This much, O God, I want You ...

As the year 2011 comes to an end I am not reflecting on the year behind me, nor am I looking ahead to the new year to come.  Instead I am trying my hardest to focus on today, to do well what the Lord has asked me to do today.

My tendency would be to look back at the year that was and to tally all my failures and shortcomings and conclude that 2011 wasn't that great.  Or, I could reject my negative tendencies and could note all the great achievements of 2011 and conclude it was a really good year for me and my family.  Of course, when I had finished beating myself up/patting myself on the back for the past year I could begin dreaming about 2012.  Today, I will focus on today.  I love Paul when he writes "I want to know Christ - yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death ... Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me... But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

The greatest desire of Jesus for me today, is that I would be with Him.  I feel Him wooing me so strongly into deeper love and fellowship with Him.  My desire, like Paul's, is to know the power of the resurrection and participate with Christ, becoming like Him.  For all of you who know me well, you won't be surprised to know that I haven't attained to that yet, far from it.  But, that will not deter me from straining forward, pressing on toward the goal.  The goal of knowing Him, being known, and becoming like Him.  These 3 things will not just happen over time.  The only way is by being deliberate and intentional.  I'm not going to get better at soccer by wishing I was better at soccer and by hoping I get better.  The only way is to practise, to train, to engage.  That is where I am today, and tomorrow, and every day after.

Instead of making a new years resolution this year, make a decision to be resolute.   Resolute that you will grow in holiness.  Resolute in dying to yourself.  Resolute to cultivate (insert here everything you wished you had in Christ but have been to lazy/busy/lazy/apathetic/lazy to work toward).  I've been reading Piper's book "Hunger for God" lately, in it he writes "The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison, but apple pie.  It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world".  The issue :  Anything and Everything that is, or can be, a substitute for God.  Piper goes on to say "God wills to know the actual, lived-out reality of our preference for Him over all things. And He wills that we have the testimony of our own authenticity through acts of actual preference of God over His gifts".  If your looking to make a new years resolution you can be proud to be resolute about, I would urge you to join me in taking Piper's advice and get Hungry..  Really, really hungry... for God.

Thanks for Journeying with us,
The Schafers

Jesus gets me in a headlock ..

One of the hugest blessings of being sent to Gainesville is that St. Andrews doesn't just do healing a little bit, they do it BIG.  There are so many wonderful people at St. Andrews who do healing prayer, and we have been able to avail ourselves of a little of the healing anointing that permeates everything that is done here.  The thursday night soaking and healing prayer nights have been a really awesome time to focus in on the Lord and to focus in on inner healing.

Shayne and I have been getting so much healing lately.  Our sessions with Ken have been very humbling and liberating times, learning to re-program and to keep ourselves free of the debilitating influence of demonic oppression.  One of the biggest keys I feel I've received from Ken is a powerful statement he makes about our inability to make ourselves better and our utter need and dependance on God to free us from the hurt and wounds that put the strangle on us.  For anyone who has ever had the pleasure being in a session with Ken I'm sure this phrase won't be new to you.  But the first time I heard the words come out of His mouth I was floored.  He leaned back, looked at me and said, "When you work, Jesus rests; When you rest, Jesus works".  WOW, I knew in that moment that I had been trying to ride the highway to healing all by myself.

I had been praying and praying all alone, striving and working to change myself and my behaviour.  I was desperately trying to achieve inner healing without the help, support, guidance, and anointing of others, let alone letting God into it.  Since that time I have been mindful of the Holy Spirit leading and guiding me in  my healing journey.  When I stopped fighting and allowed myself to rest, Jesus went to work and He has been mopping the floor with me, spiritually speaking, ever since.

Thanks for Journeying with us,
The Schafer's

The Enjoyments of Technology

Last night after Shayne and I finished watching the ROL Podcast we received "The Message"from Dave and Missy Stroeve...   "Hey, you guys wanna FaceTime!"  Who doesn't want to FaceTime with some of the most awesome people at ROL, not to mention close friends, when we've have been away from home for 2 months and are fast approaching the Christmas season all alone in a strange place.  Needless to say FaceTime, phone calls, emails and texts are our lifeline.    Technology has been a real blessing for us as we journey.  Some of you will know what I'm talking about.  The feeling after we watched Ryan, Jep, and Lawrence's Ordination on the Podcast was very special.  As I sat there with tears in my eyes, I couldn't help wishing we had been there.  It is so nice to get a message or call from home.  Last night after FaceTiming was very emotional.  Seeing our friends children growing up so fast, hearing all the awesome things going on in their lives and knowing we were missing it all.  Then times that by 20 as the reality sets in that were not only missing everything in their lives but in all of our friends and family's lives back home.

Last night as I lie in bed I cried and prayed.  My prayer has always been and always will be "Your will be done".  Anything that the Lord would do in my heart breaking me of my selfishness and my flesh is welcome, although the pain not so much.  Of course, I realize that everything we are experiencing on this trip is for our good and His glory and we yield to it willingly.  The Lord has given us so many great people around us on our travels, and I don't want to demean that.  We are really, really blessed but sometimes if we don't guard our hearts we can yield to the loneliness.  We are human after all.

Now more than ever we are aware of the value of community.  If you are not in some type of community group or bible study regularly, doing life with others, you are robbing yourself of one of the richest blessings the Lord offers us in His body the church.  Also, on behalf of all in the Lords service who will be spending the holidays away from friends and family, I would strongly urge you to write a letter, make a phone call or send a message to a Missionary or Kingdom worker encouraging and blessing them.  At a time of year that can be so lonely, the Father's heart is longing for all His children.  Longing to draw them in close and love them, and you may be the hands and feet of the Father for some person in your life.

In the next few days we are gonna get some video of us and the kids for ya'll back home, Christmas greetings and what not.  Stay posted.  Sorry for the sporadic-ness of the blog updates, I'm going to try to be more diligent.

Thanks for Journeying with us,
The Schafers

Come One, Come All ...

Friends, Family, Animals of all ages, The Schafer Family Circus is HERE !!!

Well, not really, but that’s how it feels sometimes.  When I sit back and watch the 5 kids playing with Ava (mommy) and the 3 puppies, Shayne doing her fire twirling routine at the Stove, and all of us trapped inside a 144 sq. ft. cage, I begin to wonder if its closer to the truth than I know.  Remember visiting the zoo as a kid?  Passing the exhibits admiring the animals behind the bars, did you ever feel a twinge of sadness that the wild animals would spend the rest of their lives trapped in their cages of steel never able to run free again.  As they peered out at you between the bars, their sad faces expressionless, lacking the passion you’d expect to see in a wild creatures eyes, did you ever have pity on them wishing you could set them free.  

At this point I’m tempted to say that sometimes I feel like we are the animals trapped inside our Motor-home cage.  Bound to a fate of endless wanderings, wishing for someone to set us free from our cage and release us to go back to the world we’re used to.  But I wonder if it would be closer to the truth to say that we are free, and that maybe it’s actually you who is trapped inside your cage.  Maybe you’ve been in your cage so long that you don’t recognize the bars any longer.  Everyday, waking up to an existence of bland mediocrity.  Trapped by the constraints of a world that sucks the life out of you and gives you no thanks, bound by the expectations of others.

It’s a bleak picture to paint, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

I am not in a cage, although sometimes the demonic forces of this world would do their best to deceive me into thinking myself so.  I am free.  Free to be who God has called me to be, and free to pursue Him to ends of the world and back.  

And you are not in a cage either, although sometimes it may appear to be so.  There is nothing in this world that can contain you, nothing that can hold you back and suck the life out of you.  There are no bars that can contain you against your will.  

Sometimes I lose hope.  I confess my imperfection, and my sinful lack of faith.  But thanks be to my loving heavenly father who picks me up, dusts me off, and sets my feet once again on the solid rock of freedom.  When I become blinded, He removes the scales off my eyes to see that there are no bars, just truths distorted into lies.  Being a child of God and a follower of Christ sets us free both to live and to die.  We constantly die so that we can live, but sometimes I focus too much on the dying and not enough on the living that death leads us to.  

Thanks for Journeying with us

The Schafer Family 

Don't spill the Curry!

It was a beautiful sunny day in Gainesville.  We were moving the MH from the house we had been staying at, back to the parking lot at the church.  Shayne was in the van just a little ahead of me and I was in the MH following her.  Before we left the house we had been staying at, Shayne had made a big beautiful pot of curry and we had put it on the bed in the MH so it wouldn’t slide around when we were driving.  I was driving as gingerly as I could when IT happened.  The light went yellow.  At first I thought I was close enough that I could run the yellow, then I realized there was a police car waiting to turn.  I knew if I ran the yellow I would probably be pulled over, I also knew if I slammed on my brakes to stop I would spill the curry all over our bed.  I did the only thing I could think of to do.  I hit my brakes hard.  Not hard enough to spill the curry, but also not hard enough to stop completely on time.  I managed to stop without spilling the curry, but I was about 5 feet past the cross-walk in the intersection.  I looked over to the police car and my heart sank.  His lights were on and he was motioning me to pull over.  So I did.  

As he approached the drivers side window of the MH I could see in the rearview that his hand was on his gun and he looked very serious.  Wow, I thought, here comes a big ticket for sure.  He directed me to step out of the MH and proceeded to explain the hazards of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and drugs.  I wholeheartedly agreed with him, and told him so, but he wasn’t so sure that I wasn’t “under the influence”.  He threatened to call the Dog Squad to sniff out Me and the MH so I assured him that was fine with me and that he wouldn’t find anything except a big pot of curry on the bed.  I explained my dilemma of not wanting to brake too fast because of the risk of spilling my wife’s curry, and he explained the dangers of running yellow lights and stopping too slowly.  

The real fun began when they tried to run my license.  As instructed I removed my license from my wallet and passed it to another officer.  By now there were 3 police cars on the scene all with lights flashing.  The officer with my license looked it over, called in my information then turned to me and remarked, “Alberta, where’s that?  Is this a fake license”.  Then he preceded to try to stare me down.  I told him “Alberta is a province in Canada”, “Canada, is that that big country up north” he said. “Yes” I told him and then he received a message from dispatch concerning my license #.  Dispatch wasn’t able to find my license # in their data-base.  He told them it was Canadian, and they said it was going to take them a little while to get that information.  Oh man, this is going to take forever I thought to myself.  Then the first officer came back after inspecting the outside of the MH and the trailer, and overhearing I was from Canada asked me if I was an Oilers fan. No, thank-goodness I’m not an Oilers fan I said, then he began asking me questions about my family, our trip, where we were going, where we’d been and then he said it.  “Wow, 5 kids.  Your a busy guy.  There really must not be anything to do on all those cold winter nights in Canada”.  I know, original right.  

I explained that we were visiting our friends in Gainesville and that my friend was the Bishop of the local Anglican Church.  By that time I think he’d decided that I wasn’t a public menace and motioned to the officer with my license to just forget about running my license # and to let me go.  So I hopped in the MH and drove away.  No tickets, just a warning.  It’s nice to be able to be pulled over and not be afraid.  I remember in the days of my youth I made some decisions I’m not very proud of.  Every time I’d get pulled over by the police there would be fear.  Fear that they would catch us in illegal activities and the like.  I praise God for his saving grace and for the process of sanctification I’ve been on for the last 12 years and that now when the Police think I look suspicious and pull me over I don’t have to worry because I’m not doing anything wrong and have nothing to hide.

Thanks for Journeying with us.

The Schafer’s

I know salt water is salty, but I didn't remember it being that salty...

Today in Gainesville it’s 23 Degrees with 75% humidity.  75% humidity = sweaty.  In the last week we’ve had humidity up to 90%.  Some of you back in cold Canada are thinking how great that wold be right about now.  All I have to say is the warmth is nice, but the humidity is killer.  We were really blessed last week, a fantastic young couple invited us to stay at their house for 4 days while they went away for thanksgiving.  They called it “house-sitting”, we called it a huge blessing.  Being able to do laundry and have regular showers for a few days was really nice.  It made our thanksgiving.  

We missed Canadian Thanksgiving this year since we were in Kansas City at the time so American Thanksgiving was really big for us.  Since Shayne had a real kitchen to work in we had Cabbage Rolls, Home-made Pie, Curry and other dishes that are difficult to do in the MH.  It was so much fun.  I’m sure you can imagine how nice it was to actually have walls separating us from the kids at night.  We made the 1.5 hour drive to the Atlantic ocean last Tuesday for ZZ's birthday.  We had a ton of fun.  ZZ ate his cake on the beach, the kids collected shells and splashed in the waves, and Shayne and I frolicked in the deeper waves.  It was a really warm day but overcast so we didn't end up sunburned or over heated.

So far everyone we’ve met at St. Andrews Church have been really friendly and welcoming.  We were invited over for lunch last week by a family with a swimming pool.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the kids had a blast swimming and splashing.  I don’t know what I was expecting St. Andrews to be like.  I grew up Catholic and Lutheran so I think I expected it to be dull and boring like the traditional church’s I grew up in.  I was so wrong.  The presence of the Spirit was so strong yesterday and Ron’s message so powerful.  It is so cool to see the marriage of Liturgy and Tradition with the honest powerful preaching of Gods word and the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit.  St. Andrews church in Gainesville has been a special treat for us that we weren’t expecting.   I have been particularly blessed by the honor they give to Advent, Lent and the Christmas season.  As I begin to understand some of the traditional symbolism and church history, the Liturgical practices take on new meaning and seem to become powerful expressions of faith that I never understood before.  

The kids have been having a blast chasing lizards, of which there are tons everywhere here, and even caught one the other day.  After being held for about half an hour Isaac put him down and he jumped back on his hand.  When he put him down a second time he ran up Isaacs leg to his hand.  We haven’t seen any Alligators yet but we’ve been assured that we will soon and that they are everywhere here.  The great thing about alligators is that they take care of all the stray cats and dogs.  

As Christmas approaches we begin to feel a loneliness setting in.  A loneliness that is not overwhelming but is more the starkness of a reality of spending Christmas away from family and our special friends and church family.  We trust that the Lord will continue to be with us and bless us, and that He will provide everything we need for this time of year.  We are thankful to be in such a great place with such great people, and we are excited to see the Lord moving powerfully in the church here.

Thanks for Journeying with us.

The Schafer’s


Check the Vid of us at the beach for ZZ's Birthday

Where we are and What were Doin'

Greetings to all of our cherished family and friends back home and those that we’ve met along the way.  

In this Blog post I will attempt to update ya’ll as to where were at, what were doin’, and where were goin’.  Time seems to be passing a little slower these days as we head south from Kansas City, some days I wonder if tomorrow will ever come.  We left KC last thursday and travelled to St. Louis where we stayed the night, then in the morning we hit the highway and cruised down to Nashville.  That night in Nashville we met some “interesting” young people.  We pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot and parked near some other RV’ers, a semi, and a long camo-painted bus.  The camo-painted bus immediately caught my attention, “Wow” I thought “I wonder who’s driving that”.  We soon found out.  We took the puppies out on the grass for some play time and pretty soon we had a crowd gathered (the puppies always draw a crowd).  The folks from the camo bus came to see the pups and we learned they had just come from Gainesville FL.  They had been at a big halloween music festival and now were just traveling around having “fun”, living in the bus.  They were a pretty neat looking bunch, army fatigues, dreadlocks, big piercings, tattoos, rips and tears in their clothes, dirty.  One of the guys told me his dogs name was Jager, fancy that we both had dogs named Jager.  They were modern day hippies, or maybe gypsies, or a cross of them both, and they were very friendly and we of course had no problems from them.  On saturday morning we left Nashville and set our sights on Atlanta.  As we were driving we kept seeing huge signs telling us to make sure and stop and check out this place the signs called “Ruby Falls” so when we got to the turn off we did.  We took the exit and proceeded to head for Ruby Falls.  Half-way up Look-out mountain we found Ruby Falls, a small building on the side of the mountain with a look-out on the roof.  Where’s the falls?  We parked and went in side.  We soon found out that Ruby Falls was one of the largest underground waterfalls in the world, and that to see it we would have to ride a elevator straight down through solid rock for 260 ft. and walk back through a maze of caves and caverns for about 30 minutes to see it.  Well, after giving up my left leg and most of the kids college savings to cover the admission we were on our way down, down in to the darkness.  Well, not really, it was decently lit so you could clearly see where we were going and enjoy all the awesome rock and crystal formations.  It was really pretty cool, and the falls themselves were awesome.  After that we headed for Atlanta again.  

By the time we got there it was almost dark so we found the nearest Wal-Mart on the GPS and headed there. Surprise, surprise, Wal-Marts in Atlanta don't allow RV'ers to park overnight, and neither do Costco's, or K-Marts.  Heck you can't park anywhere without being towed, we know, we drove to half a dozen different places and got the same message at every one.  We googled truck stops, we weren't near any of those, no campgrounds in the middle of Atlanta, so we decided to start looking just outside of Atlanta.  We finally just decided to park at a wally-mart in a suburb called Riverdale and pray that they wouldn't tow us.  We didn't get towed but we did experience some subtle discrimination when we went in to grab some groceries.  What we discovered was that Riverdale was a mostly Afro-American low income neighbourhood and apparently not many, how do you say, uh, "Caucasian" people shopped there.  The looks we got told us we weren't really welcome, and that we were kind of an oddity.  Oh well, we get that a lot these days.  We shipped out of Riverdale first thing in the morning not sure where we were going but knowing we had to go somewhere.  You see, the Puppies are 8 weeks old this week.  And Atlanta was the only city near our path that had an airport large enough to ship puppies from the US to Canada in the winte,r because the plane has to have a heated Cargo Hold and only the really big, nice planes have those.  So "chuck" fly's out on friday from Atlanta to his new home in Saskatoon with some really great friends of ours the Locke's.  That's why were in Atlanta this week.  We are waiting to fly chuck.  

We did eventually find a place to park in a small city just outside Atlanta called Peachtree City.  Peachtree City is super-rich, super fancy, and super yuppie community designed in such a way that the whole city is Golf-Cart accessible.  Special overpasses for golf-carts to pass underneath, special golf-cart lanes, golf-cart parking stalls, golf-cart trails, everything.  Yesterday we saw the Police out patrolling in their golf-carts, and a family with their kid in a car seat at the local McDonalds.  The cops actually had a golf-cart pulled over and were writing the guy some kind of ticket.  Blows my mind.  

We've been having a lot of fun here.   People look at us funny, I think they can tell were not rich, but were used to people looking at us funny.  We've been facing a lot more challenges lately too.  The kind that stretch your faith and make you really hope the Father's listening.  Finding places to shower, places to dump the MH and to fill up water.  But our God is faithful.  Thats why were here, and thats why were doing what were doing.  Our God is a God who can be trusted and relied upon 110% and is faithful to look after His children when we walk in obedience to Him.  I hope that through our choice to do this trip and to endure the hardships in store for us the world will see that our God is real and that He is mighty to save.  

Please continue to pray for us that God would provide all our needs along the way, and that He would arrange divine appointments for us.  Thank you to all of you for following along with us.  Not a day goes by that we don't think of home.  It was sad to miss the ordination last sunday but we are rejoicing along with you all.

Thanks for Journeying with us.

The Schafer

Not once, not twice, but thrice ..

Hello friends and cherished brothers and sisters.  It is with joy that I write these short updates knowing that through them the Lord is knitting our hearts together in Love.  We know that many of you are praying regularly for us, and I want you to be encouraged that your prayers are being heard in the throne room of God and that He is answering them speedily and mightily for which we are ever thankful and grateful to Him and to you.  I wrote the other day about the sweet lady who brought us juice boxes and 15$.  I’d like to finish that story today and share how later that same day the Lord broke our hearts not once but twice with His love and mercy.  

After being visited and blessed with juice boxes and 15$ we decided to take the kids out to play and to splurge on them.  It was raining very heavily that afternoon so we hit up the McDonalds down the street to let the kids stretch their legs and get out some energy at the play-center.  What we didn’t know was that we were walking into a divine appointment.  We hadn’t been there long when in walked a young couple with two kids.  They took one look at us and said “Are you the family traveling around in the MotorHome”.  “Yes” I replied, and to my utter joy and amazement they said “So are We!”  Wow, now that is wild.  

We soon learned their names were Chad and Tamara, that they had 3 children, and that some time back the Lord had begun to convict their hearts about being radical for Him.  They had followed his leading and put their house up for sale, which sold in a day.  They had sold their business and most of their stuff, and were now following the Lord on their own Journey of Faith wherever He might lead them, and they too were in Kansas City visiting IHOP and had heard of us from someone who we had met briefly a week earlier.  We shared our story, they shared theirs and It blew my mind.  

After a while we learned that they were parked at a friends place and they invited us to come over to shower and hang out for the rest of the evening.  They told us that they would introduce us to another couple, Matt and Carol, who were staying with them, who had also just sold everything days before to pursue the call of God to start a House of Prayer at Keystone near Mount Rushmore.  We were so stoked.  As we sat around the table, sharing our lives and experiences, eating chocolate, and encouraging each other, I couldn’t help but wonder... What is the Lord doing on the earth right now.  They even knew of others who, right now, were in the process of giving up everything and turning their lives upside down to follow the call of the Lord on their lives.  As the night got late, and as the conversation around the table got deeper and deeper, Matt said something that I haven’t been able to get out of my head since.  He described a vision or dream that he had had where the Lord showed him what he described as “A whole movement of nomadic, prophetic, apostolic, love sick followers of Jesus who would radically give up everything that this world holds dear to relentlessly pursue the glory of the Lord”.  This has been burning in my heart and burning in my soul ever since that moment.  I cant shake it.  Something in my spirit resonates with his words and I somehow know that the Lord was speaking to us through Him.  

I must also quickly mention that we met a very dear lady named Charlotte that night at Chad and Tamara’s who I will introduce you to in a later post because I must get on with the story of that day.  

After bidding farewell to our new friends we returned home to find another surprise.  As we pulled up to the MH we could see, through the heavy rain, bags and bags of stuff piled up outside the door waiting for us.  Someone had anonymously left bags and bags of groceries for us.  But not just groceries.  They had left jugs of water, blankets, batteries, candy, coloring books, crayons, and toys for the kids.  Praise the Lord.  In the bag of toys we discovered the gift that would bring us to our knees in praise of our Lord.  Our anonymous donor had bought children’s flashlights, you know the kind they sell on halloween for kids to help light their way along the streets, and they had bought 5 of them.  Our kids were ecstatic.  They love flashlights and have begged many many times for us to buy them their own flashlights, and now the Lord had given them flashlights and the exact amount we needed for our 5 children.  

We are so humbled and blessed by the love and ongoing supernatural provision of our Lord and Savior that it brings me to tears.  I have said right from the beginning that our God is a God who is Faithful.  Not is only is He able, but it is His joy to meet all the needs of His children who walk in humble obedience to Him.  Whatever being a radical follower of Jesus looks like for you, Do it.  Don’t delay and don’t hold back, the time is short.  At the very least, pray fervently for and support those in your circle who are following the call of the Lord on their lives and are seeking to advance His purposes on the earth.  Join with us and together lets prove to this unbelieving world that Our God is Mighty to Save.

Thanks for Journeying with us,

The Schafer’s

Ministry on the road

      Shayne here, normally it is Markus that does the blog posts, but today I feel compelled.  I have to admit that the last month has not been at all what I expected.  I’m not sure what I should have expected in the first place, we are on a journey of faith.  So far I have selfishly focused on myself, my wants, my needs, what I want to do and so on.  I have had some amazing times in the prayer room, meeting with my Lord, and savior.  But thats the problem, it has all been about me.  When am I going to start focusing on what God is doing and how I can participate. 

On one of our regular outings to the local wal-mart, just needing to grab a couple of things, expecting that we were going to go in and out without a second thought. Easy right! Go in, get what you need, and leave.  All was going well, we found what we needed, did a bit of browsing, and headed to the checkout.  We were almost out the door, another successful trip with no complications, just one person left and then our turn. As we got to the front the cashier held her stomach and moaned.  I ask “are you okay?”, she returns with “I’m ok, my stomach just hurts, but I only have to work until ten.”  Until ten, I think to myself, thats still 2 hours away.  And then it started, you know that feeling you get when you know that you are supposed to do something, the butterflies that just wont go away unless you heed what it is you know the Lord is saying.  So now here I am standing there, one item scanned and now a second, and a third, time is running out and the butterflies begin to intensify.  Do I obey and pray for her or do I leave and pretend that it never happened?  It’s not like I have much to offer, or do I?  Is Jesus sufficient?  Will He be with me, will he answer my prayer?  All this is running through my mind in the few moments that we are standing there.  And then, the last item was scanned, this is it, if I don’t do it now, I wont at all.  A scream comes from within and I manage to utter the words,  “I am a christian, and I believe that Jesus heals, can I pray for you”.  To my delight and terror, because there in another person behind me waiting to be rung through, she says yes, so I hold out my hands, she also reaches out and I say a short prayer, “Jesus you are a God that heals, so Holy Spirit I pray that you would come and touch her tummy and that the pain would go away, in Jesus Name, Amen.”  Immediately after I finish, through a little giggle she says, “wow I feel better already.”  I smile and then turn to walk away.  Inside I feel a mass of emotion, ranging from excitement because God had really touched her, to complete horror at what I had just done knowing that the people behind had watched the whole thing and that I was completely vulnerable. But I did it, I was obedient and I knew that God was pleased.  And it shouldn’t matter what others think anyway.

Today in the prayer room I felt God speak to my heart, why are you doing this trip, is it to do my will, what I have purposed, or just for you to do your own thing.  Ouch, that hit me hard, because up to this point, as I mentioned earlier, it has been all about me.  I had to make a choice, was I going to heed His quiet leadings or was I going to continue on with my own agenda.  A relatively easy choice, I have to admit, I would choose to be open to what He would want to use me for. So I declared to Him, “Lord I will be obedient!”  I thought it was an easy choice, cause what would he ask me to do anyway. But would it really be that easy?  It is one thing to say that you will, it is another thing when you are faced with a situation that requires you to come out of your comfort zone and actually step out.  And besides how often would I have to “respond”.  And then it happened again, that famous feeling, butterflies!  Not more than an hour after returning home from the prayer room, after making that bold statement, we decided to take the kids to McDonalds play center (it has been a rainy day here, and too cold to play outside). There was a woman sitting not far off with her son, a sweet little boy about Ezekiel’s age, and God said, “she needs to be encouraged”.  “What” I reply, “right now, but we are just hanging out with the kids, and I am not prepared, I haven’t planned to speak to anyone, are you sure?” And He simply says “yes, right now.”  So now, knowing that God wants to use me, I take a moment to ask Him a few questions about her, where she is at in her life and what he wants to say?  He leads me in what I am to say, but now what.  Do I just walk up to her and tell her, do I strike up a conversation and then just slide it in with out actually coming right out and saying “God wants you to know.”  And now I start to feel an urgency, for all I know she could leave at any moment.  I better act fast, or at least try, all the while feeling just as nervous and anxious as the last time.  So I go and begin to play with the kids, hoping that through some working of the Lord that he would work out a way for me to talk to her.  Praise the Lord that He is always faithful.  The time is right, so I go for it, I dive right in with, “Hi, I’m Shayne, I’m a Christian, and I believe that Jesus speaks today and I believe that he wants you to know that he sees you and all your hard work and that you are a good mom”, and so on. She smiles, lets out a little sigh, and says “thanks”, I could tell that those few words were just what she needed to hear. Praise the Lord that he knows so much better than I. Something so small can have a huge impact.  

I am so humbled and blessed to be a servant and daughter of the most high. He knows so much better than I and I am excited to see what else he will ask me to do, even if it involves all the crazy emotions that always seem to come with it.  Here’s to being obedient and heeding those gentle nudges.  I only pray that I will bring honor to my God and King, whom I love dearly.  

Thanks for Journeying with us,

The Schafers

The Surprise ..

Have you ever been surprised by how long it is sometimes possible to go without having any spiritual thoughts at all.  Have you ever had one of those days when you wake up with a list of things to do a mile long and your minds going a mile a minute with all the duties of the day right out of the gate.  Have you ever gone all day, or maybe all morning without thinking of anything spiritual, without thinking about God, without praying?  For most of us, I imagine, our relationship with God is pretty forefront in our minds most of the time.  Many of us even waking early with the express purpose of seeking Him.  But sometimes, (I hope I’m not the only one) sometimes I catch myself part way through my day remembering “hey, I’m not the only one who exists in my small universe, hello God, uh sorry for not thinking of you sooner”. Or maybe I put in my morning Devo time and totally forget I’m a follower of Jesus until part way through the afternoon or maybe until grace at lunch time, “uh, hi God, how are ya.  I forgot you were standing there”.  Sometimes on those days I’m surprised at my apparent lack of spirituality,

But today, God surprised me.

Me and Isaac spent a couple of hours at the prayer room this morning and it was a really rich time of fellowship and intimacy with the Lord, then we went back to the MH and Shayne and Carsyn took off to the prayer room.  In the hours that followed I home schooled with the kids, took the puppies out to potty, studied my new book “Humility” by Andrew Murray, and made lunch.  But, right before I was about to make lunch we heard...

A knock at the MH door.

Gods surprise had arrived.  I opened the door to find a middle-aged women standing there with a case of juice boxes.  “Do you guys need some juice boxes” she asked me.  I was just beginning to wonder if juice boxes were a need when Judah yelled “Ya we do”.  So the lady handed me over the juice boxes, and then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of what I instantly knew was money. (pause)

You know that moment, when you realize someone is going to give you some money.  You see the bills but you can’t tell how much.  Your heart jumps, your mind races. ‘Maybe its enough to do a tune-up on the van, maybe its enough for that new baseball cap I saw at the mall last week, maybe its enough to fly the puppies we’ve sold back to Canada, maybe its enough to take an all expenses paid vacation to Disneyland, and maybe they’ll be enough for a coffee and some cigars left over afterwards’  (un-pause)

The lady handed me 15$.  (pause)

‘15 bucks, thats it.  I mean, 15 bucks thats awesome, thanks God.  I repent of my un-thank-fullness of heart.  15$ is great.  Um, and I also repent of all that materialistic coveting I was doing a minute ago.  You know of course if it was a large sum of money, I would of spent it all advancing your kingdom and blessing others and not on myself.  I repent for that moment of ungratefulness, please don’t hit me with lightning’ (un-pause)

“Thank-You so much” I said “your being here today and giving us these gifts is an answer to our prayers.  This is such a blessing for us today.  We are on a 1 year journey of faith and we are traveling all around North America trusting God to look after us, so, thank you so much”.  She smiled kindly at me, and turning to leave said “I’m glad I could bless you, I wish I could do more but...” and her words hung in the air for a moment before I responded “This is amazing.  Thank you so much.  You are an answer to our prayers today”.  She smiled as she walked to her vehicle and drove away.

Jesus, Thank You for providing for us today.  Thank You for proving over and over that you are a God that is Faithful and can be trusted.  Thank You for the privilege of being able to be a part of something so wonderful as this Journey of Faith.  

You would think that trusting God for everything, everyday, would be something that would be front and foremost in our minds all the time.  And I confess that sometimes it is, but today it wasn’t.  Today God said “Surprise”, and we were able to humbly bow our lives before Him, thankful to serve such an amazing Saviour.

Thanks for Journeying with us,

The Schafers

Begging to Pray ...

Different ministries have different anointing's.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and its the same for every church and ministry.  The International House of Prayer in Kansas City seems to have a real grace for fasting and prayer.  We knew we were coming to KC for a specific purpose, and we suspected that purpose was to learn more about prayer and experience how 24/7 worship and prayer works.  What we didn't realize was that God was going to open our hearts to see just how dull and sickly our own prayer lives were, and that He was going to draw us into a time of deeper prayer and worship than we've ever had before.  

Firstly, I'd like to extend my sincere apologies to the ROL House of Prayer and express my deep disappointment in not commiting to more prayer slots.  And secondly I'd like to urge you, all of you reading this, to commit yourselves to living a life richly saturated with prayer.  Our goal has been to spend a minimum of 2 hours a day in focused prayer in the prayer room and it is paying huge dividends.  I understand that not everyone has 2 hours a day to pray, and I also understand that a lot of people don't have much time to pray at all, this will be problematic in developing a healthy prayer life.  I can tell you from my own experience that after calling myself a Christian for the better part of 12 years, I have only just now realized the depth of depravity of my own prayer life and have committed myself to not standing idly by and watching the next 12 slip away without it.  At IHOP there are literally more than 1000 people who have committed themselves to spending at least 25 hours in the prayer room every single week.  Now, thats a dangerous force to be reckoned with.  

When I go there at 5:30 in the morning there are always 100's of people there.  There are 100's of people there all the time and the place is usually so busy at most times of day that it can be difficult getting a chair. It made me so deeply convicted the first time I went in there.  As the hours went by and I was getting bored and restless, it seemed the majority of the people there were just getting more and more fired up.  I couldn't believe it.  I mean you hear and read of such things and of such people that can really pray themselves into the throne room of God and never seem to tire of being in Gods presence, but I had never been one of them and I had never experienced anything like this in my life.  My heart was so stirred that I at once repented for the dismal state of my prayer life.  

If we are to be a glorious church at the return of Christ we must understand our need for prayer and we must learn to pursue God in a way we have yet not known.  I would venture to say that there's more truth in the old hymn than we know "and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of your glory and grace".  I feel I've just begun to understand the grace part of the song, and for that my heart leaps with love for my saviour, but what about the glory part?  I would guess that if you or I were to be, in a moment, swept up into the heavens and thrown before the throne of God, and if we were able to behold his glory, his love, and all the other things too wonderful to even imagine there, and if we were able to look upon the countless ranks of Angelic beings and behold the four living creatures crying out and worshipping the Lord day and night we might just begin to understand His glory.  If we were able to catch for a moment the true glory of our Lord maybe, just maybe, we would realize that He is worthy of so much more of our time and energies than we give Him.  Commit with me to stop making excuses why we can't, and to make whatever radical changes we need to to become a people who really pray.  

We had our 5 children in the prayer room for more than an hour today and it was awesome to watch them engaging with Jesus in prayer and worship.  They have been begging us to bring them along since we got here, and Carsyn went back with Shayne tonight for the 8:00 to 10:00 session.  We're praying that our kids would be 100 times more radical for Christ than we are.

Thanks for Journeying with us (and for letting me rant a little).

The Schafer's

The day the Power died ...

It was last week.  We had arrived in Kansas City on a beautiful Saturday Evening.  The whole house was aflutter with excitement that we had finally reached destination #2 on our Journey of Faith.  But that excitement was soon to be mixed with a feeling of uneasiness as we discovered finding a place to park the MH was going to be more challenging than we had hoped.  Of course we knew large parking lots like wal-mart and costco made great stopping places for a day or two, but they don't take kindly to RV's taking up shop for much longer than that.  We discovered that IHOP has a huge Overflow parking lot that is often little used and we obtained their permission to park there for the duration of our stay in KC.  Awesome.

Or so we thought.

The next day we had a visit from the guy who owns the lot, and who apparently leases it to IHOP, and he informed us that we couldn't park there and that we would be towed if we didn't move immediately.  "Can he do that?" I thought to myself.  I mean we had obtained permission from the lessee of the property, so I again contacted IHOP, explained the situation, and they assured me that I was perfectly safe parked where I was and that I didn't need to move.  But, I had a funny feeling it wasn't going to end there.  So, I temped fate and remained parked where we were in IHOP's leased lot.  Three days later I'm visited once again by the owner of the lot, except this time he brought re-inforcement to help persuade me that we should move on and he reiterated his threat to have me towed if we weren't gone by nightfall.  Great.

I knew we were going to have to move, but where?  The batteries were getting really low in the MH and we knew we had to plug in soon, but where, and how?  Our budget this month doesn't include any extra for campgrounds and no other doors had opened up for us so we moved to another large parking lot, bought some candles and lamp oil for our kerosene lamp and enjoyed a beautiful weekend Conference at IHOP.  Amazing worship, teaching and times of prayer and healing, but always in the back of our minds we had the nagging problem of knowing we were quickly running out of power in our MH batteries.  We continued to put it before the Lord, trusting Him and then on Saturday morning we received a call from You Know Who ...

Daniel and Marlies.

Turns out they have friends who live in KC, who just happen to be away from their home right now and that if we wanted to we could park the MH in their driveway and be plugged in all this next week.  Praise God.  He is so faithful to look after us.  We thank the Lord that He will never let us down.  Sunday morning when we woke up we discovered that we were completely out of power and that neither the water pump nor the fridge would come on.  Sunday afternoon we were able to move onto this beautiful driveway and it has been such a blessing to be here the last 2 days.

Please continue to pray for us for the Lords provision and that we wouldn't buckle under the testing of our faith.  Thanks for Journeying with us.
The Schafers

The Wonders of the C.E.C

Some of you may know, but most of you probably don’t know what C.E.C stands for.  Well in Kansas City, at the International House of Prayer, C.E.C stands for ‘Children’s Equipping Center’ and the name of their sunday school building is a perfect description of the mission that IHOP has for raising up kids in the Lord, and they do it well.   We arrived here in KC last Saturday night and attended the Sunday morning service at IHOP with anticipation.  What we didn’t expect was that while we were doing church in the sanctuary, our kids would be experiencing Christ in sunday school in ways that we had only ever dreamed and hoped for.  

Before I say anymore I want to commend and honor the saints of God who pour themselves out tirelessly and faithfully on the battleground that is Sunday School.  Those men and women who see Jesus in the faces of our children.  Those men and women who believe in the coming generation of believers, who believe that children are important and integral in the coming of the Kingdom of God, who believe that the Holy Spirit can and will touch, fill and move children in the church today in apostolic power and anointing.  Thank You to the Jep Banda’s, the Dave Stroeve’s, the many who serve tirelessly and thanklessly raising up our children to be who God has called them to be.  Thank You.  

This last Thursday night we dropped our kids off for what we presumed was going to be childcare for the ‘Prayer and Prophetic Conference’ we were attending at IHOP.  What we discovered later, however, was that we had dropped them off for a divine appointment with Jesus Christ.  We had a great time at the Thursday evening session.  Awesome worship, great teaching, but that was all eclipsed by what the Lord was doing in our kids in the C.E.C. right next door.  When I went to pick up our older 3 children I found them deep in prayer seeking Jesus and interceding for each other in groups.  As we walked to the van to go home our children could not contain the glorious wonders of the evening and all the excited testimony burst forth.  “God told me ‘that He would take my old heart away, and give me a new heart’ Isaac told us ‘and that I would be in His heart forever and ever”.  Our children had been experiencing the Love and Grace of God for themselves.  The next session when we picked up the kids it was the same thing.  Eiryn told us “I was praying for a girl, and as I was laying hands on her and praying for her I just started crying and I couldn’t stop”  The Holy Spirit had fallen on her as she was praying.  Isaac told us that as he was raising his hands and worshipping that he felt God touch him and that His power went into him.  And Carsyn told us she wasn’t afraid to raise her hands in worship anymore.  Incredible.  As the sessions have continued our kids have continued to grow in their experience of Jesus.  Not just learning about Him, but experiencing Him and learning to know Him.

Children are the future.  What kind of future church are we raising up?

Lets commit ourselves to raising up children who aren’t content with seeking God one hour a week, one day a week.  Lets commit ourselves to raising up kids who hear His voice, who walk in the place of intimacy with Him, who understand their authority in Him, and who will obey Him no matter what the cost.  Lets commit to giving our children a vision of God that is worthy of God.  The speaker tonight said something that blew my mind, he said “It would be absolutely impossible to ever exaggerate His infinite greatness and glory”.  Wow.  That is the vision of God I want to catch ahold of myself, and cast for the upcoming generation.

Shayne and I have a heart for children and youth, we have a deep desire to see kids raised up and released and we are so thankful that churches like ROL, IHOP and many more are pursuing this goal passionately.  I will leave you with a testimony we heard from Daniel Hooteigling the other day.  He told us about a 5 year old girl who was in the prayer room here at IHOP and she told Daniel “As I was praying, God gave me a prayer language”.  Don’t ever underestimate your child or Gods ability to use them, and serve your church’s sunday school program passionately believing God for greater things in these kids than you’ve ever seen before.

Thanks for Journeying with us

The Schafers

Going a Mile a Minute ..

Hello Ya’ll 

Well we left Lethbridge on Wednesday morning glad to be back on the road and yet a little nervous.  We knew we were heading for the border and the idea of getting turned back had us all a tad anxious.  When we pulled up to the border crossing we hoped that we wouldn’t get searched, we hoped that we wouldn’t have to explain why we had a litter of puppies on board, and most of all we hoped that the crossing guard wouldn’t ask us any questions that would raise any red flags.  Of course we don’t have anything to hide and we’re not doing anything illegal.  But a Motorhome with 2 dogs resembling pit-bulls (not to mention a litter of puppies) headed for no-where in particular with 5 children and no set date as to when we are going to be returning and with just enough money to get by isn’t necessarily your typical traveler.  But Jesus was beckoning to us from the other side and he gave us favor with the border crossing guard.  He didn’t ask us when we were coming back, nor did he inquire about the kids school (of course were road-schooling them), after boarding us he stooped to pet Ava and commented on a nice litter of pups she had.  That was it.  And with a wave we were there, finally.  Our long awaited Journey across the US was begun.  

Today, we visited Mt. Rushmore.  It is amazing what one person will do for the love of his country.  The world largest stone sculpture was sculpted by one guy and it took him 14 years.  That’s dedication.  One of the prominent things we’ve noticed as we have journeyed these last 3 days is the patriotic spirit here.  American flags fly high and proud everywhere.  Seeing the pride that Americans take in their country makes me prouder to be Canadian.  I am inspired by their patriotic Spirit.  And prouder still to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Let your banner be lifted high, and raise Jesus up as a saviour for all. 

1707 km’s in 3 days.  Not bad.  Today we trusted the GPS and learned a grave lesson.  DONT TRUST THE GPS.

Our GPS decided that the best route through South Dakota was to take us through Badlands National Park, a couple reserves, and a handful of gravel roads in 50 mph winds on crappy secondary highways with no shoulder.  Praise the Lord that we had a really awesome Truckers Atlas that helped us get back on the beaten path.

So far so good.  We are all having a blast and Jesus has been blessing us with favor everywhere we go.  Now I finally understand where the saying "Were going a mile a minute" came from.  If we're travelling 60 mph, were going "a mile a minute" Hahaha 

Thanks for Journeying with us.

The Schafer

Fun with the Stroeve's

Hello Friends and Family

As I said in my last brief post we have been home in Lethbridge for a quick "Hello" while Isaac's Leg heals.  And it is healing well.  This thursday we have our final Dr.'s appointment and if the X-ray looks good Isaac will get a small half cast that I can remove in 2 weeks and we can hit the road.  We are excited to embark on the second stage of our Journey of Faith, but we are not looking forward to saying good-bye again.  Good-bye's have been one of the most difficult challenges we've faced so far on our Journey.  Saying good-bye to home, then saying good-bye to La Loche and family, good-bye to new friends and old friends in Saskatoon, and now good-bye to friends and family in Lethbridge again.  But we know wonderful things are in store for us on our trip and we will not waver from the call we feel the Lord has placed in your hearts.

The last few weeks we've spent in Lethbridge have been an amazing time of fellowship, community, and spending time in the word and prayer.  Our hosts and close friends the Stroeve's have been unwavering in their commitment to our family as long as we've known them, and we have been blessed beyond belief to have this opportunity to stay with them and deepen our friendship in the last few weeks.  Not to say that there hasn't been challenges having 11 Kids and 4 Adults crammed into one house, but I feel like we have been tasting a little of what the early church must have experienced as they sold their possessions and shared what they had with those who had need while gathering in each others homes daily.

We are so thankful for this opportunity the Lord has given to us.  Not a lot of people will have the opportunity, when their children are young, to take a year off and travel North America, and we don't take this privilege lightly.  As we look back over the last 3 months and survey all the awesome things God has done for us we rejoice in praise and thanksgiving.  For every new person we have met, every opportunity to serve, every person we've had the blessing of encouraging, every time we've seen God do miraculous things on our behalf, we rejoice.  Thank-you Jesus, thank-you for using the weak things, the foolish things, the in-experienced things of this world to bring glory to yourself.  Thank-you for choosing us to serve you.

Please continue to pray for us for ongoing financial support, for the Lords favour as we travel and visit new churches, and that amongst it all we would grow in our knowledge and understanding of God as Father, Christ our glorious Saviour, and the Holy Spirits power to continue changing us and healing us.

Thank-you for Journeying with us,
The Schafer Family

Home Time ...

We are home in Lethbridge.  We will be here for the next 3 weeks while Isaac's leg heals.  We are having a blast visiting with all of our friends and family here.  It was so amazing to worship at our church this past sunday.  I'd like to throw a big thank you out to everyone who has supported us and loved us and followed us so far on our journey.  We can't wait to hit the road to the states, but we are loving being home and loving getting lots of hang time in Lethbridge.  

Thanks four Journeying with us

The Schafer Family

As we speak, we are writing history …

It has been said that “history belongs to the intercessors.”  And I fully believe this to be true.  

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16

The Kingdom of God will not come apart from Prayer.  Prayer must be an ever present part of our lives if we are children of God.  John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, wrote that "He (God) can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him"  John Wesley believed that God is limited by our prayer life.  Of course God has no limitations, He is God, but He does choose to govern His kingdom through the simple asking and receiving of His people.  Jesus told us "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives".  Do we really believe this?  I know some of you do, and I tip my hat to those faithful of the Lord who in their prayer closet daily are fervently calling out to the Lord with anointed Spirit led prayers.  But for me this is still a lesson I am learning, a habit I am still trying to cultivate.  

The history of my life, as it is being written at this very moment, is being shaped by the "effectual fervent prayer(s)" of all of you who prayed for Isaac to not need surgery on his broken leg.  The doctors were pretty sure they would need to do surgery and put pins in, but when the Spirit of God mobilized His church to pray and you took up the call, everything changed.  Regardless of how things appeared on the surface, the desire of His heart was for Isaac to not need surgery.  And when the cries of His children reached His throne He responded in mercy and grace.  

Thank You.  From the deepest part of me, Thank You.  Often "We have not because we ask not".  Prayer opens prison doors and sets captives free.  Prayer binds the enemy and opens the heavens.  Prayer heals, and prevents surgeries.  Lets resolve ourselves to be a praying church.  Countless unreached souls may never hear the name of Jesus without the labour of your prayers.  Pray, and keep on Praying.

Thanks for Journeying with us.  The Schafer Family.

Inconvenient Delay or The Lord Directing Our Steps ..

Well its Thursday August 25th at about 5:45 pm.  I'm sitting in the Motorhome, parked at a friends place in Saskatoon.  4 of our children are watching a video here with me and Shayne and Isaac are at Royal University Hospital.  Isaac won't be discharged until tomorrow morning.  He will have an appointment here on the 31st to x-ray the break after which we will have 5 weeks of waiting to get the cast off before we can leave for the United States.

     As a sinful man, my first response is to be disappointed.  Our initial plan was to leave for the states right after camp on August 8th.  We felt led to delay that date for a week to wrap up some business in Saskatoon and made a new date of August 15th for our departure.  Early on the morning of the 14th we received the news that Shayne's sister Sherrie and her husband Jon had arrived home to their home in La Loche and they had been broken in to and robbed.  The perpetrators thrashed their house left fridges and freezers open, stole electronics, and took off with the keys to Jon's truck and the church keys.  When we received the news we knew we had to do something.  Family is Family.  So we packed up and headed back up to La Loche again to help them clean, organize, and to support them through that hard time.  On top of the burden of being robbed, they also had to complete the construction of the sanctuary in the church and get everything decorated and set up for the church's first wedding which takes place this Saturday.  So we set a new departure date of August 28th and we were excitedly looking forward to finally hitting the road for Kansas City and then yesterday Isaac broke his leg and now we're stuck in Canada for the next 6 weeks.

     But you know what, I'm not disappointed!  Who's the navigator on this Journey?  Who sets the course?  Who decides where we go and when?  Not me!  Every step of the way we have prayed and sought the Lord for His direction, for His timing.  We are His, and we are at His disposal.  We will go when He says to go.  In the mean time we will praise the Lord, we will seek Him where we are, and seek to understand the purpose He has for us here.  The Bible teaches us that "a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps"  Well, we will continue to seek the Lord and make our plans accordingly.  We still feel we are meant to head south to Kansas City and beyond so we will plan to do that as soon as Isaac gets his cast off.  I refuse to become discouraged.  When Paul and Barnabas were on their missionary journeys they experienced delays.  They had to deal with all sorts of disruptions from being arrested, to bad weather, to being blocked by the Spirit of God, and on and on.

     As we look forward towards the horizon of our lives we are excited to see and experience everything and anything the Lord would have for us.  We will take each day as it comes, and we will continue to seek the Lord every day for the ministry opportunities that He has for us.  Thank you for your love and support, and thank you for journeying with us on our Journey of Faith.  And who knows, you may see us again sooner than you thought.

The Schafer Family

Change of Plans ...

Well Friends, Keeping up the Blog hasn't been as easy as I once naively thought it would be.  Thanks for your patience as I try to keep up and we are so blessed to know that you are journeying with us.

We had hoped to leave Saskatoon this past Monday for Kansas City, but of course the Lord had other plans for us.  We woke up Sunday morning to the sad news that Shayne's sister and her husband had arrived home late saturday night in La Loche to find that their house had been broken into.  The people that broke in had thrashed everything, left fridges and freezers wide open, and had stolen a lot of their valuables and electronics.  When we received the news we knew that our departure was going to have to be postponed.  There was only one thing to be done, we dropped everything and drove up to La Loche to help them get everything cleaned up and organized and to just love and support them through this hard time.

We had sort of a big "Free Sale" here on wednesday.  By "Free Sale" I mean that since the place was trashed anyway we rounded up everything that could be sold garage sale style, and placed it outside in the parking lot of the church and let people help themselves for free.  It was so cool to see Jon and Sherrie hurt and shaken up as they were from the break in, responding in Love to the people of La Loche and giving stuff away that could easily have fetched a good price.  The smiles and joy on peoples faces as they walked away with clothes, shoes, toys, snow shoes, chop saw, and loads of other stuff that was just gathering dust and could be put to good use by others.

That leads me to something I've been learning lately about Worldliness and Prosperity.  Luke 12:16-21 tells us of a rich man who in good times, times of blessing and prosperity was overcome with covetousness.  He had so much stuff he had to upgrade his living situation to accommodate it all.  The rich man believed his stuff made him rich.  That was why he hoarded, stashed, and stockpiled.  Stockpiling is when we accumulate stuff and selfishly shelter it from others, so we never fear being without it.  Like the rich man, we want to "build and store, build and store"  without sufficient consideration for the purpose of our prosperity.  We accumulate more than we need only to become blind and bloated by our blessing.

      Can you relate?
      I can.

Prosperity when not handled carefully can tempt our laziness.  It lulls us away from dependance upon the Lord.  Affluence draws me toward passivity.  Its a daily battle for dependance upon God versus dependance upon my own strength.  Prosperity can be so dangerous because of its tendency to foster a false sense of security.

Don't be like the rich man who measured wealth by what was in his barns.  Measure wealth the way God measures it, by whats in your heart.  Try letting go of some of those things you don't need but have been just hanging on to.  Have a big "Free Sale".  You'll blow your neighbourhoods mind and I'm sure it'll make Jesus smile.

Thanks for Journeying with us..
The Schafer Family

Tobin Lake and Wilderness Ministries Camp 2011

Hows it Goin Ya'll !!  We have been busy.  

After our last post we headed off to Tobin Lake in Saskatchewan to a beautiful family camp called Widerness Camp.  Wilderness Camp is hosted by Wilderness Ministries and is a 10 day family camp that is completely free.  We had a really refreshing time, no Internet and no social media.  The only stipulation in coming to camp was that you had to attend the 2 services that were held each day in the big tent.  Music ministry was done by a few different groups - Canada's Double Portion, Rick and Bebe, and Crystal Taylor.  It was really neat.  For those of you who don't know, Double Portion is a really cool Contemporary Worship group that travel around ministering with their 9 kids who sing and play in the band.  Rick and Bebe and Crystal Taylor are country gospel groups and it was really neat being led in country gospel worship, something I've never personally experienced before.  There were also some really amazing speakers.  Herb Taylor, Ron Hagglund, and Darrell McClaren.  Some highlights of the week were the healings, people were being saved and re-committing their lives to the Lord, it was awesome.

One of the teachings at camp that really spoke to me was about discipleship in the church.  It made me really realize what a special church ROL is, and so thankful for the great discipleship that is such a huge part of everything ROL does.  The speaker was speaking of church's that are growing, and that growth is not necessarily a sign of health.  He posed the question : If your church is growing.. Is it growing stronger or is it just getting Fat.  Fat church's are full of unhealth and are loaded brim full of faces without names and lukewarm attendants.  Strong church's are full of Gods children pursuing Christ, growing in their faith, discipling and being discipled, on mission in their communities.  Thank you ROL for taking the time and putting in the effort to be a healthy Church. 

We are now in Saskatoon and are excited to soon be heading south to Kansas City to the International House of Prayer.  Please pray for us for guidance, for wisdom and provision.