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Attention: Parents of the sweet 4th graders that I subbed for or parents of any other children who may read this blog; its important for you to know that this particular blog is someone else’s story and it addresses some difficult topics that aren’t suitable for children. I just wanted to forewarn you and let you know in advance that you should read it first before they do! My intentions are not to evoke any uncomfortable questions or conversations, but to glorify God and the redemptive power of His love. Kids, if you’re reading this, please ask your parent/guardian to read it first. ———————————————————————————————————————
On The World Race thus far The Lord has given me the opportunity to meet more of my brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s been an absolute blessing to learn more and more each day that we cannot put God in a box and His power and love for us is limitless. No matter what lives we’ve lived or the hardships we’ve been through, He can redeem us, restore us, and overfill us with His love, grace, and light. No one is lost or unreachable and any sin one could ever commit or will ever commit, has been paid for. Once we accept Jesus into our hearts; when God looks at us, He sees Jesus. His love is unfathomable and unexplainable.
Something that I’m being shown more and more is the power of testimony: the experience, strength, and hope that God has given individually to each and every one of us. It’s been placed on my heart that this particular story should be heard. I hope it impacts you like it impacted me. The Lord is so good and I’m grateful for this particular woman, her story, and her obedience in The Lord to share it to glorify Him.
In October of 2017 The Lord crossed my paths with my beautiful sister in Christ, Kendra. Kendra is on my World Race Squad and she was one of the first people I met in person. One of the first things that I loved about her is her laugh. She has a contagious and joyful laugh that you can’t help but join in, even if you have no idea why she’s laughing about!
This month we are in The Dominican Republic and that means our whole squad is living together, which totals 42 people. I tell this to you because I just wanted to highlight the bravery and obedience in Kendra. One night we were ALL sitting together for session and for a while she had felt The Lord calling her to share her testimony to us all, and that night she followed through with that call. She got up in front of us all and shared beautifully the story Our Father has gifted her.
No one could tell it better than her, so it is my great pleasure to introduce her. Meet Kendra!
Hey y’all! My name is Kendra. I’m 25 years old and I’m from Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. I grew up as an only child for most of my life. I have a mom who has MS (Multiple Sclerosis), she has had it since she was 19. It’s a mystery to her doctors as to why she is still alive since she’s had it for almost 40 years now. Her disease greatly affected my childhood and I learned from a young age that I had to be her protector, provider, and care giver. Growing up I was heavily involved in gymnastics and was able to fall in love with the sport. I loved every minute of it. My dad, who had been a gymnast for years, was able to coach and help me continue to strive and acquire new skills. We moved around a bit and ended up moving to the mid west where I discovered power tumbling and excelled in it greatly. Through gymnastics I discovered how to be disciplined and use my time wisely. I was able to set goals and achieve them. At the age of 10, we moved back to Idaho. I was devastated because that meant all the hard work I had put in for power tumbling went down the drain. Growing up I didn’t know the Lord at all. I was told that I was responsible for my actions and couldn’t blame my problems on anyone else. I had known the name God, had no idea who Jesus or the Holy Spirit was. I now can see a tremendous amount of times growing up and through my teenage years where God intervened in my life, protected me and guided me even when I didn’t believe in Him. My parents divorced at the age of 12 and it totally changed my life. In my life I have been beaten, raped, molested, done drugs, drank extremely excessive where I consider myself an alcoholic at that point, tried to commit suicide twice and have tried things spiritually I never should have tried. All my life I had been searching for something that was missing but never knew what it was. Thank goodness I finally found the love of Christ! After my parents divorce, my dad was completely out of my life. My mom started spiraling down and ended up drinking a lot, and I would have to go pick her up and take care of her as a middle schooler. During that time my mom became romantically involved with a woman named Angel. Angel ended up moving in with us and our relationship was good for a while. Angel had been sober from drugs for 11 years and sober from alcohol for 7 years. During that time she and I became close and I was able to see her as a friend and confidant. At the age of 13 and a half I started working and supporting myself, my mom and Angel. I started paying the mortgage secretly through Angel for my mom and have learned what it means to work for everything I have. I am thankful for the hard work I have been able to learn through my experiences and wouldn’t change a thing. At the age of 13, a family friend who was like my second father knocked me down and dragged me into my moms bedroom on Christmas during a Christmas party and attempted to rape me. I was able to get him off me eventually and ran straight to Angel to tell her what happened. I remember Angel dragging him back into my moms bedroom and almost killing him before we could stop her. I reimburse telling his wife, who was like my second mom, and having to console her that night. Things started to drastically change in my life after that. Mind you I grew up being very good at faking my life. I was always a straight A student, in all advanced classes, able to be involved in many sports after stopping gymnastics and keeping my home life, my home life. I have always been heavily involved in activities, volunteering at nonprofits, and working multiple jobs. Angel started spiraling downward after a car accident that she had to get back surgery from. She became heavily addicted to pain pills and alcohol. We ended up sending her to rehab twice and it never worked. After a while, Angel and I would fight consistently and I never could understand how she could do this to herself or others. In high school, I went through serious medical issues where I was almost hospitalized a few times and doctors couldn’t figure out why. I was deathly anemic. Also at the age of 17, in my senior year of high school, after my home life was so bad, I ended up living out of my car for a while. And then moved out of my house permanently. I moved in with a friend’s family. They immediately took me in, loved me, and showed me the love of Christ. I went from being an only child to the oldest of 8! Talk about a transition. In the summer going into my first year of college, we found Angel dead on our floor. It was a hard time. Then a month and a half later I went off to college. At this point in my life I had given up on my life, didn’t know which way was up and was just ready to be done with my life. The Lord knew this and added my three best friends into my life. They were able to show me the love of Christ and invite me to church for an entire year before I actually went. During my sophomore year of college, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior! It was a hard and long process of forgiving others and forgiving myself. Through this process I have walked and continue to walk in forgiveness, redemption, and freedom of my past. God has used it in miraculous ways to bring others to Christ. I never thought I would ever be able to experience this type of joy, peace, love, grace and mercy. Over the years I have seen God work in my life and others. I have received the gift of tongues, visions, prophesy, discernment, and faith. After 10 years, God called me to reconnect with my father. Getting back in contact with him was like a piece of me came back. I am able to love him as Christ loves me. My WHOLE family, adopted and biological, all reunited at my college graduation. Talk about the Lord moving in mysterious ways! Three days after college, I went on my first missions trip to the Philippines (2015) where I was working for a non-profit that dealt with sex trafficking. We went into bars, rescued the girls and brought them to safe houses. While on that trip, I met a group of girls who were on the World Race and three years later BAM! I am on the race. A while after college I ended up quitting my job to move back home and take care of my mom full time. She had been in the hospital more than she had been at home and was so sick. I thought for a while she might be dying. Since then she has recovered so much and is physically, emotionally and spiritually stronger. We have been able to heal, laugh, rejoice and spend quality time together. I learned what it meant to be a servant and put someone else’s needs before my own. Through my life I am able to glorify God for every situation I have been through and know that only He could do what He did to rescue me, save me, and bring me back to life. I am thankful for what I have been though because I have learned what it means to be loved with an everlasting love. Jesus died on the cross for me and now I get to travel around the world glorifying Him and sharing the love of Christ with each person I come into contact with. Also He is already using my testimony to break the chains of others and being able to witness to them and see them taste the goodness of the Lord is something too good to even imagine. And now I am on the World Race! God has made the impossible possible and is teaching me so much. He has far exceeded every thought or dream I could’ve ever had and I am so lucky! It’s only Month 2 and He has shown me so much love through the people I’ve met and experiences I’ve been able to have. Please feel free to reach out, talk, and ask any questions. I’d be more than happy to share more of my testimony (I left a lot out) or answer any questions. I can be reached through my email, [email protected], or my blog, kendrawinnick.theworldrace.org.
Thank you for reading!
Sincerely and with many blessings,
Kendra
Hi it’s Courtney again!
Thank you for reading and I pray that this story The Lord has given her impacts you in some way. She’s an incredible woman and she’s really easy to talk to, so if you have any questions or have gone through similar things and want someone to talk to, please don’t be afraid to reach out. The other thing I feel called to share is that, as you probably already know $18,100 is needed to go on the World Race and The Lord has provided $7,324 thus far and there is still $10,775 left to raise and 38 days left to reach this goal. Only God could do this miracle.
Please pray for Kendra and that The Lord continues to provide for this World Race journey and uses her to share the redemptive and beautiful power of His love. If you feel called to donate to Kendra or just want to follow her journey please visit her blog at kendrawinnick.theworldrace.org
