April 2012

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot

Aug. 2nd– 22nd Chad, Ryan and I will be ministering in Asuncion, Paraguay for 2 weeks alongside 50 other mission minded Short Term Volunteers (2 weeks).
In January four pair of 40/40 missionaries, young single adults with a passion to reach the world for Christ, partnered up with Felix Vargas in a world changing adventure! In the last 4 months the church there has grown from 80 to over 200 members! 20 new cell groups have been planted and dozens of new Christians. God is doing a great work and so this summer Chad, Ryan and I are going to help.
The purpose of this team is to reach out to 1,000’s of Paraguayans with the Extreme Love of God. We will have the Power Team there to show God’s awesome Power and invite 1,000’s into a relationship with the Lord.
Pray with us over the next few months that God will open hearts and lives and that when we arrive the field will be ready to harvest and our work will produce great fruit!

Last summer some friends from Global NMI invited me to be a part of Mission Immersion. This 2 week Africa experience is a training ground for future Nazarene Missionaries. These High School students will take part in incredible times of prayer, plenary sessions and workshops, times of worship with ANU students and hands-on ministry and service to the community around ANU and Nairobi.
It is an honor and privilege to be there, teaching, leading and ministering! Please pray for this group as we reach people for his name sake and train up our next generation of World Changing Leaders!

On the Street Where They Live
El Salvador* takes your breath away, but not in the way you would think. At the base of the Andes Mountains is a slum full of poverty, dirty faced babies, and homes the size of a US walk-in closet. Meeting their needs seem impossible, unless you are willing to look at their greatest need, Jesus Christ; only then are we overflowing with the supplies necessary to meet the need!
Door to door, we went, knocking, inviting, and then painting their addresses on their homes. This had a 2 fold purpose. First, they felt it was a privilege to have their home addresses displayed for all to see. Second, the missionaries could find the new contacts.
As we were going door to door, we met a man named Al (for short). Al was so excited and invited us to his home. More than anything, he wanted us to talk to him about God. We read scriptures together, met his family, and were treated with a community Coke! The very little Spanish our group spoke only seemed to display the greatness of our God and His ability to work in all situations.
Al is a new contact for Henrietta and Mapi to visit. His family will be able to learn and grow in Christ. The gratitude shone on his face, and the beauty of God’s love and peace were all over his small home.

*Miraflores is one of the communities in Arequipa, Peru where a 40/40 pair, Mapi and Henrietta, are working. The members of the new Miraflores Church of the Nazarene have a passion to reach out, and they are currently planting a church in the community of El Salvador with the help of Mapi and Henrietta.

Kuhn Family Update
This February we celebrated our 4 year anniversary serving with Extreme Nazarene Ministries. In the last 4 years, this is what has taken place through and in our ministry:
· 77 Churches Planted!
· Over 10,000 Decisions for Christ!
· 175 Missionaries Deployed!

This is what God has called us to! My job with ExtremeNazarene Ministries is to lead the Mobilization team in sending those who are called, whether for 2 weeks or 2 years and to offer opportunities for givers to give and goers to go! Thank you to those who have consistently supported us through prayer and finances. Churches aren’t planted, People aren’t saved and Missionaries aren’t deployed without you!




praises
This Feb. our family celebrated 4 years of Extreme Ministry!
So far this year the Mobilization team has registered 114 people for Short term projects. Our goal for the year is 400.
God is working in great ways through Extreme from here in the US to all over South America!

prayer requests
Pray for Rachel she travels to Africa this summer as part of Mission Immersion. She will be speaking to 50 high school students who have a call to missions.
This Aug. Chad, Rachel and Ryan are going to minister in Paraguay for 2 weeks. Pray God will use us to bring people into his Kingdom.

to become a financial partner:
www.extremenazarene.org/Kuhn
or mail check to:
Extreme Nazarene
4800 W. Fairview Ave.
Boise, ID 83706
include note stating:
to the long term account of Chad and Rachel Kuhn

Hunter in Arequipa, Peru - Thursday, November 10th

 I love cramped Taxis.  I know the missionaries tire of them, but when else do you get to practically sit on top of one another, laugh about silly stuff, talk about ministry in a close knit group and truly experience what it is like to live, laugh and love together.  On our way to Hunter, Thursday afternoon we did just this.  I got to enjoy the Company of 8 amazing 40/40’s as we traveled out to this small community in Arequipa Peru to minister to a Sr. Adult group.

Chicken feet, a special treat

Slowing around 60 elderly Peruvians joined us.  Shading themselves from the powerful sun rays beaming on the Andes, they laughed and chatted with one another until we started.  Vanessa Ayersman and Wendy Veliz Lequernaque

lead the group in a rousing game of Bingo….the non-gambling sort of course, several exercises, sporadic dancing, yummy treat consuming (a Peruvian gal honored me with a chicken foot snack) and an amazing testimony of God’s goodness from Vanessa.

Their smiles, kind words and love of life left an imprint on my heart that will not easily be forgotten.  They are beautiful people of God.  Pray for each of them as they struggle with non-Christian rituals and beliefs that have been mixed together for so long that they have a hard time separating them from the truth of scripture.  Also, pray that God will provide open doors as the 40/40’s continue to minister in Hunter.

Merry Christmas from the Kuhns

Extreme Family Video Update Coming Christmas Day

Due to the importance of birthdays (Joel's 7th and Miles 5th) this week, and the sudden urgency of taking care of paper work for a new home loan (yippeee!), our Extreme Family Christmas Video update will not be posted until Christmas Day.

Extreme Stuff & Extreme Responsibility

While in Peru, we saw and participated in Extreme Stuff.  We saw over 1,000 get saved at one time and commit to be discipled by 40/40 missionaries.  We saw a mayor buy lunch for every worker at our medical clinic/kids festival.  Rachel saw women prisoners turn their lives over to God AND ask to be discipled in a Bible study meeting in the prison.  The boys and I climbed an impressive rock cliff.  Rachel was extremely sick for several days.  Just don't ask her about it.  She's fine now and would rather tell you about all the things that God did than dwell on the time she spent in bed!)

And while we were in Peru, our family accepted an extreme change.  No, we aren't moving to the field (right now- HA).  We aren't even moving.  Rachel has accepted a new position with Extreme.  She will now be Mobilization Officer, taking over for Brent Deakins, who has moved to Operations Officer.  The Mobilization Officer is responsible for mobilizing people and resources to meet the needs on the field.  Rachel will continue to do some of the same things she has been doing: speaking in churches, recruiting and mentoring 40/40's, raising funds to adopt communities and coordinating teams with the field for projects.  She will have other huge responsibilities as well.  She is now the leader for everyone doing those same mobilization tasks, and needs to grow her team to be full of mobilizers at the local church, group of churches, district and zone levels.  And she will be doing this while Extreme, for the first time ever, has multiple projects going.

Now before you ask, the Mobilization Officer is not a paid position; all Extremies are volunteers and raise their own support.  Rachel is still supported by people who partner with us in ministry to provide the fields in Peru, Paraguay and Columbia with short- and long-term missionaries and the funds to make the projects go.  We are in need of more investors to continue to mobilize "workers into the fields" that are "white for the harvest."  With Rachel's new responsibilities she needs to keep more consistent office hours, and that will require a regular babysitter for Miles, half days, Monday through Thursdays.  We are also trying to get out of the our house in Missouri and have it listed to sell.  We'll have to take a loss to get rid of it, and that is an additional financial burden.  Please pray for these needs and consider whether God is leading you to partner with us.

Many people have asked how I feel about Rachel's new job, and it's a fair question.  This job will require not only more work and responsibility, but more travel.  The Mobilization Officer has to meet with mobilizers all over the country to equip them to do the job.  She also needs to have firsthand knowledge of the needs on the field, so Rachel will be traveling internationally a bit more than she has in the past.  Her traveling means more time for me to be the only parent in the house, in charge of tooth brushing, homework, chores, bedtime, etc., etc., etc.

So, how do I feel about the responsibility, the travel and all that goes along with it?  First, I am excited for the role WE get to play in missions and Extreme.  Second, I am incredibly proud of Rachel.  She is the first female officer and the youngest officer with Extreme.  God has blessed her hard work with tangible and intangible results.  Third, I have decided that whatever challenges this brings will only help make me into a better father, husband and Christian.  I pray that our whole family will continue to be a part of building God's Kingdom in every way possible.

Chad

El Luchador

So now that we are home and things have settled down, I thought I would get you all caught up with a few more stories from Peru.

This story requires a little bit of background.  Like many participants, I was late sending in a picture to have put on my ID badge for Love Extreme.  Unlike most of those people, I am married to a full time Extremie and have my picture on the Extreme website.  That means that certain persons working in the office (Chad Duerre, Rachael Miller) know what I look like and can try finding some kind of "celebrity look alike" to put on my card instead.  Their specifications were white, bald, with a goatee, and the result was Stone Cold Steve Austin.

And now on to the story.  It was Saturday in Cusco, and  was one of our last chances to get out and do outreach stuff in the area.  Many of the people in our group were leaving in the afternoon for Machu Pichu, but we had time for a medical clinic and kids festival in Poroy, Cusco, Peru.  Rachel stayed back with Ryan; this was her first day of being sick.

The day been going great.  Poroy was having a festival of their own and we got to hang out with the police canine unit and even take pictures with their dogs.  We did the usual balloon animals and kid festival stuff.  The mayor was so impressed that he sent us lunch, delivered by the police.  Just after the Machu group left, we were tying salvation bracelets for kids.  I had a great time having the older kids read what each color on the bracelet meant, making sure that it was not just a trinket from an American, but something that had actual eternal meaning.

As I was tying my last bracelet, the girl who would have been next to get one if I had anymore, noticed my ID badge hanging from my pant pocket.  "El es un luchador!"   (He's a wrestler/fighter!)  Thanks to Nacho Libre, I was familiar with that term and chucked to myself.  But that wasn't it; the crowd of kids began to repeat in whispers, "El es un luchador."

Without anymore bracelets to thread and tie, I began face/hand painting.  The boys quickly lined up and I painted a car for the first boy.  It was orange and looked a lot like the many Daewoo Taxis that drive the streets of Peru.  As I began painting another car, a different girl noticed and remarked, "El luchador es un artista!"  (The wrestler is an artist!)  The moment was hilarious and the rest of our time their in Poroy, I was, El Luchador to all the kids.

On a serious note, I pray that more than "the Wrestler," those kids remember the love we showed them. That when 40/40 missionaries come back they'll be interested some more, and ultimately, El Luchador will have helped plant a seed that will grow in good soil.  That God will reap a harvest in Poroy that is beyond anything we could hope or imagine.

In the end, that is probably to most positive impact Mr. Stone Cold Steve Austin has ever had.  On that thought, I'll say a prayer for him, too!

The Sick, the Anointed and the Called!                                                                        Thursday, June 24^th

Today was the festival of the Sun God here in Cusco, Peru.  Thousands came from all over the world to celebrate and observe this pagan Incan holiday.  With great caution we approached today, bathing it in prayer.  Today was symbolic of the sin that has the people here in Cusco entangled and imprisoned in darkness.  This pagan religion meshed with an unidentifiable form of Catholicism equals Idol worship! 

Due to the festival and 2 sick boys we voted to make today a movie day!  Miles threw up, but wanted us to know he was “just joking” and that he really was just fine.  Ryan made multiple trips to the bathroom, also convinced that an upset tummy should not deter us from ministry as usual.  Chad and I won the battle and the boys stayed home and watched borrowed Peruvian pirated versions of UP!, National Treasure and Chicken Little.

At 1:00pm I ventured out with a group of short-termers to go and anoint and pray over sites that will eventually be evangelized by our 40/40 missionaries that arrive here in October.  We drove a short distance to Santiago and joined together in prayer for the people there and then anointed the front steps of the Catholic Cathedral with oil; declaring our desire to see God’s anointing on the missionaries, on the people of Santiago and on the actual physical community!

We hopped on the bus to our second site of the day.  We twisted through the Andes Mountains for approximately ½ hour.  On our ride we could see the top of the mountain, (pronounced Sexy Woman), where the Peruvians were offering sacrifices and performing rituals to the Sun God.   My heart was torn as I was reminded once again of the grip that Satan has here in Cusco and what an amazing miracle it will be when he pierces the darkness and becomes victorious over the false gods and the darkened hearts in Peru!

Anta was our second stop to pray and anoint.  We gathered in the square, which all Peruvian towns have, and we anointed it, too, with oil.  We used the same prayer of dedication that Solomon did when he dedicated the temple to God in 2^nd Chronicles 6:18-21. Teary-eyed we all left quietly.  It was not just mindless words or acts that were preformed today, but the presence of God that showed up that will change the lives of the people in Santiago and Ante.

Tonight was awesome as well.  Chad and I took out 10 members of our short-term team that are considering long term ministry with Extreme!  We ate some amazing food and talked about the needs of Paraguay, Colombia and Peru (Extreme Peru 2).  Each dinner guest is called to go beyond what average life holds and jump into an amazing adventure of missions work across the world.  Several of them are ready to apply and jump on board very soon.  Be in prayer for each one of them as they answer God’s call into ministry!

In that same breathe, thank you!  Many of you reading this are a part of supporting our ministry with your love, prayers and finances as we continue to take on the amazing call God has placed on our lives!  I can’t help but to be overwhelmed by the fact that if God didn’t call us, and people like us, to be a part of mobilization, this work would not be possible.  No 40/40’s, no cluster support missionaries, no short term teams and no funds to plant Churches.  For it is you that have made all this possible!

Rachel