October ’20 Family Update – Schmid Family News

Ministry

Anja’s New Ministry (by Anja)

Since the beginning of this month, I have been a part of the media ministry, the team that does the live stream, to be exact. I was assigned to that team because they were in desperate need of more people. To be honest, it’s not a ministry that I would have chosen, but I must admit, I do like it 🙂

Senior Pastor Mike Vicent has given me the task to learn everything that there is to learn, which includes switching, i.e. changing the image that will appear on the live stream, moving one of the cameras to take the shot that the switcher would like to have on screen, blending in the lyrics to the songs as well as pre-selecting the slides for the switcher, mixing the sound for the live stream and taking pictures.

It is a very tight-knit team that works well together and so far, it has been great. The team leader told me that at first, he didn’t know what to do with me, but once he saw me in action, he knew that I was a fast learner and that he could just give me things to do. Although I only just joined, I am now scheduled to do the lyrics and handling the camera. He even let me be the switcher one time. So it seems he is happy with me 😉

I am not sure how it happened, because I cannot remember having talked about me doing graphics for AMI, but the guy who is in charge of the graphics, approached me and offered me a position on his team. I told him that I would love to join, but that I wasn’t sure if I could since the colors on my computer screen are off and I don’t have a Photoshop on it either. Another thing that I also need to take into consideration is Ziva. I can’t just leave her alone and we really can’t afford a babysitter all the time. However, I told him that I would see what I could do and showed him some of the work that I did for AMI and he liked it. After a couple of days, he also let me know that there is a computer I could use for doing graphics at church and that they are going to get an Adobe license, which would give me access to Photoshop. Now all we need is a solution for Ziva, so I could do graphics for a day, and we are good to go.

Lights (by Chris)

Chris’ Invitation to go to Matzatlán

During our local leaders conference (Spanish only), the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Maranatha in Matzatlán visited our tech booth and asked all kinds of questions, mainly about how to build a good base for lighting. After some talking, we came to the point where he invited me to visit their church to help them with the light. Always up for some action, I already wanted to go home and pack, but it wasn’t quite time yet. The plan is now that we, as a family, visit the Calvary Chapel in Matzatlán next January. I’m already excited about that, and looking forward to pass on what I’ve learned here. I hope that it will work out with the language…

Lights Progress

Back in Switzerland, I was always annoyed when the shops would display the Christmas decorations too early in the year. Now, being in a place where I can help with the lights, the topic of Christmas decoration came up already. But this time, I’m not annoyed, but fully excited to try new things. To plan a Christmas decoration with lights and a cool team is something I’ve never done before. Also, I am allowed to get new lights and parts, which make our stage lighting even better.

Every now and then, I get to repair older devices who have been in use for a long time. That’s the time you get to see things that make my techie guts cringe. Fans that are rusted and rather screech than turning smoothly. Taking them apart reveals the issue, but see for yourself… (picture below)

Since I got one of the moving heads running again, I could also play around with the programming. So one day, I thought I should try to replace the old spot that highlights the decision room/new believer’s class room with the moving head lighting and it looked way better. Where before, the light was all over the place and lighting up the whole area, now with the moving head, the light is a lot more focused, which makes it look cleaner.

Family

We Finally Sold Our US-Car

A couple of months back, we signed the contract to buy a 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe from one of our friends because he needed the money. He had lost clients due to the COVID crisis and we wanted to support him. We had to go with monthly payments, but with that money, we were able to support our friend and his family. We had wanted a Mexican car for a while because we always ran into problems at the border because of our Californian license plates. However, because of the crisis, it was really difficult to sell the car. It was not until Pastor Mike told his friends that we are selling our car that we were able to sell it and although it took a while for it to happen, we are now able to say that we sold our car to James Bond 🙂 The money just came in time. With it, we were able to take care of some urgent things, like paying the Chevy off, purchasing new tires for the Chevy (it was about time…), buying a gas heater for our house, winter clothes for Ziva, glasses for us adults, etc.

Chris Got Blessed With a Bike

Since a couple of weeks, Chris has been a part of the “bike gang”, a crazy group that goes cycling every other day. Chris had been invited by Pastor Mike who had also lent him a bike for these rides.

Recently, one of the bike gang members bought himself a new bike and decided that he wanted to bless a bike gang member who doesn’t have a bike with his old one. When he asked Pastor Mike, if he had someone in mind, he mentioned Chris.

So now, Chris is the owner of a well-kept pro-mountain bike that he drives proudly. He even rode to church one day! We would have never been able to buy such a nice bike, so was it a true blessing as we can read in Proverbs 10:22 “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.”

Not only that no sorrow was added, but Chris has more joy with it than he had with anything else in a long time.

Marriage Counseling

Our marriage counseling time with Pastor Mike has found an end after six weeks of reading “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman, answering the study guide questions, applying what we have learned and going on dates. As Pastor Mike said, he has given us the tools, but it is up to us to use those tools. We now know what our love languages are and we know how to fill our spouse’s love tank. We have been able to have a look at our conflicts and hear how we can handle them better. It was a good six weeks and we are happy to share some more nuggets from this time:

Marriage is a ministry of sowing seeds. (Your marriage is what you sow into it)
There are times in every marriage, where married couples don’t feel in love, but love isn’t primarily about a feeling, it’s about commitment!
When I do what God asks me to do in my marriage, the feelings will return.
Don’t expect your spouse to fill your needs. The Lord should be the one filling your needs.
I need to avoid yelling, impatience, frustration and anger. When I feel this inside, I need to take it to the Lord and not take it out on my spouse.
When you notice something is off with your spouse, say, “Hey, I noticed something is off, can we talk about it?”
When something is bothering you, bring it up within the day. Say, “Hey, there is something that has been bothering me, can we talk?”
Never say, “I am sorry, BUT…” because it cancels the excuse.
Don’t give your spouse what he deserves. Give him mercy and grace, choose to love and respect him anyway.
Words of affirmation are so important for most men because their wives are so good at tearing them down.
When your spouse is angry with you, say you are sorry for upsetting them and then leave if they don’t say anything.

Anja’s Birthday (by Anja)

My birthday was on October 27th and Chris made sure that it was a day to remember. When I came downstairs, a snack was waiting for me on the table and he had set up a little treasure hunt for me to “earn” my gifts. Some hints were easier to understand than others and the next hint was sometimes easier to find than other times. After I found everything, he took Ziva and me to Café Conrado for brunch. We had visited the place before, but only for coffee and cake, and we had said that we wanted to come back to try their food. We then dropped Ziva off at the babysitter and went to a spa for a partner massage. Although it was painful at times, I felt very relaxed afterwards! We then headed to the optometrist to get new glasses for me since I have noticed that my sight has gotten worse. Well, the last time I got a new prescription was four years ago… Chris then took me to an Asian restaurant for an early dinner. I really enjoyed this relaxed day and once again, I was glad that Mexico is a lot cheaper than the US, which allowed us to have this amazing day out.

Ziva

Ziva has been growing and developping super fast! Since the last newsletter, there have been a couple of changes! The best news first: Ziva is now sleeping 7 hours until she wakes up to nurse, which means only one feeding time per night instead of three! We, especially Anja, are super grateful for this change!

Ziva doesn’t want to go to the playground anymore. Instead, she has been running down the street to the main gate to have a look at the fountain there. In the beginning, we let her play with the water, but then we were told that the water is not clean…

Ziva LOVES to run around church, opening all the doors within reach (only the ones with door handles), going up and down the stairs, going up to the balcony, where the media team has their work spaces. Like Pastor Mike said, she walks around like she owns the place! It was also at church where she started to go down the slide in an entirely new way, head first! She seems to really like it! Anja was of course there to pick her up before she hit the ground.

Ziva also discovered that she can climb on our lounge chair once she is standing on mami’s leg. So she likes getting up and down these chairs and even stays there while watching one of her bilingual learning videos. We found these amazing videos where they introduce words and they do it in two languages, several languages are available. Since there is a lot of music and sounds included, Ziva is entertained for a very long time. She is able to watch the program for 80 minutes without ever losing interest! We don’t like her to sit in front of the screen for too long, so we make sure that she is going outside twice a day and has a lot of off-screen play time.

A New Babysitter For Ziva

The babysitter we would bring Ziva to on Monday, during the staff meeting and the church planting class, was not available anymore, so we had to look for someone else. Some of our friends were offering to take care of Ziva, but they are either staff members themselves or only available in the late afternoon or in the evening. However, Anja remembered that one of the Mexican staff members said that her daughter would love to watch Ziva and that they would live very close to the church.

We have been bringing Ziva to this new babysitter for a couple of weeks now and Ziva doesn’t even cry anymore when we leave her there. This never happened with any other babysitter. She seems to be quite happy at their place. The babysitter is a home maker without children, and is available pretty much all day, which is nice.

The babysitter doesn’t speak English, so she speaks Spanish with Ziva, which is also something we appreciate. We want Ziva to learn Spanish, but Anja doesn’t speak it well enough yet to teach her. Anja does teach her some words, but doesn’t speak entire sentences with her since she is not sure if her use of the language is correct.

The babysitter also likes to get creative with Ziva’s hair, so every other time we come to pick Ziva up, we get surprised with a new, pretty hair style, like the one in the picture 🙂

Neighborhood

Sewage Water For The Grass

Yes, you read correctly, in our community, they switched from clean water to sewage water to water the grass along the main road, next to the sidewalk, where all the people walk up and down.

So at certain days, you would see a brownish liquid flow down the street, assembling in little puddles here and there, where the road has a hole and when it dries, the remnants are still there because here, in Tijuana, it hardly ever rains.

The smell is also something… It reminds Anja of Switzerland, when the farmer would fertilize his fields with the manure of his cows. It’s not nice!

The worst, however, is that we have to constantly watch Ziva that she is not playing with the water or even just touching the grass. At least one of the gardeners told Anja that they would stop using clean water one day, when Ziva was playing with it.

Prayer Requests

That we can find more supporters
Provision so Anja can serve in the graphic team.
Provision and guidance so we can go to Matzatlán as a family

Would you like to support us financially? You can do so by:

Monthly transfers or gifts over $1000: EGS (Electronic Gifting Solutions) Network with the comment that it’s for the “Schmid Family”

Writing a check to “Calvary Chapel Rosarito” with a comment “Schmid Family” and send it to:
Mike Vincent
PMB W-304, PO Box 439016
San Ysidro, CA. 92143
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