Have Any Questions?

Have Any Questions?
People ask me a lot of questions about Extreme Peru, and I love to answer them! So let me post a little Q & A session right here on my blog, and if you have any other questions, let me know!

What is Extreme Nazarene Ministries?
Extreme Nazarene Ministries is a freestanding 501c3 non-profit charitable organization and is governed by a board of directors. Extreme’s purpose is to seek and deploy people into an extreme expansion of God’s Kingdom. Extreme has partnered exclusively with the global Church of the Nazarene to seek out underserved needs within mission of the Church of the Nazarene. Extreme engineers solutions to those needs in conjunction with our field charters that are governed by Extreme and Nazarene field executives.

What is Extreme Peru?
Extreme Nazarene Ministries and the leadership of Peru and South America, together have formed the project, Extreme Peru. Extreme Peru exists to seek and deploy people into the darkest parts of Peru carrying the light of Jesus Christ so that minds, hearts and souls may be radically transformed in Him and to break the chains linking them to their dark Godless world.
Extreme Peru is a 4-year project commencing in 2008 and ending in February 2012. At the completion of the project, the goal is to have 120 new community centric mission churches planted in 7 geographical regions of Peru (Arequipa, Cusco, Iquitos, Puerto Maldonado, Pucallpa, Puno & Tacna).
The strategy to plant those churches is two-fold: the 40/40 strategy and short-term volunteer strategy.

What is the 40/40 strategy?
Extreme has developed a new missionary model that seeks to deploy 40 North American singles and 40 Peruvian singles into a 2-year church planting campaign. Each North American will be paired up with a Peruvian of the same gender. The pair will go through 6 months of job training, then 18 months planting 3 churches. 40 pairs, planting 3 churches each will result in 120 new churches planted.

So can I come down short-term?
We have opened up over 800 spots for volunteers to come to one of the 7 cities to assist the 40/40’s in their church planting work for 13 day periods. Short term volunteers are critical to the success of the project for many reasons. Mainly, short term volunteers provide highly skilled volunteer labor for construction, evangelism, discipleship, leadership training, compassionate outreach and mega-events coordination. 13 different events for short term volunteers are planned between July 2009 and June 2010. The energy and impact generated by these events will propel the 40/40’s forward further than they can reach alone.

Where are you going to be, Cailyn?
I will be in Cusco.
Let me tell you a little bit about Cusco:

At an altitude of 3,393 meters (11,203 feet) above sea level and a population of 320,152, Cusco is an anchor city of the high mountain plains (Altiplano) of Peru. The dozens of small villages dotting the mountains surrounding Cusco are fertile grounds for the Gospel. Many of these villages, filled with beautiful people who still speak their native Inca tongue have not yet been granted the opportunity to hear about their Savior Jesus Christ.
The famous Machu-Picchu ruins of the Inca Empire is just a short ride from Cusco making it the tourism capital of Peru by many respects. The influx of tourism spending affords Cusco nice streets and a developed and safe downtown life. While the high altitude takes some time to adjust to, it does not stop the thousands of visitors every day from coming.

In January 2008, the church of the Nazarene sent its first missionary, Herbert Barco, to Cusco. Pastor Barco arrived on scene with nothing more than his family, his well worn Bible and a prayer that God would pave the way. Barco entered Cusco and did just as God guided him to do; he set out to love his new neighbors. In the first three months, Pastor Barco exceeded original goals by initiating discipleship classes with 20 new Christian adults.

When Pastor Barco first arrived on the scene, he quickly identified a critical need that he wanted to help remedy. He has formed partnerships with two different after-school homes for elementary school kids who live in extreme poverty or broken homes. Pastor Barco and his congregation regularly staff the homes, prepare healthy meals for the kids and conduct Bible studies with the kids. Extreme Nazarene has agreed to assist the church with their outreach to these kids in need by funding additional meals (current budget only allows 1 meal per week) and a kitchen remodel of one of the homes.

What will you do on a day-to-day basis?
40/40’s primary job is to build relationships with the community. They will be meeting people, connecting with families, playing soccer, starting Bible studies, doing VBS camps, feeding the hungry, etc. The end goal is to develop a church congregation in a community sharing the love of Christ.

Where will you live?
40/40’s will be living in the Cluster housing provided by Extreme Nazarene. In the cluster housing they will be living with other sets of 40/40’s and a cluster support family that will be their primary host and support.

How can we support you?
1. Prayer! Sign up to be a prayer partner online. You have no idea how much I appreciate your prayers!
2. As a volunteer missionary, I have to raise all my own funds. This means I am responsible for raising more than $16,000. Now that sounds daunting, and no, I do not have it all yet. But you can help. I need 30 people to pledge to support me with $25 a month. Now that doesn’t sound too bad! You can make a one time donation, or sign up with a monthly pledge at www.extremenazarene.org/stevens. Please partner with me to plant three churches in Peru, and be a part of expanding the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven.

When do you leave?
I leave home on January 31, and fly to Los Angeles for orientation. Then we fly to Peru on February 5.