Vern Schinski

 

Hometown: I was born in Chicago and grew up in Detroit.

 

/files/ChurchGallery/Vern.JPGMy Story: After being taken to Sunday School by my grandmother, I attended a series of revival meetings and on Easter Sunday 1950, at the age of only nine, I gave my life to Jesus. I soon had a dream in which I felt called to the mission field.  As a teenager,  I struggled trying to live up to what I believed God expected of me, and as I graduated from high school (where I was very involved in architectural drawing and thought I wanted to be an architect) I felt led, at the last minute and without any resources, to attend Bethel, our church college. God led to a job in the hospital and I soon felt out of place in the pre-ministerial program. I felt God leading to medicine and medical missions. I transferred to Goshen College for pre-med, met Viv, but was ready to graduate before I finished the pre-med requirements. So, I went back to Detroit and entered a graduate program at Wayne State University, from where I expected to apply to medical school after a year or two. I married Viv and soon found the Draft Board threatening to draft me before I could finish my Masters. By appealing, I gained time to finish and then joined the Navy. God led to Ethiopia, Egypt and the Philippines, where I was able to work with medical missionaries at the Navy’s expense and on to a Ph.D. at Maryland. By the end of my 30-year Navy career, God finally got me to medical school—as a dean (our timing is not His timing). I worked at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the military medical school, as a civilian vice president for 10 years. I recently stepped down to so I could join the church staff as Outreach and Evangelism pastor.

 

Ministry Area: All my adult life, I have been involved in small-group work, finding these intimate relationships the place where I grew and helped others to grow. I found the Disciple Bible Study program especially powerful at Oakdale. I have also been involved in outreach for years—12 years with the Appalachia Service Project (ASP), 11 overseas trips with Volunteers in Mission, 6 years on the Youth for Christ Board, and in local programs like Habitat for Humanity and Christmas in April. It was a natural step for me to become the chairman of the Outreach Committee and now to work in this area as a member of the church staff.

 

Family: I’m a new grandpa! Viv and I adopted twin Vietnamese girls in 1975.  Vicki has been married for about two years and lives in Pennsylvania—she gave us our first granddaughter in July. Valorie was just married in May. Viv lost her father, the last of our parents, while I was on a mission trip in Moldova last July. I have a brother in Detroit and Viv has two brothers in Pennsylvania. Her sister died young with breast cancer, but her husband, new wife, and daughters have stayed close to the family. They live in Indiana.

 

Passion: Helping others see Jesus

 

Favorite Pastime Activities: Fishing, painting and woodworking

 

Little-Known Fact: God once gave me the opportunity to travel by small plane, then a small inflatable boat, and then walk two days to investigate an outbreak of Sleeping Sickness in a village that had never seen a white man.