Looking for a Church During a Pandemic

Looking for a church home is never an easy task. Trying to find a place that is solid in its teaching and a homey fit in its fellowship can be a challenge! I've done it a handful of times in my life and every single time, God has been faithful to take me where He wanted me to be. Each of those churches holds such a special place in my heart and each one went a long way in helping me grow in Christ. And Ryan would tell you the same thing about his own journey in settling in different churches.

But we've never had to find a new church in a pandemic. And that is proving to be most interesting! We had decided prior to coming to WillowBridge that we would spend the first few weeks visiting multiple churches in the area - for a few reasons. First and foremost, we wanted to be pretty familiar with all the local churches so we could have great conversations with our tenants about places they attend or may want to attend. (Tenants attend the churches of their choice.) Secondly, we wanted to spend time getting to know the churches that provide community to our tenants, even if they aren't regular attenders at that particular church.

So while we are not in a hurry to find the place that feels most like home, we have made a few observations about church hunting in a pandemic.

* It's hard for people to recognize people in a mask. Now, before I launch into this one, allow me to say that the staff members of the churches we have visited so far have done an amazing job of figuring out we're new and reaching out to us. But I can tell that the people in the congregation have a harder time figuring out if they know us. (I think that is also partially because churches met virtually for so long that everyone feels kind of new again!) When most of our faces are covered, it makes it even trickier for them to remember if they know us. Add in the fact that most people are generally skittish of talking to others right now, and it makes meeting new people

* It's easier to check out churches online before we visit. We actually started researching churches before we even moved to Grabill. Quarantine meant that most churches began sharing their services online even if they hadn't done it before, so we were able to get a feel for the music and preaching styles of several churches before we came. It helped us learn about the staff members a bit, too! We also learned that more churches are being extra intentional about updating their websites and social media, which makes it easier to learn about them.

* Most services are different in format than they normally would be. We've discovered that some churches aren't currently doing multiple styles of services. Some have eliminated their more traditional services entirely, and others have blended traditional and contemporary styles into a single service because attendance is low. It's not a huge deal, but we know in some places we aren't seeing the full scope of services.

* While most churches are back to in-person meeting (around here, anyway) most have not resumed all their extra kinds of ministry. Small groups, Sunday School, children's ministry...those sorts of events are still on hold - or on Zoom - for now. So making connections beyond Sunday morning is kind of on hold for the time being, it seems.

* I miss bulletins. I told Ryan that this past Sunday. When I was still working at our Kokomo church, bulletins were a big item of discussion. They aren't cheap to make (especially for big churches) and people just throw them away after the service, so that is a huge expense that mostly goes to waste every week. I know some churches put all that info on their website, which is fine (though I do love using my bulletin as a fan). Anyway! I am learning that as a visitor, I rely on the bulletin to learn things about the church that may or may not be on the website or easily accessible. I think that is the thing I have missed most in our visits.

So yes, searching for a church in the middle of the strangest time of our lives looks really different than it would at any other time. And yes, there are some obstacles. But I want to close by saying I have so much respect for churches in this season! Having just come from working at a church, I'm very aware of the hours (and hours and hours) of staff meetings devoted solely to trying to make everything run as smoothly as possible while still keeping everyone safe. It's an impossible task. They can't make everyone happy, no matter what they do, and at times, some may wonder if they're making anyone happy. But I'm grateful for the search and grateful for ALL the hard work the churches put into doing their very best. It doesn't go unnoticed!

One Month

Four weeks ago last night, we drove into Grabill for the beginning of our brand new adventure.

Four weeks ago today, we got up and headed to our first day of training.

And in those four weeks, we've learned a lot of information, met a host of new people, visited a variety of places, and begun to find our place here in this new-to-us town.

We've gotten a lot of texts, emails, and calls from people asking how it's going, so I thought I would give a quick update! I'll try to hit the questions we've had the most.

* How is life in an apartment? It's new! I lived in an apartment (in a huge old house that had been broken up into three apartments) with a handful of friends for about two months after college, and other than that, neither of us have experienced apartment life before. So far, we don't mind it. The walls aren't paper thin, but we can hear things around us. Between our white noise machines and the TV, most of it just sort of runs into the background or we ignore it. (Back in Kokomo, we had a neighbor who had all her phone conversations on speaker in her yard, and the way her house sat in conjunction to ours made it feel like she sat inside our living room, so we're used to residual noise.)

* Are you still in training? Officially, no. Unofficially, until forever. Our classroom training lasted a week, and then we had a couple of weeks of hands-on training in our building, and those dedicated training seasons are done. But we have so much to learn. (True of all jobs, right?) Every single day here is different, so every single day gives us an opportunity to learn new things and ask lots of questions. We have really patient co-workers who explain anything we ask and offer so much insight. They've been here about a year, so they remember what it was like to learn, too!

* Do you still like working together? Absolutely. We love it and say so out loud just about every day. We are both finding our groove with individual strengths. Ryan works more on the building itself - and he does a great job establishing relationships with the guys, and I work more on the creative/administrative tasks and try to find ways to engage with the girls. But Ryan and I love being in the same work space and seeing each other all the time.

* Are you unpacked? Not fully - but almost. We have everything unpacked except our home office. Since most of the boxes in there contain books, we need to get the bookshelves put together so we can put the books on them! We also haven't put anything up on the walls, so even the unpacked rooms feel a little unfinished. Once we get it all put together, we'll show you what it looks like! (Working full time while unpacking has slowed us down on the settling in.) I think we have kind of an unofficial goal of being done with it by the end of August.

* How big is your apartment? We don't know! In terms of square feet, I mean. It is a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment, and as apartments go, it's pretty big. But Rob couldn't find anything that gave the square footage of it. We were able to keep most of the things we had in Kokomo, but we did have to get rid of just a few. (We're also sharing a few of our things with WillowBridge - like porch furniture and entryway decor.)

* What is a typical day like? Different from the one before. :) We have some tasks that we do fairly regularly, but every single day has a different look to it. Sometimes we're driving our tenants to work/school/appointments, sometimes we're working in the office, sometime we're in meetings, sometimes we're working on the building itself, sometimes we're hanging out with our tenants (games, meals, movies, conversation, etc.), and sometimes we're planning for the future! Truly though, the days are never alike.

* Are you glad you moved? Without a doubt. God directed us here, so living in obedience to Him is the best. We enjoy life in Grabill, we love being part of the work of Gateway Woods/WillowBridge, and we especially enjoy working together. Though it's been a ton of learning and some moments that haven't been super easy, yes, oh yes! We are so glad we said yes!

* What are you doing, again? We know some of you are still not totally clear on what we're doing. We're working with young adults who have aged out of foster care and are learning the skills they need to be successful in life. This short video explains its mission, if you'd like to see it!

The Shafferland Shuffle

We are a bit more settled in this week than we were last time we shuffled your way! It's been a full and good week here in Grabill!

* Last Sunday was our monthiversary, and we enjoyed our day, even though it was a work day for us. We visited a church in Grabill, and one of our tenants went along with us. When we got back to WillowBridge, Ryan grilled some chicken for our lunch and we played SkipBo with a tenant before spending some time with our new co-workers, Tim and Justine. We did go for a walk that evening - and the path we love so much was extra pretty!

* Monday morning, we took one of our tenants to work, and then Ryan suggested trying out Leo Donuts, which isn't too far away. No arguments from me! We worked all day, which for me, included writing notes to all our tenants, spending some time with Tim and Justine's baby, and doing a little bit more unpacking. We went for a walk in the evening (we love our decompressing walks) and the sunset was BRILLIANT that night!

* Tuesday was the first day of our weekend, so we took it easy in the apartment that morning. Our new mattress was delivered that day, and after it was all set up, we headed out to do our first grocery shopping in a LONG time. We had to figure out where all the stores were around here! We worked a bit more on unpacking when we got home - and finally started to make a pretty good dent in the boxes.

* Ryan had to go back to Kokomo on Wednesday (wrap up stuff from his old job) but I stayed in Grabill to work on the apartment. Alas, I ended up needing a bit of a brain-rest day, so I drank coffee, watched old episodes of Andy Griffith, did some baking, and spent a lot of time praying and reading the Bible. I was so excited to have Ryan back that evening, though! And one of our new co-workers came over to talk homeschooling curriculum with me. (Oddly - one of my favorite topics!)

* We were back to work on Thursday, which involved all sorts of odds-and-ends work. I did some hunting for recipes to use donated food, we talked to some volunteers coming to do work at WillowBridge, and Braeya slept through it ALL. (She had some issues this past week with having her days and nights mixed up. She's better now.)

* Friday morning I found Ryan working in our WillowBridge office - and my goodness. This is multi-tasking at its finest! He and I did all sorts of work that day! I wrapped up at the end of the day with a mani-but-not-pedi night with one of our tenants! We finished up just in time for me to go on another sunset walk with Ryan!

* Though yesterday was a work day for us, we were able to ease into it, which included pancakes for breakfast! Mid-day, we went over to the Gateway Woods campus to cheer on some bike riders who raised money for us! And then it was time for me to bake cookies in preparation for our first ever community night with our tenants! We had a great evening of getting to know them a little bit better, playing some games (Ryan donned his game show host hair) and eating delicious food!

The Saturday Six

One.

Our office is still in boxes (the only room we haven't unpacked yet) so running across this beautiful home office proved very inspirational to me! Hopefully in a week or two, mine will look more like hers!

Two.

I think this RV conversion wins the prize for most surprising exterior! It looks like a plain old box truck...and then...

Three.

God has been teaching me so many things since we moved here for our new job. I'm gathering up all the thoughts in my head to share them with you at some point. But in the meantime, read this...it's a real faith booster!

Four.

I haven't tried making this yet, but it looks delicious! I am learning that my ways of meal prep are probably going to have to change a bit. While we do live and work in the same space, I don't always have time to cook a meal leading up to mealtime. I foresee a lot of slow cooker meals and make-ahead meals in our future!

Five.

I've shared before about my friend Christy Cabe, who has written a couple of books. She's also doing coloring and activity books for kids now, and she has a whole line that are all about life at the lake. If you're a lake-loving family, check them out! 

Six.

As we settle into our new routines here, we're slowly working back up to what was just second nature to us before. I've returned to 10,000 steps a day and am almost up to full water consumption again. Meal planning is making a comeback, and real workouts are next. Here are some ab exercises that can be done at home!

Hello There, Coffee Shop!

The good news is our quest to unpack all our boxes is coming along! We're probably 75% done. But one of the areas that is not quite done yet is our little coffee nook. I think we have most of our supplies pulled out of the boxes, but we don't have the area set up like we'll want it. So we haven't had a single homemade latte since we moved.

BUT!

We live within walking distance of a coffee shop, and we are so excited about that! And in even more exciting news, we had a gift card to said coffee shop tucked in our pockets before we even moved to town. (Three cheers for friends who give gift cards!)

Shortly after we moved to Grabill, we found ourselves with just a few spare moments in a morning, so we walked over to check it out.

It's a coffee house in a cabin, so how cute is that??

It's adorable inside - all neat and clean, with tables spaced widely to allow for appropriate coffee consumption. (Although we just got ours to go since we were on the way to a meeting...but one day we'll go to stay for a while.)

The baristas were so sweet and took time to get to know us a little bit. (We're trying to make good connections with local businesses, since we'll interact with them so often - not just personally, but for our work, too!)

We both got lattes that day, and they were SO GOOD!!!

There are many blessings about small town coffee shop life - and one of the big ones happens to be no line. We were in and out in no time flat!

This is, I think, the closest we've ever lived to a coffee shop, and we're pretty excited!

92 Months!!

Sunday was our 92nd monthiversary...and our first one in Grabill!

We got up and did our monthly picture before church, just in case it rained on my hair. (And Ryan's.) We thought it would be fitting to do the photo in the room we haven't started unpacking yet, to catch a glimpse of boxes all around. :)

We visited a new-to-us church that morning. We'd watched a few of their online services during quarantine, so we had a bit of a foundation in their staff and service style. They were set up in the gym, with chairs placed a distance apart. We learned that being the newbie in a church during mask season is an interesting additional obstacle. Major props to the staff member who figured out she didn't know us even though she couldn't totally see us! She was very kind to spend time with us and explain the services and ministries of the church!

We enjoyed the service and the communion at the end! (Cutest little communion package I've seen!)

When we got back to WillowBridge, Ryan grilled some chicken for us, and we ate out in the community room with one of our tenants. She wanted to play SkipBo, which I've never played, she she taught me and we spent some time playing!

Though it had been a cool and rainy morning, the day ended on a beautiful note, so we went for a walk on one of the paths we really enjoy. Some of the flowers have started to wilt a bit, but I still think they are pretty!

It wasn't lost to me that it was right around this same weekend during our first year of marriage that God first put on our hearts the idea of working together in ministry. We had no idea what it would look like, when He would bring it to pass, or what it would mean, but we said yes. And this year we are living in the middle of the answer - or at least the start of the answer! The best monthiversary gift!

Auction 2020

I should hand the blogging keyboard over to some of you today because I have a feeling you could write this post better than I could! You have way more knowledge of this even than I do!

This past weekend was supposed to be Gateway Woods' annual auction, which from everything I have heard and seen in my minimal time in this community, is a huge deal. I've seen pictures of campus covered in massive tents and swarming with people. I've heard about the food and how great it always is. And I've caught the smallest glimpse of the needed fundraising that takes place for Gateway Woods during the annual auction.

And like everything else everywhere else, the auction had to go to Plan B this year. They still held one, but it was done online with far fewer items than they normally have. Everyone kept telling us how sad they were that we didn't get to experience the auction in all its normalcy because it is always such a fun day. It's tradition for many people.

I understood the sentiment in my own way. During my years at the station, I had the privilege of being part of four week-long fundraisers, and they were about so much more than money. They were faith-boosters. Those days were filled with stories of how the station impacted lives throughout the year. And the climbing totals were proof of God's care over His ministry. I had a feeling the auction was a similar version of what I'd experienced during Share. And I was a bit sad that I wouldn't get to experience it in the way it had always been.

As you might expect, trying to raise money in a pandemic with limited allowable opportunities is nerve-wracking, and no one had any idea what to expect regarding its outcome! We prayed and trusted God to provide.

So even though we know it wasn't a normal auction experience, here's a peek at our first Gateway Woods auction experience.

On Friday evening, they had an hour-long live event that served as the heart of the auction for this year. We had a little mini-watch party with our tenants.

The live event included pictures and video footage from past auctions, as well as testimonies of how God has used Gateway Woods to impact lives. (I confess to tearing up a little even though I didn't know any of the people from the stories!)

A day or so later, they released the results of the auction, and I did cry then. Despite every obstacle, the auction brought in a record-breaking amount of funds, which means we'll be able to move ahead in the work we're doing in the year to come!

Ryan and I know there is so much we DON'T know about the importance of this event and all it means for the work we're part of at Gateway Woods, but we DO know we're in the middle of His work. What a faith booster it was to see His provision in the auction!

We are so thankful for God's provision and for the chance to be part of this event, even in its altered state!

Moving Into Shafferland 3.0!

Yesterday I told you about packing up and leaving Shafferland 2.0...and today I'll tell you about unpacking at Shafferland 3.0!

Our new home is exactly 100 miles from our old home, and it was a good two hour drive, especially with our caravan of large vehicles. Ryan led the pack with the U-Haul, and then Shawn drove behind him in his truck, pulling the enclosed trailer. Braeya and I were last, in our car.

I had some people ask how Braeya did on the move, and I thought she did pretty well. We were able to get some calming medicine for her, and though it didn't completely sedate her, it did make her MUCH calmer than she would have been without it. She was pretty vocal the whole trip, but it was more like loud meowing than mournful wailing.

And once we arrived, she settled right down, and she's adjusted to this home much faster than she did to our last one. So we are grateful for that!

We got in one traffic slow-down on the interstate in Fort Wayne. There was a stretch of construction and there had apparently been an accident, taking the already-reduced lanes down to just one lane and holding us up for a while. That actually calmed Braeya and took my anxiety through the roof. We switched places! LOL!

When we arrived at WillowBridge, our friends Jonathan and Julie were there to help us unload, and our new co-worker (Tim) came to help us out, too!

I didn't get as many unloading pictures because I was bouncing back and forth between helping to unload and answering questions about where things went! (And I didn't have Sheila here to take over the job!) So here are a few of the ones I did get.

They unloaded the furniture first, so we didn't fill up the furniture spots with boxes.

Once they got all that out of the trailer, they brought in the U-Haul.

Tim's wife wasn't feeling well that day, so he was on dad duty. She napped for part of the time, but when she wasn't napping, she helped. It was so adorable.

They worked furiously and had us unloaded completely in an hour and a half!

Here was our fantastic UNLOADING crew!

(Tara took the above photo so I could be in one, but she carried WAY more boxes than I did, so here's another photo without me and with her!)

Jon and Julie stayed for a while to help us do a little unpacking. They said they had time to stay if we needed and wanted help, but they understood if we wanted to just dive in and do it ourselves. We rarely get a ton of time with them, so we were super happy to keep them for a bit. (Jon actually went with Ryan to return the truck, which was a huge help - because I could stay at the apartment and keep unpacking!)

Julie and I worked on the guest room first, because Ryan and I have been sleeping in there ever since we moved in. (Our new mattress is being delivered today, and THEN we can move into our master bedroom!)

It's not fully arranged or decorated, but we got it assembled enough that it was a little piece of home to let us rest - and we have indeed slept very well in there.

Jon also helped Ryan hang the TV in the living room, which Julie and I decided to watch like a TV show. We got snacks and sat on the couch and observed. It was like a reverse puppet show, we decided.

And Braeya? Well, during the move, we put her in the master bedroom to make sure she didn't accidentally get outside. She was so happy to have her suitcase back. (She LOVES sitting on this suitcase. She would seriously sit on it all day every day of her life if we left it out.) And when she needed a change of scenery, she moved to our old bedspread that I put in there for her. She loves sitting on that, too.

And by the time we finally sat down that evening, she was ready to hang out with us on the couch. She knew it was hers!

Tomorrow marks one week since we arrived, and we're over half unpacked. Probably more like 3/4 unpacked. We'll get there!! It feels a little more like home every day!