Volunteer Profile

Extreme Presentation
Southwood Church of the Nazarene did an audio recording of my presentation, if you were not able to go or know of others who would like to hear, please click here.

Below is the video that I showed:



Also, this is the map that is referenced:

Speaking Schedule
Currently planned speaking engagements while I am back in the US (Dec 17-Feb 2):

January 10 at 6:00 pm - Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene (Kansas City, MO)
January 17 at 9:30 am - College Church of the Nazarene (SS Class of Larry Haffey - Olathe, KS)
January 24 at 6:00 pm - West Chester Church of the Nazarene (West Chester, OH)
January 31 at 10:45 am - Southwood Church of the Nazarene (Raytown, MO)

I still have some open space if anyone knows of any other opportunities. I look forward to being able to get together with each one of you while I am back in the US.

God Fulfills His Promises...No Matter How Crazy They Sound!
This weekend was packed with Church activities.

Friday
I had the pleasure of attending a birthday party of the children in San Miguel. San Miguel is one of the 3 local preaching points started by Zamacola, the church I attend. Zamacola has set a goal for each of these church plants, by August of next year, to have at least 15 members ages 12 and older.

The poorer children in Peru don't often get birthday parties, because their families can't afford it. So, the purpose of this celebration was to make the children feel special, and at the same time invite the parents in to show them what has been going on. While the children were outside, Pastor Solano had the opportunity to share a simple gospel message with the 5 mothers in attendance. All five accepted Christ, and have agreed to begin meeting every week to learn more about Christ. It is neat to see the gospel message so readily accepted. These women will form the base for the Church in this location.

Saturday
Saturday morning, I remembered that it was my week to teach Sunday school at Chachani on Sunday. So, I spent the morning beginning to prepare for this. I didn't have much time to work on this however, because I was to be back at church by 2 pm, for the final youth quiz meet.

Quizzing was a very important part of learning about the Bible when I was growing up, so it was so neat to see the youth from the 4 Nazarene churches in Arequipa participating in this. And it was great to also see Zamacola win!

After the quiz meet, they had a time of recreation in the park with all of the churches. It was nice to be able to get to know the youth from the other churches, and especially in such a fun way. I played volleyball with a mixed group from all of the churches. Although I am not great at it, it was still fun.

I thought after sports, the church day was over, but it was just beginning! Next, came the festival of music. It was a time for all of the youth to be able to worship together. Each church took turns leading worship. It was definitely a fun but spiritual time.

After church, a group of friends from Church and I, went out to eat, and were able to just laugh and eat together. Perfect ending to the day.

Sunday
I woke up early in order to finish getting the lesson ready. Going on little sleep, I did manage to get to church on time, and with a lesson prepared. Unfortunately, I lost my cell phone in the process :( But, it was a great day of worshipping the Lord! Sunday school and the church service were both very good.

In the afternoon, I headed up to Chachani, another one of Zamacola's preaching points. When I get there, I see there is another celebration going on in the main square of the community where we normally hold Sunday school. Only this celebration is not being held by the church. I don't know completely what was going on, but I could see a little figurine surrounded by flowers and they were singing and dancing all around it. It appeared to be a celebration to an idol of some sort. I began to teach the children anyway, sometimes having to repeat myself due to the loud celebration going on near by. The children stayed focused (well, at least as much as normal), and God was able to work in the lesson despite what was going on around us. It was a really reminder about the difficulties faced in life. Idols and other religions aren't just something talked about in the Bible, but something that is faced in life by many people. A battle is being faced here in Peru, and across the world. I am glad I am on God's side.

God's Plan
Around 3 years ago, I was going through a tough time with the church. It all seemed very fake, and full of programs and useless junk. It was during this time that God spoke to me, and He said, "Kindra, one day you are going to help start a church." I really just laughed it off, thinking it was just a crazy idea in my head, but it continued on for several weeks. I never did anything about it, nor said anything about it to anyone, thinking that it was nuts. Quite honestly, I completely forgot about it until God reminded me this weekend about that promise of several years ago. And He said, "See, you thought I was crazy, but look at what you are doing! You personally are involved with several church plants, and you are working with Extreme whose goal is to plant 120 more!"

I am so glad that I am not in charge of this life, because He knows so much more than I do. Lord, help me to grow my faith in you, and to use this as a reminder that You will fulfill all of your promises.

Friends and Family in the US
Recently, I have been thinking a lot about my friends and family back in the states. I have received news of friends moving, getting engaged, getting married, getting pregnant, and having children. I have also heard of major life threatening illnesses among close family members. I have had to really entrust my friends and family to God during this time, because I can rejoice with them or pray with them, but I am helpless to do anything else from this far away. Some days, I ask God why he moved me here, and other days, I know exactly why God has me here. I know that they are all in God's hands, and that is the best place they can be.

I am greatly looking forward to coming back to the US for a visit, and to be able to share with my friends and family back there, what God is doing here in Peru. I will be back in the US from December 17-February 2. I am working on setting up speaking engagements with different churches or organizations. If you are interested in having me share what God is doing with your church, please let me know. My schedule is currently pretty open. One that I am really looking forward to is at KC First Church on Sunday evening, January 10. This is the church I began attending when I was 9 years old, and so it will be great to share with this church family.

I would also like to get together with as many friends and family members as possible while I am back to catch up on your lives and just reconnect. I have missed all of you, and all of you are so important to me, that it will be great to be able to be together again. Please email me, and we can set up a time to get together.

I love each and every one of you, and am grateful for the impact you have made on my life. I would not be where I am today with out you.

Other Ministry Opportunities
I am blessed to be able to use many of my talents and abilities to further God's kingdom in Peru. Below is an overview of some of the things that I have been able to be involved with.

The Office
When most people think about spending hours a day staring at code on a computer, they think about boredom, and would rather jump off the roof. I love it! I am truly honored to be able to use my skills to help others to be able to use theirs. It isn't always easy with computer problems, disagreements with co-workers, illness, deadlines that aren't met, and too much work to do in too little time, but most days, I love what I do. Please pray that God would allow our team to work together more smoothly, in order to be able to do His work effectively.

Bible Quizzing
They recently began doing youth and children's bible quizzing. It was neat to see my kids from Chachani, who are brand new Christians, study and do very well with children's bible quizzing. This was their first year, and although they didn't win the competition, they learn a lot more about Christ. I was also asked to be a part of the youth quiz team. Here a youth is between 12-40 or so. I decided with everything else I had going on and with it being done in Spanish, that it would be better if one of the other youth from the church took my spot. But, I have loved watching it and teaching them tricks I learned from quizzing when I was younger. It has been great to see them doing something that helped me learn so much about God. Please pray that they will be able to learn as much from quizzing as I did, and that it will help to solidify their relationship with God.

Chachani
In Peru, a church is not a full church, until it has planted at least one other church. Every church in Arequipa is in the process of planting at least one other church. Zamacola is in the process of planting several. Pastor Solano has recently decided to become more intentional about the work in Chachani and the other outreach ministries of the church. Chachani, Bedoya, and San Miguel are all now officially on level 1 of the church planting scale. These are called preaching points. We have a goal of having at least 15 members (12 and older) in the next year, in order to move to level 2. It has been neat for me to look at it through these lenses, and to be more intentional about the work there. God is doing great things in this community, and am excited to see what the next year will bring. Please pray for the teachers and students at Chachani, and that God will help a church to form in this community.

English class
Since the projects have ended, I have restarted teaching English. About 2 days a week, I have anywhere from 1-5 friends from the church come over to learn English. They are at various skill levels, which proves challenging at times, but it has been neat for me to do. I have struggled learning their language, so I have a lot of compassion when I am teaching them. It also has helped me to improve my Spanish skills. Please pray that I have the words to say to teach them effectively, and that our relationships will strengthen through this time together.

1 Year in Peru and Another Year Older
Things definitely can change in a year. One year ago, I had just had a big surprise birthday party with my friends and family, and was preparing to head to Peru. Fast forward one year. I just finished having a "surprise" birthday party with my Peruvian friends and church family, and this Friday I will be celebrating one year in Peru.

I was a little worried about celebrating my birthday in Peru. Last year, I had such a grand celebration, that I thought that whatever happened it would fail in comparison. But, as it turned out, although very different, I enjoyed this year just as much. I was fortunate to have the day off on my birthday, and was able to eat lunch with my Peruvian friends/family from church. We then spent the afternoon together watching cheesy horror movies, and just spending time together. Then that night, they threw a party for me, and about 15 friends showed up. It was a "surprise" party. They were so excited about it, that they were really bad at making it a surprise, but that just made it mean more. This group of people is so special to me. Peru would not be the same with out them.

As I reflect on the last year, things have certainly changed. I remember arriving in Peru, scared out of my mind. I sold everything I owned, quit my job, left my family and friends, and came to Peru. It was just God and I. Through this year, God has helped me to learn the language and they culture, make friends, minister to people, use my gifts and abilities to further his kingdom, and grow in my relationship with him. I call it a successful year.

I don't know what God has in store for the next year, but I will follow God wherever He leads.

40/40s...Young Adults Changing the World
For those who don't know what 40/40 is, let me explain. 40/40 is an idea that originated with Jesus. Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs to follow his example. That is the essence of this program. There are 40 single non-peruvians paired with 40 single peruvians, and they go through bible and church planting training together. Then, each pair is sent out to plant 3 churches, and to be Christ to the people. These 40 pairs are then spread out among 7 cities with 4-6 pairs per city, and each city has a family that serves as support for the 40/40 pairs within that city.

The first group of 4 40/40 pairs is currently in Iquitos finishing up their training, and will arrive in Puerto Maldonado in November to share God's light with this dark place. Within the next 2 years, there will be 12 new churches in this region! These pairs have grown so much in the close to 9 months of training they have had so far. I am excited to see how God uses them in this dark city.

The second group of non-Peruvian 40/40s, along with a cluster support family, arrived in Arequipa for language training the end of August. They will be in Arequipa through November, and then they will meet up with their Peruvian partner and head up to Iquitos for Bible and church planting training. 6 of these 40/40s, along with the new cluster support family, will stay in Iquitos after training and plant 18 churches in the Iquitos area. Please pray for them: The Simpson Family, Katie Brandt, Melissa Sutherland, Brittany Hart, Drew Kaminski, Brad Wall, and Kevin Snodgrass. The other 6 of these 40/40s, along with the Fosters, will go to Pucallpa, another jungle city, after training to plant 18 more churches. Ryan and Sarah Foster were the first volunteers I met when I arrived in Peru, and helped me to survive the first few months I was here. I also have worked with Ryan in IT for the last 9 months. They have recently accepted the cluster support position, and will be heading to the jungle with Katie Anderson, Kristina Andrews, Laura Benson, Tabetha Pinks, Gary Crites, and Timothy Mong. Please also pray for this group.

The third and final group of 40/40s and cluster support families (24 40/40s and 4 cluster support families) will arrive in February. There are still may open positions. If you or someone you know, feel led by God to come to Peru to plant churches, please visit http://www.extremenazarene.org/4040 for more info. This is a difficult job, but one that God can and will use to further his kingdom here in Peru.

Short Term Projects Are In Full Swing!
In the last two months since I have written (sorry about that), there have been two short term projects completed, and one that is taking place right now! As a part of the administrative team, I am not as involved in these projects as others, but the first two were in Arequipa, where I live, so I tried to participate as much as my schedule would allow. Below, I will summarize the projects briefly, if you wish to see more information on these projects, please click the name of the project below.

Extreme Peru: Arequipa 0 (July 16-29, 2009)
35 volunteers from across the United States, came down to Peru for two weeks to be the Lord's hands and feet in Peru. They did a fabulous job! This project had a two fold purpose. The first purpose was to make progress on the buildings that will be the Larry and Addie Garman missionary training center for southern Peru, the district center for southern Peru, as well as house Zamacola Church of the Nazarene. The second purpose was to make an impact on the city of Arequipa, and jump start our church planting movement. The devil was working hard to make sure this project wasn't successful. Before the project even started, the schools were closed, and public gatherings were strongly discouraged, due to swine flu. Once the project got going, close to half of the short term volunteers got sick with a virus that spread through the team. But, God is stronger, opening up new opportunities, and in one case even the local police were helping us to accomplish our purpose! When this project ended, there were 175 new Christians, including one of the bus drivers that drove the volunteers around all week. It was amazing to see God at work!

Extreme Peru: Arequipa 1 (August 6-19, 2009)
This project had 79 short term volunteers, and God used every single one! God's impact on Arequipa continued during Arequipa 1. Another 316 people accepted Christ during this project, including ANOTHER one of our bus drivers! I was also able to lead two of the events during this project. The first event took place in the plazas of one of the preaching points of Zamacola church, on the first full day of the project. I was able to see around 30 kids accept Christ. The second event took place in the plaza of Chachani, where I go every week. This event was for the mothers. When they found out this was for them and not there children, a smile came across their face, and for the first time in a while, you could see they felt special. It was a cold night, but that didn`t stop them from coming out. There were around 30 women, 20 kids, and even a few men that showed up. The movie Magdalena was shown, which is basically the Jesus film made specifically for women. The movie got to the part where Jesus stopped the Jewish leaders from stoning a women that had committed adultery, saying "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone", and the movie was stopped. Lonna Vopat gave her testimony of how God had healed her broken past, and how in God`s eyes each one of them was special. This gave a current example of what had just been portrayed in the movie, and it met them exactly where they were. Lonna then asked all who would like to accept Jesus to stand. Around 20 of those 30 women stood and prayed to accept Jesus into their heart. The movie was restarted and they saw the rest of the life of Jesus, and were able to see just the difference that God makes. Despite the cold, after woman and child stayed through the entire movie. You could see in their eyes that for the first time, they realized how truly special they are. This volunteers of this project visited worked with children, prayed with strangers in the main plaza, visited hospitals and children's homes, pampered women in prison, showed the Jesus and Magdalena films, and even participated in an evangelistic dance contest! God was definitely at work in amazing ways. Work also continued on the new buildings, and on Sunday, August 16th, the Larry and Addie Garman missionary training center and the district center (built in honor of Daniel Walker) were dedicated! There were over 500 people in attendance! This included all of the Nazarene churches in Arequipa, church leaders from across Peru, new Christians who found God during this project, and short term volunteers. To put it in perspective, there are only around 350 members of the Church of the Nazarene in all of southern Peru, yet there were 500 people in attendance at this celebration! God is on the move!

Puerto Construction 1 (September 24 - October 7, 2009)
This is the first project outside of Arequipa. This is a much smaller project with only 14 volunteers, but from early reports they are doing great work! This project is mainly a construction project with the goal of making significant progress on the home that will house the 40/40s and cluster support family for Puerto, who will be moving to Puerto on November 3 to begin their work. Puerto Maldonado is a city of around 50,000 people, and there are more prostitutes than Christians in this dark jungle city. The Church of the Nazarene began work in this city in January 2008, and through the partnership with Extreme, they hope to bring light to this dark place. Please pray for the continued work in this place.

Weeks in Review (6/29-7/12)
These past couple weeks have had highs but also quite a few lows. The devil has really been working trying to discourage me. Please keep me in your prayers. Below is an overview:

Chachani - Definitely a high. Last Sunday, for the first time I actually taught the lesson by myself. I also did it all in Spanish. I think it went over very well. I taught about Zaccheus. I read the story as the kids acted it out. They then learned a memory verse "Porque el Hijo del hombre vino a buscar y a salvar lo que se había perdido. (Lucas 19:10)" which means "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:10)" It was great! Pilar (the other teacher) and I are going to trade off weeks, so I will be doing this more often, and I am looking forward to it!

Church - Another high! It is great to see relationships continue to build with those at church. It is also great to realize my Spanish is improving once again, which makes it easier to communicate, especially with those at church. This past Monday was teacher day, yet another holiday here in Peru. That evening, all of the Sunday School teachers got together at the Sunday School Superintendent's home. It was a great time to hear stories about what is going on in the other groups. It also helped me to realize just how important Sunday School is. I often take for granted all that I learned in Sunday School growing up, and this meeting along with teaching for this first time really helped to remind me. I am excited about helping young ones form a basis for their relationships with Christ.

Project - Excitement is in full gear in the office! The first group of 35 short term volunteers arries in Arequipa this Friday! This is the first of 11 groups of people who will be coming down over the next year. We also are excited about the growing number of 40/40 and cluster support applications. Financial contributions for the project are also growing. I think General Assembly really helped to make the Nazarenes in the US aware of what is going on, and they are really responding. Please pray that all will come together.

Sick - Now the lows begin. I have had two different bouts of illness in these two weeks. I had been pretty healthy, but last week I had a little bit of stomach problems, and this week a sinus infection. I have had to miss several days of work, and have been locked up in my house the past 3 or 4 days. I have medicine which is helping, but still not completely well. I hope to make it back to the office tomorrow, but we will see. Please pray for my health.

English Lessons - Due to me being sick and some schedule conflict, Jonathon and I haven't had English class in over 2 weeks. As with learning any skill, consistency is key. So I hope he has been practicing, and this won't set us back too much. Hopefully we can have class tomorrow, but this depends on how I feel tomorrow. We will see...

My Grandma - I received an email from my dad stating that my grandma has had a stroke. She is currently in the hospital. They are running tests to see the extent of the damage, what they find will determine her treatment, probably a stint, an operation, medication, etc. She currently is numb in her left arm. Until she gets use of her arm back, she won’t be able to live alone. It is very difficult to hear news like this, especially when you are very far away. She is my only living grandparent. Please pray for her and my family during this difficult time.

Computer Work - The websites have been a major source of frustrations over the past week especially. Due to problems beyond my control, the web site has been down for almost 3 days in a 4 day period. I have been continually feeling like everything I touched had major unforseen hurdles and roadblocks. This was made much worse because I was sick, but had to be working to get these problems resolved. It caused me to have a bad attitude, but God has had to continually reminding me that he is in control. Please pray that I will continue to remember this is His work, and to allow him to use me.

Loneliness - Last but not least. As I have mentioned many times on this blog, this is one of the major ways the devil has been working on me since being here. When I was back in the states, I never really had an issue with the fact that I was single. I have always felt that God wanted me to work on my relationship with him first, and then he would provide for me in this area. Here, I have been dealing with that issue a lot, especially with the fact that dating anyone here is really not an option. I feel like the devil is really using this to try to prevent me from doing what God wants. I know that I could easily take my desires in my own hands and make it happen, but then I wouldn't be open to what God wants. I have been going through this women's bible study, and it feels like every week I am reminded of this. I know God loves me, and I know that God has incredible things planned for me. Please help me to leave my future, all of my future in his hands.

As you can see, it has been a couple weeks of many struggles. I know that all of these struggles are things that I would face no matter where I was, and I know that these things are things that other people face. So, I am writing this for two reasons:

1) As a reminder of specific ways that you can pray for me
2) To be completely honest with what is happening in my life so that when God helps me work through these situations, God will be glorified and others will see how God can work in their lives as well.

Encouragement from My Father
Everyone who knows me well knows how important music is to me. It is one of the easiest ways for me to worship. You could say it is genetic :) Before I left, my dad was thinking about the journey I would be taking, and he wrote a song. I refer back to this song often, and it is a great encouragement. It is encouragement from my Father, both earthly and heavenly...