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2010-01-04 issue:

Mother of MVSers says empty nest matured family

Mennonite Voluntary Service participants learn independence, simple living.

by Laurie Oswald Robinson for Mennonite Church USA

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Marsha Schmidt of Newton, Kan., knows many people in her Mennonite circle who give up time with family because of church or mission work. But she never dreamed her two daughters would move away from Newton in the same year to do service.

Marsha Schmidt (center) has her two daughters—Kara (left) and Kiley (right)—back home after they participated in Mennonite Voluntary Service at two different sites in Colorado at the same time. Photo by Laurie Oswald Robinson.

Kara, 26, and Kiley, 23, the only children of Marsha and Rod Schmidt, served with Mennonite Voluntary Service (MVS), a program of Mennonite Mission Network, in Colorado from September 2008 through last August.

After taking them to two different settings—Kara to the city of Boulder and Kiley to rural La Jara, five hours from Boulder, the couple returned to an empty nest.

The family was close. They belonged to First Mennonite Church in Newton, and the daughters lived either nearby or in their home after graduation from Bethel College in North Newton, Kan. Separating after such closeness was a sacrifice, but the emotional and spiritual growth was worth it, Marsha says.

"I never dreamed both my children would be in service at the same time, but I shouldn’t have been surprised," she says.

The distance of a day's drive to her daughters' doorsteps stretched the family, Marsha says.

For example, Kiley is a horse lover. Her horse died in Kansas while she was in Colorado.
She worked at a therapeutic riding ranch in Monte Vista as part of her MVS assignment.

When the ranch director discovered Kiley had researched the subject of using literacy activities at horse ranches for at-risk kids, the director asked Kiley to lead a camp on site.

Baffled by this huge assignment, Kiley invited Marsha, a reading tutor for first graders in the Newton Public Schools, to help.

Though nervous, Marsha stepped into Kiley’s world.

"I brought my background," Marsha says, "but she was the one who knew the kids and other workers. I felt like I was partnering with her but also enjoying my own service experience at the same time."

Kara served in a variety of roles, including working with toddlers, assisting at a humane society and sorting donations at a thrift store. Kara didn't feel she used her gifts to the maximum in these roles. But she learned that being of service meant perseverance. In that challenge, she gained new respect for the loving generosity of her family, as well as her new church family at Boulder Mennonite, she says.

Now that the daughters are back in the family home and determining their next steps, the family is transitioning again. Marsha gained new respect for her daughters' abilities to live gratefully with simple lifestyles—including tight food budgets in their MVS houses and a small personal stipend each month.

But now she and Rod are helping their adult children integrate the value of having done service during tough economic times when new jobs upon return home are scarce, and loans for graduate-level work are tough to secure.

Kara has a part-time job at Ten Thousand Villages and hopes to apply to master’s degree programs in library science. Kiley is still searching for a job and may seek a master’s degree in school psychology.

"After coming back home, they've had to start over," Marsha says. "In this light, their service was a financial sacrifice, too. They didn’t make any money and now need to reestablish themselves financially.

"My prayer was that they would stick it out and end strong. That's what happened. And now that they are home, that is still my prayer—that their lives will continue to be a witness to others and that they will depend on God for whatever the next steps will be," Marsha says.

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