Mark, Gina, Corinne, Isaac, Mariah Bryn and Elijah Schmidt

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."  Proverbs 3:5-6

We are originally from Florida where we were members and staff of a great church family.  We learned that our true family becomes who we spend our time with day in and day out. Mark and Gina were in a young couples class where the focus was to be real, open and share one another's burdens as Galatians 6 suggests and to model your family after Ephesians 5. The passion for families grew as the struggles of busyness, materialism, competition, disconnectedness, so evidently tear apart the family. Through the church walls much was attempted to demonstrate an easier, peaceful, Jesus centered home. God then burdened us to apply the same principals to our family as far as slowing down our pace and simplifying.  Through much prayer we made the decision to leave our family whom we loved dearly in Florida, and began DeepStream (click here for clarity),  which until then was not wrapped up into one single purpose.  DeepStream has always been a part of us and giving it a name was just summarizing our purpose- Jesus, marriage & family, community. We felt such great peace and freedom to grow in our personal lives and we soaked up every opportunity to simplify life. The Johnson Family  moved with us and together we were able to practice and shape DeepStream and our families as well.  We remained in Pennslyvania for 5 years as the Johnson Family returned to Florida to live the DeepStream life with purpose.

We loved our time in PA.  A good amount of our extended family lives in the northeast allowing our children to be close to aunts, uncles, cousins and some grandparents. Our marriage was strengthened, our family encouraged and loved, our children matured, life long friends were made.  Mark would say he had his dream home (house, property and location). Although we made many attempts to duplicate what we did in Florida, it became apparent that God sweetly planned for us to rest.  Our faith was increased as we studied God's Word together and trusted Him to provide. We matured in our outlook towards finances.  We helped in the community increasing our desire to cut away the excess and help those who had real needs.  We poured our hearts into making a haven for anyone who entered the doors and training our children to love God above anything in this world, to love and respect each member of our family, and to listen as the Spirit spoke to their hearts.  We all developed a desire to help the poor, to understand them.  Again after much prayer, as parents we felt part of training our children included allowing them to follow their desires.  Parents have no problem signing kids up for karate, soccer or piano because the child feels like it is something they would like to do, so why not allow them to help the poor, bring food to the hungry, befriend the lonely, care for the fatherless when they express a desire to do that?  Praying as a family for over a year, the change that God had in store was a bit more drastic than our move from Jacksonville to Stroudsburg.  We decided to sell what we could and further simplify our schedules and resources and travel wherever God would lead, helping families in what ever capacity we could.  After a week long trip to Guatemala to visit the Johnsons, we decided Guatemala would be the first place our family would relocate.

We love adventure, traveling, relationships. and being together sharing life as a family.  More importantly each of us individually have made the decision to follow God in our hearts and with our lives.  Recently God has streamlined our enjoyments and following Him to line up so closely that we find ourselves in a poor village in Magdalena Milpas Altas, Guatemala building relationships and serving together as a family.  Each day is a new adventure with new challenges drawing us closer to God and to each other as we trust His Spirit to guide us in helping, loving, serving, teaching, learning and enjoying our time here in this beautiful country.  The children and us as parents are able to act on the leading we have to help others.  We miss our friends who now literally live all over the world and family who has patiently loved us and accepted our "plans".  It has not been easy to leave those you love, go into a strange place where you have a language barrier and make friends. 

We are involved in several projects which you will see as you delve into this site, with our primary focus being Education and Nutrition.  We view these physical signs of aid as bridges in establishing relationships with our neighbors hoping and trusting God that in His perfect timing these very same people will turn to Him, accept Jesus as their Savior and know how much they are loved by God and by us.