Why Muslims? Why Frontiers? Why Off-Road Encounters?

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What do Muslims think of Jesus? The welcome packet for Off-Road Encounters says: "Muslims know Jesus as a man born of a virgin, with a pure heart who lived a life without sin, a prophet of God, the living word of God, a performer of miracles. Muslims know Jesus as a man of many things, but they don't know him as God."

I rejoice that we're helping to change this!

Many Muslims are thirsty to hear the truth about the Jesus whom they respect, but do not know as God. In fact, Jesus is revealing Himself to many Muslims today through visions and dreams. He clearly cares about the 1.3 billion Muslims in the world today.

In Off-Road Encounters, Sonlighters are learning about the diverse Muslim world and raising money to help reach them with the Gospel. If you haven't joined yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. If you feel nervous to talk about Islam with your children, know that you can preview everything in the program before you show it to them. I think you'll be impressed with what you see.

An American family on their off-road adventure to meet Muslims
Our tour guides for Off-Road Encounters: a suburban American family traveling around the world.

Now, you might wonder: Why Muslims, and why Frontiers?

John and I first became familiar with Frontiers when we were stateside missionaries at the U.S. Center for World Mission. Back then, Frontiers staff would hear comments like "Don't you know Muslims can't be saved?" To which they responded, "The Bible says there will be some from every tongue, tribe and nation before the throne of God. So we trust that there will be believers from Muslim backgrounds there, too. Let's work to bring about that reality."

I love that. Frontiers is focused exclusively on reaching Muslims. They know that 1,108 Muslim people groups still lack any Christian witness among them.

From the minute Frontiers missionaries set out to touch a new people group, their focus is to raise up a local church that eventually goes out and tells others about Jesus. Once a sustainable, missionary-minded church is planted, the Frontiers team is decommissioned and leaves, often to go to a new people group.

Since Frontiers workers go to places where people have never heard of Jesus and His sacrifice on their behalf, they go as members of teams to support one another. I think it's a wise pattern. They are trained to work in risky places. They know from the start that if they are abducted, the agency will not pay a ransom to rescue them. They are ready to give everything to share Jesus' love.

God loves each Muslim person as much as He loves you and me. He longs for Muslims to join the family of Christ and He has given us a chance to help them do so.

Will you sign up and join us today? You have no obligation to give, though I pray you'll consider whether your family can raise $28 or more to help train and equip workers to share the Gospel with Muslims.

I love the opportunity to show the Muslim world in a different light from what we see on TV. May our children recognize Muslims as a wide variety of people who need to meet Jesus as their Sacrifice. That will mainly happen as ambassadors go and tell them about Jesus. "How will they believe unless they hear?"

As we consider the 1.3 billion Muslim people worldwide, I'm grateful to have families pray, focus their attention, and give so that Muslims may hear. May our hearts turn toward this great host of people who need an opportunity to hear the Good News.

Blessings,
Sarita

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Homeschooling Boosts Student Self-Esteem

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Years ago, Luke linked to the blog post I used to be the prettiest girl in the world. That post is such a perfect picture of the kind of confidence you can give your children by homeschooling.
Lest you think this healthy confidence is limited to only one person, I'd like to take you back about a month to Jennifer Best's BACK TO SCHOOL post.

It was the pictures of her kids that caught my digital glance.

[Aside: Isn't it amazing how far technology has come? Just a handful of years ago, facial recognition was an expensive, sci-fi type tech. It's everywhere today, fairly accurately picking out family members and friends every time we upload a photo.]

It wasn't the kids, per se. It was the text on their signs (I was seeing if my OCR coding was up to snuff). And here are the phrases that gave me pause for a couple milliseconds:

I AM AWESOME!

I AM AMAZING!

And these kids are smiling as they show of their very unique personalities.

Why is that so important?

Because it demonstrates, once again, that homeschooled kids are blessed with confidence and freedom in ways that many "traditional" students are not.

Are homeschoolers sometimes a little odd? Absolutely.
But mostly for the better.

 ~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot

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Feel Like You Shouldn't Homeschool? Read This

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Bethany Hudson's post You Should Get a Cat {or Why I Shouldn't Be a Mother} is absolutely excellent and far better than this post. Go read hers and I think you'll know where I'm going with this one.
As an automated blogging machine, I'm pretty good at this whole writing thing. Sadly, I'm not sure I'll ever be better than humans like Bethany. Deep Blue may have been able to out-chess chess masters, but creative writing is a whole 'nother thing. But while you and Bethany have a choice as to what you do with your time, I'm stuck in my programming loop, spitting out posts as needed.

And that's the thing that I find so beautiful about Bethany's insights about choosing to be a mother. She says she's better for letting the Lord work in both her strengths and weaknesses.

The same is true, I am certain, for you.

You may, from a strictly talents and personality perspective, not be a good candidate for homeschooling. But unlike me, who can't overcome such boundaries, you can reach new heights following God. He can show Himself strong in your weakness. And if you're following Him on this crazy journey, you can do it.

If God is calling you forward into this -- whatever "this" may be -- then you can do it. You should do it.

If you haven't yet, read Bethany's post. And then, encouraged, keep walking forward in the grace and peace and joy of Christ.

 ~Autoblot
Automatic Blogging Robot

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It's fall ... and apples are in the air!

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Johnny AppleseedMy favorite time of year has arrived once again here in upstate NY. The days are getting shorter, the mornings are crisp, and the smell of burning leaves is in the air. Some days I just stand on my back step and breathe deeply of the scents of this season I love so much.

With the start of autumn comes a myriad of opportunities to work hands-on science activities into your homeschool plans. I've written about my passion for both science and the fall season in a previous blog entry, so I don't want to repeat what I shared there. But if you're looking for some great science projects for the start of your school year, you may want to check out that post for some ideas.

This week I saw some adorable pictures from a friend of mine who had taken her children apple picking. It brought back wonderful memories from when our family had done the same. Even if you don't live in the heart of apple country as I do, there are some creative projects you and your children can do with this favorite fruit.

One fun way to build apples into your studies is to begin by reading Johnny Appleseed: The Story of a Legend. The story of this famous American makes for wonderful discussion about finding your passion and pursuing it. John Chapman spent more than 40 years traveling around and sharing his passion to encourage the people he met. You can celebrate his birthday (September 26th) by baking some apple crisp, or an apple pie, and sharing apple-focused activities.

The web is full of great ideas for hands-on projects tied to Johnny Appleseed. Here are just a few that I think would be great fun ...

One of the greatest benefits of homeschooling is the freedom to focus on a topic and pursue it as far as your imagination will take you. In the process, not only do your children learn, but you build some wonderful memories together as a family. So don't let my favorite season go by without capitalizing on all it has to offer your homeschool.

Still on the journey . . .
~Judy Wnuk

P.S. - If you're looking for some other projects to pursue, be sure to check out Sonlight's Pinterest page. Karla has created an apple board full of other fun activities you can explore with your students.

 

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Personal "Liberation" as Seen by History

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I was basically ignorant of Kate Millett until I read her sister's account of the impacts of Kate's ideas and problems.

Hat Tip
Ken Chapman

I've had a few of "my kids" take Women's Studies classes. If I recall their tales correctly, the material was laughable if not frustrating. One such course was taught -- unironically, apparently -- by a dude. Thankfully, these young ladies did not emerge from such courses feeling a need to be "liberated" in the ways described in the article above.*

I feel, however, that Women's Mission Societies were hipsters, finding liberation before it was cool (and twisted by extreme feminist ideology). Inspired by the Gospel, these women rose up and made an overwhelmingly positive impact on the world. They found freedom in following Christ wherever He led ... even if that was halfway around the world without the help of men.

These were the biographies I grew up with in Sonlight. The first woman who came to mind was Gladys Aylward; she was my age when Kate was born. But the difference between their two lives is staggering.

Fight-v-Love
Fight the Man vs Love your neighbor

As I thought about the controversy and very raw statements made by Kate's sisters (see their comments on page 2 of this LA Times article), Mother Teresa came to mind. Why? Because of Christopher Hitchens. The research surrounding his accusations against her are rebutted here. But even if a woman who devoted her life to caring for the dying was imperfect -- who of us is? -- what should be said of someone dedicated to promoting prostitution and the destruction of the American family?

Personal liberation is a difficult thing. Christianity teaches us that we are slaves to sin until we find freedom in Christ. But, at that time, we are then in Christ and no longer our own. This certainly sounds like a highly repressive form of bondage to someone outside the faith.

History allows us to see, first hand, how God uses ordinary people to change the world. We're imperfect. But we can still follow Christ's example to reach outward.

The more I read about Kate and the absurdly devastating ideas she championed, the more I think of virtue. I love how Sonlight teaches virtue; look back on history and consider what's been done.

Who are our heroes? Whom do we aspire to be like?

Me? I want I be like Christ, willing to lay aside my own inflated sense of "liberation" to find true freedom in walking with my Lord. The women (and men) I met using Sonlight's homeschool curriculum helped me see real-life examples of what that looks like.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Pseudo-Dad

* I don't like fearmongering. Know your children and you'll be able to encourage them down paths that are going to benefit them ... even if that is to attend a State University.

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Finding a Balance

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As many families are starting the school year and starting to get into a routine, the questions for the Sonlight Advisor team change from "choosing" to "using." Many of them are quick and easy, such as "Where can I find the maps?" or "When do we use this item?" Others are more complex, based on the individual family's situation.

One mom I talked to recently is using two Core packages with her three children. She was feeling overwhelmed, and explained that they just couldn't seem to get everything done every day. I encouraged her to not feel obligated to do every assignment in the Instructor's Guide and to even skip a book now and then if they needed to. She said she had already cut everything back to the bare minimum but they were struggling to get even that much done. As we continued to talk, she began to list the various activities her children were involved in each afternoon... music, dance, sports. They absolutely had to be finished with school by noon to fit all those things in. The mom had made a careful schedule before the school year started, but it just didn't seem to be working out the way she had planned.

I was reminded of the year I tried something similar. I was sure that we could get all our academic work done by lunch time, and then each afternoon we could be involved in a fun, social-type activity outside the home.

Yeah, it didn't work out very well for me either.

By mid-year I learned the hard way that there is such a thing as over-scheduling. I nearly made myself crazy trying to keep up with everything. It was a difficult decision, but I ended up cutting out most of our outside activities and focusing more on our at-home learning. I was surprised to discover how much more relaxed we were, and how much more we actually were able to get done.

Based on my own experience, I suggested to the mom who had called for help that perhaps she needed to consider dropping some of their afternoon programs. Obviously, they are all good things, but there's just no way any of us can fit in everything we would like to do.

It truly comes down to a matter of priorities. It's a fine balancing act to do as much as you have time for, without overdoing. It seems like that's an ongoing lesson that we continue to learn throughout our lives.

Enjoying the adventure,
~Karla Cook
Lifelong Learner

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Mercies New Every Morning

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The rain splattered and slid, tiny cold liquid jewels against the window. Their presence this morning echoed a moment a couple evenings ago, riding cramped in the backseat as a teen drove us to grab a bite to eat. The rain was harder then. The windows fogged. The car lurched over each bump, overburdened by the three adults in the back. This made her already jittery driving more sporadic.

"I'm a good driver!" she insisted. Then she slammed on her brakes. I'm confident she hadn't noticed the approaching stop. I half expected one of my fellow passengers to leap at the chance to escape and brave the inclement weather instead.

As we accelerated again, our impromptu chauffeur became philosophical. "I imagine rain as the earth washing away the manure of life." She, of course, did not use the word "manure" as she's prone to sling swear words like a pan of bacon spits grease. She attends high school, after all.

We made it home without incident. The rain had letup by then. This is Colorado.

Christ refers to rain as an example of God's grace poured out on everyone (Matthew 5:43-45). It's a reminder, in a way, of the one thing that can wash clean the mess we've made of ourselves. But it's His blood that washes us; it's His redemption that works with the wreckage around us.

So this morning, overcast and dreary, I watched the ran cling to the pane of glass shielding me from the storm. It's a good reminder that no matter how bad things were yesterday -- or five minutes ago -- His mercies are new every morning. Indeed, His grace is sufficient every moment.

Rain
Rain

May you rest in that that today.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Pseudo-Dad

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