CLINGING TO GOD THROUGH THE UNTHINKABLE
Hope for Bereaved Parents.
Wisdom for the Church.
A media ministry designed to help parents of child loss,
equip caregivers to support them,
and give churches an opportunity to enter a house of mourning and grow in wisdom.
"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning"
Ecclesiastes 7:4
Surviving Child Loss offers hope and healing through a ministry of media
On February 8, 2020, Todd & Melissa Shaffer lost their 18yo son, Tristan, to mental illness & suicide. Their lives forever changed.
This family of creatives are compelled to use their gifts of pain and filmmaking to minister to others.
What began as a single documentary effort has transformed into a multimedia ministry.
WE ENVISION 3 STAGES FOR THIS MULTIMEDIA EFFORT
Surviving Child Loss is a multi-media effort that consists of a 15 episode docuseries, 6 minidocs, and one feature-length documentary.
Stage 1
THE INTERVIEWS: A 15 EPISODE DOCUSERIES
The first 14 episodes are 60 to 90 minute interviews with bereaved parents sharing their stories of loss, survival, and trust in God. These are couples who are grieving well, which doesn't mean they aren't grieving. To grieve well is to trust God in your grief. These couples have lost children to cancer, accident, suicide, still birth, illness, overdose, and combat.
The final episode interviews a dozen pastors, church leaders, and church family to talk about how Tristan Shaffer's suicide impacted their local church community and how they supported the Shaffer's at that time.
11 of the 15 episodes have been recorded.
Episode 1:Tony & Teresa Davis lost Andrew in an airplane crash
Episode 2: David & Tracie Freeman lost Nic to Fentanyl poisoning
Episode 3: Hal & Elizabeth Barge lost John to suicide
Episode 4: Arlo & Capri Weiskopf lost Amos in an auto accident
Episode 5: Larry & Janice Brown lost Adam in Afghanistan combat
Episode 6: Mark & Jennifer Martin lost Ethan to suicide
Episode 7: Brad & Jill Sullivan lost Hannah to brain cancer
Episode 8: Ron & Nan Deal lost Connor to sudden illness
Episode 9: Josh & Nicole Kingsbury lost Amber to suicide
Episode 10: Dan & Kristen Naylor lost Abby in the womb due to an umbilical twist
Episode 11: Jim & Carol Smitherman lost Sarah to pulmonary embalism
Episode 12: Lisa & Miles Armstrong lost Jacob to suicide
Episode 13: Troy & Jana Solhjem lost Jeremiah in an ATV accident
Episode 14: Todd & Melissa Shaffer lost Tristan to suicide
Episode 15: Shaffer church family & friends about loss of Tristan Shaffer
Stage 2
THE MINIDOCS: A 6 EPISODE DOCUSERIES
10 minute minidocs
Six couples stories will be made into 10-15 minute highly produced, mini-documentaries.
The purpose of the minidocs is to provide an accessible, dramatic, well-produced short documentary highlighting the key elements of each bereaved parents' stories.
Stage 3
Surviving Child Loss
THE FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY
The Shaffer's story of losing Tristan to suicide & how they survived by walking with God through the pain. This film will be more highly produced.
Though this will be the last of the projects completed, it will become the gateway film that brings most people in to the Surviving Child Loss multi-media content.
The Shaffers' Story
This home-schooled family of six never imagined they would be touched by depression and suicide. Two days before Tristan's 19th birthday he ended his life.
Three years later, a week before his 3rd homegoing anniversary, a fire broke out in the garage where God reached down to receive his soul. The entire garage was incinerated. Nothing survived, yet, aside from smoke and water damage, the rest of the house was untouched. It was as if God unleashed his displeasure on the place of Tristan's death and released the Shaffer family from that home.
For the next 9 months they were displaced. Todd decided to act on a desire to make a documentary about their experience. As they traveled across the country they would interview other bereaved parents on camera, hoping it would help them process their grief and find a new equilibrium to life.
As their journey began, Brad and Jill Sullivan invited them to the While We're Waiting Refuge in Hot Springs, Arkansas to interview not just one couple, but eleven couples -- all of them facilitators of While We're Waiting retreats for bereaved parents , and all bereaved parents themselves. Surviving Child Loss was born.
Since then, the vision for Surviving Child Loss has evolved from a single documentary to become an online media ministry.
Yes, keep me informed of this ministry