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