Hello! The purpose of this letter is to update you, and celebrate with you, the last nine months of life. A lot has happened. I know, I’m not easy to keep track of? I’ll try to keep the stories to a minimum for your sake… I would love to tell you in person, or write to you individually. Here’s the basic timeline, where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing since New Years.
January:
This was a season of fast change. Earlier in 2009 I applied, and was accepted, to work for three different organizations in 2010. I thought I had to choose one out of three? My first diction came quicker then I had anticipated. Last minute, I was accepted to work with “Youth With a Mission (YWAM)” in Vancouver during the Olympics. I had to decide quickly or miss the opportunity, to take a risk or stick with the statuesque! I prayed about it, and choose to go north west. It felt right! I quit my work, and moved out of a great household of friends, in Colorado (see our household Christmas photo below). I asked my local church if they could support me with prayer, and finances for the trip. They said yes, then they blessed me fully by supporting me to work with the non-profit in Vancouver for February!
February & March:
I got to work coordinating volunteer’s efforts, with YWAM, during the Olympics and Paralympics. We (YWAM) worked in partnership with the “Salvation Army”, “Buying Sex is Not a Sport”, and several grassroots inner city para-church ministries in an effort to show the city, and global visitors, “radical hospitality”. Our volunteers staffed free concerts, we handed out tons of free hot chocolate and coffee throughout the city, we worked soup kitchens… well it was a chilly cart, and we helped put on candle light visuals for the victims of the human/sex trafficking industry to bring awareness to the issue. Also, every day of the Olympics there where YWAMers on street corners all over the city simply offering “free prayer” to whoever felt they needed prayer for anything. The "free prayer" effort surprised me, there were so many cool stories came out of this! Also, we spent intentional time (on Commercial Dr., at some Olympic and Paralympic events, in Whistler, in coffee shops, in the crowds, and at medal ceremonies) just being a part of what was going on.
At the end of February I felt like it wasn’t time for me to leave Vancouver yet? As I talked with my team, and prayed about it, I was surprised to see anonymous donations come in, for me! These made it possible for me to stay in March. So I stayed on the team, and continued to work with YWAM during the Paralympic outreach! What a blessing!
During these two months in Vancouver God stirred my heart again for urban and inner city ministry, also for the city of Vancouver (the first time God did this was when I attended University not far east of the city 2002-2006). Enjoy the pictures of my time there
April:
In late March God pleasantly surprised me as I stood in a crowd at a Paralympic medal ceremony, in Whistler. As I stood in the crowd the parents of one of my good friends, from college, recognized me as they walked by. They had no idea I was back in BC, and I had no idea they were visiting BC, they live in Calgary! We excitedly caught up on what’s been going on in our lives. Then they invited me to come to Calgary, to spend some quality time with their son (my friend) Mikey & his wife Bonnie as they transition into new jobs. The timing was perfect, as Gods timing is. My commitments with YWAM ended at the end of March. So I got to go to Calgary from Vancouver, see the Canadian Rockies for the first time, and spend some good time with old friends! What a treat it was to reconnect! I also got to use the time to rest, I got to visit good friends in Edmonton over Easter, and I had time to fund raise for the summer of outdoor youth ministry coming up.
May:
The Lang family totally gifted me by supporting me (paying my way) to get back to Colorado in late April & early May. The trip was necessary to visit family and friends, work on my car, I had a minor surgery to take some toenails with a persistent fungus taken off, and I had to pick up some of my outdoor gear before heading North West again. It was a worldwide trip, back to Colorado. Though there was another fun surprise waiting for me there.
When I got back I was asked to be a leader on Middle Park High School’s Jr. River Trips. This is a five night rafting trip on the Green River, which runs through the extremely remote “Desolation” and “Gray” Canyons, in west central Utah. This was a trip I had been a student on ten years ago as a Jr. at Middle Park! The river trip ten years ago was impactful on me… it defiantly planted seeds for me to work with youth in the outdoors. I had the time free, and the will to go, so I joined the team last minute, hit the road and the river! The river, and the group of eighteen (sixteen and seventeen year old students) was a heck of a lot of fun! I also got to reconnect with a former teacher of mine (Mr. D) who really encouraged to keep doing what I’ve been doing in life. It was a great trip back to the Mountain Time Zone!
By May 20th I was back in Washington State starting summer staff (outdoor) guide training with YDA in the North Cascades. The next three weeks, our team took on intensive youth ministry, back country, rock climbing, ropes course, and white water rafting guide training! All of this while our horse wrangling summer staff was doing their own training. Our summer ministry community did great working together, bonded, and grew strong together throughout training. It was an intense and good time.
June-early September:
I got to work on the YDA summer guide staff team, based out of Stonewater Ranch, in Plain WA. We took teenage students outside as a way to get them out of their comfort zones, challenge them, and experientially teach about God’s love for us all. It was a GREAT summer full of so many stories involving rivers, rock climbing, horses, time in the mountains, on glaciers, on volcano’s, and at the coast! I felt like I saw youth, and staff alike, come fully alive! Here are some pictures from the summer with YDA @ Stonewater Ranch!
In the middle of an extremely busy summer YDA graciously let me take twenty consecutive days off to go to return to the west coast of Greenland. For three consecutive summers now, I’ve been on a small team that has worked with a Greenlandic Christian camp, east and a little north of Nuuk up the fjords there. We’ve been asked by local Church’s to organize, then guide, five to six night backpacking trips in the mountains there for teenage participants. To date we’ve been able run two or three backpacking trips each summer. In February I was asked to guide there again. The logistics were worked out and God provided the money for me to go through one extremely generous donor! So a ticket for me was booked!
Local Greenlandic teenagers that have come on these trips have boys names like Inunnguaq, Minik, Emeeraq, Aputsiaq, and Akalu. Some of the girls that have come on trips names have been Nikolaj, Reginea, and Mureanwaq. Both boys and girls names have been hard for me to pronounce, and remember. We guide and teach through translators. All of this makes for a really different and fun guiding experience!
The youth that have come on trips have challenged themselves to go further then they thought they could, and they’ve been empowered by seeing what they are capable of individually, and as a team. They’ve sheared their life stories, and heard their peers and older trip leaders talk about their stories. They’ve experienced fellowship and community in the back country, and they’ve been able to dialog in a safe environment to ask questions about who God is, what Jesus come to do, and how that changes their life and the world.
Personally, I’ve been extremely blessed to be a guide on these trips! Enjoy the picture from the 2010 trip below, I wish I had a picture of my guide partner Rebbecca but I don't have one saved here, though there is a great video of all of us shimmying on Facebook!
September (the here and how):
The adventure continues! The summer with YDA rapped up well. I’m still in Plain, WA. I’m very much enjoying community here, a very nice school bus to stay in (Thanks! Steve & Kady E., and the Oberg’s), hiking, jogging, biking, some time on the river, horses (thanks Land’s), and the worm sunny weather on this side of the mountains.What’s next? I’m aiming to stay in WA/ the Pacific North West. I want to continually be involved with YDA here in WA, and Beyond Malibu. By staying in the PNW I’ll be closer to communities that mean a lot to me in Plain, Seattle, Bellingham, and Vancouver, BC. Also I’ll be to be near glaciers, volcanoes, several incredible mountain ranges, and the ocean! Basically… I dig the Pacific North West and want to make a life here!
God has stretched me so much this year through travel, through throwing me into more leadership roles, through support rising (I haven’t had a paying job since January!!!), and through times of uncertainty. God is working on my heart… and I think He’s has had to take me very far from what I feel is comfortable and secure to do it! The way I see it is, He’s asking me let go of what I think control of my life is, also my idea’s of what success is, and trust Him fully for my direction. He’s asking me to continue letting go of my self-centeredness, to serve Him and others, to “minister” which means to serve. This is the greatest commandments in the Bible, to Love God and love others with all we have.
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:36-49 (TNIV)
Stepping out of my familiar surroundings this year to serve has felt risky. This year I think I’m actually letting Jesus do his GOOD work in me, and through me, in ways I haven’t let Him for a long time. Romans 8 talks about the new freedom I’ve been feeling, as I’ve said yes to God as my personally involved Father more and more...
15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" Romans 8:15 (ESV)
God has made a way for everything (I had applied for in 2009, YWAM & YDA) to happen in 2010… then He’s gifted me with much more! He said, ‘Jonathan this year how about you make many new friends & connections from all over the world, and reconnect with old friends, what about going back to Greenland again, or on a river trip with teens from your hometown in May, or what about going to Alberta for the first time?’, He’s also said ‘don’t worry about where the money for all of this is going to come from’… this has been a hard area for me to trust Him with. I have debt to pay off… and sometimes I think I should be building a more stable feeling future. Yet God has fully provided… sometimes latter and in different ways than I’ve been comfortable with. Yet He has come through, every time, and I’m pretty sure He knows what I need, despite what I want and when I want it.
I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing in October and into the new years… and I’m finding this uncertainty a hard place to be in again. Despite the uncertainty I’m looking forward to what God has in store if I keep looking to Him.
Thanks for being a part of my journey, and for celebrating with me life to the full this year! I’ll keep you all informed as I make my next steps. Please keep me in your prayers. Please stay in touch. Thanks for your time :)
Grace & Peace,
Jonathan Schmidt
