For Noemi Kunkel, GenSend is truly more than a summer. In fact, it’s made an eternal difference. She had no idea how her life would be transformed when a GenSend Summer team descended upon Salt Lake City in 2024. Her life was changed forever.
Noemi met the team at a critical time when she felt lost and broken. Having grown up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her understanding of the gospel had left her feeling defeated.
“I felt an overwhelming pressure that I’m not good enough. I can’t do all the things I’m supposed to do. I can’t check all these boxes,” Noemi related.
In her dejection and loneliness, Kunkel turned her back on God and chose to live on her own terms. She longed for something real and meaningful, and sought it in a community that could never meet her heart’s deepest longing. She didn’t yet realize that desire could only be fulfilled by the Lord Jesus.
Enter the GenSend Summer Team
The GenSend team met Noemi and immediately sought to build a friendship with her. They invited her into their weekly rhythms of community nights, games in the park, and hangouts at a soda shop to get to know her.
Initially, Noemi felt unsure of how this group of committed Christians would receive her, since she didn’t know where she stood with God, but the team embraced her where she was in her spiritual journey. They developed and nurtured relationships with her, all the while demonstrating the love of Christ and speaking the hope of the gospel message. Their love wasn’t dependent on Noemi’s performance of doing all the right things, and this began to open her heart to God again.
Finally, her friend Paige from the GenSend team asked her, “Noemi, where’s your hope?” That question was the turning point. Noemi had always placed her hope in herself, in her ability to be good enough, but she knew it wasn’t working.
She shared, “It felt like everything I did was like washing a car with a dirty rag; I could never get the car clean.”
Now that she had heard the gospel again, she had to decide if she wanted it. Could she receive His love to cover her unworthiness? Ultimately, she said yes to Christ and has found her greatest joy in Him, all because He chose to work through the faithful love of the GenSend Summer team.
From Utah to New Orleans On Mission
God began to use the story of the woman at the well in John 4 in Noemi’s life as a new believer. The woman in the passage found her worth in Christ and immediately began to share the good news of Jesus with others.
Noemi found inspiration in how quickly the woman joined in the Great Commission task. The woman at the well didn’t wait to tell others the good news, but for a while, Noemi questioned. Did she need more theological education or training? Would she be able to defend her newfound faith as others might? She wrestled with the decision of whether to wait. Then, she was encouraged by the reality that if she knew the gospel well enough to accept it, she knew it well enough to share it with others.
She knew the gospel, and she wanted to go on mission. Her pastor suggested she serve with GenSend. Noemi was on board and sensed God calling her to serve in New Orleans.
She shared, “GenSend came to Utah, and they changed my life. I chose to come to New Orleans so that I can change other people’s lives. But it’s not me changing their lives; it’s God. God has worked in me, and He can now work through me so that I can pour His Word over the world and love every single person that I come across.”
More Than a Summer
Noemi’s experience in New Orleans taught her what it means to live on mission, to intercede for the lost, and to leverage every relationship for the gospel. The skills and lessons she learned in New Orleans will stick with her for the rest of her life. She’ll immediately put those to use as she’s back home in Salt Lake City serving on a church planting team that will launch Redemption Bear City next year. GenSend truly is more than a summer. It’s a catalyst for Noemi and others just like her to find their place in God’s kingdom.
Published October 20, 2025