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.