My name is Andrea Schlappi. My husband, Gabe, and I have been married almost 10 years. We have three children, Annabel (8), Jackson (6) and Bennett (4). I grew up in Ohio but have been a Georgia Peach for almost 10 years. I graduated from Cedarville University in Ohio with a degree in English Education, taught for a few years, and now am a mama at home with my children. Fixing hair, building Legos, scraping plates and cleaning bathtubs, fielding questions and playing referee … balancing much all while my pockets somehow become trash cans! Just the beginning of the privilege that is mine – I am simply a mama trying to do what God asks of me so He will receive all the glory. It is His alone… And so, as we so often do, we have come full circle. The question remains. Who am I? The simplest answer I will give -- HIS.
I was able to attend the 2009 Mylonn Conference, There is a Time, with my friend, Becky Blackwelder. God wrote all over my heart that weekend. I have to pause to share just how God brought me to the conference… Becky had been telling me about Mylonn for quite some time, and I desperately wanted to see it for myself! In July, we began discussing coming with our husbands. Quickly that plan foiled. My husband did not want to go. I still did, but knew that buying a ticket/room for myself was not an option. I laid it before God, knowing that He knew my heart’s desire and would work it out should He wish for me to go. Come September, I had asked another friend to attend with me, even entered the recipe exchange, and still there was no answer… God was going to do it His way and in His time! On September 24th, less than a month from Callaway, Gabe, my husband, worked it out for me, finding out from Becky just what my attending would entail. In the midst of that, Becky’s husband graciously offered for me to have his place. That meant he would stay and I would go. Gabe, out of town that day, called me from his hotel room. I will never forget it. I was sitting at my computer after the children were sleeping, tired from a day, when he called and told me he worked it out for me to be able to go. I cried. I cried. I cried. And then when I hung up the phone, I fell to my face because I knew God had moved in His way and in His own time. I had no doubt God would do a mighty work in my heart and that I was, in every way, supposed to attend! Looking back, this finite mind is still amazed!
And that brings us here – to the reason I write. There is a verse in 2 Samuel 7 that says, “Who am I, O Lord, that You have brought me this far?” And that is it really in a nutshell. He has brought me far. He was the perfect sacrifice for all I deserved, and I am free because of it. By the way of the cross I am redeemed! He who formed the magnificence of the stars resides in my heart! He loved me first, loved me most, and is faithful when I fail. It is for this reason alone I write. I have still to be near anything worthy of His sacrifice, mercy, grace and love. What is more, I know that no language could detail in perfect measure praises He is due, that I cannot solidify in words just how great He is, but I choose to proclaim regardless because I stand forgiven! My words are because He IS. It is the prayer of my heart that somehow, through our journey together in Matthew, He will take my planting and watering and cause it to grow so that you will see only Him!
I am praying for you and know that if you are journeying with me, you are right where He wants you to be! You pray for me as deep calls unto deep… May we be still, may we hear, may we be changed by His work over us! Come near the waterfall, friend, and may the pounding surge of His love for you wash you through and through…
Andrea
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It Must Be Love