Taking it all in.

Home sweet home! I've been home for three days and I'm still trying to wake up. My old body just can't seem to take much these days. I'm still processing what went on last week, so when I figure it out I'll let you know. In short, we went with one objective and life got in the way. I think this week was a great lesson in the fact that we may never see the fruit of our labor, or the purpose behind the things that God wills.

Trust and Obey.

Of the nine of us five got a violent stomach virus (me included, yuck.), one had constant migraines and one busted his eardrum. That's seven out of nine. When we arrived at the missionary's house (where we were staying) all four of his kids had strep throat. We worked every day, just one or two at a time doing whatever anyone had the energy to do. We did get some meaningful things done and got to encourage and get to know a great missionary couple on the front lines, and an amazing children's minister. I got to spend time with Kevin and Brenda Peacock, one of my favorite couples in the world and the ones responsible for pulling us across the finsih line of seminary and keeping me sane in my first year of motherhood.

Oh, and I got to drink ALOT of Tim Horton's coffee.

We know with no doubt whatsoever that God meant for us to be there, so I am just trusting that there is a reason. While I'm processing and figuring it all out I will share this picture with you. It's my favorite of the trip because Beau was on high powered medication and randomly decided to force us into a group picture right outside of the airport bathroom. It was the strangest picture I think I've ever taken and makes me laugh every time!


"Hey guys, let's take a group picture! We haven't all been together yet (and we had, the entire week, been all together....) and this is a great spot".....says Beau on codeine.....

Oh Canada, My Home and Native Land....

We leave tomorrow! I can't believe it's here, it snuck up on me. I guess I should start packing soon....

John and I will be heading off tomorrow to lead a group of seven college students on a mission trip to Fort MuMurry, Alberta. We will be working with Clay Hilton and Connection Church to prayer walk the community, do acts of service, and blanket the community with flyers and information about this church plant.

One of our main objectives is also to encourage the church planting family. Clay and Cinnamon are natives of Louisiana/Arkansas and are far from home serving the Lord and raising their family. John and I know first hand what this feels like and how lonely it can sometimes get. Even when you know you're in the right place, doing the right thing life can still be a challenge. So, we want to bless this family! We leave tomorrow loaded down with Arkansas t-shirts for kids, packages of grits, cases of Big Red, and a few other goodies for the family that are a surprise!

Five of the seven students we are taking with us have never been on a mission trip before! This will be their first experience of getting on a plane to share the gospel and make disciples, and I can't wait to see the ways that God is going to work in their lives. What an adventure!

I also can't wait to drink Tim Horton's coffee, WOOHOOOOOO!

Here is a simple prayer list, if you would like to pray for our team along the way.

John Schaffner (our fearless leader, uh oh....)

Amy Schaffner (his obviously better half)

Briana Allen

Beau Barrera

Amanda Shook

Krystina Davis

Kory Munday

Jessica Weldon

Alec Justice

I can't wait to share experiences with you when we return. Thank you for the prayers as we go!

A Baptist in uncharted waters....

I am Southern Baptist. Have been since birth. I think I've gone through every "rite" a Southern Baptist can go through - children's church, Lifeway VBS, youth group and various youth camps where I got "saved" several times (I've been baptized twice!), read the "Baptist Faith and Message" several times, BCM while in college, NAMB missionary the first two years of my marriage, seminary in an SBC school, married to a Baptist minister and the list could probably go on and on. It took me years to realize that dancing was not the ultimate sin, that if I had a glass of wine (which I don't, so no rebuking emails please) then I was not going to burn in the fires of hades for eternity, and I still have an EXTREMELY hard time raising my hands in worship. Southern Baptist TO THE CORE.

I did absolutely go through a time of wondering if my Southern Baptist beliefs were mine or my parents. I looked into other denominations, made friends with people *gasp* outside of the SBC world, read a few books and realized that indeed the Bible, and my belief system in what the Bible says seemed to line up best with the Baptist Faith and Message. This is not to say that it is without fault or that there are not things that I don't agree with. The SBC is made of people, and people are fallible. I have often thought that the church would be awesome if it were not full of people. HA.

Side note:

I remember in Seminary one of the most eye-opening things for me was a paper I had to write on my presuppositions. The beliefs that I brought to the Bible before I even opened it. I had one or two in mind as the professor was talking but had no idea that once I prayed and read and sat down to write that a paper full of dozens of things would come out. Anyway...

So, as a Southern Baptist I have always floundered a bit with how to observe this Easter season. It was always strange to me that Christmas was so HUGE and Easter seemed to get lost. Yes, Jesus coming to Earth as a baby and living a human life is CENTRAL to our faith in Him, but isn't his death and resurrection even more? We would have no hope without Easter.

As a born and raised Louisiana girl, I knew that the Catholics observed Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. You couldn't live in Louisiana during Mardi Gras season and NOT know that. But I don't recall ever hearing of Lent until Chris Wells talked to me about when we lived in Winnipeg. He explained to me what it was and challenged me to observe it. I have a vague memory of attempting to give up coffee that lasted around three days. But ever since then I have been intrigued by it. Every year now at Mardi Gras time I start to think through "Should I? What would I give up?"

I think sometimes we lose the beauty of observances and liturgy in an attempt to not be Catholic. Can i say that? Don't get me wrong, I am in complete agreement with the fact that I am not required by my religion to observe Lent so that I use it to make a check on my to-do list. But the beauty of having a designated 40 days to do what one person I read called the "spirituality of subtraction" should be something I hunger for.

All this came to fruition this morning during my quiet time. Conviction, hard and fast. Why was I so tired that I couldn't concentrate on what I was reading or praying? Because I stayed up late watching a meaningless TV show. Why are the four books I ordered a few weeks ago, so excited in what I could learn about homeschooling or family worship, still sitting on the bookshelf unopened? Because we learned how to stream Netflix.

We have lived in Fort Smith since August with no Internet or cable. Some of that was for the sake of our budget, but some also for the sake or our family. We realized after a few months with neither how much more we read or spent time together or slept! But last month I got tired of feeling cut off from the outside world (and a snowstorm during which John had something at work "due" that took him to the office when no one should have been driving because we had no Internet) made me finally sign up for Internet. And with that came the realization that if we hook our Wii to netflix we could save money on movies from Redbox (see, good intentions!). And there goes the downfall of the great habits I had put into place. It is not the TV's fault, the fault lies with me. Suddenly nap time was no longer time for me to read, it was time to watch the next episode of Lie to me, which I've become slightly addicted to. After putting the kids to bed at night I was neglecting chores (I'll do them tomorrow....) and my husband to watch movies that were meaningless. And WORST of all, I was having a hard time getting up early in the morning to spend time with the Lord.

I loved the way things had been changing in me, and suddenly those things were slipping away. I was grumpy, had a bad attitude, overwhelmed with housework that I was behind on, feeling far from the Lord and distanced from friends who were still on the right path. It just sucked.

In walks CONVICTION. And the perfect time for it, Lent. Today begins my 40 days with no TV. I know there is no possibility of never seeing the TV on because I will not force my conviction on the rest of my family, but I will be setting aside none of my personal time to watch television for the next 40 days. What a small sacrifice not watching television is in light of the sacrifice of the cross. And with the subtraction of TV will hopefully come the (intentional) addition of focused time with the Lord in preparing to observe Easter.

Here's where the hard part comes in. The mailman just slipped our newest Netflix through the mail slot in our door, as I typed. This is the one I was waiting for, the newest Russell Crowe movie. But I am determined!

How has the Lord been speaking to you lately? Any thoughts on observing Lent?

The 21st Street Lighthouse

"The 21st Street Lighthouse" is what my friend Treva has dubbed our home, and I love it! We have been praying from Day 1 of living in the neighborhood for God to use us here to reach our neighbors. I spent the first few months of our time here sitting on our front porch praying for the specific houses in my line of sight and wondering how in the world the doors would be opened and if I would not be too fearful when they did.

We live in the typical old-school big church neighborhood. The neighborhood that used to be the "good" one, so big churches were built here and then the neighborhood changed around the church, so now people drive in for church and drive out to their respective suburbs while the people of this neighborhood were left with no where to go. I had some real frustration about this in the beginning and had a conversation a few months ago that changed everything for me.

I was talking with some friends about my frustration with the fact that churches and Christians seem to be ignoring the north side of town, and after a long venting of frustration one of them said "well, what do you think needs to happen there?" and out of my mouth came "It would have to be an organic thing, someone would have to LIVE there" and then it happened, God slapped me in the face and said "YOU DO LIVE THERE". Why was I expecting others to come into our neighborhood and do what we should have been doing all along? And, honestly in a neighborhood like this it wouldn't work anyway. People here would not be open to someone on the outside coming in to "minister" and then leaving again. It has to come from within.

And isn't that they way it is in every neighborhood? Why are we so okay with crossing the globe to do missions, but arguing with our neighbors about where they park their car, or if their fence is on our property line? Or better yet, why do we simply ignore each other and live next to someone for years without even knowing their names? If everyone was responsible for just THEIR OWN STREET, couldn't we change entire cities? And in the process change entire nations?

Why is it that instead of the picture of our individual torches coming together on Sunday mornings to form a bonfire of encouragement and worship and learning together and then taking those torches back into our neighborhoods and lives throughout the week, the picture tends to be us coming with our torches, lighting them in the church foyer and then putting them out before we leave?

So, my prayers changed from what do we do and who will help us - to simply what do we do? And here was the surprise for me: I expected it to be something I had to work at, something I had to create. I was expecting to have to go out of my way to knock on doors or force relationships because I forgot. I forgot that God is already moving and I just need to be open to going with HIS flow. Evangelism does not have to be forced, it should be a natural overflow of our lives with God and with each other.

I was surprised when one day a neighbor knocked on my door and asked me for help with his three children. Here I was thinking I would have to find a way in, and then he knocked on my door and asked! It's that simple, God is working, just be available! I started babysitting and tutoring his kids after school and that simple service to him has turned into a friendship between him and John and I. And the result of that friendship? A few weeks ago he knocked on our door at (gulp) 7:30 in the morning and said "hello neighbor, I'm here for coffee" and then sat on my couch and shared about something he was going through and basically asked about God. I almost laughed out loud at how easy this was! John and I have had several occasions to talk to him since and are praying for this family.

And the next tool God is using in this experiment in neighborhood missions? A trampoline! Santa brought our kids a trampoline this year and who knew that THIS was the key to opening MANY doors! Because our neighbor's three kids come over after school and started jumping with my kids, one by one more kids started to show up and now we generally have about eight neighborhood kids in and out of our home every afternoon! And with these kids comes the meeting of their mom's and hopefully eventually gospel conversations.

It's so exciting and yet so STRETCHING. My natural bent is selfishness and hibernation. Anyone who knows me knows that I would almost always prefer to be alone than with people. I have had to really lay that down the last few years because that mentality doesn't exactly go well with ministry, considering ministry involves people. My afternoons are no longer leisurely doing housework or hanging out with my kids, the last few weeks my afternoons have been watching as kids are in and out of my kitchen and jumping on our trampoline, or helping with homework, or giving out endless amounts of juice boxes (thanks to Amanda, our juice supplier).

So, here's what I'm asking from YOU - PRAY!!! I will even supply a list in order to make your life easier!
1. Pray for more open doors!
2. Pray for gospel conversations with the trampoline kids.
3. Pray for relationships to develop with the kids and then their families.
4. We are planning a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt the Saturday before Easter. We're praying for the logistics of it (where to set up tables, where to hide eggs, etc.), relationships to develop, and we're wanting to give a Bible to everyone who comes. Specifically we want to give out around 20 children's bibles to the trampoline and neighborhood kids.
5. Through the relationships we form at the Easter Egg hunt we want to start a Bible study in our home sometime in May.

If anyone would like specific names to be praying for email me at amyschaffner@email.com and I will send them to you. I would really appreciate prayers here!

And so goes the great 21st Street experiment. I can't wait to update you on the things that God is going to do here!