Editor’s note: Olivia Meyer, 23 of Eugene, Oregon, USA, and Andrew Kendall, 22 of Melba, Idaho, USA, are in the first wave of 40/40 volunteers deploying in Peru for two years of evangelism training and church planting.
The 40/40 is a new church planting strategy in Peru in which 40 Peruvian volunteer missionaries will partner with 40 non-Peruvian volunteers to plant 120 churches throughout Peru over three years. This strategy is being implemented with the help of Extreme Nazarene Ministries’ Extreme Peru project.
Learn about the 40/40 strategy and Extreme Peru by visiting extremenazarene.org. Watch interviews with 40/40 volunteers. Read more coverage on Engage.
Engage: When did you first recognize God was calling you to be a missionary?
Meyer: I felt a call to missions when I was 8 years old and I have been pursuing that ever since, really. Harmon Schmelzenbach came to my home church when I was 8, sharing about his experiences in Africa. At the end of his time, he opened the altar to anyone who was willing to go wherever God wanted them—not necessarily a call to mission, but a willingness to go. My 8-year-old little heart felt God just pushing me in that direction, so I went forward. God’s been more than amazing at continually reassuring me that it wasn’t an over-imaginative 8-year-old thinking she heard things.
Engage: What were you doing when you first heard about Extreme Peru?
Meyer: My younger sister was going (to Extreme ’08 in Argentina) and she was like, “Olivia, you need to pray about going.” It was my senior year at NNU (Northwest Nazarene University, Idaho, USA). I said, “No, I can’t miss three weeks of school at the beginning of a semester.” My sister was very adamant that I at least pray about it.
I had some anonymous donors pay for almost my entire trip and my teachers were very good about working with my schedule and I was able to go to Extreme ‘08. They did the formal announcement (for the next Extreme project) on Thursday night while we were down there.
Engage: As a 40/40 volunteer, you will be partnered with a Peruvian volunteer for the next two years. What kind of ministry will you be doing together?
Meyer: Not only are we going to be planting churches, we’re going to be starting a hope house (in Puerto Maldonado). There’s a huge prostitute community—it’s a city of 40,000 and they have 300 prostitutes, which is an absurdly high number. We’re going to be working with these young women, doing counseling and job training and giving them an opportunity to do something different with their lives. A lot of these young women are not very educated and they have family depending on them to send money home to support younger siblings, to support their parents. This is a job that pays well and there’s always a market. If that’s all that they know how to do, then that’s what they can do.
We would like to come in and be able to share the love of Christ with them, that he has redeemed them and give them a fresh start in life. We’d like to give them the tools to go out into the world and be respectable, upstanding people.
I recently learned that a lot of these girls were kind of tricked into it. They didn’t necessarily understand what they were getting themselves into. They were told they were going to Puerto Maldonado and they would be party girls—they could sit there and look pretty and people would admire them. They came to Puerto Maldonado, they had to give their identification cards for background checks, and then realized weeks into it, “I don’t really like what I’m doing here.” They ask for ID cards because you cannot take any mode of transportation besides a taxi without your ID, and the taxi would be so expensive. So these girls are basically trapped in Puerto.
Engage: What do you think about the church planting you will be doing?
Meyer: I’m so excited, but I’m scared to death. I’ve never done a church plant before. This will definitely be a new experience. And the Peruvian Nazarene church has a plan already set up as far as how we’re going to plant a church. We’re going to start out, go to a house and introduce ourselves and ask if we can pray for them and talk with them for a little while. I’m going to give my testimony. In the area we’re at, this will most likely be the first time they’ve ever had a North American come into their home. It’s going to be a way to open the door. We’re using the opportunities that we have to step in.
So we’ll go to a few people’s homes in a small area and hope to reach enough people in that area to start a Bible study and grow with them for six months and hopefully cultivate a leader from that group and go from there.
Engage: Did you know Spanish before you joined Extreme Peru?
Meyer: I had no Spanish training at all when I came down. I have language school five days a week, four hours a day. It is an amazing school. I’ve lived with a host family and it has been incredible how much I’ve learned in the past three months. I’m able to converse with almost everybody and I’m able to understand the majority of it. I can get my point across. If I don’t know the exact word I want, my vocabulary is large enough I can use other words to explain what I’m trying to say. To come with nothing and be able to be at this point already—it’s incredible.
Engage: You have to raise all your own support as a 40/40 volunteer. What has that been process like for you?
Meyer: Before you come down you have to have at least half of your money in the bank, and all of it promised. So before I came down, I spoke at a couple different churches and sent out sponsor letters, and people have donated to support me for this two years. That was amazing. I’m the oldest child and I’m very much somebody that (thinks), “I can do this by myself and I don’t need to ask for help.” To have to depend on God to work on the other people and depend that other people are going to listen to God prompting them was a huge humbling experience.
Engage: What do you think about the Extreme Peru 40/40 strategy?
Meyer: I love it. I love that we’re being paired with a local Peruvian, with somebody that understands the culture, so I’m not coming down and being like, “I’m an American; this is what’s what.” I love the idea of taking people out of their comfort zone and teaching them a different language. I love the idea that it’s a group of young people that are willing to go wherever God calls them. Half of this group of 40/40s didn’t go to college. They’re following God now before they do something that the world kind of expects. I love that. I think that the 40/40 strategy not only is opening the doors for young people who don’t necessarily do the traditional manner of missions, it’s something that appeals to young people, I think. I think it’s beautiful.
Engage: What do you think Extreme Peru offers to our denomination?
Meyer: By the time we’re done, the majority of people that are going to be involved with Extreme are going to be under 30 years old. That sets a whole new generation that’s going to be involved with mission that up until this point has either been too young or just hasn’t cared. Extreme is bringing in whole families. We have one project next April that is going to be family time in Cusco. We want whole families to come down and be involved in ministry and mission together. We have Rumble in the Jungle--we’re having teenagers come to Puerto Maldonado and be involved in missions. I love that we’re having the whole spectrum of ages be involved. I think that’s something that’s been missing in the recent past.
Engage: Have you thought about your future beyond this two-year commitment?
Meyer: The more involved I am, the more I learn, the more I want to be a part of Extreme. I have a call to missions that is going to last a lifetime. My contract isn’t going to be up in two years with God. I don’t know where I’m going to go next or what it’s going to look like, but I’m a career missionary. It’s not over yet.
Meyer recently graduated from Northwest Nazarene University (NNU), Idaho, USA, with a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries, with an emphasis in missions.