Gateway Teams

2011-03-28T19:37:00.003-05:00

photo © 2011 John Benson more info (via: Wylio) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SPRING!!!! I love spring and all the fresh new changes it brings! We have new changes here at Gateway Teams too - stay tuned for a more lengthy update of all the new and exciting changes taking place with Gateway Teams ministry!

2010-12-13T09:38:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas Everyone! God bless you in the coming New Year!
Love the Schmors

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2010-06-23T11:22:00.005-05:00

To all of our loyal followers-
We all know that the seed of Christ needs to be spread to those in need. As we do our job in spreading the word of God, we also help to guide these children and give them encouragement to make the seed that the Lord has planted in each one of them grow. As we go through the very few days we have here at Chain of Love, as a team and individually, we are all really coming together to do our best to minister to these children. - From the opposite prospective, the children are also do wonderful things in all of our hearts! - Last week was a week full of soccer and beads!! We´ve all been learning, some slower than others, how to play soccer. It´s really a neat thing to experience. You think when you go on a mission to another country, that it´s about you teaching the people there what you know, when really it´s about them teaching you what they know. It´s really amazing. We have also had a lot of craft classes. Those are always a handful! The kids love making friendship bracelets and bead bracelets! One of the neatest things about the crafts classes was that it wasn´t just a group of girls, there were a lot of the boys that got involved. That was very interesting. We have had a lot of time to really bond with all the kids and I really just want to thank the Lord for this opprotunity that he has given everyone on this team to grow and become more open to the many walks of life that he created for us. As last week came to an end, there was just an amazing feeling of accomplishment radiating off of everyone on campus, including the children. On Friday our team took a trip into a part of Brazil that is known as "Little Italy" of sorts. It was really neat because it wasn´t like you were in Brazil, it was like being in Italy only all the people spoke portuguese. We went to a nice italian restaraunt and then drove around to all the different shops. We met a man who was 94 years old!! His son said the only reason he looked so good was he drank his daily wine, twice a day! :) Then we went to a winery and the adults tasted wine. Of course the under 21ers got grape juice that they made at the winery. It was very very tasty! Much better than Welch´s! We also went to a waterfall and walked behind the water. It was beautiful! After that we went to a few more shops and really had a great bonding experience, I felt, with everyone on the team. Saturday the team went into Campo Bom and just had a day full of shopping. Everyone was a little disappointed that the Indian Market was closed due to rain. Sunday was a good day with the kids! We had a party kind of relative to Super Bowl parties in America. Brazil played in the world cup against The Ivory Coast and won!! Very happy day! We also got the privillage to eat lunch in the families houses before the game. That was very heart-warming. The moment you enter someone´s house, there is just this automatic feeling of acceptance and love! I think it´s wonderful how God puts that quality in all of us, but the people here just do anything they can to express to you how much they care about you even though they may have just met you! It´s just an amazing feeling! Monday was our first day of English as a second language classes. It was really exciting to be able to really be an influence to these children even if it´s something as simple as teaching them how to count or teaching them the difference between red and blue! To see them really catch on and not only tell you they understand but to see that and for them to show you that they listen and they comprehend what you say! It´s very encouraging for us to teach and be taught at the same time! Yesterday was pretty much the same as Monday... EXCEPT FOR! The girls only soccer game! That was something very special to the girls here because it´s usualy mostly the guys that play soccer in the gym. They kind of dominate and the girls don´t really get the chance as often. So they wanted to play Americans versus Brazilians! All of us Americans were scared that we were going to get our butts kicked. Soccer in Brazil is like a religion! Very important! But to the surprise of MANY, AMERICANS WON!!! It was a very nice bonding experience!! Up to today, has been an amazing, very inspiring adventure for all of us! As we begin to bring our mission to a close we just all pray that God will continue to be with us as we start to make our ways home, and to also stay with these children and really inspire them to push on and really have that desire to serve Him and walk with Him. To really just want to be one of His many cities on a hill. Never ceasing to shine for Him! In His holy name!
By - Ashley Rogers, Brazil Gateway Team Journalist, June 2010

2010-06-16T12:18:00.004-05:00

On June 8, a Brazil Gateway Team gathered in Milwaukee, WI for a few days of training before heading to Campo Bom, Brazil on June 11. They came from Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Canada, Singapore and Korea; all to serve children at the CHAIN of Love Homes. Here's some pics of our time to this point:

2010-03-26T12:22:00.005-05:00

Daniel, Agathe and "baby" Randy

Daniel Wango from Yaounde, Cameroon is here in the USA with us! Daniel represents the Cameroon Baptist Convention Youth Dept. as President. North American Baptist Youth had a Youth Leader Summit in Monterey, CA last week that we invited Daniel to come and be a part of. Gateway Teams has been facilitating a partnership for a number of years between NAB and CBC Youth and having Daniel here as the first Cameroonian to come this way has been great! In addition to the Summit, Daniel went to Southern California for 5 days, is heading to Minneapolis today and will be with us in Wisconsin on Monday before heading home on April 3. Glad to have you here Daniel!

2010-01-26T12:30:00.002-06:00

Hey Everyone, my good friend, Dave Miller wrote a great article that is linked on the current home page of Christianity Today. Dave and I serve together on the Steering Committee for the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders.

It's a great article! Please take a look at: http://www.roundtripmissions.com/content/o-youth-pastor-where-art-thou

Thanks!

2009-12-31T11:52:00.002-06:00

A familiar song worth reading to the end....Happy New Year!

Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel

"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather

"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing .

2009-12-21T12:40:00.002-06:00

A cool and funny video for your Christmas pleasure!!
Merry Christmas!
The Schmors

2009-12-16T08:31:00.002-06:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

2009-12-15T10:49:00.003-06:00

A Christmas thought from Bono, of the Irish rock band, U2.........

"A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, 'You know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea…' And this wise man said: 'Stop. Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.' Well, God is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing. And that is what He’s calling us to do."

A 'Christmas thought' you might say (?) - well, yes...maybe we can take a look at what God is doing this Christmas and go from there, rather than...you know...

After all, Christmas was His idea to begin with.
- Randy

2009-12-11T12:40:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I don't normally do this, but as some of you know, we are leading one of our Gateway Teams in 2010 to Brazil. So, I thought there may be a few more of you out there that aren't on our email listings that may be interested in this opportunity. If that's YOU :) - please get in touch with us as soon as possible. The following is a copy of the last email we sent out in promotion of this opportunity; as you get in touch with us, we'll send you the 'attached documents' that are mentioned at the bottom of the message. Thanks!

November 20, 2009

Hello again and Happy Thanksgiving (Americans! Belated, Canadians!). We’ve had a good response to the opportunity of a Brazil Gateway Team to the CHAIN of Love Homes in Campo Bom next June! Please know that unless you’ve responded to us directly, this will be the last email you’ll receive about this as the application deadline is approaching on December 11, 2009.

If you’re unaware of the details of this particular mission, please read on and also take a look at the attached document ‘Proposal for Gateway Team to Brazil’.

We’re now in what we call the Promotion Stage (9-7 months away from departure) so here are a few items to consider at this point:

Promotion Stage (9-7 Months Out) Items - FOR THE JUNE 2010 BRAZIL (CHAIN OF LOVE HOMES) GATEWAY TEAM:

Payment Schedule & Info
***Finances and Important Dates***
– this is a major question that many will have at this point…Fees/Funds should come from 3 sources:

(1) Team Member Personal Contribution ($100/person minimum)
(2) Team Member’s Home Church (special services/offerings/church budget)
(3) Letters to Family/Friends OUTSIDE of Home Church

-ALL FUNDS US (USD)-

* Please note that these are TOTALS to have by each due date; the vendors (airfare, etc.) receiving the checks will be given later. ALSO, PLEASE ASK YOUR CHURCH ABOUT DOING THE RECEIVING AND INDIVIDUAL RECEIPTING FOR DONATIONS RECEIVED FOR THIS MISSION. The church can then make out the checks payable to the correct vendors as you’ll be receiving that information at later dates. If you do not have this option available to you, please let us know ASAP. Thank you!

We’ll work on the basis of these dates for funds due (and other key dates) unless otherwise informed –

September 22, 2009 – Team Member Applications available on Gateway Teams’ website under “Resources” - Gateway Teams Website >http://www.nabconference.org/pages.asp?pageid=717

Payment #1 Due – December 11, 2009 - $100/person (non-refundable) - Team Member Applications and Team Member’s MINIMUM PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION due to Gateway Teams Office (Brookfield, WI address in signature below)

February 11, 2010 – Team Training begins (individual study materials, preparation for June Team Training Retreat which will immediately precede the mission and be in the Milwaukee area)

Payment #2 Due – March 28, 2010 - $1700/person – Primarily the cost of airfare

Payment #3 Due – May 11, 2010 - $1000/person (approximate, actual amount TBA) - The balance of the trip costs

June 8-11, 2010 – Team Training Retreat AND Assistant Leader Training session – (“Effective Planning, Training and Leading of Short-Term Mission Teams”) - in Milwaukee, WI

June 11-28, 2010 – Brazil Mission

Please NOTE! – Funds MUST be collected & checks MUST be received by the vendors (TBA) by the dates indicated. Failure to do so will result in cancellation of the mission.

**Also please note that the amounts of Payment #2 and #3 may change primarily due to airfare**

- Airfare and/or Ground Transport – I’m working on these logistics right now….please note from the material above that this mission will depart from Milwaukee; your travel to and from there is NOT included in the Payment Schedule above -

- Planning fund-raising - funds should be raised 3 ways:

- Team Member personal contribution ($100) - with application

- Church budget, special offerings and fund-raising events - plan NOW

- Support letters to relatives and friends OUTSIDE of your Home church - THIS IS IMPORTANT! - not to be done until team training begins in February

- Team Member applications – are available NOW and are due by December 11 - (the beginning of the Selection Stage) with a $100 non-refundable fee; the team member's personal contribution

- Team Training Schedule – is attached to this email so the full time commitment of this mission can be considered

Attached Documents to this email –

- Brazil Appendix M – please insert in your GT Team Member’s Manuals when you receive them
- Portuguese “Helps” Booklets – also to be inserted in manuals as a part of Appendix M
- Proposal for Gateway Team to Brazil – Please review

- We are here to help you in your preparations any way we can….let us know what questions you have.

Thanks everyone, I look forward to your responses. Blessings!

2009-12-10T09:50:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone.

I'm just offering a brief update on Kerry Livgren (see post below) and his stroke recovery. Please go to - http://www.topekabiblechurch.org/services/sunday/sermons/978-abcs-of-thanksgiving - Livgren's testimony starts at about the 6 min. mark on the video. Thanks to my good friend John R. for getting this to me!

Blessings and a joyous Christmas to all!

2009-11-09T15:41:00.004-06:00

Hey everyone!
I'm just finishing an amazing week with our first Bulgaria Gateway Team! The Oprenovs (our partners here) and their church, Sofia Baptist, are awesome and have incredible vision for reaching out with the Gospel of the Kingdom into the hardest issues facing this city-center Sofia church.
We were able to help with ESL classes over the past week or so and also had the opportunity to share in church yesterday.
Take a look at Randy's facebook page for more on this at...
http://www.facebook.com/randy.schmor

There will actually be more pictures and video to come from this mission soon.
Thanks!

2009-09-25T16:29:00.001-05:00

Just found out that Kerry Livgren of the band Kansas (writer of 'Dust in the Wind' and 'Carry On My Wayward Son') had a massive stroke on Sept. 1. His family is asking for prayer. See the links below for more details...
http://www.kansasband.com/news/
http://www.numavox.com/

2009-08-24T16:31:00.004-05:00

I know it's quite uncharacteristic of us to post twice in a week (!); but we're excited to share a video with you that highlights one of our newest partners in Bulgaria. We're also quite excited to be taking our first Bulgaria Gateway Team to Sofia to work with this ministry as well in October (28 - Nov 10) 2009.

http://www.bulgarianpartners.org/building_hope.aspx
(please paste in your browser)

Thanks again for your interest, partnership and support!
The Schmors

2009-08-21T10:55:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone!

We've come to the end of another busy summer here at Gateway Teams...and for the Schmors, an amazing number of weeks in Germany, Cameroon, Canada and Mexico.

Our family's been back from Mexico City for about a week now and in addition to a great 11 days with the Castros in Tlahuac, we had a some quality time with our long-time friends, the Lunas and another one of our Mexico City host receivers, Jaime Becerras. Jaime pastors churches in Santa Ursula Coapa and Huixquilucan in the Mexico City region.

But, back to Tlahuac...we led a Mexico Gateway Team from North Pointe Baptist Church in Warren, Michigan with our partners, Juan and Anamaria Castro who themselves are church planting missionaries from Chile/Brazil. Tom Gibson is the Youth Pastor from North Pointe and did a great job chronicling our time there in video and pictures...take a look and thanks again for your support and prayers!

2009-07-22T14:11:00.002-05:00

Hi!
Just a few quick updates....and fyi's....

1. Cameroon - Nick and I (Randy) did make it home! We arrived late on July 3, exhausted but very encouraged. Our last days in Cameroon gave us a chance to recup a little bit as we hit the ground running pretty hard upon our arrival there. The future partnership between our youth and youth leaders among the Cameroon Baptist and NAB looks very promising and this training team consisting of a mix of Cameroonians and Americans was a great experience!

2. Canada - The whole family had the opportunity to head to Winnipeg, Manitoba last week for the North American Baptist's 'Triennial' Conference. It was exhausting, but a great week all in all as we connected with many friends, supporters and participants in Gateway Teams. Randy and Shelly led 2 workshops on "Effective Short-Term Missions - What is it?" and Kameron had a great time in the well organized children's program (although he continually lets us know that he's almost a Middle-Schooler!).

3. Mexico - We're heading there with a team from the Detroit area next week. Please pray for us as we re-connect with our friends in the Mexico City region of 'Tlahuac' and help them reach their community with children's ministry and English classes.

4. Brazil - (read on, maybe this is for you!)
CHAIN of Love Homes - www.chainoflove.org - Campo Bom, Brazil
Gateway Teams is taking an 'open' team to help serve the children of CHAIN of Love in June 2010. Please send us an email if you would like more details or are interested in applying!

Randy Schmor

2009-06-29T11:16:00.005-05:00

NAB Youth gave towards the purchase of this motorcycle for the Ndu Field Youth Pastor back in 2003.

Youth Leaders that attended the Ndu seminar.

Nick Reyes teaching on the 'Building' section of our seminar.

No, it's not Greg Jennings but Richard Apongde, one of our trainers who has become a recent Packer fan! (Just kidding, but he did like the shirt! Especially in Ndu's cool 7500 ft. altitude!)

The group of CBC Youth Leaders attending our seminar in hot and sticky Mutengene, close to the coast.

Hello friends from Bamenda, Cameroon in West Africa!

As some of you know, I (Randy) am here with Youth Pastor Nick Reyes from Fontana, CA working together with youth leaders of the Cameroon Baptist Convention for the past 2 weeks. We completed the 3rd of our 3 discipleship seminars for youth leaders here using material from J-Life Africa on the Strategy of Jesus (as well as a follow-up seminar entitled 'Foundations'). Thank you for your prayers!

The training that we've been doing is a part of a partnership between North American Baptist (NAB) Youth and Leaders and the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) Youth and Leaders that has been going on for the past 5-6 years. I led the first training team of 6 youth leaders here back in 2007 and this current mission is the follow-up to that. From this point, the training of lay youth leaders in about 800 CBC churches here will be done by the Cameroonians. As a matter of fact, although just Nick and I traveled out here, we actually were a team of 5 as Tah Martin, Daniel Wango and Richard Apongde, who are all a part of the CBC youth leadership, joined forces with us as one training team.

We started in Mutengene, close to the Atlantic coast and about an hour from the Douala airport, moved on to Bamenda about 5 hours inland, and then went 5 more hours further inland to the village of Ndu, close to the Nigerian border. All together, close to 300 youth leaders were in attendance with over 135 attending at Ndu on June 25-26. (back in 2007 we had about 150 youth leaders in 4 different locations) The response was exceptional and our team was very encouraged as these youth leaders traveled, some over great distance to be a part of these seminars. Examples: at Ndu, some youth leaders walked on foot 8 hours to come; one man, Pastor Genesis, was in a car that he hired along with some others to come that rolled over a number of times, he ended up climbing out and helping the others and still made it to the seminar.

But what impressed us the most about the attenders here was their commitment to God and their knowledge of the Scriptures. They asked very good questions, knew the Scripture references they quoted and showed an incredible love for youth and the desire to see them grow spiritually.

We also have had our share of adventure as many of the roads here are unpaved with many dips, holes (potholes would be way too mild of a term) and slick mud because we're in the middle of rainy season. As a matter of fact, as we were coming back from Ndu to Bamenda on Friday, our car slid off of the road and it took the 5 of us with the help of 4 other persons to actually lift the car out of it's prone position, ready to fall 4 feet down into a ditch, back onto a part of the road that was a little more stable; and all of this in slick mud and rain.

But we thank God for this time, for commited youth leaders and CBC youth leadership to pass this training onto and for the opportunity to share in ministry together with these committed followers of Jesus. And...we thank you for praying! Please don't stop! Nick and I will be traveling back to the coast tomorrow and then our flight will leave on July 1 late at night taking us to 2 stops in Europe before we finally end up back in Milwaukee late on July 2. Nick especially needs your prayers as he deals with excrusiating back pain that the rough trip back from Ndu revived, the result of a car accident he had some years ago. It hasn't been easy for him since we returned here to Bamenda last Friday and we have a lot of miles/kilometers to cover in the next few days.

Thanks again for your prayers and interest! If you'd like more details, please send us an email and let Shelly or I know.

In His Grip,

Randy

2009-06-23T08:10:00.004-05:00

Hey Everyone!

Thank you for all the prayers for the combined team of youth leaders from the US and Cameroon. Things are going really well at the seminars, and exciting things are happening. Please continue to pray for health and safety for Randy and Nick. It's hot there! They will be finishing up some seminars in Bamenda today and then on to the town of Ndu. Please continue to pray for good relationships to be built with our brothers and sisters in Cameroon. It is exciting to be a part of the Kingdom work around the world. What a privilege that God allows us to partner with Him. The family in the picture is one of the youth leaders, Daniel, that Randy and Nick are training with. The baby they are holding was born last year and is named Randy - after our Randy!!!! Too cool!

2009-06-17T16:35:00.007-05:00

The team that was in

Cameroon in 2007

Cameroon 2009

Hi everyone! Just wanted to give you an update on things. Randy and Nick Reyes of Fontana, CA are on their way to Cameroon, West Africa. They will be partnering with 3 Cameroonian youth leaders there to form a team who will go out to several locations to train volunteer youth leaders in discipleship principles. This is exciting as ALL the youth workers in Cameroon are volunteer. There is only one paid youth worker among the 800+ churches. This team is part of an ongoing partnership between NAB youth workers and Cameroon Baptist Convention youth workers. Please be in prayer for these men as they seek to raise up emerging young leaders! These are exciting times!

Randy and Nick will be arriving in Cameroon tomorrow! Right now they are in Germany on a very brief visit to some potential new hosting sites of Gateway Teams. Please be in prayer for their safe travel to Cameroon and then an exciting and fruitful time of ministry over the next 2 weeks. Thanks!

Shelly (for all the Schmors)

2009-05-27T10:40:00.004-05:00

Quiet time, devotions, daily prayer, time with God.....

What do you call it? That time that you spend with God. Whether it be daily, weekly, moment by moment.... When and where do you meet with God?

I was contemplating this today because I found a new website at http://www.examen.me/ . It's a site that you can do various spiritual disciplines while at your computer. I did one this morning that took me to a passage in Ezekiel, I really liked thinking through the scripture and how God was speaking to me through it. I also did something called a "Center Out" prayer. A prayer time that started by praying for yourself, then friends and family, then our culture, and then the world. Again, I really liked the guided time of prayer.

Now, would I do this everyday for my "God Time"? No - I like to be outside and in nature way too much to connect with my creator only through my computer screen. But, when it's raining and cold.... it was a pretty neat thing. Please check it out!

But, I would love to hear from you in the comment section (please take a moment to share) of what are some creative, different or even routine ways that you connect with God. What do you do? Where do you go? Let's share some ideas - it might just spur each of us on to try something new and connect with our Lord in a way we never have before - maybe he'll teach us something when we step out of our "usual" routine!

2009-05-05T16:22:00.000-05:00

Because we are a "Sound of Music" kind of family and Kameron performed in an amazing production of it last year, we thought you might enjoy this as much as we did!

2009-04-08T11:16:00.000-05:00

Thanks for praying everyone! Randy's surgery went very well on Monday! In fact we think God was at work on his knee before the surgeon even got a chance to get in there. When the Dr. looked at the MRI before surgery he was pretty convinced that the damage to his MCL was pretty significant, but when he went in and looked at it, it was totally attached to the bone and was "very strong". So, when all was said and done, Randy only needed to have two areas of frayed cartilage shaved as well as the bottom of his knee cap. So, all this means, recovery time will be much shorter and the damage pretty much wasn't there! We truly believe that we experienced a miracle from the hand of God! So, we are going to brag on HIM and give HIM the honor due his name! Thank you for lifting Randy in prayer!

With Love and Appreciation!

The Schmors

2009-04-03T13:32:00.000-05:00

Some Prayer Requests.....

We are so thankful for so many of you that faithfully lift our family and ministry up in prayer before God on a regular basis. We know that we could not do the things that God has called us to if we didn't have people like you loving and caring for us! So, thank you! Thank you for being the hands and feet of Jesus to us and loving us well. Our lives have been greatly touched and influenced by so many of you.

We do have some prayer requests that we would like to share with you....

* On Monday, April 6, Randy will be having knee surgery to repair his MCL. Please pray for the doctors and all involved that things would go smoothly. Pray that Randy would be a good patient and listen to all he needs to without getting frustrated.

* Please also pray for Kameron and Shelly through this time. Kameron is worried about "his daddy's operation" - pray for peace for him - he needs to be able to focus hard on school during this time and this is a HUGE distraction! Shelly is asking that you pray that she will be able to balance and handle all that she usually does as well as taking on more things to take care of Randy and many things that need to get done for Gateway.

* April 17-18 we will be having a Gateway Teams Leader Training Event at Sioux Falls Seminary in Sioux Falls, SD. We are so excited for this time as it has been long in the making and we are excited to continue to grow in our partnership with this fine place of learning. Pray that we will be able to give all that we have and can to this time.

* April is a busy and exciting month with the things listed above. And also, we will be celebrating Kameron's 11th Birthday on April 20 and our 21st Wedding Anniversary on April 30. Please pray for these special days in the life of our family.

Isn't the picture above beautiful.... I love it because in the midst of winter (that seems to go on and on and on..) it reminds me of the hope of spring and the making of all things new. I'm thankful that our God can and does make all things new and He gives us HOPE when we need it most! What a mighty God we serve - thank you for your partnership with us as we seek to see HIS kingdom come!

Love

Shelly (for Randy and Kameron too!)

2009-03-04T12:25:00.000-06:00

Hey Everyone - I found this article on a website that I like to read and thought it was good enough to share! Seeing as we are all facing financial hard times - what can we learn through it. Hope this gets you to thinking too!

Shelly

How to Beat the Recession: Go on a mission trip
By Jeff Goins

March 2009

I heard a pastor the other day say that his church’s giving was down by 50 percent. He had to call up all of the missionaries they supported and tell them that the church wouldn’t be able to send them money this year. A friend of mine was such a missionary, getting an email from another church that could no longer send him monthly support (it was a substantial amount of his monthly income). Another friend who works for a large Christian missions organization told me that the number of participants they were sending into the mission field this summer was down by 60 percent, which translates into a few thousand missionaries for them.
Without casting stones at churches that are just trying to see their businesses make it through the recession, I want to point something out here—going on mission trips should not be optional. I know that some might say that short-term mission trips are nothing more than glorified vacations for rich youth groups (and in some cases, they would be right), but I’ve seen short-term missions serve the Church in incredible ways. I’ve seen teenagers come back from a month overseas, and their lives have completely changed. In fact, I recently got an email from a friend whom I helped train for a short-term trip a few summers ago; she was asking for prayer for some friends that she met in downtown Toronto. She’s been meeting with a homeless community each week for several months, all because God first broke her heart for the poor on a trip to Latin America.
My teenage sister has a heart for Africa, but she also has a tendency to desire “needs” that aren’t really needs at all. She recognizes it, but her surrounding culture isn’t offering an alternative other than self-centered materialism. What can she do? “Go on a mission trip,” I suggested. She listed a series of excuses, including finances, and I told her to find a mission trip and that I’d help her get the money.
The most generous and sacrificial people I know have all had some sort of experience in which God birthed compassion in them through exposure to the poor while on a mission trip. I know that there are other ways to get perspective and a healthy worldview, but the best way I know is to pack your bags and go live amongst the less fortunate for awhile.
Why is this relevant? Given all the economic hardships due to the recession, I’m concerned that the American church is facing a temptation to merely survive. For some of us, practices like charitable giving and going on mission trips are becoming increasingly more difficult. Naturally, it makes sense to make wise budget cuts, but I don’t believe that all God is calling us to do is subsist.
I believe that a scandalously gracious God wants to see His Kingdom come through His Bride who spurns the seeming lack of means to accomplish the task at hand.
I believe that Jesus wants His Body to live in such a way that our lifestyles say, “What recession?” (I realize that may be impossible for those who have lost their jobs, but I think you understand what I mean.)
I believe that our cultural addictions to comfort and excess need to be broken, and now is the perfect time to catalyze that paradigm shift. I suggest the way that you do that is by going on some kind of intentional trip to serve people much poorer than you. Read Luke 9 or Matthew 10, and tell me that short-term missions aren’t biblical, that Jesus doesn’t use discomfort and risk to teach His disciples how to rely only on God.
I realize that it seems counter-intuitive to cure a recession by spending potentially thousands of dollars on a short-term mission trip, but consider it an investment that will have long-term returns. Once you see people living happily on much less than you would even consider “fun money,” it changes you. It changes the way you make decisions, the way you spend your money, and the way you relate to the world around you. If you’re having trouble figuring out how to do this, send me an email, and I’ll help you figure out where to go and how to get there.
And then, maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to say, “What recession?”
Thoughts?
Jeff Goins lives in Nashville, Tenn., with his wife, Ashley. He works for the nonprofit organization Adventures in Missions, recruiting people for short-term mission trips, and edits an online magazine for “spiritual misfits.” In his spare time, he likes to write, read several books at once, play guitar and eat sushi. Oh, and he Blogs.

2009-01-22T14:16:00.000-06:00

Randy at the Jordan River - 2008.

Matthew 11:16-17 - (The Message) - Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

The unforced rhythms of grace. Unforced - not conjured up, not forced, not pushed, not earned, just given --and received. Why do I try to "get" more grace? All I need is there - available - all the time, every minute of everyday. It's there - but just like I can't do anything to "get" or "earn" or "deserve" more - God won't push it on me or force me to take it. I need to make the choice to receive it - accept it - take it.

Rhythms - ebbs and flows - patterns - like a river - sometimes flowing strong and hard - like rapids, other times just a soft, quiet flow, and other times a small, almost trickle. Rhythms - sometimes fast, sometimes slow but always complimenting the melodies and harmonies of life that go with it. Always enough. Not too much, not too little. Not overpowering, but not so little that it can't be heard, seen, felt.

Grace - What is it? Do I really understand what it means? Have we ever truly experienced it? Do I live it? Do I give it? The Sunday School answer often given - God's Riches At Christ's Expense. What are God's Riches? Do I think I only experience it when things are "going well" and I am 'materially' blessed? Or, do I understand his Riches even in hard times and dark days? A quote from our good friend Pastor Mike - Never question in the dark what you know was true in the light. If it's true in the light then it's still true in the dark days. It doesn't change even if my circumstances do.

...Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.... Learn them, figure them out, seek understanding and wisdom. Learn - it's a process - it doesn't just happen overnight. How long does it take? A day? A week? A month? A lifetime? Yes! All of the above - because it's given (grace that is) as we need it - in rhythms. ebbs and flows.....

Wow Lord, thanks for speaking. As I live and learn in the unforced rhythms of your grace - help me to then be an extension of that grace. To all those around me and especially to those that I am closest to let grace flow. Help me to love well and not in a controlling or manipulative way but in a way paved by GRACE!

Because of His Grace,

Shelly (for all the Schmors)

2008-08-21T15:34:00.000-05:00

Hi! Brazil Gateway Team Leader Randy Schmor here once again. Thanks to Team Secretary Nalanda Barber for her last post of the team's activities through August 12! (and the great pics too!)

Nalanda hard at work painting grates.

Sorry for the lack of pictures in the rest of the postings regarding the August 2008 Brazil Gateway Team as I simply forgot to bring the USB cable for my camera along! :( Oh well....I'm glad Nalanda brought hers and that she uploaded a few pics of our time there.

Wednesday (Aug. 13) continued our time with another full day of work projects, craft and games classes that the team led. We also had the opportunity to have the evening to ourselves as the bulk of the CHAIN of Love kids headed to church events. Wednesday was also the day, I believe, that team member Zach W. had a little run in with a tool he was using to cut some vines with. After a trip to a local clinic and a couple of stitches, he was on his way to recovery! Thanks for prayers that God would keep us safe from serious injuries....

Assistant Team Leader Charissa and 'Tiara' in craft class.

Thursday was our last full day with the morning and afternoon activites and also our evening 2 levels of ESL classes and sports. A small group of us also visited a number of the 9 homes to take some pictures of the parents and kids as well as to deliver some August birthday gifts to 9 children (altogether) who have birthdays in August; 6 of which were during our 16 days in Campo Bom. It was really neat to see the reactions of the kids when we gave them the gifts and to have a chance to connect with the parents and other kids as well.

August birthday gifts to House #4.

Friday. As our time in Brazil was rapidly coming to a close, we took the opportunity in the morning to walk to the city center of the city we had been in for the last 2 weeks, Campo Bom. Everyone had a good time looking for souvenirs and getting some gifts for friends and family back home. A few also enjoyed a Brazilian ice cream buffet where you can basically fill a cup or waffle cone as much as you want and just pay by the weight! "Sorvete", as they call it, is pretty good! That afternoon was also given to a very important 2-3 hour Team Meeting dedicated to 'Debriefing' the entire experience and preparing the team to re-enter life back home. As was discovered during this time, some of the most important things considered were how this experience would be used to effect our world-view and our decisions for the future. It was also a time to remember and reflect on all that God had allowed us to experience, people we had met and just how wide our eyes had been opened to seeing the world a little more as God sees it. We also talked about 'saying goodbye' appropriately to people that have significantly affected your life and how to do that in a meaningful way.

We also headed into the evening for the closing classes of ESL and sports as well as a special treat that all the CHAIN of Love kids were looking forward to; a basketball game with all of the house mothers and adult women of our team! I don't think anyone was prepared for what that would be like, but just to give you an idea; my wife Shelly still has a bruise on her arm and can't fully extend her elbow, AND some women came out of the game with teeth marks!! I'll say no more.... :)

Nelson, Sara (Assistant Team Leader and Gateway Teams' summer intern) and Telmo enjoying the ladie's basketball? (if you want to call it that!) game and some 'chimarrao'. Nelson made over 20 pair of custom tennis shoes for our team members (no kidding!) and Telmo is the volunteer coordinator at CHAIN of Love Homes. 2 awesome men with an incredible hearts for kids.

Saturday was our last day in Brazil and we took the opportunity to have 3 of the kids help us ride the public bus about 10 km into downtown Novo Hamburgo and do some last item shopping. It was a great experience for everyone and some found some pretty good deals too! The women assistant team leaders also suggested that we treat the team to an ice cream before heading out....great stuff! It was also time for us to begin the process of packing and cleaning our 'home' for the last 2 weeks; which was no small task (dirt AND smell wise, hey guys?). :)

Also, Chris and Ingrid Kidd (missionaries working at CHAIN of Love) brought over their 2 day old new baby boy to visit before they even went home from the hospital!

Then...conversation, hugs, laughs, tears...and goodbyes continued well into the night and finished up on Sunday (Aug. 17) morning as our bus came right on time at 8:30am to begin our 40 hour (more or less) trip(s) home.

We met up with our good friends Arthur and his father Filipe (who attend Boas Novas church and works in Gramado at the chocolate factory we visited last week) and their family as they met and helped us at the airport before we headed through security. Then it was 2 hours to Buenos Aires, Argentina, a 7 hour lay-over there, 10 hours to Houston, 2 1/2 hours layover, and 4 hours to Calgary. In Calgary, the 4 of us from Gateway Teams had 2 flights back to Milwaukee via Minneapolis and the bulk of the team waited for another 7 hours before finally arriving back in Regina, SK Monday evening (Aug. 18). Unfortunately, the 4 of us who headed to Milwaukee had to rush to check in for our flight and because we were actually late checking in, had to rush in for our security checks and US immigration before the rest of the team made it upstairs to say good-bye :(. But, we were able to connect by phone a little bit later...........

All in all, lives were changed by this experience....for many on this team, it was a first opportunity to see life outside of North America and as we had the opportunity to interact with the children, house parents and missionaries who make CHAIN of Love Homes the amazing place that it has become; you can only wonder and thank God for how children's lives have been totally transformed because they live there.

It was an incredible opportunity to see the world from a child's point of view and at the same time from the Creator's point of view as well.

In a world where community has become possible across many barriers and borders, including distant geographical ones, the relationships that have been formed are life-changing much like the God who given the opportunity, changed our lives as well through being of service to 'the least'. How much more could you ask for?

Thanks for your prayers for this team and all the other Gateway Teams that served in 2009. We'll see you in September at our next post! Blessings!

Kameron and his friend Pablo. They became friends on our last trip to Brazil 5 years ago when Kameron was 5 and Pablo 4.

Randy (for the Brazil Gateway Team from Faith Baptist - Regina, SK)

2008-08-13T13:44:00.000-05:00

Well, Saturday came and went as a pretty laid back day, especially compared to the rest of the week. Not many people work on the weekends in Brazil, and Chian of Love is no different. We got to sleep in, eat a leisurely breakfast, and hang out in the dorms for the morning. After another delicious lunch, we headed outside to hang with the kids, who were all pretty excited for the upcoming Festa Inverno, which was planned to start around 6:00. All afternoon people had been setting up tables in the gym, and as 6:00 grew closer, these tables started filling up with crafts, games and most importantly, food. We all agreed that the "common" Brazilian food is some of the best food we have ever had. There were pastries with meat in them called pastels (to die for) and the best dessert ever: little balls of goodness with chocolate icing and sprinkles on it. According to Luke F. they are "life changing". The gym was packed with people, all having a great time. Outside of the gym was a mechanical bull, which cost only 1 real (60 Canadian cents) for three tries. Of course, a lot of our team wanted to try. By the time 10:00 rolled around, we were all pretty tired, and headed off to bed.

Sunday gave us a little more of a busy day, as we got up and ate breakfast, had a team meeting and headed off to the hippie market in Porto Alegre. We arrived at 10:30, and the ladies powershopped until 12:00, when we were to meet at the bus. Most of the guys found a lot of the merchandise very feminine (there was a lot of jewlery), but still enjoyed the very unique experience of an open market. At 12:00, we were driven to a genuine Churrascaria, with a gaucho (cowboy) show and everything. A Churrascaria is a restaurant that is similar to the Pizzaria in the way you are served, but differs in one aspect. It's not pizza; it's meat. And it's giant chunks of meat on swords. On the left, you see a picture of one of the waiters, holding a large sword with meat on it, and the very sharp knife used to cut it into serving size pieces. A very unique experience, for sure. After the meal, there was a show, with some traditonal dancing and rope tricks. These ropes were used with cattle, and have weights on each end. The gauchos in the show demonstrated some very intense tricks, including spinning the end of the rope so close to someone's head that their hair moved! Very cool. After the Churrascaria, we all headed back to Chain of Love, very full and very ready for a siesta. We left for church at 6:30, and enjoyed another service of worshiping in two different languages. Because this Sunday was Father's Day in Brazil, they had the little kids come up and sing a song. I think the only word that any of us (except Randy S. and Krista D.) caught was 'pie' - dad! Soon after we got back from church, we quickly headed to bed, as we had a busy day ahead of us.

Monday was pretty normal. We got up, ate breakfast, the got to work. Between craft classes, sport classes and other work projects, we were kept busy. Lunch was delicious, as always, and siesta was delightful. Then it was back to work until around 4:00, when we got to hang out with the kids until supper. Randy, Shelley, and Kameron S. as well as Sarah H. headed off to eat supper at the house of a family from the church. We had ESL and sport classes that night, with Josh D. filling in for Randy S. in ESL. At 10:00, we had a team meeting, then went to bed.

At breakfast on Tuesday, Ken and Jerilyn Bayer and Chris Kidd shared with the team a little bit about Chain of Love's ministry and how it started and then left the floor open for questions from us. Then the rest of the day went fairly normal, with the exception of a little outing for the lady leaders and Ingrid Kidd in the afternoon. They were planning on getting manicures and petticures, and then going grocery shopping, but the nails took a little longer than expected, and the rest of the team picked them up on our way to our second Brazilian Pizzaria, which was absalutely amazing. There were atleast 10 different types of dessert pizzas, all very delicious. On your left is an example of one of the dessert pizzas - white chocolate and strawberry. Delicious! After the Pizzaria, we headed back to Chain of Love, and went to bed.

Nalanda Barber (for the Brazil Gateway Team from Faith Baptist - Regina, SK)

2008-08-08T22:50:00.000-05:00

August 8, 2008

Hey there everybody! Sorry it's been a little while since I posted.... :(
But, as many of you can probably imagine, things have gotten quite busy here at CHAIN of Love Homes these past few days.

Tuesday evening we had the chance to go to Porto Alegre and visit with Lyndell Campbell (a NAB missionary that teaches at the Brazilian Baptist Seminary there). She gave us a tour of the school and we had the chance to meet the president and to meet one of the classes being held that evening. Then after that, we had another of our Brazilian restaurant experiences; Dom Vitto's Pizzeria! Pizza in Brazil is nothing like anywhere else as you are served and served and served up to 35 different kinds of pizza without leaving your seat until you say you can't have another bite. Then they start bringing desserts around; all you can eat! These teenage boys (and girls!) were all in heaven! ......and actually, the leaders all enjoyed quite a bit too! :)

Wednesday was another day of work projects, craft/art classes (morning and afternoon led by Nalanda B., Sarah R. and Jaclyn W.) and games (morning and afternoon led by Josh D. and Krista D.). Most of the kids here headed off to church on Wednesday night, so we had time for a great team meeting together. Shelly S. and Sarah H. have been heading up and doing a great job on our breakfasts and suppers. Our noon meals (the big meal of the day here in Brazil) have been cooked by some ladies connected with the CHAIN of Love Homes; great Brazilian fare and always plenty to eat whether being cooked by Americans or Brazilians!

Yesterday (Thursday) we had the same schedule during the day as shown above but also re-added English class (advanced taught by Randy S. and beginners taught by Krista D.) as well as a sports hour (basketball, North American football...) in the evening which is led by Zach W., Rebecca W., Jordan F. and Luke F. After all of that, we still had a team meeting in the evening as well! Busy times. Our work projects have been headed up by Stewart K. (painting metal grates), Shayne R. (staining window shudders), and Shelly S. (greenhouse weeding) and supervised overall by Randy S. There's definitely not a dull moment around here! Everyone enjoys the chance to get a little rest after lunch.......

Today (Friday) we had an outting scheduled into the interior hills/mountains northeast of Campo Bom as we went to Nova Petropolis where we walked through a natural labyrinth and happened upon a German Festival (yes, German, there's many of them here!) where polka dancers were performing and a craft fair was going on. We then headed to Gramado; a touristy city in the mountains famous for their International Film Festival, chocolate and pinheiro trees. We stopped here for lunch at a type of restaurant called a 'Cafe Colonial' where over 85 varieties of meats, cheeses, cakes, and many other dishes were served until we said 'no more'. These people know how to eat here! After this we hiked at an incredible park with a view of a high waterfall, mountains and valleys. We walked all the down to the base of the waterfall and then puffed (at least I did!) all the way back up the 1000 stairs. This being right after lunch was a bit challenging but we did it!

On the past Sunday, a man named Filipe from the church here in Novo Hamburgo (where the CHAIN of Love kids go) had invited us to visit the chocolate factory in Gramado that he manages so we made that stop. He was a great host, as we got a tour of the factory, a little free chocolate and a stop in the company store. Our last stop before heading back to Campo Bom was in the city center of Gramado where there was a lot of opportunity to shop and just generally check out the town. They were setting up for the film festival there and there were many people out on this early Friday evening braving the 10 C / 50 F temperatures that characterize winter here in southern Brazil.

As we returned here to Campo Bom, we were a bit late but went ahead with our 2 English classes and a sports class for girls which was very much appreciated. Rebecca W. and all the rest of our girl team members and leaders participated and had a great time as about 30 of the girls came from the homes. They rarely get the gym to themselves and this basketball clinic was a really a great time for them.

Well, that's probably enough for one blog post! The weekend's ahead and so are a number of new experiences as we hit the mid-point of our Brazil Gateway Team's trip.

Everyone continues to be healthy and as I type late into the night here, they're all sleeping and relishing in the fact that they finally get to sleep in tomorrow (9:00am) as we look forward to a Festa Inverno (Winter Festival) happening here tomorrow evening at the Homes.

Much more to blog about real soon! :)

Thanks for your prayers and for reading. Blessings!

Randy Schmor (for the Brazil Gateway Team from Faith Baptist - Regina, SK)

2008-08-05T12:52:00.000-05:00

August 5, 2008

Boa tarde desde Brasil! :) (Good afternoon from Brazil!),

Our Brazil Gateway Team from Faith Baptist, Regina, SK continues to enjoy and get more accustomed to life here at the CHAIN of Love Homes in Campo Bom. We're beginning to settle into a routine here, but definitely an active routine!

Monday the team painted most of the playground equipment various primary colors and Shelly and Sarah Hagan did some weeding in the on campus greenhouse they have here. We also begin to schedule various sports, recreation and arts sessions/classes for the kids here over the next 2 weeks. We're offering craft classes every morning and afternoon and recreation games for younger kids every morning and afternoon as well. Those all begin and are in session as I write (Tuesday afternoon).

We also began 2 levels of ESL (English as a Second Language) classes last night and had a huge response with over 30 kids involved. We'll be doing those ESL classes 2 more nights this week and 4 nights next week. Beginning after the ESL class on Thursday night, we'll begin to have Basketball, Football (Canadian) and Floor Hockey clinics/scrimmages as well. We'll do a total of 2 this week and 4 of those next week.

On top of all of that, those not involved in leading/helping in all of these classes are doing other work projects involving painting, staining, weeding, etc. Justin Jaarsma, from our team, is an electrician by trade and he has been put to work with some new wiring in the activity center.

We also had the opportunity to go to House 9 last night for Marcia's birthday and give her a gift from one of her sponsors (my parents in Milwaukee, Art and Irma Schmor) and a gift from the team. Those who didn't need to head back to start the ESL class were also treated to an exceptional meal by Marcia's house-parents which they're still raving about!

Tonight we have plans to visit NAB missionary Lyndell Campbell in Porto Alegre for a tour of the Baptist Seminary where she teaches and also dinner out.

So, as you can see, we keep quite busy and this place has been able to keep all 20 of us quite active. Shelly Schmor, Sarah Hagan, Josh Docksteader (Faith's Youth Pastor) and Krista Docksteader have also been helping Chris Kidd with some of his office work by filing, taking pictures of the kids, and other general needs.

Thanks for your prayers! Pray for endurance and adequate rest. The team definitely eats enough as we have Worley (a Brazilian lady) cooking for us each noon hour and Shelly overseeing and cooking the rest of our meals.

Blessings,

Randy Schmor

2008-08-03T21:31:00.000-05:00

August 3, 2008

Hello everyone again from Campo Bom, Brazil!

Our first Sunday here at CHAIN of Love was a nice day as it hasn't rained here since the evening we arrived on Friday. Although cloudy and cool (15 C/60 F), we enjoyed time hanging out with the kids here, playing indoor soccer and getting to know them better. We also had a team meeting this morning (church would be later in the evening) that a cut a little short because our bus driver arrived to take us to our first Brazilian restaurant experience; the 'Primavera' Galleteria (literally the 'spring chicken'!). The team was more than enthused with the amount of food and the quality of it as well. The Bayers (NAB missionaries who oversee the CHAIN of Love Homes) and the Kidds (other NAB missionaries who work at CoL) along with their family from Canada were also there with us at the Galleteria.

We also had a chance to rest up before heading to the main church service of the day which is in the evening. We rode the CHAIN of Love bus with all the rest of the kids and their house-parents; quite the loaded ride but really fun and a great opportunity to know the kids better. The service of course, was entirely in Portuguese, but the team was happy when the worship team did 3 songs that we all knew in English (one was by the 'Newsboys'). The worship team was quite professional and good! Everyone was really friendly and we greeted and met many different folks; including a school teacher who'd like our team to visit her religion class sometime while we're here.

Well, our work projects begin in the morning (painting, weeding, other) and also classes that we're planning on doing with the kids (English, crafts, basketball, other).

More to come......

Randy Schmor (for the Faith, Regina - Brazil Gateway Team)

2008-08-02T20:58:00.000-05:00

August 2, 2008

Greetings from Campo Bom, Brazil!

Our team (from Faith Baptist - Regina, SK) arrived here at the CHAIN of Love Homes yesterday after a 30+ hour trip from Regina to Calgary to Houston to Buenos Aires to Porto Alegre!

We've had a great first day getting to know the kids, volunteers and house-parents here and are excited for the 2 weeks ahead of us. God surely has had His hand on this place and our team as we traveled long and hard to get here.

The kids had a kite competition today that we watched and our team played soccer, basketball and just plain horsed around with them for most of the afternoon. Many of our team members have been experimenting with their Portuguese and having good success at communicating!

The weather has been cool but comfortable; around 14-15 C (60 F) with rain and thunderstorms last night but partly cloudy skies today. We're looking forward to going to church tomorrow night and our first Brazilian restaurant tomorrow. Everyone's trying to get used to the Latin eating schedule which features the biggest meal of the day around 1 or 2 pm, but hey, it's not wrong, just different, right guys?!

More tomorrow! Thanks for reading!

For the Brazil Gateway Team from Regina,

Randy Schmor

2008-06-18T15:21:00.000-05:00

Sometime ago, we mentioned some friends of ours who were struggling with health issues, so here's an update and a few other requests for you to keep in mind and prayer if you would....

John Roberts (Menomonee Falls, WI) - John is doing amazing in his recovery from a stroke in February and continues to improve. This last Thursday there was a benefit concert for John where he played keyboard (John's a great musician) along with his band on a number of songs! It was quite moving to see John playing, with one hand of course, but still! What an answer to prayer. We even heard that he's hoping to be back to work in a few months!

Craig Kelly (Tacoma, WA) - Last we heard, Craig made it through brain surgery and continues to do amazingly well!

Kathy Kroll (Cameroon) - Kathy is recovering from meningitis in her city of origin, Spokane, WA where she has family. Last we heard, she's made progress but it's been quite slow and she's still hoping to recovery her full speech and motor skills. Continue to pray for her....

Mr. Santos (Portland, OR) - He also had a stroke while visiting relatives in Brazil and has since made it back to Portland where he is being cared for by his family. Although he recovered somewhat from the stroke, definite changes in life-style had to be made.

Other requests from the Schmors...
- Nashville Youth Gathering '08 - please pray for this event that we're a part of the leadership of. 600+ youth will be attending and working in various ministry/mission opportunities each day in this city. MAJOR REQUEST - Please pray for our numbers as this event needs 800 attendees to break even. If you know of someone or you yourself may be interested in coming to Nashville to serve July 20-25, 2008, PLEASE let me know ASAP. All are welcome to come and serve; youth, college age, older....consider it!

- Brazil Gateway Team - we'll be leading this team in August from Saskatchewan to Brazil to serve. Please pray for our air travel. With all of the fuel charges and cutbacks on flights, it has been very difficult to secure seating space for our team...space that we need NOW!

- Sarah, our intern - she has been a major blessing! Sarah is working with us for 3 months this summer and has one down and 2 to go! Pray that God would continue to lead her in the future as she begins seminary in the fall.

- Our family - balancing our office work with Kameron's summer activity schedules and the travel mentioned above is a major task. Please pray for Shelly as she especially shoulders much of that balancing...

- And speaking of Shelly! - we had a great time, celebrating Shelly's latest (number not to be disclosed) birthday with many family members and friends. Yes, it was a major surprise party especially when a powerful flooding storm hit right at the time of the surprise forcing all 70 attendees inside our little house! But it was awesome! We love you Shelly!

2008-05-22T15:39:00.000-05:00

Just outside of Nazareth, the Valley of Megiddo.

GYI Israel continued...

March 16, 2008 (journal)

Last day in Israel! So much has happened over these past 12 days, it really is hard to begin to process it all. But, we weren’t finished yet either!

We began by heading up to the highest peak surrounding the Sea of Galilee, Mt. Arbel. You could see so incredibly far from this height; the entire area north of the Sea, the town of Magdala and the route where the ancient road came between dominant high cliffs from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee. Many battles were fought on these heights because of the caves there and the attack positions that were there.

The incredible view of the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee from atop Mt. Arbel. Along the lake in the foreground is the site of the ancient village of 'Magdala' (think Mary) and in the distance, also along the lake, is Capernaum.

We then headed towards Nazareth itself, passing through Cana, site of Jesus’ first miracle and on to Mt. Precipice on the outskirts of the city. This is the site where Jesus was likely forced by his own home townspeople to the edge of a cliff to be pushed off, but he wasn’t. What I didn’t realize was that this cliff also overlooks the Jezreel Valley, also know as the Valley of Armageddon, the site of the last battle described in Revelation. Across the valley was also Mt. Tabor, one of the sites thought to be where the Transfiguration took place; and also the site where Gideon took on the much larger Midianite army; and where Deborah inspired (on Mt. Tabor) the Israelite army to defeat the Philistines and their iron chariots. It was incredibly inspiring to look out over all of these sites from this one location and know that we serve the same God.

From this mount, we headed down and crossed the Jezreel Valley to pass the ancient and present city of Megiddo (form which Armageddon gets its name) and head up to the top of Mt. Carmel. We recounted the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal that took place up here and also looked down on the Kishon river where all of those same priests were slain by Elijah after the confrontation. It was cool to see where this place was in relation to Mt. Carmel, a very rocky place where Elijah made this stand.

We then headed to the Mediterranean coast and the ancient city of Caesarea; where Peter realized the worth of Gentiles in God’s plan, where Paul spoke before Felix, Festus and King Agrippa; and to see what an incredible capital city Herod built for Israel. It was inspiring in itself just to be on the shores of the ‘Great Sea’, but Dann Spader also spoke to us in our final assembly in the Caesarea theatre. He spoke about the fact that this was where the Gospel was sent out into the world and here we were from 53 different countries, evidence of the fact that the Gospel had gone into the entire world! This was a great place to spend a few minutes (which I did) of reflecting on God’s plan, looking out at the water and seeing the remains of this once very large and influential city.

Herod the Great's proposed capital sea-coast city for Israel, Caesarea; much of it is still intact including an artificial harbor (constructed over 2000+ years ago, imagine it!).

At Caesarea with my good friend Paul Ewing who came to GYI Israel from Osaka, Japan where he and his family are planting a church.

From Caesarea it was back to our final stop of the trip, our hotel in Tel Aviv where I write from now, anticipating my early morning start to go back to Milwaukee tomorrow! I can’t wait to share all of this with my wife, Shelly…it would have been so much better to have her here…but I hope all of you can catch a little of what God did in my heart over these past days.

It’s hard to put it all into words, what an experience it was to be with all of these other youth leaders, to share in a great conference and to experience Jerusalem and Israel. But I think our guide for these past 5 days, Hannah, said it best. “Before, you had a 2-dimensional idea of where the events of the Bible took place; now you have a 3-dimensional idea. Tell your friends and families not to wait until they’re old to take the opportunity to visit Israel; as Joshua and Caleb came back with the favorable report, as opposed to the rest of the spies, go home and do the same!” Well put Hannah.

2008-05-21T11:19:00.000-05:00

At the 'Gates of Hades' in Caesarea Philippi; location of the Temple of Pan in the first century AD.

GYI Israel continued...

March 15, 2008 (journal)

This day is hard to describe and even harder to take in because we essentially covered the entire area north of the Sea of Galilee where 80% of Jesus’ recorded ministry took place.

We began by driving along the eastern and northern shores of the lake eventually making our way up to the northern-most reaches of present day Israel; a finger of territory that goes up between Lebanon and Syria. Along the way we saw the Golan Heights to the east and understood first-hand how that disputed territory creates a difficult situation for Israel if it would be given back to Syria; particularly for the farmers along the eastern shore of the Sea who had one time drove armoured tractors to guard against attack. We also passed the Genesseret region where the demon possessed man was freed and the spirits were sent into the pigs nearby. On the northern shore we went past Bethsaida, over the Jordan river on the north side of the lake, and up to the ancient area of Dan. The Dan river source is right in the area where Jeroboam erected a golden calf for the northern kingdom of Israel, but it’s also the site where Canaanite idols were worshiped (near the Dan source) and a tell is which was a series of Canaanite and Israelite cities, one on top of the other. We saw a gate here from King Ahab’s time into the city of Dan and a courtyard/market area as well. Interestingly, in one of the walls in that courtyard, one of the stones found there had markings on it that was an inscription by King Ben-hadad of Assyria who won a victory over the Israelites at this site. The inscription mentions the “House of David” as being defeated here; the first mention ever found of King David outside of the Bible.

We were also shown and told about contemporary conflicts right in this same area; where Lebanon (Hezbollah) forces had attacked and burned relatively newly planted Israeli forests; where Syrian forces have a well fortified fence and signs warning of land mines (from the 6-day war in 1967) still are posted.

We then went to a place I had been anticipating the entire time we’ve been in Israel; Caesarea Philippi. This being at one of the other 2 sources of the Jordan River besides the Dan river, it became a site of worship to the god Pan and had a history of incredibly defiled pagan worship and was known as the “gates of Hades” in Jesus’ day by the large cave in the same location where this pagan worship temple was. Because I had a heard a Ray Van der Laan teaching from this sight a while ago regarding us as the church being on the ‘offensive’ against even the ‘gates of Hades’; I was hoping that someone would be sharing this truth. Sure enough, Josh Patty who works with Josiah Venture in Slovenia was asked to and did share on that very subject as we stood on the site of that ancient pagan temple! Peter’s confession of truth about who Jesus really was/is takes on an awesome relevancy when you consider the context of this place where it was said. For me (and I think a number of others), this was the most exciting and relevant on site teaching we had; particularly because Josh shared how dark his ministry context really is and how the Baptist church in that country had done very little in over 80 years of existence. A very exciting piece of Scripture when you understand the context!

One of the carved out niches in the side of the mountain of the Temple of Pan where idols were placed over 2000 years ago. If you look closer, there's an inscription you can read underneath the niche (that is, if you can read Latin!).

This site is also known as the Banias spring and a little ways away from the original temple site, we walked to a large waterfall and along the continuation of the swift river that eventually becomes part of the Jordan. From there, we made our way back to the Sea of Galilee and were treated to a fish dinner at a restaurant right on the northern shore of the lake. It was great Tilapia; tropical fish which is actually native to the area…the Sea of Galilee creates a tropical, humid climate around its shores allowing for the growth of many plants, crops and fish!

At the shores of the Sea of Galilee after a great fish dinner; seems appropriate!

We then headed over to the site of the Sermon on the Mount and had an opportunity to sit alone on the hillside for a short time as well and see the church erected on the same hillside. The next stop was where Jesus spent a lot of time and where Peter lived with his mother-in-law, Capernaum. It’s a small coastline town where we heard a reading from one of the many scriptures that take place here. We then headed onto boats for a cruise on the Sea itself! While on the boat, Israeli music played, people danced and Denis from Romania shared an inspiring message regarding Jesus walk on the water (this water!) and calming of the storm. We landed at the dock at Tiberius and got onto our buses to head back to our ‘villas’ and dinner, but the day wasn’t quite over yet. Those that were interested were invited to back to Tiberius for a multi-media presentation called “The Galilee Experience” that chronicled 4000 years of history in this region, from Abraham until the present.

The synagogue at Capernaum that Jesus often attended.

Dancing aboard the "Jesus Boat"!

An incredibly inspiring (and tiring!) day where I felt like we truly walked in the footsteps of Jesus and heard his message anew on the Galilee shores and at Caesarea Philippi.

2008-05-19T16:11:00.000-05:00

In Scythopolis; a tiled inscription in Greek along the main street ('Cardo') from the 7th century Byzantine period amazingly preserved.

GYI Israel continued...

March 14, 2008 (journal)

Unfortunately it was time to leave on this morning and begin to head north along the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. Our stops began first with Qumran, the site of the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. We walked around the excavations of the Essene community that lived at this site and were responsible for creating and hiding the scrolls in the first century BC. It is amazing to understand that previous to the discovery of these scrolls, the earliest Biblical manuscripts were 1000 years newer and that the scrolls showed that current editions of the Old Testament were entirely accurate with them! Amazing stuff!

A view of what has become known as 'Cave #1' where the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947.

We then began a 2 hour drive along the Jordan Valley passing by Jericho; which has the distinction of being the oldest and lowest city on earth. Unfortunately for us, it lies in West Bank territory and it’s not possible for an Israeli tour bus to go there. We then made it to the region south of the Sea of Galilee and the ancient (and current) city of Beth Shean and the Roman and Byzantine city known as Scythopolis. A tell at this site contains 20 layers of ancient cities and is where Saul and his 3 sons committed suicide and David wrote his lament. But, the most impressive thing to see here is the ruins of the city the Romans constructed, Scythopolis, which was part of the Decapolis referenced in the Gospels. Because of where it is, Jesus would almost assuredly been here. What’s amazing is that this has only been uncovered in the last 20 years and the immensity of what was uncovered and how well so much of it has been preserved. A theatre, streets, baths and meticulously placed tile, everywhere, and all still in tact. We even had an assembly of our entire 5 bus group in the theatre and we didn’t even come close to filling a 10th of it! David from Zambia gave us all a short devotional. This was an amazing and huge uncovering of this ancient city. In fact, it had been entirely covered over by earth to a depth of over 15 feet; all of which was excavated. The life of this city ended abruptly in the 8th century with an earthquake and one of the former inhabitants was even found under a fallen pillar with a bag of coins in his skeleton hand!

Using the toilet "Roman-style"; apparently privacy wasn't much of a concern!
A view over the entire excavated city of Scythopolis; all uncovered in the last 20 years. The theatre is at the other end of the city, the 'Cardo' (main drag) to my left lined with pillars.

We then arrived at our hotel; beautiful ‘villa’-style individual rooms looking out over the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee. An incredible ending to a great day.

2008-05-16T10:22:00.000-05:00

On top of the fortress 'Masada'.

GYI Israel continued...

March 13, 2008 (journal)

This was the day that we would go to Masada, the fortress that Herod the Great constructed on sharp cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea. But, what Masada is most known for is the last stand of 200 Jewish zealots and their families when Rome was trying to root out all opposition after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. These 200 holed up in Masada with the Romans closing in all around them. Over the course of 3 years the Romans camped out around Masada and began a task of building a ramp to lay siege on the fortress and overtake them. It not only took 3 years for them to make the ramp (with much assistance from other Jews that they had captured previously), but it took 3 months for them to break through once having started the assault on the fortress. An amazing account (with thanks to Josephus Flavius). It was very cool to see all that had been constructed at this place; palaces, huge cisterns, even a synagogue. It was a huge fortress! It was also neat to get there via a cable car!

The view from atop 'Masada'.

The Romans' ramp that was constructed over 3 years to assault the Zealot group holed up in Masada in AD 73.

From Masada some of the group went to Ein Gedi for the hike that those of us who were a part of the pre-conference had done the previous week; the rest of us headed back for rest and relaxation at the hotel! Finally. We had been keeping quite the pace for over a week at that point and an afternoon of relaxing was appreciated by just about everyone.
A view of sunset over the Dead Sea with the Mountains of Edom in the background in the east.

2008-05-15T15:04:00.000-05:00

GYI Israel continued...

March 12, 2008 (journal)

With the GYI Summit ending the evening before, it was now time to begin the 5-day Post-Conference Study Tour of Israel. It turned out that my roommate Nicky would also be on the same bus (#4 of 5 altogether) and that we also would be roommates in our hotel at the Dead Sea!
As we left the Regency hotel in Jerusalem, we didn’t leave Jerusalem itself just yet as our first stop was at ‘Yad Vashem’, the Holocaust Museum. The Holocaust left such an indelible mark on the Jewish people that the nation of Israel even created a law that such a museum would have to be constructed in remembrance of this incredibly great tragedy. Yad Vashem actually has a few different elements to it.

The first thing that was pointed out to us was a number of trees on the site with plaques next to them honoring 22,111 Gentiles (Oskar Schindler is one) who had something to do with helping Jews escape the Holocaust. We then headed into a hall of remembrance for the 1,100,000 children ages 1 hour to 18 years that died. We walked through a room of darkness, candles and mirrors and as we walked through, names, ages and countries of these young victims were read, echoing through the room. Just as I was about to exit the room, I heard the name of a child who was 9 years old and immediately my thoughts went to Kameron as tears came to my eyes. The horrors of the Holocaust being inflicted on innocent children is too much to take….

At the Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem, our guide shares about this sculpture depicting Janusz Korczak, who tried unsuccessfully to save the children of his Warsaw orphanage.

After this we spent 1 ½ hours in the museum itself. It is not only an incredibly well done factual experience explaining all of the factors over many years that led to the Holocaust but there are also repeated video testimonies scattered throughout the museum experience where now older Jewish men and women tell their stories of horror and escape; most of them recalling for the first time these horrific experiences from their childhood. It’s hard to explain the impact this all has on you because it doesn’t seem that it could possibly be real somehow and that it could have happened within the past 70 years. It also forces me to come face to face with my own German heritage and the fact that this happened at the hands of German people; a few people in the group asked me how it all made me feel in light of that….sobering to say the least.

At Yad Vashem, a remembrance room that has the names of each of the death camps tiled into the floor.

From Yad Vashem we headed to a shopping mall with a food court (we had stopped there in the previous week as well) and went to a Falafel stand; it’s pretty good stuff! After lunch, we stopped at an incredible community that basically lived underground and we walked through the tunnels/caves which had been below their homes. The rock in that area is so soft that it is quite easy to scrape away and these people carved out an immense existence underground.

An ancient underground community in the south of Israel; birds were kept in these holes and their waste used for fertilizer.

We then started to head south to the Dead Sea passing through the Valley of Elah where the confrontation of David and Goliath took place; we even had a couple people on the bus act it out as it was read! Shortly after this, we began our descent of over 500 meters to our hotel on the shores of the Dead Sea; a really nice place with a spa, Jacuzzis and even a Dead Sea water pool.

2008-05-14T12:38:00.000-05:00

The steps Jesus was led up heading to Caiaphus' house.

GYI Israel continued...

March 11, 2008 (journal)

Our morning session was one of worship and a message by Australian Campus Crusade National Director Bill Hodgson. Bill spoke on the Good Soil that Jesus spoke about where the seed bore fruit and how that Good Soil would be where movements of multiplication would begin. I also went to the elective session on Josiah Venture’s work in Eastern Europe which was definitely inspiring to hear of their work in 11 different countries.

We began our time in Jerusalem on this day with a stop at the location of the house of Caiaphus where there is a church commemorating the place where Peter denied Christ 3 times. Prisoners’ quarters are there including a deep pit of which Christ would have been kept in below the present church building. Also of significance is a staircase up the adjoining hill where there is almost full certainty that Christ would have been brought up these stairs to be questioned by Caiaphus and then taken away to see Pilate. We spent some time alone on these stairs reflecting on what Jesus endured in this place and how he was deserted by even those closest to Him. It was quite a meaningful time.

From there we went to the Garden of Gethsemane and had the opportunity to sit among the olive trees and pray in those groves across from the east wall of Jerusalem and the Kidron Valley where Jesus prayed for us before He died. There is also a church next to the Garden that has beautiful pictures depicting Jesus’ arrest where we had time to pray and think about Jesus’ sacrifice for us.

Olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane some of which are estimated to be close to 2000 years old.

We then headed to the ‘Garden Tomb’ site which is located right next to a rock formation that bears a significant resemblance to a “Skull”. The tomb is in a Garden and according to our guide this site has a number of resemblances to the descriptions in Scripture of the place where Jesus was laid after His crucifixion. The most significant thing about the tomb however, is that it’s empty! And of course, it doesn’t matter where Jesus’ tomb is because it is empty! This is all of course the cause of much speculation as the “Church of the Holy Sepulcher” is traditionally known as the site of Golgotha…but…

The "Garden Tomb". I'm smiling because it's empty!

All 250 of us then headed up to the top of the Mount of Olives, of which Gethsemane is located at the bottom. And as we gathered at the top of Mount to commemorate where Jesus ascended to heaven, Dann Spader excitedly and quickly (because there was a freezing wind blowing!) shared about Jesus ascension from this place but also that He promised to return as well to this very same spot! Wow! All praise be to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ forever and ever!
But we weren’t quite finished yet! One final session still awaited us back at the hotel as Dave Patty shared on the 3 final conversations of Jesus at breakfast, in Galilee and in Jerusalem…and….the long-awaited GYI Summit at Jerusalem was over! But not really… as a majority of the conference participants would begin a 5-day study tour in Israel.

Dann Spader speaking to our entire group on the Mt. of Olives. To the west, a beautiful sunset over the old city of Jerusalem with the Temple Mount and the Kidron Valley in the foreground.

Also of note, are the many conversations and networking opportunities that were afforded during our days together here; divine appointments from which only God knows what will happen down the road. Over 50 countries are represented here at the GYI Summit and it’s going to be exciting to see how God uses all of these new friendships that have developed!

2008-05-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

On the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; the Muslim shrine 'The Dome of the Rock' that commemorates where Mohammed ascended to heaven.

GYI Israel continued...

March 10, 2008 (journal)

This morning’s session with Mark Edwards had to do with ‘being’ a follower of Jesus and ‘doing’ the work of discipleship. We also had an elective session where we could go and hear about what God is doing in various parts of the world. I went to the Latin America session with an emphasis on Costa Rica which is cool because there are about 5 youth leaders/pastors here from there who only speak Spanish and it’s clear that being here in Israel is a once in a lifetime experience for them!

Our Jerusalem tour on this day began with getting 250 people on 5 buses to the entrance of the Temple Mount by a certain time because visitors are only allowed there when the Muslim authorities decide that it’s ok. Well, we got our entire group there on time and we were let in! It was a surreal experience to say the least to be able to walk on the Temple Mount. THE Temple Mount where each of the Temples were constructed and God inhabited the Holy of Holies. Today neither of the 2 main structures there are the Temple, but the mosque El Aksa and the Muslim shrine The Dome of the Rock. Our guide Shai told us that every Friday you can find 15,000 men praying towards Mecca on the Temple Mount. As we walked across these grounds, we heard how the King of Jordan in the first half of the 20th century donated the pure gold that is on top of the Dome at a price of 18 billion dollars, we saw the ancient gates of the eastern side of the city wall and Temple Mount, and we marveled at being on the sight containing 3000 years of the history of God’s people.

As we exited on the north east end of the Temple Mount, we soon found ourselves at the Pool of Bethsaida where the sacrificial animals were cleaned and approved by the Temple priests. A church was there next to that place where Jesus healed the paralytic man and we had the opportunity to sing as a group inside. We soon found ourselves walking down what is known as the ‘Via Dolorosa’ where there are countless shops and of course the 14 stations of the cross representing Jesus walk to Calvary from Pilate’s court. We walked through this Muslim quarter of Old Jerusalem where there were countless shops and had some time to shop as well before continuing on into the Jewish quarter.

Along the 'Via Dolorosa', the 5th station of the cross where Simon of Cyrene was forced by the Romans to carry Jesus' cross.

Before we left the Old City, we went past the church of the ‘Domitian of Mary’ where Catholic’s commemorate Mary’s ascension to heaven, to the Upper Room where the Last Supper was, and to the traditional site of David’s tomb.

That evening we had our worship and debriefing session but a few of us also had another rare opportunity; we would go back to the Western (Wailing) Wall and see what is known as the Rabinnical Tunnels. These tunnels were dug along the lower portions of the Western Wall in some cases right under homes in the Muslim quarter. This was a most amazing thing to see as there were perfectly preserved stones of the wall Herod constructed in the first century BC; 2 of these stones are the largest stones used in any construction in the world. The tunnels follow along the Western Wall all the way to the north-western corner of the temple walls and, of great interest and reverence to the Jews, the tunnel goes in close proximity to the site of the Holy of Holies in the original Temple. Reservations for this tunnel experience along the lower regions of the Western Wall had to be made 4 months before we came, so it was quite a unique experience that we were able to have. The only difficult part of seeing these tunnels was that we weren’t able to go until 10:30pm! But it was worth it!

Inside the Rabbinical tunnels along the Western Wall of the Temple, our guide Koren speaks to us in front of the largest stone in the world ever used in construction. It weighs 570 tons and is 44 feet long, 10 feet high and 12-16 feet deep. The next largest stone in the wall is a mere 40 feet long. The largest stone in the Great Pyramid weighs 11 tons. The wall was built by Herod the Great in the first century BC.

2008-05-12T16:11:00.000-05:00

"Herodian" - the great man-made fortress constructed by Herod the Great in the first century BC just south of Bethlehem.

GYI Israel continued...

March 9, 2008 (journal)

Each of the next 3 full days of the GYI conference would be literally packed with morning and evening sessions as well as full afternoons in Jerusalem. Sunday March 9th started with a great session (the worship team, a multi-national group of conference participants, was great at each session) where Mark Tittley from J-Life based in South Africa shared what was for me the message with the most impact during the entire conference. Mark shared about ‘My Religion Meets the Master’ emphasizing how Jesus confronts us with the Kingdom of God and how it seems to be glaringly lacking in our Gospel presentations and at odds with religious culture and the culture at large. Profound insights regarding ‘religion’ were presented as well regarding the fact that Jesus observed religious practices, James described acceptable religion and Christianity being a religion is not a call to legalism but a call for people to enter the Kingdom of God!

Mark really struck a chord with me. And it was great because that afternoon while we were in Bethlehem (go figure!) having lunch, Mark asked sat across from me and we were discussing his message and really resonating on many topics as well as current Christian authors/leaders that were inspiring us and Mark’s message that morning (can you say ‘The Secret Message of Jesus’)!

But let me back up, before we would go to Bethlehem, it was necessary for us to cross into the West Bank territory which is occupied by the Palestinians. The difference between this area and Israel is quite graphic, namely because of the huge wall separating the West Bank and Bethlehem from Israel. Old images of Berlin and new images suggesting a wall between the US and Mexico were mentioned by many….
Part of the West Bank wall at Bethlehem seperating the Palestinian occupied territory from Israel.

But, we continued through Bethlehem (for now) and on to the Herodian; a massive man-made hill south of Bethlehem constructed by Herod the Great (Rome’s appointed ‘King of the Jews’ when Jesus was born in the first century BC). It is an incredible fortress that Herod constructed largely to protect himself from his enemies which he amassed in quite a large number by his policies as well as his paranoia (he killed many members of his own family out of suspicion). There were many tunnels, sisterns and much of the palace ruins intact that we had the chance to go through. We also heard Dann Spader share with us about these fields being where the shepherds of the Christmas story heard the angel chorus, right there in the shadow of Herod’s palace.

After Herodian, we went to lunch in Bethlehem (as was mentioned above) sang Christmas Carols (!) and listened to the testimony of a Palestinian pastor (Johannon) who has and still does endure incredible hardships as a Christian, but even more because of his ethnicity. Pastor Johannon shared how God had used dreams to draw him to Himself and he asked us to pray for Palestinian Christians and their plight behind these walls…. We also saw an incredible (and huge) scale model of Jerusalem at the time of Christ that had the entire temple constructed.

Pastor Johannon sharing with us over lunch in Bethlehem.

Our evening session (and the other 2 to follow) was one of worship and debriefing what we had experienced that day which was very helpful for the whole day’s experience.

2008-05-08T11:58:00.000-05:00

The streets of Jerusalem....

GYI Israel continued...

March 5-8, 2008 (journal)

My niece, Megan dropped me off at Goerkes Corners for the bus after saying good-bye to Shelly and Kameron in the morning. I slept almost the entire way as the bus made its way down from Brookfield to O’hare where I had a couple of hours to wait before getting on my flight to London.

The flight seemed longer than usual because I couldn’t seem to sleep (unusual for me), but I finally ended up at Heathrow early Thursday morning after having watched 3 movies on the plane! I only had to wait a couple of hours for the flight to Tel Aviv and in a short time (4 hours or so) I was in Israel.

I was a little apprehensive as I made my way through immigration and customs because of all you hear going on in this country, but my suitcase made it as well (although the handle was entirely broken off) and I was on my way through what would prove to be some very busy but very meaningful days.

A few other folks that were also here for GYI shared a shuttle with me and we were off to Jerusalem and the Regency hotel. Once having arrived, checking in and having dinner, I headed off for bed….until midnight, when someone was trying to get into my hotel room! I had turned the dead-bolt and my newly arrived roommate (Kyle from Kuwait) couldn’t get in, so I let him in and went back to bed. But before I went to bed, I sat on the edge of the bed thinking that it was already morning and that I had already slept through the night! But once I figured out that I still had at least 6 more hours to sleep and had a laugh about it with Kyle, I fell right back to sleep.

We started Friday morning early, as would be our daily routine, checking out of the hotel and loading on a bus. We headed for the old city of Jerusalem and began a walking tour through the Armenian and Jewish quarters that would led us eventually to the Western or “Wailing” Wall. Along the way, our guide Koren (a very cool guy and Messianic Jew by the way) pointed out a number of things of interest in this ancient city. Unfortunately, one of those things was a posted announcement regarding a funeral for a young man who had just been shot the night before; one of 8 in a Hebrew University campus that had been shot by a Palestinian teenager. It kind of sobered him for a moment and then we moved on….

It’s interesting when you arrive at the Wailing Wall. We heard an orientation regarding it and then were given the option of going closer. After initially heading down the wrong side (I was heading into the women’s section !), I made my way up to the wall. I passed and took pictures of a Bar Mitzvah taking place near-by, saw numerous Orthodox Jews reading their ‘Torahs’ and even heard a ‘Shofar’ being blown. It seemed ok to do so, so I went up to the wall myself and put my hand on it; it’s hard to explain what started to come over me at that point, a flood of feeling, impressions and definitely the presence of God as I really didn’t say much but was spoken to through these impressions and the Holy Spirit’s presence there….that’s about all I can describe….

There was definitely a feeling of kinship as well with all of the Jewish believers around me that’s hard to explain. Being the first full day of the trip, this experience seemed to define in a way some of what God may be about in this time in Israel. Being at the wall, we were also able to go into an inside area where many men were praying and reading the Torah at the Western Wall. We spent some more time around Jerusalem and then got back in our bus and began our journey south into the Judean Desert where we would spend the night at a Bedouin Camp.

The Bedouin Camp was an oasis in the region of the ancient and modern cities of Arad and definitely in the wilderness! We were first treated upon arrival there by a camel ride in the desert; our camel was not too pleased with lifting up me and my invited friend from Japan, Paul Ewing! The camel made all kinds of noises as he lifted us up and as he let us down!

Paul and I upon our less than pleased camel!

A Bedouin man shared with us about their way of life, made us some bread on an open fire with coffee and tee and also shared some of his music with us on his lute. After a great dinner where we sat on mats in a large tent, we had some time together as a group to worship and share some thoughts with each other about our experiences so far. About 150 youth leaders were a part of these initial 2 days of pre-conference before the GYI Summit officially began in Jerusalem.

Before going to bed (in a very large tent with 120 other men!), my new friend Kyle and I took a walk out away from the camp to get away from the lights and see all of the stars. We talked about the fact that this area really looks no different today really than it did back when the Israelites would have been wandering in the desert for 40 years. Getting back to the tent, we were greeted by a chorus of 120 snoring men which made it a little hard to get to sleep!

Waking up the next morning we descended over 500 meters to the lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea. We went north along the Dead Sea’s western shoreline (which is receding at the rate of 1 meter a year) to Ein Gedi where we had a 1 ½ hour hike up the stream to a waterfall. It was cool to think about this area where David had hid from King Saul with its cliffs, heights, shady areas and interesting animals (some of which we saw; ibeks, hyraxes).

It was then time to continue on to the northern edge of the Dead Sea before we headed west and ‘up’ to Jerusalem, the Regency Hotel, and the GYI Summit where about 100 additional youth leaders would join us! We had our Opening Session that night with Dann Spader, president of GYI, sharing what it will take to see a movement of God among the youth of the globe.

I also met my new roommate Nicky Joya, a professor at a Seminary in the Philippines, this night and we spent some good time getting to know each other; many other meetings/networking/friendship opportunities would take place as well.

(to be continued)

2008-05-07T11:53:00.000-05:00

GYI Jerusalem 2008

As we mentioned on our March 25 post, I (Randy) had the incredible opportunity to attend the Global Youth Initiative (GYI) Summit in Israel from March 5-17! (http://www.globalyouthinitiative.com/)

GYI had been working over the past 2 years towards a large gathering or ‘Summit’ of Leaders that are involved with raising up the next generation of Christian leaders world-wide. The ‘Summit’, Jerusalem 2008, was an unprecedented gathering of 250 leaders representing 53 countries that came together. The theme of the conference was ‘Jesus On Location’ and was a gathering quite unlike anything anyone there had ever experienced before.

All 250 GYI participants standing on the Mt. of Olives. The Temple Mount (including the Dome of the Rock) in the old city of Jerusalem is in the background.

Blowing one shofar was not enough to start off GYI!

Often when people are asked about what it was like to go to Israel, there is a difficulty, as there is with many who travel cross-culturally, in explaining and communicating through words and 2-dimensional pictures what can only be explained experientially. Israel is no different, except that the added dimension for many people (myself included) is that if you’ve grown up reading the Bible and studying the lives of the Israelites, Jesus and the early church, you’re no doubt familiar with all of these places in Israel and you find yourself walking/seeing/feeling and yes, even smelling all that once was only words on a page!

Very hard to express, but yet, I would definitely have to say that Israel is a place that everyone should experience sometime.

In addition to the experience of being in Jerusalem and the land of Israel as a tourist/pilgrim (?), etc. as many others have done, Jerusalem ‘Summit’ 2008 participants also had the programming/teaching/dialogue of the conference to experience, and countless networking opportunities among the 250 attendees. All this to say, it continues to be quite a lot to get one’s head around! I’m sure pictures, feelings and images will continue to come to mind for a long time.

An opportunity for Randy to pray at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Nicky Joya, a Seminary professor from Manila in the Philippines and Randy’s roommate at GYI on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

The great thing about our (Gateway Teams') participation in GYI is that it has been more about the networking opportunities created in such an alliance of organizations than anything else (although the time in Israel and the Jerusalem ‘Summit’ itself was obviously an incredible opportunity!). When we were invited to be a part of GYI 2 years ago at the meetings in Malaysia, that opportunity proved to be very instrumental in the formation of “New Vision-New Aim” and the idea of Gateway Teams being strategically involved in discipleship and leadership iniatives.

So now, as we have networked these past couple of years with our GYI connection with Sonlife Africa/J-Life (Cameroon) and ‘developing connections’ with Sonlife Latin America (Mexico), BIG (Romania), and Josiah Venture (Bulgaria) that were all formed and/or strengthened at GYI Malaysia, we’ve seen Gateway Teams moving forward under the priorities of “New Vision-New Aim”. And, after some discussions at the Jerusalem ‘Summit’ with these ‘developing connections’, we’re excited to see what form our Mexico, Romania and Bulgaria work will take in the years ahead in the areas of discipleship and emerging leader development.

The networking component of GYI and this Jerusalem ‘Summit’ in particular was a powerful thing! As were the great challenges we had during the conference and during our time seeing the city of Jerusalem and Israel – (go to http://www.globalyouthinitiative.com/ to download audio files of those sessions and see more pictures).

What a great opportunity! And what a tremendous time we live in, having the opportunity to develop community and share resources across many borders, cultures and languages!

At the “Gates of Hell” (really!) in Caesarea Philippi, site of Peter’s confession, ‘You are the Christ’ – Matt. 16:13-20. Please take a moment and check out the context of this passage; an incredible truth for the church. We are on the offensive!

Thanks for reading and for your prayers!
- Randy

PS - although daily blogging was not possible for me from Israel, I still journaled almost everyday. Those journal entries will appear daily over the next week or so with additional pictures....thanks for reading!

2008-04-07T16:16:00.000-05:00

(Note! - Although this blog post is a little longer than usual because it covers an entire week, please read on....)

Dominican Republic – February 13-20, 2008

Okay – so I’ve been threatening for quite sometime to share some of the highlights of this incredible time with everyone for a while now, and since I am in the car headed to South Dakota with about 6 more hours of “free” time ahead of me, I thought I would take advantage of what could be totally unproductive time and share a few thoughts and memories with y’all. I should make note here that this trip was made possible to us because of Randy’s parents, Art and Irma, and so all of these memories were made with and shared with them! Thanks Mum and Dad for an amazing experience!!!

Thankfully, I followed my own advice, and I actually journaled about lots of things so I would remember them. And boy, am I glad I did. During our time away, Kameron was at home with our niece, Megan and in the thick of “Sound of Music” rehearsals, so I actually journaled a list of “My Favorite Things”… here are a few of them…

- Palm trees – everywhere – even on the beach – it was one of those ‘postcard’ kind of beaches where the palm trees went practically up to the water, the sand was soft and white and the beach was huge and flat – great for lots of long walks – sometimes just me and my ipod with great music, sometimes just me and my thoughts about many things, but especially God and his amazing creation and the way he so often speaks to me through it, and sometimes, hand in hand with the love of my life (that would be Randy) savoring each romantic moment as we celebrated us and our love for each other.

- Cell phones! Yes, believe it or not, being away from Kameron that long, we did miss him and we were thankful for modern technology and the ability to call home.

- Seeing the countryside of a beautiful country on an excursion tour. Meeting sweet locals, buying a cool painting, and tasting and then buying some amazing coffee and chocolate from the local people who grew and roasted it.

More of “My Favorite Things”….

- Sun! Sun! Sun! Warm breezes, palm trees, flip-flops, swimsuits, wraps, tank-tops, beach that goes on and on and on…,

- A 75 (or so) year old woman walking down the beach – beautiful white hair, white bikini, bright pink lipstick, red hat and a great smile! BEAUTIFUL! – all this because she could!!! I love it!

- An incredible massage in a cabana on the beach and one more to go! A great Valentine gift purchased for me by my amazing man!

- Fresh fruit in abundance! Bananas with chocolate frozen yogurt in abundance! Passion fruit (chanelo), cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple and did I say BANANAS! (They grow seven different kinds of bananas in the D.R. Yummy!

A Day that was probably “Our Favorite Thing”….

One morning we woke up early and made our way to a local bus station after a short taxi ride and then boarded a bus to go to Santa Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. After 3 hours of riding through the countryside and various towns, we made it. Our goal in being there was to see the ministry of Iglesia Communitara Christiana (ICC). Robert Guerrero is the pastor of this amazing ministry. We met Robert at a short-term missions conference in 2005, when we heard him speak of his incredibly relevant ministry and his “Kingdom” vision and philosophy we just knew that someday if we were ever in the D.R. we knew we had to see it with our own eyes because from what we heard from him it was something that really beat with our heartbeat and passions too! So… at the end of our bus ride in Santo Domingo, we were met by Charlene from ICC who took us to the church to show us around and introduce us to various workers and people. We started off seeing the preschool that the church runs. 67 children from age 0-5 meet in an area of 5 or 6 classrooms. Some of the rooms had 15-20 children each but the teachers did an amazing job and the rooms were calm and organized and the children were having a great time. The children are all from the neighborhood around the church and only a few families actually attend the church – the rest they are just trying to love and care for. And, the people pay what they can and if they can’t pay they aren’t turned away. Then we were introduced to some of the preschool administrative staff.

After this we walked over to “the gym” with Charlene, where we met up with Robert. On the way over to the gym, I had an amazing experience – I was walking with Charlene and there was this line of homeless people waiting outside this building. I, doing the typical ‘American’ thing, just kind of ignored there pleas for money and kept walking and talking with my new friend. When, God saw fit that I learn a lesson. In the middle of our conversation, Charlene said, “Wait, I’m sorry, I’m glad you’re here, but I need to talk to someone.” And she made her way back to that line of people and bent down and hugged and talked to a lady. I was moved to tears as I saw the amazing compassion she had as she touched the face of this lady and listened to her pleas and questions. Later, Robert told me that she’s the “Mother Teresa” of their church, but I was humbled and awed by the pure love and compassion she showed when I – didn’t! When we met up with Robert at the gym, he showed us around this amazing facility and shared with us story after amazing story of how God has used this gym and workout center to draw people to Himself. And, it has been so effective in raising up people and quality gym staff who are followers Jesus and then they are ‘released’ or ‘sent’ into the community to work at other workout places and to have an influence and kingdom impact in those other places. It was so amazing to me to see how they have used something so practical as a way to love and reach out to others. And to just be a positive influence in their community. Cool, cool stuff!

One man at the gym shared his story with us of how he came to know Jesus – living in an abandoned home after being kicked out of his own because of his drug addiction – he knew he had hit bottom and just believed in his gut that there had to be more. He found a Bible in that abandoned home and through that and the influence of another pastor and another church was introduced to Jesus. Then he met Robert and was so excited about the things that ICC was doing that he became involved in the ministry and ‘the gym’. Robert saw in him a gift of administration and management and now this man is the gym manager and just has an incredible influence in the lives of the gym staff and members. From a life of drug addiction and homelessness to being a positive impact for the sake of the kingdom. Amazing! God you are so good. I am so thankful for ministries and followers of you who love people and don’t write them and their potential off because of a ‘tainted’ past. But, instead, see the potential of a life redeemed by you. Lord, give me eyes and a heart like that for ALL people and not just the ones who are like me. Even though I’ve written quite a bit about the ‘gym’ ministry, words really do escape me in describing it. It was amazing, powerful, impressive – not because of any one person but rather because the kingdom of God was busting into the kingdom of darkness and the light cannot be stopped! Because of the presence of those followers of Jesus in that community people’s lives are being changed and redeemed! Incredible stuff!

So… after we saw the gym and heard the stories there, we walked with Robert back to the ‘church/ministry’ building. Another thing that was really amazing was how long it took to walk back. Not because it was very far, but because as we walked the number of people that stopped us to talk to Robert. He knew the people of his community – homeless, lower class, middle class, young, old – it didn’t matter, he knew them all. It was obvious that he loved his community and the people of his neighborhood. It was incredible to watch and it was an incredible challenge to me as to how I want to be a ‘presence’ of the kingdom in my neighborhood and my own circles of influence. As we walked he also showed us some properties – one the church purchased and one they would like to purchase by actually selling the recently purchased. It was exciting to listen to his passion and heart and hear about the vision for the future. When we finally made it back to the church, he showed us these beds that a team had helped to build. At first we thought they were bed frames just leaning against the wall of the parking lot, but, come to find out, they were actually mounted on the wall, folded down with legs that flipped down, and then they hand out mattresses to people to put on them – in short, a place for the homeless to spend the night. Slightly off the ground, covered with a canopy tarp in case of rain and specially for the homeless elderly – but given to anyone in need. What a cool concept- a church welcoming the homeless to come – no strings attached. We also saw the auditorium and heard a bit of the history of the ministry. I know that this was especially meaningful to Randy as he shared his heart and Robert shared his and he saw the 2 even begin to merge into a very like-minded feeling of ‘brotherhood’. After we saw the auditorium and heard of things like the free movie nights and free medical clinic and pharmacy, we enjoyed an amazing “Dominican” food lunch with Robert and his beautiful wife Damaris and their ministry partner Tom Yacina. It was such an amazing time as we felt such an instant friendship and connection with each of them because of our relationship with Jesus and the things he’s been teaching all of us about Kingdom living and Life. After lunch, we found out that there really were no options for a later bus that would be relatively safe, so after a brief time of prayer back at the church office and some goodbyes, we made our way back to the bus stop to head back to Punta Cana.

When we got back to our hotel, Mum and Dad headed to bed after a long day and Randy and I went for a walk on the beach where we talked about the day. Six hours of fabulous, life-changing interaction with our friends, Robert, Damaris, Charlene, Elizabeth, Tom, etc. – our new Dominican family that God saw fit to let us share life with for 6 incredible hours on a Monday in February 2008. Thank you Lord for providing the moment and the opportunity you gave us to ‘seize the day’!

The rest of our time in the D.R. was more and more incredible moments and unbelievable days of rest and relaxation in one of the most beautiful parts of God’s creation.

We look forward to see how God continues to develop our friendship and partnership with our new friends at ICC in the Dominican Republic. We’ll keep you posted in the future! Thanks for taking the time to read this! It moved me deeply and I hope I was able to share that with you effectively!

Shelly
(for the Schmors)

PS - Please check the previous post below for more pics.....thanks.

2008-04-07T11:33:00.000-05:00

(Dominican Republic - February 2008 - see the post above for more description)

Randy and his dad having a good laugh; not too unusual...!

ICC's pre-school program in Santo Domingo
"The Gym" - an example of ICC and holistic ministry
Art, Irma (Randy's parents), Shelly and Randy - Thanks for a great trip Mum and Dad!

2008-03-25T12:19:00.000-05:00

Hey
Just wanted to share this great video from our friend in the Dominican Republic. Enjoy! We will be posting some new updates soon - one from our wonderful trip to the Dominican in February and one from Randy and his trip to Israel in March. But, for now, enjoy this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHW35_3vp0A
Shelly (for all the Schmors)

2008-03-04T14:48:00.000-06:00

...More of "The Sound of Music"...

2008-03-04T14:13:00.000-06:00

As we shared with you earlier, Kameron auditioned in December and was selected to play 'Kurt Von Trapp' in "The Sound of Music" this past weekend. The high school music and drama department of the school (Heritage Christian) that Kameron attends put on this amazing production as he was one of 3 elementary kids selected (including 'Marta' and 'Gretel'). After 2 months of rehearsals and a very difficult last 2 weeks, the results were incredible. The directors did a great job of casting the roles and all of the students did awesome in each of their parts. Of note were Maria, Max Detweiler, Baroness Schraeder, Liesl and of course...Kurt! What an experience! We are SO proud of him! Enjoy the pictures ....

(more pics in the next post...)

2008-02-28T12:31:00.000-06:00

Hello friends of the Schmors and Gateway Teams -

Please pray for our Cameroon partners (nationals and missionaries) as we received this info today (the Klettke Team is not one of ours, but with another group)...

It's 9 AM and there's shouting and singing and tear gas bombs down at Nkwen Market. Yesterday it didn't start until 10:30 AM. People are really upset with the President's speech last night. He basically said that some people who could not achieve their desires through the polls are using the youth to achieve their ends and will be stopped. It doesn't look like this will end soon, but we are not threatened. Pray for the Cameroonians who serve us. The resthouse people who have to risk going to the "black" market to get us food, our house help and laundry people, our guards. Pray for the Klettke Team who can't get out of Daoula and are having a hard time getting food.

Also, an update on Kathy Kroll from her co-worker Lori Hiller -

Hi everyone,

Today Kathy was again quite alert and appeared to focus on what we were saying. She is still on the ventilator, but the doctor is now in the process of weaning her off of it, and hopes to get the breathing tube out by this weekend. Further tests have shown that she does have herpes encephalitis, but she seems to be responding to the treatment. I have had to cancel my flight to Douala on Friday, as the situation in Cameroon, and Douala in particular, is still too unstable to be safe to go back. So, I don't know how long I will remain in Paris.

Lori

Both of these requests involve are friends/partners in Cameroon as you can see.

Our friend John (picture below) is working through his rehab and doing quite well! His 2 boys still need your prayer as they are having a hard time with dad being gone. Especially since they both have birthdays coming up and dad's in the hospital. It looks as if it will be about a month more in the hospital with rehab each day. Pray for the Roberts...John's goal is to play the grand piano in the hospital lobby before he leaves; I think he'll do it!

And please remember Kameron as this evening is opening night for "The Sound of Music" (4 performances ahead). Here's a picture of our 'Kurt Von Trapp'! Thanks for your prayers!

Randy

2008-02-25T16:55:00.000-06:00

Hey friends! Here are some Updates:

John Roberts - many of you have been praying for our friend John Roberts who is continuing to recover from a stroke he suffered on Feb. 17. Please continue to pray for his rehab and also for his wife Amy and their 2 boys over this difficult time.

Craig Kelly - a friend of ours from Washington state, Craig is the father of one of our former students, Aaron Kelly, who we continue to be very close with and has served as a pastor himself. Craig is 53 and was diagnosed recently with a golf-ball sized tumor in the center of his brain which doctors will attempt to remove on Feb. 28. Please pray for this family.

Kathy Kroll - a missionary colleague of ours who has served as a nurse in Cameroon for over 30 years, Kathy recently suffered what was thought to be a stroke but after an MRI proved to be encephalitis. She was evaced to Paris, France where she continues to be on a ventilator. Pray for Kathy please.

Mr. Santos - our friend Dan Santos' dad who also suffered a stroke during an extended stay in Sao Paolo, Brazil (the Santos family are originally from Brazil). He is doing much better and has been sent home as of today, but still has a ways to go as far as full recovery.

Thanks for your prayers for each of these folks and their families. It's very odd to be confronted with so many similar illnesses in such a short time involving folks we know quite well through our current and past work. We honestly don't get it. But, I'm glad that Someone else we've come to know quite well does......!

PS - a couple of other requests for us if you don't mind!

Kameron - he's playing Kurt Von Trapp in a high school production of "The Sound of Music" on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week. An incredible amount of rehearsal is going into this which is pretty tiring for a 9-year old, but he's doing great! (even survived a bad sledding accident where he landed on his face this past Saturday! He's ok. Unfortunately, his friend Skyla (6), who was on the tube with him, is not. She has 2 broken wrists. Please pray for her and her family through the next 2 months of arm casts!

Randy - I'm heading to Israel on Mar. 5-17 for a GYI (Global Youth Initiative - www.globalyouthiniative.com) Summit. Pray for our family on the homefront and for me as I process and contribute at this event. God has been using Gateway Teams participation in GYI to bring clarity to our specific purpose in the Short-Term Mission arena.

Shelly & Randy - we have Randy's parents to thank for a great week in the Dominican Republic last week (a welcome respite from what has proved to be a pretty rough Wisconsin winter)! It also provided us an opportunity to visit our friend Robert Guerrero and see the incredible work that he oversees at Iglesia Communitara Cristiana in Santo Domingo. "Culturally revelant" and "wholistic" are the two best descriptors I can think of for what Robert's doing there in a tough neighborhood of S.D. in the D.R.! Very cool stuff that we can only imagine how God may use in the future; maybe even involving us...... :)

Thanks!
Randy

2008-02-22T09:11:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone,
Here's an update on our friend John Roberts who suffered a stroke on Sunday night.
Shelly and I went to see John and the family at the hospital yesterday afternoon and it was good to hear clear speech from him and to hear that his first day of therapy went well; although it tired him out significantly. But considering all that he's been through, it was good to get the communication we did get from him.

He's going to be moved today (Friday) to a different room in the rehab part of the hospital where he'll begin what Amy was told would be 3 months at least of therapy. John's entire left side, from his mouth, to his arm, to his foot, is unresponsive.

We saw their 2 boys (ages 11 and 8) while we were there too. They seemed to be OK, and glad to talk with us, especially about our son and their friend Kameron, but Amy said that they're definitely scared.

Please continue to pray for these dear friends and supporters of ours. It's sobering to see a vibrant, young person like John, laid out in a hospital bed....please pray for his healing and for Jesus to be all of the Roberts family's strength.

Thanks.

Randy

2008-02-21T13:58:00.000-06:00

Another quick update on our friend John Roberts that I just received.........

Dear Friends and Family,

Thanks so much for praying!

John is doing really well. Yesterday they moved him from ICU into the stroke area of the hospital, and today they've moved him into a regular room. He is mentally alert and his spirits are good. He is even sitting upright in a chair, propped up. John has not regained any feeling on his left side.

If he is chosen by the hospital as a good candidate, they will be sending him for extra therapy. He is currently having speech therapy.

I will send another update if/when I know more, but wanted to give you an update since I had asked for your prayers. The people of God have really stepped up for this family sending them glutten-free food and meals (the boys have celiacs). They are feeling so embraced by all the love and prayers.

I would ask that you would continue to pray for John's recovery.

Thanks again,
Kelly Fehr

2008-02-21T13:28:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since we've posted, but I want to let you know about a good friend of mine and supporter of our ministry, John Roberts. I've known John (and his wife Amy) for over 20 years, having attended church with them as well as playing in bands and worship teams with them.

Please pray for John (his wife, Amy, and their boys Jacob and Andrew)......read on as my sister Kelly explains....

Dear Friends and Family,

We are writing to you to ask you to pray for a good friend of our's, John Roberts, who had a stroke on Sunday evening. He is in his early 40s and was in good health aside from having a serious bout with Influenza Type A last week.

John was given a medication (I think it was called TDA) at about 2:00 a.m. Monday morning, 3 hours after the stroke occurred, which was to thin the blood and help with the stroke. When they took him for testing 6 hours after the stroke had occurred, they discovered his carotid atery was 100% blocked. This is inoperable because they would have to bypass it and with the medication they had given earlier he would bleed to death. He is fully aware and cognisant, and had been able to squeeze his left hand a couple of times during the day. They also believe there is another blood clot somewhere else and they did an MRI last night. He will be getting those test results this morning. During the night he had lost any control of his left side and they said that was probably caused by swelling in his brain. The first 48 hours after a stroke are critical, so we are calling on everyone we know to pray for him.

Please pray for this family: John's wife is Amy and they have 2 boys, 11 and 8, named Jacob and Andrew. John traveled a lot for his job with Northwestern Mutual Life and it was by God's grace that he was at home with his wife when this happened and not alone in a hotel room. John is also an accomplished pianist and he and Amy are in a Christian contemporary band called Beacon. They were scheduled to perform at a coffee house, John Harbor's in Menomonee Falls, this Friday.

Thanks,
Kelly Fehr

The update to this is that John is sitting up and doing a little better, but he has no movement in the left side of his body at all. We're heading to see John this afternoon as we just returned home from a week away.

Thank you for praying for John and his family. These are good friends, so this one hits close to home for us. Blessings.

2007-12-04T11:06:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas to our Schmor/Gateway Teams supporters,

It's seems that at Christmas time, needs are more keenly felt. We appreciate your prayers and support for us throughout the year, but we'd ask if you would pray for these special partners of ours who have urgent needs at this time....

Please pray for (and consider helping financially) -

- Pastor Juan & church in Tlahuac, Mexico - serious difficulties in the church's new location

- Pastor Juan & Amanda in Texas - purse stolen containing money, passports, other valuables -please email us if you'd like to help them

- Godwill Ncham in Cameroon (Youth Ministry partner) - we're raising funds for he and his family to attend school in Nigeria in just a few months - please consider giving a gift to help ASAP - we're not at our goal for them yet

Thanks for your prayers, support and help.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Randy

2007-11-15T11:43:00.000-06:00

Kameron and Bella, his newest buddy

Happy Thanksgiving! (belated to our Canadian friends... :-))

It's been a little while since we've updated our blog, but as the Christmas season begins, we just wanted to thank you all for your prayers and support this year; and...give you a little update on our lives this fall.

September was spent catching up on some much needed work around our office and home. Kameron began 4th grade, played on a soccer team, continued his piano lessons, and tried out and made the His Kids choir at school! Way to go! We also traveled together to visit one of our supporting churches in Marion, Kansas.

In October, Randy and Shelly really hit the road! We went to Atlanta, Georgia for the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders (FSTML) Conference, which Randy is on the steering committee for, and enjoyed being with 100+ others who are involved as leaders in short-term missions as we are. Daniel Rickett and Dr. Jin Kim were engaging speakers at this conference talking about partnership and diversity in Kingdom work. We also headed together to Edmonton, Alberta for a multi-church mission conference and a personal visit to a church that is a new supporter of our ministry. In Edmonton, we had also been invited to do one of our Gateway Teams Leader Training Events at Taylor University College & Seminary and had a great time staying in the area with some great friends to boot! Randy then headed straight from Edmonton to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for another mission conference at Sioux Falls Seminary and another supporting church visit to Avon, SD. The SFS mission conference was quite a busy 4 days in classes and other forums, but the relevant theme of "Sharing the Story/Orality" was quite engaging and worthwhile.

And so now, as we head into November, we'll all be heading to Iowa tomorrow for a gathering of Youth Pastors/Workers from around the US and Canada as well as our annual trek to Oklahoma next week to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas.

As always, inter-mixed in all this travel (and over the phone and internet) are developing relationships with people who support and pray for us and what we do, join us in the ministry of short-term missions as 'goers' and 'receivers', and challenge and encourage us in our journeys with Jesus.

No matter where you fit in to that...thanks! Thanks for your part in the lives of the Schmors and our work. Enjoy the season!

Randy

2007-09-27T14:40:00.000-05:00

Kameron (center) and friends back in 2003.

We received this message (below) yesterday from our Hosting Partners down in Campo Bom, Brazil at the CHAIN of Love Homes regarding one of the house parents there. Although we haven't been there personally for 4 years, we send on average 4-6 Gateway Teams to CoL Homes a year. One of the little boys mentioned, Pablo, is someone that Kameron has stayed in touch with over this time. Please be in prayer for these children and the whole CoL Homes ministry as this must be quite devastating

"This morning we received word that Tadeu, husband of Deni and father of Biological children (grown) Fabio and Deborah and Father to all the Chain of Love Children in house #5 has died. He suffered at least three heart attacks over the weekend and went to be with his heavenly father early this morning.

Please pray for the immediate and extended family of Tadeu & Deni and for all the Children in their home who will be effected by this unexpected loss. As I write this, the Chain of Love psychologist, Mariene is attending to the needs of the family and all the kids. Pray for strength and wisdom for her as well as for Ken & Jerilyn Bayer who are helping everyone through this and who will be handling the service tomorrow (Wednesday).

The children of house #5 are: Regis, Andressa, Carlos, Bruna, Pablo, Taciane, Alexandre Fonseca, Thiarles, Luciano, and Ana Carolina."

Rev. Christopher Kidd
Chain of Love Homes, Brazil

Thanks for your continued prayers,

The Schmors

2007-09-05T15:04:00.000-05:00

Gateway Team Leader Randy Schmor checking the paint's consistency (or something!)
Mexico missionary Marcel Mitchell explaining some of the history behind the Basilica of the Virgen of Guadalupe
Overlooking the Mexico City skyline from a high spot on the Basilica of Guadalupe grounds.

Andrew Hildebrandt sharing his testimony at the morning service at Iglesia Cristo Vive with Mexico missionary Moises Ruiz translating.

(Sorry that the blog for the Mission Baptist - Hamilton, ON Gateway Team to Mexico was not completed until today.....thanks for your patience!)

August 23, 2007

Our painting projects continue! The team has accomplished a lot here this week. We’ve pretty much finished painting the interior of an entire building in 5 days. But, the most important thing is that this building and the Retreat Center are used for Kingdom work here in Mexico City! Allison Cannon, one of our Assistant Team Leaders, has had a hand in choosing colors as well and it looks great and our hosts are quite pleased!

The rest of the group had the opportunity to go to the market with Royce Baron, our host, as well and see all the fruits, vegetables AND assortment of meats available there. What’s most interesting about the meats is the way their displayed and the parts of the animals that are sold that are not usually seen in Canada…..! All part of the experience.

Half of the group also had the chance to go the internet café for the first time and catch up on email, etc. which was a fun experience as well. Especially for Laura Hildebrandt, who had a little run-in with a mud puddle that formed after the heavy rains we had yesterday thanks to Hurricane Dean! (Man did it pour!)

Team Meeting was a great time again in the evening as we worshipped and shared from the scripture passage we’ve been studying together this week Ephesians 4. We left the floor open and a number of the Team Members shared what the passage had to say about unity and our responsibility now after having had this experience to help others back home understand their role in the body. All of our Team Meetings have been rich times together. Please pray that the team would finish well as our last day of painting approaches and we have quite a bit to finish to fulfill our commitment here.

August 24, 2007

We’re just about to head for bed and the end of a long day…..and the painting project is just about complete….actually a couple members of the group are going to wake up early to put on one more coat of yellow in one of the 4 rooms designed for married couples to stay in. It was quite ambitious to take on the 4 married couple rooms in the adjoining building to where we did most of our painting but as has been the case all week, the team worked hard all day and all but completed our week’s project! Everything looks great and our hosts, the Barons and Moises Ruiz, who arrived yesterday, are very pleased with the results. Thanks for your prayers for us as everyone stayed safe and for the most part healthy all week!

The other half of the group had an adventure going to the internet café when the one we had been going to ended up being closed. So, we headed another 15-20 minutes further to the center of the town of Tepexpan where we finally found another one! We then headed back with an excursion through a cornfield as a shortcut and a few stray dogs that made the guys nervous. But in the end, we made it back fine just in time for a supper of chicken soup and tostadas!

Olga has been an incredible cook for us here this week. Although she speaks no English, the love that she puts into the meals she serves and into here smile each day showed everyone how much she loves the Lord and us! And to their credit, this team did very well as she served a variety of Mexican meals each day; we’ve had tamales, taquitos, lomo de Puerco, milanesa and bisteck Mexicana, just to name a few of her dishes…amazing!

We had a good team meeting tonight as well where Lukas Hildebrandt and Mike Powell led us in worship and we talked about finishing this mission project well by ‘Saying Goodbye’ appropriately and meaningfully. The next couple of days will be days of goodbyes for this Gateway Team and they were reminded that our presence among these people has been as important, if not more important than the work project (painting) we came here to do. In many cases, this will be the last time that many of these meetings between these Canadian Team Members and these Mexican believers will take place until eternity. So, these goodbyes are meaningful and important this weekend.

Please pray that this weekend will be one filled with meaning for everyone involved in this mission project; Gateway Team Members and Host Missionaries and nationals alike. Also please pray for our safety as we head to ‘El Centro’ tomorrow and experience the national capital area of Mexico City and a great souvenir market!

August 25, 2007

No rest for the weary as we started our excursion with the surprise of seeing the Mitchell family at our door, ready to join us! (Not only that, but 5 of our Team Members got up at 6:00am in order to put one more coat of paint on one of the rooms that was in need of it; they finished before the rest of us even woke up! Way to go guys!) The Mitchells (Marcell, Ingrid and, count 'em, 5 GIRLS!) have been here in Mexico since late June and are a new part of the missionary team here. They just returned from a few days vacation the evening before so we weren't sure we'd be seeing them today!

We decided to go first off to the Basilica of Guadalupe where Marcel explained this to be the center of Mexican Catholicism. It is on the site where it is said that 500 some years ago, the boy, Juan Diego, saw a vision of Mary with dark skin, hence the name for her, the Virgen of Guadalupe. The cloth of this vision's imprint is displayed here as well as 2 large basilicas and other smaller chapels. There is also a large courtyard where pilgrims come year-round to honor the Virgen but where they come in particular on December 12 for the annual pilgrimage to this revered site.

We then headed to the area known as "El Centro" where we shopped a famous artisian market called "Ciudadela" for souveniers and made our way down the 'Avenida Juarez' to Sanborn's restaurant and on to 'Zocalo' (see August 7 entry for more details on these sites). The team really had to move quickly to get to all of these sites (including Starbucks and "Marti", a soccer jersey store) because we had yet another appointment for the evening back at Cristo Vive church where the youth group was awaiting our arrival for a pizza party! But we made it to the church and had a great evening together. We played games for quite a long time, had our pizza, sang some worship songs in both languages, and listened to 3 of our team members share their testimonies with the entire group. It was a good evening together and gave the team another chance to know more and interact with more people from the church.

A very full day of activity; thanks for your prayers as we were kept safe all day and our driver joined us for everything we did today!

August 26, 2007

Our last full day here in Mexico.....and maybe the busiest yet! The team thought that painting was hard work!

We started the day again at pretty much the same time (7:30am) as all of our work days (no sleeping-in here!) and went to church for what would turn out to be around a 3 hour service! Of course, our team contributed to the length of the service with a song and 3 testimonies. Everyone did a great job sharing their testimonies whether in the youth meeting Saturday night or in church Sunday morning and a number of people from the church shared about the impact that they had.

The team was also invited to the front in the service for a round of applause and thanks on behalf of the church for all the hard work that they did painting at the Retreat Center and building relationships with Cristo Vive church. The efforts of the team were definitely appreciated.

After church, the team had the chance to go to Vip's restaurant and have lunch with the entire Ruiz family. Moises had come back to Mexico from Canada on Thursday, but Carolyn and their 3 boys just arrived in time for lunch and so we had a good time and good food together. Vip's is kind of like a Mexican version of Denny's, and we all agreed that this was some of the best 'restaurant' food we had had here (it would be impossible to beat Olga's cooking back at the Retreat Center!).

After some extended good-byes in the parking lot, we finally headed back to the Retreat Center and to our surprise, people everywhere! It seems that a large portion of the church was there for an outting; playing group games, playing soccer and enjoying food. The team joined in to the soccer game right away and had a great time as Mexico defeated Canada! The best part was seeing people using the very rooms that we had painted and enjoying themselves thoroughly.

As it was now evening, it was time for our major De-Brief of the mission with our team which would take some time. We made it through that time and enjoyed recalling all of our experiences of the week, what we enjoyed and learned being in Mexican culture as well as what we enjoyed and learned from working together as a team. After a short supper of mac and cheese, we assigned different parts of the team different areas of the house (where we stayed for the week) to clean. Everyone pitched in, did a great job and we spent the rest of the evening packing for our trip the next day.

Thanks for your prayers for endurance as finishing well is just as important as any part of the mission experience itself. Please pray for the team's (and Randy's, as he is on a seperate flight) flights tomorrow and that they all make it home safely! Thanks!

August 27, 2007

Because the team's (and Randy's) flights were not scheduled until the afternoon, our morning did not have to start too early. It was around 9:00am when our driver came to the door with a friend in another truck ready to haul all of our luggage. And everything went fairly smooth.....Randy's flight was a half hour after the team's, so we checked in at the same time and headed into security at the same time and said our good-byes at the gate (after they switched gates to the totally opposite end of the airport! - so I guess not totally smooth....).

Whether you have been a part of the prayer team for this Mexico Gateway Team from Mission Baptist - Hamilton, ON or are a regular prayer supporter (and reader) of the Schmor/Gateway Teams' blog, thank you for your prayers over this past month of August!

We appreciate you all! Blessings!

2007-08-23T16:56:00.000-05:00

Members of our Mexico Gateway Team (Mission Baptist - Hamilton, ON) in action, painting at the Acolman Retreat Center.

August 20, 2007

Well, the full work week begins! There is a lot of painting to be done here at the Acolman Retreat Center here in the northern reaches of Mexico City, so it looks like that will be our main project here this week. Almost all of the painting is over plastered concrete, so it takes quite a bit of paint to cover it well.

Everyone chipped right in and by the end of the day, the Barons and Randy were quite amazed at the progress made by this group of mostly teenagers. There seems to be some good work ethic implanted in these kids! Way to go mum and dad! We’re painting boys’ dorm rooms and bathrooms to begin with; 3 of them in all and also a stairway which requires some scaffolding and ladders.

Our evening team meeting was a great time again of worship and a challenge from Mission Baptist Youth Pastor Mike Powell on Ezra and Nehemiah on confession. We ended the meeting with a meaningful time of confessing sins, struggles, etc. before the group for the purpose of uplifting and encouraging each other in their journeys with Jesus.

Please pray that God would continue to mold each person here to become more Christ-like in all that they are.

We also had to say good-bye today to 2 members of the team, Shelly and Kameron Schmor, who headed home to begin Kameron’s preparations for school this fall. Although both of their flights were delayed, and had to drive 2 hours to Milwaukee from Chicago, they made it home by 2am (Tuesday). Thanks for your prayers for their safe-keeping.

August 21, 2007

Another full day of painting! Sometimes it can be difficult for a Gateway Team that works with their hands like this to see beyond the paint being applied to a wall to the purpose behind that paint; that being the purpose of this Retreat Center (or ‘Acampamento’) as it is called here. This Retreat Center not only provides great facilities for a Gateway Team like this to be accommodated, but also provides a location away from home for campers each summer. Every July, there is an Adolescents Camp (ages 13-17) and a Kids Camp (ages 8-12) here at Acolman where many young lives have discovered their newfound journey with Jesus Christ. Gateway Teams have had a hand in these camps for a number of years as well assisting the staff in a number of ways.

So, the Gateway Team that’s here this week to work on the physical facility of the Retreat Center needs to be reminded that what they are doing here (painting, etc.) has an impact on lives, even though they’re not here to see that impact. Please pray that the team would see this and that the Holy Spirit would encourage and remind them of their overall purpose here.

Even so, the team continues to work hard and make a lot of progress. Everyone is quite tired by the end of day! We also had another great team meeting this evening as we shared in some favorite fun songs but also in some favorite songs of worship. Allison Cannon, one of our female leaders shared a very meaningful challenge and exercise on the misuse of the tongue (James 3). Thank you for your continued prayers Prayer Partners!

August 22, 2007

We shaked up the schedule somewhat today because we planned to head to church (Cristo Vive) in the evening for their weekly prayer meeting. So, we decided to eat on a more ‘Mexican’ eating schedule working straight through until 3 in the afternoon when we would have our big meal of the day (‘Comida’) and then leaving for the prayer service around 5:30pm and returning to the Retreat Center for supper (‘Cena’) around 9:30/10:00pm which was a light snack before bed. It worked out great as the team worked themselves out of all the paint we had! By the end of the day, all of the boy’s dorms had been finished and most of the stairwell as well; and the dining hall/chapel (which includes the painting of a very rough concrete ceiling) had a large portion completed too. Our host missionary, Royce Baron, has been busy with trips to the paint store just to keep us supplied! In between brush strokes, the team members have been able to take turns with Royce to an authentic Mexican market where all manner of interesting sites have been seen!

And, as planned, we headed for the Prayer Service in the evening which was a rich time with the people of Iglesia Cristo Vive (Christ Lives Church). We shared in the prayer time together, heard and prayed for a number of heartfelt requests from those in attendance and also shared some requests for prayer ourselves. Many on the team have mentioned how impressed they are with the openness and willingness of these Mexican believers to share with each other and us!

This is a good example of how a mission team can feel that they are coming to provide something for the these people (in our case, painting here at the Retreat Center), but are surprised to find that they receive from the people at least as much if not more than they are giving. There is so much that we as North Americans can learn from the believers here in Mexico about prayer and many other things. Mexicans are naturally hospitable, but when this is coupled with the love of Christ that is present among brothers and sisters in the Lord, it is an incredible blessing; and our team is definitely been the recipients of that blessing!

Pray that God continues to reveal Himself through the lives of the Mexican believers here who are not going out of their way to show love to our team members, but just do this naturally as a part of who they are. Also, would you please pray for our van driver? He has become a very special person to the team and has also been impacted by the testimony of the other 3 Gateway Teams that have been here at the church and Retreat Center this summer. Please pray that God would continue to work in his live and in the life of his family.

2007-08-20T16:30:00.001-05:00

The Retreat Center at Acolman, Mexico. This is just part of it, but the part we´re working on.
In the rain at the Pyramids of Teotihuacan.

A good portion of the Mexico Gateway Team in the new dorm area where we´re working.

August 17, 2007

Our day started very early as we took the Lunas to the airport and were dropped off at our new home for the next week or so in Acolman. The Mission Baptist (Hamilton, ON) Mexico Gateway Team arrived in the afternoon and so we went back to the airport to meet them, changed some dollars to pesos and headed back to Acolman and the Retreat Center where they will work for the next week or so. On the way, a Mexican treat for lunch; McDonalds!

Everyone settled in, had a great ‘real’ Mexican dinner (not McDonald’s) which was made by Olga, an incredible cook and also sister to missionary Moises Ruiz who we’ll meet later in the week. The team also got acquainted with the Barons, Royce and Sue, who are our main hosts here this week at the Acolman Retreat Center. Our first team meeting followed in the evening and everyone was quite ready for bed after a long day that began at 2:00am for the team and 4:00am for the Schmors!

Please pray that everyone would get acclimated well and quick as we begin this new mission!

August 18, 2007

It’s Saturday, but that didn’t matter one bit as the team charged right into our work projects for the week; primarily priming and painting the newly constructed dormitory and other facilities here. Everyone in the group was quite enthusiastic about getting to work and despite the fact that this team is comprised primarily of teenagers, these guys all worked hard and we knocked off a little bit early to play some soccer.

Olga continues to amaze with her creations from the kitchen and everyone is enjoying the authentic Mexican food we have at each meal. The team also found a little time to explore our neighborhood and the ‘tienda’ (store) just across the street. A few tried to harvest some of the cactus fruit here (called ‘tuna’) but ended up with more tiny prickers in their hands and fingers than I think they bargained for!

Church and a trip to the nearby pyramids (Teotihuacan) are up for tomorrow. Please pray as the team shares songs and testimonies at church but also seeks to connect with people. The Retreat Center we are working on is an extension of the ministry of ‘Cristo Vive’ church in Jardines de Morelos where camps, retreats, etc. take place and many young people (and adults) have discovered a new walk with Christ. Attending church with these same people is as important a part of our ministry here as anything we do here at the Retreat Center.

August 19, 2007

We left at 9:00am for church and participated first in a prayer time that preceded the service. The team found much openness in the lives of people as they shared their concerns and prayer requests freely with those present. As the service began, we all participated in the Spanish worship, singing the words as they appeared on the screen with varying degrees of comprehension as to what was being sung! After 45 minutes or so of praise and worship, Pastor Mike Powell shared his testimony as Sue Baron translated. Then, the whole team took to the stage as we sang “My Redeemer Lives” to the congregation, even singing the chorus in Spanish! (‘Mi Redentor Vive’). Then, our Kameron shared his testimony with the congregation; he did such a great job, again his mom and dad quite proud! Allison Cannon then did a great job of in sharing her testimony with the church and the team ended their part of the service by singing in Spanish and English, “Open the Eyes of My Heart”/”Abre Mis Ojos Senor”.

The team really enjoyed the worship experience as Pepe (the youth leader) preached in Spanish and met and talked after the service. It was a blessed time to be together with these brothers and sisters.

Once we had a sandwich lunch back at the Retreat Center, we headed to the Teotihuacan pyramids, but noticed quite dark clouds as we were leaving. It’s rainy season in Mexico from June to October and you can almost set your watch by the afternoon rainstorm that arrives each day. But, the rain didn’t deter as we headed to this world renowned archaeological site. The team did and saw pretty much everything there is to see and do at Teotihuacan; seeing the Temple of the Serpent, climbing the Sun pyramid and exploring the Temple of the Butterfly; all in the rain! The park was quite full when we arrived but emptied out quite quickly as the rain fell. The team marveled as they saw this place that was constructed over 2000 years ago and once inhabited by over 200,000 people until 500 A.D.!

Our team meeting in the evening was one of great sharing of the day’s experiences and worship. Everyone agreed that it was a full, yet very meaningful day! Please pray that the team members would be able to soak it all in; appreciating all the aspects of culture here in Mexico as a part of their total experience on this mission. Also pray for each of them as they consider the challenges they are hearing from us (the Schmors) and the Barons about how they want to consider serving God full-time and how they should use this experience to reconsider how to live back home too. God is definitely at work here and the week has just begun!

2007-08-20T16:23:00.000-05:00

August 13-16, 2007

Shelly, Kameron and I enjoyed a few days off between the 2 Gateway Teams this week. We spent some time with the Lunas at their home in Colonia Santa Ursula Coapa (southern Mexico City) and enjoyed an evening in the home of Hugo and Mari Yllescas (from the church in Tlahuac). We also went to San Miguel de Allende, about 4 hours north of Mexico City, for 2 nights. San Miguel is an incredible, authentic Mexican city where many artisans live and exhibit their work; an awesome place to visit and experience! The next team arrives tomorrow from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to do work projects with our missionary partners in northern Mexico City (Acolman).

2007-08-20T16:14:00.000-05:00

Kameron sharing his testimony for the first time and being translated into Spanish by Pastor Juan Luna of Texas.
Isak, Pastor Juan Castro of Tlahuac, Mexico and Pastor Juan Luna of Rio Grande City, Texas on the site of Centro Internacional de Alabanza´s new location.

At the Pyramids of ´Teotihuacan´.

August 10, 2007

A day of finishing well! It was our last day of Good News Club and we had a great day with the kids. About 5 children responded to giving their lives to Jesus Christ today after Amanda Luna (wife of Pastor Juan Luna, our translators) gave an invitation at the end of the Bible story. Praise God! And then we had some gifts for the children as well to take home and remember their experience this week.

There was some time to ourselves in the afternoon (most went on the Wal-Mart run!) and the ladies treated Anamaria to a trip to the beauty salon. In the evening, Pastor Juan Castro, Hugo Yllescas (lay co-pastor) and Isaac Collin (another lay leader) met with Randy, Mike DeLong and Pastor Juan Luna for a time to discuss issues of church leadership and share struggles the church is having after their 4 years of existence. It was a great time and well received by the 3 leaders of Centro Internacional de Alabanza. We then attended and participated in the Friday night church service with songs, testimonies and a message from Mike DeLong on “Passing the Baton” to the next generation.

August 11, 2007

Today was a cultural day for the team as we went to the pyramids of Teotihuacan just north of the reaches of the city. But, because Tlahuac is in the southeast part of the city, it took 2 to 2 ½ hours to get there! These pyramids and the city below them were built over 2000 years ago by the Teotihuacani people and around 500 AD had around 200,000 people living there. By the time of the Aztecs (like Moctezuma) it was revered as a ‘city of the gods’. It is a full day’s adventure to go to this site with a lot of walking and climbing of steps! And as is the case every day here in this area during rainy season, the rain poured down right on schedule around 4pm and we got soaked just as we were finishing up our time at this historical site.

It was a very full day and we were treated to have around 20 persons from the church join us on the bus we chartered to travel there. The connections we continued to enjoy with folks from the church made the experience and the day even more enjoyable. But, as we headed back home, you could have heard a pin drop on the bus as everyone fell asleep for a good portion of the trip! We were then treated to another great meal at Claudia’s (a lady from the church who owns a walk-up quesadilla stand) and ate to our heart’s content. What an awesome lady, servant and cook! Incredible!

By the time we got back, everyone was ready for bed as we knew Sunday would be a full day as well and our last day here at that.

August 12, 2007

Sunday began with what was to be a very important discussion that Pastor Castor arranged to have at 9am before the Sunday service at 11am. He asked in the beginning of the week, after we had had meetings with a number of the church leaders, if we could have a time with all the leaders of the church to discuss what it means to be a servant leader, how we are to handle conflict in the church and various other issues that these folks would want to discuss. Mike DeLong began the 2 hour session with a six point discussion on what it means to lead as a servant which was very well received and sparked much discussion. Everyone one on the team was encouraged by this meeting and the church leaders that attended (about 25) were very encouraged as well; including Pastor Castro.

This time was obviously a great cap to our time here and it was obvious that prayer had preceded it. Thank you so much for praying for this church; please continue to do so!

Our last church service here was a great experience as well, as we were invited by the worship team to join them in singing “Forever” (Chris Tomlin) in Spanish and English. It was also a very important day in the life of the Schmors! Shelly shared her testimony and touched many hearts with her honesty and our 9-year old son Kameron shared his testimony for the first time as well! We (the Schmors) were so proud of him. Randy also preached on ‘Joshua’ and how his name points to Jesus, the only ‘hero’.
After a time of food and sharing when church was over, our team and a number of folks from the church headed over to the church’s new site a few blocks away. They will be moving there next month. We walked through all the rooms and open areas and held hands in a large circle praying for the church’s ministry in this new location. The new site is very close to a busy interaction and we prayed that this whole new area would have a great impact for the Kingdom. Mexico City has so many needs and has so many un-reached areas; please continue to pray for the impact of Pastor Juan Castro and this church in this part (Tlahuac) of this city of 30 million people.

The evening was set aside for our de-briefing time as the team prepared to re-enter the United States. We discussed our important it is to say good-bye appropriately, how to share our stories with folks back home effectively and probably most importantly, how to integrate this experience into our life’s journey in a meaningful way. The evening concluded with packing, cleaning and generally getting ready for the trip home tomorrow afternoon.

Please pray for safe travel for the 10 members of the team heading home tomorrow and for the 3 Schmors as they head home over the next 2 weeks.

August 13, 2007

Well, departure day is here! And many of new friends came by the church to see the team off as they headed for the airport. It’s amazing how close you can become with people that you just met a few days ago by sharing experiences and more importantly, by sharing the same Holy Spirit. God worked through the team in incredible ways these past days and it will be great to see how this church continues to grow into the future in their new location. It’s also gratifying to know that our team may have something to do with the church’s growth down the road as we shared our lives together.

There was a sense of trust this past week as this was the third time Gateway Teams had come here and Randy had been the leader. Many seeds were planted and ideas sown as this church seeks to follow God’s will for the future. Yes, it was a short week and the time here passed quickly but there was a sense that God was really up to something special during this time. Many in the church sensed it as well as the members of our team.

Thanks so much for being a part of the support of this Mexico Gateway Team’s ministry over these past days of August. Without your prayers, the way could not have paved for the Holy Spirit to be at work. Thank you prayer partners! God bless you for your special role in this project. May His Kingdom come and will be done! Blessings.

PS – the team (10 members) all arrived home safely late Monday night; and the 3 Schmors began to take a few days of rest before leading their next Mexico Gateway Team who are arriving from Canada on August 17…..

2007-08-10T17:49:00.000-05:00

sorry, the pics are here! thanks!

2007-08-10T17:37:00.000-05:00

August 7, 2007

Another great day here in Tlahuac! It was a day of Mexican culture and understanding as well as a day that included another great evening of our ESL classes. We started the day quite early as we boarded a public bus to head to the nearest Metro (subway) station and make our way to El Centro or ‘Zocalo’; the center/downtown of Mexico City. The traffic while we were on the bus was quite heavy and it took almost an hour just to get to ‘Taxqueña, the closest of the Metro stations. Once we were there, it takes only 20 minutes to get all the way to the center of the city. We stopped first at ‘Ciudadela’, a large market where the team could get some authentic souvenirs of their time here. After 2 hours there, we headed on foot to Avenida Juarez which is a main business district of Mexico City. The team observed a number of landmarks including ‘Palacio de Belles Artes’, a large and beautiful art museum. Close to this museum was our stop for lunch at Sanborns where the team enjoyed a great lunch of authentic Mexican food. We then headed further on foot to ‘Zocalo’, the main center of the Capital where we found the National Cathedral and the Presidential Palace. The National Cathedral is an incredible structure, 350 years old, the oldest building in the Americas. And the National Palace has displays of the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera including a 3-wall mural depicting 2000+ years of Mexican history. By the time we got back to the church via Metro and bus again, we had 15 minutes to spare before the ESL classes began. A very full day indeed!

The classes themselves went very well and were much appreciated. The Delongs did a great job with the advanced group and Kathy and Beth also did a great job with the Beginners. Everyone was smiling, laughing and enjoying their time together. These classes continued to build on the foundation of relationship that is so important for us to formulate with these people before we attempt to discuss some of the aspects of ministry leadership in the congregation that we were asked to come here and help with.

Thanks for your prayers! The Lord kept us safe in all our comings and going today; which were many!

August 8, 2007

Today was the first of our 3 children’s ministry days with the focal point being a “Good News Club”. Around 35 children came for this first day of Club Buenas Nuevas and many of their mothers stayed to watch and participate. When club was over, we had the first of 3 luncheons for the children’s workers of the church. All of the children’s ministry in this church, for ages birth through 14 is led by these 4 ladies who came to the luncheon. We discovered what incredible hearts they have for these kids but they have very little resources or funds to work with. They also find it very difficult to work with the 12-14 year old boys in particular, being ladies and all, but they have such a heart for this and sacrifice much to serve. The other difficulty many of them face, which is common here, is lack of support from their husbands for their service in the church. In the best scenarios, their husbands at least attend church on Sunday, but in many cases, husbands are absent from the role of spiritual leadership in their homes, let alone supporting these faithful ladies in their service to the children of the congregation.
This was a good time of sharing, praying and gathering together, letting these ladies know that they are not alone and that we care about them and their needs.

Wednesday night is also a prayer service night in the church and we were privileged to have Kathy share her testimony with the congregation and have Pastor Juan Luna from Texas, one of our translators and a long-time friend of Gateway Teams, bring a bilingual message on what it means to invite the presence of Christ into our homes.

The team also shared during our team meeting time their impressions of yesterday when we were at the National Cathedral and all that we’re experiencing in trying to understand and appreciate the Mexican culture. There is much to understand about the people we’re trying to serve here. Please pray that we would continue to understand our brothers and sisters here and their needs better and better.

Oh, 2 more things! We can’t forget to tell of the major storm that hit right during church tonight! It brought major amounts of rain and hail which covered and flooded the streets, broke through the tarp covering the church meeting area and forced us to scurry for cover! It was hard for everyone to believe how much hail came down! But after we repositioned ourselves and the sound equipment, the service went on! We also had an incredible meal at Claudia’s after church of tacos, quesadillas and tortas; but nothing like you’ve ever seen in the US! Claudia is a lady in the church who owns this walk-up taco stand and in the Mexican tradition, the team was enjoying this meal around 10:30-11:00pm! “What a feast!” and “Pass the ‘Alka-Selzer’!” were the 2 main comments as we headed for bed afterwards!

August 9, 2007

Another day of Good News Club and for many on our team, the focal point of our time here; meetings in the evening with the leadership of the men’s, women’s and youth ministries. In the case of the men’s ministry, there isn’t any in the church, so imagine our surprise and enthusiasm when 15 men showed up because of their interest in beginning such a ministry in this church! Scott, Mark, Mike and Juan Luna led this time of discussion, presentation and prayer as these men gathered and were challenged on what it means to take spiritual leadership in the home and in the church. They were also encouraged that the young men of the church need them as mentors if the church is going to continue to grow. Young men typically lose interest in the church and fall away, but if this group of men are any indication, God is about to do a great work here and it’s with great joy that we are here to encourage them to move forward. Praise God for this time and how he used the men of our group! Keep praying for these men in this congregation as well in these roles of spiritual leadership.

The women’s ministry time was led by Shelly, Sue, Kathy, Beth and Amanda Luna (translating) and the ladies that came were encouraged to try to find time to meet and especially study together and to just have fun together! The team brought along a Spanish version of Beth Moore’s ‘Daniel’ study and the ladies enjoyed watching this video and discussing the topic. They also enjoyed getting their nails done by the ladies of the team as they met and discussed! Great idea!

2007-08-07T20:36:00.000-05:00

Isak la payaso! Isak the clown!

A beautiful little girl at Centro Internacional de Alabanzas park ministry.

August 4, 2007

Greetings from Mexico City! “The Small Group” Mexico Gateway Team from Brookfield, WI that Shelly and Randy are leading to Tlahuac, Mexico arrived Friday night to the home/church of our hosts, Pastor Juan and Anamaria Castro and immediately were a part of the weekly Friday night church service of Centro Internacional de Alabanza. The team is here at the request of the church to help with issues of discipleship and leadership and definitely got their feet wet in the Friday evening service and then with an afternoon outreach on the streets of the ‘Colonia’ for children and for adults in the evening. Randy preached and Mike DeLong and Scott Mathison shared their testimonies at the service on Friday night. The team also helped in a number of ways at the Saturday afternoon outreach as well; leading songs for the children and helping with the set-up and tear-down.

This church is such an example of loving, caring and growth. Their plans include a number of church planting efforts in this part of the city and many members of the congregation have plans to help with these church plants. Pastor Juan and Anamaria view these church plants as mission projects that will multiply what this church is already doing. The Castros themselves are missionaries here in Mexico, sent from their respective churches in Chile and Brazil and the fervor that they have brought here for church planting has definitely been contagious.

The team we have here consists of 9 adults and 4 of our children and we’re looking forward to what God already has done and will do this week. If our first day is any indication by the number of people that came to the Saturday outreach and responded, we are in for many blessings this week.

August 5, 2007

The weekend is an incredibly busy time here at Centro Internacional de Alabanza. The Sunday service is definitely the focal point of the week here and we were privileged to be to play a major role in the service this week. Our team shared 3 songs of worship as a group before Beth Mathison and Mark Kelm shared their testimonies of following Christ. Beth and Mark had 2 young people from the church as interpreters who had the opportunity to translate in public for the first time. It was a little shaky at times but fortunately they were given some help from some other bilingual people close-by and it was a good experience for them.

Mike DeLong was asked to preach in this service and he was interpreted by a long-time friend of Gateway Teams, Pastor Juan Luna of Rio Grande City, Texas. Juan and his wife Amanda are here in Mexico City (originally their home) to help our team with translation in many of the events we’re looking to do here this week. Mike had a great message encouraging the church in all the great things they’re already doing and challenging them to keep their eyes on Jesus as they look to move to a larger facility next month. Mike also challenged the men to be the spiritual leaders of their homes; something that is not always so easy in this culture. Juan Luna is a great interpreter and preacher in his own rite, so it was a great message and it was awesome to see Juan using his interpretive skills.

The rest of the day included an invitation to a church family’s home for a birthday party and a trip to Coyoacan; the “artsy” area of Mexico City. It was a very full day and the entire team shared how they are so impressed with the dedication, passion and servant hearts shown through members of this church. One example of that service is Monica. Monica is cooking meals for us this week but in order to do this, she had to take a week’s vacation from her job which she willing did to serve us in this way! She is just one incredible example of the servant hearts of the people at this church. It is such a blessing to be here.

August 6, 2007

Finally the pace slows down! But, just a little! Today is a day where our plans include our first of 2 ESL (English as a Second Language) classes in the evening, but we knew that much of the morning and afternoon would be given to preparing for these classes and also preparing for the “Good News Club” for children we’ll be offering on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. The team pulled together and did a great job preparing for these ministry times which enabled us to have some time to explore a near-by market.

That evening, the ESL classes (we offered Beginner and Advanced) came together beautifully as we had a good turnout of people. But really, what everyone realizes is happening between us as a team and the people of this church is relationship. So many of the team members have shared how incredible it is to develop such a bond with these brothers and sisters in Christ in such a short time. The only explanation is our common bond of the Holy Spirit and the oneness that can be felt in the body of Christ.

I’ll also share with you that we have definitely experienced some of the spiritual attacks that we talked about before we came here. Mexico City (and Mexico in general) has been under the influence of much occultic activity for many, many years. And anyone that has ever sought to further the cause of Christ here, including us, has experience opposition. Please pray for us as we seek, with God’s help, to overcome. God has definitely been here at work through us, but we have also experienced efforts to halt that work.

Would you please lift our team and this church up to Jesus right now as you read this? God bless and thank you.

2007-08-01T09:41:00.000-05:00

Hey folks,

Thank you for the prayers regarding yesterday's prayer request and the young boy who died at Good Spirit Bible Camp in Saskatchewan.

I just wanted to let you know that there will be a number of blog entries ahead as we head to Mexico City on Friday to lead 2 Gateway Teams.

Thanks for your continued prayers for us. Blessings!

2007-07-31T16:15:00.000-05:00

We just received word that a young boy drowned at Good Spirit Bible Camp in Saskatchewan, Canada. Good Spirit has been one of Gateway Teams' hosting partners ministries for the past 4 years, although we weren't able to recruit a Gateway Team for them this year. The young boy would have been there during one of the 2 Native Camps that our teams have assisted with the last 3 years.

Please pray for his family, the camp, and that God will somehow use this very tragic event in His Kingdom plans.

Thank you for praying.

Randy

2007-06-13T23:04:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Our last full day in Bulgaria! Thank you for praying for us along the way and for your interest in our “investigative ministry” here in this beautiful country. Yes, our purpose was to come and see how we may partner with these churches in the future here, but God has definitely taken advantage of our time here and given us many opportunities to minister to people and be a blessing! But as is often the case, when you go with a servant heart to minister, you are blessed immeasurably in return; and that has definitely been the case here these past 10 days.

Today is a day of travel once again as we make our way back to Sofia for our flights tomorrow morning. We traveled with Pastor Stoicho, his wife Yura and 2 new friends, Nicky and Ana. On the way, we had to travel through the mountains once again and stopped at the ancient fortress (and city) of Belogradchik. (pictures below)

What an incredible fortress that has seen the occupation of the Roman Empire (2nd century), Bulgarians (8th century and present) and the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire (13th – 19th centuries). It is high on a rocky precipice with many interesting rock formations. I couldn’t help to think of the ‘Battle of Helm’s Deep’ from “The Lord of the Rings” movies when walking through this fortress; it was just like the set of the movie! This was definitely a must-see site here in Bulgaria.

Well we were headed for Sofia as I said and the service at the Baptist Church, but our goal was to be there by 6:00pm for the Wednesday night service where I was to preach. We arrived instead at 6:30pm but it was right on time for me to almost just walk straight in and start preaching! It all worked out and we had a chance to say good-byes to the people at the Sofia church and eventually Pastor Stoicho, Yura, Nicky and Ana as they dropped us off at our hotel.

Our group (Sam and Bonnie Nickel – Edmonton, AB; Jim and Daniel Black – Chicago, IL and myself) had a great dinner in the hotel restaurant and shared our impressions and ended by thanking God in a time of prayer for all that He did these past 10 days.

As we were here to discover partnership opportunities for Gateway Teams and NAB, I think we’d all have to say that the answer is definitely yes! But we’re going to let God take the lead as to when and how it pans out. We definitely have some ideas: youth ministry discipleship and leadership training (as I described earlier); pastoral and leadership training and women’s ministry are just the beginning of ways that we discovered to participate in the life of the churches here.

All in all, we had an incredible time here in Bulgaria as we experienced the historical and present-day aspects of ministry and life here. It’s quite obvious to us that God has a plan for future partnership as well!

Thank you all for your prayers for our safety, health and discernment here in Bulgaria! May God bless you for your commitment to prayer for us and may we someday see some of you here on a Bulgaria Gateway Team or in another capacity! Blessings!

Randy

2007-06-13T22:52:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

A full day in Lom! We spent some time seeing the Baptist Church in Lom and talking and praying with Pastor Stoicho Apostolov and his family. As I said yesterday, there is an incredible amount of history surrounding this church and the NAB Conference and we were able to compare old pictures of the church with what we were seeing before our eyes today!

Lom Baptist Church in 1930 (during a visit from NAB Missions Director William Kuhn)

Lom Baptist Church in 2007 (during our visit!)

We then went to another part of town where there is a Gypsy Baptist Church that also dates it’s beginning back to this time. It is actually the first know Gypsy church in the world! (below)

We had a great time talking and praying with the current pastor of this church and he asked us to pray for many needs in his family and congregation; a very rich time. Since Lom is on the Danube River, we decided to have lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the water and continued to have an enjoyable time with Pastor Stoicho and his family. After this, we had an appointment to visit with an elderly woman who was a little girl back in the 1930’s when 2 female NAB missionaries spent some years here in Lom working with children, youth and women of the church. She reminisced back to her childhood telling us of the kindness of “Lydia and Emma” and how they spoke Bulgarian with a strong German accent! ‘Darinka’ gave us a glimpse into the past and she told us that we were such a blessing to her knowing that we came from the same group of people as these 2 beloved ladies in her early life. (‘Baba’ (Grandma) Darinka below)

After a short late afternoon rest, we went to the Lom Baptist Church where a group of people from the church were gathered and eager to meet us because of our history with the beginnings of their fellowship. We had a great time sharing our own stories with them and receiving thanks and appreciation for our visit. We also had an extended prayer time into the evening (over 2 hours!) where many of these people asked that we would pray for their needs and those of their families. It was really a special time for everyone to know that we were reuniting after 70 years of separation. A very full day in all respects! Blessings!

Randy

2007-06-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Hello! We had a full and rich day here in Sofia; including 3 services (one of the a baptism service) and I stayed for a youth/young adult meeting in the evening as well. 5 people were baptized in the 2nd service which included an elderly man; it was really a great service and the joy of the people was very evident. Sofia Baptist Church is quite well-known among evangelical ex-pats living in Bulgaria and we met a few of them who regularly attend and others visiting.

In the few hours we had between services in the afternoon, we had lunch with Pastor Teddy Oprenov and had the chance to see the progress being made on the church sponsored cultural center being constructed just down the street from the current church building. (below)

Shelly, Kameron and I saw this cultural center, which was will also house a new
sanctuary, 2 years ago and it is very encouraging to see the progress that is being made on it. Pastor Teddy (below) has incredible vision for this work as it will house a number of different services for the community including – a food bank, a counseling center, an internet café and offices for Sofia based Christian ministries.

Teddy told us of the many amazing ways that God has gone before them in realizing this vision; incredible stories of land acquisition, a top-notch architect and other providential ways God has provided. As Teddy put it, “God is just running ahead and we’re trying to keep up!”.

As I said above, I had a great time meeting with the youth/young adult group of the church in the evening as they asked if I would share more about Gateway Teams’ vision for discipling youth and what that really means. It was great time for me to share about what we may want to partner with them in doing in the future as well as taking a number of questions about their concerns. This is definitely a need here in Bulgaria as I have talked to a number of people about this. God may be uncovering another potential ministry opportunity here in this area of youth discipleship and raising up young leaders!
Thanks for praying.

Randy

Monday, June 11, 2007

Greetings from Lom, Bulgaria! Today was a day of travel into the northwestern part of the country. Lom is on the Danube River right at the border with Romania. Our time in Bulgaria these 10 days has kept us in the western part of the country, but whether going south or north as we are now, the beautiful Balkan mountain ranges continue to impress.

On the way to Lom, we stopped at Varshets, the site of a cluster of Baptist churches and met some of the leaders there and spent time getting to know them and praying for them. Vasil Vasilev was one of these pastors we met. He is also the current President of the Baptist Union of Bulgaria. (below – on the site of the new church property in Varshets)

And then we came to our destination, the historic city of Lom. We’d been anticipating coming to Lom because this is the site of North American Baptist Conference (that Gateway Teams is a part of) work that helped launch the Bulgarian Baptist Union and specifically churches in this area. National pastors in the area in particular were supported by NAB missions and considered missionaries of the NAB Conference. Also, NAB leaders like Fuelbrandt and Kuhn visited this area and the Lom church in support of this work in the 1930’s. The Communist regime branded Kuhn as a spy shortly after this time and all contact was lost between the Bulgarian Baptist Union, the church in Lom and the North American Baptist Conference until the present time. Because of the discovery of this past relationship, we have made our way to Bulgaria at this time! As you can imagine, the pastor and the church were very excited to have us here knowing that we represent people that helped begin their church 70+ years ago!

We headed to bed after a long dinner conversation looking forward to all we would see in the day ahead! Thanks for your prayers!

Randy

2007-06-09T13:56:00.000-05:00

Bulgaria Site Trip Blog

Tuesday, June 5, 2007 -

After a number of delays, we did finally arrive in Sofia at around 8pm local time. The day did begin with our Chicago – Milan flight departure delayed for over 5 hours, so after getting to O’Hare on time for the scheduled departure, we (myself and Jim and Daniel Black), ended up spending much of the day waiting there at the airport.

Flying overnight to Milan went quite well and we had 2 ½ hours that turned into more like 4 hours to wait for the flight to Sofia. George Kirov (pastor of Bulgaria Baptist Mission in Chicago) and Sam and Bonnie Nikkel (a pastor of McKernan Baptist in Edmonton) were there waiting for us and we made our way to a hotel for the night for some much needed sleep.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007 –

We had a fairly easy time of it in the morning, getting up when we wanted to and having quite a good breakfast in the hotel. We finally had the chance to sit down and talk with each other about our thoughts in being here in Bulgaria and what some of our possible expectations might be, etc.

We then headed out in a van provided by the Sandanski church (drivers, Iliya and Lazar provided as well) for a 3 hour drive to Sandanski in a south-western region of the country. We drove in valleys through a number of mountain ranges; very beautiful landscape and came, by mid-afternoon, to this town known to tourists for its mineral springs. We had some lunch and had a good question/answer time with Pastor Dimitir. The Sandanski church has been heavily involved in church planting over the past 20 years; dating back before the overthrow of Communism. They’ve planted 34 churches in the region in this time and have established a medical outreach center as well for the community.
It was decided that we would split into 2 groups for the evening. One would stay in Sandanski and be a part of that church’s weekly youth meeting and the other (I, Randy was in this group) would drive over the mountains to another city, ‘Gotse Delchev’, and be a part of a church service there where the congregation met in a converted store. In Gotse Delchev, Jim Black and I shared our testimonies and Jim had the opportunity to preach.

Now, we had been traveling for a long time up to this point; and I was really asking God to help me as I shared my testimony and some words of scripture that it would all make sense and that He would use it some way. And we know that God is already at work here in Bulgaria and our being here is something that is a matter of partnering with Him where He is already at work. So, as I shared, it became apparent that God was really using my life story and somehow combining this WITH what I was sharing from Psalm 78 about discipling the upcoming generation WITH our emphasis in Gateway Teams on helping youth ministries disciple and raise up young leaders AND somehow molding all of this into a coherent message! It really was something hard to explain that God was doing.

So, at the end of the service, the floor was open to questions and a lady who was the leader of this church (they don’t have a full-time pastor) asked me if I still would be interested in working with youth and youth leaders in their church and helping them be more intentional about making disciples. And I just shook my head (which in this part of the world actually means ‘yes’!) in amazement how God had brought us to this town to begin our time in Bulgaria and answered one of the questions I was looking for answers for right off the bat; to discover if God would want us in Gateway Teams to partner to help youth ministries here in Bulgaria in a meaningful way!

An incredible beginning to what I trust will be an incredible time here in Bulgaria this month! Thanks for your prayers for our safe-keeping, for family members we’re apart from during this time and for eyes to be open to what God is asking us to partner with here in Bulgaria. He’s already made some things quite clear already! God bless!

Randy Schmor

Thursday, June 7, 2007

As we woke up this morning, we weren’t quite sure what was in store for the day ahead, but we soon were told that since we are in ancient Macedonia, we would be in for a “Macedonian Call” experience! And with that, we headed to Greece! The border is only 15 miles from here and so we crossed and made our way 2 ½ - 3 hours southeast to the ancient city of Philippi! Yes, the same Philippi that we read about in Acts 16 and the same Philippi that Paul wrote one of his epistles to! It was an incredible experience.

There are many excavated sites to see there including a number of churches dating back to the 4th and 5th century. These churches were built there in large part because of the prison that is there at Philippi where Paul and Silas were set free because of an earthquake. It was very sobering to see what was more than likely the site of this jail that they were in. We also saw a small town just outside of Philippi called Lydia after the first lady that Paul met in the area. It was a very moving experience to be in a place with such historical biblical significance.

Before finishing out our time in “Macedonia” or what is now northern Greece, we had the chance to see the northern Adriatic or “White” Sea and the coast and bluffs off of the city Kavala overlooking the water. Very beautiful.

As we came back to Bulgaria and Sandanski, we were invited to have dinner at the home of a doctor who practices at the Sandanski Baptist Churches medical clinic; an extraordinary vision in itself of outreach into this community. Gabor and Julia served us a delicious meal of Bulgarian favorites and we had some great discussions about his work here in this town and how God has continued to bless them with the means and equipment to work here even though they don’t have a lot of their own resources.

Little by little, we are discovering the possibilities for partnership here in the Sandanski region for the future. Thanks for your continued prayers! God bless.

Randy Schmor

- Philippi – in front of the prison where Paul and Silas were set free by an earthquake and an angel (Acts 16).

- 4th Century Christian Church in Philippi

- Kavala, Greece – possibly where Paul landed (at Neapolis, Acts 16:11)

Friday, June 08, 2007

Hey friends! This was our last full day in Sandanski and we were told that we would be visiting 2 homes where the Sandanski church is involved in helping the mentally retarded. In both cases, the homes are run by the government, but if it wasn’t for people like the Christians in the Sandanski church, things would be much worse than they are.

The first home was a complex just outside of Petrovo for children. It’s heart-breaking to see all of these children who have in many cases been abandoned at this orphanage because of their mental capacity. However, those working there with them seemed quite committed to the work and the children seemed to be happy. We interacted with some of the kids and gave them some snacks that we brought. We also toured the facilities and spoke with the director about what the situation is like.

The second home for adult women we went to was a whole different experience and situation. It was an incredibly run-down facility where these women have been pretty much left there; left there to die. This home was behind fences to keep the women in and it was a long drive to get there, way up high into the mountain away from everyone, very close to the border with Macedonia. The Sandanski church has been at the home laying floor-tile in some of the rooms, but we could see that the walls were badly deteriorating and the ceiling was bowed down and in danger of oollapsing. We then went into the residence hall and the cafeteria. The cafeteria was fairly newly painted, but when we went upstairs to the residence area, there were small rooms were 3-5 women had beds and one very large room with 40 beds all lined up next to each other, a wood floor that was in very bad shape and dirty, and throughout the entire residence hall the smell of human waste. An addition, the buildings of this home, including the residence hall are wood-heated, even the large 40 bed room only had a small wood heater that was obviously insufficient. The director of this home told us that they hoped to install a boiler in the residence hall for heating but that the funds were not there. Being there was very a very frustrating and hopeless experience to encounter these women who have obviously been discarded and literally taken out of society’s view.

We also found out something else which was quite disturbing; only 3 of the 75 women there have actually been diagnosed with a mental disorder, usually schizophrenia, the rest of them are there because of situations of abuse and abandonment by families and husbands. These women can be expected to die at this home without a funeral or any remembrance.
However, although this is a government run institution, the director received us as we asked questions and had tea and welcomed our prayers for her, the staff and the women before we left. But what a sobering look into how people that don’t fit in can just be “discarded” from society; what a place for the church to have an impact, as the Sandanski Baptist Church is and Pastor Demiter.

Our day ended with our group splitting up to go to 2 churches; one in Petrovich, and the other a Gypsy church plant within the Gypsy community of Sandanski. I had the opportunity to preach and share my testimony there and we were welcomed in a big way by these people. The group that went to Petrovich included Pastor George Kirov (the Bulgarian Baptist Church of Chicago pastor who is with us and is doing most of the translating for us) as this was his boyhood home and he had not been back there in many years. George was overjoyed to see how what had been a struggling congregation had just opened their new building up last week and welcomed him back with open arms. It was a very joyful experience for him. The comeback that this congregation made has also been due in large part to Pastor Demiter of Sandanski. We’ve come to discover that Pastor Demiter is an amazing visionary and has had a tremendous impact on this Sandanski region of Bulgaria for Christ in a number of different areas; not the least of which has been in the planting of 34 churches over the past 25+ years as well as all the humanitarian work that the church has been involved in in the area.

A very full day where God has been making it clear that we should continue to develop our relationship with Pastor Demiter into the future and see how God leads us in Gateway Teams to work together in this area. But, we still have 2 more regions of Bulgaria to see over the next week or so in the capital area of Sofia and the northwestern Romanian border region of Lom.

Thanks so much for praying. We have been traveling a lot over very steep mountain roads and have been challenged by quite a hectic pace ever since we hit the ground here in Bulgaria. Please continue to pray for us this weekend in Sofia and in the days to come. Blessings!

Randy Schmor

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Greetings everyone! We left Sandanski this morning after an incredible 3 days there and began to make our way north to Sofia. On the way, Pastor Demiter (not to be outdone, he decided that he would be our driver for today as well!) drove us up into the mountains to visit what is probably one of the most revered sites in Bulgaria; the Rila Monastery. It dates back to the 9th century and is the most holy site in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as well as being a crucial place in the saga of Bulgaria’s history. It is in a beautiful setting with surrounding mountains and has at it’s center an ornate church (below) which is painted inside and out with countless icons.

Relics (bones/remains) of Rila, the monk who first came to this site in 900 A.D. are kept at this monastery which bears his name as well as many ancient icons that are prayed to by Bulgarian Orthodox Christians. Even the tomb of the last king of Bulgaria, Boris, who died in 1943 is kept inside this church. It is a place of great significance in Bulgaria.

After visiting the monastery, we made it to Sofia and finally had an evening off to recover for more busy days ahead including 2 church services in the Sofia Baptist Church tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to seeing our good friends, Teddy and Didi Oprenov, the pastor of this church. Shelly, Kameron and I stayed with them here 2 years ago when we had a very brief visit to Sofia in 2005.

Thanks again to all for your continued thoughts and prayers! Blessings!

Randy Schmor

2007-05-30T10:33:00.000-05:00

Warm, summer breezes are blowing today and I love to feel them bringing the promise of sunny days and pleasant evenings. I love to be outside whenever I can, I guess that’s why I love summer. There is just something about connecting with God when you are out enjoying His creation. Even the work of gardening is tolerable because in the midst of it, God’s handiwork is all around you. I love to think about God and His work when my hands are covered in dirt. I’m amazed at His creativity in the design of a ladybug or a centipede. I love to think of Him delighting in His creation of people as I listen to the giggles of children playing in a sprinkler or setting up a lemonade stand.
Hmmm…, God delighting in us, His creation, as we delight in Him… could it be that this was His plan all along? The creator Father, loving and delighting in His children. The Maker of the universe finding pleasure in us as we discover and unveil Him in the world around us. The Sovereign God longing to redeem this fallen world and see His Kingdom reign. I’m amazed when I think of the great privilege of seeing God at work and being able to join Him in his redemptive work. That He would see us as worthy of that calling – what an overwhelming and humbling thought. What do warm, summer days cause you to think of? Take some time today to delight in God and all He is. And may we join together in praying …Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Delighting in Him,
The Schmors

(written by Shelly)

2007-05-07T10:03:00.000-05:00

Cameroon Gateway Team

Maybe you heard what seemed to be a somewhat brief headline here in our part of the world regarding a plane crash in Africa?

See http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/05/07/ap3692239.html for the story). I saw the headline first on Sunday afternoon after being out of touch for the weekend; a Kenya Airways jet going down and leaving from Douala, Cameroon and my thoughts went immediately to a Gateway Team from California that we had in Cameroon that I remembered was flying home this past weekend sometime and going through Kenya....

I read a little more of the article and saw that among the 114 aboard there was only one American, and was somewhat relieved that the team was probably not on the flight. But I called the Team Leader and left a voice message just to make sure; and received an email this morning that the team was on the same flight 2 days earlier and had considered at one point staying over a few extra days to be on the flight that crashed.

So....relief yes, but sorrow for all of these people that did die in a country that many people have to be shown a map just to know where it is. For us, Cameroon is a place we hear about often, having many North American friends there as missionaries and Cameroonian friends that we have been partnering with over the past years. So, I guess it kind of feels like it hits closer to home.....

Sometimes it can seem like an after-thought to me - "pray for the safety of our Gateway Teams as they go travel" - but then something like this happens and it reminds me that this is not a trivial or trite prayer....

So, to our prayer supporters - please, pray for the safety of our teams as we'll have around 13 more going out before year's end.

Let's thank God as well, for keeping this Cameroon Gateway Team safe from harm.

And...let's pray for the families of those that were on that flight....this tragedy is hitting a number of people very close to home.

Thanks,
Randy

2007-04-13T09:14:00.000-05:00

Greetings all,

Some of you have already heard this news, but in case you hadn’t……

Shelly’s grandmother, Lorna Toll, went home to be with the Lord on Friday, March 30 after some difficult months of injury and illness.

Shelly was very close with her having lived with her grandmother in her teenage years in particular. She was a tremendous influence on her life, leading her to Christ at a young age.

Shelly and Kameron traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the funeral (April 3) where her 2 children, 7 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren as well as spouses and friends all gathered coming from Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin. Randy was in Romania on a ministry assignment when the death occurred but was able to make it back just the night before the funeral.

We share this with you all; our prayer supporters, ministry partners and ministry colleagues. Thank you for your prayers, many already given on behalf of the family.

We appreciate you all. God bless.

2007-02-01T11:03:00.000-06:00

This is an attempt to chronicle the last 4 days of the Cameroon Sonlife GT looking back so you can have the full journal/blog experience!

Monday was a very early morning and an even longer trip as it took 9 hot, sweaty, dusty long hours to retrace our steps all the way back to Bamenda from Allat. Allat really was an awesome experience and we were sad to see it all come to a close, but we also knew that we were beginning to make our way home as well. We did have 3 mishaps on the way back to Bamenda as well….1) one of the rear brakes gave out on the car and we watched (and were watched by many in ‘Songkolong’) as a 14 year old fixed it! 2) we got another flat (very rough roads) just as we came back into the Ndu tea fields region and 3) we were held up by the Gendarm in the exact same spot where the customs guy held us up on account of my guitar 5 days earlier. The Gendarm guy made issue of Victor’s (our driver) expired insurance the day before, so we “bought enough insurance for the day” from the guy (yeah, right J, paid him off is more like it!).

It was nice to get back with the rest of the team and exchange stories of our experiences. They had the chance to speak in the schools among other things.

Tuesday meant a number of things because it was our last full day in Bamenda (and the country) before heading to the airport. We had a great dinner at the International Hotel (shrimp!), said our good-byes to Godwill and Richard, shopped for souvenirs, had a very important meeting with Godwill’s supervisor and the rest of us regarding the future of our partnership between CBC and NAB youth, said our good-byes and got coffee (!) from the Palmers (the Field Directors), had a great, final Cameroonian dinner with the Grobs, and did our major debrief of the entire mission as a team. This day was packed! And………. we had to pack J for our trip the next morning to the Douala airport.

Our 2 day trip from Bamenda to Chicago began early as we were given the ok to make a stop at the beach (black volcanic sand) in Limbe before getting cleaned up at the rest house, going out for dinner (pizza!) and getting to the airport. By the time our flight finally left at 11:45pm for Paris, we were all exhausted and slept the entire way. Because we had almost a 7 hour lay-over in Paris, we took the opportunity to take a train into the city. In 2 ½ hours there, we froze (man, the wind was cold!), saw the Eiffel Tower, froze, saw the Seine river, froze, saw the Arc de Triomphe and Champ Elysse drive (Paris’ main drag) and froze some more J. We had time for a ‘petit dejeuner’ (breakfast) and to buy a couple of souvenirs before needing to get back to the airport on the train. Our itinerary then took us to Frankfurt, Germany before the trans-atlantic flight to Chicago.

Unlike our arrival in Cameroon, all of our bags made it to Chicago. I was particularly excited to see my family who were waiting there; the other guys would have to wait until they arrived at their various homes later that evening or the next day (or in team member Mark Jaspers’ case February 3 – he went to Uganda from Cameroon).

THANKS! For following the blog of this mission in particular and Gateway Teams in general! So much prayer and planning had gone into this experience for 4 years and to see God’s hand bring it all together was, well just awesome to watch.

Here are the highlights from my perspective that we’re thanking God for –

- great turnouts and response to all 4 Sonlife Strategy Seminars (Yaounde, Kumba, Bamenda and Allat)
- the meeting at the Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary to discuss formal youth training for pastors and future modular classes taught by NAB youth pastors and others
- the meeting with Dr. Felix, Godwill Ncham, Richard Aponge, the Palmers and our team to discuss the future of youth ministry in CBC churches – (these 2 meetings were not planned but signified how our team’s presence was used to raise the profile of youth ministry in Cameroon)
- future partnership for NAB youth and CBC youth facilitated by Gateway Teams discussed:
o Follow-up Youth Worker Training - Sonlife Strategy/Foundations follow-up Gateway Team in July 2008
o Youth emphasis Gateway Teams - demonstrating the importance of youth ministry and discipleship by presence and example
o North American/Cameroon Youth Serving Together - Gateway Teams that will serve together with CBC youth on projects within Cameroon
- Validation and encouragement for Cameroonian youth leaders, but especially for Godwill Ncham (the CBC youth dept. president), Richard Aponge (Bamenda area youth president) and Daniel Wango (Yaounde area youth president)
- Health and safety for us the entire way!
- Lastly, a great team of youth pastors that I had the privilege of leading; their servant hearts and selfless giving of themselves made this experience a blessing that will have eternal significance to say the least –
o John Marshall – Bethlehem, PA
o Jud Stade – Edmonton, AB
o Paul Nather – Bismarck, ND
o Mark Jaspers – Beulah, ND
o Chris Borkert – Kansas City, MO
- And…I thank you for your interest, prayers and in many cases financial support of this Cameroon Gateway Team – please continue to pray for wisdom as we navigate the future of this partnership – also, thank you for your prayers for my family (Shelly and Kameron) as this was a tough month saying good-bye to our 11-year old dog Kodi – and please, continue to pray for John Marshall as he comforts grieving families of 2 girls that were in a car accident from his youth ministry; one girl was killed and the other is still in critical condition

Thank you again and please continue to check this blog as we update monthly on the ministry of Gateway Teams and us, the Schmor family! Blessings!

PS – a few pictures from Cameroon below!.....

2007-01-21T11:37:00.000-06:00

January 21, 2007

Desert greetings from Allat!

We are on our last full day here in Allat, so here is a short prayer update!

As I said yesterday, the Sonlife seminars on Friday and Saturday went extremely well and were very well received. It has been amazing to discover how much God has been using this team and the one that is now in Bamenda to accomplish this work.

Please continue to pray:

- that the seed that was planted in the training would continue to grow in these youth workers and the pastors that attended
- thank God that they all arrived safely home after up to 8 hours of travel yesterday
- thank God for how He used us in 3 different churches here in the Allat area this morning; my personal experience in Taram was such a blessing. The people were so loving in that little hut of a church. And Godwill Ncham and I were able to talk with the young people of the church after the service and challenge them on their role in the church today, not only tomorrow.
- Please pray for the other team as they have finished their seminar in Bamenda where over 50 youth workers attended. For us here, we ended up having 35 here in Allat; considering that we are in the bush, it was an excellent turn-out.
- Pray for our 8-9 hour car ride on hot, dry, dusty dirt roads all the way back to Bamenda tomorrow.
- Pray for the important meetings we will have with the Evangelism Director on Tuesday
- Thank God for a very good conversation regarding the future of what this partnership between NAB youth workers and CBC youth workers will look like.

Again, thank you for your prayers. God has been doing incredible things here. And, to top it off, we are really enjoying Allat! It’s a great desert-like climate in a great setting here at the mission station and the Hohns have been great to be with as well.

In His Grip,

Randy Schmor

2007-01-20T14:01:00.000-06:00

Hello again from Allat, Cameroon!

We've successfully completed our 2 days of training here in this somewhat remote part of Cameroon (close to the Nigeria border and about half-way through the country). It was a blessed and a great time as we had 35 persons in attendance that came from as far away as 9 hours. We heard some excellent response from this group to the teaching and were very encouraged.

Another highlight was the number of pastors that were in attendance as well, showing their support of youth ministry by coming.

Thanks so much for your prayers again. Please pray for our long drive of 8 hours on Monday and the 3 churches that we will be preaching in tomorrow morning.

It's also been a blessing to spend time with Cal and Susie Hohn and their 2 daughters who are here in Allat. They've been great and even now we're enjoying a game of yahtzee!

This has been a tremendous time here in a beautiful high desert type of setting; it was an unexpected surprise to be in such a nice place after the long day of travel on Thursday.....and again on Monday!

Your prayers have definitely been heard and we've seen God at work in meaningful ways. More to come.....

In His Grip,

Randy Schmor

2007-01-18T15:33:00.000-06:00

January 17, 2007

Hello from Kumbo, Cameroon,

I apologize that it has been a few days since my last entry, but internet here is not quite as reliable and not quite as available either! We’ve had some incredible days since our seminar days in Yaounde and Kumba (the other half of the team) last weekend. We attended church in Yaounde and had the chance to see the Rainforest Academy Missionary School and made our way to Bamenda on Monday after a long bus ride.

The other half of the team coming to Bamenda from Kumba should have had a shorter trip but ended up coming 3 hours after us because of a truck that was over-turned in the road. But God kept us all safe and continues to.

Our team has spent some incredible days together as well as we were able to see the Mbingo Baptist Hospital on Tuesday and “New Hope Village”. We could not have ever been prepared for going there as we spent time with victims of leprosy, shared Jesus’ love with them and prayed for them. God truly broke our hearts as we prayed for these dear people. We asked if it would be ok if we laid our hands on them as we prayed and when we came over to do that, they all raised there deformed and fingerless stumps up to us for us to hold. None of us could hold back the tears as we prayed for their simple requests – for a light in their village (there’s still no electricity) and that when they died, it would not be in a lot of pain. It was an incredibly humbling experience as I felt that I was truly looking into the face of Jesus and holding His hands as I held what was left of their hands….

God has continued to make ways for us here as well in regards to our main purpose in encouraging the youth ministries of churches. I had the opportunity to be interviewed on the radio in Bamenda to an audience of about 2 million potential listeners about our purpose here as well as discussing the importance of discipleship, especially among young people.

And today, we traveled to the Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary in Ndu (about 3-4 hours) to encourage a young missionary family there and have a unique opportunity to meet with the Seminary leaders to discuss how the Seminary could be involved in more strategic ways of equipping pastors in the area of youth ministry. It was an incredible meeting and our host, Godwill Ncham, was ecstatic that such an opportunity presented itself on that level.

And so, we thank you again for you continued prayers for our health and safety, but also for how God is putting together incredible opportunities for us to raise the profile of youth ministry among Cameroonian church leaders. It’s been incredible to say the least!

I’d also ask you to continue to pray for these requests…..

- Our team splits up again tomorrow. Half will go back to Bamenda to do the Sonlife Seminar there this weekend and the others will travel 5-6 hours further inland to Allat to teach a seminar there. Please pray for us as we teach.
- News came from home today for me that our dog Kodi will need to be put to sleep today…this is quite hard on all of us as I am gone from home, but I’d ask that you especially pray for our son Kameron as Kodi has always been there. Please pray…
- Shelly’s grandma, Lorna Toll. There isn’t anything new to report at this time but please continue to pray for her as she is quite frail.
- A member of our team, John Marshall (Bethlehem, PA), had a scary fall off of a ledge at the CBC compound on Monday night as the power went off and he didn’t see a ledge. He fell 5-6 feet, but amazingly, thankfully, he’s OK.
- Please pray for all the guys on our team – Paul, Mark, Chris, John and Jud as we are away from wives, children and families.

God bless you all for your faithfulness in praying for us here in Cameroon. This would not be going as it is if it weren’t for your prayers. Thank you.

In His Grip,
Randy

2007-01-18T15:20:00.000-06:00

January 18, 2007

Greetings from Allat, Cameroon (about 600 km inland on the Nigerian border),

Thank you for your prayers for us today! Here’s some of what happened –

Our team parted ways this morning as the other half headed back to Bamenda for the weekend and we headed 6 hours further inland to Allat where we all arrived safely. We traveled over quite rough and difficult roads, mostly dirt, over most of today. Our car ended up getting a flat but it happened right as we were entering a village where we were able to get it fixed. We were also able to meet a regional pastor in that town and ate lunch at his home before we got on the road again; so, it was really a blessing that the flat happened right in that village.

Shortly after we left that village, we came to another where there was a routine check that either Gendarm military police do or customs officials. But, we ran into a customs official that decided for whatever reason to hassle us about my 15 year old beat up guitar. He wanted to see a receipt for it of all things! Our host pastor, Godwill Ncham, really handled the situation well and basically called the man’s bluff (he was obviously looking for a bribe). He argued with him about this for about 10 minutes and then the customs guy said he was going to lock us up and he got into our car next to Godwill! It was obviously a ploy when he sat there for about 10 seconds and then got out and told us to go. I’m telling you, your prayers matter! J And we thank God for Godwill’s discernment in handling the situation as well.

After the long ride and these events, and going up and down mountains and across hot, dusty plateaus, we made it to Allat and are now enjoying being at the mission station here and the hospitality of Cal and Susie Hohn and their daughters Ysabelle and Elianna. Susie made a great meal for us here tonight and we’re relaxing before the beginning of our final round of Sonlife seminars tomorrow and Saturday. Allat is kind of like northern Arizona, high elevation, dry and dusty, but very comfortable and incredibly clear skies at night where the stars are more numerous than you’ve ever seen…..

Please continue to pray for us, especially tomorrow as Chris, John and I teach. Pray that our words would be clear and that we would communicate well. We’ve found that people have traveled from a number of hours away to be here in Allat and so we’re continuing to see God’s purpose for us here unfolding.

I’d also ask you to pray for the other half of the team as well in Bamenda as they begin their seminars there tomorrow as well. The Bamenda team this weekend is Paul, Mark and Jud.

Thank you Gateway Teams prayer partners for your continued faithfulness. It truly does make a difference. Blessings!

In His Grip,Randy Schmor

2007-01-14T14:09:00.000-06:00

Hello again from Yaounde, Cameroon!

Today we had the opportunity to share the Sonlife Africa Strategy material with some youth workers here in Yaounde that came from as far as 3 hours away to be a part of this seminar. And I’m glad to tell you that we had a great time and that the seminar was a great success!

We had about 20 youth workers all together and had the opportunity to share disciple-making principles with them. Some of you are probably familiar with the concepts of win, build, equip and multiply that Sonlife has coined, but for most of these youth workers, this was a new way to look at the life of Christ and His methodology for disciple-making and how it applies to youth ministry.

We (Jud Stade, Mark Jaspers and I) were amazed at how God used us here in this way. We have to confess that even last night as we prayed and went over the material amongst the 3 of us, we felt inadequate to be the teachers of these people and wondered to some extent what God was thinking in bringing us here. (I think we all wonder that from time to time!) But, I Corinthians 2:1-5 was laid on our hearts –

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

Great words!

And so we headed into the seminar with confidence that if we spoke only what God laid on our hearts; that would be enough.

We ended up sharing our hearts and love for youth, our oneness with these youth workers who have dedicated their time to work with youth, and the Sonlife material as well. And it was all very well received.

Much thanks for this goes to your faithful prayers that God would pave the way for our ministry here in Cameroon; so please continue to pray for us as we begin to make our way on Monday on a 6-hour bus ride to Bamenda where we will encourage missionaries and have the opportunity to possibly share about the Sonlife material and our ministry here on the radio which is quite exciting.

Also, please pray for the other half of our team as we have not been in contact with them since they went to Kumba to share a seminar in that region this weekend. We’re quite confident, however, that God by your prayers has paved a way for their ministry there as well and are looking forward to seeing them on Monday and hearing all that God has done.

I’d also like to share 2 personal requests with you regarding my wife Shelly and son Kameron who are anxiously awaiting Daddy’s return at home…..

- Our 11-year old dog Kodi, is not doing well as he was just diagnosed with cancer. We were hoping that Daddy would be back from Cameroon before anything happened to Kodi but that is looking less and less likely. Please pray for Shelly and Kameron and the difficult times and decisions they are trying to make in my absence.

- Also, Shelly’s grandmother in Tulsa, OK, Lorna Toll, is not doing well as you have heard in previous updates after suffering through 3 hip replacement surgeries in the past month. Please keep Lorna, and Shelly and her family in prayer again as I am gone until January 29 and it only adds to the difficulty.

Finally, a praise would be that all 19 of our delayed bags have made it to Cameroon. We’ll be re-united with our clothing again on Monday when we get to Bamenda and will no longer have to share clothing from 2 suitcases among 6 people.

Thank you again for your prayers. Please know that we could not minister with this Gateway Team here in Cameroon or make it through difficult times of separation without your prayers.

Blessings!

Randy Schmor and the Youth Workers’ Cameroon Gateway Team

2007-01-12T14:51:00.000-06:00

January 12, 2007

Greetings from Yaounde, Cameroon and the NAB Youth Pastors Gateway Team!

Thanks so much for your prayers as we have already been in need of them! Our training time in Chicago from January 7-10 went very well and the team really developed a bond as we shared time together. We spent time training for cross-cultural ministry, sharing different aspects of the country of Cameroon that we researched and discussing the personal spiritual growth we each hope to see in our lives. And, we had Dennis Gulley, from Edmonton, AB, with us to help us understand how to communicate the Sonlife Africa Strategy Discipleship material.

We discovered early on that the development of relationships with Cameroonian youth workers, hearing their needs and praying for them was to be more important than any thing we could offer them by way of teaching. But, we’ve also discovered upon coming to Cameroon and meeting with our hosts, Godwill Ncham, Daniel Wango and Richard A. that much is being anticipated from our time together. So, we prayed and discussed that we will, above all things, seek out God’s heart for this time and listen closely to the Holy Spirit for the right words and to share the right things.

Please pray that we would do just that!

Thank you for your prayers for our safe travel. We did arrive safely in Douala yesterday evening, but unfortunately 19 of our 22 pieces of baggage (we were carrying a number of boxes for NAB with us as well) never made it here. And only 2 of the 6 members of our team have their suitcases so we are sharing clothes and other items until we receive our own baggage, hopefully on Monday in Bamenda.

The delayed baggage also included a projector and all the copies of the Sonlife participant manuals we had copied for our seminars. So we’re trying to make due here as the team as split up between Kumba and Yaounde for this first weekend, by having some copies of the manuals made.

So please pray that we would have what we need for our future ministry as that delayed baggage comes.

Again, thank you all so much for your continued support of the Gateway Teams ministry in general and for praying specifically for this very important time with this youth worker training team here in Cameroon this month. Please continue to check this blog for more updates as we continue on this month.

Blessings!

Randy Schmor

2007-01-02T14:25:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Shelly’s grandmother – Lorna Toll of Broken Arrow, OK. You may have seen a prayer request in our past newsletters for Shelly’s grandma and her health. The past few weeks have been quite rough for her as she approaches her 86th birthday. She’s had 2 broken hips, 2 hip replacements and this morning dislocated one of those hips again. Please keep Lorna, Shelly and her family in your prayers as she is 800 miles away.

As some of you know, I (Randy) will be taking a Gateway Team to Cameroon from January 10-25. If I’m able to, I plan to blog – please take a look over the course of the month if you would as I mention prayer requests and updates on our mission with Cameroonian youth leaders and discipleship.

Thanks again for your prayers and God bless in 2007!

2006-12-05T15:10:00.000-06:00

December 5, 2006

Season of Joy! (not necessarily happiness...)

Let me get right to it. Fresh in my mind today are a number of people in our lives going through some major hardships and because it's this time of year, all the mention of being merry and happy can make it even more difficult. I'll mention some of those prayer requests in a moment, but it's at times like this where we need to know that Jesus has come. We still look forward to a 2nd coming but He has come.

"Joy" to the world is not a fleeting thought or a baseless hope, it is in fact, the reality that we hold to because Jesus has entered this world and through those who follow Him, He, by the Spirit in us, continues to make His presence known "far as the curse is found". It can be tough living here where the "curse is found", but His presence and Kingdom has come. There isn't always happiness or merriment as that Kingdom continues to emerge, but where Jesus is, there can be 'joy'.

Would you pray for....

- Mark and his family, a close friend in need of employment
- a marriage/health situation
- Kelly, a friend with health concerns
- a Pastor friend's (and his wife's) marriage
- the loved ones of Harry (a 50 some year old inner-city pastor, and host of mission teams, in Winnipeg, MB) and Lisa (a 17 year old Gateway Team member from Bismarck, ND)

Also, please pray for me over the next month and a half especially as I'll be traveling most of January to Cameroon and leading a Gateway Team. The team consists of a very special group of youth pastors who will be connecting with youth workers in Cameroon as we meet together, pray for each other and discover together some principles from Christ's life for discipleship.

Prayer requests for the Cameroon Gateway Team (January 7-25) -
- First off, pray for Godwill Ncham (our main host receiver)
o for his responsibilities over this huge area of ministry
o for new leaders that he is investing in
o for his family
- That we take time to invest in Godwill's life and the lives of some new up and coming leaders.
- That we encourage application in local churches and would equip leaders
- That we encourage these leaders to take what they learn and apply it in their ministry
- That we would build upon the foundation of partnership that has already been established - Our Gateway Team’s air and ground travel safety and health
- Our training time in Chicago
- Our families back home during the month of January

Also, please pray for other travel I (and we) have over the next 90 days to the Bahamas, Mississippi, Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee, northern and central Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

It's a busy time ahead and we have much to be thankful about. Please join us in prayer for all of these items and folks. And, have a very blessed and joyous Christmas. The Lord has come!

Randy

2006-10-19T15:23:00.000-05:00

Prayer Requests from Romania

In Romania, Gateway Teams partners with the Hungarian Baptist Convention (yes, that's right!). And I recently had the chance to talk with our Field Facilitator there, Pastor Istvan Gergely (that's him on the left) as he is visiting some of our Gateway Teams participants and supporters in North Dakota, about some things he would appreciate prayer for....

1. Please pray for the 3 church plants made among the Roma (Gypsy) people of the area. It's a great opportunity for outreach that the Hungarians have right in their own regions.
2. Pray for the 18 (yes 18!) churches that Istvan pastors. He has 2 associates that help him, but he is the pastor of all of these congregations. There are many small towns in their Transylvania region of northwest Romania and Istvan has to do a lot of driving to get around.
3. Pray for a Gateway Team that we need to go to Romania next summer to work on the roof for their new church (pictured under construction).
4. Pray for the Falcon Rock Camp ministry that is in need of buildings and development (another open opportunity for a Gateway Team).

In addition to all of his other responsibilities, Istvan is the General Secretary for the Hungarian Baptist Convention of Romania. Please keep Istvan in your prayers and think about forming a Gateway Team in your church or region to go to Romania!

Thanks!

2006-10-10T16:06:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Schmors and Gateway Teams new Prayer Request Blog!

October 2006

Thanks so much for your continued support of this ministry! And thanks for visiting our new blog! We hope to do monthly prayer updates here so you can know how to pray for our ministry. Feel free to check it from time to time. We'll also try to send an email out to remind you to visit the site when we've posted something new!

We'll also try to use this site to blog through our travels, missions, etc. as they happen in the future!

Please pray for Gateway Teams over the months of September-October for the following requests:

September
- Gateway Teams Leader Training Event – September 15-16 – Elk Grove, CA

October
- Gateway Team (CoL) – October 13-30 – from Quail Lakes, Stockton, CA – led by Wayne Bibelheimer
- Gateway Teams Leader Training Event - October 27-28 - Edmonton, AB

Juan Luna
- Juan and Amanda Luna have been Host Receivers for Gateway Teams for over 13 years in Texas and Mexico. Juan has gone through a number of health related issues and surgeries over the past 2 months from which he will be in recovery for some time. Please pray for his health, his wife Amanda, the church he pastors, and the financial difficulties incurred.

2007
- We have a very busy schedule of ministry shaping up for next year. Here's some of the items coming up for which we'd ask your prayers:
- Randy has just been elected to the steering commitee for the "Fellowship of Short- Term Mission Leaders" annual conference in October.
- Cameroon Gateway Team in January led by Randy. The team consists of youth pastors
who will help lead 'Sonlife' discipleship seminars in partnership with
Cameroonian youth leaders.
- More possible Leader and Team training events.
- Leading of other Gateway Teams (TBA).
- Coordinating, planning, recruiting of many other teams.

Schmor Prayer Requests
Kameron – Kameron started 3rd Grade in September and is enjoying being back at school with all his friends. He had a great summer in Colorado and Mexico. He met lots of new friends – especially in Mexico. This fall he is playing soccer and taking piano lessons again as well as attending AWANA.
Shelly & Randy - We also had a great summer. We led a Gateway Leader’s Training Event in September in Elk Grove where we had 32 leaders trained! Praise the Lord! We will be attending a conference in Atlanta and leading another training event in Edmonton in October.

Prayer Requests…
*Pray for Shelly’s Grandma (Lorna Toll) & Shelly’s Mom
. (Sue Burgh)
*Pray for the Schmors as they continue to seek God’s
wisdom for many decisions. Pray that we would effectively minister to and meet the needs of those we are assisting.
*Training Events – that God would raise up many more effective leaders.
*Travel mercies as we once again cover many miles in the upcoming months.
*Family time at Thanksgiving with Shelly’s family in Oklahoma.

In His Grip,
Randy Schmor