Ron Schaad, sixty-four years of age, is a member of Bloomington United Methodist Church(www.wesley-umc.com) and a resident of Bloomington. He and his wife Donna, are the parents of two sons and a daughter, and the grandparents of seven grandchildren.
This is the fourth year that Ron has headed the Construction Mission Teams. Yet, he is a veteran of mission projects, for her has served on more than ten mission trips. He has also worked on Habitat for Humanity builds.
Ron’s first mission trip to Nicaragua was in 2008, when he headed the team which built an addition to the boy’s home at the orphanage. In 2009 Ron headed the construction team which returned to build a security fence around the boy’s home. Then, last year Ron’s team began the large security fence around the twenty-two acre orphanage complex.
Prior to retirement, Ron worked as the Director of Business Administration at Blackhawk Community College in Moline, Illinois. He worked in education for sixteen years.
In December of 2005 Ron and his wife Donna moved to Bloomington, and joined Wesley. Since that time they have become heavily involved in missions and service projects.
Ron first began serving in missions at Wesley when he joined a hurricane Katrina mission trip to Louisiana in 2006. After serving as a member of a team, Ron was then approached about helping to head up the construction team from Wesley.
“I’m amazed at the work ethic of the volunteer team members who come down here and poor their energy into helping the orphanage” Ron said. “The help that we receive from the orphan teens is outstanding. Some of them, although teen boys, work as hard as men”.
“This year on the two teams we had work on the fence, we had a mixture of quite a few returning team members, and quite a few new team members. The returning team members did a good job in absorbing and involving the new team members in the work” Ron stated.
Ron served this year the supervisor of the two back-to-back construction teams, thus he has been here for two weeks. “Besides the red beans and rice every meal, the hard thing about being here for two weeks straight working construction is the need and desire to work, but the inability of the body to do all one desires due to the heat and the sun” he mused.
“I’m amazed at how many people who come here for the first time to serve, express their desire to come back and help again” he commented.
“This year what has struck me in particular has been the acceptance of the difficulties. The team members adjusted to the difficulties, and said ‘okay, we’ll work around it’. This hasn’t always been so in prior years. There is has been more frustration in prior years when all didn’t go as planned or hoped” Ron shared.
Ron said that the idea of praying for our ill team member, and to remove their stresses, was an impactful event on this year’s second team.
“When I talk with prospective mission team members, I stress how these trips effect me … how they have impacted me in so many ways. In my spiritual life, and so many other areas. I’d definitely encourage others to come and join the teams” Ron urged. “People feel that the don’t deserve to come because they have so much. I look at it that people who do have a lot allows them to come, it allows them to share” he closed with.
Ron is affectionately called "the Admiral" by his teams. For he runs a tight ship. But the interesting thing is ... he runs efficient teams without them often knowing it. Ron has a gentle, kind, thoughtful nature. He is quiet, in the strongest ways. He'll ponder things prior to doing them, and sometimes has regrets if he ever feels he has made a mistake.
Ron is loved by his teams. They know how he gives to the project and the children of the orphanage. Never has he team heard him raise his voice, and perhaps only twice with the five teams with whom he has worked, has he ever become close to showing that he is upset.
He has rolled with the flow of Nic, adjusting to the downfalls and difficulties, and making things work in the process.
The blessing is that Ron's wife Donna, who leads Wesley's Medical Mission Teams, has the same dove-like, kind, gentle loving spirit that her husband Ron possesses. Both teams have been blessed by the couples' organizational skills, leadership gifts, sense of humor, humbleness, outstanding people skills, talents in multiple areas (such as Ron's countless construction knowledge and skills), and pure Christian love.
When Ron and his wife, Donna began leading trips to Nicaragua and Hawaii, the church and all those on the trips knew that in the two of them they had something special. For the two of them are like a gently loving Priscilla and Aquila of the New Testament whom the apostle Paul often spoke.
In Acts 18: 2 - 3, it states that Paul met Priscilla and Aquilla, because the Roman emperor Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. And because Paul was a tent maker, as they were, Paul stayed and worked with them. In the same way, Wesley UMC met Ron and Donna when they left Alaska and moved to Bloomington. And because Ron and Donna were both interested in missions and serving others, as Wesley Church was, they all stayed together and worked side by side.
Wesley United Methodist Church, the multiple teams which Ron and Donna have led, all of those who have served on the various construction and medical teams, and the missionaries - workers - and children of the orphanages and Nicaragua have been blessed by God through Ron and Donna.
And for that, we all give God thanks and praise!
Ron is affectionately called "the Admiral" by his teams. For he runs a tight ship. But the interesting thing is ... he runs efficient teams without them often knowing it. Ron has a gentle, kind, thoughtful nature. He is quiet, in the strongest ways. He'll ponder things prior to doing them, and sometimes has regrets if he ever feels he has made a mistake.
Ron is loved by his teams. They know how he gives to the project and the children of the orphanage. Never has he team heard him raise his voice, and perhaps only twice with the five teams with whom he has worked, has he ever become close to showing that he is upset.
He has rolled with the flow of Nic, adjusting to the downfalls and difficulties, and making things work in the process.
The blessing is that Ron's wife Donna, who leads Wesley's Medical Mission Teams, has the same dove-like, kind, gentle loving spirit that her husband Ron possesses. Both teams have been blessed by the couples' organizational skills, leadership gifts, sense of humor, humbleness, outstanding people skills, talents in multiple areas (such as Ron's countless construction knowledge and skills), and pure Christian love.
When Ron and his wife, Donna began leading trips to Nicaragua and Hawaii, the church and all those on the trips knew that in the two of them they had something special. For the two of them are like a gently loving Priscilla and Aquila of the New Testament whom the apostle Paul often spoke.
In Acts 18: 2 - 3, it states that Paul met Priscilla and Aquilla, because the Roman emperor Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. And because Paul was a tent maker, as they were, Paul stayed and worked with them. In the same way, Wesley UMC met Ron and Donna when they left Alaska and moved to Bloomington. And because Ron and Donna were both interested in missions and serving others, as Wesley Church was, they all stayed together and worked side by side.
Wesley United Methodist Church, the multiple teams which Ron and Donna have led, all of those who have served on the various construction and medical teams, and the missionaries - workers - and children of the orphanages and Nicaragua have been blessed by God through Ron and Donna.
And for that, we all give God thanks and praise!
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