To all of our loyal followers-
We all know that the seed of Christ needs to be spread to those in need. As we do our job in spreading the word of God, we also help to guide these children and give them encouragement to make the seed that the Lord has planted in each one of them grow. As we go through the very few days we have here at Chain of Love, as a team and individually, we are all really coming together to do our best to minister to these children. - From the opposite prospective, the children are also do wonderful things in all of our hearts! - Last week was a week full of soccer and beads!! We´ve all been learning, some slower than others, how to play soccer. It´s really a neat thing to experience. You think when you go on a mission to another country, that it´s about you teaching the people there what you know, when really it´s about them teaching you what they know. It´s really amazing. We have also had a lot of craft classes. Those are always a handful! The kids love making friendship bracelets and bead bracelets! One of the neatest things about the crafts classes was that it wasn´t just a group of girls, there were a lot of the boys that got involved. That was very interesting. We have had a lot of time to really bond with all the kids and I really just want to thank the Lord for this opprotunity that he has given everyone on this team to grow and become more open to the many walks of life that he created for us. As last week came to an end, there was just an amazing feeling of accomplishment radiating off of everyone on campus, including the children. On Friday our team took a trip into a part of Brazil that is known as "Little Italy" of sorts. It was really neat because it wasn´t like you were in Brazil, it was like being in Italy only all the people spoke portuguese. We went to a nice italian restaraunt and then drove around to all the different shops. We met a man who was 94 years old!! His son said the only reason he looked so good was he drank his daily wine, twice a day! :) Then we went to a winery and the adults tasted wine. Of course the under 21ers got grape juice that they made at the winery. It was very very tasty! Much better than Welch´s! We also went to a waterfall and walked behind the water. It was beautiful! After that we went to a few more shops and really had a great bonding experience, I felt, with everyone on the team. Saturday the team went into Campo Bom and just had a day full of shopping. Everyone was a little disappointed that the Indian Market was closed due to rain. Sunday was a good day with the kids! We had a party kind of relative to Super Bowl parties in America. Brazil played in the world cup against The Ivory Coast and won!! Very happy day! We also got the privillage to eat lunch in the families houses before the game. That was very heart-warming. The moment you enter someone´s house, there is just this automatic feeling of acceptance and love! I think it´s wonderful how God puts that quality in all of us, but the people here just do anything they can to express to you how much they care about you even though they may have just met you! It´s just an amazing feeling! Monday was our first day of English as a second language classes. It was really exciting to be able to really be an influence to these children even if it´s something as simple as teaching them how to count or teaching them the difference between red and blue! To see them really catch on and not only tell you they understand but to see that and for them to show you that they listen and they comprehend what you say! It´s very encouraging for us to teach and be taught at the same time! Yesterday was pretty much the same as Monday... EXCEPT FOR! The girls only soccer game! That was something very special to the girls here because it´s usualy mostly the guys that play soccer in the gym. They kind of dominate and the girls don´t really get the chance as often. So they wanted to play Americans versus Brazilians! All of us Americans were scared that we were going to get our butts kicked. Soccer in Brazil is like a religion! Very important! But to the surprise of MANY, AMERICANS WON!!! It was a very nice bonding experience!! Up to today, has been an amazing, very inspiring adventure for all of us! As we begin to bring our mission to a close we just all pray that God will continue to be with us as we start to make our ways home, and to also stay with these children and really inspire them to push on and really have that desire to serve Him and walk with Him. To really just want to be one of His many cities on a hill. Never ceasing to shine for Him! In His holy name!
By - Ashley Rogers, Brazil Gateway Team Journalist, June 2010

On June 8, a Brazil Gateway Team gathered in Milwaukee, WI for a few days of training before heading to Campo Bom, Brazil on June 11. They came from Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Canada, Singapore and Korea; all to serve children at the CHAIN of Love Homes. Here's some pics of our time to this point:

Daniel, Agathe and "baby" Randy

Daniel Wango from Yaounde, Cameroon is here in the USA with us! Daniel represents the Cameroon Baptist Convention Youth Dept. as President. North American Baptist Youth had a Youth Leader Summit in Monterey, CA last week that we invited Daniel to come and be a part of. Gateway Teams has been facilitating a partnership for a number of years between NAB and CBC Youth and having Daniel here as the first Cameroonian to come this way has been great! In addition to the Summit, Daniel went to Southern California for 5 days, is heading to Minneapolis today and will be with us in Wisconsin on Monday before heading home on April 3. Glad to have you here Daniel!

Hey Everyone, my good friend, Dave Miller wrote a great article that is linked on the current home page of Christianity Today. Dave and I serve together on the Steering Committee for the Fellowship of Short-Term Mission Leaders.

It's a great article! Please take a look at: http://www.roundtripmissions.com/content/o-youth-pastor-where-art-thou

Thanks!

A familiar song worth reading to the end....Happy New Year!

Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel

"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather

"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing .

A cool and funny video for your Christmas pleasure!!
Merry Christmas!
The Schmors

Make a Smilebox greeting

A Christmas thought from Bono, of the Irish rock band, U2.........

"A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, 'You know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea…' And this wise man said: 'Stop. Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.' Well, God is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing. And that is what He’s calling us to do."

A 'Christmas thought' you might say (?) - well, yes...maybe we can take a look at what God is doing this Christmas and go from there, rather than...you know...

After all, Christmas was His idea to begin with.
- Randy

Merry Christmas everyone! I don't normally do this, but as some of you know, we are leading one of our Gateway Teams in 2010 to Brazil. So, I thought there may be a few more of you out there that aren't on our email listings that may be interested in this opportunity. If that's YOU :) - please get in touch with us as soon as possible. The following is a copy of the last email we sent out in promotion of this opportunity; as you get in touch with us, we'll send you the 'attached documents' that are mentioned at the bottom of the message. Thanks!

November 20, 2009

Hello again and Happy Thanksgiving (Americans! Belated, Canadians!). We’ve had a good response to the opportunity of a Brazil Gateway Team to the CHAIN of Love Homes in Campo Bom next June! Please know that unless you’ve responded to us directly, this will be the last email you’ll receive about this as the application deadline is approaching on December 11, 2009.

If you’re unaware of the details of this particular mission, please read on and also take a look at the attached document ‘Proposal for Gateway Team to Brazil’.

We’re now in what we call the Promotion Stage (9-7 months away from departure) so here are a few items to consider at this point:

Promotion Stage (9-7 Months Out) Items - FOR THE JUNE 2010 BRAZIL (CHAIN OF LOVE HOMES) GATEWAY TEAM:

Payment Schedule & Info
***Finances and Important Dates***
– this is a major question that many will have at this point…Fees/Funds should come from 3 sources:

(1) Team Member Personal Contribution ($100/person minimum)
(2) Team Member’s Home Church (special services/offerings/church budget)
(3) Letters to Family/Friends OUTSIDE of Home Church

-ALL FUNDS US (USD)-

* Please note that these are TOTALS to have by each due date; the vendors (airfare, etc.) receiving the checks will be given later. ALSO, PLEASE ASK YOUR CHURCH ABOUT DOING THE RECEIVING AND INDIVIDUAL RECEIPTING FOR DONATIONS RECEIVED FOR THIS MISSION. The church can then make out the checks payable to the correct vendors as you’ll be receiving that information at later dates. If you do not have this option available to you, please let us know ASAP. Thank you!

We’ll work on the basis of these dates for funds due (and other key dates) unless otherwise informed –

September 22, 2009 – Team Member Applications available on Gateway Teams’ website under “Resources” - Gateway Teams Website >http://www.nabconference.org/pages.asp?pageid=717

Payment #1 Due – December 11, 2009 - $100/person (non-refundable) - Team Member Applications and Team Member’s MINIMUM PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION due to Gateway Teams Office (Brookfield, WI address in signature below)

February 11, 2010 – Team Training begins (individual study materials, preparation for June Team Training Retreat which will immediately precede the mission and be in the Milwaukee area)

Payment #2 Due – March 28, 2010 - $1700/person – Primarily the cost of airfare

Payment #3 Due – May 11, 2010 - $1000/person (approximate, actual amount TBA) - The balance of the trip costs

June 8-11, 2010 – Team Training Retreat AND Assistant Leader Training session – (“Effective Planning, Training and Leading of Short-Term Mission Teams”) - in Milwaukee, WI

June 11-28, 2010 – Brazil Mission

Please NOTE! – Funds MUST be collected & checks MUST be received by the vendors (TBA) by the dates indicated. Failure to do so will result in cancellation of the mission.

**Also please note that the amounts of Payment #2 and #3 may change primarily due to airfare**

- Airfare and/or Ground Transport – I’m working on these logistics right now….please note from the material above that this mission will depart from Milwaukee; your travel to and from there is NOT included in the Payment Schedule above -

- Planning fund-raising - funds should be raised 3 ways:

- Team Member personal contribution ($100) - with application

- Church budget, special offerings and fund-raising events - plan NOW

- Support letters to relatives and friends OUTSIDE of your Home church - THIS IS IMPORTANT! - not to be done until team training begins in February

- Team Member applications – are available NOW and are due by December 11 - (the beginning of the Selection Stage) with a $100 non-refundable fee; the team member's personal contribution

- Team Training Schedule – is attached to this email so the full time commitment of this mission can be considered

Attached Documents to this email –

- Brazil Appendix M – please insert in your GT Team Member’s Manuals when you receive them
- Portuguese “Helps” Booklets – also to be inserted in manuals as a part of Appendix M
- Proposal for Gateway Team to Brazil – Please review

- We are here to help you in your preparations any way we can….let us know what questions you have.

Thanks everyone, I look forward to your responses. Blessings!

Merry Christmas everyone.

I'm just offering a brief update on Kerry Livgren (see post below) and his stroke recovery. Please go to - http://www.topekabiblechurch.org/services/sunday/sermons/978-abcs-of-thanksgiving - Livgren's testimony starts at about the 6 min. mark on the video. Thanks to my good friend John R. for getting this to me!

Blessings and a joyous Christmas to all!

Hey everyone!
I'm just finishing an amazing week with our first Bulgaria Gateway Team! The Oprenovs (our partners here) and their church, Sofia Baptist, are awesome and have incredible vision for reaching out with the Gospel of the Kingdom into the hardest issues facing this city-center Sofia church.
We were able to help with ESL classes over the past week or so and also had the opportunity to share in church yesterday.
Take a look at Randy's facebook page for more on this at...
http://www.facebook.com/randy.schmor

There will actually be more pictures and video to come from this mission soon.
Thanks!

Just found out that Kerry Livgren of the band Kansas (writer of 'Dust in the Wind' and 'Carry On My Wayward Son') had a massive stroke on Sept. 1. His family is asking for prayer. See the links below for more details...
http://www.kansasband.com/news/
http://www.numavox.com/

I know it's quite uncharacteristic of us to post twice in a week (!); but we're excited to share a video with you that highlights one of our newest partners in Bulgaria. We're also quite excited to be taking our first Bulgaria Gateway Team to Sofia to work with this ministry as well in October (28 - Nov 10) 2009.

http://www.bulgarianpartners.org/building_hope.aspx
(please paste in your browser)

Thanks again for your interest, partnership and support!
The Schmors

Hey everyone!

We've come to the end of another busy summer here at Gateway Teams...and for the Schmors, an amazing number of weeks in Germany, Cameroon, Canada and Mexico.

Our family's been back from Mexico City for about a week now and in addition to a great 11 days with the Castros in Tlahuac, we had a some quality time with our long-time friends, the Lunas and another one of our Mexico City host receivers, Jaime Becerras. Jaime pastors churches in Santa Ursula Coapa and Huixquilucan in the Mexico City region.

But, back to Tlahuac...we led a Mexico Gateway Team from North Pointe Baptist Church in Warren, Michigan with our partners, Juan and Anamaria Castro who themselves are church planting missionaries from Chile/Brazil. Tom Gibson is the Youth Pastor from North Pointe and did a great job chronicling our time there in video and pictures...take a look and thanks again for your support and prayers!

Hi!
Just a few quick updates....and fyi's....

1. Cameroon - Nick and I (Randy) did make it home! We arrived late on July 3, exhausted but very encouraged. Our last days in Cameroon gave us a chance to recup a little bit as we hit the ground running pretty hard upon our arrival there. The future partnership between our youth and youth leaders among the Cameroon Baptist and NAB looks very promising and this training team consisting of a mix of Cameroonians and Americans was a great experience!

2. Canada - The whole family had the opportunity to head to Winnipeg, Manitoba last week for the North American Baptist's 'Triennial' Conference. It was exhausting, but a great week all in all as we connected with many friends, supporters and participants in Gateway Teams. Randy and Shelly led 2 workshops on "Effective Short-Term Missions - What is it?" and Kameron had a great time in the well organized children's program (although he continually lets us know that he's almost a Middle-Schooler!).

3. Mexico - We're heading there with a team from the Detroit area next week. Please pray for us as we re-connect with our friends in the Mexico City region of 'Tlahuac' and help them reach their community with children's ministry and English classes.

4. Brazil - (read on, maybe this is for you!)
CHAIN of Love Homes - www.chainoflove.org - Campo Bom, Brazil
Gateway Teams is taking an 'open' team to help serve the children of CHAIN of Love in June 2010. Please send us an email if you would like more details or are interested in applying!

Randy Schmor

NAB Youth gave towards the purchase of this motorcycle for the Ndu Field Youth Pastor back in 2003.


Youth Leaders that attended the Ndu seminar.

Nick Reyes teaching on the 'Building' section of our seminar.

No, it's not Greg Jennings but Richard Apongde, one of our trainers who has become a recent Packer fan! (Just kidding, but he did like the shirt! Especially in Ndu's cool 7500 ft. altitude!)

The group of CBC Youth Leaders attending our seminar in hot and sticky Mutengene, close to the coast.

Hello friends from Bamenda, Cameroon in West Africa!

As some of you know, I (Randy) am here with Youth Pastor Nick Reyes from Fontana, CA working together with youth leaders of the Cameroon Baptist Convention for the past 2 weeks. We completed the 3rd of our 3 discipleship seminars for youth leaders here using material from J-Life Africa on the Strategy of Jesus (as well as a follow-up seminar entitled 'Foundations'). Thank you for your prayers!

The training that we've been doing is a part of a partnership between North American Baptist (NAB) Youth and Leaders and the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) Youth and Leaders that has been going on for the past 5-6 years. I led the first training team of 6 youth leaders here back in 2007 and this current mission is the follow-up to that. From this point, the training of lay youth leaders in about 800 CBC churches here will be done by the Cameroonians. As a matter of fact, although just Nick and I traveled out here, we actually were a team of 5 as Tah Martin, Daniel Wango and Richard Apongde, who are all a part of the CBC youth leadership, joined forces with us as one training team.

We started in Mutengene, close to the Atlantic coast and about an hour from the Douala airport, moved on to Bamenda about 5 hours inland, and then went 5 more hours further inland to the village of Ndu, close to the Nigerian border. All together, close to 300 youth leaders were in attendance with over 135 attending at Ndu on June 25-26. (back in 2007 we had about 150 youth leaders in 4 different locations) The response was exceptional and our team was very encouraged as these youth leaders traveled, some over great distance to be a part of these seminars. Examples: at Ndu, some youth leaders walked on foot 8 hours to come; one man, Pastor Genesis, was in a car that he hired along with some others to come that rolled over a number of times, he ended up climbing out and helping the others and still made it to the seminar.

But what impressed us the most about the attenders here was their commitment to God and their knowledge of the Scriptures. They asked very good questions, knew the Scripture references they quoted and showed an incredible love for youth and the desire to see them grow spiritually.

We also have had our share of adventure as many of the roads here are unpaved with many dips, holes (potholes would be way too mild of a term) and slick mud because we're in the middle of rainy season. As a matter of fact, as we were coming back from Ndu to Bamenda on Friday, our car slid off of the road and it took the 5 of us with the help of 4 other persons to actually lift the car out of it's prone position, ready to fall 4 feet down into a ditch, back onto a part of the road that was a little more stable; and all of this in slick mud and rain.

But we thank God for this time, for commited youth leaders and CBC youth leadership to pass this training onto and for the opportunity to share in ministry together with these committed followers of Jesus. And...we thank you for praying! Please don't stop! Nick and I will be traveling back to the coast tomorrow and then our flight will leave on July 1 late at night taking us to 2 stops in Europe before we finally end up back in Milwaukee late on July 2. Nick especially needs your prayers as he deals with excrusiating back pain that the rough trip back from Ndu revived, the result of a car accident he had some years ago. It hasn't been easy for him since we returned here to Bamenda last Friday and we have a lot of miles/kilometers to cover in the next few days.

Thanks again for your prayers and interest! If you'd like more details, please send us an email and let Shelly or I know.

In His Grip,

Randy

Hey Everyone!

Thank you for all the prayers for the combined team of youth leaders from the US and Cameroon. Things are going really well at the seminars, and exciting things are happening. Please continue to pray for health and safety for Randy and Nick. It's hot there! They will be finishing up some seminars in Bamenda today and then on to the town of Ndu. Please continue to pray for good relationships to be built with our brothers and sisters in Cameroon. It is exciting to be a part of the Kingdom work around the world. What a privilege that God allows us to partner with Him. The family in the picture is one of the youth leaders, Daniel, that Randy and Nick are training with. The baby they are holding was born last year and is named Randy - after our Randy!!!! Too cool!

The team that was in

Cameroon in 2007

Cameroon 2009

Hi everyone! Just wanted to give you an update on things. Randy and Nick Reyes of Fontana, CA are on their way to Cameroon, West Africa. They will be partnering with 3 Cameroonian youth leaders there to form a team who will go out to several locations to train volunteer youth leaders in discipleship principles. This is exciting as ALL the youth workers in Cameroon are volunteer. There is only one paid youth worker among the 800+ churches. This team is part of an ongoing partnership between NAB youth workers and Cameroon Baptist Convention youth workers. Please be in prayer for these men as they seek to raise up emerging young leaders! These are exciting times!

Randy and Nick will be arriving in Cameroon tomorrow! Right now they are in Germany on a very brief visit to some potential new hosting sites of Gateway Teams. Please be in prayer for their safe travel to Cameroon and then an exciting and fruitful time of ministry over the next 2 weeks. Thanks!

Shelly (for all the Schmors)

Quiet time, devotions, daily prayer, time with God.....

What do you call it? That time that you spend with God. Whether it be daily, weekly, moment by moment.... When and where do you meet with God?

I was contemplating this today because I found a new website at http://www.examen.me/ . It's a site that you can do various spiritual disciplines while at your computer. I did one this morning that took me to a passage in Ezekiel, I really liked thinking through the scripture and how God was speaking to me through it. I also did something called a "Center Out" prayer. A prayer time that started by praying for yourself, then friends and family, then our culture, and then the world. Again, I really liked the guided time of prayer.

Now, would I do this everyday for my "God Time"? No - I like to be outside and in nature way too much to connect with my creator only through my computer screen. But, when it's raining and cold.... it was a pretty neat thing. Please check it out!

But, I would love to hear from you in the comment section (please take a moment to share) of what are some creative, different or even routine ways that you connect with God. What do you do? Where do you go? Let's share some ideas - it might just spur each of us on to try something new and connect with our Lord in a way we never have before - maybe he'll teach us something when we step out of our "usual" routine!

Because we are a "Sound of Music" kind of family and Kameron performed in an amazing production of it last year, we thought you might enjoy this as much as we did!