Dear Friends,
We received this letter in the office and since the newsletter will not be out for awhile I wanted to share it with you. I know I can count on a bare minimum of prayers for the Schmitz family. De Colores!
Hello fellow Cursillistas,
I am Major James Schmitz, a member of Men's #237 and my wife Anne is from Women's #244. Thanks to all who wanted to support us during my deployment. Just a quick update: I am currently at Fort Hood getting ready to head overseas and should be there just prior to Christmas.
Anne and the kids are doing well. We get plenty of chances to FaceTime and talk with each other, and there's a big map and clock up on the wall at so they can see where I am and what time it is there.
My role in the mission is the liaison officer to the Royal Army of Oman. What that means is that I work closely with their army to coordinate international exercises and build professional relationships between our militaries. I'm very excited for the opportunity to learn about their abilities, challenges, and culture and be able to bring that information back here to share. Likewise, I'm humbled that I get to be a representative of our country to them.
I've been blessed to be able to travel around the world and see many different societies, and I have always been amazed and happy to find that there are more similarities than differences. For those of you who would like to support us, here are a few items of palanca that would be truly helpful:
For me: cards, prayers or devotionals, small articles from the local paper. I'll be working out of an embassy wearing a suit most of the time, so things that were helpful on my previous deployments (wet wipes, toothpaste, coffee) are readily available (And thankfully unnecessary!!). Please don't send snacks; they don't really hold up in the heat, and one of my goals is to lose a few pounds while I'm gone. My waistline thanks you in advance! The mailing address for me
is:
MAJ James Schmitz
PSC 1290 Box 12
APO, AE 09890
For my family: Anne is a full-time professor at Gannon University.
Between that and taking care of our two kids, she stays busy all of the time. Especially on weekends. So a warm, healthy, home-cooked meal would go a long way to relieving stress on her. There are plenty of cookies, candy, snacks, etc. at home already, so more are not necessary. We already have someone to mow the lawn and plow the driveway (unless someone wants to do it for free, in which case let us
know!) and to watch my bees, but if someone has a green thumb and some spare time we have quite a few newly planted fruit trees as well as the shrubs and trees around the house that could use some love and attention. Please feel free to email either of us at
[email protected] or
[email protected] for more details.
We are truly blessed to have such a great community supporting us.
Many of you have already contributed a great deal already, and for that we are incredibly thankful.