Candra Colla Niswanger

I worked for Candra Oakes-Niswanger for over a decade. During that time she taught me how to run a successful business using organization, processes and impeccable client service. Perhaps more importantly, she showed me by example and guidance how to have a work-life balance that many people deem unobtainable. From a newly graduated college student to a married woman with 3 kids and a career, Candra has been there for me every step of the way and has made me a success story.

Working with Candra has truly been refreshing, encouraging and empowering! She is an amazing leader to many and has the rare gift of understanding artistry and administration, as well as developing others by identifying and pulling out gifts. I have worked with many worship leaders and I have always been blown away by how amazing Candra is at leading a congregation in to the Father’s heart and also leading her team into grabbing hold of their calling and potential. She has also been a great accountability source for me to continue to press forward in my gifting as well. But above and beyond all these great things she truly models the love of Christ. I thank God for Candra Niswanger!!!

My whole life, I’ve never encountered anyone who impacted me like Candra has. She is, what I like to call, a gold miner. God places different gifting and callings over everyone of us. It’s a process to discover what that is. It takes someone like her to pull the gold out. Candra gave me the tools I needed to develop intimacy and communication, first, with the One who gifted me in worship, teaching, and in leadership. Next, she took an intimidated, beat down worshiper and replaced all of the lies that I had believed with truth. She believed in me and poured wisdom and encouragement into my life, until my tank was full enough for me to believe in myself. I’ve learned so much from her mentoring and friendship. Because of what she’s taught me, dead dreams are living again, new dreams have been discovered, and I have increased faith to believe that God’s plans for my life are limitless. For the rest of my life, she will be one of the most influential people in my life. I am grateful for her prophetic gifting, for her passion, and her incredible leadership ability. Leadership is not taught, it’s caught. She models what she teaches, and makes herself a living example of a child of God walking in her anointing. She’s a treasure that is so instrumental in equipping the saints to hear God and act on what they hear!

As Candra’s Pastor I can truly say that. “ Candra lives a life of worship” Her music is an extension of her intimate walk with Jesus. When you hear her worship, you are listening to an extension of who she is as a woman of God. Candra strives for excellence in all that she does and this is especially evident in her relationship with Jesus Christ. In a music culture that is sometimes full of hype and self-promotion, Candra’s heart is to get closer to Jesus and have you along on that journey with her. I encourage you to listen to her CD as you are driving or as you are doing your devotional reading, it will surely help you to experience the Lord in a deep and meaningful way.

I have been blessed to call Candra my friend and spiritual counselor of over 20 years. I trust her guidance implicitly because I know she has immersed herself in the Lord’s word. Whether I’ve wanted to hear her message or not, I’ve always trusted it to be what I’ve needed to hear. Her guidance has always led me in the right direction.

I have known Candra since 2004 when I became part of the worship team at Faith Center in Great Falls Montana. Over the years she has encouraged me in my gifting as well as challenged me to push beyond my comfort zone. When I relocated to Austin Texas for six years we remained friends and stayed in touch.When we came back to Great Falls in 2014, it was such a joy to be able to pick up where we left off and continue singing and worshiping together. I appreciate her humble leadership skills as well as her wisdom as she directs people of all ages with encouraging words and faith-based hope.

I’ve been knowing Candra for about 6 years now and there are a plethora of things that I could write about her. So I will make it short. Throughout the 6years of getting to know Candra she has taken the time out to give me pointers on how to grow my brand, understand the value and importance of time and other people’s time. I credit her for creating the monster that I am today. Also during our time working together on music she is always stretching my ear muscle to get the best out of the music that we work on together. Lastly she never fails to remind me of the Man that God has called me to be. And when you have that type of person in your corner you can’t help but become great. I can go on and on but for the sake of time, I just want to say that this young lady has been a blessing in my life.

Candra is honestly one of the most kindhearted people I know. Candra is the supercool chick that everyone wants to be friends with because of how uplifting, encouraging, and down for a good laugh she is. I have attended Candra’s bible study over the past two years during in which I have greatly been impacted and my life is changed . Before getting to know Candra and attending her bible study I was severely depressed. All though I had a relationship with the Lord I still walked daily in depression. I had no idea how much the power of my words had on and effected the way I live, feel, and view things. Since then, I received prayer; Candra and the worship team members prayed over me and broke of the word curses that I spoke over myself. Candra specifically countered the word curses by speaking life over me, speaking to the dark places, and releasing healing in the name of Jesus. Praise the Lord, I can say the big black cloud that always hung over me is now gone. I feel more alive and have much more peace. I will be forever grateful. Thanks and blessings.

The time I spent with Candra is etched in my memory as a time of critical growth. I still often think of the questions she asked and the statements she made that challenged and stretched my thinking. She continually took the time to really hear me, and she focused on building a relationship that allowed me to really hear her in return. I felt valued, safe and encouraged. Additionally, her coaching created exponential growth in areas that would propel me in the future seasons of my life.

I’ve worked with Candra for several years now and beyond the day-to-day issues of the work we do together, I find the experience of working with Candra more inspiring and nurturing than I often do with colleagues. What I particularly appreciate about working with Candra is that though we come from significantly different traditions and worldviews she treats me respect and I find that I am inspired by her ability to get things done in a clear headed manner and all with humor and grace.