By Jenny Scott
June 2021
Savannah Schmitz is the kind of young person who gives great hope and inspiration for current and future Lutheran witnessing. She is a freshman in the Lutheran Teachers Education Program at Concordia University Chicago. Her major is Middle Grades Education, with an emphasis on Science and Literacy.
“After I graduate in 2024, I hope to teach amazing students all about the love Jesus has for them and I hope to show them how to serve people everywhere as Christ-like individuals,” said Schmitz.
A member of the AALC, a Lutheran Church body in fellowship with the LCMS, Schmitz grew up attending Ascension Lutheran Church in Waterloo, Iowa. She attended Lutheran elementary, middle, and high school, so she is well versed in the knowledge of the LCMS Church.
During her high school freshman year, she worked with about fifty children at a Chicago kids camp. A challenging part of this mission was that the missioners were not allowed to talk about Jesus specifically for risk of offending some campers. This is a frustration as we know that it is our joy to share the message of Good News that is ours in Christ. Instead, they were asked to show God’s love through their actions.
“When you have to actively show Jesus rather than just speak what He says to us in the Bible, your actions become so much more intentional,” said Schmitz. “The children embraced us quickly, and I truly believe this was no coincidence.”
Schmitz also went to Houston, Texas, during her junior year of high school to help rebuild hurricane-ravaged houses, served at her church Vacation Bible School during high school summers, and put in over 160 service hours at her school and in her community.
At CUC, Schmitz has been able to worship in person for quite a while now. They have masked and socially distanced chapel every day in addition to Evening Prayer offerings several nights a week.
“By attending these services, I can learn more about the faith to use when I have the opportunity to witness to people on campus and in my daily life,” she said.
WITNESS: Encouraging personal witnessing, congregational engagement with their community, support of our NID partnerships and missions and sharing in a world mission field together.