Bio
Nydia began her theological training at the age of 15 when she was accepted in Instituto Bíblico ‘El Calvario’ in Mexico. Being encouraged by her mother to serve the Lord, even at an early age, she was looking forward to working in full time ministry. When she was 18 Nydia enrolled in Rio Grange Bible School and graduated with a BA in Christian Education.
With her husband Jim and three sons, Andy, Paul and Joseph they served on the staff of Rio Grande for 10 years and later became members of Wycliffe USA, which took them to an assignment in the Philippines and Indonesia. These cross cultural experiences enriched Nydia in her development and understanding of cultures, languages and networks in ministry.
When her children had become older, Nydia became involved in a full time assignment as Personnel Director for Wycliffe Global Alliance and helped develop a new model of sending Latin Americans to fields where no other Latin Americans had served before. These experiences in facilitating the sending process allowed her to see the challenges they faced in raising support. Eventually Nydia became the Associate Area director and in this role was involved in leading a new Organizational Development initiative that worked closely with Latin American sending structures and learned about the challenges they face in developing sustainable ways to meet their financial needs. During this time Nydia was in the middle of her MA studies and when it came time to decide on her thesis topic she decided to do a research to understand the elements that were contributing to challenges in raising funds for organizations. The title of her thesis was: WHAT CHALLENGES DO LATIN MISSION LEADERS FACE WHEN RAISING FUNDS LOCALLY AND WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO DEVELOP RESOURCE MOBILIZATION CAPACITY? This research was done in collaboration with COMIBAM and the first of it’s kind in the Missions Movement of Latin America. The proposed suggestions from the research are still being developed and addressed in various ways
Since then Nydia has been involved in various groups and networks to work towards establishing a stronger foundation that is contextualized to Latin American realities and culture so that ministries and missionaries have stronger financial support from local contexts.
Nydia and her husband Jim are in the process of moving to Mexico City in early 2017. Nydia is originally from Monterrey, Mexico.
Posts by Nydia Garcia-Schmidt:
God – He Invites Generous Giving
Posted on: 20 May 2021
‘And the Lord spoke to Moses’ is how the invitation to bring voluntary offerings is documented in the first story of Generosity in the Old Testament. We note this because it is important to remember that God takes the lead to invite generous offerings. It is not Moses or the leaders of Israel that come up with the idea to ask for free will offerings. The story of generosity in Exodus is the first story in the Bible that documents generous giving. It is a story that provides richness in biblical principles that can be learned for ministries and churches […]
Encouraging Global Generosity. A Perspective from Latin America
Posted on: 19 Dec 2018
This is a topic I have been thinking a lot about in recent years, which is why my MA thesis was focused on this topic. I see now the title of the thesis and think it is too long, but here it is: “WHAT CHALLENGES DO LATIN MISSION LEADERS FACE WHEN RAISING FUNDS LOCALLY AND WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO DEVELOP RESOURCE MOBILIZATION CAPACITY?” in other words, how can we help develop more capacity or strength in expressions of local generosity. I presented some reflections The Church from all the continents must actively participate in the blessing of giving […]