My Wife

Happy Thanksgiving! Since 1863, today our country celebrates a national day of "Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficient Father who dwelleth in the Heavens" (President Teddy Roosevelt). This Thanksgiving, I'm so magnificently thankful for something I couldn't help but write about....my wife.

I cannot tell of the beauty of my wife. Be it inward or outward beauty, I have no utterances that could describe either adequately. However there's a fairly famous chapter in the bible, Proverbs 31, that describes the worth of an excellent wife. My wife of nearly 10 years is certainly excellent.

"She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life." My wife's constant self-sacrificing and eye for the eternal constantly supplies good in my life. She never gives up, and she always makes sure she is providing for the needs of her husband and children, no matter the cost.

"She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong." My wife was an All-American and world champion soccer player; her physical strength is often unmatched.

"She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy." My wife is always bringing opportunities before me to give more to the poor. Just tonight she was already talking about giving more to some workers we've hired around the house so they can have more for Christmas. She's always looking to give more.

"She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." Kelly's speech fervently dwells on kindness, as she passes this wisdom to the next generation (our children). She has a huge heart for educating our children and works to model kindness for them. This morning she was nursing our 2 week old while teaching Isaiah to read, leading Emory in a notebook, and keeping track of our rambunctious toddler, wow!

"Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Kelly's steadfast faith motivates me as I see her faithfully walk in the fear of the Lord, even with all the struggles that presents in a place like this.

My wife moved to a Africa in her third trimester to faithfully serve God and as an act of submission to her husband. A wife submitting to her husband seems pretty old fashioned nowadays. It is! Wives have been supposed to submit to husbands for the whole history of marriage. When Kelly took this step of faith to come here, it was very humbling for me. I knew she was doing this out of submission and following her call, not her own desires. When I speak about serving the poor in the developing world, I seem to hear a very common response, "My wife would never do something like that." Well, let me assure you, mine wouldn't either. That's why it took an act of God to allow her to follow God and her husband to the third world. Husbands, if this is your response, you need to man-up. Don't short-change her, as certainly she has the capacity to serve her creator in any setting. Just lead and love your wife well.

So men, today tell your wife how thankful you are for her. In fact, I wouldn't stop there if I were you. Check yourself as to how thankful for her you think you are. Are you sacrificing anything for your wife? Are you truly loving her? Are your aspirations at work meant to honor God and bless your wife, or simply for your own gain? The answers to these questions may be difficult to swallow for some of us. Myself included, the husbands of the church can all live more sacrificially for our wives to give God glory. Yup, this means we might even have to give up fantasy football! We might have to actually be open to discuss having more children. You may have to actually be intentional about reading the bible to your wife (that's a tough one). You may have to address her needs even if you've had a tough day at work. Whatever it is, this season of Thanksgiving should be a good chance for all of us men to consider and weigh just how thankful we are for our wives based on our deeds, not just our words.

God thank you for my beautiful wife....mother of our four children....the woman I love.

Baby is here!

We are so thankful and excited to announce the arrival of James Michael Schmedes into the world. Born November 11, at 2:09am, 7lb 11oz at Mbingo Baptist Hospital. We thank you so much for your prayers. God has given us a precious gift, and we are in awe of His grace and mercy. Baby and mommy are doing very well!

Vanity Fair

Most of us pray, few don't. Some believe in a god, some don't. Some of us are Christians. The vast majority of us will pray in some fashion at some point in our lives. The more time I spend here, the more I'm learning about a certain kind of prayer that the bible speaks of, "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." This encourages me because I'm finding myself more and more confused how to pray.

I've been reading a book entitled Little Pilgrim's Progress to my children. It's a kid version of Pilgrim's Progress, written in the 1600's about a man named Christian that embarks on an allegorical journey to reach the Celestial City. Along the way, he encounters a city Vanity Fair....

"The Wicked Prince filled the great city with everything that was pleasant and beautiful. It had broad streets and handsome houses, and the stalls in its market were covered with glittering wares. All day long the people were passing busily up and down. They wore fine clothes and spent their whole time in pleasing themselves, and the Wicked Prince took care to give them plenty of things to enjoy so that they might never have a moment to spare in which to think of the King whom they had forsaken."


I have fine clothes and plenty of things. I spend much of my time seeking comfort. I'm accustomed to praying for comfort, to keep everything nice and glittering in my own Vanity Fair. I pray for things to go easily for me. So many things here are broken and many people here are hurting. Today I saw my third patient this week with a cancer so big that it's literally pushing the eyes out of socket, as I'm reminded about the state of brokenness in which most of the world's population lives. I don't know exactly where modern day Vanity Fair may be, but I know that my vantage point has certainly changed.... I find myself constantly praying a simple three-word prayer, "God please help." As I struggle to live here cross-culturally and day after day see my brothers and sisters come to the hospital with dire problems, I simply ask God to somehow help.

I may not know how to pray here, but thankfully the Spirit intercedes for me. I'm changing my prayers of convenience to prayers of desperation. Instead of praying for things to go well, avoiding trials, I'm merely praying for God to be with me.

In typical fashion, I'm including some pics of what we've been up to. Thank you all for your continued support! Here's the fam visiting daddy's clinic.

Hiking around beautiful Mbingo, at the air-strip.

 The kids are loving working in the new garden and playing with daddy.