August 2009 Update August 8, 2009

First on the agenda is a huge thank you to everyone showing so much interest in the ongoing happenings with our journey to Guatemala. The emails, Facebook comments twitters and phone calls have been an overwhelming reminder of God’s goodness to us. Some of your children have already been connecting with ours via the site and for that we are thrilled. So much has happened since our last update from on top of Delaware Water Gap. We are trying to keep it short, but the details are what make our journey very exciting.

• July 11th- Packing up the car the evening before our trip to Guatemala to find a place to rent, up our driveway comes a couple who wanted to see the property. Mark was outside loading the suitcases and intercepted them and encouraged them to come take a look at the inside of our home too. Honestly, selling the house was one of the furthest things from our mind as we were heading to the airport in less than 12 hours. They were on their way to dinner and he wanted her to see a home he sees often while cycling. 4 months prior, when we first put the “for sale” sign up, he took a picture and it has been in his iphone ever since. Recently they decided to get serious about buying and he remembered the photo. So, we walked them through, chatted a bit, told them we would be listing with a realtor when returning next weekend and basically said our goodbye with them commenting that their dinner conversation would be rather interesting after seeing our home. As we’re in Guatemala we get an email from him that they were interested in seeing the home again asking us not to list it with a realtor just yet and we set up a second showing for the following Sunday.

• July 15th- We secure a home to rent in Magdalena. Prior to our arrival God organized a good place, one which needs very little work to get it ready for our family to move in August 24th. Basically the “teamhouse” as it was called, which housed missions groups coming to work in Guatemala, came available. It has been cleaned and updated just missing the means for a washer and dryer hook- up which we are hoping when we arrive to win over the landlord and make that change. Our new place is located right in the middle of Magdalena, and should provide us with exactly what we need in order to host our own friends and family who have committed to come visit. (There is no turning back now guys!)

• July 16th- Still in Guatemala, Gina checked into flights for our move date. On the spot we booked all 6 tickets, knowing we would be leaving the states in August even with a house still on the market. Excitement filled our hearts as we realized the faith move we were actually taking right then. We’ve said all along that we were going, no matter what, and would trust God to take care of the house selling. So the “buy tickets” button was hit!

• July 18th- The day after we returned home, after the showing, the nice couple interested in our home stayed and talked with us over some snacks and we discussed possible sale price. In conversation we were able to see the great story unfolding between our families. Both have done missions work in Haiti and share a similar faith. They told us they feel that God led them to us and to our property. You have to understand that our family since March has been praying specifically that God would sell the home in a way that only He would be praised, He would be honored, and we’ve prayed specifically that our home would be sold to someone who could appreciate the foundation on which our home was built- Jesus. We have wholeheartedly believed that our home would be sold not concerned with the market or this or that. We have had family and friend and their friends praying along with us and when the buyers told us that they feel that God led them to our home, oh man! So much glory goes to God as we know that He is the one who drew them here in His timing for both families to be blessed and for all those involved to be WOWed by God’s Hand. We have learned to never underestimate the power of praying for specifics as well as moving forward into unknown territory. When we got down to negotiating final figures, an email from him stated that while they had been advised to low ball the offer, based on market and our move to Guatemala, they felt strongly that just as God told our family to move in faith and trust Him with our finances, God was now telling them to act in faith and trust Him with all the financial aspects, and to move forward at the agreed upon price. Within 2 days we were under contract and moving forward. Closing date is Friday, August 21st, we move Monday August 24th. Isn’t that just amazing! Yes, the house is sold, but knowing the timing, the opportunity to feel blessed and be blessed is just so sweet.

• August 10th- God has provided a way for us to ship many of our belongings to Guatemala. Mark, Corinne and Isaac will be driving a trailer full of our belongings, as well as our Kawasaki Mule down to Tampa, FL where it will ship to our new country.

We ask you to please pray with us on a few specific items.

• The process with home closing- August 21st is the closing date.
• The travels to and from Florida 8/10-13th and in our move to Guatemala – 8/24/09.
• Financial needs which arise with the shipping, plane tickets, and set up costs in Guatemala as we settle in to our new home.
• Homeschooling the 4 children.
• Learning a new language.

Thank you for taking your time to keep updated on our family. Next time we should be coming to you from our home in Magdalena. Check our site for regular updates at www.deepstreampa.com and for ways to contact our family.

Because of Jesus,
The Schmidt Family

May Family Update May 17, 2009

Middle of May, middle of the week, middle of the road.

Our move to Guatemala in August seems a distance away. Pieces of our hearts are there and as the days pass, we ask God to help us stay focused on the tasks at hand here. On the flip side, our move to Guatemala seems right in our face when we think of all that has to be done before we depart from PA. Our friends, DeepStreamers, business associates, and family have faithfully been talking about our decision, telling others, praying over and for us. It is through this communication we hope God has gotten a hold of your heart to be part of the flow already in progress here in Pennsylvania, Guatemala…everywhere.

God is always at work, always inviting us to join, always welcoming every one of His children to grab hold of Him and hold on. As you pray for us, we pray for you that together we will share in Godʼs Great Work of calling people to Himself through His Son Jesus. It is DeepStreamʼs and the Schmidtʼs prayer that each person involved in praying for us, helping us serve physically, giving to the needs of the ministry, keeping up with our website, will be changed, stirred, motivated, captivated to ask God to reveal ways that they too can help lead others to Jesus in their own families, in their own neighborhoods, in their own occupations; that their lives would see a Higher Purpose than what mainstream America is trying to feed us. This is our time, our life, our world. We pray we all would work where we live to make it a less self- centered and more God centered environment. Our desire is to see marriages, families, communities, churches let go of the “ME” attitude and ask God honestly and willingly what He has already planned AND for each person to decide to say yes to God’s calling individually.

We know where God has called us next, but are not exactly sure what God has planned for the 6 of us…. exactly…. but here is what we do know.

• We are moving to Guatemala, homeschooling our children
• We are selling our home and everything but the necessities
• We will be spending our time and money in serving the needs of our community
• We will need a place to live in Magdalena, Guatemala

These are the things we know. We trust God whole heartedly to work it out as He sees fit and to guide us in making the best decisions possible. Thank you for choosing to be involved in this journey with us. Many of you have asked, “What do you need?”, “How can we help?” and for this we are eternally grateful knowing you are asking from a genuine heart, wanting to help us and the ministry. In answer to those questions here are a few needs we know of already:

• We will need to buy plane tickets
• We will need to purchase school books for the children.
• We will need to pay the airline extra baggage fees to “ship” our necessities there
• We need to sell, cart off, give away a lot of clothes and “stuff” (May 30th is the next sale)

When we arrive in Magdalena we will spending the first month adjusting, getting set up for life. We see helping with deepStream guatemala (dSg) with the efforts underway there. In our day we also see interacting with the locals, finding out what our neighbors needs might be, taking time to walk and pray over the city and the people, encouraging the dSg team in any way possible. Here are some of the needs we will have when we arrive in Magdalena.

• We will have normal monthly bills- rent, food, “utilities” and our “full-time” jobs will be working with and meeting the needs of the people around us.
• We will need financial help to meet the needs of our neighbors (food, shoes, medical care, bedding, clothes etc..)
• We will need to purchase a car/truck- some sort of transportation as soon as we arrive.
• We will need to purchase beds and other necessities for getting established in our new home.

The people of Magdalena are being spoken of and prayed over as the news of the many groups helping there spreads. We sense Gods Calling for us to go and are excited to see how He will make this move a success. Our goal is to keep you very informed of the needs of the people, the ministry, and our family, as you have shown such support previously. Our mind races with all that can be accomplished together. If you are a praying person, please pray for us- we so desperately want to be in the right spirit, frame of mind and position to be used by God. What a shame it would be to put our plans into place ahead of what God has been waiting to reveal to us. We need your help as our pride, our dreams, our skills sometimes lead us one way when God has other greater, better, more glorifying plans that we are unaware of- not because He has failed to show us, but because we have failed to see.

Thank you for keeping in touch, for requesting ways you can be a part, for giving time to the thoughts and ideas of serving and following hard and unafraid after the Creator of all things. Please check out our website often (www.deepstreampa.com) to keep updated on our progress with the move and there are also more details on how one might help by praying or giving to the various projects in front of us.

We thank God for you!

The Schmidtʼs

If you are led to give to DeepStream please visit our site: www.deepstreampa.com/help/

To give to the Project Fund- please make a note to which project (chicken club, massage with a mission ,clean water)

To give to the DS Community Fund (needs for the community – shoes, food, bedding etc…)

To give to the Schmidt Family (travel, monthly living, schooling, needs)

Schmidt’s – April Update April 6, 2009

Well it’s been a month or so since we last updated all of you on the plans and happenings within our clan so here we go. This past weekend, April 3-5th marked the first of many sales which we will be having as part of the purging process in order to make the eventual move to Guatemala in the summer of 2009. We awoke Friday morning to heavy April showers, which continued throughout the day but didn’t deter the shoppers. Saturday was marked by more shoppers who brought strong winds and more rain, but weren’t deterred either. Ahhhhhhh, then Sunday hits and we see it… sunshine… beautiful and guess what? More shoppers. We are praising God for a great weekend and the fact that we saw and enourmous amount of our “STUFF” sold during this first sale. His ways are awesome as many of our items sold to friends who also told us to keep them and use them until we move. So basically the bulk of the large items are accounted for, and we get to use them. Thanks to many of you who prayed for us over the weekend. We felt you walking through this with us!

Some upcoming plans within our family include a nice get away this Easter week to Tennessee. Should be a great time to relax and be together as a family. On April 19th-25th, Gina and I are heading back to Guatemala for the “Massage with a Mission” trip and taking 4 others with us to set up clinics as wells as work on a few other projects while there. While there we will be staying in the teamhouse which DeepStream Guatemala and 68 Ministries use for groups who come in for ministry trips. Will be great to get back to our future “home”. We should have some time while there to scope out some living possibilities in Magdalena. We will also take some of the funds that Eli’s Chicken Club has raised (www.deepstreampa.com/projects/) with us to bless a couple of families with small farming businesses.

The LivingWell Project which is geared towards building a well in Malawi, Africa is seeing a good amount of support and we are nearing the halfway point of our goal. You can read more about that at www.deepstreampa.com/projects/

Other than that, the kids are all great, getting back to soccer, navigating through their school schedules and other activities. Spring normally ramps up and becomes a little busy, but nothing unmanageable. Each still are very excited about the move to Guatemala and looking forward to getting there. They handled the sale of many of their items very well this past weekend as well.

That’s it for now… will keep you posted as things progress towards the goal of heading to Guatemala. Keep praying for the sale of the house as we know God will do it!

March Newsletter February 17, 2009

As we boarded the plane on February 4^th, I clearly remember asking Jesus to show us the way while we were in Guatemala, praying for clarity.  Praying not just for myself, but that Gina and I would see the same things, hear Jesus voice the same way, and that even our children would experience Jesus in a way that would give them a glimpse of the vision that He is putting in our hearts.  In a way that only God can do, He answered all of those prayers.

 

Many of you know the journey we have been on the past few months of discovering what the next step will be for our family.  We communicated a strong feeling to you in late December, regarding involvement in missions and meeting needs of the less fortunate.  Our next piece of communication that we sent out to you expressed that we were praying for peace as far as selling our home and officially moving to the next part of the journey.  Neither of us felt settled with putting the property on the market, leaving Stroudsburg, and beginning a new chapter.  As we talked together we committed it to Jesus, telling Him that we would go if He would show us both and make us both “good with it”.  We have told many of you in the past weeks that we had more questions than answers, and with each day, we seemed to have more questions, and fewer answers.

 

As our week unfolded in Guatemala, and we engaged the local people, ministering in various ways, questions began to get answered and it was quickly clear what the next step would be.  Each night Gina and I would sit in our room and debrief on the activities of the day asking each other what we were thinking or feeling.  All I can say is that as a husband and wife, you get to know each other and without having to even say too many words, just looking at each other, or squeezing the others hand, God was clarifying for us that He wants us to take the step – to GO to Guatemala and help meet the needs.  To list just a few of them:

·         Children going to school

·         Feeding center for local village children

·         Creating jobs and business opportunities for local families

·         Eli’s Chicken Club (Details will follow)

·         Massage clinic

·         Helping with the Homes for the Homeless

·         Clean water needs

 

We are thankful to each of you for praying us through this time of searching and dreaming and are hopeful that you will continue your prayers for our family and ALL that we are expecting God to do in the upcoming months (Selling a home full of stuff, 2 cars, etc…)  As we were in Guatemala, it was wonderful to see firsthand the activity of God’s Spirit in the local villages and it is exciting to know that He is leading our family to become a part of His movement and plans.  A thought that kept coming to mind often while I would look down the mountains at the sheet metal roofs of the villagers was “look at all that needs to be done, just to meet the most basic of needs.”  It was overwhelming to see first hand the immense need in just the few villages that we were in, and to hear Jesus voice saying “Just Go – I’ll take care of the rest!”

 

As we make plans to transition to Guatemala in the summer of this year, we hold tight to Jesus promise that there will “Always Be Enough”.  We trust His will for our family and His provision on the road that He has placed in front of us.  We would love to keep you updated in the upcoming months and beyond about the ministry that God is calling us to in Guatemala, and ask that you pray for our family as His vision unfolds in front of us.    

 

In April, we will both (Mark and Gina) be heading back to Guatemala for another week, leading a team of massage therapists to Magdalena, Guatemala and the surrounding villages to meet the physical needs of the many women who have rarely felt a loving touch, especially one in the name of Jesus.  While there, we will also begin looking into potential areas for our family to live.

 

We love each of you!  Your friendships are from Jesus and we know that we’ve been connected for a higher and eternal purpose.  We hope you will journey together with us on this adventure and pray with us.

News Update from Schmidt’s January 29, 2009

First our family is wonderful.  We are so thankful to all of you who have responded to our update from a couple weeks ago and are excited with all that God is doing in our heart as a family.

After the news settled in, days went by, the kids shared their hearts, Mark and I prayed and talked and talked.  We felt chastised by the Lord.  We felt like He said, “Has your faith not grown at all in the past 3 years?”  ”I gave you the land, I built you the house, I have sustained you.  Don’t you think I can still sustain what is already mine AND provide for you to do what I ask?”   UHHHHHHHHHHH went our hearts.  We talked, we prayed.  Then all of our family and our friends freely shared their thoughts,  and each shared the same thread of, ” Can’t you do both?”   So that is what we are praying about now.

We KNOW God has enough resources to pay for this house and to provide for our travels.  WE KNOW He can do it and we want Him to do it for His praise.  Our family/friends who know Him are praying and waiting to see.  Many- in fact most of our contacts over the past 5 years here in Stbg think we are kinda nuts, but they are curious to see how this all plays out.  So not to us, but to Jesus name be the glory for the miracle others are waiting to see.  He will not disappoint- He will not be silent.  We will go through the fire, we will have to adjust, we will have to sacrifice, but we feel all the more blessed that we can add to our lives instead of shutting life down here and starting over AGAIN.

Although we are willing- we are not at peace of leaving here, yet.  So our first project seems to be partnering together with another ministry Equitas (www.equitas.cc ) and raising funds to build a well, and then going to Malawi,  Africa to experience firsthand the work that God is doing in that country.

You know how God works- next week there could be an entirely different plan.  We are kinda used to looking a little scattered- that’s okay because we know we are crazy anyway….:}

Love to you all,

The Schmidt’s

Schmidt’s New Adventure January 7, 2009

Our family Christmas Eve

Dear Family, Dear Friends,

We want you each to know this information at the same time. Although cheesy, overused and impersonal,
e-mail is a great tool. We have been wanting to share but decided to wait until after the holidays. We are
broadening our horizons, exposing our children to a different way of life, taking a jump of faith in a new
location. To some of you, this is no surprise as we seem to relocate quite often throughout our marriage.
When we moved to Stroudsburg 5 years ago it was for several reasons:
*To adopt a slower pace of life where our family could choose our own schedule and have more time as a family.
*To get out from behind the church walls (we were a Pastoral/Ministerial family) and into the community by “being” the church instead of calling people into the church.
*To expose our children to a different culture- southerners to northerners- private school to public school etc…
*To reconnect with Gina’s family in PA, NJ, & NY.
*To follow through with the ministry(DeepStream) God grew in our hearts to encourage, strengthen, teach and support married couples and the family unit.
*To take a leap of faith and relocate without a job, place to live or firm plan of what to DO with DeepStream.

We feel reconnecting with family, organizing our time the way we see fit, exposing the children to a different culture, giving DeepStream a home base have all been accomplished by moving here. Part of the slower pace and exposing the children to another slice of life were necessary mature, to be able to grow in our faith and increase our burden to help people. By the moving of our hearts we relocated here trusting God would heal, encourage and help us grow closer to Him. He has and continues to do just that! Our desire has become deeper to be closer as a family, to minister together, to bring Jesus into the community, to take a leaps of faith often giving ourselves as we feel that is the best way to mature, help others and obtain inner peace. In our family time together as we talk, pray, read, share and listen we not only see the need for our family to venture to new places, but we also see the ministry of DeepStream broadening. Good strong marriages are important and so is a solid family, but as a family we are burdened for the people who have no family, whose marriages have crumbled, whose families have been torn apart. As the children have matured they have developed their own tender hearts- wanting to help people in Jesus’ name.
* Since the age of 9 Corinne has mentioned adopting a child. Through our support of IJM all the children but mostly Corinne have expressed remorse over the hardships children around the world face daily. She has consistently asked if we could adopt a child from one of these place to rescue them and bring them into a loving and happy family.
* Isaac has always talked about wanting to go to Africa. He is mesmerized by the culture, landscape, devastation due to famine and poverty.
* Compassionate tears fall from Bryn’s face when she sees someone disfigured. She comes up with a slew of ways people could help and how we should not talk bad about them because God made them special.  She likes to meet new people and learn about their ways.
* Eli wants our “homeless” friends to live with us, share his room. His 7 year old mind does not understand why these people have to live outside when there are so many houses and especially our big house. He wants to be friends with everyone he meets.
* Mark yearns to help people have clean water by building wells.
* Gina dreams of loving on people with a gentle, calming touch or a compassionate listening ear.
* Both Mark & Gina love the idea of spending more time together with the freedom of traveling, helping others,   exposing our children to the world and working side by side for a Higher Purpose.

Over the years we have given up our will to God and asked Him to take us wherever He wanted us to be for Him- from neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, state to state, job to job. We have always been burdened to help people. We actually have hoped to move to another country and truly we never felt an impression to a specific place or a specific people. We have some dear friends who recently moved to Guatemala because they were burdened to help the poor specifically in that country. We thought, “Yes! this is a sign that we are supposed to go there- we’ve not had a clear leading of what to do or where to go, but this is perfect!” We are going to see them February 4th-11th and hope to help them with their overwhelming and beautiful work, but we are not called to stay there- at least not yet- it could change:)

Our plan and when we say “plan” it is in the loosest sense- its more like an idea that we hope to follow through with-is to follow the burdens of our heart and go and help people. Sounds like we could do that here in the USA and we might- we are willing to go wherever we feel nudged to go, but for starters we are “planning” to help others by working
*in orphanages *to relieve those who are already serving and need a “vacation.” *with the hungry *with those who are disabled, sickly *with those who need clean water *with those who need rest from the stresses of life

Since we don’t have a leading to a specific place as of yet, setting up camp for a 3- 6 month period to help organizations, groups, people already working at these capacities is where we hope to start. In order to do that, we will be freeing ourselves of commitments here and making changes in order to have the flexibility to relocate  requently:
*selling the house *selling most of our possessions *home educating the children

We have more questions than we do answers. Our hearts, our faith tells us it is time to go, although very sad about leaving our loved ones, we have followed Jesus’ calling in our lives in the past -we will do so in the present. A lot of emotions have been evoked but rest assured none of them have been fear or worry.
*Excitement! We love adventure!
*Thankful- for God hearing our prayers and providing a way for us as parents to teach our children to follow their hearts, to listen to their inner voice, to do good to all men.
*Humbled that we have been granted the privilege of being used of God in any small way as a united family.
*Grateful to enter another dimension of trust, freedom, and faith.
*Saddened- to know this way of life with this group of family & friends will be changing.
*Overwhelmed…just because of ……everything.

Truly God has proven Himself faithful and we trust He will continue to do so as we follow our purpose to:
*be used of God to minister to the needy, less fortunate, hurting, lonely, sickly, discouraged, outcasted, homeless, disabled, hungry, thirsty, sore, unloved, unwanted, unappreciated, tired.
*be a tool to connect man with his Maker- the one who is calling them (and you) to find Him, trust Him & believe in Him through Jesus.
*be a family to those who have none

So….as we stated we probably have more questions than answers. Talking about this together would be great- we entertain your comments, thoughts and ideas. As with any move there is much to be done! Our property will go up for sale late February. We see ourselves staying here through most of the summer, but we are not sure of that. We plan to come back to the states to re-group and visit our loved ones whenever possible.

Because of Jesus~ Love all. Worship One~
www.deepstreamcommunity.com
www.deepstreampa.com

Thank you for being part of our lives. By design, God had our paths cross either 20 years ago or 2 months ago, we count it a privilege to have such wonderful, sweet, understanding, loving and kind friends and family. What you have helped us create in our family & home we desire to share with others who may never have the opportunities that we have been given.