Cheryl Schatz

Hi folks, sorry that I haven’t been around. I have been very remiss in providing an explanation to my “dead” blogging.

I am okay but I have been under an extreme amount of pressure so that there has been very little of me left to be a help. In July we started building a new ministry office and studio and although we were very busy, there were workers helping so I could take a few moments off here and there to blog. But several things happened that put us into a prolonged battle. The first was the theft of my husband’s laptop computer that held our ministry data files. That literally set us back three months worth of work and we have not yet caught up. Then the costs for the construction escalated to the point where what we had saved to finish the entire project to full occupancy was all used to construct the outside structure. There were cost over runs everywhere including having to pay for an engineer for several items. That meant that we had to let the crew go as we just didn’t have the money to keep paying them, while we have been working on finishing the outside ourselves. We are at the wiring stage right now and pushing hard to get the outside walls with completed wiring and plumbing so that we can get insulation in before the freezing weather comes. Right now there is no insulation between our bedroom and bathroom so it is a frigid dash in the morning. All of this has caused a great deal of stress and anxiety and long hours of physical work so that there has been almost nothing of me left by the end of the day.

On top of that our ministry partners have left for their retirement home at the coast so there is no one knowledgeable enough to provide help in the ministry work. We were not able to get our last ministry newsletter out because the printing equipment had been covered with building supplies until not that long ago and our data files for the newsletter had not yet been rebuilt and we were so tired from the long hours of work that we were not capable of keeping up.

We understand that our Lord is not a hard task master and that we are responsible for taking breaks and resting, but it has been difficult. This month I have to get the financial records finished for our Canadian ministry and file our taxes. The Christian brother who helps me with filing the taxes has left for three months so that is added stress for me.

I hated to create a note here on the blog saying that I might be gone for months because I love the discussions here and love the people and so I was procrastinating thinking that maybe things would get done faster and I would be freed up again. But it looks like the deadlines in November will keep me busy until the end of the month and maybe even longer and once the final crew comes to do the insulating and the final outside finishing work and the financial accounting is complete, then my days will be a little more flexible.

If you remember me, can you please pray that God will provide both ministry laborers and the finances to go forward in the ministry? The door has become open for us to minister and to expand but we need to have both volunteers to come into the office to help with the daily ministry duties (two of us is just not enough) and financial help to complete the inside of the office and the studio. We had hoped to fund all of this from our own savings but our funds have pretty much dried up as the project has cost almost double of what we had expected. In our next newsletter we will be putting out a fund raising call for anyone that the Lord prompts to help us to stand behind our ministry in prayer and with financial help. We are trusting that the Lord will speak to the hearts of those who have supported the ministry in the past. I know that many of them are not happy that they didn’t get their normal quarterly newsletter, so we are trusting that when they understand the struggles that we have been through, that they will come alongside us in support.

I will be back in action here as soon as I can. I think often about new things I want to write about but I just do not have the energy yet to keep up with the discussions and I haven’t even read most of them as my computer time is limited.

Even through all of this the Lord has been encouraging us and we are excited to find out how He will make all things work together for good. Today was one of the first times that we just set everything aside and took a break for a few hours. It was so wonderful! This evening I feel a peace and an encouragement and that brought me back to the blog.

If I don’t get back to post right away in December, I am certain I will be back by January. We will either have our prayers answered by then or else we will have frozen our butts off and decided to leave everything unfinished and gone somewhere warm! I am believing and trusting that God has all these things under control and at just the right time He will bring His supply to help two very tired servants. I believe we will be here and praising God for His goodness and His warmth.

Thanks for your care and for your prayers. I really, really miss you all.

Much love,
Cheryl