Couple keeps promise to serve overseas

Winnipeg

Many people think they should do a term of overseas service with a church agency. Some even promise themselves to do it "someday". But for Winnipeggers Janet Schmidt and David Pankratz, "someday" wasn't good enough--not only did they set a date, they asked their friends to help them keep their promise.

The strategy worked. In September Schmidt, 41, and Pankratz, 42, leave for a three-year Mennonite Central Committee assignment in Zambia.

It all started in 1986, when the newly-married couple agreed that they wanted to serve overseas as volunteers. "We decided to set a ten-year plan," says Schmidt. "By 1996 we wanted to be headed overseas."

In order to make sure they kept their promise, they told friends and family about the decision. "We put it in every Christmas letter," says Pankratz. "It was like a countdown--nine, eight, seven years to go, etc. It was a way of asking people to keep us accountable."

As part of the plan the couple wanted to acquire skills that would be useful overseas. Pankratz was working towards becoming a Certified General Accountant, while Schmidt obtained her Masters in Education. Pankratz went on to work as accountant at Providence College in Otterburne, Man. and, since 1990, as accountant and financial controller for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada.

But things turned out quite differently for Schmidt. The same year they were married she started volunteering at the MCC Manitoba-supported Mediation Services. Ten years later she had not only gone on to help direct the organization, but also has become one of the foremost experts on conflict resolution in Canada today.

For the couple, members of River East MB Church, going overseas for three years is a risky career move. "We don't know what affect it will have on our careers," says Schmidt. "Will there be jobs for us when we get back?"

But, Pankratz adds, "we didn't want our careers to prevent us from going overseas. It would be easy to stay home now for the sake of our careers. That's why our public commitment to go overseas is so helpful."

A ten-year plan isn't for everyone, they say. "But for us, it kept us focussed, kept up our interest in serving overseas," says Schmidt.

Not everyone greeted their decision positively. "Some said we were planning our lives too completely, or leaving God out of it," says Schmidt. "But our desire to serve God is what caused us to make this commitment."

Adds Pankratz: "We like to think that we were putting ourselves on a road where God could use us, and responding to opportunities as they arose."

Schmidt will serve at the African Council of Churches-sponsored Mindolo Training Centre in Kitwe, Zambia, where she will be teaching conflict resolution. Pankratz will assist local people with issues related to accounting, such as translating North American accounting methods into African contexts.

"We've seen too many people say they wanted to serve overseas, but then never do it," Pankratz says. "We didn't want that to happen to us."

John Longhurst, MCC Communications

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