Ronda Schmidt desires to continue being a part of what God is doing around the world to reach the unreached. She’s based in Newton, Kan.

Her cross-cultural ministry career began in the summer of 1985 when she had the opportunity to go on a short-term missions trip with Ethnos360 (formerly New Tribes Mission) to Liberia. At that time, she was working as a veterinary technician.

In 1986, she transitioned to full-time missions work when she began a four-year training program with Ethnos 360. Then in 1992, she went to Panama with the organization to work as a church planter. She served there for 10 years, also helping at a missionary kid school, holding Bible studies in the local community and discipling women and teen girls.

In 2002, she transitioned to the Ethnos360 Training Center on Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. During the next 19 years, she was involved with training the next generation of cross-cultural missionaries. For the first several years she served as the bookstore administrative assistant before transitioning into a full-time role of teaching culture/language acquisition, mentoring single and married ladies, serving as a member of the Academic Management Team and working as a staff leader for the Latin Ministry Outreach Team.

Her ongoing ministry includes pre-field training, cross-cultural adjustments, mentoring/coaching, as well as debriefing/re-entry counseling.

Pre-field training is designed to prepare cross-cultural workers to have a mindset that equips them with tools that will help them be an effective communicator of the Gospel.

She is available for ongoing mentoring/coaching once the missionary is on the field to aid in cross-cultural adjustments as well as travel to them if it would be beneficial.

Debriefing/Re-entry counseling is an opportunity for cross-cultural workers to process the many unique stressors and situations that they encountered while on the field. By gaining a clearer understanding of what they are experiencing, they’ll be able to incorporate that perspective into their own sense of identity and how they relate to others. It can be either a preventative or restorative service and is appropriate for anyone living/working cross-culturally.