We are the Schmidt family from Berlin. Stephan and Christiane with our four children. The special thing about this is that two of our children are already living back in Germany and we are still on the road in southern Africa with our two youngest. This is because our two eldest have already finished school and are now fully employed. With the two boys we are on mission in Lesotho.
Since the two boys cannot go to a local school, I (Christiane) teach them from home. And that works well (more about this on the school page).
Stephan leads the OM Lesotho team and is thus fully occupied with organising, planning, negotiations, meetings and visits and all these things. And "on the side" he is still busy building various projects with his knowledge and craftsmanship.
It is an absolutely colourful everyday life here and every day it can happen that the planned day turns out quite differently, because a spontaneous visitor comes or something quite unexpected like a trip to the hospital for a neighbour comes up. Here, everything is possible and can be experienced almost every day. And that makes it all so wonderfully colourful.
It has become very important to us as a family that we trust completely in God. This is also where we see our mission in Africa. "Giving hope to the lost, through Jesus."
A large part of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa call themselves "Christians" and they have heard the name "Jesus" and know or even go to a church. But very few of them really know Jesus, or even have a living relationship with Him. Discipleship training is therefore a matter close to our hearts. To pass on trust in God to those who are without hope and to follow His path together. Therefore, we are always open and ready to help anyone in need. Whenever it is necessary, with word and deed.
Missionary career:
After completing a special training for missionaries (MDT) in January 2013, God opened doors and Stephan was able to start his new job first as head of the national outreach programme at the OM office in Pretoria.
Since 2015, he has been responsible for all administrative tasks, such as finance, human resources and IT in OM South Africa. This ensures that about 450 missionaries are supplied in and from South Africa.
Christiane worked at the AIDS Hope Centre in Mamelodie Township, teaching women tailoring to give them a way to earn their own income. A business course for newcomers has been part of this training.
In October 2017 we moved to Fouriesburg, only 8km from the border to Lesotho. A small, dreamy place without high walls or electric fences like in Pretoria. It was quite unusual to have such "normal" high fences around the house again.
From there, we regularly drove across the border to Lesotho and supervised the coming outreach teams and thus started to build up our local team in Lesotho. Of course, we also looked for suitable accommodation for us to finally move into Lesotho. And there too, God opened a door quite quickly and we first moved into an old mud round hut with a thatched roof until the old building next door with two rooms was renovated. A new extension to the two small rooms also followed and by 2021 almost everything was finished. We had many hard-working helpers and supporters, without whom we could not have done it all. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all once again!
Our focus here is not only to tell people about Jesus, but also to live it out and bring it close to them so that they too can inspire others about Jesus and share the good news. The aim is not only to convince people to go to church, but to be able to lead a living faith. Every day of the week and everywhere.
Postal address:
Family Stephan Schmidt
Mailbox 8
9725 Fouriesburg
SOUTH AFRICA
E-mail:
stephan.schmidt@om.org
christiane.schmidt@om.org
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The Support Team
"Mission is not an activity of the church,
Mission is the essence of the church."
Karl Hartenstein
The support team is a group of people who want to actively participate in mission. Even if mission is the essence of the entire church and the missionary is a kind of "Field Service employee" and thus the whole community is involved in the deployment, it needs at the same time individuals who are more involved in the mission field. They are the contact persons and take out "at home" tasks while the missionary is in ministry. The support team consists of these individuals.
Postal address:
Kreuzkirche Lankwitz
Bärbel Doering (Basis Team Schmidt)
Zietenstraße 11
12249 Berlin
