Donna Schillinger’s ministering on her own now

Donna Schillinger wants younger women to learn from her mistakes so they don’t make them, too.

Mistakes like walking away from God’s Word and living a hedonistic, sinful lifestyle.

The 44-year-old Arkansas writer and Samaritan Ministries member is devoting increasing amounts of time to publishing practical and spiritual guidance for young adults, particularly women. She has written one book, On My Own Now: Straight Talk from the Proverbs for Young Christian Women Who Want to Remain Pure, Debt-free and Regret-Free, and is editing another one on purity and premarital sex due out next year.

She runs a free e-zine for single young Christian women called Single! and another for single, young Christian men called Genuine Motivation, is blogging her way through a book on what the Bible says about finances, and has also published online a touching collection of thoughts called Dear Hunter: Letters to My Stillborn Son.

Besides all of that, she has published Walking Man, a book about a Peruvian missionary, through The Quilldriver, her publishing company, and also does some English-Spanish translation, is an accountant for a Christian company founded by her great-grandfather, is editor-in-chief of Hearing Health Magazine, and is the local historical society journal editor.

But the mother of two—she also has, as she puts it, two others “in the custody of angels” through a stillbirth and a miscarriage—and wife of John Schillinger will step down from some of those responsibilities this year.

“I’m going to focus mostly on On My Own Now Ministries and my own writing,” she says, although she will keep The Quilldriver going for future projects.

On My Own Now Ministries is aimed at helping young Christian women who are “kind of out there in the culture” for whatever reason. Her goal is to give them direction so they can remain steadfast in faith despite all the material, social and sexual temptations thrown at them.

“They’re faced with all these pressures,” she says. “They have not been equipped.”

Donna was led to start the ministry following the stillbirth of her son, Hunter.

“Before him, ministry was not on my radar—not even as a part-time or volunteer endeavor—and, frankly, my walk with God was shallow,” Donna says. “His short life was the catalyst that caused me to want to know God better, which eventually resulted in my decision to publish Walking Man and write my own book, and on and on. If I had to second guess about what didn’t happen, I think I would have remained content to be the editor of Hearing Health had Hunter lived. Instead that experience set me on a new path that required stronger faith.”

One of the results of Donna’s new path is the book On My Own Now, 78 brief reflections and confessions based on Proverbs. The entries discuss various issues faced by young, single women who are, well, on their own now. Much of the material and insights were pulled from her own life, Donna says.

“I think there are two kinds of camps: those who can lead by example and then those who can scare others straight, because they know what happens when you don’t do the right thing,” Donna says. “I’m in the scaring-people-straight camp. I’m not proud of it, but I think it is beauty for ashes. I think that is the sort of thing God means (in Isaiah 61:3). He can take a spiritually bankrupt era of your life and turn it into something beautiful that you can use for Him.”

Donna says that although she uses the times of her life during which she wandered away from God to help others, she doesn’t dwell on them.

“There’s not much value to that,” she says. “But I can draw on them to know what the pressures are for young women and how easy it is for your faith to be challenged, and for you to get off track.”

So, Donna says, she wants to help others “avoid those pitfalls.”

For instance, coming up next year is Purity’s Big Payoff/Premarital Sex Is a Big Rip-off, a collection of essays showing the upside and the struggles of remaining chaste outside of marriage and the pitfalls and consequences of not doing so.

“A hundred years ago, it was still a disgrace to have premarital sex. Now it’s a disgrace if you don’t,” Donna says. “God gave us natural sexual desires, so we have this natural thing in us. It’s not, for instance, something like hallucinogenic drugs. Not everybody craves to be in an altered state of mind on a three-day trip. But everyone has sexual desires. That’s a way (for satan) to attack youth. But what we’re not hearing about is the consequences.

“Some of these consequences of premarital sex—divorce, adultery, abortion, and children out of wedlock—are so common now that people don’t understand that they hurt.”

But the book’s other half will be essays by people who maintained purity until marriage.

“It’s an interesting side, because we have a range of experiences. For example, some people who don’t even kiss until the altar,” she says. “That’s great. Then there’s other people who came very close but didn’t have sex before marriage.”

Some of the contributors to that book were sought by Donna, but the others were signed up after they responded to notices on Christian writer websites or in newsletters.

“From the get-go and all the way through, I’ve been praying. ‘God, give me what You want published in there,’” she says.

In fact, prayer and fasting are the main elements in what Donna calls her annual “strategic planning sessions.”

“I started probably three years ago in July just taking three days to fast and pray and plan,” she says. “During that time, On My Own Ministries emerged. I get all these wonderful ideas during my strategic planning time, and the first thing that happens a month later is that I think to myself, ‘Was I in my right mind?’ But I rely on the fact that I was in fasting and prayer when I made those decisions to say, ‘Yes, this is what God wants me to do.’ And, of course, what God wants you to do is always going to be a challenge.”

One of those things that she believes God wants her to do is to explore what the Bible says about money, which has led to her “Throw Away Your 401K?” blog. When she’s done with it, Donna says, she’ll take the entries and shape them into a book.

“I feel like if a young person is following Biblical principles in terms of managing their money, then they are going to prosper,” she says. “I’m learning and I’m just documenting what God’s teaching me.”

Donna, who also teaches a high school-college Sunday school class, isn’t sure where this passion to minister to young people comes from.

“I do have a special connection with young women, and I recognize that,” she says. “I have a 14-year-old daughter, which probably helps me to be able to relate to young women. I’ve had exchange students. I’ve worked with a lot of interns from the local university here with my business, and I do have a real good connection with them.”

She says that the best thing a young person can do to hold fast to their faith in Christ is “without exception maintain every day a quiet time with God.”

“That’s something that so many Christian adults don’t even have in place,” she says. “It’s the thing that’s going to sustain you. Nothing else can (sustain you) like the power of prayer, the reading of God’s Word. I really feel like in my own life, if I can go back and pinpoint one decision that was critical, it was the decision to stop reading God’s Word. That’s your lifeline, that’s the umbilical cord to the light.”

Donna says it’s critical to start your day with God.

“I sometimes allow myself to have other priorities first thing in the morning and inevitably I think to myself, ‘I should have started my day with God. Shame on me. When am I going to learn this lesson?’ It just makes everything go smoother.”