We hope April finds you well whether you are enjoying the flush of spring or the yellowing of autumn. This year’s dry season has been slow in coming. We are still having regular, heavy rains. We hadn’t had much cold yet, but last week, it seemed to have finally hit. We’ve also had two heavy frosts, which have mostly killed off the garden. The fields are now tinted yellow.
The evenings are definitely darker earlier. We never have as long nights as the States do since we are closer to the equator, but they do shift to earlier sunsets. Recently, Daylight Saving Time happened in the States, so we are now adjusting our minds to that; Latin American countries don’t do time change, so part of the year, we line up with the Eastern Time Zone and the other part of the year, we line up withe the Central Time Zone in the States.
The colder and longer nights are causing our resident paraguaya to suffer. Anita can hardly imagine that it will get any colder. She said she has been waking up frozen these last days, poor thing. I remember when we first came to Peru in the dead of winter how much I shivered. I thought I would never get warm. Levi Martin assured me that I would get used to it, but I firmly believed that my thin blood and thin frame would never. Well, Levi was right. We have gotten used to the cold, más o menos, and now we have to chase our children to keep their socks and jackets on. “But, Daddy, it’s so hot!”
A couple weeks ago, Caleb’s family headed to the States. Caleb was hyper-paranoid that something would go wrong in their travels, so he was making lists and checking them much more than twice to be sure that there was no way they could run into problems. He told me the day before he left that it’s really ridiculous since they have never had trouble. I guess my adventures in the airports have scarred him for life.
They got to the States without a hitch. I’m not bitter at all. They will be in the North for about two months. We definitely miss them. The children often talk about them at supper time as if they have passed on. “Do you remember when Uncle Caleb was with us, and he would take us on his moto sometimes?” I think we’re all looking forward to having them back… someday.
Just before Caleb’s left, we enjoyed several days of Bible school here with our church. I have several sessions on the history of the Bible, and Caleb gave several sessions on various study helps and study methods. It was a fruitful time that we all enjoyed. We closed the store and school to all take time for it.
We are presently looking forward to this Thursday when a young man, Tanner, will be joining the team here. He is from the States and is my first cousin, once removed. (Caleb, Steph, and I figured that out by making charts with dry-erase markers on our white kitchen tables. We are pretty sure that’s correct, but he might be a second cousin or a first-and-a-half cousin—whatever that is.) My oldest brother offered to fly down with Tanner so that he wouldn’t need to be alone; Toby will be here just two days before heading back. The children are especially excited that they’ll be able to go to market with Uncle Toby on Friday; they have demanded that school be let out, and to avoid a Union strike, I relented.
Esmeralda is holding down the fort at the store with Anita’s help as the baker. I go in Monday afternoons to talk with Esmeralda about plans for the week and so on, but she’s doing excellently with managing things. Alicia had been working at the store, but she has been having some health issues and asked off work while she looks into that; I think it mostly pain that is connected with the combi accident from a few years back.
We are sad that Piero, the young man who had made a commitment, has disappeared. He was working for Rafael’s. They had a disagreement of some sort, and he quit. We have not heard from him since. Several of us have tried calling, texting, and messaging him through various means, but he has not answered anyone. We keep praying for him. Elizabeth said that he was very depressed before he left, and he had struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts in the past. If you think of Piero, please ask God to send him back to us.
Coincidentally, Rafael’s asked if they could do Bible study with us again. They have not done any with us since Piero began atttending church, but soon after Piero left, they asked again. Jealousy seems to be involved, at least from our perspective, but we are taking the opportunity to teach while we have it.
Church is different and busy for me. I do all the parts from leading songs to directing Bible memory to the devotions and Bible studies and, of course, the preaching. So far, God has been giving me the strength and peace I need to do all these things. I haven’t felt particularly stressed though I do feel quite busy.
Part of my busyness comes from school work. God seemed to have directed me to take up the teaching role again this year (as evidenced by no one showing up to do it). It has been a few years since I was sitting behind the teacher’s desk. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I still love teaching, and it is a fun challenge to teach all the Spanish subjects. For example, Abbey and I are wrestling with the subjunctive mood in her Spanish Language course right now; things like that are good for all of us.
I am teaching Seth in first grade. I used to say that I would never have the patience to teach first grade, and it seems God took that as a sign that I needed to do it. But Seth is a real joy to teach. Besides being a wildly hyperactive boy in first grade, he’s also a lefty. I’ve never had the challenge of teaching a lefty to write. I thought it would be hard because of my slight (sometimes more than slight) dyslexia, but I actually have found it quite natural. Though I don’t have the skill or muscle memory to easily write left-handed, I find it feels right to write left. Maybe I should teach myself to be left-handed in my spare time.
I was slightly worried about how school would go for Juanito. The last two years, his teachers struggled to keep him motivated, and he often had homework. I’m allergic to homework—and to unmotivated students—so, I was somewhat trepidatious. Thankfully, he seems to be flourishing. He’s usually the first to be done with his work, though it is a race with Dane most days. That’s a comfort.
I handed out report cards on Friday. Hard to believe that thirty days of school have already flown past. We are in our seventh week, and hurtling toward the last day, it feels like. Each day, we take down a number from the wall and chant, “1-2-3-4-5! This school year, we’re going to thrive!” It’s encouraging to see a chunk of the numbers are already gone. Time flies when you’re having fun.
Being the only fellow around and having the extra responsibilities of school has made my days zoom by. Steph and I have been trying to make little appointments to talk about things, then she reminds me when we forgot to do them because something else came up! Steph is busy keeping up with all the milk we have while teaching the little ones at home. Walter is changing quite a bit since big brother Seth went to school; now he’s the oldest at home and has to take on more responsibilities.
Last week, we moved Daisy from Mama’s lap to her own stool by Daddy’s left hand, and all the others moved down one more seat. Willow is pretty pleased to be on my right hand with all the other big children. Anne has made it all the way around the table to now sit beside Steph. The years keep marching along.
We are rejoicing that Dane committed to following Jesus last week. Dane has always been our “good” child. He’s needed training and discipline along the way, but he has always been tender and conscientious—until he wasn’t. Things had been getting worse and worse in recent months with him really showing some ugliness that spoke of original sin. We are glad that he felt the call to repent and to be born again. We’re looking forward to having another baby Christian in the house.
To my knowledge, no new families are being sent our way. A number of people have asked if all the effort we went to has produced more workers here, and the answer is no. But we feel like there have been good ripples flowing out of last year’s work of visiting so many churches. We definitely have more interest with people keeping up with us, praying for us, and so on. The seeds have been planted; now, we wait on the Spirit to water.
We are looking for a young lady to replace Anita in the store. She has been an excellent baker and an amazing help for my wife. Steph calls Anita her helping angel. She goes down to the house nearly every morning for a couple of hours before work and attacks whatever needs doing; Steph hardly has to give her direction. Anita will definitely be missed. If you know of a young lady who loves to serve and would like to do so here for several months, please let me know.
Thank you so much for your loving support in prayers and encouragement. Please keep that up. We thrive on it!
If you would like to help out financially, I humbly suggest thinking of the school project here. I’m not being paid to teach, and being a volunteer missionary school teacher, while it may sound romantic, can be a bit tough when you’re a father of a large growing family. 😁 If you want to help with the school project, there are several ways to do so; I’ll include the necessary information below. One is to send a donation directly to me via PayPal. Another way is to send your donation as a check directly to me at a stateside address. And another is to send a donation to the Great Commissions Ministries board; this is the only anonymous way. If you choose to donate to the school in any of these ways, please mark your donation as “Donation for School Project – Escuela Agua de Vida.” And thank you for considering that.
PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/SDSchmidt (Memo: Donation for School Project – Escuela Agua de Vida)
Check to me:
(Pay to: Shawn D. Schmidt – Memo: Donation for School Project – Escuela Agua de Vida)
Shawn D. Schmidt
C/O Nathan Crider
631 Mountain Road
Front Royal, VA 22630
Check to Great Commission Ministries:
(Pay to: Great Commission Ministries)
Great Commission Ministries
7384 Hopkins Gap Rd
Fulks Run, VA 22830
Juan David 