Joseph’s Graduation

Our family celebrated Joseph’s high school graduation Saturday night. Even though Joseph has officially been done with school for several months, with trips and the house building project, we hadn’t been able to celebrate his graduation yet.

A few weeks in advance, we had asked family member who would be attending to find a Scripture verse to share with Joseph concerning their heart’s desire for his future and for them to be prepared to pray a blessing for him.

In a way, the first part of the graduation evening was like a birthday with Teri’s parents, Nathan, and Melanie joining us for the evening. After our dinner of Joseph’s choice of a favorite meal, we moved into the living room for family Bible time.

When we were finished with our time in the Word, I presented Joseph with his high school diploma. For our graduating children we order blank diplomas from HSLDA. Nathan blessed us by brushing up on his calligraphy skills so he could letter the diploma entries. The diplomas are professional looking and beautiful when completed.

A side note about his graduation. In addition to completing his school work, I had given Joseph another requirement for graduation. He was to read through the Bible, outlining it as he went while also compiling a timeline and doctrinal statement. These would be for his own personal use. The outline would be a consolidation of the points that were important to him from each chapter – a condensed view of Scripture from his perspective. The doctrinal statement was to be doctrinal points and supporting Scripture that he gleaned as he read and ones that would be foundational to his life and walk with the Lord Jesus. The timeline was to help him understand key Biblical events. He worked hard on this, and I have been very pleased.

The next graduation event was for family members, one by one, to read the verse or verses we had picked out with which to bless Joseph. After explaining our choice of a verse, we each prayed for Joseph. There were several times where tears flowed among different family members. It touched my heart when Sarah shared weeping with gratitude to the Lord, as she prayed and realized that if the Lord had not changed Teri and my heart to have more children, Joseph (and the four after him) would not be here! What a blessing and joy they are to our family.

After that, Joseph opened graduation gifts. He also expressed to the family his gratefulness for Teri’s investment of all those years in homeschooling him. Amen. A side note: When discussing the upcoming graduation several weeks ago, the children and I decided that “teacher Mom” ought to have a token acknowledgement of those years of blessing Joseph. We decided a fitting treat for her would be for the two of us to spend a couple nights away together. We are so grateful for her labor of love through these years.

Homeschooling requires a tremendous investment by moms who are willing to pay the price. How appropriate to close with this verse. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). May God tremendously bless you moms who have chosen such a path.

Steve

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Gospel Tracts…

The Lord appears to be leading Nathan to have a booth at the County Fair again this year. Part of the preparations involves gospel tracts – lots of them. Nathan has asked if I would do some of the tract research and preparations. We would like to have a different tract each night as a primary tract, and feel variety will be even more important this year since we expect a number of visitors to the booth that would have also stopped by last year.

We have used some of the Living Waters tracts in the past and will use some of them again this year. We have appreciated the Living Waters tracts’ emphasis on the law and repentance, followed by the salvation message In addition, I was wondering if others have tracts that they have found to be effective that you could recommend to us? We are looking for two types. Some that would be for older youth and adults that contain a clear and strong gospel message (we try to avoid the “1-2-3, pray with me” types), along with some that would be appropriate to be given to young children with the balloons we’ll likely be making.

In Christ,
Christopher

What’s Been Happening

Another week of house work has ended. Most of the plumbing is done. This week John worked a lot on the gas line. I was called over yesterday to get some pictures of his work (I’m including one below).

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(Jesse caulking.)

This morning, Dad and John put up the shutters; what a finishing touch it added to the outside. You might think the house looks ready to move in, but looks can be deceiving. The guys will be starting on wiring.

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Chester continues to stick around. She’s always happy to see the family, and regardless of whether she has clean feet (John experienced the aftermath of Chester having fallen into a puddle), she’s ready to climb up you to see where those sunflower seeds are. I took a few pictures of her this afternoon. She’s definitely growing!

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As a side encouragement to hand out tracts, I was at Home Depot today with John, Anna, and Mary. We girls were looking around while John found what he needed. I saw a lady sitting on some lawn furniture, obviously waiting. So, I found two tracts and brought them to her. She took them, and then a minute or two later, I walked by and saw she was reading one!

Only for Jesus,
Sarah

Upcoming Trips

We are looking forward to our next East Coast trip, which is about two months away. We still have two open evenings available, September 10th and October 2nd. For the October 2nd evening, we plan to be in Danville, Virginia the night before (October 1st), although we’re awaiting the facility confirmation right now. The weekend we had available, September 14-15th, is scheduled for Ottawa, Ontario (Canada).

For our January ’08 West Coast trip, Dad is working on scheduling in the conferences. We will be driving out to California via a southern route: Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. We’d love to do several conferences in California as well. We’re not yet sure which way we’ll return.

If you are interested in coordinating a conference, or your homeschool group might be, please contact us as soon as possible so that Dad can work on the schedule.

Joyfully His,
Sarah