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Tim's Testimony

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My full name is Timothy Dale Schmidt. I was born on September 30, 1958. My mother's name is Elizabeth A. Schmidt, and my Dad's name was Cornelious F. Schmidt (my dad died in 1975). I was saved as a teenager (17) in Dallas, Texas at the Bruton Road Baptist Church. Married in 1979, my wife Mary and I have three children: Aaron Dale (May 25, 1980), Sarah Elizabeth (February 17, 1982), Heather Reneé (December 28, 1983). I had been married for 13 years when I surrendered my life to be a missionary. My home church is Peoples Baptist Church in McDonough, Georgia. My Pastor is Dr. David McCoy. God has called me to the Islands of the West Indies (Caribbean). My wife, Mary and I spent two years and three months in Arequipa, Peru, South America in language school, learning to speak the Spanish language. I plan to start my first work on the island of Puerto Rico, in the city of Ponce. There, I plan to train God called, young men to be leaders in the church, and then go forth and start churches of their own, and train their own leaders who will go forth and start more churches thus perpetuating the Great Commission. My goal is to evangelize the entire region known as THE WEST INDIES.

Hello, my name is Timothy Dale Schmidt. I was born on September 30, 1958 in Wooster, Ohio. After a mere 18 months, my family moved to Southern California where we lived until I was 13 years of age, then we moved to Mesquite, Texas, and it was here that the Lord began His work in my life. Up to this point in my life, God had not been real to me even though my family was searching for the truth in such places such as the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Wittnesses.

In my 8th. grade year, I began playing football, and I noticed many of my teammates quite often talked about what they did at church. This made an impression on me. Unfortunately, my family decided to move back to Southern California shortly after I turned 15. I got involved with the wrong kind of people while there and experimented with marijuana and partying. However, God protected me despite my best efforts to mess up my life. The year I turned 16, my Dad, Cornelius Fredrick Schmidt died of a massive heart attack. With Dad gone, our family was without true direction. My Mother, my sisters and I moved to the little logging town of Hayfork, California where I spent my sophomore year of High School. During that summer I took a job with the Forestry Service and again was neck deep in drugs and trouble seeking. But again, God saw to it that I was kept safe. Later that summer, my family moved back to Mesquite, Texas, and again I played football.

It was because of the testimony of my teammates, that I started thinking about God seriously. I was tired of the party scene, and wanted some real truth and direction in my life. I decided that I would visit one of the churches in the area, the following Sunday. Little did I know what God had in store for me! That Sunday, I did not go to church, but my sister, who had been invited by one of her schoolmates, did! When Sandy returned home, she was very excited and told me of this really "neat" church she had been to. I told her that I would go with her the next Sunday. On Tuesday night, I was visited by the youth director of that church. That visit changed my life forever. Bro. Nelson Leaman of the Bruton Road Baptist Church (Dallas, Texas) and two young men from the youth department visited with me. I was moved with the idea that some people would take time out of their night just to visit me! I promised them that I would see them on Sunday.

I went to the Bruton Road Baptist Church for the first time on a Sunday in March of 1976. The Pastor, Dr. Clyde Spain, preached the Word of God so powerfully, that it frightened me somewhat; but at the same time it excited me because for the first time in my life, I heard the truth, and I knew it. I went back to BRBC two more times before I accepted Christ as my Savior. Bro. Nelson had brought a stirring message in Sunday school about how we need to be sure about our salvation. Then, Dr. Spain preached the most powerful message I could have ever imagined. It seemed to be a very l-o-n-g message, as I was under great conviction. The invitation lasted an eternity it seemed, and I just wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. At the end of the invitation, Dr. Spain said, weeping: "We're going to have to close the invitation now, but I just can't help but feel that there is just one more person that needs to come down and get saved." I could not believe my ears! I did not, however, go down, and hot-footed it to the car. After my family was all inside, I started the motor, but I couldn't put the car into gear. I sat there under such tremendous conviction, I was weeping uncontrollably. My mother asked what the matter was, and I said that I had to go back in and talk to Bro. Nelson. I found him and blurted out "I need to get saved or I'm going to Hell!" He graciously took me into the church office and led me to the Lord.

Upon exiting the church office, having regained my composure, we encountered Dr. Spain, who was just about to enter his office. It was here that Bro. Nelson said: "Bro. Spain, this is Tim Schmidt, and he has something to tell you..." I was very nervous, and I blurted out tearfully, "I just got saved!" Bro. Spain began crying and rejoicing and then said: "You were the one...that last one that needed to come forward weren't you?" "Yes", I said and began again to weep uncontrollably, but this time for joy. It wasn't very long, and the Lord began touching my heart about serving Him. I had made some very definite goals for my life, and I was too selfish to let go of them. I was faithful to attend church, and each time a missionary would visit our church, I would just be torn within because I knew that God wanted me to be a missionary, too.

I graduated High School in May of 1977, and spent the summer working. I enrolled in Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, for the ‘77/’78 year. I took the Missions course, and flunked out because I had not as yet completely surrendered my life to Christ. I met my future bride, Mary Louise Kohorst, during one of the Youth Dept./College and Career class joint-activities. We dated for a year and a half, and were married in October, 1979. I spent the next 12 years running from the call of God, and jumping from one job to another trying to support my rapidly growing family. We remained faithful to church, no matter where we moved to, but I wouldn’t give up to God. Through a series of great tribulations and the work of the Lord, we ended up in Atlanta, Georgia in 1990.

God, in His infinite wisdom, lead us to the Peoples Baptist Church where Dr. Charles Wright was the pastor. God used the preaching and members of this great church, to finally bring me to His will. I surrendered my life to Missions in September of 1991 during the Missions Conference at PBC. I was so very impressed with all the missionaries we had at our conference. All the missionaries were with Macedonia World Baptist Missions. My pastor was on the executive board of MWBM, as well. I applied with MWBM and was accepted soon thereafter. My pastor recommended that I finish what I started back in ’78, and suggested that I attend Tabernacle Baptist Bible College, in Greenville, South Carolina. I graduated from TBBC on May 25, 1997, twenty years to the day that I graduated High School, and on my son’s seventeenth birthday.

I worked for two years after graduation, as music director and as an auto mechanic, then my family and I sold all our belongings and went full time on deputation. We traveled the country for two years and 110,000 miles, raising the support we needed to go to the field. In November of 2002, my wife and I began language school in Arequipa, Peru, where we learned the Spanish language. We are planning and praying about leaving for the field in late 2005 or early 2006. We truly covet your prayers.