Ministry
Anja
Band
This month, we had a worship team get together one evening. We ate together, sang two songs, had all the leaders share something the Lord put on their hearts and then we split up into two groups, musicians and singers.
We, as singers, talked about ways to improve planning center, the platform we use for scheduling and making content available that we need to prepare ourselves for our next time of serving, i.e. song texts, recordings of each harmony, etc., the use of the monitors we need to be able to hear ourselves and the rest of the band via headphones or earphones and the proper use of the microphone so that it sounds decent on the livestream, which in essence means that you should keep it in front of your mouth at all times and let the sound technician lower the volume of your voice. We finished our time together with some testimonies of what the Lord has been doing in us as singers on the worship team.
Marriage Fellowship Band
The one time I was able to attend marriage fellowship and we were actually playing, my fellow band mate noticed that I had the wrong version of a song we were supposed to be playing, so we had to organize copies. I then made the mistake to not check everything before we started the worship and ended up playing the piano without the pedal being plugged in. That meant that I had to kind of imitate the pedal by keeping my hands “glued” to the keys as much as possible during the first song. While the band leader was talking after the first song, I quickly plugged the pedal in, just in time for me to start with the rest of the band. Phew! Next time, I have to make sure everything is plugged in and ready BEFORE we start with the worship!
Kids Ministry
In my first class of the month, we were talking about Romans 5:19″For as by one man’s disobedience {Adam} many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience {Jesus} many will be made righteous.” So we talked about Adam, that he ate of the fruit of the discernment of good and evil of which God told him not to eat. And then we talked about Jesus, that He was obedient by going to the cross and that, because of His sacrifice, we can have forgiveness of all of our sin and can be reconciled with God.
In the end, I asked them who would like to do the steps to become righteous and one boy raised his hand! I asked to double check if he didn’t just want to go to the bathroom, but no, he wanted to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior! We prayed together and he said, “I am feeling better already!” I was so pumped. As a reminder of the subject, I had drawn a coloring page, showing how sin is separating Adam (us) from Jesus and Him tapping Adam (us) on the shoulder.
The second class, we talked about the discipling church and we spent a lot of time defining what a church is (believers that come together and equip each other to do the work of the ministry) and what a disciple is (someone who is following Jesus Christ, who wants to model himself after Him in speech and actions). I asked the kids a lot of questions so they could participate. In the end, we could put the two words together and find out that a discipling church is a church that teaches its members to be like Jesus.
Then I proceeded to draw the four things that are important to be a believer, according to the teaching we were to give, 1. to be born again, 2. to be baptized, 3. to read the Bible and to be taught about the Bible, 4. to disciple others. When I asked them who would like to take the two steps to be born again, three kids raised their hands!
I am so in awe of what the Lord is doing right now and we have only just started to serve in this ministry! I am so excited and motivated to pray for those kids. I want to see every single one of them to move on to the next class (11-12 year olds) as a born again believer!
Fit 2 Serve
This month, we had a special event with the founder of Fit 2 Serve and a chiropractor. Unfortunately, the date we picked was the date of the ladies’ spring lunch, which meant that a lot of women who would have liked to attend couldn’t be with us. However, we were surprised to see that there were still 14 people instead of the usual six!
The team from Las Vegas brought us goodie bags, each filled with a black roll, a black double ball, a spiky ball, a muscle roller, a set of elastic bands and a jump rope. It was great to see every participant trying out these new gadgets under the guidance and the watchful eye of the chiropractor. Then the founder took over the lead for the time of the exercises while the chiropractor was helping the participants to keep the right posture. Yuna was very active during that time, so I could not really participate, but it was great to see how excited and engaged the participants were.
After the physical workout, we added the spiritual workout, an exchange of something we are grateful for and a prayer requests, two worship songs and a bible study. At the end of that time, those who wanted could get an adjustment – even Chris and Yuna got one. We tried to let Ziva have hers, but she started to cry as soon as we put her on the table. She had already been worried when she watched all of us getting adjusted, which might have added to her reluctance.
Chris
Lights
The Easter event came and the new trainee (one of the church’s interns) wasn’t quite engaging, which is one of the most common struggles in trainees, especially with the light. I know that there’s a lot of buttons and faders, but just engage… what can happen… Playing around didn’t help the trainee a lot, but he was a vital part in the Easter Special. Everyone on the set was mainly speaking Spanish and not really English and he translated a lot for me. We also had to face different opinions on how to put the lights and some people just didn’t get that I knew what I’m doing. I tried to stay calm and to help them as good as possible and in the end we had an amazing team work and an amazing evening with lots of fun and a lot of people.
Now by the end of the month, the trainee is almost ready to be a fully fledged light master and already has better knowledge of certain parts than the other light masters. Looking forward, I might even train another interns on the lights.
Shadow play @ Easter Special practice
Kids ministry
Sometimes, we just have to do what we’re asked. For me, it was a big step of faith even to ask if any of the kids wanted to be born again. All these what ifs and then it could be awkward, and… But I could not have expected what the Lord did when I finally took that step of faith. As Anja already mentioned, Romans is not really the easiest part of scripture to teach, especially to kids. So I was not only struggling with my teaching part, but also with the expectation to put that famous question out there, “do you want to be born again?” After explaining what that meant, three kids raised their hands… WHAT??? It took me a while to realize what just happened and the Lord had to keep me calm during the rest of that lesson.
Since then the kids ministry grew more on my heart and I can see now clearly why God had to push me in there. It challenges me to step out and be serious about teaching and training up people. Over and over again, God reminds me to focus the most on sharing His heart with people.
Family
COVID Restrictions Lifted
The government of Baja California, the state we live in, finally decided that masks are no longer mandatory in open or closed spaces. Since the both of us are wearing glasses and they tend to fog up easily, we were just too happy to finally be mask free! However, the majority of people is still wearing their masks. When Anja went shopping, she saw maybe four people without a mask – even in the parking lots.
Colds
Unfortunately, all of us got a cold. The weather was changing from cool to hot and back to cool again, it was windy and somewhen in between all of us have had a snotty nose and were coughing. The hardest is always to see the kids suffer, to hear them coughing at night and crying because of it or to see Yuna trying to drink milk, but having so much snot coming down that it’s pretty much impossible for her to breathe… We hope that we will be well soon so all of us can enjoy going to church, especially Ziva and Yuna who are not able to attend child care.
Finally Fiber Optic Internet
Just the other day, we saw a couple of worker of the telecommuniction company working in our street. So Chris sent Anja to ask them if we could get a new modem, since ours had problems from time to time. Anja used the occasion to ask when we would be able to get fibre optic internet. Last time she had the opportunity to ask, they told her they had not been able to put in the line on our side of the street. This time, however, they told us that we could have fibre optic internet and that they would be able to install it on the same day. Really? That would be nice, we thought. And so after the guys made all the arrangements, we experienced an efficiency that we would not have expected here in Mexico. After having to get some more cable, they replaced the existing copper cable with a fibre optic cable and within record time, we had lighting fast internet. So far, we measured 100Mbps down and 10 upstream, but that does not really beat the lag we have when we call Switzerland. That delay of about 1/4s is still there. But at the end of the day (it’s night 🙂 we’re super happy with the new arrangement.
Mexican Paperwork Ziva
We got the card! Ziva is now officially a permanent resident! And what a miracle that was! Last month ended with us waiting for an email from the immigration office (INM). We received said email and had to fill in some additional information online. A couple of days later, there was a document uploaded saying that we should go by the INM to have Ziva’s picture and fingerprints taken. We also knew that we would have to pay another, bigger amount and for that, they usually hand out a payment page that you can hand in when you go to the bank to make the deposit.
When we got to the INM, the first thing they told us was that they were out of plastic and therefore, could not print any cards! Wow! However, we still needed that payment page and when Anja asked for that, she was told to stand in line for information. Oh no… The information line is usually the longest of them all and it can take hours, depending on how long it is, to get inside. It didn’t seem too bad, but when it was Anja’s turn to get in, she noticed that they had made the sitting line a LOT longer than usual…
Luckily, the officials that were usually doing the cards had some extra time on their hands and one of them came out to ask if someone needed just a paper. Anja was the first one to raise her hand and could go with the official. So instead of having to wait her turn inside, Anja got her turn right after sitting down. What a blessing! We were told to come early to do the card the following week because, apparently, there were a lot of people waiting for their card.
We did the payment and returned a week later to get the card. When we got there before 9am, which is when the INM opens, the line was almost reaching to the street! After some time, two officials came out and told us that they were only able to help 40 people a day and that we would have to come earlier, like at 1am or 2am like the people in front of us!
Anja went to talk to the lady at the door to see if there was anything we could do since we have two babies, live far away and are white (it could be dangerous for us to be there during night time). She told her to wait until an official would come out. After some time, an official came and Anja talked to her, explaining our situation. She told Anja to give her the paper and said she would see what she could do.
Anja was told to go back to the end of the line. After a short while, they called for Nuryah Schmid (they probably thought Ziva was the first name and Nuryah Schmid her last name since they have two last names here). It was our turn! All of us were allowed to go in, which was a miracle in itself and we ended up leaving with Ziva’s card! Glory to God! We are done, until next year, when we have to renew Ziva’s card, which will then be valid for a couple of years.
Chris’ Birthday
On May 18th, Chris is going to turn 39! Anja is probably going to cook a lasagna and Chris can unpack some gifts, too. If you would like to celebrate Chris with us, you are welcome to send him a birthday message, to purchase a gift from the Amazon Wishlist or send/give us the money so we can purchase it on your behalf.
Ziva
Our older daughter added a few new words to her vocabulary, like shopping and Juana (Tijuana). Some of her words come from the movies she watches, like Alex, mama mia, panda, tiger. She is now also connecting words to try to make a sentence, like “I hungry”, “Mami chair”, “Daddy oats”, “pink shoes”, etc.
Ziva is currently playing the piano a lot and she rediscovered Daddy’s boots and a flash light. She also likes to play with the exact same thing that Yuna is playing with even though she hasn’t given it even as much as a look before. Ziva then walks over and takes the toy away from Yuna, which we don’t allow her of course, unless it is something Yuna should not have, like Ziva’s books.
Ziva has been helping Anja with collecting the laundry, especially the towels and the carpets in the bathrooms. She has been a very good helper. Sometimes, Ziva even wants to help Anja to sort the laundry or she is putting dirty laundry that is not in the basket inside of the basket, especially if it’s downstairs on the basket, like a wet pair of Ziva’s pants.
We mentioned some time ago that Ziva loves her dresses. Well, she still does and she keeps asking for dresses when she has to go to sleep. Since we don’t have any night gowns for her yet, we thought she might fit into one of Anja’s old t-shirts. And indeed, Anja found two t-shirts that are too short for her to wear, so we gave them to Ziva and they fit quite well as a night gown.
I playground 
I play blocks 
I eat 
I beach 
I goofy 
I dress (mommy’s t-shirt)
Ziva is now finally sleeping better and it’s due to a different reason that we would have thought. We recently moved Yuna over to her room and ever since, the nights have become a lot quieter. Ziva used to call Anja up to four times every night and so far, there have not been any issues. It really seems like having someone in her room is making Ziva a lot more comfortable.
How cute Ziva can be with her sister amazed us again and again. Anja found her playing peek-a-boo with Yuna the other day and on another occasion, she was just laughing at her and Yuna was laughing back. Really cute! We even learned that she is trying to help the crying babies in childcare. If she does the same thing she does with Yuna, it would be going over and saying, “pssst, Yuna, pssst” and just stay there, be there for them.
However, time really does fly and Ziva is going to be 3 years old in July! For this reason, we have updated our Wishlist on Amazon so that whoever wants, can purchase her a gift. If you are not comfortable buying on Amazon, but still would like to give her something, you are welcome to send us the money and tell us which item you would like to purchase and we can order it on your behalf.
Yuna
Yuna has been growing again! We not only switched to a bigger clothing size (6-9m and 9-12m), mainly for the pajamas and the pants, but we had to switch Yuna to a bigger bed. The reason why it got so urgent was that she started to pull herself up on the low rim of the bed, which could have ended in her falling. So we moved her over to Ziva’s room so the two of them don’t have to be alone and so far, it has been going great. There is just a lot less space in Ziva’s room, but they really only just sleep there, so it’s okay.
Yuna is getting into crawling position quite often now, but she has only been rocking back and forth so far. However, she has been launching herself forward to get somewhere and she has also been trying to pull herself up on boxes, stairs, etc. The funny thing is though that she is having a hard time to turn from her back to her belly again. The reason might be that we are mainly putting her on her belly when we put her on the floor. From that position, she is grabbing whatever is within reach and putting it in her mouth.
Yuna loves to play with her musical toys, exploring the area off carpet with her walker and being on the trampoline when Ziva is jumping (we help her to stand or sit). One of the days we sat her down outside in the grass, expecting her to be bothered by it, but she really enjoyed it.
We are also happy to report that Yuna is now able to eat her veggies! She might just have been a bit too young when we first tried. Yuna didn’t have any problems after eating broccoli, green beans, peas, sweet potato, potato and zucchini. Her favorite foods really seem to be pear and yoghurt. When you give her either one of these, you will hear a lot of mmmmmm.
Prayer Requests
- Health (Chris’ and Anja’s backs and colds, Yuna’s spit ups and cold, Ziva’s allergies and cold)
- Appointment opening for Yuna’s Mexican passport
- Financial provision for the family
Support the Schmid Family – Reach the world
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
Important: Please let us know that you sent a check!
- Buying an item off our Amazon Wishlist
For more information, visit the About Us or Become a Partner page.
