnes:
Yeah, I think, Yeah, I think something that I heard… gosh, I think it was a John Mark Comer book, he said that we tend to… so, like, mentor and disciple… disciple’s like the Christianese word for mentor, tend to use that word like, in the wrong part of speech. Like, we tend to think, like, oh, Jesus discipled those disciples, like, the 12 that were following him, or like, I’m a mentor, I’m mentoring you. But really, like, the disciples’ job was to follow him. onus of responsibility is on the young person being led, being mentored, being poured into, not on the teacher, the mentor, to seek them out. And I feel like that… rang true as I look back at my experience and continue to look at my own experience. Like, if I want to learn from someone, I have to pursue them.

I have to find ways to add value to their life so that they’re interested in spending time with me. supporting my life, because they have something that I want.

Sharon Lee:
Smith?

Christina Barnes:
or some wisdom that I need, and so I have to go after that. And that is something that I often think is lost in… when you’re young. Like, you think, like, oh, I, like, deserve for these people to pour into me. Like, look at me, I’m Christina, I got straight A’s, you know, I was in the Business School Hall of Fame, don’t you want to pour into me? Be like, no, they don’t care! They don’t want to pour into you, they’re flippy! And so finding ways to seek them out.

Sharon Lee:
Right.

Christina Barnes:
it really makes a difference. Like, the onus of responsibility is on the person who is seeking the mentorship, not the mentor themselves.

Sharon Lee:
True, and I also think, to tag on to that, the more you can… because I truly believe that if, you know, if you are in that position and someone is coming to you and asking for your tutelage, most people will give of their time. But most people, like, what you just said, it’s like, oh, I know you want to pour into me, and there’s no real… focus on what you want to learn from them. So if you’ve got that person that you think, okay. That is… that is where my ultimate goal is. what is that… what is that one focus, that one takeaway that that person can give you? And you go to them and say, I would just like for you to explain, show, blah, blah, blah, this.

Because then, that person, all of a sudden, I mean, they’ve got experience, you know, going on forever, and can just totally dive into that, and really… and do the pouring in, but if you just go, okay. I want to be you.

Christina Barnes:
Right there.

Sharon Lee:
everything that you know, they’re just kind of like, yeah, sure, I’ll have a cup of coffee with you, peace out.

Christina Barnes:
I know, I remember working backstage at a big, like, famous women’s conference in, like, the early 2000s, and, like, you know, serving coffee and pouring water and stuff like that, and, like, following out one of the speakers and being like, will you mentor me? As she’s, like, getting into the elevator. Like, first of all, the chutzpah, like, you know, the… that it took for me to do that, and she was She was, like, very gracious, and like, oh, sweetheart, you know? But, like, really, Christina? Like, you really thought you were gonna follow this celebrity out to the elevator, and she was gonna say, oh, sure.

Sharon Lee:
Sure!

Christina Barnes:
Personal cell number, you know?

Sharon Lee:
Yeah, right.

Christina Barnes:
Right. But, yeah, you’re right, asking someone for a specific thing that you want to emulate, and then actually doing something with the advice that they give you.

Sharon Lee:
Right.

Christina Barnes:
Showing up and showing… telling them that you did it, that’ll get you your second meeting.

Sharon Lee:
Oh, 100%, and many more after that, because they know that you’re serious about it, you’ve got that grit that is very much lacking out there, so… Well, you know, one thing that you said earlier, you were talking about the stick-with-it kind of piece of it, and you’re like, okay, I worked on this women’s ministry, and I stuck with that, and you saw the fruits of it, it is now flourishing in other ways. So, What are you doing now? And, like, what is your vision for the future?

Christina Barnes:
Yeah, so I work in development, so we actually just… really launched our development department, our team, our program that we’re doing in 2024, so we’re really only in the second year of it right now, and we get to build relationships with all the fabulous people that are in the Adventures kind of ecosystem. So, Adventures and Missions, we do lots of different things. So, I talked to you about the World Race. That’s one program. Also, like we mentioned, Beauty for Ashes, that’s our women’s ministry. We do short-term missions, so we take churches or individuals, groups of people, largely a lot of youth in youth groups. On short-term mission trips, so a week long, whether that’s somewhere in the United States to serve in inner city, or overseas.

We do disaster relief work, so when there’s a tornado or a hurricane, we’ll send teams, and we have long-term basis. Right now, we’re finishing up our work in North Carolina. We’re wrapping up our two-year commitment in North Carolina this fall, after Hurricane Helene devastated the Asheville area, and so we’ve got a base in Black Mountain. And so there’s all these different kind of… oh, and our international bases. We have international bases in Eswatini, Cambodia, Guatemala, India, so we’ve got all these different kind of verticals, and all these different people that come in through these different verticals.

And so, our development team gets to build relationships with the people, help them better understand, you know, how they’re impacting the world through their partnership with us, whether that’s through donating, or praying for us, or, like, rallying their friends and family, or their church to be a part of the work that’s that’s going on, and show… and kind of help design these kind of pathways for them to continue to be activated in the unique ways, that would bring them a lot of joy. It’s really a lot about… cultivating generosity. Like, how do we live with a generous spirit, and how do we… get after it.

You know, whatever that cause is that breaks our heart, or gives us a sense of righteous anger, or makes us really excited to be a part of it, like, how do we help people design, kind of, steps that they can be more of who they want to be, living giving, going, taking those risks like you were talking about, and us getting to kind of hold their hands and be there, kind of concierge in figuring that out, whether it’s an individual person or an organization of people seeking to partner with us. So it’s… that’s the work I get to do, which is a lot of fun.

Sharon Lee:
You know, and so many people, like, escape work for their fun, so I am curious, as we start to kind of wind this conversation up, I mean, how do you, on your free time, top all of that? What do you do?

Christina Barnes:
I do yoga! So I’m also a yoga teacher. It’s funny, because the older… the more I get to know myself. the more I’m like, oh, that’s why yoga always appealed to me, because I’m just, like, all in, all the time, like, in the different things that I put my heart and my time into, I just, like, jump in with two feet, and that can, like, burn you out really fast if you.

Sharon Lee:
Yup?

Christina Barnes:
Like that. And so I realized that, like, oh, like, I was drawn to yoga around… I guess around the same time I got married, so it’s been about 10 years since I did yoga teacher training. I guess 9 this year. And I realized that, you know, at the time, I was seeking it as a tool to, you know, bless people and create more spaces for women to breathe and connect with themselves, connect with God. And then I realized, as I got older, that I had kids, as life sped up to a breakneck pace. leg pace. I’m like, this is a tool in my toolkit to stay sane.

Sharon Lee:
Yeah?

Christina Barnes:
I love yoga, I love my yoga friends, my crunchy granola, you know, hippie mama Christian friends, actually, that’s, like, a really niche market.

Sharon Lee:
There you go, there you go.

Christina Barnes:
But it’s… but it’s a really, sweet thing, and when… before I had kids, I was super active in… in doing, wholeness journeys, which is another thing I started with another friend of mine. Yoga retreat missions trips.

Sharon Lee:
I don’t know.

Christina Barnes:
funny, because every time my friend Jess and I would go on one of these trips to a new country, we did them in Guatemala, Colombia, Thailand, I would say, man, this is so fun, who thought of this?

Sharon Lee:
She must be really awesome!

Christina Barnes:
But that’s something that I’ve noticed also about myself, is that I will create the thing that I need. You know, I really, you know, was looking for a way to, you know, get away from it all and, you know, do a yoga retreat, but also serve and be connected to something bigger than myself and fill up my heart. And so we did wholeness journeys. And then in 2020, when COVID hit, all my butterfly yoga teacher friends who were doing yoga retreats all over the world, and you know, running studios locally, everything was shut down, and I thought.

Sharon Lee:
Mmm.

Christina Barnes:
gosh, we’re all gonna, like, be depressed.

Sharon Lee:
Oh, yeah!

Christina Barnes:
community and do it quickly. And so I started an online group of all those girls that I knew, it was 12 of us, Zoom, and I, you know, was like, hey guys, I just thought we could create this space to kind of, like, check in and hear what’s going on and see what we can do, while the world is falling apart around us.

Sharon Lee:
Right?

Christina Barnes:
And I was like, how… and then we met a couple of Wednesdays in a row, and I’m like, how often would y’all like to meet? And they were like, every week? We met from April of 2020, until October, and then naturally, I was like, let’s do a retreat at the end, and I turned it into a business. And so me and two of my friends ran what we called yogipreneurs for yoga teachers that were entrepreneurs, and we did that for another year and a half, until COVID kind of, you know, everybody went back to work, but that was so fun!

Sharon Lee:
That is fantastic.

Christina Barnes:
We got to make a little bit of money, and got to see each other, and go do some retreats, but that’s something that I notice isn’t what everybody does, but that’s something that I do, and I see that in you, Sharon, too. Like, you probably needed the encouragement of a podcast like this in one season of your life, and so you created it.

Sharon Lee:
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And so many people think back of, like, how do I monetize this? Rather than thinking about, okay, this is something that I know personally I would enjoy, so if I create this, I know other like-minded people would enjoy it, and then all of a sudden, it does become monetized. And so, you know, it all kind of comes together, and I think so many people, like, start racking their brains so hard for just trying to find that quick buck instead of… buck’s fine. I’ll take a quick buck.

Christina Barnes:
a different business model. Like, I remember running across that word, a lifestyle business. a while back, and I was like, oh, that’s what I’ve been doing all this time. My husband’s like, what are you doing with this, like, wholeness journey and yogaurs? Like, are you gonna, like, make money doing these things? And we did only make, like, a little bit of money, but I was like, this is actually my joy, like, this is really.

Sharon Lee:
Right.

Christina Barnes:
for me, and it’s, like, it’s blessing these other people who are paying to be a part of it, so, like, why wouldn’t I do it? But I just… yeah, a lifestyle business, and like I said, when you’re doing something that you love doing, it shows, and then sometimes it does turn into, you know, a quick buck, or bucks that you needed down the road.

Sharon Lee:
Well, this has been so much fun, and I just love all of the different little nuggets and gems that you’re able to drop, just because life took you there, and you were willing to take that leap, and taking a little adventure, or take a risk, and all of that. I think that… I think that so many people can learn to get out of their own head, get out of their own little square space, and go try to, you know, just find a different door, and go through it. Just be bold. So, that’s gonna be my word for our… for our episode. Be bold.

Christina Barnes:
Love it. Love it.

Sharon Lee:
Anyway, but thank you! I mean, I have so enjoyed getting to know you. I am so excited about just our friendship going forward, but anyway, thanks for coming on and sharing your story. This has been fun.

Christina Barnes:
My pleasure, Sharon. Thank you so much for having me.

Sharon Lee:
Awesome. Alright, well, we’ll be talking soon, so thank you so much.

Christina Barnes:
Excellent, thank you so much.

Sharon Lee:
on. Okay, so… see where it says enter backstage? Alright, hit that right there.

Christina Barnes:
should I have said something? Like, I thought about it at the end, and I was like, I’m wondering if I should do this now, and we can clip it, and say, you know, if anybody’s interested in whatever, whatever…

Sharon Lee:
Let’s do. Let’s do.

Christina Barnes:
But I don’t know how to, like, I didn’t know what to say to make that in there.

Sharon Lee:
Okay, so what I’ll just go back and do is say thank you so much for, you know, any parting words.

Christina Barnes:
Oh, okay. Alright.

Sharon Lee:
We’ll do that, so…

Christina Barnes:
I’ve done this before!

Sharon Lee:
Need my first rodeo, baby! Anyway, okay, so… Well, Christina, it has been so much to hear your journey, hear the little truth bombs and the nuggets and all of that kind of stuff, so you’ve got any parting words for, everybody out there listening?

Christina Barnes:
Yeah! Well, thank you guys for listening, and if you’re listening here today, chances are you are someone who likes to look for those opportunities to be bold, or to be activated in your life and in your personal journey, and so if anything I shared with you about the work of Adventures and Missions or Beauty for Ashes is jumping out at you, or you want to have a conversation more about how it looks to be more generous in the space that you live in, whether it’s with your time, your talents, your resources, your influence, or you’re interested in getting connected with a way to give and make an impact on the world, I would love to have a conversation with you. Our website isadventures.org, like you and I are going on an adventure together, with an S at the end, adventures.org, and we are located in Gainesville, Georgia.

And so we have a really fun campus. I don’t know a lot of people can say that about where they work. Like, I like to take people on tours of where I work. We have low ropes courses, and 3 or 4 times a year, we have training camps, so there’s all these young people with their backpacks and their tents. getting ready to go see the world and change the world, or they’re coming back from that, which is also really exciting. So I love taking people around campus, and I love talking more about what I do. So if there’s anything that resonated with you, and you’re wondering, maybe I should get on a plane and go somewhere, reach out to me, go to our website, adventures.org, and I would love to have a conversation about that.

Sharon Lee:
Oh, fantastic. Well, thanks again for coming today. It has been such a pleasure talking to you, and I look forward to many, many more conversations in the future.

Christina Barnes:
Me too! Thank you, Sharon!

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Sharon Lee:
And thank you to everyone listening. We’ll see you next time on the InPowered Women Podcast.

Thank you for listening to InPowered Women. If you like what you heard, please give us a five-star review and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to your podcast and share with those you think can benefit from this information. Please email all questions, suggestions, and compliments to sharon@pinnaclestrategicadvisors.net. The InPowered Women podcast is produced by the podcast production company and executive produced by Sharon Lee.

This episode was produced and managed by Sharon Lee.